Resurrecting Sixto Rodriguez: Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching For Sugarman
In the 1970s, the music of a mysterious singer-songwriter named Rodriguez became the anthem for a generation of Afrikaners increasingly isolated from the outside world by the international response to...
View ArticleAFI is a wrap, but Maja Milos’ CLIP is still haunting me
My girlfriend and I managed to attend eight films at AFI this year over the course of the seven-day festival: Amour; Rust and Bone; Clip; Caesar Must Die; Starlet; Beyond the Hills; Leviathan; and...
View ArticleWe Make Movies: How I Started an Indie Film Collective
My name is Sam Mestman, and I run a film collective in Los Angeles and Toronto called We Make Movies. Moviemaker asked us to write a weekly DIY filmmaking blog about tips and issues facing...
View ArticleWe Make Movies (Better): Please Don’t Have the Following Conversation About...
When I talk to filmmakers, way too often I have a version of the following conversation: Sam Mestman (MM): What’s your movie about? Filmmaker (FM): Well, it’s a love story. Sort of a When Harry Met...
View ArticleHow to Create a Franchise, Indie-Style
Transmedia is a buzzword that has been used quite a lot in the last couple of years to define all sorts of things, from the independent movie that has a companion Website and a Facebook fan page to the...
View ArticleHow to Create a Franchise, Indie-Style
Transmedia is a buzzword that has been used quite a lot in the last couple of years to define all sorts of things, from the independent movie that has a companion Website and a Facebook fan page to the...
View ArticleSteve Martin to Host 2010 Oscars With His “Enemy”
Academy Award hosts can take a lot of heat for the vitality of the live broadcast. For every respected Hugh Jackman, you get a maligned David Letterman (“Oprah, Uma… Uma, Oprah”). So, for the first...
View ArticleAdam Yauch’s Sure Shot
We’ve all been indoctrinated—by inside sources, “Entourage” and Harvey Weinstein—into thinking we know how studio heads are supposed to act. Firing people for mis-hearing a lunch order, assaulting...
View ArticleMarlett & Me: Cuff Links, Handcuffs, Swords & Sausages
As sure as passions blossom each spring, so do the passionate hopes of selling your film or getting an actor attachment. Such passionate hopes, longings, despairs and frustrations are felt in the...
View ArticleJon Avnet Aims for a Righteous Kill
I had to get rid of my Wayfarer sunglasses because of Jon Avnet. The year was 1983 when an Avnet movie called Risky Business came out and ruined everything. The success of that movie was so complete...
View ArticleRandom Thoughts From the Set Jeff Garlin I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
I have a good job. As an actor, executive producer and sometime director on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” I’m very happy. Really. So then why would I make an independent, equity-financed film? It’s not...
View ArticleUntold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist Producers Have a Theory on Who Sent...
The two-part opener of Season 2 of Netflix’s Untold sports scandal documentary series, The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, unspools the story of Manti Te’o, an extremely talented Notre Dame football...
View ArticleHow ‘Huella’ Director Gabriela Ortega Found a Fairy Godmother in Film...
“It was really special,” filmmaker Gabriela Ortega says of the first time she met film producer and UnbeliEVAble Entertainment executive Sandra Condito. It was in September 2020 at a virtual event...
View ArticleThe Artist, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Lead 2012 BAFTA Award Nominations
Though Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been notably absent from much of the awards season hoopla—it’s done well in various critics groups’ awards but has received no SAG, PGA, DGA, WGA...
View ArticleExploring the Mystery of Creativity with Old School New School
My documentary Old School New School explores the nature of creativity, all within the context of storytelling through various crafts, including acting, cinematography, music, theater, dance and...
View ArticlePGA Win Helps The Artist Break (Further) from the Pack
The Artist continued its intermittent awards season domination on Saturday, winning the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Award for Best Feature Film and shoring up its (already considerably good)...
View ArticleSay Hello to Your 2012 Oscar Nominees
This morning saw the announcement of the 2012 Academy Award nominations, and while many of the films to have their names called out by nominee presenters Jennifer Lawrence and Academy of Motion Picture...
View ArticleAnnie ♥s Rango
It’s not time for the Oscars yet, but the Annies have already rolled into town. Last Saturday saw the Annie Awards, which honors the year’s highest achievements in (you guessed it) animation, take...
View ArticleThe Artist Dominates at the 2012 BAFTA Awards
As expected, The Artist was the big winner at last night’s Orange British Academy Film Awards—or, as they’re better known, the BAFTAs—winning seven of the 12 categories in which it was nominated,...
View ArticleHooray for The Artist!
Awards season is over for another year. Last night’s Oscars saw the big award go to—surprise, surprise—The Artist, which picked up a total of five wins (Best Film, Actor, Costume Design, Original Score...
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