One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week: With Sundance in full swing, we’re looking back at some of the best directorial debuts that premiered at the festival.
Ballast (2008)
Success at Sundance is supposed to herald big opportunities and bright futures for directors, not mark the end of careers. But Lance Hammer wasn’t the typical Sundance Best Director winner in 2008: He was in the midst of a successful career as an art director in what he called “the nasty, ugly world of studio films,” working on the likes of Batman Forever, when he wrote, directed, and edited Ballast. Hammer hasn’t made a movie since, and has dropped completely off the public filmmaking radar.
But what a thing he left behind. Ballast is a gorgeously uncompromising, capital-i indie film, a slow, moving examination of ...
Ballast (2008)
Success at Sundance is supposed to herald big opportunities and bright futures for directors, not mark the end of careers. But Lance Hammer wasn’t the typical Sundance Best Director winner in 2008: He was in the midst of a successful career as an art director in what he called “the nasty, ugly world of studio films,” working on the likes of Batman Forever, when he wrote, directed, and edited Ballast. Hammer hasn’t made a movie since, and has dropped completely off the public filmmaking radar.
But what a thing he left behind. Ballast is a gorgeously uncompromising, capital-i indie film, a slow, moving examination of ...
- 1/25/2017
- by Josh Modell
- avclub.com
Tuesday Afternoon Write-through In 2008, Barry Jenkins remembered on one of several trips up to the podium tonight at the 26th Annual Ifp Gotham Awards, held, as usual, at Cipriani Wall Street, he was in this same room as one of the nominees for Best New Director. He lost that year to Ballast‘s Lance Hammer, and, as he went on to note, he hasn’t made a film in the long eight years following. (Neither has Hammer, actually, although I hear that’s changing.) Until Moonlight. His beautiful, amazingly accomplished and much beloved second feature took home four awards tonight, including the […]...
- 11/29/2016
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
If actor-turned-director Brady Corbet’s post-World-War-i saga, The Childhood of a Leader, did little more than send American readers to Jean-Paul Sartre’s lesser known short story of the same name, one would be thanking the cinematic gods for its appearance.
The final story in his Sartre’s 1939 collection, The Wall, “The Childhood of a Leader” chronicles the life of Lucien from his rebellious potty training days as a lovely, long-haired tot, son of a rich industrialist, to his transformation into anti-Semitic murderer. There goes Holden Caulfield but for the grace of God.
When we first meet Lucien, with his lustrous blond curls and attired in a blue angel’s costume, he is mistaken by his mother’s consorts as a girl.
“What’s your name? Jacqueline, Lucienne, Margot?”
The embarrassed boy blushes and sets the record right, but “[h]e was no longer quite sure about not being a little...
The final story in his Sartre’s 1939 collection, The Wall, “The Childhood of a Leader” chronicles the life of Lucien from his rebellious potty training days as a lovely, long-haired tot, son of a rich industrialist, to his transformation into anti-Semitic murderer. There goes Holden Caulfield but for the grace of God.
When we first meet Lucien, with his lustrous blond curls and attired in a blue angel’s costume, he is mistaken by his mother’s consorts as a girl.
“What’s your name? Jacqueline, Lucienne, Margot?”
The embarrassed boy blushes and sets the record right, but “[h]e was no longer quite sure about not being a little...
- 8/14/2016
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Kotchebi
Logline: “Kotchebi” is about a friendship between a mysterious young girl and a bereaved old man. On the surface they have nothing in common apart from inhabiting different sides of a semi-detached house on a very ordinary suburban street.
Elevator Pitch:
“Kotchebi” translates as “wandering swallow” – North Korean slang for the orphans who roam the streets searching for food.
The film follows an unlikely friendship between a mysterious young girl and a bereaved old man. On the surface, they have nothing in common, other than living on opposite sides of the same semi-detached house.
Mi Young is a North Korean refugee who doesn’t speak,...
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Kotchebi
Logline: “Kotchebi” is about a friendship between a mysterious young girl and a bereaved old man. On the surface they have nothing in common apart from inhabiting different sides of a semi-detached house on a very ordinary suburban street.
Elevator Pitch:
“Kotchebi” translates as “wandering swallow” – North Korean slang for the orphans who roam the streets searching for food.
The film follows an unlikely friendship between a mysterious young girl and a bereaved old man. On the surface, they have nothing in common, other than living on opposite sides of the same semi-detached house.
Mi Young is a North Korean refugee who doesn’t speak,...
- 8/4/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
The One You’re With: Haigh’s Superb Examination of Marriage and Things Left Unsaid
With imperceptible grace, 45 Years portrays the warping of a near half century marriage by a matter of degrees measured almost exclusively by acute attention to body language and facial expression. As Andrew Haigh’s third feature, the director proves to be quite astute at depictions of nuanced interactions in relationships. Without so much as a single screaming match, the filmmaker conveys the unique experiences and attitudes of a long term relationship, and provides a cinematic counterpart to something like Edward Albee’s famed disintegration into bitterness, bitchery, and alcoholism with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But at its center is the divine Charlotte Rampling as a woman who peels back the thick layer of superficiality that’s enveloped her relationship with someone she doesn’t know very well at all.
On the eve of their 45th wedding anniversary,...
With imperceptible grace, 45 Years portrays the warping of a near half century marriage by a matter of degrees measured almost exclusively by acute attention to body language and facial expression. As Andrew Haigh’s third feature, the director proves to be quite astute at depictions of nuanced interactions in relationships. Without so much as a single screaming match, the filmmaker conveys the unique experiences and attitudes of a long term relationship, and provides a cinematic counterpart to something like Edward Albee’s famed disintegration into bitterness, bitchery, and alcoholism with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But at its center is the divine Charlotte Rampling as a woman who peels back the thick layer of superficiality that’s enveloped her relationship with someone she doesn’t know very well at all.
On the eve of their 45th wedding anniversary,...
- 12/22/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
No film buff wants to see a promising, or prominent filmmaker pull a disappearing act a la Terrence Malick, (though it seems he isn’t keen to repeat another lapse like the one between Days of Heaven to The Thin Red Line), but whether they’re dealing with unforeseeable professional (endless pre-production woes, writer’s block) or personal issues, sometimes there is a considerable time between projects.
With John Cameron Mitchell, Charlie Kaufman, Rebecca Miller, Patty Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and more recently, Barry Jenkins recently moving out of the so called “inactive” period, we decided to compile a list of the top ten American filmmakers who, for the most part, we’ve lost sight of and would like to see get back in the director’s chair again. Most of the filmmakers listed below have gone well over half a decade without a substantial movement in this category. Here is...
