The Sudanese drama Goodbye Julia is continuing its impressive awards run, earning the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature over the weekend at the Sonoma International Film Festival in California.
Mohamed Kordofani directed the story set in the context of the secessionist movement that led to the establishment of the independent nation of South Sudan in 2011.
“We commend the festival for its impressive selection of narrative features and unanimously select Goodbye Julia as the best film,” jurors wrote. “An outstanding first feature from Mohamed Kordofani, anchored by two stellar performances from Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak, Goodbye Julia provides a glimpse into a culture and region that’s underrepresented and underexplored in contemporary cinema.”
The jury, comprised of Rosa Bosch (Begin Again Films), Tyler Coates (The Hollywood Reporter), Rebecca Fisher (Magnolia Pictures), Jason Hellerstein (Sideshow), and Julie Huntsinger (Telluride Film Festival), awarded a Special Mention to Hesitation Wound, describing...
Mohamed Kordofani directed the story set in the context of the secessionist movement that led to the establishment of the independent nation of South Sudan in 2011.
“We commend the festival for its impressive selection of narrative features and unanimously select Goodbye Julia as the best film,” jurors wrote. “An outstanding first feature from Mohamed Kordofani, anchored by two stellar performances from Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak, Goodbye Julia provides a glimpse into a culture and region that’s underrepresented and underexplored in contemporary cinema.”
The jury, comprised of Rosa Bosch (Begin Again Films), Tyler Coates (The Hollywood Reporter), Rebecca Fisher (Magnolia Pictures), Jason Hellerstein (Sideshow), and Julie Huntsinger (Telluride Film Festival), awarded a Special Mention to Hesitation Wound, describing...
- 3/25/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The 27th Sonoma International Film Festival (March 20-24), as always, leaned into wine and food with the sold-out opening night U.S. premiere of Thomas Napper’s “Widow Clicquot” (Vertical Entertainment), starring Haley Bennett as the woman who saves the legendary winemaker’s legacy. The wine country film festival drew its highest audience attendance to date with a robust film slate programmed by artistic director Carl Spence (working with Executive Director Ginny Krieger), in his second year, including upcoming specialty fare like Luc Besson’s “DogMan” (Briarcliff Entertainment) starring Caleb Landry Jones in an incendiary performance, and Sony Pictures Classics’ raucous comedy “Wicked Little Letters,” starring Olivia Colman, along with a smattering of yummy wine and food events.
The five-day festival curated by Spence along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar and Ken Jacobson, showcased more than 100 films. Twenty-five countries were represented in this year’s lineup of 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features,...
The five-day festival curated by Spence along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar and Ken Jacobson, showcased more than 100 films. Twenty-five countries were represented in this year’s lineup of 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features,...
- 3/24/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The champagne may be flowing at the kickoff for the 27th Annual Sonoma International Film Festival – for more reasons than one.
This year’s event in California’s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed by Thomas Napper, a narrative feature about the Grande Dame of Champagne. Actress Haley Bennett stars in the titular role of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, “who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.”
Siff, running from March 20-24, will showcase 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 48 short films representing more than 25 countries, according to a release.
Maya Hawke in ‘Wildcat’
The festival’s Centerpiece Film is Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke as renowned Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. The Closing Night Film is Luc Besson’s crime drama Dogman, starring Caleb Landry Jones. A Closing Night...
This year’s event in California’s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed by Thomas Napper, a narrative feature about the Grande Dame of Champagne. Actress Haley Bennett stars in the titular role of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, “who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.”
Siff, running from March 20-24, will showcase 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 48 short films representing more than 25 countries, according to a release.
Maya Hawke in ‘Wildcat’
The festival’s Centerpiece Film is Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke as renowned Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. The Closing Night Film is Luc Besson’s crime drama Dogman, starring Caleb Landry Jones. A Closing Night...
- 3/2/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Launching with the opening night world premiere of Marc Turtletaub’s “Jules,” a crowdpleaser sales title starring Ben Kingsley, the 26th annual Sonoma International Film Festival (March 22-26) drew its highest audience attendance to date. The wine country film festival combined a robust film slate programmed by newly appointed artistic director Carl Spence (working with Executive Director Ginny Krieger), from upcoming specialty fare like Paul Schrader’s “The Master Gardener,” starring Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver, and Searchlight’s period biopic “Chevalier,” starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., with a smattering of yummy wine and food events with top chefs, from Martin Yan’s Shaking Beef with Three Onions to Joanne Weir’s herb-covered goat cheese tarte.
The five-day festival curated by Spence along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar and Ken Jacobson, showcased 110 films, including seven films making their US premieres as well as films acclaimed on the festival circuit. Thirty-two countries...
The five-day festival curated by Spence along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar and Ken Jacobson, showcased 110 films, including seven films making their US premieres as well as films acclaimed on the festival circuit. Thirty-two countries...
- 3/26/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Director Benjamin Millepied’s “Carmen,” a musical starring Paul Mescal, will have its West Coast premiere March 25 at the 2023 Sonoma International Film Festival (Siff).
Another debut set to take place during the five-day festival is the world premiere of “Jules,” with director Marc Turtletaub and stars Ben Kingsley and Jane Curtin planning to make an appearance for the occasion. The screening will kick off the opening night of the festival on March 22.
Capping off the event are closing night films “The Eight Mountains,” which received a grand jury prize after its Cannes premiere, and Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier.”
Including the seven U.S. premieres slated for the festival, this year’s lineup features 110 films representative of 32 countries. In total, 38 narrative features, 20 documentary features and 52 short films were selected by the festival curators.
“For my first edition at the Sonoma International Film Festival, with a new curatorial team in place, we aimed...
Another debut set to take place during the five-day festival is the world premiere of “Jules,” with director Marc Turtletaub and stars Ben Kingsley and Jane Curtin planning to make an appearance for the occasion. The screening will kick off the opening night of the festival on March 22.
Capping off the event are closing night films “The Eight Mountains,” which received a grand jury prize after its Cannes premiere, and Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier.”
Including the seven U.S. premieres slated for the festival, this year’s lineup features 110 films representative of 32 countries. In total, 38 narrative features, 20 documentary features and 52 short films were selected by the festival curators.
“For my first edition at the Sonoma International Film Festival, with a new curatorial team in place, we aimed...
- 2/28/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay, Charna Flam and Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
“The festival industry as we know has come to be defined by a spirit of competition rather than collaboration,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s annual Reality Check symposium has called for a permanent coalition spearheaded by film festival and industry professionals to bolster the future of film festivals.
The symposium was held at the festival on January 29 to discuss how festivals can organise themselves and collaborate with one another in an ever-evolving industry landscape.
A group of 65 festival and industry professionals took part, with the event organised by a steering committee consisting of international...
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s annual Reality Check symposium has called for a permanent coalition spearheaded by film festival and industry professionals to bolster the future of film festivals.
The symposium was held at the festival on January 29 to discuss how festivals can organise themselves and collaborate with one another in an ever-evolving industry landscape.
A group of 65 festival and industry professionals took part, with the event organised by a steering committee consisting of international...
- 2/1/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Rosa Bosch, Giovanna Fulvi and Mike Goodridge are part of the symposium’s steering group.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled details of its industry-focused symposium, Reality Check, which this year will aim to unpack the future of film festivals.
Taking place on January 29, the invite-only, closed symposium will aim to provide a space for film festival and market professionals to discuss how festivals can organise themselves and collaborate with one another in an ever-evolving industry landscape.
The results of Reality Check will be shared the following day (January 30) at IFFR Pro Dialogue, open to all industry, press and student accredited guests.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled details of its industry-focused symposium, Reality Check, which this year will aim to unpack the future of film festivals.
Taking place on January 29, the invite-only, closed symposium will aim to provide a space for film festival and market professionals to discuss how festivals can organise themselves and collaborate with one another in an ever-evolving industry landscape.
The results of Reality Check will be shared the following day (January 30) at IFFR Pro Dialogue, open to all industry, press and student accredited guests.
- 1/5/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Jason Blum has been selected by the American Cinematheque to receive this year’s Power of Cinema Award. Blum and his company will be honored for achievements in the motion picture industry at the top of the Cinematheque’s annual benefit. Ryan Reynolds will be honored with the career achievement award at this year’s benefit, which takes place Nov. 17 at the Beverly Hilton.
“Jason Blum and Blumhouse are ideal recipients of the American Cinematheque’s Power of Cinema Award in the world and culture of 2022. They make high-quality films at suitable budgets that have wide commercial appeal and are the best examples of their genre. They have promoted and increased the appeal of the theatrical experience and entertained an expansive range of audiences. They have captured the zeitgeist in our changing times,” said the org’s chairman, Rick Nicita.
Blum has produced films including “Get Out,” “Halloween Kills,” “Black Box” and “The Invisible Man.
“Jason Blum and Blumhouse are ideal recipients of the American Cinematheque’s Power of Cinema Award in the world and culture of 2022. They make high-quality films at suitable budgets that have wide commercial appeal and are the best examples of their genre. They have promoted and increased the appeal of the theatrical experience and entertained an expansive range of audiences. They have captured the zeitgeist in our changing times,” said the org’s chairman, Rick Nicita.
Blum has produced films including “Get Out,” “Halloween Kills,” “Black Box” and “The Invisible Man.
- 5/24/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay and Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Experienced programmer previously had a long assocation with the Seattle festival.
The Sonoma International Film Festival (Siff) has named longtime US festival programmer Carl Spence as its new artistic director.
Spence, previously the co-director and artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, assumes his Sonoma role from Kevin W McNeely, who becomes Siff chairman emeritus.
Siff stages its annual festival in the Northern California city of Sonoma each March, and hosts year-round live and virtual events including its Summerfest, this year set for August 4-6.
At this year’s festival, the jury award for best English language feature went...
The Sonoma International Film Festival (Siff) has named longtime US festival programmer Carl Spence as its new artistic director.
Spence, previously the co-director and artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, assumes his Sonoma role from Kevin W McNeely, who becomes Siff chairman emeritus.
Siff stages its annual festival in the Northern California city of Sonoma each March, and hosts year-round live and virtual events including its Summerfest, this year set for August 4-6.
At this year’s festival, the jury award for best English language feature went...
- 5/19/2022
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
You, the emerging filmmaker have a chance to get to know some festival programmers here, always helpful when you want to decide which festival is the best one for your film.
Miami Film Festival just announced the promotion of programmer Lauren Cohen to the position of Associate Director of Programming. In her new role, Cohen will work closely with me and our senior programmers Thom Powers, Kiva Reardon, Carl Spence,and programmers Diana Cadavid and Nicolas Calzada, in shaping the Festival’s overall content strategy, philosophy and direction.Lauren’s sharp eye for great cinema and her affinity for the audience nuances of Miami’s movie-loving public make her a natural choice to have a more influential role in shaping the evolution of Miami Film Festival as we move into the future. She will be taking on a larger part of the selection process and decision-making, while continuing to develop...
Miami Film Festival just announced the promotion of programmer Lauren Cohen to the position of Associate Director of Programming. In her new role, Cohen will work closely with me and our senior programmers Thom Powers, Kiva Reardon, Carl Spence,and programmers Diana Cadavid and Nicolas Calzada, in shaping the Festival’s overall content strategy, philosophy and direction.Lauren’s sharp eye for great cinema and her affinity for the audience nuances of Miami’s movie-loving public make her a natural choice to have a more influential role in shaping the evolution of Miami Film Festival as we move into the future. She will be taking on a larger part of the selection process and decision-making, while continuing to develop...
- 7/19/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
- 1/29/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Each year, the Sundance Film Festival rolls out an enviable lineup of jury members — billed as “experts in film, art, culture and science” — to dole out awards to the feature-length works shown at the festival. In total, 28 prizes (and sometimes more!) will be announced at a ceremony on January 28 (as ever, Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24). The festival has now announced this year’s various jury members, including actors, filmmakers, producers, writers and other luminaries (and, yes, plenty of Sundance alums pop up amongst their ranks).
Additionally, the festival has also announced that actress, comedian, correspondent and podcast host Jessica Williams will host the annual awards. Jones seems poised to have a very busy Sundance indeed, as she also toplines James Strouse’s premiere “The Incredible Jessica James,” which will close out the festival the night before.
The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements,...
Additionally, the festival has also announced that actress, comedian, correspondent and podcast host Jessica Williams will host the annual awards. Jones seems poised to have a very busy Sundance indeed, as she also toplines James Strouse’s premiere “The Incredible Jessica James,” which will close out the festival the night before.
The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements,...
