Film Feature: Coming of Age Drama “Stay Awake” With Wyatt Oleff, Fin Argus & Chrissy Metz

Posted on May 17, 2023 by admin

The American indie debut drama is a fictionalized account of the filmmaker’s coming of age, as he struggles to get out from under the yoke of a prescription-drug-addicted mother in small-town Virginia.

Jamie Sisley’s coming of age film stars Wyatt Oleff (“It”, “City On Fire”), Fin Argus (“Queer As Folk”, “Clouds”), and Chrissy Metz (“This Is Us”).

The film opens on Friday May 19 at Film Forum in NYC and May 25 at Laemmle Royal in LA.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

Life in the last, lame-duck months of high school, with a job at the Jolly Cow ice cream drive-in, would be cringe-inducing enough without a deeply depressed, self-destructive mother (Chrissy Metz, star of “This is Us”). Wyatt Oleff (“City on fire”) and Fin Argus (“Queer As Folks”) play teenage brothers stuck in a cycle of discovering their mom passed out, dragging her to the hospital, and encouraging rehab.

Despair quickly turns to hope and then boomerangs back again. Featuring three superb performances that find surprising humor and humanity amid the tragedy of parental addiction. A MarVista Entertainment release.

First Trailer And Poster For “The Future” – Tribeca World Premiere,

Posted on May 15, 2023 by admin

“The Future” is an official selection in the International Narrative Competition at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival on June 7-18, 2023. Released the film’s poster and trailer.

In the film, a world-renowned profiler is on a mission to study the motives of a young Palestinian woman who assassinated the Israeli Minister of Space and Tourism. From their intense encounter emerges a deep examination of female identity and motherhood.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
At 42, Dr. Bloch (Reymonde Amsellem), a profiler, wants a child. A future. Her only way is to find a surrogate mother. At the same time, her groundbreaking algorithm designed to identify individuals planning to carry out terror attacks fails and a young Palestinian woman (Samar Qupty) assassinates the Israeli minister of Space and Tourism. In order to ‘fix the bugs’ in her algorithm, Nurit faces the assassin in person. The sessions between these two brilliant women raise questions about their past, while the sessions between Bloch and the potential surrogate (Dar Zuzovsky) challenge Bloch’s decision about her future.

Trailer Premiere: Peter Callahan’s “Out And About” Set For Release On May 16

Posted on April 28, 2023 by admin

The film was written and directed by it star, Peter Callahan, whose film Against the Current, starring Joseph Fiennes, was critically acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festivasl. Producers are Ivon Visalli (High Voltage) and Konstantin von Krusenstiern (Last Ball). David Snyder is the Executive Producer.

Here’s the official release about “Out And About”:
Out and About is an unconventional tale about Jeff, a middle-aged man trying to come to terms with his life over the course of an afternoon walk through his hometown. Distinctive in both style and substance and told in real time, the story weaves together the protagonist’s inner monologue with conversations he has with the people he encounters along the way.

Raw, brutally honest, poignant and funny, Out and About explores the contrast between our inner and outer selves, the conflict between old dreams and new realities, and one man’s search for meaning as he wrestles with aging, success and failure in America, and his ultimate place in the world.

“Out And About” will be available on DVD and streaming on May 16, 2023.

Tribeca Festival Announces 2023 Audio Storytelling Lineup

Posted on April 26, 2023 by admin

The 2023 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced its audio storytelling lineup, including 18 world premieres from independent and established narrative audio creators and 11 “Live-from-Tribeca” events. This year’s Festival, which takes place June 7-18, will highlight its audio storytelling selection from June 12-16, connecting creators and listeners in-person at Tribeca.

The lineup includes 11 “Live-from-Tribeca” events, from exclusive conversations with audio creators to live tapings of hit shows, such as an audio artists panel hosted by Avery Trufelman (Articles of Interest, 99% Invisible); a live taping of Crooked Media’s Pod Save America with guest co-host Alex Wagner; a 25th anniversary rewatch event of Will & Grace followed by a live taping of SmartLess Media’s Just Jack & Will featuring Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack; a live taping of Selected Shorts with New York Times Bestselling author Roxane Gay; a live taping of New York Times Audio’s Modern Love with Kim Cattrall; and a live taping of Sonic Union’s Perreo 101 followed by a musical performance by Cuban artists Yotuel and Beatriz Luengo.

