We interrupt this regular column to bring you something a little different, particularly since no new films are opening in Austin on this last day of the year. Instead, here are some options for streaming movies on Netflix so while you're hungover tomorrow, you can be a couch potato and still catch some great Austin-connected films.
I had no idea how many films connected to the Austin film scene were available online for streaming. Sure, many things appear on video on demand, when you have to pay additional money, but did you know that Netflix alone has many Austin films available for streaming, as well as even more of the selections from our film festivals? It's not just classics like Paris, Texas and Tender Mercies but a wide range of newer and obscure films, or the television critical darling Friday Night Lights that has the first four seasons available on streaming.
I had no idea how many films connected to the Austin film scene were available online for streaming. Sure, many things appear on video on demand, when you have to pay additional money, but did you know that Netflix alone has many Austin films available for streaming, as well as even more of the selections from our film festivals? It's not just classics like Paris, Texas and Tender Mercies but a wide range of newer and obscure films, or the television critical darling Friday Night Lights that has the first four seasons available on streaming.
- 12/31/2010
- by Jenn Brown
- Slackerwood
On top of this morning's announcement of the Independent Spirit Award nominees the Ifp have announced their nominees for the Gotham Awards. You will notice a few common themes such as love for Frozen River, Ballast and Rachel Getting Married. The one thing that really catches my eye is the nomination of Melissa Leo in the Breakthrough Actor category. Leo is credited on 77 projects over at IMDb with ten of those expected for future release. She has been acting since 1984 and is just now considered a breakthrough? What an interesting world those independent awards are. Here's the list of nominees. Best Feature Ballast Frozen River Synecdoche, New York The Visitor The Wrestler Best Documentary Chris and#038; Don: A Love Story Encounters at the End of the World Man on Wire Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Trouble the Water Breakthrough Director Antonio Campos, Afterschool Dennis Dortch, A Good Day to...
- 12/2/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Getting a jump on everybody else, the Gotham Independent Film Awards have already released their nominations for 2008 honors, and I assume, based on the name, that Batman is charged with keeping the names of the winners safe and secure until the envelopes are opened.
If you only go to the movies five or six times a year and just to check out the blockbusters, these titles won't mean anything to you. If you follow independent film, you'll probably say to yourself, "Damn it! When can I see that?"
These awards don't predict much when it comes to the Oscars, but there are usually a couple of smaller films to keep an eye on later in the year, and the Gotham Awards highlight quite a few of those possibilities. There aren't individual acting awards, other than a breakthrough award, but Gotham, like virtually every award not named the Academy Awards, has an ensemble honor.
If you only go to the movies five or six times a year and just to check out the blockbusters, these titles won't mean anything to you. If you follow independent film, you'll probably say to yourself, "Damn it! When can I see that?"
These awards don't predict much when it comes to the Oscars, but there are usually a couple of smaller films to keep an eye on later in the year, and the Gotham Awards highlight quite a few of those possibilities. There aren't individual acting awards, other than a breakthrough award, but Gotham, like virtually every award not named the Academy Awards, has an ensemble honor.
- 10/24/2008
- by Colin Boyd
- GetTheBigPicture.net
On Monday, October 20, Ifp has announced the contenders for the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards and Lance Hammer-directed drama "Ballast" has dominated the nomination list, taking in 4 separate nods. The movie, which has won the 2008 Sundance Film Festival's Dramatic Directing Award for Hammer, is nominated for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor and Best Ensemble Performance.
In the category of Best Feature, "Ballast" will be up against Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River", Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York", Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor" and Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler". Meanwhile, for the Best Ensemble Performance category, the film's cast that include Micheal J. Smith Sr. will be competing with "Rachel Getting Married" ensemble led by Anne Hathaway, "Synecdoche" cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" ensemble, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and "Visitor" cast led by Richard Jenkins.
Though garnering the most gongs for the 2008 Gotham Awards,...
In the category of Best Feature, "Ballast" will be up against Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River", Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York", Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor" and Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler". Meanwhile, for the Best Ensemble Performance category, the film's cast that include Micheal J. Smith Sr. will be competing with "Rachel Getting Married" ensemble led by Anne Hathaway, "Synecdoche" cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" ensemble, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and "Visitor" cast led by Richard Jenkins.
Though garnering the most gongs for the 2008 Gotham Awards,...
- 10/21/2008
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Judging by the lovely "Au gust Evening," writer/ director/editor Chris Eska's first feature, his name is worth remembering.
Eska uses a minimum of dialogue and a maximum of ambiance to tell the tender story - set in southwest Texas - of an undocumented Mexican farmworker and his widowed
daughter-in-law as they face life after the elderly man's wife dies unexpectedly.
Pedro Castaneda, a nonprofessional appearing in his first film, and Veronica Loren tug at your heartstrings with their portrayals of the lead characters.
Yasu Tanida's lensing is worthy of...
Eska uses a minimum of dialogue and a maximum of ambiance to tell the tender story - set in southwest Texas - of an undocumented Mexican farmworker and his widowed
daughter-in-law as they face life after the elderly man's wife dies unexpectedly.
Pedro Castaneda, a nonprofessional appearing in his first film, and Veronica Loren tug at your heartstrings with their portrayals of the lead characters.
Yasu Tanida's lensing is worthy of...
