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Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in ‘Past Lives’ (Photo Credit: Jon Pack / Courtesy of A24)

Past Lives took home top film honors at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, held on February 25th in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica. The film also earned Celine Song the Best Director award, with American Fiction‘s Cord Jefferson and May December‘s Samy Burch earning screenplay honors.

On the television side, The Last of Us collected two awards: Nick Offerman for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series and Keivonn Montreal Woodard for Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series. Beef also netted two wins, with Ali Wong awarded Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series and the show earning the Best New Scripted Series award.

2024 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Best Feature (Award given to the producer.)

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin,...

Past Lives was named best feature at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which were handed out Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica.

In addition, Celine Song was named best director for her work on the film.

Elsewhere, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the Spirit Award for best supporting performance, for her role in The Holdovers, repeating her win from Saturday night’s SAG Awards and other shows this awards season. Her co-star, Dominic Sessa, won the Spirit Award for best breakthrough performance.

American Fiction also collected two trophies: Cord Jefferson won the award for best screenplay, while Jeffrey Wright won for best lead performance.

May December won the award for best first screenplay for Samy Burch (story by Burch and Alex Mechanik). Four Daughters was named best documentary.

On the TV side, Beef was named best new scripted series, while Ali Wong won best lead performance for her role in the show,...

The best in independent film and television were honored at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards!

Plenty of A-List stars were in attendance at the event on Sunday afternoon (February 25) at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif.

Movies are only eligible for a Spirit Award if they have a budget of less than $30 million, so there are some awards favorites like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon that are not nominated.

American Fiction, May December, and Past Lives lead the pack this year with five nominations each.

Make sure to check out our post with photos of Every celeb who attended the event! Also check out our best dressed list.

Head inside to see the full list of winners…

Keep scrolling to see the full list of winners…

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

American Fiction

Producers: Cord Jefferson,...

The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday at the traditional Santa Monica beach tent location, with Aidy Bryant hosting. “Past Lives” took home the coveted Best Feature award, with “Beef” being honored as Best New Scripted Series. Check out the full list of winners and nominees below.

Best Feature

“Past Lives”

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

“All of Us Strangers”

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

“American Fiction”

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

“May December”

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon

“Passages”

Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd

“We Grown Now”

Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro

Best Lead Performance

Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman, “May December”

Judy Reyes, “Birth/Rebirth”

Franz Rogowski, “Passages”

Andrew Scott, “All of Us Strangers”

Teyana Taylor,...

While the likes of Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Moon will likely battle it out at the Oscars, Film Independent Spirit Awards is putting the spotlight on the indie productions of the year, with budget ranges from $10,000 to $28 million. May December, Past Lives, and American Fiction lead the nominations for the 39th ceremony, each taking five nods.

Other highlights include All of Us Strangers and Passages for Best Feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and Earth Mama for Best First Feature, Kokomo City and The Mother of All Lies for Best Documentary, Glenn Howerton for BlackBerry, Marin Ireland and Anne Hathaway for Eileen, Marshawn Lynch for Bottoms, How to Blow Up a Pipeline for Best Editing, Godland and Tótem for Best International Film, and more.

See the nominations below ahead of the ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024 (a full two weeks before the Oscars), hosted by Aidy Bryant.

Best...

Erika Alexander stars as Coraline and Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in ‘American Fiction’ (Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC)

American Fiction, Past Lives, and May December lead the list of the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Each of the three films picked up five nominations and will be going head-to-head in the Best Film and Best Supporting Performance categories. Films and TV shows earning four nominations included The Holdovers, I’m a Virgo, The Last of Us, and Passages.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held on February 25 on the beach in Santa Monica. Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) is on board to host.

“This year’s exciting group of Spirit Award nominees reflect the undeniable strength and vitality of independent storytelling – this is the beating heart of film culture today,” said Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent. “It’s especially thrilling to see so many nominees...

Ceremony to take place on Santa Monica Beach on February 25, 2024.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations have been announced and May December, American Fiction, and Past Lives lead the field with five nods apiece.

The Holdovers earned four and there were three for All Of Us Strangers – winner of seven Bifas at the weekend – as the nominations were announced on Tuesday. A24 leads the studio field with 11 nominations, followed by Netflix on 10.

Andrew Scott for All Of Us Strangers, Jessica Chastain for Memory, Greta Lee for Past Lives, Franz Rogowski for Passages, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction are...

The full list of nominations for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards has been announced!

Movies are only eligible for a Spirit Award if they have a budget of less than $30 million, so there are some awards favorites like Maestro and Killers of the Flower Moon that are not nominated here.

Aidy Bryant is set to host the 2024 awards ceremony, which will take place on February 25. The event will no longer air on television and will instead stream on YouTube.

American Fiction, May December, and Past Lives lead the pack this year with five nominations each.

Head inside to check out the full list of nominations…

Keep scrolling to see the full list of nominations…

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

American Fiction

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

May December

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell,...

American Fiction, May December and Past Lives lead the nominations for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which were were announced Tuesday morning.

Each film garnered five noms, including best feature. Also nominated in that category are All of Us Strangers, Passages and We Grown Now.

The Robert Altman Award, which is given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast, will be presented to Showing Up, directed by Kelly Reichardt. The casting director is Gayle Keller, and the ensemble cast includes André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez and Michelle Williams.

On the TV side, Jury Duty was tapped for the award of best ensemble in a new scripted series, an honor bestowed on one show (there are no nominees). The cast includes Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball,...

