Macon Film Festival: Recapping the Sundance Institute Master Class

The Macon Film Festival welcomed us with open arms and kicked off the weekend with a Sundance Institute Short Film Master Class with Mike Plante and James Ponsoldt.

Plante, Sundance Short Films Senior Programmer, wove his tale to an eager crowd. Beginning his festival journey in 1993, he is no stranger to the inner workings of getting films into festivals, and he started with rule number one—'Don’t be a dick.' Simple enough, just treat every single person you meet along the way well. The positivity will read through the work and more people will sign on to help you make a great film.

Macon Film Festival and Sundance Institute Join Forces for Short Film Master Class with James Ponsoldt & Mike Plante

The 11th annual Macon Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, July 21st and runs through Sunday, July 24th. Through a partnership with Sundance Institute, Middle Georgia's largest film organization is kickstarting this year's festivities with a high profile Master Class from acclaimed, Georgia-born filmmaker James Ponsoldt and long-time Sundance Short Film Programmer Mike Plante.

The 2015 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Deadline Has Been Extended

We’re nearing the end of 2014, which means that the 2015 spring festival season is closely upon us. If you’ve polished your screenplay to the point of perfection and are looking for a place to submit, the Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) has extended its deadline for feature length screenplays to December 15, 2014. ATLFF is offering a limited time 50% discount to anyone who submits before the deadline.

First annual Milledgeville Film Festival takes place this weekend!

Bridging the gap between the spring and fall legs of Georgia's film festival circuit, the first annual Milledgeville Film Festival takes place this weekend! It began yesterday, April 25th and runs through Sunday, April 27th.

Things kicked off at 6 PM on Friday with a red carpet, followed by an opening night gala featuring keynote speaker Stevie Lynn Jones and a film presentation of "Young Americans."

Today, panels for producers, directors, actors, agents and casting directors began at 10 AM and run through early afternoon when film screenings start. Narrative Shorts screen at 2 PM, followed by International Shorts at 4 PM and a feature presentation of "The One Who Loves You" at 6 PM. A free screening of "The Spectacular Now" takes place on the Greenway at 9 PM.

On Sunday, features "Heroes of Arvine Place," "Paradise Garden" and "The Wingman" screen at 12 PM, 4 PM and 6:20 PM respectively. A second narrative shorts block takes place at 2 PM on Sunday, and 2013 Atlanta Film Festival Audience Award winner "Blood Brother" closes the festival out at 8 PM.

The festival takes place at the Georgia College & State University campus in downtown Milledgeville. Stay tuned for more coverage!

"Her" wins Best Picture from the Georgia Film Critics Association

"Gravity," "12 Years a Slave" and the Spike Jonze love story each won three awards; "American Hustle" recognized for Best Ensemble.

Joaquin Phoenix stars in "Her," winner of the 2013 Georgia Film Critics
Award for Best Picture.

The Georgia Film Critics Association has wrapped up their third year by announcing the winners for their 2013 awards. "12 Years a Slave" led the nominations with ten mentions earlier this week, but it was "Her" that won the top prize. Spike Jonze wasn't even nominated for Best Director, but did win an award for Best Original Screenplay, as did Arcade Fire for the film's score. "Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave" also won three awards each. Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for "Gravity" and the film also snagged Best Cinematography and Production Design awards. "12 Years a Slave" won three acting awards—Best Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Best Supporting Actor for Michael Fassbender and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o—but lost Best Ensemble to "American Hustle."

The Best Ensemble award marks the only win for "American Hustle," after earning seven nominations. Also with seven nods, "Inside Llewyn Davis" only took home one—Best Original Song. Despite its use of sampling disqualifying the track from Academy Award consideration, the GFCA obviously sees no problem with the song. "Short Term 12" won for Best Adapted Screenplay and star Brie Larson won the Breakthrough Award—although credit is not directly given to any of her films in particular.

Other winners include Cate Blanchett as Best Actress in "Blue Jasmine," "No" as Best Foreign Film, "Stories We Tell" as Best Documentary and "Frozen" as Best Animated Feature. "The Spectacular Now" was honored with the Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema, a special recognition for the year's best feature or short film produced in Georgia.

Check out the full list of winners after the jump.

Georgia Film Critics announce nominees for 2013 awards

"12 Years a Slave" leads in nominations, but indie films "Upstream Color," "Short Term 12" and "The Spectacular Now" make a splash.

