Returning to Panem with “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” proved to be very profitable for Lionsgate, but the writers and actors strikes that upended Hollywood imperiled the company’s ability to produce new television episodes, putting a strain on its third quarter earnings.
The company, which is in the midst of spinning off its film and television business from its Starz streaming platform, reported a net loss at $107.4 million, compared to the $15.2 million in profits that Lionsgate logged in the same quarter in 2022. Revenue topped out at $975.1 million, a drop from the $1 billion that the company reported in the prior-year quarter. The company’s adjusted earnings per-share of 27 cents was down from the 21 cents per-share it reported in the same period in 2022.
It was a mixed report, one that showed the lingering financial impact of the strikes that ground the entertainment industry to a standstill as...
The company, which is in the midst of spinning off its film and television business from its Starz streaming platform, reported a net loss at $107.4 million, compared to the $15.2 million in profits that Lionsgate logged in the same quarter in 2022. Revenue topped out at $975.1 million, a drop from the $1 billion that the company reported in the prior-year quarter. The company’s adjusted earnings per-share of 27 cents was down from the 21 cents per-share it reported in the same period in 2022.
It was a mixed report, one that showed the lingering financial impact of the strikes that ground the entertainment industry to a standstill as...
- 2/8/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Outlander may be gearing up for its endgame, but the franchise is far from over.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood was ordered into a series and is officially in production.
But the series will differ slightly from the initial plan, and we’re sure the passionate fans of the franchise will welcome the changes.
When the show scored a formal pickup, it would be a prequel following Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) father and mother, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie.
While they will both remain in the mix for the new series, we’ll also be delving into Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) past thanks to the introduction of her parents, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp.
Interestingly, the original series has kept details about Julia and Henry under wraps, thanks to Claire’s limited memories of them.
Claire has few memories of her parents on Outlander
We know they both died in...
Outlander: Blood of My Blood was ordered into a series and is officially in production.
But the series will differ slightly from the initial plan, and we’re sure the passionate fans of the franchise will welcome the changes.
When the show scored a formal pickup, it would be a prequel following Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) father and mother, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie.
While they will both remain in the mix for the new series, we’ll also be delving into Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) past thanks to the introduction of her parents, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp.
Interestingly, the original series has kept details about Julia and Henry under wraps, thanks to Claire’s limited memories of them.
Claire has few memories of her parents on Outlander
We know they both died in...
- 2/6/2024
- by Paul Dailly
- Monsters and Critics
Essence’s 17th annual Black Women in Hollywood awards will salute Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Starz’s Kathryn Busby.
The star-studded annual event celebrating Black women for their contributions to the film and TV business will take place on Thursday, March 7, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, hosted by actor, Grammy-winning rapper and entrepreneur Cliff “Method Man” Smith.
News of the special commendation comes amid a groundswell of acclaim for the quartet. In January, Brooks earned her first Academy Award nominations for reprising her Tony-nominated and Grammy-winning performance as Sofia in the musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” Meanwhile, Bailey celebrated her first solo Grammy nomination — adding to her five previous nods as half of Chloe x Halle — wrapping up a year that saw her star as Ariel in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” and young Nettie in “The Color Purple.” On the TV side,...
The star-studded annual event celebrating Black women for their contributions to the film and TV business will take place on Thursday, March 7, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, hosted by actor, Grammy-winning rapper and entrepreneur Cliff “Method Man” Smith.
News of the special commendation comes amid a groundswell of acclaim for the quartet. In January, Brooks earned her first Academy Award nominations for reprising her Tony-nominated and Grammy-winning performance as Sofia in the musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” Meanwhile, Bailey celebrated her first solo Grammy nomination — adding to her five previous nods as half of Chloe x Halle — wrapping up a year that saw her star as Ariel in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” and young Nettie in “The Color Purple.” On the TV side,...
- 2/6/2024
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
The original Doughtlander may not be over, but Outlander: Blood of My Blood hopes to close the gap.
For sure, it will be taking over where Outlander leaves off, even if it explores a story long before Jamie and Claire were figments of their parents' imagination.
Here’s what we know bout Blood of My Blood Season 1 so far.
What is Outlander?
It’s best to start with what we know, which is what came before. Outlander is based on a series of books by author Diana Gabaldon.
Outlander is a time-traveling love story between 20th-century (married) nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and 18th-century Jamie Fraser.
When visiting the ancestral home of her husband, Frank, Claire stumbles through the rocks at Craigh na Dun, which takes her back in time.
Unable to easily find her way back, the sassy lady leans on handsome laird Jamie for protection, and soon, they are in love.
For sure, it will be taking over where Outlander leaves off, even if it explores a story long before Jamie and Claire were figments of their parents' imagination.
Here’s what we know bout Blood of My Blood Season 1 so far.
What is Outlander?
It’s best to start with what we know, which is what came before. Outlander is based on a series of books by author Diana Gabaldon.
Outlander is a time-traveling love story between 20th-century (married) nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and 18th-century Jamie Fraser.
When visiting the ancestral home of her husband, Frank, Claire stumbles through the rocks at Craigh na Dun, which takes her back in time.
Unable to easily find her way back, the sassy lady leans on handsome laird Jamie for protection, and soon, they are in love.
- 2/5/2024
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
Plans have been in development for a prequel series to the Starz hit, Outlander, and as the show got the season eight renewal, the network would almost simultaneously greenlight the prequel show. Now, Blood of My Blood is announcing its new cast of actors. The premium movie network has confirmed that the prequel will follow the parents of both Jamie and Claire. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blood of My Blood has started filming in Scotland.
The main cast that have been announced include Harriet Slater, seen in Pennyworth, and Jamie Roy, known for Lifetime’s Your Boyfriend Is Mine), who will play Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser, and will eventually become Jamie’s parents in 18th century Scotland. Additionally, Hermione Corfield, whose credits include We Hunt Together, and Jeremy Irvine who was featured in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, are on board to play Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp,...
The main cast that have been announced include Harriet Slater, seen in Pennyworth, and Jamie Roy, known for Lifetime’s Your Boyfriend Is Mine), who will play Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser, and will eventually become Jamie’s parents in 18th century Scotland. Additionally, Hermione Corfield, whose credits include We Hunt Together, and Jeremy Irvine who was featured in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, are on board to play Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp,...
- 2/5/2024
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
Outlander‘s prequel spinoff Outlander: Blood of My Blood is getting underway as Starz unveils the cast and start of production on the project, which will follow the romances of Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) parents as well as Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) parents. That’s right, the show will be set in two times focusing on two different couples as production on the 10-episode season kicks off in Scotland. Joining the show in key roles are Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie, Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser, Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston, and Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp. As previously revealed, Blood of My Blood explores the lives and relationship of Jamie’s parents, Ellen and Brian, but the addition of Claire’s parents Julia and Henry is all new. The show will center on these two parallel love stories set in vastly different time periods, with Jamie’s parents in...