With John Cameron Mitchell, Charlie Kaufman, Rebecca Miller, Patty Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and more recently, Barry Jenkins recently moving out of the so called “inactive” period, we decided to compile a list of the top ten American filmmakers who, for the most part, we’ve lost sight of and would like to see get back in the director’s chair again. Most of the filmmakers listed below have gone well over half a decade without a substantial movement in this category. Here is...
- 10/26/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The 2008/2009 festival circuit is particularly ingrained in my mind because of two American movies which, though they came out a year apart and sit on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, have been marked in my mid as the high point in American Cinema of the last 10 years. Lance Hammer's Ballast, a beautiful minimalist realist drama while Asiel Norton's Redland (review) is an avant-garde, dreamlike experience. Both movies deal with survival but they approach the subject in very disparate ways.
Considering how challenging Redland was to watch, it was a welcome surprise to discover that the director was working on a follow-up. It's been over two years since [Continued ...]...
Considering how challenging Redland was to watch, it was a welcome surprise to discover that the director was working on a follow-up. It's been over two years since [Continued ...]...
- 8/17/2015
- QuietEarth.us
It is in the nature of the non-fiction film that the narrative mutates, takes a different shape, form and perspective. Wearing their colors on their parka sleeves and defending their filmmakers, naturally a progressive fest such as Sundance courts controversy. Photographed by the excellent Bradford Young (Restless City, Pariah, Middle of Nowhere, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Most Violent Year and now Selma) and Lol Crawley (Ballast, Better Things, Four Lions) at this time Jamey Phillips (a Filmmaker Mag Top 25 New Faces of 2014 personality) finds herself at a crossroads or a new beginning. Will Phillips take a different path for her long into the works doc?
Gist: This ventures back to Bill Cosby’s years in the civil rights movement, footage that connects Cosby’s more recent activism with his childhood and early work.
Production Co./Producers: Steve Golin
Prediction: Documentary Premieres.
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic...
Gist: This ventures back to Bill Cosby’s years in the civil rights movement, footage that connects Cosby’s more recent activism with his childhood and early work.
Production Co./Producers: Steve Golin
Prediction: Documentary Premieres.
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic...
- 11/14/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound unveiled today the independent directors and composers selected for Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Lab – Documentary. Set for September 15-23 at Skywalker Ranch in California’s Marin County, it’s the second of two music and sound design labs for 2014. Sundance Institute will host 15 residential labs this year, collectively representing 20 weeks of residency support and mentorship. Below are the artists and projects selected for the music and sound design docu lab:
Related:
Sundance Institute Creates 2014 Episodic Story Lab For TV & Online Writers
Sundance Institute Selects 12 Projects For Screenwriters Lab
Filmmakers
Marc Silver (director) / 3 1/2 Minutes: 3 1⁄2 Minutes dissects the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the aftermath of this tragedy and contradictions within the American criminal justice system.
Mike Day (director) / The Island and the Whales: The pilot whale hunters of the Nordic Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but...
Related:
Sundance Institute Creates 2014 Episodic Story Lab For TV & Online Writers
Sundance Institute Selects 12 Projects For Screenwriters Lab
Filmmakers
Marc Silver (director) / 3 1/2 Minutes: 3 1⁄2 Minutes dissects the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the aftermath of this tragedy and contradictions within the American criminal justice system.
Mike Day (director) / The Island and the Whales: The pilot whale hunters of the Nordic Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but...
- 8/21/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
Take a look at the end credits of any given Sundance preemed title, and you’ll more than likely find the name of Michelle Satter in the “special thanks” portion. Just how all encompassing is the Sundance Institute support in helping spread filmmaker’s wings? With a whopping fifteen yearly labs, it goes without saying, that there are many folks that got a leg up thanks to Satter and co.
Fittingly and not surprisingly, the month of September is when the festival portion (programming) gets into high gear, and it’s also when the 2014 Sundance Institute Music & Sound Design Labs (Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound) help out with the docu branch. Now in its second year, lucky folks Marc Silver, Mike Day, Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol, Bill Ross and Turner Ross (see pic of duo above) are being paired with some audibly cool folk.
Here is the press release...
Fittingly and not surprisingly, the month of September is when the festival portion (programming) gets into high gear, and it’s also when the 2014 Sundance Institute Music & Sound Design Labs (Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound) help out with the docu branch. Now in its second year, lucky folks Marc Silver, Mike Day, Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol, Bill Ross and Turner Ross (see pic of duo above) are being paired with some audibly cool folk.
Here is the press release...
- 8/20/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Half Nelson: Chadwick’s Biopic Stretched Thin
An attempt to cover fifty years in the life of South African President Nelson Mandela in the time span of two and a half hours seems as exhausting to sit through as it was daunting to piece together, even if it is based on Mandela’s own autobiography. To their credit, Justin Chadwick and screenwriter William Nicholson have made a well-paced film, albeit one that gives us a rudimentary glance at Mandela’s development, doggedly comprehensive without taking any opportunities for depth or subtlety. Its rather conservative depiction of apartheid further places the film into a textbook category and seems an appropriate and elementary learning tool for those ignorant of the subject matter. Despite adhering to the trappings of generalization as seen in many genuinely produced biopics that would have been better served by sticking to one particular moment or period, Chadwick...
An attempt to cover fifty years in the life of South African President Nelson Mandela in the time span of two and a half hours seems as exhausting to sit through as it was daunting to piece together, even if it is based on Mandela’s own autobiography. To their credit, Justin Chadwick and screenwriter William Nicholson have made a well-paced film, albeit one that gives us a rudimentary glance at Mandela’s development, doggedly comprehensive without taking any opportunities for depth or subtlety. Its rather conservative depiction of apartheid further places the film into a textbook category and seems an appropriate and elementary learning tool for those ignorant of the subject matter. Despite adhering to the trappings of generalization as seen in many genuinely produced biopics that would have been better served by sticking to one particular moment or period, Chadwick...
- 11/28/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Madeinusa, her debut film, was a 2006 Sundance selected pic, while her sophomore drama The Milk of Sorrow was a winner in Berlin, we think that Claudia Llosa’s third feature might follow a flight path that includes both fests. The Peruvian filmmaker commenced lensing on her English language debut (formerly titled Cry/Fly) earlier this year (April), with a mega cast, so we’re thinking that gave her enough post-production time to prep the wintery set Aloft for the wintery Park City setting.