Though they may be one of the later regional critics groups to release their year-end lists, the Georgia Film Critics Association always manages to give a tip-of-the-hat to the unexpected. Now wrapping up it's third awards season, the GFCA's ten members have put together a list of films that mixes the expected Oscar heavy-hitters with some of the year's most celebrated independent releases.

"12 Years a Slave" leads the way with ten nominations, followed by "American Hustle" and "Inside Llewyn Davis" each with seven nods. The tide then turns a little bit, with "Upstream Color" joining "Gravity" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" with six nominations each. Festival darling "Short Term 12" follows with five mentions. "Her," "Mud" and "The Spectacular Now" round out the remaining Best Picture nominees.

A few highlights include Amy Seimetz ("Upstream Color") in both Best Actress and Breakthrough categories, John Goodman ("Inside Llewyn Davis") and Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine") in supporting shortlists and singular screenplay nominations for "Frances Ha" and "Prince Avalanche." Emmanuel Lubezki wound up with two nominations in Best Cinematography ("Gravity," "To the Wonder"), while Hans Zimmer pulled the same feat in Best Score ("Man of Steel," "12 Years a Slave"). Going back to "Upstream Color," Shane Carruth might be the real winner here, seeing as he served as the film's director, producer, writer, lead actor, editor and composer—personally earning credit for most of the film's nominations.

Plenty of these films featured on the 2013 Georgia film festival circuit. "Mud" and "The Spectacular Now" played at the Atlanta Film Festival, while "Nebraska," "The Past," "Philomena," "The Sacrament" and "The Spectacular Now" all screened at the Savannah Film Festival. "Lore" played at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and "Muscle Shoals" will screen in February at the 2014 Macon Film Festival.

The Breakthrough Award shortlist features actresses Sophie Kennedy Clark ("Philomena"), Brie Larson ("Don Jon," "Short Term 12," "The Spectacular Now"), Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave"); actors Tye Sheridan ("Joe," "Mud") and Miles Teller ("The Spectacular Now," "21 & Over"); and actress-director-producer-writer-editor Amy Seimetz ("Lucky Them," "9 Full Moons," "Pit Stop," "The Sacrament," "Sun Don't Shine," "Upstream Color").

Winners will be announced Friday, January 10th. Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.

Georgia productions at the Savannah Film Festival: "The Spectacular Now" (****), "Last Vegas" (**), "The Sacrament" (***)

In addition to a host of Georgia-lensed SCAD student work, this year's Savannah Film Festival screened an assortment of Georgia productions. James Ponsoldt's "The Spectacular Now," both set and shot in Athens, already closed out the Atlanta Film Festival earlier this year and went on to a successful theatrical run over the summer, but Savannah hosted a special screening of the film with director Ponsoldt, writer Michael H. Weber and star Miles Teller (a frequent attendee and former Discovery Award recipient) in attendance for a Q&A. Jon Turteltaub's "Last Vegas" served as one of the special gala presentation films and despite not being set anywhere near the Peach State, most of the movie was shot here. Horror film dynamo Ti West filmed his latest, "The Sacrament," in the Savannah area during the duration of last year's film festival, so it only made sense for him to come back to the Hostess City for a special premiere. Plenty of cast and crew members were on hand for the unveiling. In addition to these narrative features, documentary jury contender and Audience Award winner, "Mayan Blue," has Georgia ties as well. The film showcases Mayan ruins beneath Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, but comes from Athens-based Standoff Studios. (A review for "Mayan Blue" will be featured later.)

What to see at the 2013 Savannah Film Festival

Now in its 16th year, the Savannah Film Festival is a distinguished, star-studded jewel on Georgia's film festival crown. Over the last several years, the festival has built up a reputation for its varied selection of honorees as well as its thought-provoking programming—displayed through both highly-buzzed prestige projects and smaller independent fare alike.

This is my third SAVFF, and my second time attending for the entire 8-day event. Last year, "Silver Linings Playbook," "Amour," "Flight," "Rust & Bone," "The Sapphires" and "Rise of the Guardians" were some of the fest's big hits. Business as usual, plenty of Oscar buzz exists in this year's lineup as well. From the opening night film, "Nebraska," to the closing night film, "August: Osage County," and to all of the "Philomena"s and "Mandela"s in between—this is your Georgia destination for the fall's most anticipated releases.

So what is worth seeing this year? Just about everything! We've highlighted the special gala presentations, the Georgia films, the competition lineup and a few other screenings worth checking out. The festival starts Saturday, October 26th and runs through Saturday, November 2nd, so get your tickets now!

