IFP GOTHAM AWARDS: “BEGINNERS” DIRECTOR MIKE MILLS RECAPS HIS TWO WIN NIGHT

By Mike Mills

That was quite surreal. I’ve been to just two events like that before, so the red carpet shenanigans, seeing so many “movie stars” and directors you’ve listened to on DVD commentaries, and being in a room with so many people you’ve tried to get financing from – is really a strange experience. The kind that makes you all wild eyed and sweaty palmed. But mostly I was really truly just very happy to be there and felt very safe that we weren’t going to win anything and that I was just lucky to be included, to be in the group, to get to see this crazy kinda show in my life. When we all sat down, I told some of my producer filmmaker comrades that I hadn’t prepared anything to say cause that just felt so hubristic, and gauche, so vain, and weird – every time I tried my mind just derailed itself.

They said “Yeah, there’s a lot of love for the film, but we’re not going to win anything.” I thought they must know something I don’t, was hurt for about 30 seconds but then went easily back to being quite relieved I wasn’t going to have to go onstage in front of  Jim Jarmusch (to name one of my heroes there).  It was lovely to be there with my filmmaking family, some of our actors - Christopher Plummer, Mary Page Keller, and Kai Lennox - from the film, and just be in this weird scene.

When it came time for Best Ensemble, I was all set to applaud for one of the other wonderful nominees, and was very, very, very astonished to hear the word Beginners called out. I adore these actors, we had so much fun together, such a wonderful creative time, how wonderful to see them honored, but, Jesus, I’M TOTALLY UNPREPARED! Luckily Christopher is such a gentleman, so gracious and inclusive, so nice to me, and he lead the way. But I didn’t shout out to my great friend Ewan McGregor who’s in Uganda working with Unicef, I didn’t shout out to Melanie Laurent who’s in Paris where her … Read the rest

IFP GOTHAM AWARDS: REFLECTIONS FROM AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER JUSTIN LERNER

By Justin Lerner

In early 2009 I took my childhood friend Evan Sneider, a 31 year-old with Down Syndrome, out to lunch to see whether he’d be interested in letting me write a feature length film for him to star in, Girlfriend.

“It’s going to be a little dark, Evan,” I said to him. “There’s going to be violence, and maybe even a little sex.”

“That’s fine with me,” Evan said with a smile while finishing a steak and cheese pizza. “Sounds like fun.”

Five months after that lunch we were casting the other roles and had found three willing actors – Shannon Woodward, Amanda Plummer, and Jackson Rathbone – to act alongside Evan and a group of non-professionals I hand-picked from our hometown of Wayland, Massachusetts.

Four months after that we were shooting, and year after that we were world premiering at the 2010 Toronto Int’l Film Festival.

And then, another year and some film festivals later, we were walking down the red carpet at the 2011 Gotham Independent Film Awards as a nominee. With Evan by my side, along with my producers Shaun O’Banion and Kristina Lauren Anderson, we walked through the press line behind Evan Glodell, director of Bellflower and Matthew Lillard from The Descendants.

Back in 2009 I was skeptical about even being able to find the money to shoot (my producers eventually rounded up the $200,000 or so that we needed), and enough shooting days to do it right (we shot the film in exactly 19 days). After the shoot, it was at times frustrating, sometimes lonely – the entire experience put me through a series of psychological and emotional tests.  Whether in the editing room, trying to raise the rest of the money to finish it, clear music rights, and pay publicists for our Toronto premiere — the furthest thing from my mind was that our journey would end on a stage in Manhattan, in suits, holding a trophy in front of actors and filmmakers whose I work I grew up watching.

We all went into the evening of the awards just trying to appreciate … Read the rest

