In Contention

Tag: AFI Fest

  • AFI Fest announces line-up, Mortensen and Plummer tributes, ‘Single Man’ closer

    Christopher PlummerAFI Fest is right around the corner here in Los Angeles.  Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has already been announced as the opening night gala.  Today’s release reveals that Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” will close out the fest.

    Additionally, tributes have been announced for Viggo Mortensen (his second festival tribute of the season, FYI) and Christopher Plummer (shrewd move by Sony Classics to get that).  Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” will be the centerpiece gala.

    The film schedule has been revealed, which is the usual blend of other festival titles that have played elsewhere throughout the year, but one key screening for me is a 50th anniversary celebration of Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.” William Friedkin will be moderating a Q&A with the film’s stars, Eva Marie Saint and Martin Landau.  That’s a priority.

    The stop-motioned animated “A Town Called Panic” is on the docket, a film we told you last week won’t be qualified for this year’s animated feature film Oscar race.  Devin Faraci at CHUD recently flipped for the film.

    “City of Life and Death,” “Fish Tank,” “The Hole,” “Mother,” “Looking for Eric,” “Vincere,” and “Youth in Revolt” will be my catch-up titles, stuff I’ve missed along the way.  Other selections include “Precious,” “The Road” and “The Last Station.”

    Read the full press release after the jump…

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festival pick-ups, the season’s fetes and the PGA’s 10

    Robert Duvall in Get Low• We wrapped up Toronto as Lee Daniels’s “Precious” took the festival’s audience award, putting it on a solid track for Oscar.

    • We got a look at the first trailer for “Harry Brown,” which may or may not be an awards film for actor Michael Caine.  John, you’ll recall, isn’t feeling it.

    • We saw ‘Meatball’ dominance at the box office in this weekend’s Sunday Cents column.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column kicked off our weekly Oscar coverage with a call for perspective on the perceived Best Picture frontrunners, while a new weekly column from across the pond — The Long Shot — introduces a different perspective mid-week.

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  • ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ set to open AFI

    Fantastic Mr. FoxAFI Fest kicks off on October 30 and runs for about a week.  Generally it’s catch-up time for me as a number of the festival circuit flicks make it a requisite Fall stop, but the opening and closing Galas tend to be first-looks for the most part.

    Last year “The Soloist” ultimately bowed out of the closing night slot when the film’s release date was suddenly shifted into 2009.  Scott Rudin and company came to the festival’s aid with a digitally projected, slightly unfinished “Doubt,” which was ultimately a bigger get than the previously scheduled film.

    This year it looks like Rudin is back in the AFI mix with Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which has been chosen as the opening night Gala.  I’ll be covering AFI Fest next month, but Guy will likely have an initial take on the film from the London fest a week or so prior.

  • Oscar column? Ha.

    Nothing to show for myself yet again this week.  I swear, in seven days time, I’ll get my act in gear on that front.  But without something to push the passion, it’s kind of hard not to let other committments take hold.

    After AFI, some think “Doubt” has a Best Picture shot, others don’t.  I haven’t heard much from the peanut gallery on “Defiance,” which is odd — you’d expect the usual clawing over ourselves to be “first!”  I dug it.  I think it’s in the conversation.  But hey, there are still mysteries to behold.

    Which brings me to it: break out the films already.  This is the worst bout of Oscar foreplay we’ve suffered through in a LONG time.  “Revolutionary Road,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Australia” and “Seven Pounds” need to stop playing peek-a-boo and man up already.  Am I wrong here?

    Anyway, updated charts next time around.  Truthfully, they wouldn’t have changed much today if I did have a column in me.

  • AFI Fest Jury Awards

    AFI Fest 2008The AFI Fest Jury Awards were dished out yesterday, and I don’t know if it says more about me or the awards that I’m just getting a post up today.  The winners:

    INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “Acne”
    Special Mention:     “Nirvana”

    INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “Kassim the Dream”
    Special Mention:     “The Last Days of Shishmaref”

    INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “The Legless Boy Cannot Dance”
    Special Mention:     “The Apology Line”

    AUDIENCE AWARDS
    Feature: “A Necessary Death”
    Documentary Feature: “Kassim the Dream,” “The World We Want”
    Short: “Busco Personas: The Faces of Columbia’s War”

  • ‘Wrestler’ poster on the red carpet

    Someone was explaining to me today what the one-sheet for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” looks like, and I thought it sounded pretty cool.  Then I scoped out some red carpet pics of the premiere last night during the AFI Fest at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and there it was, propped up for the world to see.  I think Entertainment Weekly will be getting a print exclusive in due time, but for now, you can check it out for yourself over Rourke’s right shoulder below.  I really dig the Dave Ansen quote: “Witness the resurrection of Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky’s deeply affecting film.”

