SXSW Film Festival 2025: The Baltimorons, For Worse, Magic Hour | Festivals & Awards
Filmmakers often underestimate how important it can be to feel their love for their characters. When a writer/director sees the people on-screen as three-dimensional people with hopes, dreams, and fears instead of just cogs in the machine of their plot, it’s much easier for us to do the same. For
SXSW Film Festival 2025: The Rivals of Amziah King, Hallow Road, The Dutchman | Festivals & Awards
A film finally hit this year’s relatively down SXSW like a bolt of lightning, producing multiple in-film applause breaks and a standing ovation at the end. Andrew Patterson’s “The Rivals of Amziah King” is a crowd-pleasing wonder, a new classic of the American South that hums with earnest adoration for
SXSW Film Festival 2025: Ghost Boy, The Secret of Me, Take No Prisoners | Festivals & Awards
The doc program at SXSW reflects the left-of-center tone of both the festival and the city of Austin. Where else would you find documentaries about The Butthole Surfers and Carl Lewis in the same program? With such a relatively short festival, it can be hard to get to the non-fiction
SXSW Film Festival 2025: It Ends, The Threesome, Caper | Festivals & Awards
The SXSW Film Festival launched on Friday night with a star-studded premiere of the new Amazon Prime Video sequel “Another Simple Favor,” followed by the highly anticipated launch of Apple TV+’s “The Studio” at the Paramount and Babak Anvari’s “Hallow Road” across town. Of course, these red-carpet events weren’t alone,
True/False 2025: WTO/99, Family Album, Land With No Rider | Festivals & Awards
Yesterday was unseasonably warm at True/False. Today, with the temperature, I am reminded that it is only March and l am still in the Midwest. Even so, the documentaries are still coming hot and heavy in Columbia, Missouri, and this second dispatch offers an idea of just how diverse the
True/False 2025: Seeds, River of Grass, How Deep Is Your Love | Festivals & Awards
Here at True/False Film Festival, documentary as a form reigns supreme. Located in the Midwestern college town of Columbia, Missouri, True/False always brings an assortment of non-fiction films world premiering at the festival, joined by others hailing from Sundance other prestige doc fests. This first dispatch is a replica of
A Mathematical Explanation of What is Going to Win Best Picture This Year | Festivals & Awards
Everything changed about the Best Picture race in 2009, when the Academy adopted the preferential ballot as their Best Picture voting method. This was the same year the Best Picture field was expanded from five to ten nominees (as a response to “The Dark Knight” and “Wall-E” getting shut out
“Anora,” “Shōgun” Win Big with Critics Choice Awards | Festivals & Awards
California’s sunshiny 70-degree weather set the tone for the 30th Critics Choice Awards held February 7 at Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hanger. In covering the awards for the last ten years, this Chicago-based critic always looks forward to the warm weather, although this year was the best as there was
Navigating Sundance as a First Timer | Festivals & Awards
Sundance! As a creator, this iconic film festival once felt like an untouchable dream reserved for stars or those who had “made it.” But after boldly attending the Cannes Film Festival years ago, I realized Sundance wasn’t out of reach. With a push from my Chicago filmmaker friends, including Dashawna
“El Norte” Screening Commemorates Sundance Institute History at Pivotal Moment | Festivals & Awards
The Sundance Film Festival is at a crossroads. Within the next year, the organization may announce a new home, leaving behind the Park City vistas filmmakers have been flocking to for generations. Yet, in looking back at its storied history for this year’s From the Collection section, the festival selected
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