- 1/11/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Read More: Final Presidential Debate 2016: Hollywood Reacts to Trump and Hillary’s Last Showdown
The 2016 World Series kicks off tonight on Fox, and if Hollywood has its way, the Chicago Cubs will shut out the Cleveland Indians and take home the trophy for the first time in 108 years. Outspoken Cubs fans like Nick Offerman, Carrie Coon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more have taken to Twitter in the past to declare their love for Chicago, but others aren’t jumping on the frontrunner bandwagon just yet. With game one in full swing tonight, expect Hollywood to be out in force with some killer reactions. Check out the best below:
Our Time Is At Hand.
There Can Be Only One.@Cubs Feel The Quickening – You Are The Stag.
(warning: brief clown)
Fly The Mf W!⚾️ https://t.co/ioBITEcEK0
— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) October 25, 2016
Enough with the Cubs! How about some love for the Cleveland Indians?...
The 2016 World Series kicks off tonight on Fox, and if Hollywood has its way, the Chicago Cubs will shut out the Cleveland Indians and take home the trophy for the first time in 108 years. Outspoken Cubs fans like Nick Offerman, Carrie Coon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more have taken to Twitter in the past to declare their love for Chicago, but others aren’t jumping on the frontrunner bandwagon just yet. With game one in full swing tonight, expect Hollywood to be out in force with some killer reactions. Check out the best below:
Our Time Is At Hand.
There Can Be Only One.@Cubs Feel The Quickening – You Are The Stag.
(warning: brief clown)
Fly The Mf W!⚾️ https://t.co/ioBITEcEK0
— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) October 25, 2016
Enough with the Cubs! How about some love for the Cleveland Indians?...
- 10/25/2016
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Seattle’s cultural scene may still linger in the shadow of grunge rock, but it’s also a moviegoing town, and hosts one of the biggest film festivals in the country. Now, the person responsible for that celebrated gathering has decided to move on.
Longtime Seattle International Film Festival head Carl Spence is leaving the festival after more than 20 years. He is transitioning out of his role as Chief Curator and Festival Director today and will continue to serve in an advisory capacity at Siff through spring 2017. During his time at Siff, Spence led the launch of its year-round film center, Siff Cinema, in addition to the programming and operations of two other theaters, the Siff Uptown and the Egyptian.
Read More: Dan Ireland: ‘Whole Wide World’ Director Who Co-Founded Seattle International Film Festival Dies at 57
“I like creating things,” Spence told IndieWire in a phone conversation last week.
Longtime Seattle International Film Festival head Carl Spence is leaving the festival after more than 20 years. He is transitioning out of his role as Chief Curator and Festival Director today and will continue to serve in an advisory capacity at Siff through spring 2017. During his time at Siff, Spence led the launch of its year-round film center, Siff Cinema, in addition to the programming and operations of two other theaters, the Siff Uptown and the Egyptian.
Read More: Dan Ireland: ‘Whole Wide World’ Director Who Co-Founded Seattle International Film Festival Dies at 57
“I like creating things,” Spence told IndieWire in a phone conversation last week.
- 10/4/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The chief curator and festival director at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) will continue to serve in an advisory capacity through spring 2017.
Carl Spence, who has played an integral role in developing SIFF from an annual festival into a year-round arts organisation, announced on Tuesday that he was transitioning out of his role.
Spence started at SIFF in 1994, helping SIFF co-founders Darryl Macdonald and Dan Ireland grow the festival into one of the largest in North America.
For the past 13 years he has led the organisation’s artistic and educational programmes, first as SIFF’s artistic director and then more recently as its chief curator and festival director.
Spence also held curatorial leadership positions at the Palm Springs International Film Festival during this time and helped launch the Orcas Island Film Festival in 2014.
“When I started at SIFF in 1994 on a three-month contract for the festival’s 20th anniversary edition, I had no...
Carl Spence, who has played an integral role in developing SIFF from an annual festival into a year-round arts organisation, announced on Tuesday that he was transitioning out of his role.
Spence started at SIFF in 1994, helping SIFF co-founders Darryl Macdonald and Dan Ireland grow the festival into one of the largest in North America.
For the past 13 years he has led the organisation’s artistic and educational programmes, first as SIFF’s artistic director and then more recently as its chief curator and festival director.
Spence also held curatorial leadership positions at the Palm Springs International Film Festival during this time and helped launch the Orcas Island Film Festival in 2014.
“When I started at SIFF in 1994 on a three-month contract for the festival’s 20th anniversary edition, I had no...
- 10/4/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Harrison Feldman and Bethany Whitmore in Girl Asleep.
Rosemary Myers' feature debut, Girl Asleep, has taken out the Official Competition Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff). .Truly original, theatrical, and impeccably choreographed, this coming of age story woke us up. Stylish, quirky but substantive and with every frame filled with evocative and hilarious detail,. said Siff festival director and chief curator Carl Spence.
Girl Asleep held off strong competition including Australia.s other entrant, Holding The Man, and was also the recipient of the Siff Youth Jury Award for Best FutureWave Feature. The film, which will be released nationally on 8th September, also won the People.s Choice Award at the Adelaide Film Festival last November. Girl Asleep sold out the Sydney Film Festival, and will also screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July. The film was produced by Windmill Theatre Co and Soft Tread Enterprises.
girlasleepfilm.com...
Rosemary Myers' feature debut, Girl Asleep, has taken out the Official Competition Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff). .Truly original, theatrical, and impeccably choreographed, this coming of age story woke us up. Stylish, quirky but substantive and with every frame filled with evocative and hilarious detail,. said Siff festival director and chief curator Carl Spence.
Girl Asleep held off strong competition including Australia.s other entrant, Holding The Man, and was also the recipient of the Siff Youth Jury Award for Best FutureWave Feature. The film, which will be released nationally on 8th September, also won the People.s Choice Award at the Adelaide Film Festival last November. Girl Asleep sold out the Sydney Film Festival, and will also screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July. The film was produced by Windmill Theatre Co and Soft Tread Enterprises.
girlasleepfilm.com...
- 6/15/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
The Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) announced its set of winners for the 2016 Golden Space Needle Audience and Competition Awards.The 25-day festival began May 19 and featured 421 films representing 85 countries.
“The 42nd Seattle International Film Festival celebrated extraordinary cinema from 85 countries from around the world for a marathon 25 days. We are especially excited with the success of the films in our newly inaugurated Official Competition,” said Festival Director Carl Spence in a statement. Adding that the Golden Space Needle Awards for Best Film and Best Documentary went to films with ties to Washington state.
Read More: Amazon and Open Road Team Up for Acclaimed Sundance Doc ‘Gleason’
Read on below for the list of winners:
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Film – “Captain Fantastic”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Documentary -“Gleason”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Director – Javier Ruiz Caldera, “Spy Time”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Actor – Rolf Lassgård, “A Man Called Ove”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Actress – Vicky Hernandez, “Between Sea and Land”
Read More: ‘Captain Fantastic’ Trailer: Viggo Mortensen Isolates His Family For Love — Watch
Siff Official Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Girl Asleep”
Siff Ibero-American Competition Grand Jury Prize – “You’ll Never Be Alone”
Siff New Directors Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Sand Storm”
Siff New American Cinema Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Middle Man”
Siff Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Death By a Thousand Cuts”
Siff Youth Jury Award for Best Futurewave Feature – “Girl Asleep”
Siff Youth Jury Award for Best Films4Families Feature – “Oddball”
Siff Wavemaker Award – “Sable Mire”
Siff Futurewave Audience Award – “The Archer Hadley Story”
Prodigy Camp Scholarship – “Children”
Siff Short Film Live Action Grand Jury Prize – “Killer”
Siff Short Film Documentary Grand Jury Prize – “These C*cksucking Tears”
Siff Short Film Animation Grand Jury Prize – “Carlo”
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Emails Newsletter here.
Related storiesDavid Cronenberg: Why He's Considering Retiring From FilmmakingViggo Mortensen and His Family Get Wild in Exclusive 'Captain Fantastic' Photos'Captain Fantastic' Trailer: Viggo Mortensen Isolates His Family For Love -- Watch...
“The 42nd Seattle International Film Festival celebrated extraordinary cinema from 85 countries from around the world for a marathon 25 days. We are especially excited with the success of the films in our newly inaugurated Official Competition,” said Festival Director Carl Spence in a statement. Adding that the Golden Space Needle Awards for Best Film and Best Documentary went to films with ties to Washington state.
Read More: Amazon and Open Road Team Up for Acclaimed Sundance Doc ‘Gleason’
Read on below for the list of winners:
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Film – “Captain Fantastic”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Documentary -“Gleason”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Director – Javier Ruiz Caldera, “Spy Time”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Actor – Rolf Lassgård, “A Man Called Ove”
Golden Space Needle Audience Award Best Actress – Vicky Hernandez, “Between Sea and Land”
Read More: ‘Captain Fantastic’ Trailer: Viggo Mortensen Isolates His Family For Love — Watch
Siff Official Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Girl Asleep”
Siff Ibero-American Competition Grand Jury Prize – “You’ll Never Be Alone”
Siff New Directors Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Sand Storm”
Siff New American Cinema Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Middle Man”
Siff Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize – “Death By a Thousand Cuts”
Siff Youth Jury Award for Best Futurewave Feature – “Girl Asleep”
Siff Youth Jury Award for Best Films4Families Feature – “Oddball”
Siff Wavemaker Award – “Sable Mire”
Siff Futurewave Audience Award – “The Archer Hadley Story”
Prodigy Camp Scholarship – “Children”
Siff Short Film Live Action Grand Jury Prize – “Killer”
Siff Short Film Documentary Grand Jury Prize – “These C*cksucking Tears”
Siff Short Film Animation Grand Jury Prize – “Carlo”
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Emails Newsletter here.
Related storiesDavid Cronenberg: Why He's Considering Retiring From FilmmakingViggo Mortensen and His Family Get Wild in Exclusive 'Captain Fantastic' Photos'Captain Fantastic' Trailer: Viggo Mortensen Isolates His Family For Love -- Watch...
- 6/14/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
The Seattle International Film Festival presented its award winners on June 12 as the 25-day event drew to a close after screening featured 421 films representing 85 countries.
Rosemary Myers’s Girl Asleep (Australia 2016) earned the grand jury prize as SIFF 2016 official competition winner, while Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic (pictured) was named best film in the Golden Space Needle audience awards.
In other juried awards, Alex Anwandter’s You’ll Never Be Alone (Chile 2016) prevailed in the Ibero-American Competition, while Sand Storm (Israel 2016) by Elite Zexer won the New Directors Competition.
Ned Crowley’s Middle Man (USA 2016) took top honours in the New...
Rosemary Myers’s Girl Asleep (Australia 2016) earned the grand jury prize as SIFF 2016 official competition winner, while Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic (pictured) was named best film in the Golden Space Needle audience awards.
In other juried awards, Alex Anwandter’s You’ll Never Be Alone (Chile 2016) prevailed in the Ibero-American Competition, while Sand Storm (Israel 2016) by Elite Zexer won the New Directors Competition.
Ned Crowley’s Middle Man (USA 2016) took top honours in the New...
- 6/12/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Top brass have unveiled the full line-up for the 42nd annual Seattle International Film Festival (Siff), set to run from May 19-June 12.
This year’s event will screen 421 films from 85 countries, of which 181 are fictional features including four secret films, 75 are documentaries, and eight are archival films.
There are 29 world premieres of feature-length selections, 42 North American premieres and 15 Us premieres.
Woody Allen’s Café Society starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart and Kate Winslet in Australian hit The Dressmaker (pictured) bookend the festival.
Documentary Gleason, one of the hits of Sundance at the start of the year and centring on Spokane-born NFL star Steve Gleason’s battle with Als, will screen at the festival’s Centerpiece Gala on June 4.
The roster includes Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, which filmed in Washington state and will screen as part of a tribute to Viggo Mortensen on June 11, when the actor will receive the festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Acting...
This year’s event will screen 421 films from 85 countries, of which 181 are fictional features including four secret films, 75 are documentaries, and eight are archival films.
There are 29 world premieres of feature-length selections, 42 North American premieres and 15 Us premieres.
Woody Allen’s Café Society starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart and Kate Winslet in Australian hit The Dressmaker (pictured) bookend the festival.
Documentary Gleason, one of the hits of Sundance at the start of the year and centring on Spokane-born NFL star Steve Gleason’s battle with Als, will screen at the festival’s Centerpiece Gala on June 4.
The roster includes Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, which filmed in Washington state and will screen as part of a tribute to Viggo Mortensen on June 11, when the actor will receive the festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Acting...
- 5/4/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The North American premiere of Amazon Studios’ Cannes-bound opening night film from Woody Allen will kick off the festival on May 19.
Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart star in Café Society, Allen’s period piece about a man who heads to Hollywood in the 1930s in search of fame and fortune and finds love in the café society.
Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Blake Lively, Corey Stoll, Paul Schneider, Anna Camp, and Judy Davis round out the key cast. Café Society will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 11.
In his new role as festival director and chief curator, Carl Spence said: “Woody Allen delivers a delightful, vibrant, and entertaining tale that continues to expand his repertory of acting talent.
“Combining the power of Siff, which boasts the largest audience of any film festival in the country, with an emerging Seattle-based film distribution powerhouse that firmly believes in the theatrical experience, along with one of our most acclaimed directors, is a perfect...
Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart star in Café Society, Allen’s period piece about a man who heads to Hollywood in the 1930s in search of fame and fortune and finds love in the café society.
Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Blake Lively, Corey Stoll, Paul Schneider, Anna Camp, and Judy Davis round out the key cast. Café Society will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 11.
In his new role as festival director and chief curator, Carl Spence said: “Woody Allen delivers a delightful, vibrant, and entertaining tale that continues to expand his repertory of acting talent.
“Combining the power of Siff, which boasts the largest audience of any film festival in the country, with an emerging Seattle-based film distribution powerhouse that firmly believes in the theatrical experience, along with one of our most acclaimed directors, is a perfect...
- 4/21/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) has introduced a feature-length screenplay competition as part of its Catalyst Program. The new competition will give emerging writers a chance to gain industry exposure through Siff's Catalyst Program alumni network as well as a chance to have their work read live during Siff's 2016 Catalyst Weekend. Read More: Seattle International Film Festival Announces 2015 Winners "Expanding our Catalyst First Draft program into a screenplay competition aimed at connecting up and coming filmmakers with emerging writers is a great way for Siff to both deepen and expand our relationships with the most exciting, and, in many cases, as yet undiscovered, new voices in U.S. independent cinema," said Carl Spence, Siff's Artistic Director, in a statement. The Siff Catalyst Screenplay Competition will connect strong scripts with independent directors and producers who are alumni of the Siff Catalyst Festival...
- 10/6/2015
- by Paula Bernstein
- Indiewire
Read More: American Film Market to Stay in Santa Monica Until 2017 This year the American Film Market will launch a new program targeted specifically at film festival professionals called "Festival Focus," along with the many other screenings, panels, and networking opportunities made available each year at Afm. The American Film Market is a massive yearly industry event that provides a place for deals to be made on films of all stages of development, boasting 2000 new films and projects. The Festival Focus looks to provide a meeting place for film festival leaders to come together and share knowledge, strategies, and plans for the future. The program will also provide over 400 producers with an opportunity to meet directly with these leaders in the festival world. The sessions will explore and convey operational and curatorial knowledge and best practices in an intimate setting. Planned speakers include Carl Spence, Artistic Director, Seattle International Film.
- 9/21/2015
- by Wil Barlow
- Indiewire
James Napier Robertson’s acclaimed New Zealand drama picked up a couple of honours as the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival came to a close.
The 25-day festival kicked off on May 14 and featured 450 films representing 92 countries and featured 49 world premieres.
Siff 2015 Golden Space Needle Audience Awards
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Film
The Dark Horse by James Napier Robertson
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Documentary
Romeo Is Bleeding by Jason Zeldes
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Director
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actor
Cliff Curtis, The Dark Horse
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actress
Nina Hoss, Phoenix
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Short Film
Even The Walls, directed by Sarah Kuck, Saman Maydáni
Lena Sharpe Award For Persistence Of Vision
Frame By Frame by Mo Scarpelli, Alexandria Bombach
Siff 2015 Competition Awards
Siff 2015 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Liza, The Fox-Fairy...
The 25-day festival kicked off on May 14 and featured 450 films representing 92 countries and featured 49 world premieres.
Siff 2015 Golden Space Needle Audience Awards
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Film
The Dark Horse by James Napier Robertson
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Documentary
Romeo Is Bleeding by Jason Zeldes
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Director
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actor
Cliff Curtis, The Dark Horse
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actress
Nina Hoss, Phoenix
Golden Space Needle Award - Best Short Film
Even The Walls, directed by Sarah Kuck, Saman Maydáni
Lena Sharpe Award For Persistence Of Vision
Frame By Frame by Mo Scarpelli, Alexandria Bombach
Siff 2015 Competition Awards
Siff 2015 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Liza, The Fox-Fairy...
- 6/7/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Organisers at the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) announced the complete line-up of 450 films from 92 countries on Wednesday. The festival runs from May 14-June 7.
The Overnight starring Jason Schwartzman will close the event and as previously announced Spy (pictured) with Melissa McCartney will kick off proceedings. Kevin Bacon will receive career achievement in acting award.
“This year’s festival is bigger and more international than ever, with a record 92 countries represented,” said Siff artistic director Carl Spence. “Adding to our diverse international line-up is our new programme, Culinary Cinema, which features 11 fantastic new films.
“And I’m particularly excited to welcome Kevin Bacon as this year’s Tribute Guest – Siff will now be only one-degree of separation away!”
Galas and premieres include Max Landis’ directorial debut Me Him Her, Chris Evans in Before We Go, Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal in the Centerpiece Gala End Of The Tour . Inside Out, Mr. Holmes and [link...
The Overnight starring Jason Schwartzman will close the event and as previously announced Spy (pictured) with Melissa McCartney will kick off proceedings. Kevin Bacon will receive career achievement in acting award.
“This year’s festival is bigger and more international than ever, with a record 92 countries represented,” said Siff artistic director Carl Spence. “Adding to our diverse international line-up is our new programme, Culinary Cinema, which features 11 fantastic new films.
“And I’m particularly excited to welcome Kevin Bacon as this year’s Tribute Guest – Siff will now be only one-degree of separation away!”
Galas and premieres include Max Landis’ directorial debut Me Him Her, Chris Evans in Before We Go, Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal in the Centerpiece Gala End Of The Tour . Inside Out, Mr. Holmes and [link...
- 4/29/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The latest collaboration between director Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy will open the 41st Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) on May 14.
Spy stars McCarthy as a deskbound CIA analyst who gets thrust into the field when her partner falls off the grid and another top agent is compromised.
Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Jason Statham, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Morena Baccarin, Miranda Hart and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson round out the cast.
Feig, who directed McCarthy in Bridesmaids and The Heat, will take part in an onstage Q&A following the screening with Siff artistic director Carl Spence.
Spy will open via Fox on June 5.
The festival is set to run from May 14-June 7.
Spy stars McCarthy as a deskbound CIA analyst who gets thrust into the field when her partner falls off the grid and another top agent is compromised.
Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Jason Statham, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Morena Baccarin, Miranda Hart and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson round out the cast.
Feig, who directed McCarthy in Bridesmaids and The Heat, will take part in an onstage Q&A following the screening with Siff artistic director Carl Spence.
Spy will open via Fox on June 5.
The festival is set to run from May 14-June 7.
- 4/15/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives At Home filmmaker Mark Duplass will return to South by Southwest to keynote the 2015 edition of the annual Austin film conference, organizers announced today. Like 2014’s popular keynote speaker Lena Dunham, Duplass is making a homecoming of sorts to SXSW where he launched his career in 2005 by winning the SXSW Audience Award with brother Jay for The Puffy Chair. Last year at SXSW he and director/co-writer/co-star Patrick Brice debuted their microbudget horror Creep which Radius-twc and Blumhouse Tilt jointly acquired.
Also stopping by the Austin fest held from March 13-21, 2015 will be Bollywood actor and director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers), who will lead a Conversation session. Over 150 keynotes, conversations, panels, and mentor sessions are in the works for the annual confab, which has yet to announce its full lineup.
As for film panels, I’ll be talking shop at “So You...
Also stopping by the Austin fest held from March 13-21, 2015 will be Bollywood actor and director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers), who will lead a Conversation session. Over 150 keynotes, conversations, panels, and mentor sessions are in the works for the annual confab, which has yet to announce its full lineup.
As for film panels, I’ll be talking shop at “So You...
- 10/21/2014
- by Jen Yamato
- Deadline
At the close of the 40th Seattle Film Festival on Sunday, June 8th, the winners of the Golden Space Needle and Competition Awards were announced. This year's 25-day festival presented 452 films from 83 countries. The festival's Artistic Director Carl Spence said, "This has been an extraordinary 40th anniversary Festival. From welcoming back Richard Linklater to Seattle with his groundbreaking epic 'Boyhood,' to honoring Laura Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Quincy Jones for their masterful work, to welcoming Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who has brought Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life for years, to the hundreds of first-time directors making their debut, it's been another year of indelible cinematic experiences." The Golden Space Needle Awards were determined by festival audiences, who cast nearly 90,000 ballots. Results included Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," Alan Hicks' documentary "Keep On Keepin' On," and Peres Owino's "Bound: Africans Versus African Americans." Check out the.
- 6/9/2014
- by Taylor Lindsay
- Indiewire
Richard Linklater’s acclaimed family portrait won the Golden Space Needle Award for best film and best director honours as the 40th Seattle International Film Festival came to a conclusion on Sunday (June 8).
The corresponding documentary honour went to Keep On Keepin’ On by Alan Hicks, while Dawid Ogrodnik was named best actor for Life Feels Good and Patricia Arquette best actress for Boyhood.
Best short film went to Cody Blue Snider’s Fool’s Day and the Lena Sharpe Award For Persistence Of Vision prize went to Bound: Africans Versus African Americans by Peres Owino.
In the competition awards, Carlos Marques-Marcet earned the Siff 2014 Best New Director Grand Jury Prize for 10,000Km, while the documentary prize went to Marmato, directed by Mark Grieco.
“This has been an extraordinary 40th anniversary festival,” said artistic director Carl Spence. “From welcoming back Richard Linklater to Seattle with his groundbreaking epic Boyhood, to honouring Laura Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Quincy Jones...
The corresponding documentary honour went to Keep On Keepin’ On by Alan Hicks, while Dawid Ogrodnik was named best actor for Life Feels Good and Patricia Arquette best actress for Boyhood.
Best short film went to Cody Blue Snider’s Fool’s Day and the Lena Sharpe Award For Persistence Of Vision prize went to Bound: Africans Versus African Americans by Peres Owino.
In the competition awards, Carlos Marques-Marcet earned the Siff 2014 Best New Director Grand Jury Prize for 10,000Km, while the documentary prize went to Marmato, directed by Mark Grieco.
“This has been an extraordinary 40th anniversary festival,” said artistic director Carl Spence. “From welcoming back Richard Linklater to Seattle with his groundbreaking epic Boyhood, to honouring Laura Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Quincy Jones...
- 6/8/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The largest film festival in the Us will screen 440 films and runs from May 15-June 8.
The One I Love is the closing night screening and Quincy Jones will receive a lifetime achievement award. Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is the centrepiece screening.
The festival will feature 44 world, 30 North American and 14 Us premieres. Twelve films will compete in each of the New Directors, New American Cinema and Documentary competition categories
“Film is more than entertainment,” said artistic director Carl Spence. “The life-changing nature of the collective experience of cinema and the stories moving pictures can tell are Siff’s inspinration and mission every year as we put together the festival.
“This year, Siff continues to be a festival of discovery, with more than 100 new directors making their debut. Richard Linklater was one of those filmmakers back in 1990 with the premiere of Slacker; it’s fitting to have him return for our anniversary with his masterwork Boyhood – unlike any other...
The One I Love is the closing night screening and Quincy Jones will receive a lifetime achievement award. Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is the centrepiece screening.
The festival will feature 44 world, 30 North American and 14 Us premieres. Twelve films will compete in each of the New Directors, New American Cinema and Documentary competition categories
“Film is more than entertainment,” said artistic director Carl Spence. “The life-changing nature of the collective experience of cinema and the stories moving pictures can tell are Siff’s inspinration and mission every year as we put together the festival.
“This year, Siff continues to be a festival of discovery, with more than 100 new directors making their debut. Richard Linklater was one of those filmmakers back in 1990 with the premiere of Slacker; it’s fitting to have him return for our anniversary with his masterwork Boyhood – unlike any other...
- 4/30/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
André Benjamin stars as Seattle rock legend Jimi Hendrix in the drama, set to open the 40th Seattle International Film Festival on May 15.
Jimi: All Is By My Side charts the life and loves of the iconic musician. Screenwriter John Ridley will attend the opening night event.
Imogen Poots and Hayley Atwell star alongside Benjamin.
The film will open theatrically in summer through XLrator Media with Open Road Films.