- 2/5/2024
- TV Insider
Based on Joshua Davis’s 2013 article for Wired, “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses,” Radical, a stirring, poignant drama co-written and adapted by Christopher Zalla (Blood of My Blood), literally and figuratively revolves around Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary School in Matamoros, Mexico. A town on the U.S/Mexico border, Matamoros suffers from crushing poverty, dilapidated infrastructure, and gang-related violence. It’s as hopeless a city or town — depressingly, painfully real by all accounts — as any put on Spanish-language, Mexico-set film since Luis Buñuel’s award-winning classic, Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones) almost 75 years ago. Unlike Issa Lopez’s recent — and it should be added, excellent — horror-thriller hybrid, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Radical centers the drama on the elementary school itself, the...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/3/2023
- Screen Anarchy
The second TelevisaUnivision movie from Salma Hayek Pinault’s Ventanarosa Productions will get its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
El Sabor de la Navidad (working title A Merry Mexican Christmas) will bow Sept. 13 as part of TIFF’s special presentations program before becoming available on the Spanish-language streaming platform ViX in November.
In the tradition of many holiday classics, El Sabor de la Navidad will follow three storylines that inevitably converge in the third act. All set in Mexico City during Christmastime, the first story follows an estranged daughter seeking reconciliation with her family; the second spotlights two rival Santa Clauses in Alameda Central Park; and the third features a lonely chef who cooks Christmas dinners for other families catching feelings for her assistant.
The romantic comedy stars Mariana Treviño (A Man Called Otto, House of Flowers), Andrés Almeida (Y tu mamá también, Ana), Armando Hernández (Blood of My Blood,...
El Sabor de la Navidad (working title A Merry Mexican Christmas) will bow Sept. 13 as part of TIFF’s special presentations program before becoming available on the Spanish-language streaming platform ViX in November.
In the tradition of many holiday classics, El Sabor de la Navidad will follow three storylines that inevitably converge in the third act. All set in Mexico City during Christmastime, the first story follows an estranged daughter seeking reconciliation with her family; the second spotlights two rival Santa Clauses in Alameda Central Park; and the third features a lonely chef who cooks Christmas dinners for other families catching feelings for her assistant.
The romantic comedy stars Mariana Treviño (A Man Called Otto, House of Flowers), Andrés Almeida (Y tu mamá también, Ana), Armando Hernández (Blood of My Blood,...
- 8/10/2023
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
My experience last November at Los Cabos International Film Festival was fabulous! Set up to promote film coproduction and financing among Mexico, U.S., and Canada, the festival allowed all of us to be very close and connected to our peers in the business – international sales agents, writers of all kinds, programmers and filmmakers. There we met the bright new talent, so idealistic and yet so knowledgeable and educated about film in the world. To be able to see films, concentrate on creating business and still have time to mingle -- this is what makes a festival a happy experience.
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
Among the many people I met there, was Ben Odell, partner at 3Pas Studios, the newly launched production company that he and Mexico’s most beloved and renowned comic star and director, Eugenio Derbez, founded on the strength and success of the $100 million dollar grossing comedy, "Instructions Not Included".
The success of this film also allowed the film’s producer Monica Lozano to establish Alebrije Distribución a new distribution company which will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets.
Monica has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". Her most recent success was "Instructions Not Included", the Us$ 5.5 million film that became the highest grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S., and the second highest grossing film in any language in Mexico.
But to return to Ben and his new company, the subject of this blog: 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Tres Pas sounds like tripas, which in English means guts, or tripe. Personally, I too love tripas. Deliciosas!
I Finally met Ben at Los Cabos Film Festival. I say I "finally" met him, because we have so many friends in common and ever since I have been following Latino films and writing my book on Latin America and the film business, I had often heard of Ben as the head of production for Pantelion, U.S.'s only sustained and successful Latino film distributor.
Last September, when Strategic Partners’ Laura Mackenzie in Halifax invited me to moderate a panel on “The Games Maker”, an Argentinean-Canadian-Italian coproduction, Ben’s name was prominent as the one who made the match between Argentina’s Juan Pablo Buscarini and Canada’s Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts.
I always had him pictured as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him.
I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latino side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said, "I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben's connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the "U.S. Latino market" per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality -- that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth ,Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world's emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
The society is totally feudal. Workers labor for the companies for 28 days of the month and on the last two days they are allowed to keep whatever they find. Victor Carranza ran everything. He was The Don, violent and scary. A small man, about 5'2". He died in prison worth over a billion dollars.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like "The Fugitive".
There is a drug, called Burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. He once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can't get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was "Fuego verde", like the 1954 Hollywood movie, “ Green Fire” starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including “Fuego Verde” -- the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, “ Golpe de estadio”, which was nominated for Spain's Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia's nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, "Golpe de estadio", (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d'état”but it also could mean “Coup d’ Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers. The two sides declare a sort of truce so that they can all watch the match between Colombia and Argentina on the only working TV in the town. Colombia wins the game, 5 to 0, (a victory, in real life, infamous in the annals of world cup) and of course the Colombian police and guerrilla find themselves cheering for the same team.
"Golpe" was released in theaters in 1999 while the drug wars and war between the guerrillas and the government were moving into peace talks. It came out during the war, and Ben naively believed it could make tangible impact on the country. Instead they received death threats. It was a very volatile time.
He left Colombia and put together a business plan to make movies for Latino audiences. He was too green and he was way ahead of his time so instead he went to film school at Columbia University.
He went to film school thinking it was only to network and realized he knew nothing about film writing or production. "Going to film school's more valuable if a student already has some experience," Ben says.
"Confess", a feature length film he produced in his second year of film school (2005) was one of his thesis projects. It was made for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Ali Larter and Melissa Leo starred in it (way before she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Role in “The Fighter”). The movie was about a disgruntled computer hacker of mixed race, who struggles to adjust to life after a jaunt in prison. He takes his anger online forcing confessions out of those who slighted him. Eventually his focus becomes political. “It had all the trappings of a first time filmmaker. But conceptually it was scratching the surface of trends that wouldn’t appear online until years later. This was several years before YouTube took hold, which is a lifetime in human years.”
"For my second film, we had Scorsese as an executive producer. When we started preproduction we quickly discovered that one of our two investors really didn’t have the money. He signed a contract to invest while he was still trying to raise the funds“
At this point in our discussion Ben and I went off on a tangent...Money that falls out at the last minute is such a common story. Do these guys think the money will come just because they have "bet" on it, using the film as collateral?... Do they just want to go for the ride, as far as they can go?... are they sociopaths, liars, gamblers, on drugs or what? I remember when I worked at Ifa (until it became ICM); at the Motion Picture Division's meetings that Mike Medavoy held every week, agents would sometimes report on someone wanting to invest in film, and once Mike said "No. Not him. He has a very bad reputation, and his money is not good. We don't want that kind of money." But young producers know very little about vetting financial prospects.
This digression is only to illustrate the fact that that in this person-to-person business it is important to know who you are dealing with.
