Contact Help Wanted

Sundance 2008 Winners

Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River, a thriller about two economically strapped women (Melissa Leo and Misty Upham, above) who turn to immigrant-smuggling at the US-Canada border, was chosen best American narrative feature at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. (In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan calls Leo and Upham "magnificent," adding that Frozen River is a "powerful story that makes strong emotional connections.")
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Trouble the Water, which depicts the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was the best US documentary. In Trouble the Water, New Orleans residents are forced to rely on themselves as the government that is supposed to represent them duly ignores their plight.
James Marsh’s Man on Wire won both the jury and the audience awards [...]

Sundance 2008 Awards

2008 Sundance Film Festival Awards
2008 Sundance Film Festival: January 17-27, 2008
Sundance 2008 Winners
 

Grand Jury Prize Dramatic: FROZEN RIVER, directed by Courtney Hunt

Grand Jury Prize Documentary: TROUBLE THE WATER, directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

World Cinema Jury Prize Dramatic: KING OF PING PONG (PING PONGKINGEN) – Sweden, directed by Jens Jonsson

World Cinema Jury Prize Documentary: MAN ON WIRE – United Kingdom, directed by James Marsh

The Directing Award – Documentary: Nanette Burstein for AMERICAN TEEN

The Directing Award – Dramatic: Lance Hammer for BALLAST

The World Cinema Directing Award – Documentary: Nino Kirtadze, for DURAKOVO: VILLAGE OF FOOLS (DURAKOVO: LE VILLAGE DES FOUS) – France

The World Cinema Directing Award – Dramatic: Anna Melikyan for MERMAID [...]

Sundance 2008: HENRY POOLE IS HERE, HAMLET 2

David M. Halbfinger in the New York Times:
"After a weekend marked by too many downbeat dramas and comedies in name only, the Sundance Film Festival’s flock of film buyers finally began taking in movies they could send to the multiplexes — and it was a religious experience.
"As Monday night bled into Tuesday, Henry Poole Is Here, Mark Pellington’s lighthearted tale [written by Alberto Torres] of a terminally ill man (Luke Wilson), his troubled neighbors and a stain on his stucco wall that might resemble the face of Jesus, sold to Overture Films, one of the new movie distributors clamoring for attention and pictures.
***

According to Halbfinger, the U.S. rights to the dramatic comedy Henry Poole Is Here sold for US$3.5 million, [...]

Sundance 2008: Roman Polanski, Eduardo Noriega, Gay Zombies

Variety’s Justin Chang on The Great Buck Howard:
"A smoothly turned-out entertainment centered around an Amazing Kreskin-style mentalist comes down with an unfortunate case of the warm-and-fuzzies in The Great Buck Howard. Behind-the-curtains comedy reps an amusing showcase for John Malkovich’s diva-like theatrics in the title role, but writer-director Sean McGinly’s decision to frame the story as a relationship movie, as Buck’s impressionable young assistant deals with some very familiar life issues, tilts the comic seesaw toward sentiment over satire."
Also in the cast are Colin Hanks (co-producer’s Tom Hanks‘ son), Emily Blunt, and Steve Zahn.
***

Mary Milliken on Marina Zenovich’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in Reuters/The Vancouver Sun:
"Zenovich told Reuters her documentary does not apologize for the French-Polish director, but [...]

Sundance 2008: IN BRUGES, DIMINISHED CAPACITY

Liam Lacey on Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges at the Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Colin Farrell [above] and Brendan Gleason [sic] appear to draw on the model of the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy, with Farrell as the anxious, not-so-bright apprentice and Gleeson as his composed, epicurean partner, as they await orders from their irascible overseer (Ralph Fiennes). McDonagh’s dialogue is consistently clever, though his pacing is a problem, as is his weakness for corny surrealism: Peter Dinklage appears as a snide dwarf American movie actor; doing a knock-off version of Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Back [sic] in a set designed to look like a Hieronymus Bosch painting."
***

At indieWIRE, actor and theater director Terry Kinney, whose feature-film debut, the dramatic comedy [...]

Sundance 2008: World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Sundance 2008: World Cinema Dramatic Competition
 

Just Another Love Story by Ole Bornedal

Film information from the Sundance Film Festival press release
ABSURDISTAN/ Germany/Azerbaijan (Director: Veit Helmer; Screenwriters: Veit Helmer, Zaza Buadze, Gordan Mihic, Ahmet Golbol)— This inventive and allegorical comedy centers on two childhood sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple’s first night of love. Cast: Maximilian Mauff, Kristýna Malérova. World Premiere
BLUE EYELIDS (PÁRPADOS AZULES)/ Mexico (Director: Ernesto Contreras; Screenwriter: Carlos Contreras)– When Marina wins a beach getaway trip for two, her desperate search for someone to take with her leads to a complicated relationship and the [...]