“I can’t think of a more fitting film to open our 40th - as Siff looks back on where we’ve come from and forward to where we’re going, we’re inviting everyone to come together to see a film that traces the origins of a Seattle music legend,” said the festival’s artistic director Carl Spence.
“The film and music communities of Seattle have proved to be a source of incredible creative expression capable of garnering attention worldwide, and Jimi encapsulates...
Jimi: All Is By My Side charts the life and loves of the iconic musician. Screenwriter John Ridley will attend the opening night event.
Imogen Poots and Hayley Atwell star alongside Benjamin.
The film will open theatrically in summer through XLrator Media with Open Road Films.
“I can’t think of a more fitting film to open our 40th - as Siff looks back on where we’ve come from and forward to where we’re going, we’re inviting everyone to come together to see a film that traces the origins of a Seattle music legend,” said the festival’s artistic director Carl Spence.
“The film and music communities of Seattle have proved to be a source of incredible creative expression capable of garnering attention worldwide, and Jimi encapsulates...
- 4/21/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
André Benjamin stars as Seattle rock legend Jimi Hendrix in the drama, set to open the 40th Seattle International Film Festival on May 15.
Jimi: All Is By My Side charts the life and loves of the iconic musician. Screenwriter John Ridley will attend the opening night event.
Imogen Poots and Hayley Atwell star alongside Benjamin.
The film will open theatrically in summer through XLrator Media with Open Road Films.
“I can’t think of a more fitting film to open our 40th - as Siff looks back on where we’ve come from and forward to where we’re going, we’re inviting everyone to come together to see a film that traces the origins of a Seattle music legend,” said the festival’s artistic director Carl Spence.
“The film and music communities of Seattle have proved to be a source of incredible creative expression capable of garnering attention worldwide, and Jimi encapsulates...
Jimi: All Is By My Side charts the life and loves of the iconic musician. Screenwriter John Ridley will attend the opening night event.
Imogen Poots and Hayley Atwell star alongside Benjamin.
The film will open theatrically in summer through XLrator Media with Open Road Films.
“I can’t think of a more fitting film to open our 40th - as Siff looks back on where we’ve come from and forward to where we’re going, we’re inviting everyone to come together to see a film that traces the origins of a Seattle music legend,” said the festival’s artistic director Carl Spence.
“The film and music communities of Seattle have proved to be a source of incredible creative expression capable of garnering attention worldwide, and Jimi encapsulates...
- 4/21/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Emir Baigazin’s Harmony Lessons won the 39th Seattle International Film Festival’s Best New Director grand jury prize on Sunday [9] as top brass handed out jury and audience awards.Scroll down for full list of winners
The Siff 2013 Best Documentary grand jury prize went to Penny Lane’s Our Nixon and Lucy Walker earned a special jury prize for The Crash Reel, while Kyle Patrick Alvarez took the Best New American Cinema grand jury prize for C.O.G.
In the audience awards, Henk Pretorius’ Fanie Fourie’s Lobola won the Best Film Golden Space Needle Award and Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet From Stardom took the corresponding documentary prize.
The Best Director Golden Space Needle Award went to Nabil Ayouch for Horses Of God, while best actor was awarded to James Cromwell for Still Mine and best actress to Samantha Morton for Decoding Annie Parker.
The Best Short Film Golden Space Needle Award was presented to [link...
The Siff 2013 Best Documentary grand jury prize went to Penny Lane’s Our Nixon and Lucy Walker earned a special jury prize for The Crash Reel, while Kyle Patrick Alvarez took the Best New American Cinema grand jury prize for C.O.G.
In the audience awards, Henk Pretorius’ Fanie Fourie’s Lobola won the Best Film Golden Space Needle Award and Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet From Stardom took the corresponding documentary prize.
The Best Director Golden Space Needle Award went to Nabil Ayouch for Horses Of God, while best actor was awarded to James Cromwell for Still Mine and best actress to Samantha Morton for Decoding Annie Parker.
The Best Short Film Golden Space Needle Award was presented to [link...
- 6/9/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The sprawling 39th Seattle International Film Festival, at 25 days the largest in the United States, wrapped up on Sunday. At the annual awards brunch at the Space Needle, director Carl Spence, jury members and some of his programming team of 25 announced the winners of the Siff 2013 Competition and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards. The fest launched on May 16 with Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing," one of the more popular films at the fest, which ran over 447 films from 85 countries, including 49 World (18 Features, 31 Shorts), 48 North American (38 Features, 10 Shorts), 17 Us Premieres (6 Features, 11 Shorts), and over 700 screenings. Spence thanked Delta Airlines for making it possible to bring in more talent and industry pros than ever before. The fest closes Sunday night with Sofia Coppola's Cannes selection "The Bling Ring." Strikingly, the audience award-winner, "Fanie Fourie's Lobola," came from the first-ever African Pictures program of 18 films, which was made...
- 6/9/2013
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing has been on the festival circuit since September, but no other festival has made ado about the film quite like the Seattle International Film Festival, where Much Ado screened for a crowd of 3,000 on Thursday.
The Shakespeare adaptation – which Whedon shot in a 12-day stealth production at his house during what was supposed to be his post-Avengers vacation – kicked off the festival for its opening night at Seattle’s McCaw Hall in what became a record-breaking event shortly after ticket sales opened. The gala screening and party sold out in six hours on...
The Shakespeare adaptation – which Whedon shot in a 12-day stealth production at his house during what was supposed to be his post-Avengers vacation – kicked off the festival for its opening night at Seattle’s McCaw Hall in what became a record-breaking event shortly after ticket sales opened. The gala screening and party sold out in six hours on...
- 5/18/2013
- by Emily Rome
- EW - Inside Movies
In an exclusive to Indiewire, the Seattle International Film Festival has announced that Joss Whedon's black-and-white modern take on William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" is locked in to open the 39th edition of the event on May 16, with Whedon and the cast in tow. The romantic comedy, which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has subsequently been picked up by Lionsgate, marks the first film completed by Bellwether Pictures, the micro-budget studio formed by Whedon and his wife, Kai Cole. Read More: Joss Whedon on What 'Much Ado' Has In Common With 'The Avengers' "I could not be happier that the Seattle International Film Festival will be opening this year with 'Much Ado About Nothing,'" said Much Ado star Alexis Denisof, who stars as Benedick in the film. "I grew up in Seattle, and it is where all my dreams of being an actor began.
- 4/8/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
The Seattle International Film Festival announces the official lineup for the 2013 Women in Cinema festival, running January 23-27. Produced by Siff, Women in Cinema is returning after a ten year hiatus. Siff Artistic Director Carl Spence states, "We are excited to revive Siff's popular festival devoted to women directors. There is an abundance of extraordinary films directed by women this year and we look forward to showcasing a lively selection of the best new films from around the world." Women in Cinema will showcase ten feature films and a program of shorts from female directors around the world. Margarethe von Trotta's "Hannah Arendt" will open the fest, about the philosopher and her controversial coverage of the 1961 trial of Nazi Adolph Eichmann and her "banality of evil" statement. "Ginger & Rosa," from director Sally Potter and starring Elle Fanning, will close the festival (check out the new trailer below). The film.
- 1/4/2013
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
HollywoodNews.com: The 38th Seattle International Film Festival, the largest and most highly-attended event of its kind in the United States concluded today with the announcement of the Siff 2012 Competition Awards and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards. The 25-day Festival, which began May 17, featured over 460 films from more than 70 countries, including 65 feature premieres (24 World, 25 North American, 16 U.S.) and over 700 screenings. Additionally, Siff brought in more than 300 directors, actors and industry professionals.
“A festival’s success is dependent on two basic principles: providing a platform for filmmakers to be celebrated and connecting them to audience members that would not otherwise be aware of their remarkable stories,” said Siff Artistic Director Carl Spence. “This year a record number of filmmakers participated in person and online with virtual Q&A’s successfully expanding the conversation around the best in cinema with passionate audiences, illuminating guests and distinguished industry in attendance.”
Siff Managing Director Deborah Person said,...
“A festival’s success is dependent on two basic principles: providing a platform for filmmakers to be celebrated and connecting them to audience members that would not otherwise be aware of their remarkable stories,” said Siff Artistic Director Carl Spence. “This year a record number of filmmakers participated in person and online with virtual Q&A’s successfully expanding the conversation around the best in cinema with passionate audiences, illuminating guests and distinguished industry in attendance.”
Siff Managing Director Deborah Person said,...
- 6/10/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
The Seattle International Film Festival has announced that it will recognize Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek and director William Friedkin as 2012 tribute honorees. Sissy Spacek will receive the festival’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting on June 7 and William Friedkin will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award on June 9. “Sissy Spacek and William Friedkin have captivated audiences repeatedly throughout their careers with critically acclaimed works that boast multigenerational appeal,” said Siff Artistic Director Carl Spence via press release. Spacek has a particularly special place in my heart. Her first firm step onto the world stage was in “Badlands,”...
- 4/27/2012
- by Roth Cornet
- Hitfix
We all know Ira Deutchman, but for the record, Ira has been making, marketing and distributing films since 1975, having worked on over 150 films including some of the most successful independent films of all time. He was one of the founders of Cinecom and later created Fine Line Features—two companies that were created from scratch and in their respective times, helped define the independent film business. Currently Deutchman is Managing Partner of Emerging Pictures, a New York-based digital exhibition company. He is also a Professor of Professional Practice in the Graduate Film Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, where he is the head of the Producing Program. He is also active in Art House Convergence and wrote this inspirational blog for them. It inspired my own reminiscence which was quite fun to do. It will go up tomorrow. I hope my readers enjoy this. If it inspires you, I will publish yours here as well.
Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ira Deutchman
I grew up in movie theaters. At a very young age, my mother started bringing me to matinees and later we would pile the family into the car and head to the local drive-in for double features. In my adolescent and teenage years, the fact that my family moved around so much meant that I had few friends. I spent all my spare time in movie theaters. By the time I went to college, movies were my life. I used to pride myself on the fact that I could name the theater where I saw every film I’d ever seen.
On a recent trip to Chicago, I walked around the Loop–the site of many of my most formative movie moments–and was astonished to see how little was left of what was one of the most beautiful movie theater districts anywhere. It made me very sad, but motivated me to write this piece about the movie theaters for which I have the fondest memories. They are in chronological order according to where they fit in my life.
The Park Plaza Theater in the Bronx was most likely my first movie theater experience. It was only a few blocks from where we lived, and this is where my mother first exposed me to movies. I remember the matrons in their white suits and flashlights trying to keep the kids–who were required to sit in a separate section unless they were accompanied by parents–quiet. The first movie I actually remember was a film that terrified me at the time. It had images that stuck with me throughout my life, even though I couldn’t remember what film it was. It was only as an adult that I realized that the movie I had seen was “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
Loews Paradise, also in the Bronx, was a magnificent place. Even as a kid, going there to see a movie was a special occasion. I remember being on a shopping expedition with my mother to Alexander’s (right across the street from the Paradise) and seeing banners and posters for ”Tom Thumb” with Russ Tamblyn as the little guy. I became obsessed with seeing that film, until my parents finally gave in and brought me to see it–even though it would have been cheaper to wait for it to play in a closer neighborhood theater.
Another memory that sticks with me is when I went to see a Jerry Lewis film at the Paradise–I think it may have been “The Bellboy”–with a neighbor who used to babysit for me. She was a huge Jerry Lewis fan and, throughout the film, she was laughing so hard, she kept hitting me.
In the early ’60s, my family moved to the south side of Chicago. My neighborhood movie theaters were only a short walk from where we lived. Almost every weekend, I went to see whatever was playing at those theaters. There was theHamilton and the Jeffery,both on 71st Street, and theChelton on 79th. Since this was before the ratings system, there were many films coming out that I wanted to see that had been designated as “adults only,” so I was prevented from seeing them without my parents. Fortunately, every Sunday the Chelton had a special kiddie matinee for 25 cents admission. As the kiddie film was ending, if you hid out in the men’s room, you could wait until after they cleared the theater and stay to see the adult film that came afterward. So every Sunday, I dragged my brother Larry to the Chelton and for a quarter (he got in free), we saw such “adult” films as “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” “Fate is the Hunter,” and “Goldfinger” (which my parents were furious about my having seen once they saw the provocative poster). They had no idea that I was in the process of reading all the James Bond books, which were far racier than the films.
Another neighborhood theater was the Avalon, which was a huge movie palace and as magnificent as the Paradise. When something played at the Avalon, it was well worth walking the slightly extra distance to see it there. The Avalon mostly played big event movies after they completed their downtown roadshow runs, like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “West Side Story.”