But Odell’s luck was going to change. Just a few weeks after the implosion of the film, he got an email from Jim McNamara. NBC had bought McNamara's Telemundo for Us$ 3 billion . McNamara had been CEO of New World, a position once held by Harry Sloan and Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer went off to Sony TV which had a majority stake in Telemundo. McNamara, who had just been president of Universal TV worldwide, was brought in to run Telemundo
After leaving Telemundo, he went back to Feltheimer, in the early days of building Lionsgate, to discuss his new idea. At the time -- this was 2006 -- there were two Spanish language networks, 600 Spanish language radio stations, 2,000 Spanish language newspapers, and no one was making movies in Spanish. Felt liked it and they made a deal. Panamax was born.
McNamara knew of Odell when he was buying TV series for Telemundo. He bought a lot of the TV shows Odell had written.
Panamax’ made a six picture deal with Lionsgate. Odell became President of Production at Panamax Films and produced many feature films and TV movies both in Spanish and in English for the Hispanic market.
On one of their first scouting trips, Odell and McNamara went to see a play called “Latinologues” written by Rick Najera. In it, there was a Mexican actor named Eugenio Derbez. Derbez was known only for Spanish language TV at the time. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his own shows for Televisa. These shows also played on Univision in the U.S. and were building a huge fan base in both countries as well as much of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latinologues was made up of multiple monologues from different actors playing roles as Latino archetypes. Derbez did three or four different characters. “When he came on stage,” recalls Odell, “He was electrifying, hilarious, magnetic. And then I met him afterwards. He was the humblest man, quiet, and a bit shy. I realized what an amazing talent he was, he had that ‘it factor’ – when he turned it on, it turned on the room.”
At the time Odell and McNamara were packaging a project called "Under the Same Moon" and suggested Derbez for a role. They flew the director, Patricia Riggen, to N.Y. to meet him. While Lionsgate ended up not financing the project, Derbez stayed in the picture. “Looking back, I think a significant part of why that movie did $20 million in box office between U.S. and Mexico, was Eugenio. He was already a mega star. No one really knew it in the general market because they weren’t paying attention to the success of his shows. Hollywood tends to ignore the Spanish speaking market, but the U.S. is the second biggest Spanish speaking country in the world and Eugenio has built a huge following there.”
Ben also made the art house Spanish language thriller, "Padre Nuestro" in 2007 which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC changed the title to “Sangre de mi Sangre” for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay. Odell also produced “Un Cuento Chino” aka “Chinese Take-Out” (a Spanish/ Argentinean co-production), starring Argentina’s most popular actor, Ricardo Darin (“El Secreto de los Ojos”), written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. In Spanish, referring to a story as a cuento chino is equivalent to calling it a tall tale.
“Chino” was the top grossing Argentinean film of 2011 and one of the highest grossing Argentinean films of all times. In its international release it has broken box office records for Latin American films in both Latin America and Europe. It won the Argentinean Academy Award for best feature and the Goya, the Spanish Academy Award, for Best Latin American Film. It won numerous festivals including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
When Odell was developing the script with Borensztein in 2009, he sent the script to Derbez, who immediately expressed interested in remaking it. “I loved the original story and movie,” Derbez said. “There is a heartfelt relationship that develops between these two very different people set around a whimsical, comical and magical world.”
Odell was also an executive producer on the English language 3D family thriller, “ The Games Maker”, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Made as a coproduction with Disney Latin America, the movie was produced in Argentina by Pampa Films and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini, one of the producers of “Un Cuento Chino”. It was released widely across Latin America in the summer of 2014 and continues its theatrical release around the world.
Several years into Panamax’s deal with Lionsgate, a joint venture was created between Panamax, Televisa and Lionsgate called Pantelion Films. McNamara became chairman of Pantelion and Ben became President of Production.
Under the new deal he produced the 2012 coming of age comedy “Girl in Progress”, directed by “Under the Same Moon” director Patricia Riggen and staring Eva Mendes, Eugenio Derbez, Mathew Modine and Patricia Arquette
His most recent film was the inspirational true story, “Spare Parts”, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei which was released in January 2015.
While Eugenio was making his breakout film "Instructions not Included” neither he nor Ben had any idea it would be so big. “Instructions Not Included,” was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
The two realized, this was The One Time In A Career To Capitalize, and they decided to go together, to focus on brand-building, based on Eugenio's popularity and to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. Together they formed 3pas Studios which signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014.
They are in development on many feature films including “Un Cuento Chino”, a remake of the French comedy, “The Valet” and an untitled original script about an aging Latin lover from writers Chris Spain and Jon Zack (“The Perfect Storm”) which Derbez will star in and produce with Ben.
“We are developing multiple projects with an eye to shooting one at the end of 2015,” Odell said.
Meantime, Eugenio Derbez just filmed roles in Warner Brothers’ “Geostorm” with Gerard Butler and Sony Pictures “ Miracles from Heaven” with Jennifer Garner, and Queen Latifah. The latter was directed by Patricia Riggen who directed Derbez in both “Under the Same Moon” and “Girl in Progress”.
Ben is sure that his producing partner will go way beyond his current core Latino market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”...
- 8/5/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Mexican actor, director, writer and producer Eugenio Derbez, the star of Pantelion Films' breakout hit Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S., has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Pantelion Films, the collaboration between next generation global content leader Lionsgate (NYSE: Lgf) and Mexican media corporation Grupo Televisa, the parties announced today. Derbez, through his newly-launched 3Pas ('tripas") Studios production company, a partnership with former Pantelion President of Production Benjamin Odell, will focus on Spanish and English-language films targeted at Latino and crossover audiences in the Us.
Pantelion Films CEO Paul Presburger said:
"We are thrilled to take our longstanding relationship with Eugenio to the next level. He is a true auteur in every sense of the word, and he has an amazing ability to tap into the shared passions of Latino and American audiences. Teaming up with such an enormous talent cements...
Pantelion Films CEO Paul Presburger said:
"We are thrilled to take our longstanding relationship with Eugenio to the next level. He is a true auteur in every sense of the word, and he has an amazing ability to tap into the shared passions of Latino and American audiences. Teaming up with such an enormous talent cements...
- 9/5/2014
- by Kellvin Chavez
- LRMonline.com
Eugenio Derbez, writer, director and star of hit Spanish-language comedy Instructions Not Included, has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Lionsgate/Grupo Televisa’s Pantelion Films, staying in business with the label that released his record-setting Spanish-language pic last year. The pact was made via Derbez’s newly launched 3PasStudios, a partnership with former Pantelion president of production Benjamin Odell. 3Pas will focus on Spanish- and English-language films targeted at Latino and crossover audiences in the U.S.
Instructions Not Included became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. when it opened last year. Pantelion also is behind biopic Cantinflas which has pulled in $3.6M since it opened last weekend in 382 theaters.
Derbez’s credits include Under The Same Moon, also among the highest-grossing Spanish language films released in the U.S. He and Odell first worked together on Sangre de Mi Sangre in 2006, starring Derbez, which...
Instructions Not Included became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. when it opened last year. Pantelion also is behind biopic Cantinflas which has pulled in $3.6M since it opened last weekend in 382 theaters.
