News

Kelly Clarkson has released a new single, “I Hate Love,” featuring Steve Martin. Along with the song Clarkson shared a live performance video of the song filmed at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles. The clip was directed and produced by Weiss Eubanks and Jonny Mars.

“The amazing banjo skills you hear on this is brought to you by the one and only Steve Martin!” Clarkson said in a statement. “I’d choose Martin over Gosling every time y’all!”

“I Hate Love” follows Clarkson’s recent single “Favorite Kind of High,...

Kelly Clarkson has shared a new single, “Favorite Kind of High,” off her forthcoming album Chemistry. The song, co-written and produced by Jesse Shatkin, arrives alongside a live music video shot at Los Angeles venue the Belasco Theater. The video was directed and produced by Weiss Eubanks and Jonny Mars.

In the clip, Clarkson dubs the single a “sexy-ass song,” telling the audience she didn’t want to make “some sad, I got divorced and my life sucks dumpster fire record.” She adds, “I wanted it to be about the whole relationship…...

"He's gone, man. Did you pay him already?" Check out the first teaser trailer for an indie film made in Maine titled Up Country, the latest feature from writer / filmmaker Lucas McNelly. Three friends hire a guide to take them on a fishing trip deep in the Northern Maine woods. But, when the Guide takes all their gear, they find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. The survival thriller is described as "a stark, haunting story about friends trying to survive in the Maine wilderness." Starring Kieran Roberts, Jonny Mars, and Tyler Peck. It was originally filmed in 2010 after a small Kickstarter campaign, and will finally debut on the festival circuit later this year. This is solid first look teaser, just enough to whet your appetite. Here's the first teaser trailer (+ poster) for Lucas McNelly's Up Country, direct from YouTube: A couple of friends from New York City...

"This isn't supposed to happen around here." Kino Lorber has unveiled a thrilling new official Us trailer for the Brazilian film Bacurau, which initially premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year and won the Jury Prize during the fest. The film is the follow-up to Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho's award-winning 2012 feature Aquarius. "Described as a mixture of western, adventure and sci-fi, Bacurau is set in a small town in the Brazilian backlands that disappears from the map" after the death of the town's matriarch at the age of 94. A local woman returns home and she discovers something much more mysterious going on. This film is so crazy and unique and violent, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen before. The key cast includes Sonia Braga, Udo Kier, Jonny Mars, Antonio Saboia, Chris Doubek, and Karine Teles. It's destined to become a cult classic, and you will want...

"This world is upside-down." Vitrine Filmes has released a full-length official trailer for the Brazilian film Bacurau, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and won the Jury Prize during the fest. The film is the follow-up to Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho's award-winning 2012 feature Aquarius. "Described as a mixture of western, adventure and sci-fi, Bacurau is set in a small town in the Brazilian backlands that disappears from the map" after the death of the town's matriarch at the age of 94. A local woman returns home and she discovers something much more mysterious going on. This new trailer reveals a lot more than the original festival teaser, potentially giving away too much, however there's still so much more to this. The film's key cast includes Sonia Braga, Udo Kier, Jonny Mars, Antonio Saboia, Chris Doubek, and Karine Teles. This is such a crazy, original film.

Kleber Mendonça Filho is returning to Cannes. After premiering “Aquarius” on the Croisette three years ago, the Brazilian auteur is set to debut his new film “Bacurau” at the festival this month. Juliano Dornelles co-directed the new film, which now has a trailer to go along with its inventive premise. Watch it below.

Here’s the brief, evocative synopsis: “A few years from now…Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.”

Though light on dialogue, the preview is rinch in arresting imagery: a dog narrowly avoiding a stampede of horses in the small village for which “Bacurau” is named, a funeral procession led by a man playing guitar, a woman performing the throat-slit gesture with her finger across her neck. “We’re under attack,” one man says; then,...

"Do you want to live or die?" Sbs Distribution has unveiled an official promo trailer for the Brazilian film titled Bacurau, which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival starting this week. This highly anticipated film is the follow-up to Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho's award-winning 2012 feature Aquarius. This is one of the few sci-fi films playing at Cannes, and the description hints at some kind of aliens being in this town. There's even a UFO on one of the posters. "Described as a mixture of western, adventure and sci-fi, Bacurau is set in a small town in the Brazilian backlands that disappears from the map" after the death of the town's matriarch at the age of 94. A filmmaker goes to investigate and discovers something much more mysterious. The film's key cast includes Sonia Braga, Udo Kier, Jonny Mars, Antonio Saboia, Chris Doubek, and Karine Teles. This an enticing...

