HUFFINGTON POST – Proving it’s never too early to think about 2013, the Sundance Institute announced films in competition for dramatic and documentary prizes at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.Topping the list in the U.S. Dramatic competition are films starring Rooney Mara (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” with Casey Affleck), Daniel Radcliffe (“Kill Your Darlings” with Elizabeth Olsen), Jessica Biel (“Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”), Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (“Fruitvale”), Shailene Woodley (“The Spectacular Now” with Kyle Chandler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and more), Ellen Page (“Touchy Feely” with Rosemarie DeWitt) and Alison Brie (“Toy’s House” with Craig Robinson and Nick Offerman).
In the U.S. Documentary Competition category, films about the Occupy Wall Street movement (“99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film”), late-term abortions (“After Tiller”), the dangers of keeping killer whales in captivity (“Blackfish”), drug cartels (“Narco Cultura”) and backup singers (“Twenty Feet From Stardom”).
“Every great film starts with an idea, and it is a testament to artists that they continually find new ideas, new stories, new points of view and new ways of sharing them, year after year. We look forward to hearing from these artists not just through their words and images onscreen but also through the larger dialogue they create with audiences at our Festival and beyond.” Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford said in a statement.
Month: November 2012
VARIETY – I became so lost in the raw vulnerability of Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s acute and accurate portrayal of an alcoholic woman, my mind seemed to forget that I was watching a movie starring an actress instead of observing a dear friend who was fighting personal inner battles.
Mary paved her road of empowerment with penetrating strength and unabridged vulnerability. She sucked me into Kate’s world, a world of messy, difficult, unclear paths that are filled with obstacles and tribulations beyond reason. She did not glamorize AA meetings. She did not victoriously display the perks of abstaining from substances. She did not give me the impression that life gets easier once an individual becomes sober. Rather, she navigated her way through waves of confusion, self-doubt, dependence, separation, honesty, responsibility and courage without ever demanding empathy or compassion from her audience.
I was naturally drawn to root for this woman, to cheer for her triumphs and to cry for her blunders. Mary’s performance left me humbled as she carved her way out of a blinding inebriation with forceful perseverance and pure, stripped-down human bravery.
Thanks to the lovely Nicole, we have new matching themes for both the main site and gallery. As much as I loved the previous look, I felt now was was time for something different and this happens to be one of my favorite photoshoots of Shailene. I’ve also tweaked the site content a little bit to make things more organized, as well as adding new information pages on Shailene’s upcoming roles in White Bird in a Blizzard and Divergent – both will be updated once further details about the films become available.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the layouts and if you should come across any errors please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you and enjoy the new look!
EMPIRE – It’s been a few months since we heard anything about Gregg Araki’s latest film, which, back then had Shailene Woodley attached and was simply called White Bird. Now the full title appears to be White Bird In A Blizzard and the movie has added Christopher Meloni, Eva Green, Shiloh Fernandez and Gabourey Sidibe.
Not much is known about what they’ll all be doing, besides the fact that Woodley will be playing a young woman whose life is changed dramatically when her mother disappears. Araki wrote the script and is in pre-production on the film, which will shoot, we assume, soon in case Woodley has to go and report to the Amazing Spider-Man sequel set. Though even if she does finally lock in the Mary Jane role on Spider-Man, chances are she could also work on other things in between shooting blocks.
Meloni, meanwhile, is keeping his film career ticking along after a long stretch on cop drama Law & Order: SVU. With that now finished, he’s got plenty of movies set to arrive, including Jackie Robinson drama 42, comedy They Came Together and a tiny indie pic about some bloke who can leap tall buildings in a single bound called Man Of Steel, which arrives on June 14.
I’ve added a beautiful outtake from Shailene’s photoshoot earlier in the year for Vogue to the gallery. Enjoy!
Photoshoots and Portraits > Photoshoots and Portraits from 2012 > Session 14: Vogue
Shailene celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday and I’ve added some new photos from last night taken at Film Independent’s Live Read of Woody Allen’s Manhattan at the LACMA to the gallery. Be sure to take a look!
Public Appearances > Appearances in 2012 > (Nov 15) Film Independent Live Read of ‘Manhattan’