Alexander Payne, Natalie Dormer, Terence Stamp among honorees at 2013 Savannah Film Festival

The 2013 Savannah Film Festival honorees (from left):
Alexander Payne, Natalie Dormer, Terence Stamp

Later this month, the Savannah Film Festival will continue the star parade it began 16 years ago. Last year, the festival celebrated the careers of Matt Dillon, Geoffrey Fletcher, John Gatins, John Goodman, Diane Lane, Michelle Monaghan and Stan Lee; so it is no surprise to hear a solid mix of revered filmmakers, acting legends and promising newcomers lined up for this year's honors. Alexander Payne, Natalie Dormer and Terence Stamp are the first honorees announced for this year's events. The festival kicks off on Saturday, October 26th and runs through Saturday, November 2nd.

A Conversation with James Ponsoldt, director of "The Spectacular Now"

James Ponsoldt walks the red carpet at the
Atlanta Film Festival for his film,
"The Spectacular Now"

In the past two years, James Ponsoldt has not only seen two of his films show at Sundance, but both have competed for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The Athens native now lives in Los Angeles, but when it came time for his latest feature, Georgia beckoned him back.

Proclaiming himself as a writer first and foremost, "The Spectacular Now" marks the first of Ponsoldt's six films (three shorts and three features) where he doesn't have a writing credit. Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, the screenwriters behind hipster mega-hit "(500) Days of Summer," adapted Tim Tharpe's award-winning novel. Upon reading the script, Ponsoldt approached the two with both enthusiasm and his own plans in mind.

"'I want to set it in Athens, Georgia and I want to film it on anamorphic 35mm.' And they said, 'alright.'" Tharpe's novel takes place in Oklahoma, a setting that the first version of the screenplay kept. Luckily, the story's ties to the Sooner state are loose enough. But what else made Ponsoldt want to film in his hometown?

Atlanta Film Festival: 2013 award winners

Deragh Campbell stars in Best Narrative Feature award winner,
"I Used To Be Darker"

Though I'm a bit behind in my ATLFF coverage so far this year, hopefully you've at least been able to gather from Twitter, Facebook and the few reviews posted so far that this year has been an incredible, transformative experience for the 37-year-old circuit staple. The festival 'closes out' tonight with James Ponsoldt's Georgia-produced "The Spectacular Now," but tomorrow's schedule features plenty of special presentations, encores and second chances to catch this year's award winners. Matthew Porterfield's "I Used To Be Darker" takes home the Best Narrative Feature award. Porterfield previously won the same award in 2010 for his film "Putty Hill." Kalyanee Mam's quietly powerful study of Cambodia's surging cultural and economic change, "A River Changes Course," won the Best Documentary Feature award. One of my personal favorites of the festival, "Congratulations!" by Mike Brune, takes home Best Georgia Connected Film honors. Check out the full list of winners after the jump.

Filmmakers and stars to walk the red carpet at the 2013 Atlanta FIlm Festival

From left: Ray McKinnon, Abigail Spencer, James Ponsoldt and Joseph Morgan
are all set to walk the red carpet at various ATLFF screenings.

Kicking off with "Mud" tomorrow night, the Atlanta Film Festival couldn't properly begin without rolling out the red carpet at the Plaza Theatre. Actor Ray McKinnon will be in town representing "Mud," which also stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard and Tye Sheridan.

The ATLFF red carpet has always been more of a filmmaker's event than a showy A-lister ordeal, shining the proper light on the talent and passion behind the projects. Plenty of pretty faces and actors make their way down the press line, however, and this year is no different. McKinnon will appear again Saturday (March 16th) for "Rectify," his new Georgia-lensed Sundance Channel original series. He is bringing along a few of his stars, too. Abigail Spencer ("Mad Men," "Oz the Great and Powerful"), Clayne Crawford ("24," "The Glades," "Justified"), Kim Wall ("American Reunion"), Sharon Morris ("The Blind Side") and Adam Fristoe ("Teen Wolf") are all set to appear. Joseph Morgan of "The Vampire Diaries" will walk the red carpet for the screening of his short film "Revelation." For the closing night film, "The Spectacular Now," native Georgian and director James Ponsoldt is scheduled to appear (March 23rd).

More stars and filmmakers could very well make their way to the fest, especially with all the in-town filming taking place.