Gist: Set in Minnesota and northern Canada over two time periods, following a mother (Jennifer Connelly) and her son (Cillian Murphy), we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will grow into being a renowned artist and healer, and he into his own as a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist...
Gist: Set in Minnesota and northern Canada over two time periods, following a mother (Jennifer Connelly) and her son (Cillian Murphy), we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will grow into being a renowned artist and healer, and he into his own as a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist...
- 11/18/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. Tim Sutton (Pavilion), provided us with his all time top ten film list (dated: March 2013).
Ballast – Lance Hammer (2008)
“A film of strung-together moments that make up a whole becomes not only mesmerizing, but truly sublime. I saw Ballast and decided not to give up on making a feature. The fact that people in the industry refer to this film as a cautionary tale rather than as a masterpiece is sad to me.”
Beau Travail – Claire Denis (1999)
“Simply, Clair Denis and Agnes Godard are one of the sweetest director/cinematographer teams in cinema, and this is their masterpiece – effortless in its rhythm and sun-baked imagery, with an ending that makes you think for days.
Ballast – Lance Hammer (2008)
“A film of strung-together moments that make up a whole becomes not only mesmerizing, but truly sublime. I saw Ballast and decided not to give up on making a feature. The fact that people in the industry refer to this film as a cautionary tale rather than as a masterpiece is sad to me.”
Beau Travail – Claire Denis (1999)
“Simply, Clair Denis and Agnes Godard are one of the sweetest director/cinematographer teams in cinema, and this is their masterpiece – effortless in its rhythm and sun-baked imagery, with an ending that makes you think for days.
- 3/10/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Despite naturalistic performances by leads Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal ("Incendies," "Coriolanus") and impressive cinematography by Lol Crawley ("Ballast," "Four Lions"), Braden King's "Here" is a maundering relationship movie with few stakes and even less to say.
However, it begins convincingly enough. The film opens with an experimental sequence (the first of a handful spread throughout) pontificating on the lives of dreamers and thinkers, how their trains of thought sometimes intersect, and where they differ. Peter Coyote narrates these passages in a professorial way, and while all are potentially interesting, sooner than later they may flip the Zone-Out Switch that many university instructors have the uncanny ability to do. Still, opening with such a pondering nature suggests that "Here" might have more under the hood than a simplistic love story. We're along for the ride.
Our first introduction to Foster's Will, a San Diego-based cartographer on a job in Armenia,...
However, it begins convincingly enough. The film opens with an experimental sequence (the first of a handful spread throughout) pontificating on the lives of dreamers and thinkers, how their trains of thought sometimes intersect, and where they differ. Peter Coyote narrates these passages in a professorial way, and while all are potentially interesting, sooner than later they may flip the Zone-Out Switch that many university instructors have the uncanny ability to do. Still, opening with such a pondering nature suggests that "Here" might have more under the hood than a simplistic love story. We're along for the ride.
Our first introduction to Foster's Will, a San Diego-based cartographer on a job in Armenia,...
- 4/10/2012
- by Christopher Bell
- The Playlist
Back in 2008, Alaskan director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean was awarded Best Short at the Sundance Film Festival for his period film Sikumi, about a murder and its aftermath in an Inuit community. MacLean, one of Filmmaker’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” that year, had set the buzzed-about tale in his frozen Arctic hometown of Barrow, the historical seat of the Iñupiaq people, casting locals and shooting out on the ice in subzero temperatures. (Sin Nombre writer-director Cary Fukunaga lensed the film.) Last year at Sundance, MacLean unveiled On the Ice, a feature-length movie loosely based on the short film; while the basic set-up remained the same, the story had a contemporary setting where hoodie-wearing Inupiat youth striving to emulate their hip-hop icons gambol about town on snowmobiles instead of dog sleds. MacLean shifted gears to jittery suspense as well in order to explore the moral complexities of guilt and responsibility within a traditional culture.
- 2/15/2012
- by Damon Smith
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
#80. Hyde Park on Hudson Director: Roger MichellWriter: Richard NelsonProducers: David Aukin and Kevin Loader (Wuthering Heights)Distributor: Focus Features The Gist: Based on Richard Nelson's own radio play, in June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to Fdr for support...(more) Cast: Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Williams, Olivia Colman and Samuel West List Worthy Reasons...: While Roger Michell has a spotty record (The Mother and the first 8 minutes of Enduring Love are his best in the past decade) we are stoked about seeing Bill Murray toplining as Fdr, it should be...
- 1/5/2012
- IONCINEMA.com
Ultra Culture has a great post on the British ratings board featuring 10 amusing nuggets from their annual report. Conclusion: at least they're better than America's sex-hating violence-loving MPAA.
Boy Culture is British actor Luke Evans (left) going back in the closet, on the eve of his double-feature blockbuster breakout (The Immortals, Three Musketeers)? Strange story.
Cleveland is very excited to have The Avengers film and wants Ohio to become a big movie-making draw. Between Ohio and Michigan's efforts, the Midwest is really trying to up the "shoot your film here" game.
Google interviews author George Rr Martin on his Dance of Dragons tour. It's an hour long but you Game of Thrones junkies will probably want to give it a listen.
Playbill The King's Speech is headed to Broadway in 2012 just as we feared. Ha ha. Not really on the fear part. It's already practically a stage play so it should be fine.
Boy Culture is British actor Luke Evans (left) going back in the closet, on the eve of his double-feature blockbuster breakout (The Immortals, Three Musketeers)? Strange story.
Cleveland is very excited to have The Avengers film and wants Ohio to become a big movie-making draw. Between Ohio and Michigan's efforts, the Midwest is really trying to up the "shoot your film here" game.
Google interviews author George Rr Martin on his Dance of Dragons tour. It's an hour long but you Game of Thrones junkies will probably want to give it a listen.
Playbill The King's Speech is headed to Broadway in 2012 just as we feared. Ha ha. Not really on the fear part. It's already practically a stage play so it should be fine.
- 8/8/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The Sundance Film Festival held a party for its alumni filmmakers at the Figueroa Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. Locals blended with others in town for the Los Angeles Film Festival, which moved to the downtown area last year. From left, "Right at Your Door" director Chris Gorak (Sundance '06), Sundance director of programming Trevor Groth, "We Live in Public" director Ondi Timoner (Sundance '09), and "Ballast" director Lance Hammer (Sundance '08).