Additionally, the 2023 Audio Storytelling program showcases 16 official selections, including eight from independent creators and eight from established creators–evenly divided between fiction and narrative nonfiction series. World premieres from independent audio creators include the fiction series The Fabulists and These Were Humans, as well as the narrative nonfiction series Abridged and Magic on a Winter’s Night. World premieres from established creators include The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island (Radio Diaries and Radiotopia from PRX), Free from Desire (Paradiso), The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen (Wolf at the Door Studios), and Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto (Crooked Media). Official selections will be previewed at the Emerging Audio Artists Panel hosted by a special guest and the Established Audio Artists Panel hosted by Avery Trufelman, and available the following day at https://tribecafilm.com/podcasts and @TribecaAudio.

“We’re honored to premiere the work of these innovative creators and to celebrate audio storytelling with the high level of recognition the medium deserves,” said Davy Gardner, Curator of Audio Storytelling at Tribeca Festival. “The program brings together an expansive community of listeners and creators alike with interdisciplinary programming, parties, and sound-rich live events.”
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SFFILM Announces Golden Gate Award Winners at the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival

Posted on April 24, 2023 by admin

The juried awards recognize narrative and documentary films, and works from the Cine Latino and Youth Works spotlights. Winners of the Audience Awards were also announced. The SFFILM Festival ran April 13–23 in theaters across the Bay Area, and featured local and international filmmakers and works.

This morning, SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition at the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival). Created the same year the Festival was founded in 1957, the prestigious Golden Gate Awards have served as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers.

The awards are also notable as a qualifier for films under 40 minutes for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Previous Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs, Céline Sciamma, Jia Zhang-ke, Stanley Nelson, Tasha Van Zandt, and many others across nearly seven decades.

This year, the SFFILM Festival ran from April 13–23, with events held in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), and several San Francisco-based theaters: the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market, the Castro Theatre, the Premier Theater, The Walt Disney Family Museum Theater, and the Festival’s hub at the CGV San Francisco.

With a full slate of in-person programming and events, the 66th iteration of the Festival featured essential stories from both local and international filmmakers, who hailed from 37 countries. The SFFILM Festival also remained firm in its commitment to showcasing programming from artists with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, with half of the films in the lineup being helmed by women or non-binary filmmakers.
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“Anonymous Sister” Documentary Sets Release In Theaters June 2

Posted on April 22, 2023 by admin

The film is from the Producer of Dick Johnson is Dead, Cameraperson, Charm City, and Trapped. Jamie Boyle’s deeply personal and critically-acclaimed documentary feature From the Producer of Dick Johnson is Dead, Cameraperson, Charm City, and Trapped

Jamie Boyle’s Deeply Personal and Critically-Acclaimed Documentary Feature opens in New York, Friday, June 2 at IFC Center, and Los Angeles on Friday, June 16
at Laemmle Monica Film Center.

Anonymous Sister begins in the 1980s, as the close-knit Boyle family is introduced through home movie footage of their lives in the Colorado countryside. As the years tick by, the youngest family member, Jamie, is drawn to the camera in early childhood, begging to operate it at any opportunity while her older sister, Jordan, embarks on what will become a prodigious figure-skating career.

By the time she reaches her late teenage years Jamie is documenting, in excruciating detail, Jordan and her mom, Julie, as both simultaneously descend into opioid addiction while battling chronic pain. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Jamie was capturing the reality of the opioid epidemic long before it was acknowledged or named, when it entered your home under the guise of healthcare, when those to whom we entrust our lives became the greatest threat to it.

Thirteen years later finds both family members sober and Jordan newly pregnant with her first child. The pregnancy will mark her first major interaction with the medical community since getting off opioids. Jamie once again picks up the camera as her mom and sister face new hurdles in their hard won sobriety. What she sees this time is not just a family, but an entire nation, in turmoil.

Director Jamie Boyle is a two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn NY, the unceded land of the Lenape people. In 2019, she was selected to be part of the inaugural Sundance Talent Forum & Catalyst Lab and on DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list. She was the editor, producer, and cinematographer of Jackson (SHOWTIME), winner of the 2018 News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. Jackson premiered at the LA Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary at over fifteen festivals.

Dark Sky Films Brings “The Third Saturday In October Part V and Part I” to Digital and VOD May 5th

Posted on April 17, 2023 by admin

What if a lost horror franchise made during the peak of the slasher genre was unearthed today, but only two of the films could be restored? Filmmaker Jay Burleson imagined just that with “The Third Saturday In October: Part V” and “The Third Saturday in October: Part I” coming to VOD + Digital Platforms May 5th from Dark Sky Films.

A double feature of terror, “The Third Saturday In October: Part V” sees unstoppable killer Jakkariah Harding once again stalking and butchering the football-loving residents of a small Alabama town, this time finding a treasure trove of victims after he chances upon a football watch party. And then get ready to see how the horror began in “The Third Saturday in October: Part I”, which tells the story of Harding’s death row escape and ensuing slaughter as two survivors of his initial attack hunt him down.