Derbez’s credits include Under The Same Moon, also among the highest-grossing Spanish language films released in the U.S. He and Odell first worked together on Sangre de Mi Sangre in 2006, starring Derbez, which...
- 9/5/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
This week, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner "Fruitvale Station" will open in theaters, but 23 past Sundance Grand Jury Prize winners are currently available to stream for free or with a subscription to one of the more popular streaming sites. Read More: Here's 10 Of Our Favorite Sundance Jury Prize Winners, In Honor Of 'Fruitvale Station' Take a trip through Sundance history with these sometimes beloved, sometimes forgotten Sundance winners from yesteryear. U.S. Grand Jury Prize Dramatic Free "The Trouble with Dick" (1987) on Vimeo "What Happened Was" (1994) on Hulu "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (1996) on CrackleSUBSCRIPTION "You Can Count on Me" (2000) on Amazon Prime "Primer" (2004) on Netflix "Forty Shades of Blue" (2005) on Redbox Instant "Padre Nuestro" (2007) on Netflix "Like Crazy" (2011) on Netflix U.S. Grand Jury Prize Documentary Free "American Dream" (1991) on Hulu "American Movie" (1999) on Crackle "God Grew Tired of Us" (2006) on Hulu "We Live in...
- 7/11/2013
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
And More We Learned From The Director Of The Sundance Award-Winning Romance The Sundance Grand Jury Prize is traditionally something of a kiss of death for an indie, in terms of gaining a wider audience. Irrespective of the quality of the film, the likes of "Girls Town," "Sunday," "Three Seasons," "Slam," "Forty Shades of Blue," "Quinceanera" and "Padre Nuestro" never really set the world alight, did they? But things have changed in recent years, with the last two winners, "Precious" and "Winter's Bone," both picking up Best Picture Academy Award nominations, and this year's victorious movie has just as good…...
- 10/26/2011
- The Playlist
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.
This week Cars 2 gives sequels a bad name, and Bad Teacher attempts to cash in on the R-rated comedy wave, while limited release offers A Better Life and discovers Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. Now, if these features can’t fulfill your need for animated tales of triumph, rotten role models, immigrant-centered drama and sidesplitting tour docs, don’t fret. We’ve got a line up that’s sure keep you on the edge of your seat as you kick back in your AC!
— — —
Cars 2
Larry the Cable Guy returns to voice the buck-toothed pick-up truck Mater, who falls into a world of international espionage as his buddy Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) spins his wheels abroad. Michael Caine, John Turturro and Eddie Izzard join the free-wheelin’ cast.
This week Cars 2 gives sequels a bad name, and Bad Teacher attempts to cash in on the R-rated comedy wave, while limited release offers A Better Life and discovers Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. Now, if these features can’t fulfill your need for animated tales of triumph, rotten role models, immigrant-centered drama and sidesplitting tour docs, don’t fret. We’ve got a line up that’s sure keep you on the edge of your seat as you kick back in your AC!
— — —
Cars 2
Larry the Cable Guy returns to voice the buck-toothed pick-up truck Mater, who falls into a world of international espionage as his buddy Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) spins his wheels abroad. Michael Caine, John Turturro and Eddie Izzard join the free-wheelin’ cast.
- 6/23/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
Roadside Attractions is releasing both Good Hair and From Mexico with Love today. We all know about Good Hair, the Toronto premiering doc by Chris Rock inspired by his daughter’s hair styling concerns. Check out Roadside Attraction’s Facebook Page and you’ll see more on this hands-down, well-loved film.
It’s From Mexico with Love which offers the challenge and possible new insights into distribution to the niche Mexican audience. Starring Kuno Becker a big star in Mexico and known here for the Goal Films and costarring Danay Garcia, a well loved Mexican telenovela star who also has a regular role in Fox's upcoming series Prison Break, it will be released on 281 screens in California, New Mexico and Arizona. (Good Hair will go out on 185 screens.)
The film is a Rocky-esque inspirational story in which a washed-up trainer takes a self-destructive young boxer under his wing. It is...
It’s From Mexico with Love which offers the challenge and possible new insights into distribution to the niche Mexican audience. Starring Kuno Becker a big star in Mexico and known here for the Goal Films and costarring Danay Garcia, a well loved Mexican telenovela star who also has a regular role in Fox's upcoming series Prison Break, it will be released on 281 screens in California, New Mexico and Arizona. (Good Hair will go out on 185 screens.)
The film is a Rocky-esque inspirational story in which a washed-up trainer takes a self-destructive young boxer under his wing. It is...
- 11/29/2009
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Comicbook scribe Philip Gelatt is making his helming debut with indie County Road K" a twist on the home-invasion horror genre, reports Variety. "I'm fascinated by the macabre little stories that occur off the main roads of Middle America, and 'County Road K' is exactly that kind of tale: small, twisted and unsettling," said Gelatt, who also penned the script. Gelatt sold his first graphic novel series, "Labor Days," to Oni Press. He has also worked on Dark Horse and Lucasfilm's "Indiana Jones Adventures" comicbook. He recently wrote a draft of "Nurse 3D" for Lionsgate. "County" producers are former HDNet Films exec Will Battersby and former Deutsch/Open City exec Tory Tunnell (both were producers on 2007's "Trumbo") and Per Melita (Sundance winner "Sangre de mi sangre"). "Trumbo" helmer Peter Askin exec produces. Project is set to star Patrick Breen ("Cirque du Freak"), Alexandra Chando, Nina Lisandrello and Charlie Hewson.
- 10/26/2009
- bloody-disgusting.com
Another year at the movies and another list of top ten films. I personally believe the rumors about 2008 are all true -- it has been a bad year for movies. How else can you explain so many mediocre titles ending up on all the top ten lists everywhere? My personal list is just as disjointed. I only gave four stars to my top pick and three-and-a-half to the three other titles below it. The rest of my top ten list is made up of three star movies that moved me in one way or another. That's pretty sad considering I usually have an abundance of four stars movies to choose from. Let's just get right down to it, starting with my honorable mentions. Honorable Mentions (In alphabetical order) Baghead, Ballast, Bigger, Stronger, Faster, CJ7, Changeling, Dear Zachary, Funny Games, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Religulous, Sangre De Mi Sangre, Shotgun Stories,...
- 1/1/2009
- by Marco Cerritos
- firstshowing.net
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
It’s impossible to pay attention to all the movie awards announcements each year, because there are just so many of them. But the Independent Spirit Awards is one of the second tier (read: non-Academy/Globe) Awards shows that I actually respect and pa attention to. Today the 2009 Indie Spirit nominations were announced. Frozen River and Ballast lead with six nominations each, followed by Rachel Getting Married with five nominations, The Wrestler, Milk, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Visitor with three each. Take a look at the full list below: Best Feature Ballast Frozen River Rachel Getting Married Wendy and Lucy The Wrestler Best First Feature Afterschool Medicine for Melancholy Sangre De Mi Sangre Sleep Dealer Synecdoche, New York Best Director Ramin Bahrani - Chop [...]...