- 6/20/2011
- Indiewire
It’s another jam-packed week of DVD and Blu-ray releases, here’s the rundown of what’s available to buy from today, April 25th 2011.
Street Wars (DVD/Blu-ray)
Steven Seagal (Under Siege, Machete) stars as Elijah Kane, the head of a crack undercover police unit ridding the Seattle streets of its deadly criminals. Kane and his team are in a race against the clock to bring to justice the coldblooded gang who is behind the lethal drug that is raising the body count of young people in city. To make matters worse, Kane’s unit is ordered to protect a filmmaker who’s set on exposing the city’s most dangerous city slums at any cost… Even if it means risking the lives of Kane’s hard-knock team. Review.
Woochi: The Demon Slayer (DVD/Blu-ray)
When a dark lord obtains the secret to unimaginable power, an elite army of shape-shifting...
Street Wars (DVD/Blu-ray)
Steven Seagal (Under Siege, Machete) stars as Elijah Kane, the head of a crack undercover police unit ridding the Seattle streets of its deadly criminals. Kane and his team are in a race against the clock to bring to justice the coldblooded gang who is behind the lethal drug that is raising the body count of young people in city. To make matters worse, Kane’s unit is ordered to protect a filmmaker who’s set on exposing the city’s most dangerous city slums at any cost… Even if it means risking the lives of Kane’s hard-knock team. Review.
Woochi: The Demon Slayer (DVD/Blu-ray)
When a dark lord obtains the secret to unimaginable power, an elite army of shape-shifting...
- 4/25/2011
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the three years it has taken for Lance Hammer’s Sundance darling Ballast to hit our screens is any indication of its quality. This airy, quiet meditation on the struggle of three people to transcend abject poverty and unexpected loss will likely play as too dialled-down for many tastes, but persevering with it will reveal a rare, peculiar mystical quality, as well as an unexpectedly rather involving family drama.
Not really at all a typical tale of loss, this is a grim, moody look at the discontent mustered by a man, Lawrence (Michael J. Smith Jr.), trying to cope with the recent suicide of his identical twin, Darius. Following a botched suicide attempt of his own, he reconnects with Darius’ estranged partner, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), and her son, Lawrence’s nephew, James (JimMyron Ross), as the three of them...
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the three years it has taken for Lance Hammer’s Sundance darling Ballast to hit our screens is any indication of its quality. This airy, quiet meditation on the struggle of three people to transcend abject poverty and unexpected loss will likely play as too dialled-down for many tastes, but persevering with it will reveal a rare, peculiar mystical quality, as well as an unexpectedly rather involving family drama.
Not really at all a typical tale of loss, this is a grim, moody look at the discontent mustered by a man, Lawrence (Michael J. Smith Jr.), trying to cope with the recent suicide of his identical twin, Darius. Following a botched suicide attempt of his own, he reconnects with Darius’ estranged partner, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), and her son, Lawrence’s nephew, James (JimMyron Ross), as the three of them...
- 3/20/2011
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
The promising debut of Lance Hammer, a writer-director from California, Ballast centres on a group of black people in a desolate corner of the flat, depressed Mississippi delta. One of two twins, co-owners of a self-service store, has taken his life just before the film begins, while the other has made a botched attempt at suicide. The deceased's troubled 12-year-old son has been forbidden to see his father, he uses his uncle's gun to rob him and subsequently gets involved with local drug dealers, much to the distress of his mother. The opening half hour is electrifying, the ending interestingly open-ended, and the memorably low-key images are the work of the British cinematographer Lol Crawley, whose first feature this is. This film was completed in 2008 and Crawley then did a good job on a little-seen British movie, Duane Hopkins's miserabilist rural drama Better Things.
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk...
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk...
- 3/20/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Submarine (15)
(Richard Ayoade, 2010, UK/Us) Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor. 97 mins
Ayoade evidently did his homework before stepping behind the camera, swotting up on everything from the French New Wave to The Graduate to Wes Anderson, but the result is a fresh and distinctly British-flavoured coming-of-ager, full of provincial frustrations and recognisable types. The story takes few risks – an intelligent Welsh schoolkid's quest for self-definition and sexual adventure – but Submarine works hard to earn our affections with a mix of sincerity, energy and impeccable comic timing.
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2010, UK/Us) Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones. 98 mins
The ever-scrappier Allen observes life's frivolities with a bemused but cheerless eye in a London comedy whose great cast compensates for the fatalistic outlook.
Route Irish (15)
(Ken Loach, 2010, UK/Fra/Ita/Bel/Spa) Mark Womack, Andrea Lowe, John Bishop. 109 mins
Loach considers the physical...
(Richard Ayoade, 2010, UK/Us) Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor. 97 mins
Ayoade evidently did his homework before stepping behind the camera, swotting up on everything from the French New Wave to The Graduate to Wes Anderson, but the result is a fresh and distinctly British-flavoured coming-of-ager, full of provincial frustrations and recognisable types. The story takes few risks – an intelligent Welsh schoolkid's quest for self-definition and sexual adventure – but Submarine works hard to earn our affections with a mix of sincerity, energy and impeccable comic timing.
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2010, UK/Us) Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones. 98 mins
The ever-scrappier Allen observes life's frivolities with a bemused but cheerless eye in a London comedy whose great cast compensates for the fatalistic outlook.
Route Irish (15)
(Ken Loach, 2010, UK/Fra/Ita/Bel/Spa) Mark Womack, Andrea Lowe, John Bishop. 109 mins
Loach considers the physical...
- 3/19/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Ballast ***
Stars: Michael J. Smith, Tarra Riggs, JimMyron Ross | Written and Directed by Lance Hammer
Set in the bleak expanse of a Mississippi delta township, Ballast follows three individuals thrown together following the death of a family member.
Single mother Marlee (Tarra Riggs) is struggling to keep her head above water, working long hours at a dead-end job in order to keep her 12-year-old son James (JimMyron Ross) in school. James has other ideas and, largely left to his own devices, he turns to delinquency, eventually falling in with the wrong crowd who know an easy target when they see one. When Marlee’s ex-husband’s kill himself, they’re reunited with his twin-brother Lawrence (Michael J. Smith), who spends most of his time in nearly mute depression, but conflict arises when old wounds are reopened and unresolved issues rise to the surface.
Director Lance Hammer, in his debut, has...
Stars: Michael J. Smith, Tarra Riggs, JimMyron Ross | Written and Directed by Lance Hammer
Set in the bleak expanse of a Mississippi delta township, Ballast follows three individuals thrown together following the death of a family member.