"Who are these people trying to protect themselves from?" Freestyle Digital Media has debuted the first trailer for the indie comedy A Bad Idea Gone Wrong, a goofy film about two wanna-be thieves who trap themselves in a house they just broke into. Yeah, it's pretty much one of those why-not, let's-try-it concepts that kind of works, but also kind of doesn't. This played at a few festivals this year to quite a bit of acclaim, like winning the Best Feature prize at the dead Center Film Festival. The cast of A Bad Idea Gone Wrong includes Matt Jones, Will Rogers, Eleanore Pienta, Sam Eidson, and Jonny Mars. This looks a bit odd, there's something weird about the trailer that doesn't feel quite right to me. But I do think this seems like the film would be worth seeing at a festival. There's something quirky about it that's appealing enough.

Stars: Olivia Applegate, Katie Folger, Dora Madison, Will Brittain, Louis Hunter, Jonny Mars, Liam Aiken, Mackenzie Astin, Josephine McAdam, Christina Parrish, Michael Eric Reid | Written by Karen Skloss, Jasmine Skloss Harrison, Jay Tonne, Jr. | Directed by Karen Skloss

The gown, the hairstyling, the limousine, the prom date – all the familiar details that make up graduation night, that inevitable ritual of passage into adulthood. Lucy (Olivia Grace Applegate) still does not have peace of mind – “Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions?” she asks her best friend, while they retouch their makeup. When her date turns out to be a total disappointment, abruptly ending the fairy tale, the fantasy seems to have evaporated. But then some classmates, who’ve arrived in a hearse, extend her a most intriguing invitation: a magic-mushroom trip out in the wilderness, in an abandoned prison farm (haunted, according to urban legend...

At a packed Paramount Theater this evening, the SXSW Film Festival, now at the halfway mark, handed out their big film awards. The fest’s two big competition jury prizes went to director Ana Asensio’s “Most Beautiful Island” (Best Narrative Feature) and directors Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous’s “The Work” (Best Narrative Feature).

Read More: Terrence Malick Makes a Rare Appearance at SXSW 2017 and Digs Deep On His Process

Asensio, a Spanish actress and filmmaker living in New York, shot her film in super 16mm. It tells the story of undocumented female immigrants struggling to start a life in New York. It is a feature film debut for Asensio, who also stars and wrote the screenplay. “Island” is being billed as a dramatic thriller and was produced by the New York horror master Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix.

The Doc Prize winner, “The Work,” is an intense...

Childhood abuse affects its victims in myriad and often abstract ways. The disparate images and mysterious female voiceover that provide Travis Mathews’ “Discreet” its illusory opening do eventually come together, like the concentric cycles of abuse and pain experienced by its woeful protagonist, Alex (Jonny Mars).

A drifter and filmmaker, Alex travels the country in a dark blue van shooting footage of highways. On a passing visit to his unstable mother, he learns that the man who abused him is living in a small cabin on the outskirts of the rural Texas town where his mother lives. Seeking out the older man, Alex finds a severely incapacitated John (Bab Swaffar), complete with an involuntary twitch in his left arm and a vacant stare.

John is a ghoulish cartoon of a predator; even in his weakened state, his fluffy white beard, ruddy red nose, and lanky frame tower over Alex. Facing...

After drawing attention to the festival’s annual Gaming Awards, organizers behind the South by Southwest Film Festival have posted the full, comprehensive lineup, revealing that the likes of Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver and Free Fire, the riotous ensemble thriller from Ben Wheatley, are among those films that will screen for critics and attendees.

Per SXSW 2017‘s website, this year’s showcase will host “84 World Premieres, 11 North American Premieres, and 6 Us Premieres. First-time filmmakers account for 51 films, continuing our tradition of unearthing the emergent talent of tomorrow.” British auteur Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England) is a regular of the Texas festival, and will be rubbing shoulders with other favorites including Michael Winterbottom, Nacho Vigalondo, Michael Showalter.

SXSW 2017 begins on March 10th in Austin, Texas and you can get up to speed on everything the festival has to offer down below.

Narrative Feature Competition

A Bad Idea Gone Wrong...

Berlin’s Panorama lineup also includes new films from Us, China and Brazil.

Berlin’s Panorama strand is now complete following the addition of 24 additional titles.

A total of 51 works from 43 countries have been chosen for screening in the section, including 21 in Panorama Dokumente and 29 feature films in the main programme and Panorama Special. 36 of these films will be getting their world premieres at the Berlinale.

The German production Tiger Girl by Jakob Lass will open this year’s edition of Panorama Special at Berlin’s Zoo Palast cinema, along with the previously announced Brazilian production Vazante.