The final month of the year has arrived, and with it an early Festivus bounty of news (very exciting!) about the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which are happening once again on February 25, back on the beach in Santa Monica. Last week brought tell of our incomparable new Spirit Awards host: SNL funnywoman and Emmy-nominated streaming series auteur Aidy Bryant. Now, the nondenominational secular-humanist Holiday Gnomes have brought us something potentially even more exciting… the nominees!

For the third consecutive year, the Spirit Awards will recognize outstanding achievement in uniqueness of vision, innovation and boldness in TV and streaming in addition to feature film. And for the second year, all acting categories are gender-neutral.

Noms were revealed in a livestream earlier today on Film Independent’s YouTube channel (like and subscribe!) by special guest presenters Joel Kim Booster and Natalie Morales:

Spirit Awards winners are voted on exclusively by Film Independent Members.

“American Fiction,” “May December” and “Past Lives” dominated the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Tuesday, picking up five nods apiece. The three movies are all up for best feature, where they will battle it out against “All of Us Strangers,” “Passages” and “We Grown Now.”

The annual honors recognize the best of television, as well as film. “The Last of Us,” a sci-fi epic that was a ratings hit for HBO, and “I’m a Virgo,” an absurdist miniseries from Boots Riley that was produced by Amazon, led the small screen crop, with four nominations each. Only new TV shows that have run for one season and were released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of this year are eligible for awards. That’s why some big-budgeted fare was deemed eligible or, in the parlance of the show, independent.

That’s not the case on the feature front, where films have to be...

An obnoxious influencer pitches a TV project to an entitled director in this deeply unflattering portrait of privilege that quickly becomes a crime story

Sebastián Silva’s slippery black comedy begins something like a cross between Curb Your Enthusiasm and Girls. Silva plays a version of himself, a film director called Sebastián Silva living in Mexico City; he’s meant to be working, but instead he idles days away on the sofa in his flat morosely snorting ketamine, Googling his own name and researching suicide methods. It’s a deeply unflattering portrait of entitled privilege from Silva and co-writer Pedro Peirano. Sebastián is mean to his dog and unforgivably rude to his housekeeper Vero. Keep an eye on Vero, she will be important later.

To escape his funk, Sebastián takes a trip to the coast – staying at a gay partying spot heaving with hot naked men. Silva packs in more...

John Waters muse Jean Hill once said that she was well-known for “shaking hands with the dick,” and in Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun, influencer Jordan Firstman certainly takes the baton. At once an excoriating satire of the performativity of homosexuality within a social media-addled community as well as a seemingly earnest lament for the total loss of collectivity, the film minces neither words nor bodily appendages.

Silva plants tongue deep in cheek as a hopelessly depressed caricature of himself, dodging promotional commitments, slapping his shit-eating dog across the face in full view of horrified passersby, watching people watch him page through E.M. Cioran’s The Trouble with Being Born, and getting lost in a K-hole as often as he can manage. It’s not that Silva’s on-screen alter ego is out of ideas—in fact, he spends much of his time slashing away at his...

“Only the optimist commits suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists.” The Emil Cioran line, introduced in the first scene of Sebastián Silva’s morbid black comedy “Rotting in the Sun,” initially feels like the key to understanding the Chilean filmmaker’s latest endeavor. “The others,” the quote continues, “having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?” More than merely placing suicide at the heart of Silva’s fictionalized take on himself, the quote’s pop intellectualism sets the tone for what soon becomes, in true Silva fashion, an absurdist meditation on death wishes, social media influencers and 21st-century nihilism.

When we first see “Sebastián” reading Cioran, he’s in Mexico City. Adrift with his thoughts and seemingly uninspired, he’s more and more drawn to the idea (if perhaps not the actual reality) of killing himself. From what he gathers, it’s easy...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Mubi releases the film in theaters on Friday, September 8.

Sebastián Silva has suicide on the brain in “Rotting in the Sun,” his eighth directorial feature and one in which he also plays himself. Sebastián is living in Mexico City, running out of money, addicted to ketamine, and bereft of creative ideas. But he faces a new, potentially soul-eroding opportunity when flippant gay internet persona and content creator Jordan Firstman enters the frame. Firstman also plays himself in a performance that interrogates his image as a contemporary queer icon while also mocking it — in ways self-aware and also not — in this raunchy, sexually explicit lambasting of gay male life whose target audience will both revile and revere this film.

“Rotting in the Sun” begins with Sebastián sitting at a public fountain in the Plaza Rio de Janeiro, googling...

Exclusive: Mauricio Katz & Pedro Peirano have signed a two-year overall deal with HBO. As part of the deal, they will continue working as consulting producers on the second season of Perry Mason. As a duo, Katz & Peirano have developed pilot scripts for Starz, HBO and FX; and have written screenplays for Hollywood heavyweights such as Martin Scorsese and Benicio Del Toro.

On his own, Katz star has been on the rise over the past couple years most recently on HBO’s Station Eleven, where Katz served as a consulting producer. Prior to that, he co-created the global, multilingual series ZeroZeroZero for Amazon, Sky and Canal+. His other television credits include FX’s The Bridge, where he worked as a writer and consulting producer, and Cary Fukanaga’s Maniac, for which he served as a writer and co-executive producer and received a WGA and PGA nomination.

Katz is also in development...

The writing team of Mauricio Katz and Pedro Peirano, who are known for working on notable Latin America projects for over 15 years, have signed with Range Media Partners.

