The Film Panel Notetaker

A sold-out crowd attended last night’s Cinema Eye Honors at TheTimesCenter in New York, hosted by co-chairs Thom Powers and AJ Schnack, who made a grand entrance sporting Mardi Gras regalia, as seen in Margaret Brown’s The Order of Myths. Stay tuned for my notes from the mid-awards ceremony roundtable discussion moderated by Powers that [...]

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Self-Distribution Not All By YourselfSunday March 15, 2009 at 1:00pmAustin Convention Center, Austin, TX.
Moderator:Scott Macaulay, Editor, Filmmaker Magazine

Panelists:Richard Abramowitz, AbramoramaCaitlin Boyle, Paradigm Consulting/Semi-Theatrical Distribution ConsultantChris Hyams, Founder & CEO, B-Side EntertainmentJon Reiss, Hybrid Cinema, Filmmaker & Consultant
As specialty film subsidiaries dry up and smaller distributors close up shop, self-distribution has become a much more viable [...]

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The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic ProfessionSXSW Film FestivalAustin Convention Center, Austin, TXSaturday, March 14th, 2009Notes by Erin Scherer
Moderator:

Gerald Peary, Director: For The Love Of Movies, Film Critic for The Boston Phoenix
Panelists:

Marjorie Baumgarten, Senior Film Editor/Critic, Austin ChronicleShawn Levy, Film Critic, The OregonianKarina Longworth, Spout.comScott Weinberg, Cinematical, FEARnet

“What is the current state of film criticism?” [...]

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Skills Like This
Sneak Preview Screening
92Y Tribeca
New York, NY
March 13, 2009

Monty Miranda’s Skills Like This, which won the Audience Award at 2007’s South by Southwest Film Festival, is being released theatrically in New York on March 20 at Angelika Film Center through Shadow Distribution. Skills Like This is a comedy shot entirely on location in and [...]

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One-on-One Q&A
Daryl Wein, Director/Co-Writer/Producer/Actor
Breaking Upwards
In anticipation for his narrative feature directorial debut, Breaking Upwards, at SXSW this weekend, Daryl Wein participated in a One-on-One Q&A with The Film Panel Notetaker. Wein’s documentary Sex Positive debuted at last year’s SXSW.

Q: Can you tell me a little about Breaking Upwards, how it all began? What’s the story [...]

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IFP’s Script to Screen Conference
Tips from the Pros: Inside the Development ProcessMarch 7, 2009New York, NY
Producer Mike Ryan lead another producer, a screenwriter (the very jovial and enthusiastic Kelly Masterson) and a couple of development executives in the discussion about what else, but development, the process of reading and evaluating scripts that may or [...]

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IFP’s Script to Screen Conference
Writers in CollaborationMarch 7, 2009New York, NY

Writer/Director Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue, Married Life) moderated a discussion on the collaborative writing process. He started the conversation by saying that everything he does is about how well he works with other people. “There’s almost nothing that isn’t about trying to negotiate [...]

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IFP’s Script to Screen Conference
Conversation with Keynote James Schamus – CEO, Focus FeaturesMarch 7, 2009New York, NY

(Scott Macaulay & James Schamus. Photo by Brian Geldin.)
Focus Features CEO James Schamus makes his second appearance here at The Film Panel Notetaker (his first being at the Woodstock Film Festival last fall) with my notes taken in a [...]

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Today, Gen Art Film Festival presented by Acura announced the line up for their annual seven-day shindig of one feature, one short and one par-tay per day to take place at the newly refurbished Visual Arts Theater, which The Film Panel Notetaker recently visited. Derick Martini’s Lymelife with a star-studded cast including 30 Rock’s Alec [...]

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One-on-One Q&A with Ry Russo-Young,Writer-Director, You Wont Miss MeInterview by Erin Scherer

Ry Russo-Young’s latest film, You Wont Miss Me, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film stars Stella Schnabel, who collaborated with Russo-Young on the story. You Wont Miss Me follows Shelly Brown, a 23 year old recently released from a [...]

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