4th Annual Golden Door Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 16 September 2014 15:03

Written by John Matthews & Evelyn von Gizycki

Rumer Willis & Chris Marquette in Odd Way Home

Running from Thursday, Sept 18th to Sunday Sept 21st, 2014, the 4th Annual Golden Door Film Festival returns to Jersey City. This year’s festival is the largest so far, with more submissions, films, venues and bigger names. 

With just short of 100 films being shown at eight different venues across Jersey City, the fest includes a reprise of the opening night films at the Washington Park Live festival on Saturday Sept 20th.

Prior to the actual event, a gala kickoff party hosted by Tommy Hilfiger takes place at the Historic Landmark Lowe’s Jersey Theatre in Jersey City’s Journal Square on  Tuesday, September 16th, from 7 to 9pm. There will be other red carpet events, and seminars taking place over the four days of the film festival. 

Among the venues showing films during the festival are: 

• The Westin Hotel
• The Brightside Tavern
• The Hudson County Community College Culinary Center
• The Panepinto Galleries

The Festival also includes three after-parties at The Bistro At Grove Square (16 Newark Ave), taking place in the all-day filmmakers’ lounge being hosted by the wine bar. 

The annual film festival provides an ideal forum for filmmakers, distributors, agents, actors, and others in the film industry local and beyond, and also film lovers to make new contacts and network over the four days of the festival. This year among the corporate sponsors is for the first time fashion house Tommy Hilfiger. 

While this festival is about film it’s also about another message — to increase awareness about autism. The Festival’s co-founder and director is actor and Jersey City native Bill Sorvino who has two children that have struggled with autism. Although nine-year Sofia has grown out of it, Sorvino’s five year old son Luca still struggles with the disorder. In fact, as part of the festival Autism Speaks will host a talk with their disability advocate and author Kerry Magro and Sonia Zayas, occupational therapist and CEO of Sensory Kids & Social Minds, regarding what it means to grow up in treatment and become a functioning adult at the autistic children's center Sensory Kids & Social Minds on 158 Newark Avenue on Sunday, September 21st at 10AM until noon.

The Both opening night films address autism. The Off Way Home directed by Rajeev Nirmalakhandan and a short 16-minute film Six Letter Word directed by Lisanne Sartor. Both films feature Rumer Willis the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. In In the Off Way Home Rumer Willis plays a bad girl wanting to rob a house and winds up with an autistic guy in her car who she has to take care of as they drive cross-country. This film will also be screened for residents in Jersey City’s Heights Arts District at Washington Park Live! on Saturday, September 20th at 7PM. In the short film Six Letter Word also starring Rumor Willis, she plays a mother who goes to extreme lengths in order to pay for treatment for her autistic son. 

For Sorvino, growing up in Jersey City and fostering a love of family and the community meant launching the GDIFF within reach of the house he grew up in,  where his parents still reside. In creating the fest, he has fulfilled a lifelong desire: “Our overarching dream is to see Jersey City as a nexus for film production.  I do believe we are on well on our way to accomplishing that.”

Presented this year by fashion giant Tommy Hilfiger and Autism Speaks, attendance at the GDIFF is an opportunity for local filmmakers and the film-going public in NJ and the tri-state area to enjoy a stimulating four-day event while creating awareness and raising funds for autism research.

The organizers carefully curated and collated different film genres and seminars to include something for about everyone,with breathtaking views of the New York City skyline as a backdrop.  Among the films featured are one that fit into categories as diverse as Asian American, Women, Alternative, Dramedy, Disability Culture and Coming of Age.

Look for local filmmaker John Trigonnis, author of Crowdfunding for Filmmakers at the seminars, (included with the festival ticket) and Italy’s Per Mano Ignota (For Hand Unknown)film, making an appearance.

For more information about the Golden Door Film Festival and for a full schedule visit: GoldenDoorFilmFestival.org

Woodstock Film Fest Honors Aronofsky

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 08 September 2014 00:33

Written by Renzo Adler

The term “indie” gets bandied about quite a lot these days, but The Woodstock Film Festival (October 15 – 19, 2014) strives to be “fiercely independent.”  Set in Woodstock New York (along with events in Rhinebeck, Kingston, Rosendale and Saugerties). As a non-profit film fest, Woodstock exhibits film makers outside the norm, along with a long and proud history celebrating LGBTQ films and filmmakers.

Director Darren Aronofsky (Noah, Black Swan, The Wrestler) will be receiving the special Maverick Award on Saturday, October 18 at Backstage Studio Productions Lounge in Kingston NY (323 Wall St. Kingston, NY 12401). Aronofsky’s 1998 film  π (Pi), made him an indie darling and he continues to bring his unique style to his more big budget studio outings. Tickets for the ceremony are available HERE.

The full programing list for the Woodstock Film Fest is to be announced soon.