On the TV side, Katz recently co-created the critically-acclaimed Amazon, Sky and Canal+ global, multilingual series ZeroZeroZero. His credits also include FX’s The Bridge where he worked as a writer and consulting producer. and Cary Fukanaga’s Maniac for which he served as a writer and co-executive producer and received a WGA and PGA nomination.

Katz and Peirano created Niño Santo, the popular series in Mexico, which was later developed and adapted with A&e Network and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. Katz also penned Miss Bala, Mexico’s Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012.

Chilean director, screenwriter, journalist, cartoonist, and television producer Peirano is best known for creating, writing and performing the long-running satirical puppet show 31 Minutos. In...

Range Media has signed writing team Mauricio Katz and Pedro Peirano, the writers whose credits include behind Mexico’s 2012 Oscar entry Miss Bala and Oscar-nominated No.

Most recently Katz co-created the critically-acclaimed Amazon series ZeroZeroZero, and his past credits include The Bridge for FX and Cary Fukanaga’s Netflix series Maniac.

Peirano’s credits include the screenplays for The Maid for Sebastian Silva, with whom he also collaborated on Gatos Viejos and Joven U Alocada.

Together, Katz and Peirano, who are both repped by UTA, have worked on pilot script for Starz and HBO.

Range Media has signed writing team Mauricio Katz and Pedro Peirano, the writers whose credits include behind Mexico’s 2012 Oscar entry Miss Bala and Oscar-nominated No.

Most recently Katz co-created the critically-acclaimed Amazon series ZeroZeroZero, and his past credits include The Bridge for FX and Cary Fukanaga’s Netflix series Maniac.

Peirano’s credits include the screenplays for The Maid for Sebastian Silva, with whom he also collaborated on Gatos Viejos and Joven U Alocada.

Together, Katz and Peirano, who are both repped by UTA, have worked on pilot script for Starz and HBO.

Jorge Garcia is best known to television audiences as the lovable island castaway on ABC’s “Lost” and, more recently, as Jerry Ortega on “Hawaii Five-0,” but he’s on the brink of tackling a very different kind of project: The actor is set to star in his first Spanish-language feature as the lead in “Killing Will Willys,” the directorial debut of Chilean filmmaker Gaspar Antillo, which begins production this week. Netflix will release the project worldwide following a theatrical release in Chile.

The film is the latest project from Fabula, the production company co-founded by brothers Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín. The pair recently wrapped production on Pablo Larraín’s “Ema,” the director’s first feature since “Jackie.” While “Ema” was shot in the coastal city of Valparaiso, the production for “Killing Will Willys” will take place the southern town of Puerto Octay in addition to Santiago.

The...

An entrancing, unconventional mermaid story from the director of “The Maid,” Sebastián Silva’s “Fistful of Dirt” has the distinction of being the first feature produced in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017. The devastation is evident from the opening shot, which follows 12-year-old Yei Yei (Julio Gaston) across the storm-ravaged beachfront, and informs the rest of the film, whose impoverished characters are barely scraping by without electricity and basic resources, although the story — a dark Brothers Grimm-like fairy tale anchored by a terrific child-actor performance, but not for kids per se — is one Silva had developed years before.

It’s a credit to Silva and co-writer Pedro Peirano that they were able to revive a pre-existing idea and adapt it to such an emotionally charged milieu, giving audiences an invaluable look at Maria’s apocalyptic impact (although one could argue that there’s something perverse...

Santiago, Chile — Santiago-based production company Equeco have announced their involvement on a new feature project from director Bernardo Quesney, a dark-comedy revolving around a small-town theater troupe, a classic Chilean play and the recent influx in Haitian immigrants in Chile, titled “Break a Leg.”

Directing the play is the now-metropolitan Gioconda Millán, returned to her hometown to direct an adaptation of the classic Chilean poem “La Araucana” in order to save the cultural center that her sister manages. Among the hurdles she will encounter along the way are family that feel she’s abandoned them, a community disinterested in seeing a moldy old play, and a cast unwilling to do a show based on the native Mapuche people.

500 years of racism confronts the new, more subtle form facing Chile today, as a number of Haitian immigrants seek to be involved in the production. It’s much more than Gioconda ever expected to face.

Starz has announced it it developing the Maleficio TV show, with Televisa USA. Mexican television writer and producer, Mauricio Katz, has been tapped as showrunner. The announcement was made during today's TCA winter press tour presentations.

This new supernatural thriller follows Don Enrique De Martino, a Mexican businessman who has made a deal with the Devil. Showrunner Katz will write and produce. Ep Pedro Peirano will co-write the first episode with Katz.

Read More…...

After tackling the Pinochet regime in his 2012 feature No, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is set to focus on the church molesting scandal in his new feature.

Titled The Club, the film now has a festival trailer. Larraín takes on directing and screenwriting duties once again, working with a cast that includes Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, and Jaime Vadell.

The film’s synopsis is as follows.Shipped off to a seaside monastery for various venial transgressions, four Catholic priests have their cozy exile disturbed by charges of molestation, in this incendiary, blackly humorous drama from Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín (Tony Manero, No).

This is Larraín’s first film since No, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Feature. It’s Larraín’s fifth feature as director, and fourth as screenwriter, with Larraín taking on the latter role once again after handing the reins to Pedro Peirano for No.