One day, I heard that the Avalon was one of a dozen or so theaters in the Chicago area that was going to have a special screening of “Having A Wild Weekend,” and that the Dave Clark Five were going to appear in person at the theater. Apparently, the promoters had timed things so that the group could appear at each of the theaters where the film would be playing that day. The big show at the Avalon was a Saturday morning matinee. I got in line early, and was shaking with excitement when I realized that I would indeed get in. There were more than 2,500 seats and the place was packed. A man came out on stage and announced that the group would be making its appearance before the film, and would be there momentarily. The crowd started to scream. Moments later, the Dave Clark Five marched out on stage, and the place went wild. There was a scuffle near the stage and the next thing we knew, the five of them had left the stage. The lights went off and the movie started. The next morning, it was in the newspaper that one of the group had suffered a broken wrist in the “near-riot” that ensued at the Avalon.
After awhile, I began to get impatient waiting for new movies to make it to the neighborhood theaters. I was also old enough to go to the Loop by myself, either by taking the Illinois Central train or, in good weather, riding my bicycle along Lake Michigan.
The theaters in the Loop started running shows at 9am, sometimes with no one in the audience. Many years later, when I was already in the film business, I was told that the Chicago projectionists union was one of the strongest in the country, and that the projectionists had to be paid for the full day whether there were shows or not. So most of the theaters simply opted to go ahead with the shows. This was great for me, since I could get there early and see films that would have been difficult to get into later in the day.
There were many gorgeous theaters in the Loop, but I had two favorites, The United Artists and the Woods. They were both grand movie palaces and had long histories that were completely lost on me at the time. All I cared about was that they were showing the latest, greatest movies. And they knew how to market them. The theaters tried to outdo each other in terms of the special displays they created for the films that were playing. The entire fronts of the theaters were covered by photos and posters for the films. The marquees screamed out whatever sensational lines they could think of to entice people into the theaters.
Of the many films that I saw at the Woods, one of my fondest memories was seeing “A Hard Days Night” the week it opened. The place was packed with screaming kids. I was way up in the balcony. When the Beatles began singing a song, the entire audience clapped along.
My recollection is that a lot of the films that played at the Woods were horror films or thrillers. I recall seeing a few William Castle films, some of the Edgar Allen Poe adaptations by Roger Corman and, in 1967, “Wait Until Dark,” for which they advertised that all the lights in the theater would be turned off for the last few minutes of the film. I can never remember being so scared in a film.
At the United Artists, I recall stumbling into an early morning showing of ”A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” not knowing anything about the film other than the strange title. I laughed so hard that I went back several more times to see it.
Right down the block from those theaters were the Cinestage and the Michael Todd. These were the more prestigious theaters, where you could see the latest blockbuster roadshow releases–in many cases a completely different (longer) version of the film than would be released in the neighborhoods. At these theaters I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” (several times) and ”The Sound of Music” (several times), among many more “event” films.
In 1967, we moved again, this time to Highland Park, in Chicago’s north suburbs. My theater of choice was the Edens Theater, which was visible from the Edens Expressway. Unlike all the previous theaters, the Edens was not an old theater. It was a modernist masterpiece and a state-of-the-art facility that frequently had exclusive runs of films for the entire North Shore. Since it was a single-screen theater, hit films would settle in and play for long periods of time. One day I went to see “Bonnie and Clyde” at the Edens; I believe that was the moment I decided I wanted to make movies some day. I’m sure the massive screen and the incredible sound at the Edens added to the experience. I went back and saw “Bonnie and Clyde” at least five times, and since I didn’t have my drivers license yet, each time I saw the film one of my parents had to drive me. One day, as I was settling into my seat in the nearly empty theater, my Dad suddenly sat down next to me. I must have looked shocked as he said to me,” You keep coming to see this film so much, I decided to see what it is you like so much.” Throughout the film, he kept looking at me, wondering what kind of pervert he was bringing up.
A year or so later, my uncle was visiting from out of town, and took me to the Esquire on the north side of Chicago to see a film that he had read was all the rage. The Esquire was a beautiful deco palace, and one of the nicest places to see a film in Chicago. I would go there many times over the years, the last time being for the premiere of “Hoop Dreams” decades later. The film was “Easy Rider,” and it was on a double bill with a foreign language film that I can’t remember. They also showed a short called “De Duva (The Dove),” a great parody of early Bergman (It’s available on YouTube). My education continued.
A couple of years later, we moved again, this time to Paramus, NJ. The most spectacular local theater was the Stanley Warner Route 4. It started as a single-screen 2,000 seat theater, added a second screen in the the mid-70′s and eventually was carved up into little pieces. I practically lived at the theater all through high school. One memorable experience was trying to get in to see “Woodstock” and being turned away because I was too young. It looked to me like they were turning away the entire interested audience.
I also spent a lot of time at the Bergen Mall Cinema, which was the local art house. Here I saw such films as “Women in Love,” Fellini’s “Satyricon,” “Zabriskie Point,” and numerous films that were distributed by Cinema 5, a company that I would end up working for a number of years later. It was eye opening, and contributed to my radicalization in my teenage years. This theater may have been a shoebox in the middle of a suburban mall, but it was responsible for expanding the horizons of the youth of Bergen County. [Interestingly, I can't find any decent pictures of either of these two theaters.]
Then it was off to Chicago again, where I went to college. In Evanston, where the Northwestern campus was located, there were two downtown theaters, the Varsity and theValencia. They were both smaller movie palaces, but by the early ’70s they were in bad shape, mostly showing grindhouse films. That didn’t mean that I didn’t check them out. Given the recreational bent of the times, hanging at those two theaters could be a lot of fun.
However, the real action was in Chicago, and there were theaters showing films for every taste. The Carnegiewas the fancy art house, playing the latest foreign language films that were being written about in the New York Times. It was architecturally undistinguished and shared the same building with Mr. Kelly’s night club and a large parking structure. But the presentation was first class.
Repertory cinema was all over town, most notably at theBiograph and at thePlayboy at Clark and Division, which my college roommate referred to as the “center of the world.” The Biograph, of course, is world famous for being the place where Dillinger was killed after seeing a movie. The seat where Dillinger sat that night was painted gold so that patrons could find it easily. There was something special about seeing a film from the ’20s or ’30s in a setting that was so authentic to that time.
The Playboy was nowhere near as atmospheric, but it’s programming was something else. By day, the theater was an art house, playing the second tier art films that couldn’t get bookings at the Carnegie. But by night the Playboy became Chicago’s best repertory house. They called it the “Playboy All-Night Show,” and it was a different double feature every night, starting at midnight. One night it would be two Marx Brothers films, the next night two Ken Russell films, the next night, two by Antonioni. It was like someone was programming my Netflix queue, only in a movie theater. You can imagine my many bleary-eyed mornings, trying to stay awake through classes after having sat through two amazing films that ended at 4:00 am or later. (Yes, that’s Roger Ebert posing in front of the Playboy.)
After college, I ended up moving to New York City. I got a job with Cinema 5, which owned and operated most of the classiest theaters in Manhattan. It was a dream come true. Every Friday, the office manager would come by everyone’s desk and hand them 4 passes to any of the theaters, with an expiration date of the following week–use it or lose it. No chance of that for me. If anything, 4 passes were hardly enough, and I took to asking around for passes that others weren’t using.
The theaters were well-kept to the point of obsessiveness. I would be asked to run over to a theater to make sure the bathrooms were clean. The presentation was classy and always top-notch.
My absolute favorite of the theaters was the Plaza, which was the most atmospheric. I experienced some of the earliest examples of the coming American Independent movement at the Plaza, including “Hester Street,” “Pumping Iron,” “Harlan County USA” and others. Since the Plaza was right around the corner from the Cinema 5 office, we had our acquisition screenings there, so I spent many a morning drinking my coffee and eating my bagel in the first row of the loge section of the theater, screening some movie that we might be interested in acquiring. After awhile, the theater manager permitted me to park my bicycle in the theater when I rode it to work.
I always loved Cinema 1 and 2 on Third Avenue. It was before they had carved it into a third theater, and before it was allowed to get run down. It was a glittering example of a thoroughly modern movie theater, eschewing curtains for a black fabric strip that would come down from the ceiling before each show to mask the proper screen ratio. I used up a lot of those Cinema 5 passes at these theaters. When I started working there, Robert Altman’s “Nashville” was just beginning a record-setting run at Cinema 2. I had already seen the film once at the Esquire before leaving Chicago, but now I had the chance to see it over and over again, and I did. I probably saw the film 20 times in my first six months working at the company.
Another favorite was the Beekman. It was an art deco jewel, and probably the most beautiful movie theater that I’d ever seen that was built to be a movie theater. Woody Allen also loved the Beekman, and typically insisted that his films open there. I recall seeing “Love and Death” many times at the Beekman.
But I didn’t spend all of my time at the Cinema 5 theaters. I still had a taste for older films and frequented Dan Talbot’s New Yorker, and the Thalia, both of which were in the neighborhood where I lived. This was the golden age of double features, and the New York rep houses were trying to outdo each other in the cleverness of their programming.
In the years since, as my career led me to do business with many of the theaters I grew up with, I never lost my fondness for them. But one-by-one, just about all the theaters I have mentioned disappeared. The Thalia still exists, but the original parabolic floor has been straightened out and there is no longer any fixed seating. Cinema 1 & 2 have spawned a 3rd screen that has wrecked the perfect symmetry of the other two. The Biograph has been renovated and is being used by a theater company. The Esquire was cut up into smaller theaters many years ago, and now sits empty. The Avalon also sits abandoned. The Paradise is still there and has recently been partially restored, but it’s mainly used for events. All the rest are gone.
If you enjoy this subject, you owe it to yourself to check out the Cinema Treasures web site. I found many of the photos used in this piece on that site under a Creative Commons license. Full photo credits below:
Photo Credits:
Park Plaza: NYCago.com
Loews Paradise: Brad Smith, Cinema Treasures
Hamilton: Nick Coston, Cinema Treasures
Jeffery: Senorsock, Cinema Treasure
Avalon: Ira Deutchman
Woods: John P. Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
United Artists: John P. Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
Michael Todd: John P Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
Edens: Didi, Dim Beauty of Chicago
Esquire: Ira Deutchman
Varsity: Ira Deutchman
Carnegie: David Zornig, Cinema Treasures
Biograph: Norman Plant, Cinema Treasures
Playboy: Tim O’Neill, Cinema Treasures
Plaza: William, Cinema Treasures
Cinema 1&2: Dave-Bronx, Cinema Treasures
Beekman: Patrick Crowley, Cinema Treasures
New Yorker: MovieswithDad, Cinema Treasures This entry was posted in Film and tagged Bronx, Chicago, Highland Park, Movie Theaters, New York City, Paramus. Bookmark the permalink. ← Master Class: Independent Film Financing Let River Rest in Peace → 5 Responses to Movie Theaters I’ve Known and Loved Sydney Levine says: October 3, 2011 at 8:57 pm
I love this! I’ll try to do it…just the photos. you write better than I
Jordi Wijnalda says: October 3, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Wow, Ira – this really hit home for me. No, I have not experienced any of this first-hand myself, but it once again reaffirmed for me that a different decade might have been better for me… In some ways, at least. Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Juliet Goodfriend says: October 5, 2011 at 10:10 am
Ira, your memory is as awesome as your love of, and history in, films and theaters. Thanks, for the memories..da dah da dah da daah, etc (I can’t even remember the lyrics!).
Juliet
DanZee says: October 5, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Unfortunately theaters bear the scars of the ups and downs of the movie industry. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, you had huge theaters showing films continuously to large masses of coming-and-going people. The television age shifted that to films you couldn’t (yet) see on TV, such as long-running “event” pictures or a constantly changing schedule of foreign and repertory films. During the 1980s, the film studios revved up production again using independent producers (and their money) that shifted theaters to a multiplex design of more screens but smaller “box” theaters. The older theaters were abandoned or cut up, and even today theater owners skimp on building maintenance. Just as the old movie palaces have met the wrecking ball, throughout the 2000′s multiplexes have been plowed over for newer restaurant-themed superplexes. And at some point, even they will be replaced with something different. It’s all a cycle.
Carl Spence says: October 11, 2011 at 3:30 am
The timing of this article is fortuitous as we are re-opening a 85 year old movie palace – the uptown cinemas from October 20th in Seattle. It has the original single screen with the addition of two smaller stadium auditoriums that were added next door in the mid-80s. We are currently restoring the 50s marquee and getting the place ready to open in a short amount of time. Very exciting times in Seattle for movie going!
Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ira Deutchman
I grew up in movie theaters. At a very young age, my mother started bringing me to matinees and later we would pile the family into the car and head to the local drive-in for double features. In my adolescent and teenage years, the fact that my family moved around so much meant that I had few friends. I spent all my spare time in movie theaters. By the time I went to college, movies were my life. I used to pride myself on the fact that I could name the theater where I saw every film I’d ever seen.
On a recent trip to Chicago, I walked around the Loop–the site of many of my most formative movie moments–and was astonished to see how little was left of what was one of the most beautiful movie theater districts anywhere. It made me very sad, but motivated me to write this piece about the movie theaters for which I have the fondest memories. They are in chronological order according to where they fit in my life.
The Park Plaza Theater in the Bronx was most likely my first movie theater experience. It was only a few blocks from where we lived, and this is where my mother first exposed me to movies. I remember the matrons in their white suits and flashlights trying to keep the kids–who were required to sit in a separate section unless they were accompanied by parents–quiet. The first movie I actually remember was a film that terrified me at the time. It had images that stuck with me throughout my life, even though I couldn’t remember what film it was. It was only as an adult that I realized that the movie I had seen was “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
Loews Paradise, also in the Bronx, was a magnificent place. Even as a kid, going there to see a movie was a special occasion. I remember being on a shopping expedition with my mother to Alexander’s (right across the street from the Paradise) and seeing banners and posters for ”Tom Thumb” with Russ Tamblyn as the little guy. I became obsessed with seeing that film, until my parents finally gave in and brought me to see it–even though it would have been cheaper to wait for it to play in a closer neighborhood theater.
Another memory that sticks with me is when I went to see a Jerry Lewis film at the Paradise–I think it may have been “The Bellboy”–with a neighbor who used to babysit for me. She was a huge Jerry Lewis fan and, throughout the film, she was laughing so hard, she kept hitting me.
In the early ’60s, my family moved to the south side of Chicago. My neighborhood movie theaters were only a short walk from where we lived. Almost every weekend, I went to see whatever was playing at those theaters. There was theHamilton and the Jeffery,both on 71st Street, and theChelton on 79th. Since this was before the ratings system, there were many films coming out that I wanted to see that had been designated as “adults only,” so I was prevented from seeing them without my parents. Fortunately, every Sunday the Chelton had a special kiddie matinee for 25 cents admission. As the kiddie film was ending, if you hid out in the men’s room, you could wait until after they cleared the theater and stay to see the adult film that came afterward. So every Sunday, I dragged my brother Larry to the Chelton and for a quarter (he got in free), we saw such “adult” films as “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” “Fate is the Hunter,” and “Goldfinger” (which my parents were furious about my having seen once they saw the provocative poster). They had no idea that I was in the process of reading all the James Bond books, which were far racier than the films.
Another neighborhood theater was the Avalon, which was a huge movie palace and as magnificent as the Paradise. When something played at the Avalon, it was well worth walking the slightly extra distance to see it there. The Avalon mostly played big event movies after they completed their downtown roadshow runs, like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “West Side Story.”
One day, I heard that the Avalon was one of a dozen or so theaters in the Chicago area that was going to have a special screening of “Having A Wild Weekend,” and that the Dave Clark Five were going to appear in person at the theater. Apparently, the promoters had timed things so that the group could appear at each of the theaters where the film would be playing that day. The big show at the Avalon was a Saturday morning matinee. I got in line early, and was shaking with excitement when I realized that I would indeed get in. There were more than 2,500 seats and the place was packed. A man came out on stage and announced that the group would be making its appearance before the film, and would be there momentarily. The crowd started to scream. Moments later, the Dave Clark Five marched out on stage, and the place went wild. There was a scuffle near the stage and the next thing we knew, the five of them had left the stage. The lights went off and the movie started. The next morning, it was in the newspaper that one of the group had suffered a broken wrist in the “near-riot” that ensued at the Avalon.
After awhile, I began to get impatient waiting for new movies to make it to the neighborhood theaters. I was also old enough to go to the Loop by myself, either by taking the Illinois Central train or, in good weather, riding my bicycle along Lake Michigan.
The theaters in the Loop started running shows at 9am, sometimes with no one in the audience. Many years later, when I was already in the film business, I was told that the Chicago projectionists union was one of the strongest in the country, and that the projectionists had to be paid for the full day whether there were shows or not. So most of the theaters simply opted to go ahead with the shows. This was great for me, since I could get there early and see films that would have been difficult to get into later in the day.
There were many gorgeous theaters in the Loop, but I had two favorites, The United Artists and the Woods. They were both grand movie palaces and had long histories that were completely lost on me at the time. All I cared about was that they were showing the latest, greatest movies. And they knew how to market them. The theaters tried to outdo each other in terms of the special displays they created for the films that were playing. The entire fronts of the theaters were covered by photos and posters for the films. The marquees screamed out whatever sensational lines they could think of to entice people into the theaters.
Of the many films that I saw at the Woods, one of my fondest memories was seeing “A Hard Days Night” the week it opened. The place was packed with screaming kids. I was way up in the balcony. When the Beatles began singing a song, the entire audience clapped along.
My recollection is that a lot of the films that played at the Woods were horror films or thrillers. I recall seeing a few William Castle films, some of the Edgar Allen Poe adaptations by Roger Corman and, in 1967, “Wait Until Dark,” for which they advertised that all the lights in the theater would be turned off for the last few minutes of the film. I can never remember being so scared in a film.
At the United Artists, I recall stumbling into an early morning showing of ”A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” not knowing anything about the film other than the strange title. I laughed so hard that I went back several more times to see it.
Right down the block from those theaters were the Cinestage and the Michael Todd. These were the more prestigious theaters, where you could see the latest blockbuster roadshow releases–in many cases a completely different (longer) version of the film than would be released in the neighborhoods. At these theaters I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” (several times) and ”The Sound of Music” (several times), among many more “event” films.
In 1967, we moved again, this time to Highland Park, in Chicago’s north suburbs. My theater of choice was the Edens Theater, which was visible from the Edens Expressway. Unlike all the previous theaters, the Edens was not an old theater. It was a modernist masterpiece and a state-of-the-art facility that frequently had exclusive runs of films for the entire North Shore. Since it was a single-screen theater, hit films would settle in and play for long periods of time. One day I went to see “Bonnie and Clyde” at the Edens; I believe that was the moment I decided I wanted to make movies some day. I’m sure the massive screen and the incredible sound at the Edens added to the experience. I went back and saw “Bonnie and Clyde” at least five times, and since I didn’t have my drivers license yet, each time I saw the film one of my parents had to drive me. One day, as I was settling into my seat in the nearly empty theater, my Dad suddenly sat down next to me. I must have looked shocked as he said to me,” You keep coming to see this film so much, I decided to see what it is you like so much.” Throughout the film, he kept looking at me, wondering what kind of pervert he was bringing up.
A year or so later, my uncle was visiting from out of town, and took me to the Esquire on the north side of Chicago to see a film that he had read was all the rage. The Esquire was a beautiful deco palace, and one of the nicest places to see a film in Chicago. I would go there many times over the years, the last time being for the premiere of “Hoop Dreams” decades later. The film was “Easy Rider,” and it was on a double bill with a foreign language film that I can’t remember. They also showed a short called “De Duva (The Dove),” a great parody of early Bergman (It’s available on YouTube). My education continued.
A couple of years later, we moved again, this time to Paramus, NJ. The most spectacular local theater was the Stanley Warner Route 4. It started as a single-screen 2,000 seat theater, added a second screen in the the mid-70′s and eventually was carved up into little pieces. I practically lived at the theater all through high school. One memorable experience was trying to get in to see “Woodstock” and being turned away because I was too young. It looked to me like they were turning away the entire interested audience.
I also spent a lot of time at the Bergen Mall Cinema, which was the local art house. Here I saw such films as “Women in Love,” Fellini’s “Satyricon,” “Zabriskie Point,” and numerous films that were distributed by Cinema 5, a company that I would end up working for a number of years later. It was eye opening, and contributed to my radicalization in my teenage years. This theater may have been a shoebox in the middle of a suburban mall, but it was responsible for expanding the horizons of the youth of Bergen County. [Interestingly, I can't find any decent pictures of either of these two theaters.]
Then it was off to Chicago again, where I went to college. In Evanston, where the Northwestern campus was located, there were two downtown theaters, the Varsity and theValencia. They were both smaller movie palaces, but by the early ’70s they were in bad shape, mostly showing grindhouse films. That didn’t mean that I didn’t check them out. Given the recreational bent of the times, hanging at those two theaters could be a lot of fun.
However, the real action was in Chicago, and there were theaters showing films for every taste. The Carnegiewas the fancy art house, playing the latest foreign language films that were being written about in the New York Times. It was architecturally undistinguished and shared the same building with Mr. Kelly’s night club and a large parking structure. But the presentation was first class.
Repertory cinema was all over town, most notably at theBiograph and at thePlayboy at Clark and Division, which my college roommate referred to as the “center of the world.” The Biograph, of course, is world famous for being the place where Dillinger was killed after seeing a movie. The seat where Dillinger sat that night was painted gold so that patrons could find it easily. There was something special about seeing a film from the ’20s or ’30s in a setting that was so authentic to that time.
The Playboy was nowhere near as atmospheric, but it’s programming was something else. By day, the theater was an art house, playing the second tier art films that couldn’t get bookings at the Carnegie. But by night the Playboy became Chicago’s best repertory house. They called it the “Playboy All-Night Show,” and it was a different double feature every night, starting at midnight. One night it would be two Marx Brothers films, the next night two Ken Russell films, the next night, two by Antonioni. It was like someone was programming my Netflix queue, only in a movie theater. You can imagine my many bleary-eyed mornings, trying to stay awake through classes after having sat through two amazing films that ended at 4:00 am or later. (Yes, that’s Roger Ebert posing in front of the Playboy.)
After college, I ended up moving to New York City. I got a job with Cinema 5, which owned and operated most of the classiest theaters in Manhattan. It was a dream come true. Every Friday, the office manager would come by everyone’s desk and hand them 4 passes to any of the theaters, with an expiration date of the following week–use it or lose it. No chance of that for me. If anything, 4 passes were hardly enough, and I took to asking around for passes that others weren’t using.
The theaters were well-kept to the point of obsessiveness. I would be asked to run over to a theater to make sure the bathrooms were clean. The presentation was classy and always top-notch.
My absolute favorite of the theaters was the Plaza, which was the most atmospheric. I experienced some of the earliest examples of the coming American Independent movement at the Plaza, including “Hester Street,” “Pumping Iron,” “Harlan County USA” and others. Since the Plaza was right around the corner from the Cinema 5 office, we had our acquisition screenings there, so I spent many a morning drinking my coffee and eating my bagel in the first row of the loge section of the theater, screening some movie that we might be interested in acquiring. After awhile, the theater manager permitted me to park my bicycle in the theater when I rode it to work.
I always loved Cinema 1 and 2 on Third Avenue. It was before they had carved it into a third theater, and before it was allowed to get run down. It was a glittering example of a thoroughly modern movie theater, eschewing curtains for a black fabric strip that would come down from the ceiling before each show to mask the proper screen ratio. I used up a lot of those Cinema 5 passes at these theaters. When I started working there, Robert Altman’s “Nashville” was just beginning a record-setting run at Cinema 2. I had already seen the film once at the Esquire before leaving Chicago, but now I had the chance to see it over and over again, and I did. I probably saw the film 20 times in my first six months working at the company.
Another favorite was the Beekman. It was an art deco jewel, and probably the most beautiful movie theater that I’d ever seen that was built to be a movie theater. Woody Allen also loved the Beekman, and typically insisted that his films open there. I recall seeing “Love and Death” many times at the Beekman.
But I didn’t spend all of my time at the Cinema 5 theaters. I still had a taste for older films and frequented Dan Talbot’s New Yorker, and the Thalia, both of which were in the neighborhood where I lived. This was the golden age of double features, and the New York rep houses were trying to outdo each other in the cleverness of their programming.
In the years since, as my career led me to do business with many of the theaters I grew up with, I never lost my fondness for them. But one-by-one, just about all the theaters I have mentioned disappeared. The Thalia still exists, but the original parabolic floor has been straightened out and there is no longer any fixed seating. Cinema 1 & 2 have spawned a 3rd screen that has wrecked the perfect symmetry of the other two. The Biograph has been renovated and is being used by a theater company. The Esquire was cut up into smaller theaters many years ago, and now sits empty. The Avalon also sits abandoned. The Paradise is still there and has recently been partially restored, but it’s mainly used for events. All the rest are gone.