Among newly confirmed films are UK Sundance title God’s Own Country, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome, feminist fairy tale The Misandrists by Berlinale regular Bruce Labruce, Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice and Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production Insyriated which stars Hiam Abbass as a woman trapped in an apartment during war.[p...

Stars: Aaron Paul, Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins, Deke Garner, Dalton Sutton, Camron Owens, Dylan Cole, Jonny Mars, Walt Roberts, Annalee Jefferies | Written and Directed by Kat Candler

Review by Andrew McArthur

Kat Candler’s Hellion boasts some strong performances but ultimately feels like an amalgamation of various indie tropes that never quite hit the right emotional spot.

Texas-set Hellion follows widowed single father Hollis (Aaron Paul) who finds himself on the verge of losing his two sons to Child Protection Services after eldest son Jacob’s (Josh Wiggins) unruly behaviour attracts the attention of the police.

It seems that films revelling in Southern miserablism are all the rage recently with Mud, Joe and The Devil’s Knot all looking at the hard lives of the vulnerable people in the South of the USA. Perhaps the reason I draw this comparison is because Hellion shares so much in common with these...

IFC Films just unveiled the trailer for the upcoming "Hellion" thriller, starring Aaron Paul (Need for Speed, "Breaking Bad"), Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins, Deke Garner, Jonny Mars and Walt Roberts. Check it out below. Plot: When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces Cps to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home. The new movie is written and directed by Kat Candler and is set to hit select theaters on June 13th. Trailer:...

If I had to place a wager on who will "out-Mars" Austin talent Jonny Mars with the number of film projects that one Texan can possibly be associated with in one year, my bet for the top contender is Dallas-based Farah White. At this year's Dallas International Film Festival, White was involved in five films as either a member of the cast and producer.

Hell hath no fury like a Texas woman scorned in Rachel Shepard's About Mom and Dad, a comedic drama of a couple whose decades-long marriage disintegrates. White leads the ensemble Texas cast as Teri, effortlessly delivering many of the film's witty lines including, "There are no sides -- you just need to know that I am right." Dallas-based Brent Anderson stars as dad Eddie, and Austinites Heather Kafka and Jonny Mars also appear in supporting roles in the movie.

White is also executive producer for About Mom and Dad,...

Two Texas-based short films that were in competition at Sundance 2014 are making their Texas debuts at the SXSW Film Festival: writer/director Todd Rohal's Rat Pack Rat and Dig, by Dallas-based filmmaker Toby Halbrooks.

Halbrooks is an integral member of the filmmakers at Sailor Bear, a Dallas-based production company that includes David Lowery, James Johnston, Shaun Gish and Richard Krause. Last year's Sailor Bear feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints received an award for cinematography at Sundance, and this year's festival featured Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip, also produced by the Sailor Bear team.

Dig stars Austinite Jonny Mars and newcomer Mallory Mahoney, who plays a young girl intrigued by the large hole her father (Mars) is digging in their backyard.

I spoke with Halbrooks in Park City during Sundance about Dig as well as other Sailor Bear projects, including the short film Pioneer. Here's what he had to say.

Last month while at Sundance Film Festival, I spoke with local filmmaker Kat Candler -- seen above at the Sundance 2014 premiere -- about directing her feature film Hellion. which makes its regional debut in the Festival Favorites section at SXSW on Sunday, March 9, at the Topfer Theatre at Zach. Check out my Sundance review of Hellion here.

This was the third year in a row that Candler and Austin producer Kelly Williams (Cinema Six, Pit Stop) made the trip to Park City in support of their film projects. In 2012, the filmmakers attended the fest for the premiere of the short version of Hellion. Last year, the gripping dramatic short film Black Metal debuted at Sundance and was even selected for the Sundance Festival's online Screening Room. Williams also received a fellowship to the 2013 Sundance Creative Producing Lab, where selected producers receive creative and strategic support as well as direct funding for development and production.

Sundance just ended, and we are already preparing for the next big film festival, South By Southwest. Not too long ago, the festival announced a few of the films premiering this year, but now they’ve announced the main slate. The midnight selections and some inevitable late-breaking additions are still to be announced, but this should be more than enough to get you excited. Along with many World Premieres, and Sundance favorites like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the line up also includes an anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and an extended Q&A screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel with Wes Anderson. SXSW 2014 runs March 7 through 15 in Austin, Texas. Check out the line up after the jump.

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Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,324 films submitted to SXSW 2014. Films screening in Narrative...