A&E is looking to Mexico for its next drama. The cable network is teaming with Amblin Television to adapt popular Mexican series Nino Santo, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Based on the drama created by Mauricio Katz, Pedro Peirano and Pablo Cruz and executive produced by Cruz, Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, Nino Santo follows a group of young doctors sent to a remote village to vaccinate the locals, where they encounter an unusual cult headed by an enigmatic faith healer. The curiosity of the doctors leads them to become involved with this group in the name of science. As

read more...

Chicago – 12 years ago, Sebastián Silva went on a road trip with his friends. Their goal was to experience the hallucinogenic ecstasy of the San Pedro cactus. Along the way, he encountered a hippie named Crystal Fairy who ended up giving him a more transformative experience than any drug ever could. An evening of soul-bearing confessions caused Silva to have great compassion for the damaged women beneath the eccentric surface.

Cut to 2011. With production delayed on his psychological thriller, “Magic Magic,” Silva decided to spend 12 days making a movie about his memorable yet fleeting friendship with Crystal Fairy. With Michael Cera already holed up in his house for three months to learn Spanish for “Magic Magic,” Silva decided to cast the actor as the star of his improvisational dramedy opposite Gaby Hoffmann in the titular role. Cera plays Jamie, an insensitive American tourist desperate for drugs and with no patience for any Fairy-related diversions.

Chicago – The controversy swirling around Pablo Larraín’s Oscar-nominee “No” is typical of the outrage garnered by many a historical drama. Since the film focuses solely on one crucial segment of the activism that ousted Chilean dictator Pinochet during the 1988 plebiscite, some viewers will complain that not every hero in the tale is represented. Of course, that’s what encyclopedias are for.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Just as Spielberg’s “Lincoln” brilliantly explored the complicated, occasionally deceptive efforts that were vital in achieving slavery’s abolishment with the passage of the 13th Amendment, Larraín’s “No” focuses on the marketing campaign that built support for the anti-Pinochet movement. Both films are invaluable portraits of tenacious trailblazers who were able to win over the hearts and minds of timid voters. Yet whereas “Lincoln” was shot in widescreen, painterly compositions, “No” adopts the exact style of the game-changing ads its film celebrates.

Read Matt Fagerholm...

No

Directed by Pablo Larraín

Written by Pedro Peirano

2012, Chile

Earlier last year, a pro-Pinochet documentary triggered off clashes at a screening in Santiago, Chile, and prompted calls for the film to be banned. But the Piñera administration declared its hands tied, and rightfully so. Even though the Pinochet regime came to an end in 1990, it is sobering to appreciate the strength of Chile’s current democracy considering the nearly two decades of dictatorship the country suffered at his hands, during which any form of dissent was not taken to kindly; a period in its own history that the Latin American nation still finds especially sensitive.

With his fourth feature, and presumably the final film in what is ostensibly his Pinochet trilogy, Pablo Larrain tells the story of how the dictator’s stranglehold was finally released when, in 1987, Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte called for a plebiscite (or a referendum...

Director: Pablo Larraín; Screenwriter: Pedro Peirano; Starring: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Luis Gnecco, Marcial Tagle; Running time: 118 mins; Certificate: 15

Advertising becomes a force for good in the absorbing Chilean drama No. Gael García Bernal stars as René, a Don Draperish ad exec who helps shape the 1988 campaign to unseat dictator Augusto Pinochet, but the retro cool look and fashionable cynicism that invites comparison to Mad Men is merely an undercurrent, threatening to pull René down while he strives for higher ideals.

Early scenes inside the boardroom also evoke the AMC series, but with a wry nod to today's more sophisticated audience. René presents a typically '80s cola commercial, filled with young, beautiful people randomly prancing about, flicking their hair and grinning ecstatically. A cut to a mime makes the client squirm, begging the question: is this the American dream, or a nightmare?

René is nonetheless successful.

Title: No Sony Pictures Classics Director: Pablo Larraín Screenwriter: Pedro Peirano, from Antonio Skarmeta’s play “Referendum” Cast: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Luis Gnecco, Antonia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Nestor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell Screened at: Sony, NYC, 1/25/13 Opens: February 15, 2013 When I interviewed Salvador Allende in 1967 as part of a group operating under a Fulbright fellowship, I considered him to be the most charismatic guy I’d ever met. But then, somehow, people of radical political persuasions do seem bolder than most politicians with a more moderate bent. He arrived in a motorcycle, wearing a leather jacket, and could have passed for a young, hip dude despite his being [ Read More ]

The post No Movie Review 2 appeared first on Shockya.com.

In 1988, Michael Jackson's Moonwalk biography was released, as was the baseball classic Bull Durham starring Susan Sarandon, and Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by U.S. missiles. Pablo Larrain's masterful Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film, No, however, has chosen to concentrate on the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet and his overthrow by an advertising executive, Rene Saavedra.

You see, after Pinochet and his thugs tortured and slaughtered several thousand of his citizens with the implicit approval of the United States and other international powers, the world at large developed a conscience of sorts and pressured the Chilean leader to hold a plebiscite on his presidency. The populace was to vote "Yes" in support of Pinochet or "No" to get rid of the tyrant. But how fair could such a referendum be? After all, Pinochet controlled the media and the streets.

Well, to be cordial, let's supply the...

Debuting at Cannes last year to immaculate early reviews, Pablo Larraín’s No recently became the first Oscar-nominated film from Chile, making itself felt in the Best Foreign Language Film category last week.

Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) takes the lead here, and Network Releasing have put out an altered UK trailer in recognition of the film’s Oscar nomination.

“In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote Yes or No to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the No persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.”

Starring alongside García Bernal is Alfredo Castro,...

From its promising beginnings winning the top prize at the Cannes' Directors' Fortnight this past May, to quickly gathering buzz enough afterward to secure distribution from Sony Pictures Classics, Pablo Larrain's political rouser “No” has just appeared with a new U.S. trailer in hopes of gaining ground as an Oscar contender. Based on a true story and scripted by Pedro Peirano, the Gael Garcia Bernal-fronted film follows an ad exec who uses unconventional methods in his campaign to oust Chilean General Augusto Pinochet in a 1988 referendum. The trailer sets up this premise succinctly while offering a look at its singular aesthetic -- analog shot and in a 4:3 aspect ratio -- both of which evocatively lend to the period in which the film is set. As Chile's official Oscar entry, naturally Sony Pictures Classics are putting everything they have into drumming up support for the film, and from...

Pablo Larrain‘s latest project No, which won the top prize at Cannes 44th Directors’ Fortnight, finally opens this February, and today we’re here to share the latest trailer for the whole thing. In other words – make sure you check out Gael Garcia Bernal who stars as a young advertising executive aka the man who encouraged the Chilean public to vote no to Pinochet leading the nation for another eight years.

Larrain directed the movie from a script written by Pedro Peirano which is based on Antonio Skarmeta‘s play El Plebiscito.

Based on true events, film centers on an ad man named Rene Saavedra who, when Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet staged a referendum in 1988 to gain a further eight-year term in office, launched a brilliantly upbeat ad campaign which, against all odds, ousted Pinochet from power.

Beside Garcia Bernal, No also stars Alfredo Castro, Antónia Zegers, Marcial Tagle,...

Sony Pictures Classics has released, via Yahoo! Movies , the trailer for Pablo Larraín's No , set to hit theaters in a limited release on February 15, 2013. Written by Pedro Peirano, No stars Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antónia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Néstor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell and Pascal Montero. When Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, facing international pressure, calls for a referendum on his presidency in 1988, opposition leaders persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. With scant resources and constant scrutiny by the despot.s watchmen, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and free their country from oppression.

Glad you asked. Now that the entire programming slate has been announced for the 2013 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, let’s take a look at the representation of Latinos in the broadest, most diverse sense, because that is what that ill-defined lump category encompasses. {Full disclosure: I work as a Programming Associate for the Festival. These are not reviews but an insider breaking-it-down preview}

At first glance the Latino representation may not seem obvious. Nor may it seem as strong as the films and filmmakers from the African-American and Lgbt community representing, or the record breaking number of female directors’ – each group highly visible by their nature. We may not have a Mosquita y Mari or Filly Brown, two fiction films, which broke out of the festival this past year, but we do have two hugely relevant and urgent documentaries, Narco Cultura which explores the phenomenal music and social culture being shaped and perpetuated by the influence of Mexico’s violent drug cartels, and Who Is Dayani Cristal? an innovative doc-fiction hybrid produced by Gael Garcia Bernal that will hopefully re-divert much needed attention back to the Us/Mexico border. By the way, Who is Dayani Cristal? screens in the high profile Day One slot.

What’s Latino anyway?

I personally embrace the responsibility of changing the conversation as to what constitutes representing American Latinos. First, by focusing on both the above-the- line-talent (filmmaker or actor) And storyline/subject. The second part is highlighting the second, third, fourth and so-on generations of filmmakers. What about the filmmakers in the festival like Kyle Patrick Alvarez (C.O.G), Liz W. Garcia (The Lifeguard) and Eduardo Sanchez (S-vhs horror anthology and co-director of the infamous Blair Witch Project)? I don’t know these filmmakers personally so I can’t speak to how they might view their cultural identities and how it informs their work, if at all. But I do believe it is worth pointing out and feeling good about these last names being out there as part of the mainstream fabric. It is similar to how Robert Rodriguez does not identify himself as a Mexican-American yet his last name has been key to driving the younger Latino generation in feeling a proud connection as an American and not just “dash” American.

Chile is still hot

There are three films from Chilean filmmakers. In unprecedented fashion – because that’s how Sundance likes to roll- there is a repeat of last year with two in competition, El Futuro by Alicia Scherson (mostly taking place in Italy) and Magic Fairy by Sebastian Silva, an alumnus who broke out in 2009 with La Nana. In the section Spotlight aka “Movies we love and don’t care if they’ve traveled the festival circuit”, is Pablo Larrain’s No starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Chilean cinema is hot and king of engrossing character-driven fare. What we are seeing is a boom on two fronts; an invigorating new generation of provocateurs (Marialy Rivas’s Young & Wild comes to mind) and a slightly older generation of equally exciting filmmakers who continue to sustain their careers with their distinct voice (like Pablo Larrain along with Andres Wood).

So now lets dive in and look at the list. Loglines copied from official press release – Bold Italics are my comments.

Us Dramatic Competition

Fruitvale / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ryan Coogler) — The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O’Reilly, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray.

Puerto-Rican Diaz delivers a fiercely moving performance embodying the girlfriend of Oscar Grant who was with him that fateful day. Diaz is no stranger to the festival. She’s previously been at the festival with four films including seminal indie American Latino story, Raising Victor Vargas 2002 and comedies like Hamlet 2 20008. Why homegirl hasn’t gotten more props for her mad acting skills I don’t know, but this girl is wildly talented and Fruitvale showcases her dramatic chops.