Sundance 2008: World Cinema Documentary Competition

Sundance 2008: World Cinema Documentary Competition
 

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures by Chris Waitt

Film information from the Sundance Film Festival press release
ALONE IN FOUR WALLS (ALLEIN IN VIER WÄNDEN)/ Germany (Director and Screenwriter: Alexandra Westmeier)—Adolescent boys struggle to grow up in a home for delinquents in rural Russia where life behind bars may be better than the release to freedom. North American Premiere
THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS/ New Zealand (Director and Screenwriter: Pietra Brettkelly)— Vanessa Beecroft is obsessively determined to adopt Sudanese twin orphans. Her consuming passion drives her marriage to a breaking point and fuels her controversial art, raising troubling questions about exploitation, culture clash, and the imposition of the West on Africa. World [...]

Sundance 2008: Documentary Competition

Sundance 2008: Documentary Competition
 

I.O.U.S.A. by Patrick Creadon

Film information from the Sundance Film Festival press release
AN AMERICAN SOLDIER (Director and Screenwriter: Edet Belzberg)—Uncle Sam really wants you! A compelling exploration of army recruitment in the United States told through the story of Louisiana Sergeant, First Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful recruiters in the history of the U.S. Army. World Premiere
AMERICAN TEEN (Director and Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein)— This irreverent cinema vérité chronicles four seniors at an Indiana high school and yields a surprising snapshot of Midwestern life. World Premiere
BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER (Director: Christopher Bell; Screenwriters: Christopher Bell, Alexander Buono, Tamsin Rawady)—A filmmaker explores America’s win-at-all-cost culture by examining his two brothers’ steroids use…and his own. World Premiere
FIELDS OF FUEL [...]

Sundance 2008: Film Line-Up

Sundance 2008: Dramatic Competition
 

Jason Ritter, Marianna Palka in Good Dick

Film information from the Sundance Film Festival press release
AMERICAN SON (Director: Neil Abramson; Screenwriter: Eric Schmid)— Before being deployed for active duty, a young Marine takes a four-day Thanksgiving leave to return home to Bakersfield, California. There he meets a young woman, tries to connect with old friends, and confronts his volatile home life. Cast: Nick Cannon, Melonie Diaz, Matt O’Leary, Jay Hernandez, Tom Sizemore, Chi McBride. World Premiere
ANYWHERE, U.S.A. (Director: Chusy Haney-Jardine; Screenwriters: Chusy Haney-Jardine, Jennifer Macdonald)— Told in three segments ranging from satirical to tragic, the film is a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics. Cast: Perla Haney-Jardine. World Premiere
BALLAST (Director and Screenwriter: [...]

Recently Posted

• Golden Globes 2010 Predictions: Best Actor - Drama
• Oscar 2010: Animated Short Film Semi-Finalists
• Golden Globes 2010 Predictions: Best Picture – Comedy or Musical
• Golden Globes 2010 Predictions: Best Picture - Drama
• Noel Clarke's ADULTHOOD on IFC Festival Direct
• Oscar 2010: Documentary Feature Semi-Finalists
• THE FUPLERS: Q&A with Matt Koval
• Yoav Shamir's DEFAMATION Opens in NY/LA
• TCM Classic Film Festival: A STAR IS BORN, METROPOLIS, BREATHLESS, 2001
• FOUR SEASONS LODGE Screenings

Most Popular Tags

2008 Oscar 2010 Oscar Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Animation Best Films Books Box Office Brokeback Mountain Censorship Classic Movies Daniel Day-Lewis Documentaries DVDs Film Awards Film Festivals Film Reviews Gay Film Festivals Gay Interest Gay Movies Heath Ledger Helen Mirren Interviews London Film Festival London Film Festival 2009 Los Angeles Screenings Martin Scorsese New York Screenings No Country for Old Men Oscar Movies Photos Political Movies Politics Sex Shorts Silent Films Slumdog Millionaire Sundance Film Festival Trailers Turner Classic Movies


Related Posts

Sundance Institute’s 2008 Independent Producers ConferenceSundance 2009 Boycott: Park City to Suffer?Sundance Awards 2005MARY AND MAX to Open Sundance 2009Sundance 2007: ZOO, CHICAGO 10Berlinale 2009: Kate Winslet, Tom Tykwer