indieWIRE News

Academy Sets Animated Short Shortlist

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:02:28 +0000

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category. The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will …

Werner Explains It All: 10 Herzogian Insights

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:36:52 +0000

EDITOR’S NOTE: This feature was originally published as part of indieWIRE’s coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is being released in theaters across North America today. Werner Herzog has been the subject of much curiosity at the Toronto Film Festival. He has two films - both centered around policeman - screening at the festival in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” …

B.O. of the ‘00s: The Top Grossing Foreign-Language Films

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:56:35 +0000

The 2010s are fast approaching - 41 days and counting - and indieWIRE is continuing this weekly Friday chart devoted to glancing back at the past ten years. With a film opening each weekend as a starting point, we’re charting various sub-categories of 2000s film, focusing on their North American box office performance. This week, with both Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces” and John Woo’s “Red Cliff” opening in theaters, iW decided …

IDFA: Emotional Start to World’s Most Important Doc Fest

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:55:28 +0000

Veteran directors Frederic Wiseman, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus are among the documentary mavericks attending the 22nds International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which opened last night in the Netherlands’ largest city. The festival is considered the most important in the world for spotlighting non-fiction film, debuting such movies as “Afghan Star” and “Burma VJ” last year before those films headed to Sundance and the North American festival circuit. Festival programmers …

IFC & Netflix Team To Stream 53 Indies

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:39:31 +0000

IFC Entertainment and Netflix have announced a partnership that gives Netflix the U.S. rights to 53 unique titles from IFC Entertainment. Through this agreement select titles from IFC Entertainment’s library of independent films will become available to be streamed instantly to televisions and computers via the Netflix service. The deal was announced jointly by Lisa Schwartz, executive vice president for IFC Entertainment, and Robert Kyncl, vice president of content acquisition for …

cinemadaily | “Mammoth” Letdown

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:42:03 +0000

In his review for indieWIRE, Eric Hynes calls Lukas Moodysson’s latest, “Mammoth,” a “career killer” and, while his may be among the most damning reviews of the film, which opens in the US today, it’s getting very little love from critics on the whole. “Moodysson hasn’t exactly descended to ‘Babel’-level pabulum with ‘Mammoth, his first foray into English; these characters are too fascinatingly thorny, and he still has a supple way …

iW Video | Reverse Shot Talkies: Pedro Almodóvar

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:19:47 +0000

“A movie is something like – even something shot and edited and frozen there – I think it’s like a person…you know more about that person with time,” observed director Pedro Almodóvar in a recent video interview with Reverse Shot’s Eric Hynes. “That you know more about that person with time. It’s a bizarre thing for a director to say. I used to see movies a lot of times – not …

Penelope’s NYC “Embrace”

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:55:40 +0000

“Broken Embraces” star Penelope Cruz was the center of attention at a special screening of the film, directed by Pedro Almodovar in New York, hosted by the Cinema Society and Calvin Klein. And true to other Cinema Society events, the names turned out including Mira Sorvino, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Ashley Olsen, Rose Byrne, Michael Pitt, Agyness Deyn, Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”), Katharine McPhee, Donna Karan, Olivia Thirlby, Rachel Hunter, Lee Pace, …

For Your Consideration: 25 Things The Academy Got Right In The 2000s

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:09:05 +0000

With the first wave of awards season precursors less than two weeks away, I figured I would use the very last addition of this column before an onslaught of commentary on critics awards and Spirit and Globe nominations beckons to provide some optimism in the wake of last week’s list of the “most despicable Oscar snubs of the 2000s. Because as hard as it is for those prone to bitching about …

cinemadaily | Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant” Docks in US

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:41:48 +0000

Werner Herzog’s rough remake of the Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film “Bad Lieutenant,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is heading to US waters, after screenings in Venice and Toronto. David Edelstein of New York Magazine tackles the film, “In Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (a sequel to Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant in name only), [Nicholas Cage] plays Terence McDonagh, whose back is injured as he saves a prisoner …