Us Documentary Competition

Narco Cultura / U.S.A. (Director: Shaul Schwarz) — An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence in pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an La narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.

Absolutely arresting photography that works in giving weight to the violent images the public has become numb from seeing. I predict some of my hard core brown and proud friends might focus and hence diminish this film based on the fact that this bi-cultural, Mexican-American subject is made by non-Latino filmmakers. It could be argued as a valid point. When it comes to documentaries a legit question to make when evaluating is “What makes This person the right one to tackle This subject? What is their connection?” Let’s watch it to find out, then give consideration to what other docs are currently out there on this same timely topic made by Latinos, and without bias regard their depth and artistic merit.

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Crystal Fairy / Chile (Director and screenwriter: Sebastián Silva) — Jamie invites a stranger to join a road trip to Chile. The woman’s free and esoteric nature clashes with Jamie’s acidic, self-absorbed personality as they head into the desert for a Mescaline-fueled psychedelic trip. Cast: Michael Cera, Gabby Hoffmann, Juan Andrés Silva, José Miguel Silva, Agustín Silva. World Premiere. Day One Film

This marks Sebastian’s third appearance at the festival following La Nana and Gatos Viejos. Remember what I said about character driven? Silva excels at getting at spilling out the insides of his protagonists.

The Future / Chile, Germany, Italy, Spain (Director and screenwriter: Alicia Scherson) — When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future. Cast: Manuela Martelli, Rutger Hauer, Luigi Ciardo, Nicolas Vaporidis, Alessandro Giallocosta. World Premiere

Scherson’s last film, Turistas screened at various film festivals including the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2009. Shot in another country and in a different language, The Future continues the filmmaker’s incisive capturing of the strong female led journey.

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Who is Dayani Cristal? / United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film

An extraordinary cinematic and symbolic approach to the border crossing genre, this meta reflexive journey retraced by none other than Gael Garcia Bernal imagines the grueling experience of a migrant and who he might have been. Bernal has been lending his star power to the social justice causes that move him and you can tell its genuine.

New Frontier

Halley / Mexico (Director: Sebastian Hofmann, Screenwriters: Sebastian Hofmann, Julio Chavezmontes) — Alberto is dead and can no longer hide it. Before surrendering to his living death, he forms an unusual friendship with Luly, the manager of the 24-hour gym where he works as a night guard. Cast: Alberto Trujillo, Lourdes Trueba, Hugo Albores

As unsettling it is watch, its as deep to ponder, this incredibly-shot first feature had its world premiere at the Morelia Film Festival and its inclusion in the most daring section of the festival speaks to the highly diverse and radical new cinema coming from Mexico.

Spotlight

No / Chile, U.S.A. (Director: Pablo Larraín, Screenwriter: Pedro Peirano) — When Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet calls for a referendum to decide his permanence in power, the opposition persuades a young advertising executive to head its campaign. With limited resources and under scrutiny, he conceives a plan to win the election. Cast: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Luis Gnecco, Marcial Tagle, Néstor Cantillana.

There have been many films about the Pinochet regime and its wide-reaching after effects. But none have had as unique an entry point as No. Trust.

Midnight

We Are What We Are / U.S.A. (Director: Jim Mickle, Screenwriters: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle) — A devastating storm washes up clues that lead authorities closer and closer to the cannibalistic Parker family. Cast: Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell, Kelly McGillis.

Okay, I only include this because this is based on the Mexican cult hit, Somos Lo que Hay by Jorge Michel Grau. Jim Mickle of Stakeland has promised to “Not Fuck it Up per Twitch interview

To cap off the features; Stalwart Spanish actor Alfred Molina is in Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes by Francesca Gregorini in Us Dramatic Competition, and we have a strong acting splash by Marcus DeAnda, a co-lead in Pit Stop directed by Yen Tan and co-written by David Lowery. The film about two gay working class lovers in small town Texas is in the Next section.

And lets not forget about shorts!

Short Film Competition

Broken Night / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga) — A young woman and her four-year-old daughter drive across desolated hills. Everything looks fine and they seem to enjoy the ride, until an accident sends them into the nightmare of darkness.

Ever since writing and directing team Arriga and Innaritu broke up (Amores Perros, Babel) Arriaga has been trying to make his stamp directing his own material.

The Companion / Peru (Director and screenwriter: Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio) — On the outskirts of Lima, a young prostitute tends to his father, a fallen-from-grace artisan. However, the young man feels that his efforts are never enough. He tries to break free, but his father’s dependence is stronger than his son’s will.

Intriguing and highly atmospheric gem from Peru!

Chicago? Check. Mexicans check! No, but really this intimate glimpse is poetic and moving.

A Story for the Modlins / Spain (Director: Sergio Oksman, Screenwriter: Sergio Oksman) —The tale of Elmer Modlin, who, after appearing in Rosemary’s Baby, fled with his family to a far-off country and shut himself away in a dark apartment for 30 years.

Must see. Fascinating and inventive ‘Found family photos’ yarn.

#PostModem / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva) — A comedic, satirical, sci-fi pop musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists, #PostModem is the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets.

My favorite locos from Miami. After making the rounds with Life & Freaky Times of Uncle Luke, which played last year, these rump-shakers have been busy with their work in and out of their funky audiovisual collective Borscht Corp.