Single mother Marlee (Tarra Riggs) is struggling to keep her head above water, working long hours at a dead-end job in order to keep her 12-year-old son James (JimMyron Ross) in school. James has other ideas and, largely left to his own devices, he turns to delinquency, eventually falling in with the wrong crowd who know an easy target when they see one. When Marlee’s ex-husband’s kill himself, they’re reunited with his twin-brother Lawrence (Michael J. Smith), who spends most of his time in nearly mute depression, but conflict arises when old wounds are reopened and unresolved issues rise to the surface.
Director Lance Hammer, in his debut, has...
- 3/17/2011
- by Jez Sands
- Nerdly
Last year saw a big push for family crime dramas with the release of Animal Kingdom (review) and Down Terrace and though I don’t expect we’ll see another year with two films at that particular level of excellence, I expect that The Lord’s Ride (La Bm du seigneur) may be a good contender for the part.
Written and directed by Jean-Charles Hue, this little French title focuses on Yeniche, a traveller community where respect for the elders and religious fervour go together with law breaking. Fred is both feared and respected by his people until one day, when stealing a car, he is visited by an angel. The event changes his life completely but going straight in a community that respects lawbreaking is tougher than he could have imagined and could mean his death.
I was immediately in love with this trailer which feels so much like a documentary.
Written and directed by Jean-Charles Hue, this little French title focuses on Yeniche, a traveller community where respect for the elders and religious fervour go together with law breaking. Fred is both feared and respected by his people until one day, when stealing a car, he is visited by an angel. The event changes his life completely but going straight in a community that respects lawbreaking is tougher than he could have imagined and could mean his death.
I was immediately in love with this trailer which feels so much like a documentary.
- 1/25/2011
- QuietEarth.us
Before we unveil our most anticipated film of 2011, I figure we might want to emphasize some of the names that most frequently populated our Top 100 Most Anticipated Films list. Here is our version of 10 movers and shakers for 2011. Brady Corbet - Actor An actor who works with both the European filmmaker elite and American Independent helmers, Brady Corbet sees his work in Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene showcased in Sundance, he'll most likely have a double billing at Cannes for Antonio Campos' Simon Killer and Lars Von Trier's Melancholia. You should really look out for him in a mostly non-verbal part in Alistair Banks Griffin's excellent directorial debut Two Gates of Sleep -- which preemed in Cannes and should receive distribution sometime this year. He'll next appear in Regular Boy (the film adaptation of Coin Locker Babies) to be directed by commercials director Michele Civetta and also stars his wife,...
- 1/20/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
With no clear favorite in the category, I would have guessed that the screenwriting-turned helmers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ballsy comedy might have a slight advantage, but the film's troubled path to distribution certainly didn't help. Instead director Kevin Asch (Holy Rollers) beats out a pair of fellow filmmakers who premiered their film at Sundance, and Lena Dunham (SXSW). Asch was influenced by my favorite cinema when he filmed Holy Rollers. He mentions in his interview with us, "I always planned the style to be a mix of cinema verite and Italian neo-realism. Film aesthetics are incredibly important to me and something I take very seriously starting in development. I made a comprehensive look book early on, that has served as the creative blueprint for about two years leading up to pre-production." Winner: Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers (First Independent Pictures) Other Noms: John Wells for The Company Men...
- 11/30/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
#34. On the Ice - Andrew Okpeaha MacLean If Fargo symbolically made the act of murder cold in nature, then imagine if the setting was moved northwards to frigid Alaska. Since his Special Jury Prize win for his 2008 Sundance submitted short Sikumi, (an extension of his feature) Alaskan filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean attended both the Directors and Screenwriters Labs last year, and after completing filming earlier this year, looks poised to return to the fest this year with On the Ice. Lensed by the excellent Lol Crawley (Ballast, Better Things, Four Lions), MacLean's feature film debut is set in the remote arctic village of Barrow, Alaska, a young Iñiut man tries to help his best friend get away with a murder. A dramatic competition appears likely, perhaps the dramatic thriller might move onto a Berlin Film Festival birth if this pans out to be high quality. * Producers: Lynette Howell (Blue Valentine...
- 11/5/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
This must have slipped past us somehow; Since our initial reports that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer had joined the cast, in starring roles, I haven’t read much else regarding additional casting for Dreamworks’ adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help; so seeing the below names listed on the film’s IMDBPro page, was a bit of a surprise.
Davis, as we already know, will play the lead, Aibileen, in the film adaptation of the book, which explores the complicated relationships between the white women of the South in the 1960s, and the black maids and housekeepers who took care of their children and homes.
According to IMDBPro, joining Viola Davis & Octavia Spencer will be Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson as Constantine, Aunjanue Ellis as Yule May, stage star La Chanze (Tony winner for The Color Purple) as Rachel, and Tarra Riggs (Treme, Ballast) as Gretchen.
These character names won...
Davis, as we already know, will play the lead, Aibileen, in the film adaptation of the book, which explores the complicated relationships between the white women of the South in the 1960s, and the black maids and housekeepers who took care of their children and homes.
According to IMDBPro, joining Viola Davis & Octavia Spencer will be Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson as Constantine, Aunjanue Ellis as Yule May, stage star La Chanze (Tony winner for The Color Purple) as Rachel, and Tarra Riggs (Treme, Ballast) as Gretchen.
These character names won...
- 8/24/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
One independent film I'm especially looking forward to in 2010 is Braden King's Here, shot in Armenia by Ballast's Lol Crawley and starring Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal. Braden's film is ambitiously conceived, a story of a romance between a cartographer sent to map the Eastern European country and a local art photographer that will blend King's striking images and moody drama with interstitial material by a number of great experimental filmmakers. Braden has launched a blog about the making of his film. Here's an excerpt: It was an adventure. It was magnificent. It was terrible. It was hard. We were the first American production ever to shoot in Armenia. There is almost zero domestic film infrastructure. Few outside the capital speak...
- 1/19/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A stray Chabrol, the next Juno and more Toni Servillo brilliance are among this year's hidden gems on the festival circuit. Hunt them down now before they're buried for ever
Home festivaling is one of the few perks of losing mobility through a back injury. What better way to cover 300+ screen events across the UK for Empire Online's Festivals & Seasons page than letting them come to you? Much festival fare falls squarely into the three-star category. But, every now and then, a disc arrives in the post containing a gem that leaves you wondering how the distributors missed it. So here's a personal selection of the festival favourites that have either failed to secure a UK release in 2009 or are not currently on the schedule for next year.