Today the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced a diverse features lineup for this year’s Festival, the 21st edition and running March 7 – 15, 2014 in Austin, Texas. The 2014 program expands on SXSW tradition of embracing a range of genres and span of budgets, featuring a wealth of vision from experienced and developing filmmakers alike.

For more information visit http://sxsw.com/film.

Listed in the announcement are 115 of the features that will screen over the course of nine days at SXSW 2014. The lineup below includes 68 films from first-time filmmakers, and consists of 76 World Premieres, 10 North American Premieres and 7 U.S. Premieres. These films were selected from a record 2,215 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,540 U.S. and 675 international feature-length films. With a record number of 6,482 submissions total, the overall increase was 14% over 2013. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 5, with the complete...

After announcing earlier this month that Jon Favreau’s Chef and the Veronica Mars movie will be making their world debuts at SXSW this year, the festival has revealed its full line-up, including further very promising world premieres, alongside appearances from some of the year’s most high-profile films.

The Midnight programme will be announced early next month, along with the Shorts line-up, and the complete Conference slate a little later as well.

Led by Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Nicholas Stoller’s anticipated R-rated comedy, Neighbors, will be making its world debut at the festival, notably marked out as a ‘work-in-progress’ ahead of its theatrical release in May.

David Gordon Green’s acclaimed Joe will make its Us premiere, having bowed at Venice and then Toronto last year. Early reviews have Nicolas Cage giving one of the finest performances of his career, with Tye Sheridan (Mud) excellent alongside him.

Not sure if there is a Short Term 12 equivalent in this year’s Narrative Feature Comp, but on paper SXSW programmers are serving up a mean (and the usual lean group of 8 out of a whopping 1,324 film entries) for the upcoming competitiuon of eight which includes notable entries (that we’ve been tracking for a good time now) such as Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine, John Magary’s The Mend, Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns and Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated docs of the year, on the non-fiction side we find Margaret Brown’s The Great Invisible. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the other sections (notable world preems in We’ll Never Have Paris and Faults (see Mary Elizabeth Winstead above), some Sundance items with Texan connections and other nuggets.

Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

Hellion, the new drama from Kat Candler, is one angry and emotional film. From the opening moments till the credits rolled, this movie channels adolescent rage, loss, and the struggles of life into one intense experience that will play with your emotions.

Hellion tells the story of the Wilson clan. Jacob (Josh Wiggins) is a 13 year old motocrossed-obsessed teenager with a wild streak that ends up with him on the path to juvie. He’s idolized by his younger brother Wes and struggles in his relationship with his father (Aaron Paul), who is still reeling from his wife’s death and hasn’t done the best at caring for the boys. One day, Child Protective Services arrives and removes Wes, taking her to live with Aunt Pam (Juliette Lewis), and both Jacob and his father try and deal with their issues in order to bring him back.

Title: Hellion Director: Kat Candler Starring: Aaron Paul, Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins, Deke Garner, Jonny Mars, Walt Roberts There are all different kinds of troublesome kids. There are those bright young people that won’t apply themselves because their schoolwork is not challenging, and others who don’t focus well in a classroom setting and therefore seem less intelligent than they actually are. And then there are those who fit the term juvenile delinquent, constantly doing illegal things and showing no signs or remorse or a foreseeable change in behavior. Jacob (Josh Wiggins) is that child exactly, and his story of lawbreaking and a quest for motocross greatness makes for one immensely [ Read More ]

The post Hellion Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

With nine films at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Texas was well represented both on the screen and at festival events. The Texas Association of Film Commissions hosted a special Film Texas reception at the festival this week, which included representatives from each of Texas' metroplexes. A number of attendees were from various parts of the Texas film community, such as Austin actor Jonny Mars and Dallas International Film Festival Artistic Director James Faust, pictured above.

Deputy Director Alfred Cervantes of the Houston Film Commission, Janis Burklund, Director of the Dallas Film Commission, and San Antonio Film Commission Drew Mayer-Oakes (pictured below) were also in Park City, along with staff members from the Texas Film Commission.

read more...

You don't have to travel to Park City to enjoy great content from the 30th annual Sundance Film Festival. YouTube is offering quite a bit of content for film fans to view online via the Sundance Film Festival YouTube Channel.

As the presenting sponsor of the Sundance 2014 shorts program, YouTube is showcasing several of the official shorts in competition. Fifteen films were selected from this year's competitors, including two short films from Texas: Rat Pack Rat and Dig. The Austin-shot Rat Pack Rat is directed by Todd Rohal and produced by several Austinites including Zack Carlson, Clay Liford, and Ashland Viscosi. Dig is written and directed by Dfw-area producer Toby Halbrooks.