If you enjoy this subject, you owe it to yourself to check out the Cinema Treasures web site. I found many of the photos used in this piece on that site under a Creative Commons license. Full photo credits below:
Photo Credits:
Park Plaza: NYCago.com
Loews Paradise: Brad Smith, Cinema Treasures
Hamilton: Nick Coston, Cinema Treasures
Jeffery: Senorsock, Cinema Treasure
Avalon: Ira Deutchman
Woods: John P. Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
United Artists: John P. Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
Michael Todd: John P Keating Jr, Cinema Treasures
Edens: Didi, Dim Beauty of Chicago
Esquire: Ira Deutchman
Varsity: Ira Deutchman
Carnegie: David Zornig, Cinema Treasures
Biograph: Norman Plant, Cinema Treasures
Playboy: Tim O’Neill, Cinema Treasures
Plaza: William, Cinema Treasures
Cinema 1&2: Dave-Bronx, Cinema Treasures
Beekman: Patrick Crowley, Cinema Treasures
New Yorker: MovieswithDad, Cinema Treasures This entry was posted in Film and tagged Bronx, Chicago, Highland Park, Movie Theaters, New York City, Paramus. Bookmark the permalink. ← Master Class: Independent Film Financing Let River Rest in Peace → 5 Responses to Movie Theaters I’ve Known and Loved Sydney Levine says: October 3, 2011 at 8:57 pm
I love this! I’ll try to do it…just the photos. you write better than I
Jordi Wijnalda says: October 3, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Wow, Ira – this really hit home for me. No, I have not experienced any of this first-hand myself, but it once again reaffirmed for me that a different decade might have been better for me… In some ways, at least. Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Juliet Goodfriend says: October 5, 2011 at 10:10 am
Ira, your memory is as awesome as your love of, and history in, films and theaters. Thanks, for the memories..da dah da dah da daah, etc (I can’t even remember the lyrics!).
Juliet
DanZee says: October 5, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Unfortunately theaters bear the scars of the ups and downs of the movie industry. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, you had huge theaters showing films continuously to large masses of coming-and-going people. The television age shifted that to films you couldn’t (yet) see on TV, such as long-running “event” pictures or a constantly changing schedule of foreign and repertory films. During the 1980s, the film studios revved up production again using independent producers (and their money) that shifted theaters to a multiplex design of more screens but smaller “box” theaters. The older theaters were abandoned or cut up, and even today theater owners skimp on building maintenance. Just as the old movie palaces have met the wrecking ball, throughout the 2000′s multiplexes have been plowed over for newer restaurant-themed superplexes. And at some point, even they will be replaced with something different. It’s all a cycle.
Carl Spence says: October 11, 2011 at 3:30 am
The timing of this article is fortuitous as we are re-opening a 85 year old movie palace – the uptown cinemas from October 20th in Seattle. It has the original single screen with the addition of two smaller stadium auditoriums that were added next door in the mid-80s. We are currently restoring the 50s marquee and getting the place ready to open in a short amount of time. Very exciting times in Seattle for movie going!
- 3/26/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This is not in the nature of news but of ruminations. I am still thinking of Bingham, and others who have died too soon in our world of independent film...We all are aware of Donald Krim and of Wouter Barendrecht.
Recently our friend and the director of the documentary To Be Heard -- a wonderful testimonial to the winning spirit of disenfranchised youth in Brooklyn -- Deborah Shaffer also lost her wonderful husband, Larry Bogdanow, a New York architect of restaurant interiors. One of his most enticing and intimate restaurants, Wild Blue, opened on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in 1999 and was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Deborah continued on, finished the film, got it out into the festivals and short listed for an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary this year.
There were also the buyers reps, Richard Glasser and Steve Hirsch who passed from this scene much too early in their lives.
At the risk of becoming morbid, I am using this blog as an open forum, a place to ruminate, not on death, but to take a little more time to remember Bingham whose closeness is affecting me deeply still.
I know people live in circumstances where death and even violent death is all around them (Haiti, Rwanda, Colombia, etc.). I cannot imagine their grief and horror, and I know I am blessed as are all my friends and colleagues to be living in such peaceful circumstances. Still losing friends and family is a painful, if inevitable, process.
Sundance seemed to stop this year with the news of Bingham's death. Anne Thompson also remarked on it; time just took on a whole different aspect. It was difficult sticking to the program though we did the best we could. It seemed to end before it became a festival for me.
My most recent memory and my earliest memory of Bingham are condensed into this moment when I wrote this In Memoriam at Sundance:
Most recently, as I was checking out of my hotel the last day of the Art House Convergence, it was early and most of the participants were going to the panel: Art House Lessons for Today from the Halcyon Days: History Repeats Itself, subtitled Nostalgia for the Bad Old Days, a panel with Jeff Lipsky: October Films co-founder with Bingham, founder and president of the recently established Adopt Films, Art Takes Over, 30-year veteran in the independent film world, internationally known for his expertise in independent film marketing, acquisition and distribution, Richard Abramowitz: President of Abramorama; co-founder of Stratosphere Entertainment; Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and Chair of Columbia University’s Film Program; a founder of Cinecom (and the seed planter of my own Film Finders at that time) who later created Fine Line Features; filmmaker, marketer and distributor of over 150 films since 1975 and Gary Palmucci (whose wife if Nancy Gerstman of Zeitgeist): Vice President of Theatrical Distribution for Kino Lorber, long time Kino regular on the festival circuit with Don Krim who also has passed on much too early.
My roommate at the Convergence, Bernice Baeza of the Lark Theater in Larkspur California, was leaving early and so we were almost alone in the hotel lobby, though Carl Spence of Seattle and Palm Springs Film Festivals was about to go into breakfast, and Richard Abramowitz and someone were in a corner by themselves.
We saw an ambulance draw up and it alarmed us. I realized that whoever had been in the corner was now being strapped to a gurney. I began to run to the ambulance to ask what had happened as I saw Bingham laying there with his feet crossed and a serene smile on his face as if he was saying I'm just going to rest for a while. Richard was by his side and as he saw me become alarmed, he asked me to please be very discrete and not to mention this to anyone. He said Bingham had just fallen and Richard called the ambulance to be sure he was not hurt. I agreed and returned to the lobby and said to Carl, Just forget you saw anything; do not mention this to anyone. He agreed and Bernice and I continued to check out. The woman behind the desk said that he had come to the desk and had forgotten his room number, and then could also not recall his name and his speech was slurred. She said he must have suffered a stroke.
Later Richard kept in touch with me as he stayed on watch. He told me getting Bingham to accept an ambulance had been a typical "Bingham" struggle as Bingham had felt it was unnecessary.
When I first met Bingham he was known as the former manager of the Bleeker Street Theater, a legend to me, a non native New Yorker. I had moved from L.A. to New York and was managing Films Inc/ Pmi's Social Issue Documentary Division, founded by Marge Benton who was also Chairman of the Sundance Institute at the time and active with the Democratic campaign to elect Carter. She felt that such a documentary division would help further the causes she loved and election time was an important time to do so.
All the "guys" in the business were very intimidating at the time: Bingham, John Pierson, Douglas Green, Tom Bernard...and I was struggling to hold my own. Last Berlin, as Bingham and I were talking, he admitted to knowing how intimidating he was and we laughed as I admitted to always wanting to cry after having "conversations" with these guys.
Bingham had grown, he had already had two near-death experiences - one during the London Screenings, when stepping off a curb in London, he was pulled back by Mark Ordesky (my former assistant before going to New Line!) as a car rushed forward towards him (from the "wrong direction"), and the other in an auto acccident in Connecticut. I had written him then about my thoughts in the face of his terrible accident and we became more than mere acquaintances when he thanked me for the note.
Bingham knew the value of life and he lived it fully. His much too early death should remind us all to be mindful of how we are living. I myself almost did not want to take the time to write this; the pressure of working at Sundance was very strong and it would have been easier to work through, but the thoughts of Bingham and our common histories would not let go of me.
He himself was about to start a whole new chapter in his life at the San Francisco Film Society, already marred by the premature death of its beloved director Graham Leggat. This alone should be a reminder to us all that no matter what our age, there is always a new chapter to begin if we live creatively.
We need to take the time to consider how we live in this world we all share, how we treat others, how we build our lives around what are truly the important issues....family, friends, our community, our city, our nation and our planet...and cinema which we all believe can truly change the world.
Bingham is out there now and he will always be a part of our world in whatever form we human beings take after shuffling off our mortal coil.
Recently our friend and the director of the documentary To Be Heard -- a wonderful testimonial to the winning spirit of disenfranchised youth in Brooklyn -- Deborah Shaffer also lost her wonderful husband, Larry Bogdanow, a New York architect of restaurant interiors. One of his most enticing and intimate restaurants, Wild Blue, opened on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in 1999 and was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Deborah continued on, finished the film, got it out into the festivals and short listed for an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary this year.
There were also the buyers reps, Richard Glasser and Steve Hirsch who passed from this scene much too early in their lives.
At the risk of becoming morbid, I am using this blog as an open forum, a place to ruminate, not on death, but to take a little more time to remember Bingham whose closeness is affecting me deeply still.
I know people live in circumstances where death and even violent death is all around them (Haiti, Rwanda, Colombia, etc.). I cannot imagine their grief and horror, and I know I am blessed as are all my friends and colleagues to be living in such peaceful circumstances. Still losing friends and family is a painful, if inevitable, process.
Sundance seemed to stop this year with the news of Bingham's death. Anne Thompson also remarked on it; time just took on a whole different aspect. It was difficult sticking to the program though we did the best we could. It seemed to end before it became a festival for me.
My most recent memory and my earliest memory of Bingham are condensed into this moment when I wrote this In Memoriam at Sundance:
Most recently, as I was checking out of my hotel the last day of the Art House Convergence, it was early and most of the participants were going to the panel: Art House Lessons for Today from the Halcyon Days: History Repeats Itself, subtitled Nostalgia for the Bad Old Days, a panel with Jeff Lipsky: October Films co-founder with Bingham, founder and president of the recently established Adopt Films, Art Takes Over, 30-year veteran in the independent film world, internationally known for his expertise in independent film marketing, acquisition and distribution, Richard Abramowitz: President of Abramorama; co-founder of Stratosphere Entertainment; Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and Chair of Columbia University’s Film Program; a founder of Cinecom (and the seed planter of my own Film Finders at that time) who later created Fine Line Features; filmmaker, marketer and distributor of over 150 films since 1975 and Gary Palmucci (whose wife if Nancy Gerstman of Zeitgeist): Vice President of Theatrical Distribution for Kino Lorber, long time Kino regular on the festival circuit with Don Krim who also has passed on much too early.
My roommate at the Convergence, Bernice Baeza of the Lark Theater in Larkspur California, was leaving early and so we were almost alone in the hotel lobby, though Carl Spence of Seattle and Palm Springs Film Festivals was about to go into breakfast, and Richard Abramowitz and someone were in a corner by themselves.
We saw an ambulance draw up and it alarmed us. I realized that whoever had been in the corner was now being strapped to a gurney. I began to run to the ambulance to ask what had happened as I saw Bingham laying there with his feet crossed and a serene smile on his face as if he was saying I'm just going to rest for a while. Richard was by his side and as he saw me become alarmed, he asked me to please be very discrete and not to mention this to anyone. He said Bingham had just fallen and Richard called the ambulance to be sure he was not hurt. I agreed and returned to the lobby and said to Carl, Just forget you saw anything; do not mention this to anyone. He agreed and Bernice and I continued to check out. The woman behind the desk said that he had come to the desk and had forgotten his room number, and then could also not recall his name and his speech was slurred. She said he must have suffered a stroke.
Later Richard kept in touch with me as he stayed on watch. He told me getting Bingham to accept an ambulance had been a typical "Bingham" struggle as Bingham had felt it was unnecessary.
When I first met Bingham he was known as the former manager of the Bleeker Street Theater, a legend to me, a non native New Yorker. I had moved from L.A. to New York and was managing Films Inc/ Pmi's Social Issue Documentary Division, founded by Marge Benton who was also Chairman of the Sundance Institute at the time and active with the Democratic campaign to elect Carter. She felt that such a documentary division would help further the causes she loved and election time was an important time to do so.
All the "guys" in the business were very intimidating at the time: Bingham, John Pierson, Douglas Green, Tom Bernard...and I was struggling to hold my own. Last Berlin, as Bingham and I were talking, he admitted to knowing how intimidating he was and we laughed as I admitted to always wanting to cry after having "conversations" with these guys.
Bingham had grown, he had already had two near-death experiences - one during the London Screenings, when stepping off a curb in London, he was pulled back by Mark Ordesky (my former assistant before going to New Line!) as a car rushed forward towards him (from the "wrong direction"), and the other in an auto acccident in Connecticut. I had written him then about my thoughts in the face of his terrible accident and we became more than mere acquaintances when he thanked me for the note.