    By the way, that piece I was hammering out at the Four Seasons, I’ll have it up over the weekend.  Rourke is a hell of an interview, an odd mixture of intimidation and warmth — much like his character in Aronofsky’s film.

    Mickey Rourke at the Los Angeles premiere of The Wrestler

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Doubt,’ Danny Boyle and a bit of politics

    In a week in which there were more important things going on than the movies (an outlandish notion, I know), these were nevertheless some of the highlights:

    • Several takes from the AFI Fest, including disappointment in “Doubt” …

    • … but hearty cheers for “The Wrestler.”

    • We caught up (twice) with the thoroughly delightful Danny Boyle, both in London and in L.A.

    • Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper was also feeling chatty.

    • In the wake of the reprehensible passing of Proposition 8, we wondered if “Milk” could have made a difference.

    • We bade farewell to Mr. Michael Crichton. Rest in peace.

    • “Australia” got a new trailer and a new poster. Smashing. Can we see it now, pretty please?

    • Listing the greatest English-language directors at work today. Debate, as ever, was heated.

    • Tech Support surveyed the horses in the Best Film Editing race.

    • Oh, you might have heard that the United States has a new president. The right one, at that.

  • AFI FEST: ‘Doubt,’ ‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird,’ ‘Gomorrah’

    Song Kang-ho in The Good, the Bad, the WeirdAFI Fest is moving along rather quietly this season.  Most eyes have been turned toward the opening gala “Doubt” and centerpiece screenings like “Che” and “The Wrestler,” while most are probably just waiting for the next big reveal on Sunday as “Defiance” closes us out.  Tonight’s Danny Boyle tribute is sure to draw a crowd, while Michelle Williams and Jeff Goldblum will be here to peddle their Oscar hopes over the weekend.

    The movies are really just last gasps of the festival season at this point, though.  Not a lot of new terrain, but plenty to chew on for a cinephile.  I try to keep up, but I don’t pretend to be as dogged as John and Guy have proved to be.  It takes a special kind of torture.  But AFI is really coming off as a distraction more than anything, what with a number of Oscar hopefuls yet to be unveiled at a time when, generally, all cards are on the table.

    But we’ll push through.  A couple more looks this week:

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  • AFI FEST: ‘Hunger,’ ‘Che’

    Benicio Del Toro in CheFour days and three screenings into the 2008 AFI Fest, I’m one-for-two and looking to add to the “win” column as much as possible in the next week.  It hit me this afternoon, though, that no two films could be better suited to an introductory update from the festival, two exercises in subverting the conventions of the biopic.  One succeeds, one fails, but both maintain a certain spirit that you don’t find in the work of many filmmakers today.  And interestingly, both are set for distribution by the always courageous IFC Films.

    Let’s dive in…

    “HUNGER” (***1/2)
    Who the hell is Steve McQueen anyway?  Talk about bursting onto the scene out of nowhere — with what could have been an unfortunate namesake — and carving a spot for yourself that no one will soon dispute.  “Hunger” is one of the year’s best films, a curiously intimate dissection of the blanket, no wash and hunger protests of IRA prisoners held at HM Maze Prison in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

    Spearheaded by a committed (to say the least) performance from Michael Fassbender, the film may be the most visually dynamic effort to hit cinemas in 2008.  McQueen deservedly won the Caméra d’Or (for best first feature) at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, but a case might have been made for a technical citation for lenser Sean Bobbitt.  He captures the most mundane and intimate moments with an epic craftsman’s touch, guided no doubt by McQueen’s own preoccupation with lingering in this most uncomfortable — and unfortunate — of settings.

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  • Awaiting ‘Che’ at the Chinese

    I lucked out with a couple of prime, mid-theater seats here at Grauman’s Chinese for tonight’s heavily anticipated screening of “Che.” Suffice it to say I won’t be posting for another five hours at best. I’ll try to hammer out something on the screening and after party either later tonight or in the A.M. For now, nothing but excitement. A once-in-a-lifetime event.