What to see at the 2013 Atlanta Film Festival

At nearly 40 years old (37, to be exact), the Atlanta Film Festival has earned the distinction of Georgia's foremost festival event. The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is a more sprawling, ticket-selling extravaganza. The Savannah Film Festival hosts bigger stars and showcases 'higher profile' films. The Macon Film Festival and Rome International Film Festival are famously friendly and tremendously resourceful. But the years have been kind and the decades of extra experience have paid off for the ATLFF. For a long time, the festival floundered to find its niche– not knowing whether to focus on Southern film, independent film, LGBT film or to just pick up scraps from other, more established festivals. Last year, under the leadership of new executive director, Chris Escobar, and recently crowned festival director, Charles Judson, the festival made great strides towards a unique, truly Atlantan voice. This year, that voice rings out with an uninhibited clarity.

Just as Georgia's film industry, both commercially and independently, has taken off and continues to move at a break-neck speed, the ATLFF has managed to become a destination film fest for international filmmakers while placing a huge emphasis on our locally-grown work. This year's lineup is the most solid, cohesive yet. While we see a few all-stars from this season's earlier festivals (Sundance, SXSW, Toronto); a slew of unique programming enters the race here, including dozens of Georgia-made features and shorts. Congratulations to Judson and company for all your hard work paying off!

Now, what should you see this year? The correct answer would be, 'as much as you can.' The ten day event features plenty for anyone and everyone. Saturdays and Sundays are jam-packed with programming, but you won't have to worry about leaving work to catch a film as weekday screenings are set in the evening. If you can get away during the weekdays, though, please do. The Cinformation seminar series is going to be well worth your time.

I simply can't wait for the big kickoff this Friday. After the jump, I've highlighted this year's most promising fare– including the big names, the buzzed titles and all the homegrown good stuff.

Complete 2013 Atlanta Film Festival line-up

The famed Plaza Theatre, home of this year's Atlanta Film Festival.
(Image from www.plazatlanta.com)

Only nine more days until Georgia's signature film festival kicks off it's 37th season with "Mud" at the Plaza Theatre. We'll be bringing you all sorts of coverage– reviews, photos, giveaways and more. Check back soon for our picks of what to see at the festival, with an emphasis on the Georgia-made films. But for now– check out the full slate of programming.

Opening Night
Mud

Closing Night
The Spectacular Now (GA)

Special Presentations
Rectify (GA)
Scarred but Smarter: Life n Times of Drivin n Cryin (GA)
Faces In The Mirror
The Whitest Kids U' Know
WonderRoot Generally Local, Mostly Independent

James Ponsoldt's "The Spectacular Now" to close Atlanta Film Festival

Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller star in "The Spectacular Now"

The Atlanta Film Festival will officially announce its lineup any moment now. Earlier this week, news broke that on March 15th, Jeff Nichols' "Mud" will kick off the festival. Now, it has been confirmed that Georgia-filmed "The Spectacular Now" will close out the fest on March 23rd.

Director James Ponsoldt's film was shot in Athens last summer and stars Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bob Odenkirk. The film was a huge success at Sundance last month, with Teller and Woodley taking home acting awards. Adapted from a Tim Tharp novel by Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, A24 picked up distribution rights for the film at Sundance and aims to get "The Spectacular Now" in cinemas sometime this summer. Personally, I am thrilled to see this as an ATLFF selection, but not surprised!

In addition to "Mud" and "The Spectacular Now," we do know a few other movies to look forward to. Documentary titles include "As Goes Janesville," "Blood Brother," "Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp," "The Institute," "La Source," "Losing Lebron," "Magic Camp," "Mohammed to Maya," "Scarred but Smarter: Life n Times of Drivin n Cryin," "Submit the Documentary" and "Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride." Narrative titles include "A Band of Rogues," "Cinema Six," "Claire's Cambodia," "Congratulations!" "euphonia," "Faces in the Mirror," "Hank and Asha," "Moral Sleaze" and "The Suicide Kid."

Georgia filmed "The Spectacular Now" to premiere at Sundance

Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller star in "The Spectacular Now"

Last summer, as James Ponsoldt was still riding the wave of acclaim he received for his Sundance hit, "Smashed," he began work on a new film in his hometown of Athens, Georgia. "The Spectacular Now" is adapted from Tim Tharp's much beloved novel by screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ("500 Days of Summer"). Upon reading the book and being reminded of his own hometown, Ponsoldt set out to change the setting from Oklahoma to Georgia. Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Kyle Chandler, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mary Elizabeth Winstead all star in this promising teen romance. The world premiere is Friday, January 18th. I'd love to see this film come back to Georgia for the Atlanta Film Festival in March.

Check out some images (courtesy of The Playlist) and a brief word from Ponsoldt after the jump.