The YouTube Audience Award will be presented at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 25, to the short film in official competition that receives the most views on YouTube between January 16-24, 2014. And Slackerwood has both Texas...

It’s that time again. The biggest American film festival is upon us, and this year the Ioncinema crew will be descending on Park City with eight feet on the ground and eight eyes on Park City’s various and plentiful screens. Eric Lavallee, Nicholas Bell, Caitlin Coder and I will be covering just about every inch of this year’s festival here at Ioncinema.com, as well as on that ever increasingly vibrant instanews network – Twitter. Be sure to follow @ioncinema and, as stated above, my personal handle @Rectangular_Eye, as we’ll be tweeting throughout the festival with breaking news, reviews, and sightings, all the while trying to keep up with the massive amount of content sure to be coming from this year’s Sundance filmmakers themselves, most of which have their own Twitter accounts and are listed at length below (minus the world & short programs). Whether you...

The first in this year’s Guide to the Sundance Twitterverse series is the complete U.S. Dramatic Competition, which just at first glance has an immense amount of tweeting going on. Don’t miss the Hellion crew, headed by Writer/Director Kat Candler (@katcandler), nor the official Dear White People feed, (@DearWhitePeople). There’s more to come throughout the day.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Camp X-Ray - @CampXRayMovie

Cold in July

Producer René Bastian - @renebastian

Dear White People - @DearWhitePeople

Writer/Director Justin Simien - @JSim07

Producer Lena Waith - @hillmangrad

Producer Julia Lebedev - @thisisresearch

Actor Tyler James Williams - @TylerJamesWill

Actress Teyonah Parris - @TeyonahParris

Fishing Without Nets - @fishing

Writer/Director Cutter Hodierne – @MyNameIsCUTTER

Writer/Producer John Hibey - @somaliproduced

Producer Raphael Swann - @raphaelswann

Producer Brian Glazen - @bglazen

Cinematographer Alex Disenhof – @adisenhof

God’s Pocket

Producer Sam Bisbee - @sambisbee

Composer Nathan Larson...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari: The Master (P.T. Anderson), Half of a Yellow Sun (Novel, Chimamanda Adichie), Orchestra Baobab (60s Band, Senegal)

Lavallee: They say: write and create from what you know. Why did you decide to tackle this subject matter for your first feature?

Mehari: I chose this story because I was inspired by the act of courage two women took. One was a lawyer who dared to question a centuries-old tradition, the other, a young girl who refused to live by it. The story also made me question the very tradition that I am a part of but failed to see how it affected us all as a country and I found that interesting from a storytelling standpoint. Lastly, what the two women were able to realize is a filmmaker’s dream story to tell.

Lavallee: Despite it being a work...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…

Jonny Mars: 1. Wendy Davis. 2. I Am Not A Hipster. 3. Enlightened the series

Lavallee: You and Deke are among the few carry­over actors from the original short ­ were you aware back then that this could/should elongated, a broader in scope feature­ length? And are you incarnating the same character this time out?

Mars: Yes. We all saw the potential in adapting the short. Aaron Paul plays the character I played in the original. Maybe you‘ve heard of him?

Lavallee: Describe to the future viewer what Duncan’s Pov of the world he sees in front of him?

Mars: Duncan’s Pov would make a great t-shirt: Beers, Babes and Baseball.

Lavallee: Last year you had a fairly unique Sundance experience with four films included in the festival. How do you look back at having one year’s worth...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…

Earl Lynn Nelson: Favorite Recording Group – The Eagles; Favorite song by Van Morris – Brown Eyed Girl; Televisions Series – Longmire is a pretty good new one, but still love my Law and Order: Svu; Bones, NCIS, CSI, Big Bang Theory, “who done it to comedy”. City: I am always been fond of New Orleans since I lived there for many years; Country: Iceland was an adventure which I enjoyed; Favorite Author: James Joyce; Favorite Book: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man; Science – Chinese Soft Landing on the Moon; Technology – Electronic.

Lavallee: You worked with a dragon with two heads this time out. As Martha’s muse, could you discuss her working style and how she has evolved as a filmmaker over three features….and seeing that backdrops are such important elements in her films, are you surprised you ended up in Iceland?...

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival is right around the corner, and the Sundance Institute has released the full line-up for the competition films that will be premiering!

This year there were 12,218 total submissions, and 117 films were accepted from 37 countries around the world. It looks like there's a lot of good selection of films this year.

The Sundance Film Festival 2014 runs from January 16th to the 26th, and the GeekTyrant team will be there to cover as many movies as we possibly can.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.

“Camp X-Ray” — Directed and written by Peter Sattler. A young female guard at Guantanamo Bay forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.