10) Let's Dance (dir. Noémie Lvovsky, France)
Festivals are invariably stuffed with quirky ensemble pieces, with Laís Bodanzky's superbly choreographed The Ballroom...
Home festivaling is one of the few perks of losing mobility through a back injury. What better way to cover 300+ screen events across the UK for Empire Online's Festivals & Seasons page than letting them come to you? Much festival fare falls squarely into the three-star category. But, every now and then, a disc arrives in the post containing a gem that leaves you wondering how the distributors missed it. So here's a personal selection of the festival favourites that have either failed to secure a UK release in 2009 or are not currently on the schedule for next year.
10) Let's Dance (dir. Noémie Lvovsky, France)
Festivals are invariably stuffed with quirky ensemble pieces, with Laís Bodanzky's superbly choreographed The Ballroom...
- 12/21/2009
- by David Parkinson
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008, Lance Hammer’s “Ballast” comes to DVD this week, courtesy of Kino. “Superficially, Ballast is a distinctly American work, but Hammer infuses it with a European sensibility that separates it from the rest of the pack,” writes Michael Tully at Hammer to Nail in his survey of the week’s DVD releases. Watch the DVD trailer for “Ballast” on YouTube. Another of the finest …...
- 11/11/2009
- Indiewire
There's little point in attempting to figure why Lance Hammer's "Ballast," the best American film of 2008, was whisked in and out of so few theaters so quickly, in contrast even to minimalist imports and special-interest video docs in the same span, and despite universal critical hosannas. Good films get tossed by the wayside all the time, particularly in the contemporary state of distribution, but the good news is that movies never truly disappear anymore, they just tumble into the digital slipstream and become universally available.
Hammer's uneasy, seething, oblique sojourn to the wintry Mississippi midlands is surely the best American "art film" about African-American life since Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust," except it might also be the only such film in 25 years. But "Ballast" is also a piece of work that stands outside social context -- it's as specific as a scar and as approachable as a blues growl.
Hammer's uneasy, seething, oblique sojourn to the wintry Mississippi midlands is surely the best American "art film" about African-American life since Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust," except it might also be the only such film in 25 years. But "Ballast" is also a piece of work that stands outside social context -- it's as specific as a scar and as approachable as a blues growl.
- 11/10/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Clarksdale, Miss. – Fans of the playwright Tennessee Williams will be shouting for Stella this weekend in Clarksdale, Miss.Williams drew some of his most powerful images from his boyhood hometown in the Mississippi Delta, where an annual festival now celebrates the city's role in Williams' award-winning stories.The name Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" belonged to a friend of Williams' mother in Clarksdale. Brick, the alcoholic athlete played by Paul Newman in the 1958 film, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," was the name of a local boy who bullied Williams while he was student at Oakhurst Elementary.The Tennessee Williams Festival, produced by Coahoma Community College, begins Friday and features a Stella shouting contest, acting competitions, porch plays and panel discussions about Williams and his life in Mississippi. A BBC documentary of last year's festival will be aired. Producer Carmel Lonergan said it shows links between Williams' upbringing and...
- 10/15/2009
- backstage.com
Kelly Reichardt's "Wendy & Lucy" may be -- in competition only with Lance Hammer's "Ballast" -- the best film of 2008, and both movies have been so underseen by the public that they could be said to have not been released at all. (Or, at least, not publicized at all.) Critics saw them, though, and none that I know of have walked away unamazed by the simple but torrential forces of intimate storytelling told with a correctly situated camera and a respect for real people. "Ballast" is the more visually stealthy of the two, but Reichardt's film is almost a structuralist triumph: how to make the most emotionally wrenching indie of the new era with as little narrative as possible. Based, like Reichardt's "Old Joy," on a short story by Jon Raymond, "Wendy" is as simple as a real catastrophe: a young homeless woman loses her dog. And the film's...
- 5/5/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Last year's award-winning success of Azazel Jacob's Momma's Man at the IndieLisboa Film Festival solidified Lisbon's status as a rewarding new festival avenue for emerging American independent film. This year they seem to be building upon that relationship, with a program that reads like a who's who of current U.S. indies, including Lance Hammer's Ballast, Barry Jenkin's Medicine For Melancholy, Sean Baker's Prince of Broadway, Josh Safdie's The Pleasure of Being Robbed, and Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy. It's surprising to find so many strong American indies in a European festival; it'd even be surprising to find so many in an American one (as a quick comparison, the San Francisco Film Festival showed only two of the five works above,...
- 5/2/2009
- by Jason Sanders
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Fox Searchlight's "The Wrestler" was named best feature at the 2009 Film Independent's Spirit Awards. It also scored trophies for actor Mickey Rourke and cinematograper Maryse Alberti.
"The thing I love about the Spirit Awards is every film here is a passion piece; we all bled to get to this room," director-producer Darren Aronofksy said as he accepted the award with fellow producer Scott Franklin at the free-wheeling ceremony held Saturday in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
"I realized while doing special effects on a space movie that I really loved working with actors more than anything else," Aronofsky said about his decision to make a movie about a washed-up wrestler trying to reclaim his life.
In the weekend's first showdown between Rourke and "Milk's" Sean Penn, it was Rourke who triumphed as best male lead.
In a raucous acceptance speech, in which he freely lobbed...
"The thing I love about the Spirit Awards is every film here is a passion piece; we all bled to get to this room," director-producer Darren Aronofksy said as he accepted the award with fellow producer Scott Franklin at the free-wheeling ceremony held Saturday in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
"I realized while doing special effects on a space movie that I really loved working with actors more than anything else," Aronofsky said about his decision to make a movie about a washed-up wrestler trying to reclaim his life.
In the weekend's first showdown between Rourke and "Milk's" Sean Penn, it was Rourke who triumphed as best male lead.
In a raucous acceptance speech, in which he freely lobbed...
- 2/21/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Scott Macaulay interviewed Frozen River writer-director Courtney Hunt for our Summer '08 issue. The film's lead, Melissa Leo, was also interviewed in a sidebar to the piece by Jason Guerrasio. Frozen River is nominated for Best Actress (Melissa Leo) and Best Screenplay (Courtney Hunt). At Sundance this past year, two films in the Dramatic Competition especially stood out: Lance Hammer’s Ballast and Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River. It’s easy to mention the films in the same breath, because both are examples of regional American independent cinema attuned to the economic realities of life in...