IFP GOTHAM AWARDS: “BEGINNERS” IN GOOD COMPANY

By Mike Mills

I was very very lucky. First, because I was blissfully unaware that the Gothams would announce the nominations on that day. In fact I was trying to get used to the idea my film — Beginners— had run its course and now it was time to put it to bed, move on, stop worrying about that project. Which isn’t easy. I started this in 2005, I’m used to putting everything I have into it, and the film contains so many people and places and things I truly love (both the real people who inspired the story and the filmmaking family that made it come to life) so it’s bittersweet to say goodbye. I didn’t tell any of my friends or even my wife of the nominations for a few days. I’m the kind of squirrel that hides away any acorns he may get, stuffing them quietly into a tree, so no one can take them away. I was also very very lucky because my film came out in June and is, let’s be honest, still pretty “small,” and let’s be even more honest, if we didn’t get nominated with these other great films, this would have perhaps really been the end of the road! And then, the real lucky part is harder to describe; I think a big reason I make films is to be “with” all the films and filmmakers I love: (Istvan Szasbo, Agnes Varda, Woody Allen, Milos Foreman, Frederico Fellini) — it’s like having comrades (even if they’re dead, or I never met them, or they would never give me the time of day if I did meet them, or they’re just so much better than me!) despite all that when I make films I feel I’m with them, alongside them, or at least I have the same job! Being nominated here is that same feeling of being “with”, being in the group.

It’s crazy we’re nominated alongside the guy who made Days Of Heaven which I’ve been swimming in for years, and the guy who made Election which taught me so much about freedom, and the woman … Read the rest

IFP GOTHAM AWARDS: LITTLE TIME FOR FANTASIES WITH “WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE”

By Alexandra Dawson

When my husband and co-director, Greg, and I were first alerted that our film was one of 29 eligible for the Gotham Audience Award, we were intrigued, but realistic. We knew the chances that our documentary, Wild Horse, Wild Ride, would make the top FIVE were slim. After all, we were up against many wonderful and worthy films and while Wild Horse has earned numerous audience awards at festivals, it has yet to be nationally released. Still, we thought it was a tremendous opportunity, a kick-in-the pants so to speak, that would motivate us to reconnect with our audiences, do more outreach and social media, and spread the word about our story. Only good things could come of that. But we never let ourselves hope that we’d be named an official Gotham Award Nominee.

We had little time for such fantasies anyway. In addition to nurturing our first feature film, we’re raising a 3-year-old and a five-month-old. In fact, I was getting our little one up from a nap at our Wyoming home when the phone rang the morning of November 4^th. Seeing the 212 number on my missed call log, it never occurred to me that it could be the Gothams calling. When I checked the message and heard, “this is Agnes Hahn from IFP. We’ve tabulated the votes and I have some good news….” I nearly dropped the baby in shock.

For our movie to be honored alongside some of the most important and talked-about films of the year is a climax to a journey that began over three years ago when we first read a blurb in our local paper about a program that challenged people to tame wild mustangs in order to prepare them for adoption. When we premiered the film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival last January, only a handful of people had seen it. We sat, sweaty-palmed, for the entire first screening. When the movie received a standing ovation at the end, we thought that would be the highlight of its festival run. We could have never imagined that less than … Read the rest

IFP GOTHAM AWARDS: A GREAT RUN FOR “GIRLFRIEND”

By Justin Lerner

I was on my way back to the U.S. after spending a week in Belgium for the 2011 Ghent International Film Festival, where my first feature film Girlfriend had screened in the World Cinema section. My week in Ghent was spent seeing many of the great festival films of the year, eating Belgian chocolate, waffles, and enjoying all the different beer varieties the country proudly offers. In the Mariott elevator I met my favorite foreign filmmaker of the moment – Andrei Zvyagintsev, whose new film Elena ended up winning the festival. I knew Ghent was likely going to be our final festival for Girlfriend, concluding a 14-month run of screenings that began last fall at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

On my way to the Brussels airport, I got two pieces of news: The first, that Girlfriend had, in a tie with the film Pariah, won the audience award for Best U.S. Feature at the 2011 Mill Valley Film Festival. With genuine surprise, I passed the news along to my team, happy to end our run on such a high note.

A second email came soon after from IFP, informing us that due to our win in Mill Valley we were eligible for the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award. I took a look at the other films short listed – Pariah, Attack the Block, Being Elmo – “big” indie films, many backed by studios and with a lot more resources than we had to get out the vote. While it was an honor to be in this company, we knew that the odds were not in our favor.

I got back to my apartment, unpacked my bags, and opened the Gotham Awards voting website. I clicked on my film (yes, I voted for myself), and I voted for four others which I’d seen and liked this year at festivals. I passed the link on to some family, friends, and supporters who had seen my film, and asked them to vote too.