“Cold in July” — Directed by Jim Mickle, written by Nick Damici.

Sundance Film Festival continues to be one of the most popular, and arguably one of the most important, events on the industry calendar, launching as it does some of the most prominent independent films at the start of each year.

This year will be no different, with Sundance announcing last night the initial line-up of films screening in competition, led by Song One, starring Anne Hathaway; Camp X-Ray, starring Kristen Stewart; Infinitely Polar Bear, with Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana; Joe Swanberg’s Happy Christmas, starring Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, Lena Dunham, and Swanberg himself; The Skeleton Twins, with Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, and Ty Burrell; Life After Beth, with Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, and John C. Reilly; Listen Up Philip, with Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss; Whiplash, starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons; and many, many more.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Presenting the world premieres of 16 narrative feature films,...

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival is coming up in January and today, the Sundance Institute has named the films that will be in the U.S. and world competitions as well as Next, which is an oddly-named showcase for “Pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling.”

There will be 67 films competing across five different competition categories. That may sound like a lot, but that’s only the first half of the film announcements. Later on they will be announcing the remaining lineup of films being shown outside these competitions.

Overall, it’s an impressive batch of entries, with several surprises and a handful of very promising movies. Check out the full list below and let us know what you think in the comments section.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Camp X-Ray / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Peter Sattler) — A young woman is stationed as a guard in Guantanamo Bay,...

God’S Pocket

Sundance Institute announced today the films selected for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions and the out-of-competition section of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, January 16-26 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Robert Redford, President & Founder of Sundance Institute said, “That the Festival has evolved and grown as it has over the past 30 years is a credit to both our audiences and our artists, who continue to find ways to take risks and open our minds to the power of story. This year’s films and artists promise to do the same.”

For the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected, representing 37 countries and 54 first-time filmmakers, including 34 in competition. These films were selected from 12,218 submissions (72 more than for 2013), including 4,057 feature-length films and 8,161 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,014 were from the U.S. and 2,043 were international. 97 feature films at...

As I had predicted here, names such as Cutter Hodierne, Kat Candler, Maya Forbes, Mona Fastvold and Damien Chazelle would be among the invited guests at the ’14 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. It was such a strong year that even some items that I thought would be dark horse/long shots and might be looking at a fest berth from the sidelines are considered definite dramatic comp material, while some that was fully expecting to break the line-up have been passed up.

Horror “labeled” directors Carter Smith (Jamie Marks Is Dead) and Jim Mickle (Cold in July) broke into the line-up that is usually reserved for the newbie type of director and are coming in with perhaps different genre material. We’re glad to see Justin Simien’s Dear White People break into the 16 – it also acts as the long awaited return of Duly Noted producer Effie Brown. Actor...

The U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competition lineups for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival were announced today and just below I have featured pictures from the 16 films that will be competing in the U.S. Dramatic competition and they feature a lot of names you're going to recognize. The titles begin with Camp X-Ray, which stars Kristen Stewart as a guard in Guantanamo Bay, where she forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Jim Mickle made an impact earlier this year with We Are What We Are and he returns with Michael C. Hall with Cold in July. Fishing Without Nets looks to tell a story similar to that of Captain Phillips, only this time from the Somali side of things; God's Pocket is "Mad Men" star John Slattery's writing and directorial debut and he's lined up an impressive cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins,...

I don’t think Drake Doremus will be at Sundance this year. Here’s hoping that Kat Candler makes a “repeat” into a three-peat. Director of highly praised Sundance shorts Hellion (2012) (see pic above) and Black Metal (2013), Candler might belong to an exclusive club of folks. The same year that the short got invited to Park City, her producer Kelly Williams become an invited 2012 Sundance creative producing lab fellow with the feature length project of the same title (see trailer to get an idea of what it might turn out like). Flash forward to 2014, and Hellion might be that feature length Sundance preemed film that has roots as a Sundance accepted short film. In late August the trades spit out the news that Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis climbed on board the drama – so it’ll be tight to get this before the deadline. Short Term 12 cinematographer Brett Pawlak shot the film.

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Texas-shot We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (Mike's review) took home an audience award in the American Independents category at this year's AFI Fest, IndieWire reports. The drama, about three Texas teens who unintentionally become involved in an organized crime ring, also screened at Fantastic Fest 2013. The German drama Nothing Bad Can Happen, which has U.S. distribution through Drafthouse Films, took home the New Auteurs critics award.Ut lecturer Kat Candler's upcoming feature Hellion received $70,000 for post-production costs from the San Francisco Film Society, according to IndieWire. The indie drama, starring Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis, stems from Candler's award-winning short film of the same name, about a seven-year-old who falls prey to his older brother's mischievous ways in a small Texas refinery town. Fellow Austinite Jonny Mars, who appeared in the SXSW 2012 short, is returning for the feature,...