Aiming to recreate the by-gone video store days when horror fans might have had to watch a franchise out of order, the filmmakers intended for viewers to start with Part V and then go back to Part 1.

Twice the scares, twice the laughs, and a world-building start of a franchise that’s as outlandishly clever in its deception as every gore set piece it throws on screen, “The Third Saturday in October” films are a red-blooded American slice of southern gothic infused with a deliciously twisted sense of humor.

SFFILM Announces Full Lineup for 66th San Francisco International Film Festival

Posted on March 22, 2023 by admin

Today, SFFILM announced the full lineup for the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival), the longest-running film festival in the Americas. This year’s program, curated from over 5,000 submissions and invitations, will screen exclusively in theaters across San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley from April 13–April 23.

“It is SFFILM Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “The line-up includes a wealth of Bay Area filmmakers across all sections, and highlights new—and seminal—work from eminent filmmakers. Our curatorial team, dedicated to showcasing evocative stories, prioritized films that unite us all through cinematic expression and outstanding narrative craft. We continue SFFILM’s legacy of bringing international work to the Bay with stories from 37 countries and an exciting array of emerging artists. For the third year in a row, half of this thematically diverse program is helmed by female or non-binary filmmakers and we are so proud to share these stories with festival attendees.”

The 2023 SFFILM Festival will run in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market, the Castro Theatre, the Premier Theater, The Walt Disney Family Museum, and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). The central hub of the Festival will be at CGV San Francisco to allow for maximum viewing; this location will also feature a hospitality lounge presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for guests to meet and mingle with each other in between screenings.

“We are thrilled to bring an array of exciting new films and filmmakers to our discerning and passionate Bay Area film lovers,” said Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM. “Each year, our Festival unites us both inside and outside of theaters where we engage in conversations across audiences, filmmakers, industry guests, and others who help us deepen our understanding of the craft, and of the fascinating world we all share. I am particularly delighted that in addition to hosting screenings in venues across the Bay Area, we will have a Festival hub at the CGV San Francisco. We are excited to host a space this year that harnesses the energy of multiple screens. As audiences gravitate towards different fare, they will also be able to spend time in a gathering place designed to create connection, possibility, and opportunity with one another. Find your spot, and we’ll see you there.”
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“Balloon Animal” Trailer Debut

Posted on March 9, 2023 by admin

First Bloom Films production has recently released the trailer for its latest film “Balloon Animal”. The film is set to be available on VOD on Friday, April 7, 2023 (U.S. & U.K.) in Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Comcast/Xfinity, Charter, Cox, etc.

Written and directed by Em Johnson, the drama film s Katherine Waddell, Ilia Volok, Erin Li, Dani Baez, and Michael David Wilson.

“Balloon Animal” follows Poppy Valentine, a young circus performer who has grown up in her family’s traveling circus, begins dreaming of what life would be like outside of its fences.

Now in her mid-20s and with more unwelcomed responsibility weighing her down, she’s desperate to figure out if this life is for her. As she slowly begins to take time for herself, finding independence and even love, she strains her relationship with those around her in the tight-knit circus community. Amidst her overprotective father, stressful circus expectations, and a blossoming curiosity for a life of her own, Poppy must decide if the risk is worth leaving everything she’s ever known behind.

A First Bloom Films production, “Balloon Animal” is written and directed by Em Johnson. Cinematography by Megan Stacey. Produced by Ruvi Leider, Monica O’Hara, and Katherine Waddell. Composed by Alexa L. Borden and Connor Cook. Edited by Gregory Tuzin.

The Makers of “Sharknado” Brings “Methgator”

Posted on February 28, 2023 by admin

In the tradition of the season’s surprise hit “Cocaine Bear”, comes a new film that’s similarly going viral: “Methgator”.

“Hold our bear…I mean, beer. Coming for your life this summer,” as posted from the official twitter page of The Asylum, the film studio behind the film.

In a 2019 news bulletin, police warned residents to refrain from flushing methamphetamine down the toilet to prevent “meth-gators.” Down in Sweet Water Point, Florida, they didn’t listen.

Starring Robbie Rist (Oliver from The Brady Bunch) and Patrick Labyorteaux (Little House on the Prairie), the recently recently wrapped production in the swamps of Florida, “Methgator” is set to be released this summer.

From the creators of “Sharknado”, The Asylum has long been known for their mockbusters. This year, the company kicked off their 25th Anniversary by throwing a private party on the Santa Monica Pier, attracting thousands of industry VIPs… and also a full power outage.

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