- 2/18/2009
- by Jason Guerrasio
- Filmmaker Magazine_Web Exclusives
Mary Sweeney, a longtime collaborator of David Lynch, will serve as the moderator for Film Independent's ninth annual Directors Close-Up: Conversations on the Art of Filmmaking, formerly known as the Director Series, which will be held Feb. 4-March 11 at The Landmark Theatre in West Los Angeles.
"The Directors Close-Up series is a rare opportunity for both filmmakers and film lovers to learn about filmmaking first-hand from some of our most prominent independent directors and their collaborators," Dawn Hudson, executive director of Film Independent.
Series panelists will include Elliot Davis (cinematographer, "Twilight"), Rodrigo Garcia ("In Treatment"), Lance Hammer ("Ballast"), Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight"), Courtney Hunt ("Frozen River"), Jonathan Levine ("The Wackness"), Nancy Richardson (editor, "Twilight") and Howard Rodman (screenwriter, "Savage Grace").
This year's panels will cover the following topics:
Feb. 4: Music and Sound Design; Feb. 11: The Director's Vision and the Creative Team; Feb. 18: The Independent Spirit: A Director's Roundtable; Feb.
"The Directors Close-Up series is a rare opportunity for both filmmakers and film lovers to learn about filmmaking first-hand from some of our most prominent independent directors and their collaborators," Dawn Hudson, executive director of Film Independent.
Series panelists will include Elliot Davis (cinematographer, "Twilight"), Rodrigo Garcia ("In Treatment"), Lance Hammer ("Ballast"), Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight"), Courtney Hunt ("Frozen River"), Jonathan Levine ("The Wackness"), Nancy Richardson (editor, "Twilight") and Howard Rodman (screenwriter, "Savage Grace").
This year's panels will cover the following topics:
Feb. 4: Music and Sound Design; Feb. 11: The Director's Vision and the Creative Team; Feb. 18: The Independent Spirit: A Director's Roundtable; Feb.
- 1/26/2009
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As Gloucester noted in King Lear, "We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves." Accordingly, the best of the films I've viewed in 2008 often dealt with the vilest aspects of humanity and how a few brave souls strived to comprehend and possibly survive these man-made obstacles to a happy existence.
1. Ballast
Lance Hammer's feature debut is a brilliant trek into the Mississippi Delta, where three impoverished souls -- both financially and spiritually -- are able to rebuild their lives when reluctantly thrown together by a suicide.
read more...
1. Ballast
Lance Hammer's feature debut is a brilliant trek into the Mississippi Delta, where three impoverished souls -- both financially and spiritually -- are able to rebuild their lives when reluctantly thrown together by a suicide.
read more...
- 1/4/2009
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
- #5. Two films that made their mark on indieland in 08’are Ballast and Frozen River. I didn’t care much for the later, but on the short list of impressive directorial debuts this year, Lance Hammer’s drama reminded me how a narrative and the secrets that it holds can be dispelled like the effects of one of those cough drops. What I enjoyed most about the slow-burning pic is how the past and the future shared some common ground in the progression of the storyline. Kudos go to the believable cast, the choice in location, the hand-held aesthetics and a bleak blue steel coloring. ...
- 1/2/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
Okay, so here we are. This article will basically amount to my capstone piece for the end of 2008 as I will now hand out what amounts to the first ever RopeofSilicon Awards. My hope for future RopeofSilicon Awards is that I can figure out some kind of nominating and voting system so you, the users, can award each of these categories by nominating films throughout the year, running mini For Your Consideration campaigns in the comment section and so forth. Unfortunately, such an endeavor is outside of my capacity at the moment so you will have to deal with my opinion on each category for now, but as always I want to hear your opinion on who you would award in the comments below. After all, my opinion is just the start of things in order to get you thinking and talking, it certainly isn't the end-all/be-all of opinions.
- 12/30/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Top 10 Movies of 2008 Trying to figure out my personal list of favorite, top ten, exceptional, "best" movies of 2008 was not an easy task. 2008 was an odd year for film. So many have gone on record saying it was a down year, but I don't entirely agree with that. While 2008 didn't have very many "great" films it had A Lot of good films. Of course, this is where making a top ten list gets difficult. So often you have one clear cut favorite and anywhere from 10-15 movies behind it that you simply need to figure out where they fall in the grand scheme of things. This year, my top five films are almost interchangeable and the bottom five and my Honorable Mentions could all compete for the final five spots, this just so happens to be where they all fell when I typed this list up. This year I saw...
- 12/29/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
JimMyron Ross as James and Micheal J. Smith Sr. as Lawrence in Ballast
Photo: Alluvial Film Company Ballast is a film without a flaw and this is in large part due to the fact debut feature writer/director Lance Hammer doesn't allow for one. Hammer, serving as his own editor, has cut together one of the leanest films I have ever seen and he leaves very little fat as I can't imagine a single moment of screen time is wasted. This is a film without a score and if something is seen on screen it exists either to move the story along or evoke some level of emotion or understanding to the viewer. This may seem like an obvious decision on the part of the director, but you tell me the last time you saw a movie with as tight as this without any fluff to be mentioned. Set in a Mississippi Delta township,...
Photo: Alluvial Film Company Ballast is a film without a flaw and this is in large part due to the fact debut feature writer/director Lance Hammer doesn't allow for one. Hammer, serving as his own editor, has cut together one of the leanest films I have ever seen and he leaves very little fat as I can't imagine a single moment of screen time is wasted. This is a film without a score and if something is seen on screen it exists either to move the story along or evoke some level of emotion or understanding to the viewer. This may seem like an obvious decision on the part of the director, but you tell me the last time you saw a movie with as tight as this without any fluff to be mentioned. Set in a Mississippi Delta township,...
- 12/21/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Well, last time it was St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco and Southeastern Critics weighing in and today I have four more critic award lists to preview for you as critics from Houston, Toronto, Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth have all released their winners and for the most part it's a Slumdog Millionaire day with it taking two of the four Best Picture slots while Benjamin Button scores one and the folks in Toronto toss up a surprise win for Mongrel's Wendy and Lucy. Sean Penn (Milk) continues to clean up the Best Actor nods while Toronto was the odd duck again awarding Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. The Best Actress category saw a pair of wins for Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) while Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy) and Meryl Streep (Doubt) also took home honors. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) was named Best Supporting Actor on all four lists...
- 12/17/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Chicago – The Chicago Film Critics Association announced its choices for the best of 2008 on Monday morning. The biggest blockbuster of the year, “The Dark Knight,” and the sleeper hit of the season, “Slumdog Millionaire,” tied for the most nominations and will compete for best picture of the year from Chicago film critics.