  • Glad he said it

    In his opening remarks Thursday night AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale said even though his fest takes place in the heart of Hollywood, it wasn’t about who’s wearing what, or how much money a movie makes or who might get nominated for awards, it’s all about the films and the work. That’s what the AFI Fest is dedicated to highlighting in the next week.

    That’s certainly true, but there was a strategic reason the American Film Institute moved their film festival from spring to November several years ago, landing it smack into the heart of awards season  —   and it wasn’t quite all about purity.

    Like everyone else, AFI Fest  wants to be a part of the Oscar season dialogue.

    No “Doubt” about it.

    From Pete Hammond’s just-up column regarding last night’s opening “Doubt” Gala at the ArcLight.  Personally, I thought Gazzale’s comment reeked of self-aggrandizement, but Pete is too nice to say anything like that.

    By the way, Happy Halloween.

  • ‘Doubt’ lands at AFI

    Meryl Streep in DoubtMiramax honcho Daniel Battsek and actresses Meryl Streep and Amy Adams joined director John Patrick Shanley tonight in introducing the world premiere of “Doubt” as the AFI Fest’s opening gala presentation.  The film, adapted from Shanley’s stage play, has quickly become the lead Oscar pony for a studio that dominated the awards circuit last season.

    The film was projected digitally, as prints haven’t yet been made, and it was deemed “wet behind the ears” at the top by Battsek; Shanley hadn’t even seen the cut in full himself yet.  We’re talking right off the AVID, but it was complete and seemed to capture the respect of the crowd in attendance.

    Watching the film, I was suddenly reminded of one of the year’s developing themes for American cinema: accountability.  It’s front and center in “Frost/Nixon,” a journalist-as-hero yarn about Richard Nixon’s overdue apology to the American people.  It’s certainly lurking beneath the surface of “W,” a character study first but an attempt at explanation on other levels.  “WALL-E” warns of a lack of accounting for our actions, while “The Dark Knight” presents a hero who understands the accountability he owes to himself.  “Gran Torino” will be working on similar levels.

    Anyway, I’ve gone into all of that before, but it stuck out to me again tonight.  Meryl Streep steps in for Cherry Jones as a nun hunting a troubling confession for much of the film’s two hour running time.  The zeitgeist can’t help but insinuate itself into the symbolism and it just reminds, yet again, that 2008 is an amazingly internal year for filmmaking in this country.  Nothing stands out as groundbreaking.  Nothing approaches classic status.  But everything lurks on a sustained, subdued level of reflexivity.  It’s kind of fascinating.

    But the AFI Fest has taken flight.  There are a lot of films showing over the next week that I’m going to try my best to cover.  It seems I’m pulled 10 different ways these days, and I have to tip my hat to Guy for the gusto to really dive into London for us this year.

    I’m eager to finally check out entries like Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” and Ji-woon Kim’s “The Good, the Bad and the Weird.”  I’m really looking forward to the Heath Ledger tribute screening of “Ned Kelly” on Tuesday, as well as the Danny Boyle event at the end of the week.  And, of course, the full monty: “Che” at the Chinese tomorrow night.

    It should be a whirlwind, all roads leading to Edward Zwick’s “Defiance” in the closing night gala.  Tis the season…

  • AFI is here

    AFI Fest launches tonight with an opening gala of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” which as you’ve probably heard, we can’t write about for a week or so.  It’s understandable that producer Scott Rudin would prefer critical opinion flow out of the best case exhibiting scenario, so it’s all good.

    Nothing more from me for now as the fest (and festivities) will have me predisposed.  I’ll be stopping by the studio to fill in with John Campea at The Movie Blog: Uncut again in a few hours, so check that out around 5:00 PST.  Until tomorrow…

  • 10/29 Oscarweb Round-up

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road• Steven Zeitchik thinks “Frost/Nixon” will get a pass for journalist worship. [Rizky Biz Blog]

    • Bill Horberg captures the San Francisco debut of “Milk” in pics. [William Horberg]

    • Eugene Hernandez, meanwhile, reports from the scene. [indieWIRE]

    • Ditto Brad Brevet, with some nice video interviews tossed in for good measure. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Jeffrey Wells draws a correlation between Nixon’s apology in “Frost/Nixon” and the painful knowledge that we’ll probably never get the same out of our current Commander-in-Chief. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Anne Thompson gets a big thumbs up from the first long-lead screening of “Revolutionary Road.” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Susan King runs down the upcoming AFI Fest honorees. [The Envelope]

    • Xan Brooks runs down his six favorite Bond openings. [The Guardian]