To be honest, it was astounding to me that we’d even come this far … Read the rest

BUILDING COMMUNITY… ONE PROJECT AT A TIME

By Gregory Bayne

As the practice of ‘crowd-funding’ has come of age over the past couple years, so has the wide array of opinion about it. Some have called it a ‘game-changer’, especially when it comes to funding films, others seem to think of it as a magical place where free money simply appears from thin air, and yet others are wholly unconvinced, if not fully disdainful, of this practice of ‘organized-begging’.

I can sympathize with the latter, seeing how crowd-funding has contributed to the advent of incessant self-promotion via social media sites, and the fact that you feel like everywhere you turn someone is asking you for a dollar whilst waving the banner of “support indie (insert art form here)” in your face. It can quickly begin to turn into noise, that you’ve soon trained yourself to immediately tune out. I’ve been on both sides of this proverbial coin and completely understand the frustration.

At the same time I also see the value, and personally find value, in helping support my fellow artists. Sure, I can’t financially commit to supporting everyone whose work I enjoy, or would like to see, but I definitely do what I can because I see the writing on the wall. Over the past couple years it has become very clear that if we want to continue to see, experience or view new and innovative works across a wide variety of mediums, from visual art, comics, and music to film, we’re going to need to get involved with our pocket-books at a much earlier stage. The old days, and old ways, of discovering new artists and their new work as a passive end-user is, and has been, eroding, if not fully on the decline for some time. Direct interaction between artist and audience is quickly becoming the new normal, and direct patronage of the work is following suit.

That said, this business of crowd-funding is a tricky, difficult endeavor to pursue.

My first outing in this arena came out of sheer necessity in early 2010 when all traditional funding efforts for my documentary film JENS PULVER | DRIVEN… Read the rest

OLIVER PLATT & EDIE FALCO NAMED CO-HOSTS OF GOTHAM AWARDS AND AUDIENCE AWARD NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

By Jason Guerrasio

In a release sent out today, the IFP has announced that actors Oliver Platt and Edie Falco will serve as co-hosts for this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, which take place this year on Nov. 28 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

This is the second straight year two actors known for their work in indie films will be hosting the event. Last year Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson did the honors.

Also announced today are the five finalists for this year’s Gotham Independent Film Audience Award. Comprising 29 audience award winners from the top 50 US and Canadian film festivals, the top vote-getters from the online voting that took place Oct. 18 – Nov. 2 are:

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
Dir. Constance Marks

Buck
Dir. Cindy Meehl

The First Grader
Dir. Justin Chadwick

Girlfriend
Dir. Justin Lerner

Wild Horse, Wild Ride
Dirs. Alex Dawson & Greg Gricus

Voting is now open at gotham.ifp.org/audience_award to select the winner. Voting ends on Nov. 20 at 11:59 EST.

Check out below for trailers from the nominated films. And go to our dedicated Gotham Awards page for news and features on the event and the nominees.

CINEMATOGRAPHER ED LACHMAN DISCUSSES HIS CRAFT

By Dan Schoenbrun

At Independent Film Week this past September, Ed Lachman taught a Masterclass sponsored by Kodak. An acclaimed cinematographer known for creating lush and arresting images in films such as I’m Not There, Erin Brockovich, and The Virgin Suicides, Lachman was nominated for an Academy Award and received an Independent Spirit Award for his work on Far From Heaven.

While the full panel is pay-walled and available only to IFP members, you can watch these three free excerpts right now:

Here, Lachman discusses the difference between working with first-time directors and more experienced directors.

Here, Lachman theorize about the difficulty of exposing characters’ interior worlds through the medium of film.

And here, Lachman discuss his experience working on the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce.… Read the rest

CHOOSE NOMINEES FOR GOTHAMS’ AUDIENCE AWARD

By Jason Guerrasio

For the second year the IFP‘s Gotham Independent Film Awards will have an Audience Award.

Head over to the award’s sponsor, Festival Genius, to select the five films you want nominated. On Nov. 10, the nominees will be announced and you can then vote for the winner.

All 29 films vying for the five nominee slots are Audience Award winners from the top US and Canadian film festivals.

Get out there and vote!

The Gothams take place Nov. 28.

 … Read the rest

NETWORKING FRENZY

By Mary Anderson Casavant

More Reports: Filmmaking in Afghanistan, L.A. Rebellion, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center amphitheater.