- 12/3/2008
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
By Stephen Saito
Jason Bateman and Sandra Oh braved the early call time this morning in Los Angeles to announce this year's nominees for the Spirit Awards. The awards will take place on February 21st, and will be broadcast live and uncut on IFC at 5pm Et/2pm PT. Here are the nominees:
Best Feature
"Ballast"
Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
"Frozen River"
Producers: Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae
"Rachel Getting Married"
Producers: Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt
"Wendy and Lucy"
Producers: Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani
"The Wrestler"
Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin
Best Director
Ramin Bahrani, "Chop Shop"
Jonathan Demme, "Rachel Getting Married"
Lance Hammer, "Ballast"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Thomas McCarthy, "The Visitor"
Best First Feature
"Afterschool"
Director: Antonio Campos
Producers: Sean Durkin, Josh Mond
"Medicine for Melancholy"
Director: Barry Jenkins
Producer: Justin Barber
"Sangre de Mi Sangre"
Director: Christopher Zalla
Producers: Per Melita, Benjamin Odell
"Sleep Dealer"
Director: Alex Rivera
Producer: Anthony Bregman
"Synechdoce, New York"
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Producers: Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sidney Kimmel
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
"In Search of a Midnight Kiss"
Writer/Director: Alex Holdridge
Producers: Seth Caplan and Scoot McNairy
"Prince of Broadway"
Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Darren Dean
Producer: Darren Dean
"The Signal"
Writer/Directors: David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry
Producers: Jacob Gentry and Alexander Motiagh
"Take Out"
Writer/Directors/Producers: Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou
"Turn the River"
Writer/Director: Chris Eigeman
Producer: Ami Armstrong
Best First Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Lance Hammer, "Ballast"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Jonathan Levine, "The Wackness"
Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Screenplay
Woody Allen, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, "Sugar"
Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York"
Howard A. Rodman, "Savage Grace"
Christopher Zalla, "Sangre de Mi Sangre"
Best Female Lead
Summer Bishil, "Towelhead"
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Tarra Riggs, "Ballast"
Michelle Williams, "Wendy and Lucy"
Best Male Lead
Javier Bardem, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Best Supporting Female
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married"
Rosie Perez, "The Take"
Misty Upham, "Frozen River"
Debra Winger, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Supporting Male
James Franco, "Milk"
Anthony Mackie, "The Hurt Locker"
Charlie McDermott, "Frozen River"
JimMyron Ross, "Ballast"
Haaz Sleiman, "The Visitor"
Best Cinematography
Maryse Alberti, "The Wrestler"
Lol Crowley, "Ballast"
James Laxton, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Harris Savides, "Milk"
Michael Simmonds, "Chop Shop"
Best Documentary
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
Director: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
"Encounters at the End of the World"
Director: Werner Herzog
"Man on Wire"
Director: James Marsh
"The Order of Myths"
Director: Margaret Brown
"Up the Yangtze"
Director: Yung Chang
Best Foreign Film
"The Class" (France)
Director: Laurent Cantet
"Gomorrah" (Italy)
Director: Matteo Garrone
"Hunger" (UK/Ireland)
Director: Steve McQueen
"Secret of the Grain" (France)
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
"Silent Light" (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany)
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)
"Synecdoche, New York"
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Williams
Someone to Watch Award
Barry Jenkins, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Nina Paley, "Sita Sings the Blues"
Lynn Shelton, "My Effortless Brilliance"
Truer Than Fiction Award
Margaret Brown, "The Order of Myths"
Sacha Gervasi, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
Darius Marder, "Loot"
Producers Award
Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy, "Treeless Mountain" and "I'll Come Running"
Jason Orans, "Goodbye Solo" and "Year of the Fish"
Heather Rae, "Frozen River" and "Ibid"...
Jason Bateman and Sandra Oh braved the early call time this morning in Los Angeles to announce this year's nominees for the Spirit Awards. The awards will take place on February 21st, and will be broadcast live and uncut on IFC at 5pm Et/2pm PT. Here are the nominees:
Best Feature
"Ballast"
Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
"Frozen River"
Producers: Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae
"Rachel Getting Married"
Producers: Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt
"Wendy and Lucy"
Producers: Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani
"The Wrestler"
Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin
Best Director
Ramin Bahrani, "Chop Shop"
Jonathan Demme, "Rachel Getting Married"
Lance Hammer, "Ballast"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Thomas McCarthy, "The Visitor"
Best First Feature
"Afterschool"
Director: Antonio Campos
Producers: Sean Durkin, Josh Mond
"Medicine for Melancholy"
Director: Barry Jenkins
Producer: Justin Barber
"Sangre de Mi Sangre"
Director: Christopher Zalla
Producers: Per Melita, Benjamin Odell
"Sleep Dealer"
Director: Alex Rivera
Producer: Anthony Bregman
"Synechdoce, New York"
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Producers: Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sidney Kimmel
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
"In Search of a Midnight Kiss"
Writer/Director: Alex Holdridge
Producers: Seth Caplan and Scoot McNairy
"Prince of Broadway"
Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Darren Dean
Producer: Darren Dean
"The Signal"
Writer/Directors: David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry
Producers: Jacob Gentry and Alexander Motiagh
"Take Out"
Writer/Directors/Producers: Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou
"Turn the River"
Writer/Director: Chris Eigeman
Producer: Ami Armstrong
Best First Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Lance Hammer, "Ballast"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Jonathan Levine, "The Wackness"
Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Screenplay
Woody Allen, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, "Sugar"
Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York"
Howard A. Rodman, "Savage Grace"
Christopher Zalla, "Sangre de Mi Sangre"
Best Female Lead
Summer Bishil, "Towelhead"
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Tarra Riggs, "Ballast"
Michelle Williams, "Wendy and Lucy"
Best Male Lead
Javier Bardem, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Best Supporting Female
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married"
Rosie Perez, "The Take"
Misty Upham, "Frozen River"
Debra Winger, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Supporting Male
James Franco, "Milk"
Anthony Mackie, "The Hurt Locker"
Charlie McDermott, "Frozen River"
JimMyron Ross, "Ballast"
Haaz Sleiman, "The Visitor"
Best Cinematography
Maryse Alberti, "The Wrestler"
Lol Crowley, "Ballast"
James Laxton, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Harris Savides, "Milk"
Michael Simmonds, "Chop Shop"
Best Documentary
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
Director: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
"Encounters at the End of the World"
Director: Werner Herzog
"Man on Wire"
Director: James Marsh
"The Order of Myths"
Director: Margaret Brown
"Up the Yangtze"
Director: Yung Chang
Best Foreign Film
"The Class" (France)
Director: Laurent Cantet
"Gomorrah" (Italy)
Director: Matteo Garrone
"Hunger" (UK/Ireland)
Director: Steve McQueen
"Secret of the Grain" (France)
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
"Silent Light" (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany)
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)
"Synecdoche, New York"
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Williams
Someone to Watch Award
Barry Jenkins, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Nina Paley, "Sita Sings the Blues"
Lynn Shelton, "My Effortless Brilliance"
Truer Than Fiction Award
Margaret Brown, "The Order of Myths"
Sacha Gervasi, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
Darius Marder, "Loot"
Producers Award
Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy, "Treeless Mountain" and "I'll Come Running"
Jason Orans, "Goodbye Solo" and "Year of the Fish"
Heather Rae, "Frozen River" and "Ibid"...