    • Patrick Kevin Day reveals the secrets of makeup wizardry on “Synecdoche, New York.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Mike Jones reports on “Adam Resurrected”‘s resurrection as an Oscar hopeful. [The Circuit]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz talk the year’s two remaining “mystery” films. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Translation: “Blah, blah, blah…WHY WON’T YOU LINK TO ME?!…blah, blah, blah.” [And the Winner is]

  • 10/29 Oscarweb Round-up

    Frost/Nixon• Jeffrey Wells responds to yesterday’s “Frost/Nixon”/”Milk” double feature. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland gives high marks to the former… [The Hot Blog]

    • …well, and the latter as well. [The Hot Blog]

    • Mark Olsen previews the AFI Fest. [The Envelope]

    • Patrick Goldstein pokes and prods Bill Maher about a “Religulous” hater. [The Big Picture]

    • Anthony Breznican writes up “Doubt” with quotes from the director and an exclusive clip. [USA Today]

    • Recall the gold: Best Director race of 1988. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • Tom O gets the goods on the ‘Doubt’ AFI move from the horse’s mouth

    Tom O’Neil wants you to understand and be clear that he was in attendance at the uber-private “Doubt” screening in New York this evening, but he was able to get some choice quotes from the film’s producer, Scott Rudin, on the decision to bow the film at the AFI Fest one week from today.

    Here’s the meat:

    “It was a big gamble…It was hard enough to pull everything together in such a short time,” Rudin said, “but to do it before we even had the first industry reaction to the film — that was the hardest part. But we did it and I’m glad we did.”

  • ‘Doubt’ replaces ‘Soloist’ as AFI Fest’s opening night gala

    Meryl Streep in DoubtThe press release, in part:

    The festival will screen an unfinished version of DOUBT when it opens AFI FEST on Thursday, October 30, 2008, at ArcLight Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome Theatre. The Opening Night Gala is the film’s World Premiere and is presented by Audi of America…

    “The movie is still being finished, but we were so excited to show DOUBT and help our friends at AFI FEST and the American Film Institute at the same time. We couldn’t possibly pass up the opportunity,” said Miramax president Daniel Battsek.

    “We are grateful to Miramax Films and producers Scott Rudin and Mark Roybal for providing AFI the honor of premiering this highly anticipated, unfinished version of DOUBT.  There is no doubt that bringing together Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams in concert with the extraordinary talents of writer/director John Patrick Shanley promises an evening that will celebrate the finest in American film,” said Rose Kuo, AFI FEST Artistic Director.

    Truthfully, we should have seen this coming.  Of the major films that are basically completed and ready to go, it was the only possibility (though the “unfinished version” bit is made clear at throughout — hedging their bets).  “Milk” has its fancy San Francisco debut on Tuesday, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is too comfortable in its position as the year’s last minute wower.  “Revolutionary Road” is completed, but only just, while “Australia” is still in the editing lab.

    The New York screening of “Doubt” tonight is for friends and family with the original cast of the play in attendance and the film will be screening for trade press on Wednesday, just before AFI’s opening night the next day.  Perfect timing.

  • ‘Soloist’ AFI bow cancelled after release date delay

    Paramount Pictures' The SoloistWhen the news came down last week that the release Paramount’s “The Soloist” would be delayed until March 2009, the initial indication was that the film would go on to bow at this year’s AFI Fest as scheduled.  Well, in a just-issued press release (which landed after business hours), the festival has announced that the debut has been scrapped.

    The release, in part:

    In a joint statement from Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures and Participant Media: “Due to the change in THE SOLOIST release date, we unfortunately had to withdraw from the AFI FEST Film Festival. It was an honor to be invited as the Opening Night film and we are very grateful to the festival for their support and understanding. THE SOLOIST filmmakers, DreamWorks, Universal, Participant and Paramount are very proud of this film and we are excited and committed to bring it to the world in March.”

    “While we are greatly disappointed that AFI FEST will not have the opportunity to offer the World Premiere of THE SOLOIST, AFI’s priority is to honor the artists. We wish to be supportive in any endeavor that will help a film of this quality reach a greater audience,” said AFI FEST Artistic Director Rose Kuo.

    It’s a shame, personally speaking, because I was looking forward to this film and being able to give it a look sooner rather than later, as I’ll be covering AFI here next month.  But it might be the wisest move all around for the studio to just remove all aspects from the 2008 landscape.