If you are heading to Park City I highly recommend you register to purchase Advance tickets here. See you on the mountain!

One of my favorite parts of the Sundance Film Festival is the Park City at Midnight movie line-up. This is where they put on a lot of the horror, sci-fi, comedy and other genre type films. They've also announced the movies that will be a part of the Spotlight and New Frontier sections.

Once again it looks like we've got a lot of solid films to look forward to. Of course there's going to be a few duds in the mix, but for the most part this looks like it's going to be an exciting year at Sundance. I can't wait to watch these movies!

Look over the list, read about the films, and let us know which movies sound interesting to you that you'd like to more know about!

Sundance Institute announced today the films selected to screen in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Spotlight, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier,...

Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur will be screened out of competition, under ‘Spotlight’ section at Sundance Film Festival 2013.

“Spotlight features our favorite films that have premiered at other festivals,” Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for Sundance Film Festival said.

Anurag Kashyap recently won the Screen International Jury Grand Prize for Achievement in Directing at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2012 for Gangs of Wasseypur.

The Sundance Film Festival will run from 17th to 27th January, 2013.

Spotlight

Fill the Void (Israel / Director and screenwriter: Rama Burshtein)

Gangs of Wasseypur (India / Director: Anurag Kashyap, Screenwriters: Anurag Kashyap, Zeishan Quadri)

The Gatekeepers (documentary) (Israel, Germany, Belgium, France / Director: Dror Moreh)

Mud (U.S.A. / Director and screenwriter: Jeff Nichols)

N (Chile, U.S.A. / Director: Pablo Larraín, Screenwriter: Pedro Peirano

Sightseers (United Kingdom / Director: Ben Wheatley, Screenwriters: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram)

Stories We Tell (documentary) (Canada / Director: Sarah Polley)...

Sundance announced it’s Spotlight program selections today, which consists of plum titles that have enjoyed prestigious premieres at other festivals from the year before. Last year, Sundance nabbed Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, Phillippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar, and Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister, to name a few. This year, Sundance has amassed a well chosen selection for Spotlight, rolling out Israel’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film, the New York Film Fest premiered Fill the Void (which was just nominated for Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Film and Best First Screenplay), followed by several high profile Cannes titles, like Pablo Larrain’s No, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, Anurag Kashrap’s five hour plus epic Gangs of Wasseypur, and Jeff Nichols’ latest, Mud (which avoided screening at the heavyweight Fall festivals, like Toronto and Venice – and which we accurately predicted). Then, from Tiff and Venice...

Sundance Film Festival 2013 announced its initial line-up last night, with a very promising slew of films competing in the Us and World Dramatic and Documentary categories, as always.

Tonight, we have more news from Park City, Ut, with the announcement of the films that will be screening in the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, and New Frontier categories.

Rising young star, Alice Englert (Ginger & Rosa, Beautiful Creatures), will be heading to the festival in the Park City at Midnight category with Jeremy Lovering’s horror, In Fear, which has a very tense and promising synopsis.

Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers will be getting its long-awaited Us premiere, having debuted at Cannes earlier this year, and been earning critics’ praise ever since. Steve Oram and Alice Lowe co-wrote the film and star in the leads, and with the ever-brilliant Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), there’s...

Set at the end of Chile’s military rule, Pablo Larrain’s No feels like a great lost Costa-Gavras movie. Where Gavras’ Missing charted the indecent beginnings of the Pinochet regime, No documents its end. Through intricate detail and understated performances, Larrain has crafted a thriller that knows its facts and tells them to powerful effect. The story of the ad men responsible for the campaign to oust Pinochet in Chile’s first election in decades, No isn’t an action-packed drama (save for the scene in which a peace protest is interrupted by Pinochet troops, which smartly incorporates archive footage). But through Larrain’s direction and Pedro Peirano’s tight screenplay, there is a palpable feeling that something – everything – is at stake, and the increasingly desperate one-upmanship between the two opposing advertising teams (of the anti-Pinochet ‘No’ movement and the pro-Pinochet ‘Yes’) is nail-biting stuff.

Brilliant and cocky ad executive Rene,...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Completing his triptych of films set during Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule (Tony Manero, Post Mortem), Pablo Larrain’s No examines the inner-machinations of one particularly tricky advertising campaign, as Pinochet’s opposition desperately seeks to expose his horrific human rights abuses. Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal) is the savvy advertising exec tasked with heading up the tricky task, fleeting as he does between confidence, cynicism, fear and self-doubt throughout the tumultuous creative period.

Shot on the U-matic used by TV stations of the period, No is presented in a 4:3 screen ratio, and absolutely won’t look great on Blu-Ray; Larrain’s images, somewhat aptly, are peppered with garish artifacts and trails that only accentuate and further immerse us in the late-80s feel. At once a bizarre and brilliant conceit, Larrain free-wheels between a committed verite style and scenes which are quite obviously camera set-ups,...

No

Written by Pedro Peirano

Directed by Pablo Larraín

Chile, 2012

The style of No might alienate some viewers. When one gets over the deliberately grainy film quality, there is a really marvelous film here. In it, Gael Garcia Bernal plays René Saavedra, a young advertising executive who specializes in flashy ad campaigns that cater to the youth and show the people of Chile that, “they are ready for the future”. When he is approached by an old friend of his family to help direct promotional spots to entice the Chilean public to vote “No” against its dictator, Augusto Pinochet, he has his doubts initially. He quickly realizes that it’s the right thing to do and begins working on the campaign while his boss at the advertising agency begins working for the “Yes” campaign.