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Austin filmmaker Russell O. Bush's Vultures of Tibet is nominated for a Best Short Award at this year's 29th Annual Ida Documentary Awards. The International Documentary Association will announce the winners on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles at the Directors Guild of America. Bush's documentary explores a Tibetan death ritual where bodies are offered to wild griffon vultures. Ida members can vote now for Best Short. In addition, University of Texas at Austin graduate student Elizabeth Chatelain's film My Sister Sarah, about the affects of meth addiction, is nominated for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award (Jordan's interview).In more awards news, the Austin-shot short Black Metal by Ut lecturer Kat Candler received the Heavy Metal Hysteria award at last week's Housecore Horror Film Festival, The Austin Chronicle reports. Black Metal, which screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is about...

Let's go camping! Let's break into the insane asylum! Let's use this Ouija board! Let's pick up that hitchhiker! Let's go swimming in the shark infested water! Let's... not! Here you go, kids! Guaranteed the best damned video of the day!

Hell No comes to us from director Joe Nicolosi and it stars Alex Dobrenko, Ashley Spillers, Jessie Tilton, Sam Davis, Brandon Potter, Sam Eidson, Katie Folger, Sam Van Metre, Deke Garner, Jonny Mars, Zack Carlson, Bryan Connolly, David Hess, Mike Gassaway, Jason Newman, Elise Garza, April Swartz, Isaac Solomon, Marc Calderaro, Matt Van Doren, Drew Daniels, Aimee Thomas, Brock England, Jenniemarie Jemison, Clay Crenshaw, Andrew Matthews, Katie Graham, Will Elliott, Mallory Culbert, and Joey Hood.

If only this were a real film!

Synopsis

Imagine a realm where the most horrifying terrors of the underworld emerge to wreak bloody vengeance upon any who... hmm? What's that? You wanna go literally anywhere else?...

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Austin Film Festival has been awarded a $25,000 TexTreasures Grant to preserve five years of its audio and video collection, North Dallas Gazette reports. The collection will then be housed at Texas State University in San Marcos. The grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Among many other awards, the commission also approved a $49,500 grant to the Round Rock Library System for a "makerspace" collaboration to benefit middle-school students with Stem and art projects.Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul is starring alongside Juliette Lewis in Austinite Kat Candler's Hellion, according to Deadline. The indie feature drama, currently in production around Central Texas, stemmed from Candler's award-winning short film of the same name, about a seven-year-old who falls prey to his older brother's mischievous ways in a small Texas refinery town. Fellow Austinite Jonny Mars, who appeared in the SXSW 2012 short,...

Hellion

Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad") and Juliette Lewis ("Strange Days") have joined Kat Candler's indie drama "Hellion". Jonny Mars, Josh Wiggins and Deke Garner also star.

The story deals with a fractured family trying to stay together in a small refinery town in Texas. [Source: Deadline]

Mark Strong will re-team with his "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" co-star Benedict Cumberbatch on Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game". No details are available on his role.

Cumberbatch will play Alan Turing, a computer genius who cracked the Axis forces’ Enigma Code during World War II. He ultimately committed suicide due to the way he was treated regarding his homosexuality. [Source: We Got This Covered]

Learning To Drive

Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson are re-teaming with their "Elegy" director Isabel Coixet on "Learning To Drive" which is currently shooting in New York.

The story is based on a 2002 New Yorker essay by Katha Pollitt. Clarkson plays a Manhattanite who takes...

Chicago – We often go to the movies to suspend real life and explore what we think about doing but won’t or would do but can’t. Have you ever fallen for a much younger man or woman? Have you ever had a secret affair with someone at work? Have you ever obsessed over someone you shouldn’t?

Rating: 3.5/5.0

New filmmaker Hannah Fidell explores these burning questions in her feature debut “A Teacher” about an inappropriate student/teacher “relationship”. The film was an official selection at 2013’s SXSW and Sundance Film Festival. Hannah Fidell’s short 75-minute feature won SXSW’s Emergent Narrative Woman Director award. She has also been named one of the “25 new faces of independent film”.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “A Teacher”.

I found her new film On Demand and decided to give it a chance to see if you should. “A Teacher” is...

We’re back with another Q&A feature, this time talking with Saturday Morning Mystery director Spencer Parsons, who tells us about growing up with Scooby-Doo, balancing horror and comedy, and his time on the set of the movie:

With this movie being Scooby-Doo influenced, can you tell me about your experience with Scooby-Doo as a child? What’s one of your favorite episodes?

