Film News

Winter’s Bone nominated for several Gotham Awards

Posted October 18, 2010 by admin

Winter’s Bone has scored several nominations for this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards: Best Feature, Breakthrough Actor (Jennifer Lawrence), and Best Ensemble Performance (Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Lauren Sweetser, Garret Dillahunt, Kevin Breznahan).

The awards ceremony will be held on November 29 in New York.

The film is out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26.

Here is the list of nominees in those three categories:

Best Feature
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky, director; Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance, director; Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell, Alex Orlovsky, producers (The Weinstein Company)
The Kids Are All Right
Lisa Cholodenko, director; Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray, Jordan Horowitz, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Philippe Hellmann, producers (Focus Features)
Let Me In
Matt Reeves, director; Simon Oakes, Alex Brunner, Guy East, Tobin Armbrust, Donna Gigliotti, John Nording, Carl Molinder, producers (Overture Films)
Winter’s Bone
Debra Granik, director; Anne Rosellini, Alix Madigan-Yorkin, producers (Roadside Attractions)

Best Ensemble Performance
The Kids Are All Right
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson (Focus Features)
Life During Wartime
Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Chris Marquette, Rich Pecci, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Ally Sheedy, Dylan Riley Snyder, Renée Taylor, Michael Kenneth Williams (IFC Films)
Please Give
Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Ann Guilbert, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele, Thomas Ian Nicholas (Sony Pictures Classics)
Tiny Furniture
Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Rachel Howe, Merritt Wever, Amy Seimetz, Alex Karpovsky, David Call, Jemima Kirke, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Garland Hunter, Isen Hunter (IFC Films)
Winter’s Bone
Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Lauren Sweetser, Garret Dillahunt, Kevin Breznahan
(Roadside Attractions)

Breakthrough Actor
Prince Adu in Prince of Broadway (Elephant Eye Films)
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs (IFC Films)
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg (Focus Features)
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions)
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating (Overture Films)

Oliver Sherman wins prize at Cinéfest

Posted September 28, 2010 by admin

This just in: Oliver Sherman nabbed a prize at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, which ended a couple of days ago.

With the 22nd edition of Cinéfest wrapped up, winners of various film awards have been announced.

Oliver Sherman, written and directed by Ryan Redford, was awarded the Carolyn Fouriezos Best Canadian First Feature Award from the National Film Board of Canada, and Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, won the Cinéfest Sudbury Kinodoc Award. [Northern Life]

Winter’s Bone gets a DVD release date: October 26

Posted September 15, 2010 by admin

Winter’s Bone will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26, according to DVDActive.com.

Extras will include a commentary with Director Debra Granik and Cinematographer Michael McDonough, featurettes (“The Making of Winter’s Bone”, “Hillbilly Up: Defining the Contemporary Hillbilly”), Scouting the Ozarks: Resident Experts – visual scouting notes, and an Angel Band music video performed by Marideth Sisco.

You can pre-order the film on Amazon.

And here is the DVD/Blu-ray artwork:

Continue reading →

TIFF interviews: Oliver Sherman, Amigo

Posted September 14, 2010 by admin

Getty Images has a few pics from the premiere of Oliver Sherman at the Toronto Film Festival yesterday. You can find them here.

Also, a couple of new interviews showed up yesterday and today. Tribute.ca has a video interview with Garret in which he talks about Amigo and Oliver Sherman. You can check it out at this link.

And there is a short article about Oliver Sherman at The Globe and Mail.

Dillahunt’s character is a man who’s stuck in his past, awkwardly watching the world move forward without him. He’s angry and awkward, with violent instincts, though perhaps not entirely to blame for his worst qualities. But what attracted Dillahunt was that he’s a man no one can quite figure out.

“I believe, inherently, the audience is intelligent. It’s like going to a museum: You look at a great painting, and some people like to come up close, some people stand far away, some people like it, some people are disturbed by it — it’s open to interpretation,” he says.

Last but not least, another positive review for the film:

Adapted by Redford from the Rachel Ingalls short story “Veterans”, the real marvel of the film is its ability to steadily increase the tension for pretty much the entire length of the film, offering only enough relief for a quick breath now and again before stoking the fires. It does so on the basis of exemplary discipline: a script that delicately balances competing yet legitimate viewpoints; meticulous acting that never tips its hand too far; gracefully effective shooting; and an edit that steadfastly refuses every gratuitous impulse. This is independent filmmaking that punches way above its weight, and it earns every ounce of its very considerable suspense. Though we know that the troubled drifter with the scarred head can only bring discord, Redford constructs the film’s exceptional tension with surgical precision. We cannot help but feel compassion for Sherman, but Redford’s ability to counterbalance this with the particulars of how and when things go wrong, and from Sherman’s very peculiar logic, is delightful. If you’re looking for a festival taste of splatter-spiced adrenaline, 13 Assassins offers a feast of samurai bloodletting that will soak your popcorn bright red, but for tender, juicy, slow-cooked adrenaline, Oliver Sherman is a high point of TIFF’s 2010 menu. [TwitchFilm]

Oliver Sherman – first reviews

Posted September 13, 2010 by admin

Oliver Sherman premieres tonight at the Toronto Film Festival. The first couple of reviews – both pretty positive – are already online.

“There’s little doubt, however, that the film boasts an impressive undercurrent of suspense, as one is never entirely sure if the whole thing is meant to come off as a subtle character study or as something just a little more sinister (ie what is Sherman up to, exactly?)

Dillahunt’s remarkably subtle performance certainly goes a long way towards holding the viewer’s interest, yet it’s worth nothing that the narrative is occasionally just a little bit more predictable than one might’ve liked (ie when Sherman offers to carry two plates of hot dogs, you just know something is going to go horribly wrong).

And while this does ensure that the movie is often more effective as an actor’s showcase than as a fully realized cinematic experience, Oliver Sherman is certainly never dull and it’s also worth noting that the expectedly low-key finale does pack far more of an emotional punch than one might’ve anticipated.” [Reelfilm]

“These sorts of domestic thrillers were quite popular in American cinema back in the early ’90s, with movies like Unlawful Entry and Pacific Heights ushering in Christian anxieties about cultural change negatively affecting the traditional family unit. But this particular film is Canadian, and first-time feature writer/director Ryan Redford isn’t interested in employing cheap thrills to sell his narrative. He takes his time with the characters, building conflict organically and allowing the tension to come from quiet, passive-aggressive remarks and escalating pseudo-threats.

Resultantly, while occasionally awkward in editing and scene composition, this xenophobic parable shows a maturity and acuity beyond most character-based psychological thrillers, taking a highbrow approach to the subject. What’s more, it shows a new talent in the Canadian filmmaking scene, being one of the more assured debuts to come from English-speaking Canada in quite some time.” [Exclaim]

Garret Dillahunt Official Site