Filmed to resemble a newsreel item or home movie from the 1980s, the visual style of...

No

Directed by Pablo Larraín

Written by Pedro Peirano

2012, Chile

Earlier this year, a pro-Pinochet documentary triggered off clashes at a screening in Santiago, Chile, and prompted calls for the film to be banned. But the Piñera administration declared its hands tied, and rightfully so. Even though the Pinochet regime came to an end in 1990, it is sobering to appreciate the strength of Chile’s current democracy considering the nearly two decades of dictatorship the country suffered at his hands, during which any form of dissent was not taken to kindly; a period in its own history that the Latin American nation still finds especially sensitive.

With his fourth feature, and presumably the final film in what is ostensibly his Pinochet trilogy, Pablo Larrain tells the story of how the dictator’s stranglehold was finally released when, in 1987, Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte called for a plebiscite (or a referendum...

Some worthwhile acquisitions news from the Cannes Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the Chilean drama from director Pablo Larraín titled simply No, referring to the yes/no referendum vote in Chile in 1988. I saw the film last night, it's playing in the Director's Fortnight sidebar, and it's incredibly unique, very engaging, and most importantly, rather unforgettable partially due to the way it was shot (to look like U-matic). Sony Classics has picked up all North American distribution rights to the real-life drama, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as an ad exec who creates a campaign to free his country from oppression. Directed by Pablo Larraín (Post Mortem, Tony Manero) from a screenplay by Pedro Peirano (The Maid), No is produced by Juan de Diós Larraín and Daniel Dreifuss and executive produced by Participant Media. Based on a true story, when Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, facing international pressure, calls...

Sony Pictures Classics announced that the distributor has acquired North American rights to Pablo Larraín's No , which stars Gael García Bernal. Here's the full press release: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American rights to Pablo Larraín.s Cannes Directors. Fortnight sensation, No from financier Participant Media in association with Funny Balloons and Fabula. No stars Gael García Bernal (Babel, The Motorcycle Diaries), Alfredo Castro, Antónia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Néstor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell and Pascal Montero. The film is one of the best received films in Cannes with raves from critics following the first screening in Director's Fortnight. Directed by Pablo Larraín (Post Mortem, Tony Manero) from a screenplay by Pedro Peirano (TheMaid), No is produced by...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American rights to Pablo Larraín.s Cannes Directors. Fortnight sensation, No from financier Participant Media in association with Funny Balloons and Fabula. No stars Gael García Bernal (Babel, The Motorcycle Diaries), Alfredo Castro, Antónia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Néstor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell and Pascal Montero. The film is one of the best-received films in Cannes with raves from critics following the first screening in Director’s Fortnight.

Directed by Pablo Larraín (Post Mortem, Tony Manero) from a screenplay by Pedro Peirano (TheMaid), No is produced by Juan de Diós Larraín and Daniel Dreifuss and executive produced by Participant.s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King.

Based on a true story, when Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, facing international pressure, calls for a referendum on his presidency in 1988, opposition leaders persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael García Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. With...

Sony Pictures Classics has finally gotten into the game at Cannes with its acquisition of North American rights to Pablo Larrain’s “No.” The Directors’ Fortnight drama starring Gael García Bernal has drawn much praise since its premiere late last week. Based on true events, “No” dramatizes the advertising campaign opposition forces designed to win a referendum on the presidency of Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1988. Pedro Peirano wrote the screenplay, and Juan de Diós Larraín and Daniel Dreifuss produced. Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King of Participant Media are executive producers; the company financed the film in association with Funny Balloons and Fabula. "This movie is a masterfully engaging and energetic drama about politics and power, a tonic for the brain that is also a major entertainment,” said Spc’s Tom Bernard and Michael Barker. “’No’ establishes...

It was a triumphant return for Pablo Larrain today in the sidebar that helped push his sophomore film Tony Manero into the film circuit stratosphere of 2008. With his fourth feature film “No,” this U.S-Mexican co-production once again uses a Chile that is affected by the presence of Augusto Pinochet, but unlike his previous pair, this examines what occurs when repression is evinced into the open via the media. Gael Garcia Bernal plays his part of a tenacious formerly exiled young advertising visionary with a downplayed gusto and takes his more dramatic cues from regular Larrain players/muses in Alfredo Castro and Antonia Zegers. Larrain matches the feel of the era with what could be described as a VHS video look. Here is footage from this morning’s world premiere screening – Q&A is introduced by the artistic director Edouard Waintrop, (if you don’t understand either of the spoken...

Why She’s On Our Radar: Chilean director/writer Marialy Rivas turned heads at the just-wrapped Sundance Film Festival with her sexually provocative debut, “Young & Wild.” Rivas, an award-winning short filmmaker (her short "Blokes" screened at the festival last year), walked away from this year's edition with the World Cinema Screenwriting Award, which she shared with her co-writers Camila Gutiérrez, Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Sepúlveda. “Young & Wild” centers on Daniela (Alicia Rodriguez), a 17-year-old girl raised within a strict evangelical family who secretly writes a sexually charged blog. Rivas was inspired to make her foray into feature filmmaking after coming across a similar blog spearheaded by Gutiérrez, whom she approached to become one of the film’s co-writers. At the Sundance awards ceremony, Gutiérrez gave the best sound bite of the night in accepting her award:...