The Chicago Film Critics Association
“The Dark Knight”, the massively successful continuation of the Batman franchise, and “Slumdog Millionaire”, the magical tale of a young man forced to prove he didn’t cheat on a game show, scored six nods a piece, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Picture.
Four films nearly matched the big two this year for the Cfca with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Doubt”, “Milk”, and “Wall-e” all landing five nods. Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” scored four nominations and the Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In” came away with three.
The Chicago Film Critics Association
“The Dark Knight”, the massively successful continuation of the Batman franchise, and “Slumdog Millionaire”, the magical tale of a young man forced to prove he didn’t cheat on a game show, scored six nods a piece, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Picture.
Four films nearly matched the big two this year for the Cfca with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Doubt”, “Milk”, and “Wall-e” all landing five nods. Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” scored four nominations and the Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In” came away with three.
- 12/15/2008
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Penelope Cruz dazzled on the red carpet at the Gotham Awards in New York on Tuesday night, and walked away with an award for her role in Woody Allen movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Cruz joined a star-studded guest list including Ethan Hawke, Gus Van Sant, Patricia Clarkson, Marisa Tomei and Amy Adams at the celebration of independent cinema.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which starred Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and Javier Bardem, shared the Best Ensemble Performance prize with Synecdoche, New York, which has a cast-list including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener.
The Spanish actress was also one of four movie icons honoured at the bash, picking up a tribute prize, alongside other honorees Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and HBO boss Sheila Nevins
Elsewhere, the Best Feature prize went to Frozen River, and its star Melissa Leo won the Breakthrough Actor award.
Lance Hammer won Breakthrough Director for Ballast, and Trouble The Water won Best Documentary.
Cruz joined a star-studded guest list including Ethan Hawke, Gus Van Sant, Patricia Clarkson, Marisa Tomei and Amy Adams at the celebration of independent cinema.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which starred Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and Javier Bardem, shared the Best Ensemble Performance prize with Synecdoche, New York, which has a cast-list including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener.
The Spanish actress was also one of four movie icons honoured at the bash, picking up a tribute prize, alongside other honorees Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and HBO boss Sheila Nevins
Elsewhere, the Best Feature prize went to Frozen River, and its star Melissa Leo won the Breakthrough Actor award.
Lance Hammer won Breakthrough Director for Ballast, and Trouble The Water won Best Documentary.
- 12/3/2008
- WENN
- Ballast might have lead the total number of nominations, but it is Frozen River who picked up a pair, including Gotham Awards’ top prize. Really? If I were a betting man I’d have guessed right in two categories (Breakthrough Director and Actor), guessed half right in one (Best Ensemble) and would have terribly been wrong but pleasantly surprised with the Best Documentary going to Trouble the Water, and finally I’d would have been wrong on guessing Best Feature, and as you can guess, I’m perplexed on how Courtney Hunt’s border crossing drama faired a better chance in a category that was loaded in quality features. Best FEATUREBallast - Lance Hammer, director; Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh, producers (Alluvial Film Company)Frozen River - Courtney Hunt, director; Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman, director; Anthony Bregman, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze,
- 12/3/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
"Frozen River" has come out victorious at the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. On December 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, the Sony Pictures Classics dramatic thriller has been awarded with two kudos from the awards presented to independent films and those who make them.
The Courtney Hunt-directed drama about a New York mother getting into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling has been recognized as Best Feature, beating out "Ballast", "Synecdoche, New York", "The Visitor" and "The Wrestler". Accepting the coveted award, Hunt said, "I did not see this one coming, I did not see this coming." Apart from the Best Picture prize, the movie also helped its star Melissa Leo to earn the Breakthrough Actor kudo.
Other winners included "Synecdoche, New York" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" which were tied for the title of Best Ensemble Performance. In the meantime, the awards for Breakthrough Director...
The Courtney Hunt-directed drama about a New York mother getting into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling has been recognized as Best Feature, beating out "Ballast", "Synecdoche, New York", "The Visitor" and "The Wrestler". Accepting the coveted award, Hunt said, "I did not see this one coming, I did not see this coming." Apart from the Best Picture prize, the movie also helped its star Melissa Leo to earn the Breakthrough Actor kudo.
Other winners included "Synecdoche, New York" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" which were tied for the title of Best Ensemble Performance. In the meantime, the awards for Breakthrough Director...
- 12/3/2008
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
I am kicking myself for forgetting to add Melissa Leo to my Oscar predictions last week, but rest assured the correction will be made this Thursday when a fresh batch of predictions are released. This is not to say Leo is my pick to win it all, but it I am saying her name is officially in the ring and as of right now I fully expect her to receive a nomination even if it looks like someone such as Kristin Scott Thomas may be the one to get edged out. I say all of this because the winners of the Gotham Awards were announced tonight and while they don't mean a whole lot it does look like it could become the start of bigger things from Frozen River and its star. Frozen River took home Best Feature and Leo ended up winner the Breakthrough Actor Award. Other winners include...
- 12/3/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Family drama "Rachel Getting Married", border-smuggling saga "Frozen River" and struggling mother tale "Ballast" have shown their domination on the run for the 2009 Spirit Awards. Upon the announcement of the awards' nominees on Tuesday, December 2, it has been revealed that those three films have collected six counts each.
From all of the nominations "Rachel", "Frozen" and "Ballast" received, the three will have to go head-to-head for best feature title along with "Wendy and Lucy" and "The Wrestler". Their directors, Jonathan Demme, Courtney Hunt and Lance Hammer, will also compete for the best director prize which also lists Ramin Bahrani of "Chop Shop" and Tom McCarthy of "The Visitor" as the competitors.
On the performer categories, it is uncovered that Javier Bardem of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", Sean Penn of "Milk" and Mickey Rourke of "The Wrestler" are among the contenders for best male lead. Additionally, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams have...
From all of the nominations "Rachel", "Frozen" and "Ballast" received, the three will have to go head-to-head for best feature title along with "Wendy and Lucy" and "The Wrestler". Their directors, Jonathan Demme, Courtney Hunt and Lance Hammer, will also compete for the best director prize which also lists Ramin Bahrani of "Chop Shop" and Tom McCarthy of "The Visitor" as the competitors.
On the performer categories, it is uncovered that Javier Bardem of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", Sean Penn of "Milk" and Mickey Rourke of "The Wrestler" are among the contenders for best male lead. Additionally, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams have...
- 12/3/2008
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
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