Festivals & Events

The slate of films featured at the 68th Cannes Film Festival was finally revealed today. They include George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Pixar’s Inside Out and Woody Allen’s Irrational Man along with new films by Gus Van Sant (Sea of Trees) and Todd Haynes (Carol).

There was no shortage of honors at the 2015 Sundance awards ceremony that closed the Park City festival with the distribution of 27 prizes in a lively affair presided over by comedienne Tig Notaro. Not that awards are really the point of the indie festival, but then again it doesn’t hurt to recognize the most noteworthy films and authors – and it was a pretty good excuse for one last mountain party.

How much activity can you pack into less than two days? Just ask Jason Isaacs, a man of boundless energy. The British actor flew in from London for the premiere of Stockholm, Pennsylvania on Friday and left early Sunday morning for Croatia where he is shooting the TV series Dig.

The title of Liz Garbus’ fine documentary on Nina Simone is taken from an article on the singer written by Maya Angelou but is a question that many might ask about the life and career one of modern American music’s brightest and most enigmatic stars.  Born the sixth child of a North Carolina preacher in 1931, Nina Simone studied from an early age to become “the first black female classically trained concert pianist” and subsequently rose to fame as one of the most original and incisive interpreters of the jazz, blues and soul canon.

For all its trailblazing tradition, Sundance has on occasion been accused of selecting opening-night films that have been less than buzz-worthy. That may have been on the minds of programmers who decided this year to start things off with a bang, specifically The Bronze.

It took a first time director – Kim Farrant – and a psychological family mystery/crime drama for Nicole Kidman to return to her cinematic roots with Strangerland. “It was great to be able to go back to Australia and support the Australian film industry.

Its no secret that every January Hollywood picks up stakes and moves to Park City for ten days – and when you shoehorn most of moviedom in the snowcapped capital of indie cinema anything can happen. That’s how you can bump into James Franco and Brad Pitt at the same bar counter.

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