- 9/5/2008
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
Inspired by Yasujiro Ozu right down to its seasonal title, Chris Eska's first feature, August Evening, concerns the relationship between a middle-aged Mexican migrant and his widowed daughter-in-law. Although its plot has its share of melodramatic twists and tearful revelations, Autumn Evening focuses on the moments between, the mundane interactions that make up a life. Lumpish, slow-moving Pedro Castaneda looks as if life has worn him down to the nub. In short order, he loses his wife, his job, and his home, and he and his late son's wife, Veronica Loren, are cast out into the world. He has two living children, but they're too busy with their own lives to have time for him. His son, who's also out of work, has enough trouble putting food on his family's table without having to care for his father, whose grey hair and potbelly makes it hard for him...
- 9/4/2008
- by Sam Adams
- avclub.com
By Neil Pedley
This week's trip to the multiplex offers a jaunt around the globe where, amongst other things, there's a case of mistaken ethnicity in Boston, Nic Cage gets another wig fitted in Thailand, there's whimsy and surrealism in Scotland and Matthew McConaughey is right at home in Malibu, where he might finally have found something he does well, maybe.
"August Evening"
Strained emotional bonds and the transitory nature of the life of an illegal immigrant provide the backdrop for Chris Eska's quietly affecting family drama that stars Pedro Castaneda as an aging farmhand who loses his job at a chicken farm in a sleepy Texas town, forcing he and his devoted daughter-in-law (Veronica Loren) to relocate to San Antonio to stay with his older children and the grandchildren he never knew he had. As Alison Willmore pointed out in last week's Lunchbox, Castaneda is a first-time actor...
This week's trip to the multiplex offers a jaunt around the globe where, amongst other things, there's a case of mistaken ethnicity in Boston, Nic Cage gets another wig fitted in Thailand, there's whimsy and surrealism in Scotland and Matthew McConaughey is right at home in Malibu, where he might finally have found something he does well, maybe.
"August Evening"
Strained emotional bonds and the transitory nature of the life of an illegal immigrant provide the backdrop for Chris Eska's quietly affecting family drama that stars Pedro Castaneda as an aging farmhand who loses his job at a chicken farm in a sleepy Texas town, forcing he and his devoted daughter-in-law (Veronica Loren) to relocate to San Antonio to stay with his older children and the grandchildren he never knew he had. As Alison Willmore pointed out in last week's Lunchbox, Castaneda is a first-time actor...
- 9/1/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
- Underrated, overlooked, and mostly unknown, I’ve decided to highlight my four favorite award sections separately from today’s lengthy list of Indie Spirit noms. Why? because a). I haven’t heard of half these films and want to further research them, b). I want to add the missing titles to the Ioncinema.com database and c). I think it’s in the best interests of indie film lovers to familiarize themselves with the budding/future talent. Commencing with the John Cassavetes award noms (the name of this section says it all) which is given to the best feature made for under $500,000; and followed by the noms for my favorite category the Someone to Watch Award and the listings for the Truer Than Fiction Award the Producers Award.August Evening is a two-time nominee thanks to the votes going to actor Pedro Castaneda. Owl and the Sparrow was actually
- 11/28/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Director Todd Haynes' quirky, all-star Bob Dylan-inspired movie I'm Not There is set to be the toast of the IFC Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in February, after landing the event's first Robert Altman Award. Announced at the Spirit Awards last year, the honor is given to the director, casting agent and cast of an outstanding indie movie. In I'm Not There, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett are among the actors who conjure up the spirit of Dylan at different stages of his life for the offbeat biopic. The movie was also nominated for the Spirits' Best Film prize, where it will compete with Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Juno, A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park. Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin earned Best Supporting Actress and Actor nods respectively for their portrayals of Dylan, and Todd Haynes is a Best Director nominee. Other four-film nominees are acclaimed coming-of-age film Juno, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly and The Savages. Meanwhile, Ang Lee's controversial Lust, Caution is also a multi-nominee; the film's stars Tony Leung and Tang Wei are up for Best Actor and Actress honors, while Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is also under consideration. French actress Julie Delpy's 2 Days In Paris earned her a First Feature nomination; she'll be up against Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, which garnered three nominations. In the lead acting categories, Angelina Jolie is an immediate favorite for her role as grieving Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Jolie will compete against Sienna Miller (Interview), Parker Posey (Broken English), Ellen Page (Juno) and Tang Wei. Leung will be up against Pedro Castaneda (August Evening), Don Cheadle (Talk To Me), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Savages) and Frank Langella (Starting Out In The Evening) in the Best Actor category. The nominations were announced on Tuesday morning by Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff.
- 11/28/2007
- WENN
- Dysfunctional loving families undergoing reality checks, a paralyzed man checking out and a checklist of Dylan figures are the film narratives that have collected the most noms for the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Sparkling Fox Searchlight titles of Tamara Jenkins’s The Savages and Jason Reitman’s Juno each grab a significant amount of noms, but it is Todd Haynes’ I’m not There and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly that have collected the most kudos with the Dylan kaleidescope already leading 1 to zero by winning the inaugural Robert Altman award: given to one film's director, casting director and its ensemble cast (Haynes gets cred and so does Laura Rosenthal for casting Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Bruce Greenwood). As noted in the Hollywood Reporter, these American independent films have a distinct international flair
- 11/27/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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