Bingham knew the value of life and he lived it fully. His much too early death should remind us all to be mindful of how we are living. I myself almost did not want to take the time to write this; the pressure of working at Sundance was very strong and it would have been easier to work through, but the thoughts of Bingham and our common histories would not let go of me.
He himself was about to start a whole new chapter in his life at the San Francisco Film Society, already marred by the premature death of its beloved director Graham Leggat. This alone should be a reminder to us all that no matter what our age, there is always a new chapter to begin if we live creatively.
We need to take the time to consider how we live in this world we all share, how we treat others, how we build our lives around what are truly the important issues....family, friends, our community, our city, our nation and our planet...and cinema which we all believe can truly change the world.
Bingham is out there now and he will always be a part of our world in whatever form we human beings take after shuffling off our mortal coil.
- 1/29/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
By Christy Karras
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
As the Seattle International Film Festival drew to a close, attendance — bolstered by cool weather and a multifaceted slate — broke the $1 million box-office mark for the second year in a row.
But Siff is not about money. Nor is it about the industry or about sales or about getting the next gig. It is, in everything it does, about connecting audiences with new films.
Despite its whopping 450 films and one of the festival circuit’s largest attendance figures, Siff retains the feeling of small-town intimacy indicative of this big city. Viewers and volunteers easily mingle with directors who praise the questions from fanatical audiences, many of whom compete for the title of most films seen during the fest’s 25-day run. There is an unofficial iron-butt club for those who have seen at least 100 films.
This year’s festival started with...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
As the Seattle International Film Festival drew to a close, attendance — bolstered by cool weather and a multifaceted slate — broke the $1 million box-office mark for the second year in a row.
But Siff is not about money. Nor is it about the industry or about sales or about getting the next gig. It is, in everything it does, about connecting audiences with new films.
Despite its whopping 450 films and one of the festival circuit’s largest attendance figures, Siff retains the feeling of small-town intimacy indicative of this big city. Viewers and volunteers easily mingle with directors who praise the questions from fanatical audiences, many of whom compete for the title of most films seen during the fest’s 25-day run. There is an unofficial iron-butt club for those who have seen at least 100 films.
This year’s festival started with...
- 6/14/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
By Christy Karras
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
As the Seattle International Film Festival drew to a close, attendance — bolstered by cool weather and a multifaceted slate — broke the $1 million box-office mark for the second year in a row.
But Siff is not about money. Nor is it about the industry or about sales or about getting the next gig. It is, in everything it does, about connecting audiences with new films.
Despite its whopping 450 films and one of the festival circuit’s largest attendance figures, Siff retains the feeling of small-town intimacy indicative of this big city. Viewers and volunteers easily mingle with directors who praise the questions from fanatical audiences, many of whom compete for the title of most films seen during the fest’s 25-day run. There is an unofficial iron-butt club for those who have seen at least 100 films.
This year’s festival started with...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
As the Seattle International Film Festival drew to a close, attendance — bolstered by cool weather and a multifaceted slate — broke the $1 million box-office mark for the second year in a row.
But Siff is not about money. Nor is it about the industry or about sales or about getting the next gig. It is, in everything it does, about connecting audiences with new films.
Despite its whopping 450 films and one of the festival circuit’s largest attendance figures, Siff retains the feeling of small-town intimacy indicative of this big city. Viewers and volunteers easily mingle with directors who praise the questions from fanatical audiences, many of whom compete for the title of most films seen during the fest’s 25-day run. There is an unofficial iron-butt club for those who have seen at least 100 films.
This year’s festival started with...
- 6/14/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
By Christy Karras
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
True to its “audience-centered” philosophy, the Seattle International Film Festival gave an audience its fill of Ewan McGregor on Saturday during an all-evening tribute to the beloved actor that included a screening of his recent film “Beginners,” an hour-long retrospective Q&A and dinner with a few fans who ponied up donations to the nonprofit festival.
McGregor, whom festival artistic director Carl Spence described in his introduction as “slight of build but classically handsome,” wore spiky hair, jeans, a tailored white shirt and black jacket as he greeted an unusually enthusiastic (for Seattle) crush of fans outside the Egyptian Theatre. He signed autographs before the tribute and cheerfully stuck around afterward to have his picture taken with whoever asked until handlers pulled him away.
During the award ceremony, McGregor hoisted the sculptural glass Golden Space Needle trophy, designed by famed Seattle artist Dale Chihuly,...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
True to its “audience-centered” philosophy, the Seattle International Film Festival gave an audience its fill of Ewan McGregor on Saturday during an all-evening tribute to the beloved actor that included a screening of his recent film “Beginners,” an hour-long retrospective Q&A and dinner with a few fans who ponied up donations to the nonprofit festival.
McGregor, whom festival artistic director Carl Spence described in his introduction as “slight of build but classically handsome,” wore spiky hair, jeans, a tailored white shirt and black jacket as he greeted an unusually enthusiastic (for Seattle) crush of fans outside the Egyptian Theatre. He signed autographs before the tribute and cheerfully stuck around afterward to have his picture taken with whoever asked until handlers pulled him away.
During the award ceremony, McGregor hoisted the sculptural glass Golden Space Needle trophy, designed by famed Seattle artist Dale Chihuly,...
- 5/23/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
By Christy Karras
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
True to its “audience-centered” philosophy, the Seattle International Film Festival gave an audience its fill of Ewan McGregor on Saturday during an all-evening tribute to the beloved actor that included a screening of his recent film “Beginners,” an hour-long retrospective Q&A and dinner with a few fans who ponied up donations to the nonprofit festival.
McGregor, whom festival artistic director Carl Spence described in his introduction as “slight of build but classically handsome,” wore spiky hair, jeans, a tailored white shirt and black jacket as he greeted an unusually enthusiastic (for Seattle) crush of fans outside the Egyptian Theatre. He signed autographs before the tribute and cheerfully stuck around afterward to have his picture taken with whoever asked until handlers pulled him away.
During the award ceremony, McGregor hoisted the sculptural glass Golden Space Needle trophy, designed by famed Seattle artist Dale Chihuly,...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
True to its “audience-centered” philosophy, the Seattle International Film Festival gave an audience its fill of Ewan McGregor on Saturday during an all-evening tribute to the beloved actor that included a screening of his recent film “Beginners,” an hour-long retrospective Q&A and dinner with a few fans who ponied up donations to the nonprofit festival.
McGregor, whom festival artistic director Carl Spence described in his introduction as “slight of build but classically handsome,” wore spiky hair, jeans, a tailored white shirt and black jacket as he greeted an unusually enthusiastic (for Seattle) crush of fans outside the Egyptian Theatre. He signed autographs before the tribute and cheerfully stuck around afterward to have his picture taken with whoever asked until handlers pulled him away.
During the award ceremony, McGregor hoisted the sculptural glass Golden Space Needle trophy, designed by famed Seattle artist Dale Chihuly,...
- 5/23/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
By Christy Karras
(May 2011)
It’s been a long, cold, blustery spring in Seattle — which means Carl Spence is virtually alone in hoping bad weather sticks around until mid-June.
Spence is the artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, a 25-day smorgasbord of film that opens on May 19 with a screening of Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader.” It’s an audience-centered festival, with the biggest total audience of any U.S. festival. But that audience involvement means many things: Much of Siff’s revenue comes from ticket sales, and sunny days mean smaller audiences.
So far, sales are on par with previous years as the festival prepares to show more than 250 features and about 180 shorts. About half the shorts and a quarter of the features are world, North American or U.S. premieres. “You’ll see some of the best films from the festival circuit and also some films that are new,...
(May 2011)
It’s been a long, cold, blustery spring in Seattle — which means Carl Spence is virtually alone in hoping bad weather sticks around until mid-June.
Spence is the artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, a 25-day smorgasbord of film that opens on May 19 with a screening of Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader.” It’s an audience-centered festival, with the biggest total audience of any U.S. festival. But that audience involvement means many things: Much of Siff’s revenue comes from ticket sales, and sunny days mean smaller audiences.
So far, sales are on par with previous years as the festival prepares to show more than 250 features and about 180 shorts. About half the shorts and a quarter of the features are world, North American or U.S. premieres. “You’ll see some of the best films from the festival circuit and also some films that are new,...
- 5/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
By Christy Karras
(May 2011)
It’s been a long, cold, blustery spring in Seattle — which means Carl Spence is virtually alone in hoping bad weather sticks around until mid-June.
Spence is the artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, a 25-day smorgasbord of film that opens on May 19 with a screening of Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader.” It’s an audience-centered festival, with the biggest total audience of any U.S. festival. But that audience involvement means many things: Much of Siff’s revenue comes from ticket sales, and sunny days mean smaller audiences.
So far, sales are on par with previous years as the festival prepares to show more than 250 features and about 180 shorts. About half the shorts and a quarter of the features are world, North American or U.S. premieres. “You’ll see some of the best films from the festival circuit and also some films that are new,...
(May 2011)
It’s been a long, cold, blustery spring in Seattle — which means Carl Spence is virtually alone in hoping bad weather sticks around until mid-June.
Spence is the artistic director of the Seattle International Film Festival, a 25-day smorgasbord of film that opens on May 19 with a screening of Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader.” It’s an audience-centered festival, with the biggest total audience of any U.S. festival. But that audience involvement means many things: Much of Siff’s revenue comes from ticket sales, and sunny days mean smaller audiences.
So far, sales are on par with previous years as the festival prepares to show more than 250 features and about 180 shorts. About half the shorts and a quarter of the features are world, North American or U.S. premieres. “You’ll see some of the best films from the festival circuit and also some films that are new,...
- 5/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
The 37th Seattle International Film Festival has finalized its galas, tributes and special presentations for its 25-day festival, running May 19 - June 12, among the lengthiest fest programme in the world. Siff will screen films hailing from 74 countries; 257 features and 184 shorts, 96 of which are premieres. The fest will open with UK/Kenya co-production The First Grader (National Geographic Entertainment), directed by Justin Chadwick, and will close with Kevin Macdonald's mesmerizing documentary, Life in a Day (pictured below). The complete list of galas, tributes, premieres, competitions and more is on the jump: Siff artistic director Carl Spence says: "There’s something for everyone as audiences will have a wide range of films and events to choose from including evenings with our tribute guests ...
- 4/28/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Edward Norton with Seattle International Film Festival Artistic Director Carl Spence. Norton received a tribute from the festival, which continues through June 13th. "“I think people who don’t act don’t totally understand the degree to which you kind of are just a conduit for something else that actually already exists out there. It finds its way through you and into this thing, and then you move on. The thing I like ...
- 6/8/2010
- Indiewire
During the first five days of the Berlinale and Efm, I was hardly able to see a film, but I was happily busy the last three days catching up on whatever movies I could get tickets to and had been too busy to see earlier during the main events of the market.
From the well selling Arclight film Red Hill (I’m not a Western fan) to The Owls whose distribution through TheFilmCooperative.org bears watching, to Menemsha’s pickup of Kawasaki Rose the Czech Republic’s version of The Lives of Others, the Brazilian film produced by Hank Levine and directed by Lucy Walker, Waste Land, which deservedly won the Audience Award in the Panorama and has been called the breakout film of the of the Berlinale, Kyoto Story, a surprising and deeply satisfying sweetly bittersweet love story showing the real workers of Japanese society as doc with the...
From the well selling Arclight film Red Hill (I’m not a Western fan) to The Owls whose distribution through TheFilmCooperative.org bears watching, to Menemsha’s pickup of Kawasaki Rose the Czech Republic’s version of The Lives of Others, the Brazilian film produced by Hank Levine and directed by Lucy Walker, Waste Land, which deservedly won the Audience Award in the Panorama and has been called the breakout film of the of the Berlinale, Kyoto Story, a surprising and deeply satisfying sweetly bittersweet love story showing the real workers of Japanese society as doc with the...
- 3/7/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Nora and I drove out to the Palm Springs International Film Festival Saturday, already well under way (it winds up on the 18th). Fest director Darryl Macdonald and lead programmers Helen du Toit and Carl Spence not only play the pre-Oscar awards-tributes-red-carpet game with such films as Precious, An Education and The Last Station, but also assemble a large selection of foreign Oscar submissions (not all are deemed worthy). A Fipresci jury will choose the best film and performances of the 41. Altogether the fest brings in about 1000 assorted folk to the robust—and growing-local fest, with help from distribs as well as various foreign consulates. We registered along with the filmmakers from Ajami, a tough Palestinian/Israeli drama that is Israel’s entry. Saturday after a spartan …...
- 1/10/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
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