- 12/2/2008
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
With six nominations each, "Ballast," a drama about survival in the Mississippi Delta, "Frozen River," a portrait of two single moms on the Canadian border, and "Rachel Getting Married," the account of a dysfunctional family wedding, led the nominees for Film Independent's Spirit Awards, announced Tuesday morning.
All three films were nominated for best feature along "Wendy and Lucy" and "The Wrestler."
Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York," a twisty, M.C. Escher-like film, was singled out as the winner of the group's Robert Altman Award, give to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast. Kaufman will share the award with casting director Jeanne McCarthy and his actors Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, and Michelle Williams when the Spirit Awards are handed out Feb. 21.
"Synecdoche" also figure in the best first feature lineup, along with Antonio Campos' "Afterschool,...
All three films were nominated for best feature along "Wendy and Lucy" and "The Wrestler."
Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York," a twisty, M.C. Escher-like film, was singled out as the winner of the group's Robert Altman Award, give to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast. Kaufman will share the award with casting director Jeanne McCarthy and his actors Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, and Michelle Williams when the Spirit Awards are handed out Feb. 21.
"Synecdoche" also figure in the best first feature lineup, along with Antonio Campos' "Afterschool,...
- 12/2/2008
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- I’m getting to this a little late today – I had morning and afternoon screenings for Milk and Doubt respectively, but for the most part I’m pleased by some of the names and film titles that were nominated in the fifteen categories and especially glad to see that Lance Hammer’s Ballast grabbed six nominations but I’m perplexed by one of the two films it shares a total of six nominations with. Perhaps I need to see Frozen River for a second time --- with the exception of Melissa Leo’s perf, I couldn’t help but feel that everything came across as manufactured, by the numbers and that it played out like a Hollywood movie rather than a poignant indie film with a punch. Below you’ll find the different categories, the nominations and some commentary on my part on who will win and who should win.
- 12/2/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Crossing the U.S. border illegally comes with its own unique paranoia and feelings of "otherness," but once immigrants arrive in the States, they can often find strength in numbers, by nestling into one of the cities-within-cities that exist apart from the American mainstream. In Christopher Zalla's debut film, Sangre De Mi Sangre, two young Mexicans make their way to New York City and promptly get swallowed up by a thicket of ghettos, bodegas, vacant lots, and job sites. One of the boys, Armando Hernández, tries to get an edge by assuming the identity of the other boy, Jorge Adrian Espíndola, so he can con his way into the home of Espíndola's father, who's rumored to be a wealthy restaurant owner. In actuality, the dad (played by Jesús Ochoa) works in a kitchen, and does odd jobs to make ends meet—not all of them above-board. And while Ochoa is Espíndola's father,...
- 5/15/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
By Neil Pedley
After last week's ridiculously crowded release schedule, this week's is somewhat more manageable.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"
Fans salivating at the prospect of some post-Middle Earth fantasy creature smackdown were left disappointed last time around as, for all its promise, initial "Narnia" installment "The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe" possessed about as much bite as a hibernating tortoise. Looking to fill the hole left by a certain boy wizard in the summer release schedule, the second adventure into Narnia sees the four Pevensie siblings summoned back to the fantastical world to find that 1300 years have passed and their former kingdom lies in ruins. Joining forces with heir to the throne Prince Caspian (Ben Bames), the children lead a renegade army into battle against the tyrannical King Miraz, seeking to restore Narnia and bring about peace once more.
Opens wide.
"My Father, My Lord"
The...
After last week's ridiculously crowded release schedule, this week's is somewhat more manageable.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"
Fans salivating at the prospect of some post-Middle Earth fantasy creature smackdown were left disappointed last time around as, for all its promise, initial "Narnia" installment "The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe" possessed about as much bite as a hibernating tortoise. Looking to fill the hole left by a certain boy wizard in the summer release schedule, the second adventure into Narnia sees the four Pevensie siblings summoned back to the fantastical world to find that 1300 years have passed and their former kingdom lies in ruins. Joining forces with heir to the throne Prince Caspian (Ben Bames), the children lead a renegade army into battle against the tyrannical King Miraz, seeking to restore Narnia and bring about peace once more.
Opens wide.
"My Father, My Lord"
The...
- 5/12/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
- Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage (receiving its U.S release on December 28th) and Emilio Martinez Lazaro’s 13 Roses have been nominated for a whopping 14 nominations apiece for the 2007 'Spanish Oscars' also known as the Goyas. Here the complete rundown of the categories. The 22nd Goya Awards will take place on the first weekend in February. And The Nominees Are... Picture"The Orphanage""Solitary Fragments""13 Roses""Seven Billiards Tables"ACTRESSBlanca Portillo, "Seven Billiards Tables"Belen Rueda, "The Orphanage"Emma Suarez, "Under the Stars"Maribel Verdu, "Seven Billiards Tables"ACTORAlfredo Landa, "Sunday Light"Alvaro de Luna, "El prado de las estrellas"Alberto San Juan, "Under the Stars"Tristan Ulloa, "Mataharis"Supporting ACTRESSAmparo Baro, "Seven Billiards Tables"Geraldine Chaplin, "The Orphanage"Nuria Gonzalez, "Mataharis"Maria Vazquez, “Mataharis”Supporting ACTORRaul Arevalo, "Seven Billiards Tables"Jose Manuel Cervino, "13 Roses"Julian Villagran, "Under the Stars"Emilio Gutierrez Cava, " Suso's Tower"Carlos Larranaga, "Sunday Light"Breakthrough Performance,
- 12/17/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
The animated film "Persepolis", from France, Denys Arcand's "Days of Darkness" from Canada, Johnnie To's "Exiled" from Hong Kong and Cristian Mungiu's Palm d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" are among the 63 films that have qualified for Oscar consideration in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' foreign language film category.
The record number of 63 entries include first-time submissions from Azerbaijan (Farid Gumbatov's "Caucasia") and Ireland (Tom Collins' "Kings").
Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 22, and the Oscars will be handed out Feb. 24.
The complete list follows:
Argentina, "XXY", Lucia Puenzo, director; Australia, "The Home Song Stories", Tony Ayres; Austria, "The Counterfeiters", Stefan Ruzowitzky; Azerbaijan, "Caucasia", Farid Gumbatov; Bangladesh, "On the Wings of Dreams", Golam Rabbany, Biplob; Belgium, "Ben X", Nic Balthazar; Bosnia and Herzegovina, "It's Hard to Be Nice", Srdan Vuletic; Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Cao Hamburger; and Bulgaria, "Warden of the Dead", Ilian Simeonov.