To learn more, go to: http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/

The Woodstock Film Festival
October 15 – 19, 2014

Various Locations

Backstage Studio Productions Lounge
323 Wall St.
Kingston NY 12401

Toronto Int'l Film Fest '14 Preview

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 02 September 2014 14:50

Written by Eric Lurio

The opening press conference of the 2014 Toronto Film Festival (Sept. 4th - 14th) was almost exactly what one would have expected. There was the food (coffee, juice and bagels). Then we went into the theater at the Bell Light Box on King Street in downtown Toronto where we heard sponsors being thanked and saw some trailers for movies that had been selected for the primary screenings.

There were the usual inane questions as to how many of the reporter’s countries films had been selected and so on. All pretty mundane stuff to be sure. Then someone asked about why they decided to only have “world premieres” during the first two weeks of the festival.

That got me interested. It seems that the people at TIFF had decided to declare a semantic war on the competition. This was a major zig in the festival’s modus operandi. After all, Toronto had made its reputation as “The festival of festivals” taking the best from everywhere and presenting it anew. What was this all about?

It’s the semantics that got me. Apparently, there were lots and lots of “North American” or “Canadian premieres” which meant that the films had been shown in runs or festivals in one of the other continents or down in the ‘States. No one has any problems with that. But apparently, some producers and directors had been touting their films as “World” premieres when they had actually been shown in Telluride or Bangkok or someplace equally obscure or foreign.

Apparently, TIFF decided that if anyone besides themselves and a few producers or friends had seen it before they’d put the film in the back of the line where people would be tired and may have already gone home.

Does this mean that if a film has had a “test screening” some place that it can’t have a real World Premier? Probably not, but the new policy does indeed diss a bunch of worthy foreign films that might deserve an early gala and the opportunities that come with it. It seems kind of petty.

Anyway. The early line up seems pretty good, and if we get credentials we’ll get into more detail of what’s coming up and what isn’t. In the meantime, we’ll let Toronto embarrass itself with the antics of its Mayor.

But I have digressed. The whole purpose of this event was for CEO and Director of the Toronto International Film Festival Piers Handling and Artistic Director Cameron Bailey to announce the first round of titles premiering in the Galas and Special Presentations programs of the 39th Toronto International Film Festival®, you know, to introduce some of the movies as the Oscar bait.
 
Since the 13 Galas and 46 Special Presentations weren’t all booked yet an initial lineup was announced, which includes 37 world premieres from directors including Noah Baumbach, Susanne Bier, David Dobkin, Philippe Falardeau, Mia Hansen-Løve, Ning Hao, François Ozon, Christian Petzold, Lone Scherfig and Chris Rock.
“Toronto can anticipate another remarkable lineup of films,” said Handling. “Cinema’s collective and transformative experience lives at the heart of our Festival — a sentiment that inspires the global dialogue rippling throughout the selections revealed today.”

“We can't wait to present the new films from some of cinema's brightest talents,” added Bailey. “This year we'll welcome filmmakers from France, Germany, China, the UK, the US and more to red carpets in Toronto.”

And with that, they showed us the “sizzle reel” a bunch of trailers giving us previews of coming attractions:

• Black and White
  Mike Binder
  USA World Premiere
  Black and White is the story of a widowed grandfather who is left to raise his bi-racial granddaughter, and the fight with the kid’s other living grandparent over custudy. Starring Academy Award-winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, as well as Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Ehle, Gillian Jacobs, Bill Burr, Andre Holland and Jillian Estell.

• The Equalizer
  Antoine Fuqua
  USA World Premiere
  In this big-screen adaptation of the cult ’80s TV show, McCall is an ex spy who spends his retirement fighting for truth, justice and the American way….for a fee. Starring Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.

• Foxcatcher
  Bennett Miller
  USA Canadian Premiere
  Based on true events, this film tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. Starring Anthony Michael Hall, Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Ruffalo and Sienna Miller.

Among the obvious Oscar contenders are these films that played in other festivals, which will be shown later include:

Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner starring Timothy Spall as the inventor of Impressionism half a century early
Wild by Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee with Reese Witherspoon as a recovering heroine addict on a 1100 mile solo hike after her destructive behavior lead to the break up of her marriage.
The Judge with Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall, which is all about chewing the scenery. It all looked interesting, but then again, it was supposed to.
And there’s David Cronenberg's Maps To The Stars.

For more information, go to: http://www.tiff.net/

Toronto International Film Festival
Septermber 4 - 14, 2014

Venues include:

Steve & Rashmi Gupta Box Office
TIFF Bell Lightbox
Reitman Square, 350 King Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 1J2, Canada

Princess of Wales Theatre
300 King St West
Toronto, ON M5V 1J2, Canada

Roy Thomson Hall
60 Simcoe St.
Toronto, ON M5J 2H5, Canada