Category: News

We want to offer our congratulations to Sally El Hosaini and the entire team behind My Brother the Devil for winning the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film in the Panorama Section of the 2012 Berlin Film Festival. This seems a fitting occasion to revisit this enlightening profile of El Hosaini — full of insights into her creative process and the socio-cultural realities that inspired the project — published here on the eve of My Brother the Devil’s debut at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
“Writing and directing are all about listening and watching,” says writer/director Sally El Hosaini, who brings her debut feature film, My Brother the Devil, to the Festival’s World Dramatic Competition section this year.

Heidi Schreck was an actor alumna at the 2008 Theatre Lab and is currently in residence at the Sundance Institute Playwright’s Retreat at Ucross Foundation, Wyoming. The retreat is an 18-day writing colony where five playwrights and two theatre composers convene each year to put pen to paper.For months, Ucross was my Moscow.

Each year, Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival make a concerted effort to emphasize the value of the Utah community. We’d like to thank them for welcoming us during the 10 days of the Festival and for being such wonderful hosts. Our appreciation is expressed through a variety of programs, including High School Screenings at the Festival, Filmmakers in the Classroom, Community Screenings, and distribution of complimentary tickets to non-profit organizations across the Wasatch Front.

Ross Evison has been editing in the film advertising/marketing arena for 12+ years. Creating trailers, promos and TV commercials for major blockbusters to independent features all around the globe. In 2008 he created Dark Soup Films as a back bone for his directing work.

For many, Valentine’s Day conjures images of couples sprawled across love seats, seductively dropping chocolate truffles into one another’s mouths, all the while gorging on the cinematic bonbons also known as sentimental romantic comedies. Or maybe that’s just me. And while we can’t rectify all of these Valentine’s Day calamities, we can offer a corrective to the crappy films via this curated collection of love stories from the Sundance Film Festival archives.

Tucson, Arizona – FILM FORWARD: Advancing Cultural Dialogue, an initiative of Sundance Institute and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, takes place in Arizona from February 27 through March 1, 2012. In collaboration with The Loft Cinema, FILM FORWARD presents screenings of six films as well as personal appearances and workshops with filmmakers from three of the titles at a variety of community locations in Tucson and Sells, Arizona.
“Film has the power to not only entertain but engage us in stories that transcend cultural differences and geographic boundaries,” said Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam.

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California is unconstitutional. In light of today’s decision, we revisit a documentary most pertinent to the issue of equal marriage rights, particularly the passing of Prop 8 in California. Reed Cowan and Steven Greenstreet’s “8: The Mormon Proposition” premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Filmmaker and musician Terence Nance premiered his debut feature, An Oversimplification of Beauty, in the New Frontier section of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and performed as Terence Etc. at Day 1 of Sundance ASCAP Music Café. The Dallas born, Brooklyn-based artist chronicled his journey with actresses Namik Minter and Chanelle Pearson from the editing room in New York to the snowy hills of Park City:

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The first time I attended the Sundance Film Festival was in 1989, when I was the composer for sex, lies and videotape. Sundance was the ground floor from which the film went on to garner worldwide acclaim; and for all of us involved it was like driving a rocket ship. Even back then, Sundance was a feeding frenzy for independent film enthusiasts; and getting into popular screenings, parties and events took some serious determination.

Those who wanted to see Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s directorial debut, The Words, had to wait until closing night of the Sundance Film Festival for its world premiere. That seemed only fitting, however, as both directors openly admitted at Friday’s screening that the film took nearly 12 years to make and waiting anxiously a few extra days “felt like par for the course.”Led by a strong cast that included Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, and Zoe Saldana, The Words tells the story of Rory Jansen (Cooper), a budding novelist who struggles with his sudden propulsion to literary stardom, brought about by a yellowed manuscript he finds in a beat-up satchel in a Parisian antique shop.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute this evening announced the Jury, Audience, NEXT <=> and other special awards of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, hosted by Parker Posey in Park City, Utah. An archived video of the ceremony in its entirety is available at www.sundance.

Those who came to see the world premiere of Price Check on Wednesday night at the Eccles Theater were treated to something like a double feature. First came the film, an entertaining and poignant office saga about an over-educated 36-year-old supermarket executive (played by Eric Mabius) who gets swept up in the crazy charisma of his new boss (Parker Posey), and risks his marriage and well-being for the rush of attraction, affirmation, and sudden purpose. Then came an extended, hilariously bizarre Q&A that touched on horrible bosses, adultery, air castles and donkeys.