Canada, "Days of Darkness", Denys Arcand; Chile, "Padre Nuestro", Rodrigo Sepulveda; China, "The Knot", Yin Li; Colombia, "Satanas", Andi Baiz; Croatia, "Armin", Ognjen Svilicic; Cuba, "The Silly Age", Pavel Giroud; Czech Republic, "I Served the King of England", Jiri Menzel, director; Denmark, "The Art of Crying", Peter Schonau Fog; Egypt, "In the Heliopolis Flat", Mohamed Khan; and Estonia, "The Class", Ilmar Raag.
The record number of 63 entries include first-time submissions from Azerbaijan (Farid Gumbatov's "Caucasia") and Ireland (Tom Collins' "Kings").
Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 22, and the Oscars will be handed out Feb. 24.
The complete list follows:
Argentina, "XXY", Lucia Puenzo, director; Australia, "The Home Song Stories", Tony Ayres; Austria, "The Counterfeiters", Stefan Ruzowitzky; Azerbaijan, "Caucasia", Farid Gumbatov; Bangladesh, "On the Wings of Dreams", Golam Rabbany, Biplob; Belgium, "Ben X", Nic Balthazar; Bosnia and Herzegovina, "It's Hard to Be Nice", Srdan Vuletic; Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Cao Hamburger; and Bulgaria, "Warden of the Dead", Ilian Simeonov.
Canada, "Days of Darkness", Denys Arcand; Chile, "Padre Nuestro", Rodrigo Sepulveda; China, "The Knot", Yin Li; Colombia, "Satanas", Andi Baiz; Croatia, "Armin", Ognjen Svilicic; Cuba, "The Silly Age", Pavel Giroud; Czech Republic, "I Served the King of England", Jiri Menzel, director; Denmark, "The Art of Crying", Peter Schonau Fog; Egypt, "In the Heliopolis Flat", Mohamed Khan; and Estonia, "The Class", Ilmar Raag.
- 10/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MEXICO CITY -- Juan Antonio Bayona's horror film The Orphanage and Christopher Zalla's immigrant drama Padre Nuestro will bookend the fifth edition of the Morelia International Film Festival, one of Mexico's top movie showcases.
In all, 76 films will unspool in official competition at the Oct. 5-14 festival, organizers said Wednesday.
Opener The Orphanage is produced by Guillermo Del Toro, Spain's Telecinco and Rodar y Rodar, with the participation of Warner Bros. Prods. Spain. Picturehouse is handling U.S. distribution for the film, which was recently tabbed for an English-language remake by New Line.
Closing the festival is Padre Nuestro, winner of the Sundance grand jury prize for best U.S. drama.
In past editions, only documentaries and shorts were permitted to enter competition at Morelia. This year, however, the festival has added a feature-length fiction section for first- and second-time Mexican directors.
Among the features in competition are Cochochi, which bowed at the Venice Film Festival, and La Zona, winner of the International Critics' Award at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
In all, 76 films will unspool in official competition at the Oct. 5-14 festival, organizers said Wednesday.
Opener The Orphanage is produced by Guillermo Del Toro, Spain's Telecinco and Rodar y Rodar, with the participation of Warner Bros. Prods. Spain. Picturehouse is handling U.S. distribution for the film, which was recently tabbed for an English-language remake by New Line.
Closing the festival is Padre Nuestro, winner of the Sundance grand jury prize for best U.S. drama.
In past editions, only documentaries and shorts were permitted to enter competition at Morelia. This year, however, the festival has added a feature-length fiction section for first- and second-time Mexican directors.
Among the features in competition are Cochochi, which bowed at the Venice Film Festival, and La Zona, winner of the International Critics' Award at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
- 9/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Our own Jameson Kowalcyzk had predicted festival silverware for the first timer director and had this to say "drawing the texture and character of the city through the lens of the camera and burning it onto celluloid. Galla’s film works the mistaken-identity story archetype into an entirely character-driven film. Combined with the overall layer of grit, the end result is a nice mix of intense drama and neo-noir". It's been a long wait since the film's Park City triumphs, but finally Padre Nuestro has been bought up domestically by indie powerhouse IFC First Take. Writer-director Christopher Zalla's thriller centers on Juan (Armando Hernandez), a man running from Mexican mobsters who hops a van smuggling illegal aliens to New York and meets innocent fellow traveler Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola). Pedro is searching for his father (Jesus Ochoa) in hopes of handing over an unopened letter from his dead
- 9/21/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
NEW YORK -- Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner Padre Nuestro has been snapped up for North American distribution by IFC Entertainment.
Writer-director Christopher Zalla's thriller centers on Juan (Armando Hernandez), a man running from Mexican mobsters who hops a van smuggling illegal aliens to New York and meets innocent fellow traveler Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola). Pedro is searching for his father (Jesus Ochoa) in hopes of handing over an unopened letter from his dead mother but awakens one day to find his belongings -- and his identity -- stolen by Juan.
Zalla's feature debut is the first Spanish-language film to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC plans a day-and-date theatrical/VOD release in the spring through its First Take program.
"We saw with Ken Loach's Palm D'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley that the collapsed window with VOD doesn't have to affect the per-screen average on a smartly executed platform release," producer Benjamin Odell said.
Writer-director Christopher Zalla's thriller centers on Juan (Armando Hernandez), a man running from Mexican mobsters who hops a van smuggling illegal aliens to New York and meets innocent fellow traveler Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola). Pedro is searching for his father (Jesus Ochoa) in hopes of handing over an unopened letter from his dead mother but awakens one day to find his belongings -- and his identity -- stolen by Juan.
Zalla's feature debut is the first Spanish-language film to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. IFC plans a day-and-date theatrical/VOD release in the spring through its First Take program.
"We saw with Ken Loach's Palm D'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley that the collapsed window with VOD doesn't have to affect the per-screen average on a smartly executed platform release," producer Benjamin Odell said.
- 9/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Institute at BAM returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music from May 31-June 10, featuring award-winning feature and short films, live performances and panel discussions.
The series opens with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' comic drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.
This year's dramatic features include Tom DiCillo's Delirious, Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, JJ Lask's On the Road With Judas, Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud.
The series also will highlight musical performances by Ljova, the Blue Jackets with Bradford Reed, Rhythm Republik and Sussan Deyhim. New York-based theater company Mabou Mines will perform selections from "Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting," directed by Ruth Maleczech, which is scheduled for full production in September.
The closing weekend will feature Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing, Raoul Peck's Lumumba and Nick Broomfield's Soldier Girls, followed by a discussion on social issues and documentary filmmaking.
The full program for the Sundance Institute at BAM will be announced in April.
The series opens with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' comic drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.
This year's dramatic features include Tom DiCillo's Delirious, Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, JJ Lask's On the Road With Judas, Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud.
The series also will highlight musical performances by Ljova, the Blue Jackets with Bradford Reed, Rhythm Republik and Sussan Deyhim. New York-based theater company Mabou Mines will perform selections from "Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting," directed by Ruth Maleczech, which is scheduled for full production in September.
The closing weekend will feature Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing, Raoul Peck's Lumumba and Nick Broomfield's Soldier Girls, followed by a discussion on social issues and documentary filmmaking.
