Woodstock, N.Y. — Indie film distributor Neon is hoping to make a statement with its awards consideration plan for the animated documentary “Flee.”
Tom Quinn, co-founder of Neon, told Variety that Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s story of a gay refugee who fled to safety in Denmark from his home in Afghanistan as a child, will be submitted for Oscar best picture consideration in addition to the documentary, animation and foreign language categories. “Flee” was picked up by Neon and Participant after premiering in January at Sundance, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
“I think it’s high time that a non-fiction feature film be a part of the best picture category,” Quinn said Saturday during an interview at the 22nd annual Woodstock Film Festival. “Flee” is timely and unfortunately more relevant than ever. It’s a film that resonates culturally, but it’s also pure cinema. It’s also...
Tom Quinn, co-founder of Neon, told Variety that Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s story of a gay refugee who fled to safety in Denmark from his home in Afghanistan as a child, will be submitted for Oscar best picture consideration in addition to the documentary, animation and foreign language categories. “Flee” was picked up by Neon and Participant after premiering in January at Sundance, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
“I think it’s high time that a non-fiction feature film be a part of the best picture category,” Quinn said Saturday during an interview at the 22nd annual Woodstock Film Festival. “Flee” is timely and unfortunately more relevant than ever. It’s a film that resonates culturally, but it’s also pure cinema. It’s also...
- 10/3/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The Woodstock Film Festival has announced the slate for its 22nd edition, with 11 world premieres among the 43 features on the bill.
The festival will take place September 29 to October 3 in three Hudson Valley communities about two hours north of New York City. In-person screenings and events will be featured throughout the fest’s five days, but online options will also enable attendees to connect amid the ongoing challenges of Covid-19.
Panels, concerts and comedy sets along with film screenings are planned in Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties. Neon chief Tom Quinn is slated to receive the festival’s Honorary Trailblazer Award, an honor announced in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
The festival will kick off with Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about a pathbreaking Filipina-American garage band, with a performance by some of the band’s members following the screening. Music is an annual touchstone for Woodstock’s lineup,...
The festival will take place September 29 to October 3 in three Hudson Valley communities about two hours north of New York City. In-person screenings and events will be featured throughout the fest’s five days, but online options will also enable attendees to connect amid the ongoing challenges of Covid-19.
Panels, concerts and comedy sets along with film screenings are planned in Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties. Neon chief Tom Quinn is slated to receive the festival’s Honorary Trailblazer Award, an honor announced in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
The festival will kick off with Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about a pathbreaking Filipina-American garage band, with a performance by some of the band’s members following the screening. Music is an annual touchstone for Woodstock’s lineup,...
- 9/1/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Edson Oda’s science-fiction fantasy drama “Nine Days” has been selected to open the 27th edition of the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference on Oct. 22.
The film stars Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz. Oda received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the film following its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Duke and Beetz will participate in a post-screening Q&a at the Austin festival, which is being held virtually.
Duke portrays a recluse in a house distant from the reality we know. He interviews prospective candidates — personifications of human souls — for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist.
The film stars Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz. Oda received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the film following its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Duke and Beetz will participate in a post-screening Q&a at the Austin festival, which is being held virtually.
Duke portrays a recluse in a house distant from the reality we know. He interviews prospective candidates — personifications of human souls — for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist.
- 10/15/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The 27th annual Austin Film Festival (Aff) has unveiled their first wave of programming for its virtual edition for the fest which takes place October 22-29.
In addition to panels, the writers-driven fest will feature the world premiere of Anne Rapp’s Horton Foote: The Road to Home, which puts the spotlight on the work of the titular Oscar-winning screenwriter of the 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Aff will also feature world premieres from second-round writers through the Festival’s Screenplay competitions, including The Catch from first-time director Matthew Ya-Hsiung Balzer as well as Paper Tiger, which also marks the directorial debut of Paul Kowalski. Khaled Ridgeway will also debut the Texas Premiere of his film Death of a Telemarketer starring Larmorne Morris, Haley Joel Osment, and Jackie Earle Haley.
Aff will spotlight Texas filmmakers with the North-American premiere of Blinders, directed by former Terrence Malick...