Spencer Parsons: Oh yeah, when I was little, it was huge to me. My little brother and I would stay over at my grandmother’s house and wake up early to watch it with my older cousins while snarfing down sugary breakfast cereals my mom never let us have. By the time Jason of Star Command came on, I’d be flying high on Count Chocula, trying to get pony rides from the cocker spaniel. So I’d call it formative.

But Scooby and any...

Saturday Morning Mystery is now available on VOD and is starting to open in a number of theaters across the Us. If you’d like a better idea of what to expect from the movie, take a look at our exclusive clip and the official trailer.

“Four professional ghost hunters, who travel in a vintage van accompanied by their canine companion (sound familiar?), get far more than they bargained for when they investigate an abandoned schoolhouse with a mysterious past.”

Saturday Morning Mystery was directed by Spencer Parsons and stars Josephine Decker, Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers and Adam Tate. The movie was first released to VOD on July 17th and its limited theatrical release started on on August 10th. A DVD release is planned for August 20th. Here are the upcoming locations, dates, and times when the movie will screen:

Los Angeles – Laemmle Noho on Thursday, 8/15, at 7:...

Theatrical release dates, locations, and showtimes have been announced for Saturday Morning Mystery, coming out in August from XLrator Media, and we have all the info you need right here.

The film is directed by Spencer Parsons and written by Jory Balsimo, Aaron Leggett, and Jason Wehling. You can find it on VOD now and in the following theatres beginning August 10, 2013.

* Brooklyn - Videology on Saturday, 8/10, at 9:30 pm

* Los Angeles - Laemmle Noho on Thursday, 8/15, at 7:30 pm

* Seattle - Tin Room on Friday, 8/16, and Saturday, 8/17, at 10:00 pm

* Chicago - Music Box on Friday, 8/16, and Saturday, 8/17, at 12:00 midnight

Related Story: Guest Blog: Director Spencer Parsons on Saturday Morning Mystery; Exclusive New Stills!

Josephine Decker, Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers, and Adam Tate star.

Synopsis:

Four professional ghost hunters, who travel in a vintage van accompanied by their canine companion (sound familiar?), get far more than they...

Saturday Morning Mystery is now available on VOD and will be given a limited theatrical release early next month. If you’re interested in checking out the movie in theaters, we have details on where and when it will be screening.

“Four professional ghost hunters, who travel in a vintage van accompanied by their canine companion (sound familiar?), get far more than they bargained for when they investigate an abandoned schoolhouse with a mysterious past.”

Saturday Morning Mystery was directed by Spencer Parsons and stars Josephine Decker, Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers and Adam Tate. The movie was first released to VOD on July 17th, with a limited theatrical release starting on on August 10th. A DVD release is planned for August 20th. Here are the locations, dates, and times when the movie will screen:

Los Angeles – Laemmle Noho is confirmed for Thu 8/15 at 7:30pm. Brooklyn – Videology on 8/10 at 9:30pm.

Along with some exclusive and really bloody new stills, we have a special guest blog on tap for you guys from director Spencer Parsons about his new film, Saturday Morning Mystery; old cartoons; and much, much more! Dig it!

Truth be known, I’m more of a Buford Files guy than a Scooby-Doo guy, probably because that one ripped off Smokey and the Bandit, and every episode took place in a swamp, with way more opportunity for moss monsters. But man alive, ‘70s TV barfed up a ton of these Scooby wanna bes about ghost-chasers-with-dogs. And all of them got repeated endlessly through the ‘80s in syndication, even the ones that didn’t last a whole season. Shows like Clue Club, Butch Cassidy and Goober and the Ghost Chasers, plus less dog-centric mystery team cartoons like Fangface, Speed Buggy, or The New Shmoo. There were more, and I could go on,...

XLrator Media acquired Saturday Morning Mystery and will be giving the movie a VOD, DVD, and theatrical release. If you’re interested in learning more about this horror comedy, we have the official trailer, cover art, and release dates.

“Four professional ghost hunters, who travel in a vintage van accompanied by their canine companion (sound familiar?), get far more than they bargained for when they investigate an abandoned schoolhouse with a mysterious past.”

Saturday Morning Mystery was directed by Spencer Parsons and stars Josephine Decker, Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers and Adam Tate. The movie will first be released to VOD on July 17th, with a limited theatrical release following on August 9th. A DVD release is planned for August 20th.

The post Release Details for Saturday Morning Mystery appeared first on Daily Dead.