The full program for the Sundance Institute at BAM will be announced in April.
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Novelist-turned-director Paul Auster's fantasy The Inner Life of Martin Frost and Argentinean director Alexis Dos Santos' coming-of-age feature Glue will open the 36th annual New Directors/New Films festival, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art's film department and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
The 26-feature lineup for the fest, which runs March 21-April 1, also includes recent Sundance Film Festival prizewinners from directors John Carney (Once) and Christopher Zalla (Padre Nuestro).
Other recent Sundance entries set to be screened at the festival are Andrea Arnold's Scottish thriller Red Road, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's Ugandan conflict documentary War/Dance and Craig Zobel's music biz scam exam The Great World of Sound.
Frost, based on a character in Auster's 2002 novel The Book of Illusions, stars David Thewlis as a writer haunted by bizarre characters who appear during his much-needed vacation at a country house. Irene Jacob, Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster co-star.
Paul Auster is a slightly odd choice for a fest showcasing "new or emerging international directors" given that he helmed 1998's Lulu on the Bridge and co-directed 1995's Blue in the Face with Wayne Wang.
The 26-feature lineup for the fest, which runs March 21-April 1, also includes recent Sundance Film Festival prizewinners from directors John Carney (Once) and Christopher Zalla (Padre Nuestro).
Other recent Sundance entries set to be screened at the festival are Andrea Arnold's Scottish thriller Red Road, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's Ugandan conflict documentary War/Dance and Craig Zobel's music biz scam exam The Great World of Sound.
Frost, based on a character in Auster's 2002 novel The Book of Illusions, stars David Thewlis as a writer haunted by bizarre characters who appear during his much-needed vacation at a country house. Irene Jacob, Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster co-star.
Paul Auster is a slightly odd choice for a fest showcasing "new or emerging international directors" given that he helmed 1998's Lulu on the Bridge and co-directed 1995's Blue in the Face with Wayne Wang.
- 2/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- The 2007 Sundance Film Festival Award-Winners are: The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary:Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) - Jason Kohn The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic:Padre Nuestro - Christopher ZallaThe World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary Enemies Of Happiness (Vores Lykkesfjender) - Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem. The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic:sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) Dror Shaul The Audience Award: Documentary: Hear And Now Irene Taylor BrodskyThe Audience Award: Dramatic:Grace Is Gone James C. StrouseThe World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary In The Shadow Of The Moon David SingtonThe World Cinema Audience Award: DramaticJohn Carney ONCEThe Directing Award: Documentary - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine War/Dance The Directing Award: Dramatic Jeffrey Blitz - Rocket ScienceThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Dramatic: Benoit Debie for JoshuaThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Documentary: Heloisa Passos for Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)Documentary Editing Award: Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillian, and Michael Schweitzer
- 1/28/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
PARK CITY -- The Sundance Film Festival grand jury honored Christopher Zalla's illegal immigration drama Padre Nuestro and Jason Kohn's Brazilian corruption documentary Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) with its top prizes Saturday night.
Some features seemed to justify their high sales prices with popular appeal. James C. Strouse's family drama Grace Is Gone took home the Audience Award: Dramatic, while David Sington's Apollo program chronicle In The Shadow Of The Moon won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary. They sold for $4 million to Weinstein Co. for worldwide rights and $2.5 million to $3 million to ThinkFilm for North American rights (excluding TV), respectively. Sington noted onstage that Saturday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 incident that killed three astronauts.
Two films won two awards each. Grace is Gone landed 29-year-old writer Strouse the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and Heloisa Passos was honored for documentary excellence in cinematography for Manda Bala.
"I've been a nervous wreck the entire time I've been here," said Manda Bala director Kohn after delivering an exuberant, four-letter-word-filled speech at the awards and leaving a message for his onetime boss, documentary director Errol Morris. A rep at his sales agent Cinetic Media, which hasn't yet sold the film, warned him it would be a "rollercoaster" week, with people paying attention, then not. "My self worth has gone up and down. It's definitely up now," he said.
Two-time Grace winner Strouse said after the awards that "to be honest, this was the one I was hoping for." The first-time helmer is currently looking at different projects and trying to get more of his fiction published, but a friend is trying to pull him down to Earth. "He told me 'You need to come back home. Sundance isn't the center of the world, '" he laughed.
Some features seemed to justify their high sales prices with popular appeal. James C. Strouse's family drama Grace Is Gone took home the Audience Award: Dramatic, while David Sington's Apollo program chronicle In The Shadow Of The Moon won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary. They sold for $4 million to Weinstein Co. for worldwide rights and $2.5 million to $3 million to ThinkFilm for North American rights (excluding TV), respectively. Sington noted onstage that Saturday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 incident that killed three astronauts.
Two films won two awards each. Grace is Gone landed 29-year-old writer Strouse the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and Heloisa Passos was honored for documentary excellence in cinematography for Manda Bala.
"I've been a nervous wreck the entire time I've been here," said Manda Bala director Kohn after delivering an exuberant, four-letter-word-filled speech at the awards and leaving a message for his onetime boss, documentary director Errol Morris. A rep at his sales agent Cinetic Media, which hasn't yet sold the film, warned him it would be a "rollercoaster" week, with people paying attention, then not. "My self worth has gone up and down. It's definitely up now," he said.
Two-time Grace winner Strouse said after the awards that "to be honest, this was the one I was hoping for." The first-time helmer is currently looking at different projects and trying to get more of his fiction published, but a friend is trying to pull him down to Earth. "He told me 'You need to come back home. Sundance isn't the center of the world, '" he laughed.
- 1/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Padre Nuestro is the feature film debut from writer/director Christopher Galla, the story of two young boys, Pedro and Juan, who flee Mexico illegally with the help of corrupt border patrol officials. Pedro carries with him a letter from his mother and a locket containing photos of his mother and father, the latter of which fled Mexico for New York City 22 years before. Pedro has come to New York to find him. Juan also carries two mementos from his father – a switchblade and the scar on his chest where his father stuck the blade. Things do not go as planned for Pedro. He wakes up in New York and is thrown onto the streets, with nothing. Juan has stolen all Pedro’s belongings, and soon takes more than that when he tracks down Pedro’s father, a reclusive kitchen worker who passes his nights with soap operas,
- 1/25/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- Quick Links Complete Film Listing: Premiere's section lineup: Dramatic Competition: Documentary Competition: World Dramatic Competition: World Documentary Competition: Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: Frontier (New Directions in Filmmaking): Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); At least a good half of the films represented in the U.S Dramatic comp this year are by first time filmmakers. Headed by veteran filmmaker (and yet relatively new) David Gordon Green and his Stewart O'Nan novel adaptation of Snow Angels but perhaps the most loudest (in term of controversy and spotlight shall go to) the rough Deborah Kampmeier portrait Hounddog - starring a Dakota Fanning in what shall become a transition role for her from Hollywood to Indie, but from child actor to adult-material. And an indie festival wouldnâ.t be a festival without the presence of the Posey name. Zoe Cassavetes will introduce our friend Parker in
- 1/18/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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