Announcement: TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund Call for Entries

Filmmakers! Want some money?

The TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund will provide up to $140,000 in support of innovative and compelling filmmaking that explores scientific, mathematical, and technological themes and storylines, or a leading character who is a scientist, engineer, innovator or mathematician in fresh ways.

We are seeking exceptional narrative work of all genres (except science fiction or fantasy) with scientifically accurate themes or characters.

Selected projects from eligible directors, screenwriters and producers will be announced in Fall 2008 and highlighted at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2009.  In addition to funding, grantees will receive professional guidance and industry exposure as needed.

Apply Now!  Deadline is August 1, 2008. 

Visit www.tribecafilminstitute.org for complete details.

Festival First-Timer: Exploring Music at TFF

Palminteri, De Niro Keep It Real in A Bronx Tale

Hard to believe, but 15 years ago no one in the movie business wanted Chazz Palminteri. Well, they wanted his hit one-man stage show about his coming of age in the Bronx, but they didn't want him to write the screenplay or star in the picture. The numbers kept getting bigger—more than $1 million was on the table at one point—but Palminteri wasn't selling the rights to his intensely personal story to anyone who planned to shut him out once the check cleared. Then, one night, an actor who had been looking for just the right project for his directorial debut—fella by the name of Robert De Niro—came backstage. "He said, 'I know everybody wants it,'" remembered Palminteri, "'but if you make it with me, I'll do it right. If you shake my hand, that's the way it will be.' I shook his hand, and that's the way it was."

For some people—a lot, actually, as Saturday's exclusive Telling a Bronx Tale event at the Directors Guild Theater proved—A Bronx Tale is one of those movies that sticks with you. The characters are unforgettable, the dialogue instantly quotable, the themes resonant. "I did 50 movies, and I'm still the guy from Bronx Tale," beefed Palminteri as he and De Niro met onstage to talk about the film after its 15th anniversary screening. People have even written books on the metaphorical meaning of the film, Palminteri said. "I'm not that smart. I didn't know that when wrote it." he cracked in his charismatic, streetwise manner. "I wrote from the heart."

The authenticity of the film was the key to its success, they shared. De Niro had the idea to use not actors but "real people"—people who know what's what on the streets of the Bronx. To that end, many of the real-life wiseguys who inspired characters in Palminteri's play suddenly found themselves with acting gigs.
 
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Tribeca Film Festival Announces Winners!

"This is very overwhelming," said Sweden's Tomas Alfredson as he took to the stage Thursday night to accept the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature for his coming-of-age vampire tale Let the Right One In. "Since I am a director, I wonder if I could make a film for the people back home." Festival co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal watched as Alfredson took out a small camera and asked the crowd at the modish Target-Tribeca Filmmaker Lounge to help him with a "script" he had prepared. "It's in Swedish," he said. "When I say action, you say 'skol,'" a Swedish salute. Alfredson enthusiastically readied his camera and, with everyone waiting for the big moment, hilariously futzed around with the settings. Finally, we gave our roaring skol, and Alfredson graciously gave another round of thanks. As the pictures and interviews almost immediately began, Alfredson said everyone at the Tribeca Film Festival had already been treating him like a star. "My mouth is dry," he answered when asked how he planned to celebrate the big win. "A couple of glasses of wine maybe."

Earlier, juror Oliver Platt presented My Marlon and Brando director Hüseyin Karabey the award for best new narrative filmmaker. "I want to dedicate this award to the people who lost their lives in Iraq," said an emotional Karabey. "We wanted to tell one of their stories." Gini Reticker's Pray the Devil Back to Hell took the prize for best documentary feature. Reticker took the stage with a weeping Abigail Disney, the film's producer, to accept. "I can't tell you how much this means to the women of Liberia and women looking for peace all over the world," Reticker said. The New York State LOVES Film Best Documentary Award went to Daniela Zanzotto for Zoned In, which she filmed over the course of nine years in the South Bronx, "a part of New York not always shown," she said. "I hope this will get the film out there. It needs friends."

Highlights from the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival awards show will air Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on WNBC. The Cadillac Award for audience choice will also be announced at that time. Check out the full list of winners, prizes, and jury comments after the jump.
 
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Another Blast of Festival News

Some interesting industry news over the weekend: Best Narrative Feature winner Let the Right One In, the atmospheric Swedish vampire story (that, to be honest with you, your poor tired Festival bloggers were completely excited about, had to take a pass thanks to Festival duties, and are happily likely to see this week) has been optioned for an English language remake by the, somewhat fittingly for a vampire tale, reborn British horror company Hammer Films and Spitfire Pictures. Magnet Releasing (an arm of Magnolia Pictures) has the distribution rights for the Swedish original.

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the Festival Marketplace, and what deals went down, or could go down, particularly in this shifting time for the film industry.

And we'd be utterly remiss if we didn't inform you of some of the New York Times' excellent coverage, including:
-Carpetbagger David Carr on the current state of the Festival
-The scoop on filmmaking youth in the Tribeca Film Fellows program

Edit: We have to add what ESPN has blogged about the festival.
The Economist had a festival diary, as well. They saw Standard Operating Procedure.


Read and enjoy!

What Did You Say About the Festival?

This year's iteration of the Tribeca Film Festival is over, but there's a world of fest-friendly content from the faithful masses who came, who saw, and who blogged about their 2008 experiences:

IFC.com talks Let the Right One In and Playing and has exclusive video content, including an interview with artistic director Peter Scarlet.

Variety's Festival page has news, reviews, blog content, and videos, including one with The Wackness'  adorable Josh Peck (who cleans up pretty well when he's not sporting super-wack 1994-era hair).

Nerve.com's blog The Screengrab hit up quite a few Festival films, to put it mildly.

AMCTV's blog Shootout features thorough video goodness.

Palm Pictures' blog covered the Empire II premiere. (Thurston Moore content!)

The Cinematical dudes were running around all Festival long. They covered films like Head Wind and Life in Flight (with the lovely Patrick Wilson), to mention a few.

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir has a list of 10 to watch from the Festival, while Joy Press has an interview with Paul H-O, co-director of Guest of Cindy Sherman.

And Spout.com, dear Spout, they loved Somers Town and The Milky Way Liberation Front. We do too.

Reed, Schnabel Talk Berlin, Bizarre Similes Ensue

"The whole thing was brewing since he made that record in 1973," said director Julian Schnabel of Lou Reed's Berlin at the Conversations in Cinema talk following Sunday night's premiere. "Nineteen seventy-three," Reed interjected in disbelief. Thirty-five years after the chilly commercial and critical reception it received on its release, Reed's masterwork—filmed with an artist's eye by Schnabel during its first-ever complete live performance—was greeted by a sold-out crowd at the Directors Guild Theater with enthusiastic acclamation. "A lot of this audience wasn't born when Berlin came out," moderator Lisa Robinson of Vanity Fair acknowledged. And it made sense that Schnabel was the one to bring it to them. "Julian knew the record better than me," said Reed. "He could recite the thing."
 
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