Two Jell-o lovers share a romantic interlude in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Kristin here: Back in early 2007, I posted an entry about the supposed over-supply of animated films due for release that year. I realize that journalists have to find topics to fill pages. That year���one topic...

Although as I write this its Tomatometer is at 89%, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is something of a Rorschach test for critics, with some finding the film to be both canny and empathetic, a Hollywood picture calibrated for the emotional temperature of a country with a 10% unemployment rate. Others see its Hollywood sheen and evocation of the family as obviating the economic reality it is set against. (J. Hoberman of the Village Voice writes: "... a satire unsullied by anger, Up in the Air floats above the pain." I am solidly in the "pro" camp, feeling that Reitman has worked within the Hollywood style to create a nuanced, often quite melancholy, and far from facile portrait of numbed...

Paul Rachman, whose feature documentary American Hardcore, premiered at Sundance in 2006 and then was sold to Sony Classics, penned a 17-page chapter of Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide. Here are some of the tips listed in the chapter: - Your festival preparation starts the day you find out you have been accepted. If you are not working nonstop from that moment until your World Premiere, then you are most likely leaving important things undone. - The most important thing about your major festival world premiere is to keep it that way—a premiere. Do not start sending the entire film to potential distributors, exhibitors or press; they will ask you for this, but it will most...

The Sundance Institute has announced the titles that will be in the non-competition categories for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Notables going to Park City in January include Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Nicole Holofcener, the Duplass bros, Michael Winterbottom (with two films), the Safdie bros, Gaspar Noé and Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut. Also announced are the films taking part in the newly created NEXT series, where films and their filmmakers will travel the country showing their films in theaters during the fest. The Sundance Film Festival will runs January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. List of titles below. See list of...

Alone among our Gotham "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" nominees was the winner, You Won't Miss Me, because it was the sole film not to have received a Variety review. That was nicely remedied tied its win, as Ronnie Scheib caught up with the film and had this to say. Ry Russo-Young's sophomore outing, You Won't Miss Me, circles, tracks and finally zeroes in on Shelly (co-scripter Stella Schnabel, daughter of helmer Julian), a troubled 23-year-old Gothamite newly released from a mental institution. Quasi-experimental pic unfolds in nonchronological, unconnected moments, its heroine's day-to-day existence lacking the internal structure that might tie scenes together. But...

If we want to engage constructively with the impact agenda I suggest the following slogan: 'Philosophy: adding value to human capital' - James Ladyman

Lara: 'your blog post yesterday about proletariat lectures got me thinking: there are hundreds of free lectures taking place all the time in London (e.g. yours last night) and if people knew about these things, hundreds could turn up and get a free education in town without even trying. It's there staring us in the face right now, but people simply don't know what's going on.' She's right.

The Sundance Institute announced today the films that will be in competition for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Sundance also announced that there will be no opening night film this year. "By moving away from one opening night to a ‘night of Competition,’ we bring the focus back to our core," says the director of the festival, John Cooper, in the announcemnt. Some of the familiar faces showing up to Park City for '10 include Alex Gibney wih his doc on Jack Abramoff, Jeffrey Blitz examines what happens when people hit the lottery, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman look at Allen Ginsberg and his landmark poem Howl, Amir Bar-Lev returns with a doc on Pat Tillman, and Mark Ruffalo makes his...

In the wake of District 9 and the effectiveness of its viral campaign, studios are looking for budget-conscious, effects-skilled directing talent. Reports the Heat Vision blog, Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez, who has been making shorts since 2001, posted a no-budget (reportedly less than $500) short depicting a robot attack on the town of Montevideo. The short went up in early November, the industry took notice, and the director signed with CAA and Anonymous Content just before the Thanksgiving holiday. He now has a deal with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures to develop an original project. The short is cool and impressive for such a tiny budget, but it's not the story, as Matt Goldberg...