In addition to panels, the writers-driven fest will feature the world premiere of Anne Rapp’s Horton Foote: The Road to Home, which puts the spotlight on the work of the titular Oscar-winning screenwriter of the 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Aff will also feature world premieres from second-round writers through the Festival’s Screenplay competitions, including The Catch from first-time director Matthew Ya-Hsiung Balzer as well as Paper Tiger, which also marks the directorial debut of Paul Kowalski. Khaled Ridgeway will also debut the Texas Premiere of his film Death of a Telemarketer starring Larmorne Morris, Haley Joel Osment, and Jackie Earle Haley.
Aff will spotlight Texas filmmakers with the North-American premiere of Blinders, directed by former Terrence Malick...
- 8/27/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Whoopi Goldberg has signed up to star in and executive produce the indie holiday drama The Christmas Pearl, which is an adaptation of Dorothea Benton Frank novel. Felix Alcala is attached to direct, from a script penned by Anne Rapp, which tells the story of a tension-filled Christmas gathering of a South Carolina family, and the 93-year-old matriarch's grandmother's maid named Pearl, who comes back to the family as a ghost, after the family's usual maid is called away. Here's the official synopsis for the novel: Theodora is the matriarch of a family that has grown into a bunch of truculent knuckleheads. While she's finally gotten them all together in South Carolina to...
- 3/5/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The 20th annual Austin Film Festival has unveiled its 2013 lineup of screenwriter-focused panels and special filmmaker guests. This year’s fest runs from October 24-31 and will honor Oscar winner Callie Khouri (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) with its Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Confirmed panelists include Robert Rodriguez, Roberto Orci, Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black), Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Rian Johnson (Looper), the Veronica Mars filmmakers, and Dan Rather. Here’s the Aff 2013 Conference lineup: - Robert Rodriguez (director/producer Sin City, Machete, Machete Kills) and Roberto Orci (creator Fringe, writer Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness) will discuss their recent collaboration on El Rey, Rodriguez’s owned and operated cable network, which will host their upcoming original scripted series. - Jenji Kohan (creator Weeds, Orange is the New Black) joins David Shore (creator of House), Terri Edda Miller, and Andrew Marlowe (creators of Castle) by way of...
- 9/3/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Here's proof that you can't judge a book by its cover. Sister Mary Ann Rapp has been sentenced to 90 days in jail, five years of probation, and 100 hours of community service, for stealing $128,000 from two small parishes in Orleans County, N.Y., say news reports. Rapp pocketed the money from the weekly collection plate and other church funds between 2006 and 2011, reports upstate New York TV station Wgrz. In her statement before the court Monday, she said she took the cash to sustain her gambling addiction. The judge has ordered Rapp to pay back the full amount stolen from St. Mark Church in Kendall,...
- 7/10/2013
- by Sheila Cosgrove Baylis
- PEOPLE.com
Director Robert Altman.
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
- 2/15/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
If this one had its title flip-flopped to "Fortune Cookie", its pleasing message to Sundance Film Festivalgoers might be that this festival is going to be a good one. The opening night film at this year's event, "Cookie's Fortune" is a down-home delight, a Southern-stirred fixing of small-town foibles, troubles and domestic drama. Cagily directed by Robert Altman, the film should similarly tantalize select-site audiences and win critical praises.
Sleepy has always been a misnomer when describing towns of the Deep South, for there's always something stirring beneath the placid, friendly surface. In this Mississippi-set yarn, there's not a lot happening in Holly Springs: Oh, there's the Church play coming up under the thumb of culture-vulture Camille (Glenn Close), and the town's bad girl (Liv Tyler) has come home to gut fish for the local fishmonger, but there's not much that would attract the attention of the law-abidin'/church-goin'/townfolk. Sure, Willis (Charles S. Dutton) still likes to take a nip or two, but he doesn't harm anyone, and the law enforcement troupe is, well, straight out of Mayberry, with a pragmatic sheriff (Ned Beatty) and his hyperactive subordinate (Chris O'Donnell).
As we said, there's not much going on -- on the surface. It's to retain this facade at all costs that sets forth the dramatic fixings as social-minded Camille finds that her aged aunt -- an old woman who yearned to join her husband in heaven -- has taken her life. Oh, the social approbation that could follow, Camille fears. So, in a fit befitting her highly dramatic approach to life, Camille swallows the suicide note and makes things look like murder.
The story simmers for a while in screenwriter Anne Rapp's folksy cauldron, all percolating around the sound dictum, "What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Playfully combining humor, intrigue and a penetrating insight into social mores, "Cookie's Fortune" is a free-flowing, organically grown amusement. Credit Altman's wry and affectionate direction for the film's tangy flavors.
The cast is well-chosen, highlighted by Close's well considered performance as the tightly strung Camille and Dutton's jocular turn as the avuncular Willis. Beatty's grainy, good-ol'-boy performance hits all the right chords, and Donald Moffat adds a nifty patrician air to his role as the town lawyer.
Technical contributions are smart and expertly woven in this textured delight. In particular, Stephen Altman's atmospheric production design clues us to the mixed layers of this smartly scoped, Americana drama.
COOKIE'S FORTUNE
October Films
Producers: Robert Altman, Etchie Stroh
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Anne Rapp
Executive producer: Willi Baer
Director of photography: Toyomichi Kurita
Editor: Abraham Lim
Music: Dave Stewart
Costume designer: Dona Granata
Casting: Pam Dixon Mickelson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Camille Dixon: Glenn Close
Cora Duvall: Julianne Moore
Emma Duvall: Liv Tyler
Jason Brown: Chris O'Donnell
Willis Richland : Charles S. Dutton
Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt: Patricia Neal
Lester Boyle: Ned Beatty
Otis Tucker: Courtney B. Vance
Jack Palmer: Donald Moffat
Manny Hood: Lyle Lovett
Running time -- 117 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Sleepy has always been a misnomer when describing towns of the Deep South, for there's always something stirring beneath the placid, friendly surface. In this Mississippi-set yarn, there's not a lot happening in Holly Springs: Oh, there's the Church play coming up under the thumb of culture-vulture Camille (Glenn Close), and the town's bad girl (Liv Tyler) has come home to gut fish for the local fishmonger, but there's not much that would attract the attention of the law-abidin'/church-goin'/townfolk. Sure, Willis (Charles S. Dutton) still likes to take a nip or two, but he doesn't harm anyone, and the law enforcement troupe is, well, straight out of Mayberry, with a pragmatic sheriff (Ned Beatty) and his hyperactive subordinate (Chris O'Donnell).
As we said, there's not much going on -- on the surface. It's to retain this facade at all costs that sets forth the dramatic fixings as social-minded Camille finds that her aged aunt -- an old woman who yearned to join her husband in heaven -- has taken her life. Oh, the social approbation that could follow, Camille fears. So, in a fit befitting her highly dramatic approach to life, Camille swallows the suicide note and makes things look like murder.
The story simmers for a while in screenwriter Anne Rapp's folksy cauldron, all percolating around the sound dictum, "What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Playfully combining humor, intrigue and a penetrating insight into social mores, "Cookie's Fortune" is a free-flowing, organically grown amusement. Credit Altman's wry and affectionate direction for the film's tangy flavors.
The cast is well-chosen, highlighted by Close's well considered performance as the tightly strung Camille and Dutton's jocular turn as the avuncular Willis. Beatty's grainy, good-ol'-boy performance hits all the right chords, and Donald Moffat adds a nifty patrician air to his role as the town lawyer.
Technical contributions are smart and expertly woven in this textured delight. In particular, Stephen Altman's atmospheric production design clues us to the mixed layers of this smartly scoped, Americana drama.
COOKIE'S FORTUNE
October Films
Producers: Robert Altman, Etchie Stroh
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Anne Rapp
Executive producer: Willi Baer
Director of photography: Toyomichi Kurita
Editor: Abraham Lim
Music: Dave Stewart
Costume designer: Dona Granata
Casting: Pam Dixon Mickelson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Camille Dixon: Glenn Close
Cora Duvall: Julianne Moore
Emma Duvall: Liv Tyler
Jason Brown: Chris O'Donnell
Willis Richland : Charles S. Dutton
Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt: Patricia Neal
Lester Boyle: Ned Beatty
Otis Tucker: Courtney B. Vance
Jack Palmer: Donald Moffat
Manny Hood: Lyle Lovett
Running time -- 117 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 1/21/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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