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As we know, a passage through the many Sundance labs doesn’t guarantee a gold ticket for Park City in January, but undoubtably its certainly a professional nudge in the right direction. A total of nine films (5 fiction) will be heading to the Labs (July 28 – August 1) with this year’s Creative Advisors including folk we’ve mentioned on several occasion here in Paul Mezey (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Pam Koffler (Boys Don’t Cry), Jay Van Hoy (Love is Strange) and Julie Lynn (Albert Nobbs). Among this year’s summer camp for film producers we have the likes of Riel Roch Decter (who produced 2013 SXSW entry The Wait

from helmer M. Blash) and producer Laura Wagner (from Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love fame). Here are the projects and producers heading up to the mythic location. Press release follows.

Feature Film Creative Producing Lab

The Feature Film Creative...

Stepping out to plug her new film, Chloe Sevigny attended a screening of "The Wait" at Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday (February 1).

The "Big Love" star sported a vintage-looking black dress with light lacy decoration on it and black ankle boots as she posed for pics.

In the dramatic thriller, two sisters decide to keep their deceased mother in their house after being told that she'll come back to life.

Written and directed by M. Blash, the movie also stars Jena Malone, Luke Grimes, Devon Gearhart, Michael O'Keefe, and Josh Hamilton.

Time Crimes: Blash’s Sophomore Feature of an Ambient Weirdness

Director M. Blash brings back two leads from his 2006 debut, Lying, for more rural weirdness with The Wait, this time exploring the effect of a matriarch’s death on a trio of siblings. Oddly and intriguingly textured, it’s a rather equal mix of supernatural elements, and morbid psychology, chock full of enough visual motifs and narrative thematics on life as a series of waiting periods between brief and sparse moments of action. In fact, its rather striking imagery holds more clues as to what’s going on than the minimal dialogue, a series of purposefully composed shots signaling that whether dying or being born, we’re stuck in an endless cycle of waiting for the next stage of existence.

In the countryside somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, a mother has just died. Her distraught daughters, Emma (Chloe Sevigny) and...

Gorgeous and haunting, inscrutable but rewarding of scrutiny, writer-director M. Blash's The Wait achieves the rare distinction of being warm and unsettling at the same time, framing grief drama, a grown love story, and the possibility of reality-bending magic in a prickly narrative given to reveries and freak-outs. It's the kind of movie where mopey characters slump in the middle of exquisitely composed shots, staring hard at something grand or confounding just beyond the camera. Like Prince Avalanche, this is a nervy, lyric indie set in forest-fire country; in The Wait, the woods are still burning.

Sometimes Blash shows us what the characters are regarding: firefighters' airplanes dumping retardant over an Oregon forest, a fetching young woman adjustin...

Short Term 12 and Big Easy Express took home top prizes at the 4th American Film Festival in Wroclaw.

The American Film Festival (Aff) in Wrocław, Poland has awarded the audience award for Best Narrative Feature ($10,000) to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12.

The audience award for the Best Documentary Feature ($5,000) went to Emmett Malloy for Big Easy Express.

The festival, focused entirely on independent American cinema, closed with the Polish premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra on Oct 27.

A total of 80 films were screened at the Nowe Horyzonty cinema in Wrocław, of which 52 films received their Polish premiere such as Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, As I Lay Dying by James Franco and Don Jon by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There were three European premieres and one world premiere, Blue Highway by Kyle Smith.

The number of admissions exceeded 17,000 for the second consecutive year.

The Aff also featured a retrospective of Shirley Clarke, a mini-retrospective...

Portland based artist M. Blash's first film, 2006's "Lying," premiered at Cannes that year. His sophomore feature "The Wait" pairs him once again with that film's stars, Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone, in a supernatural, psychological sibling tale. What it's about: It's about three siblings dealing with the death of their mother in three separate, altered states. One of them is convinced she is going to come back to life and regresses in turn, while the other staunchly opposes that idea and projects her inability to love or believe in the supernatural on a young man. The third is out wandering around in a sort of psychedelic self-imposed hypnosis to deal with his current reality. About the filmmaker: I'm grew up in Oregon and Colorado and I went to school in NYC and in Prague. Currently, I live in New York and sometimes in Portland. What else do you...

Some of the best films of the 2012/2013 calender year from Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Bujalski, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Shane Carruth and Joshua Oppenheimer are among the headliner names for the 2013 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival. With a little over 100 plus film line-up (a whopping 2000+ titles were submitted), almost 70 are world premieres: there is the highly anticipated sophomore film (that has been on our radar since it first went into production) with M. Blash’s (The Wait), Joe Swanberg who makes SXSW his second home will premiere Drinking Buddies, veteran indie filmmaker John Sayles saddles in with Go For Sisters, and rounding out the Narrative Spotlight section we’ve got The Bounceback from Bryan Poyser, Loves Her Gun from Geoff Marslett along with titles we thought might break into Park City, but found an Austin home instead with Jacob Vaughan’s Milo and...

The promoters of Austin's legendary South By Southwest Festival , which kicks off on March 8, have announced the massive lineup of film for 2013 (69 world premieres, 14 North American and 5 U.S. Premieres so far), which includes the world premiere of Evil Dead, the much-talked-about reboot of the Sam Raimi classic from director Fede Alvarez. That's the big news, of course, but the lineup also includes a wealth of horror, thriller, dark fantasy and other genre-related titles. Here's a few of those additional highlights: Milo Director/Screenwriter: Jacob Vaughan, Screenwriter: Benjamin Hayes A man discovers that his chronic stomach problems are due to the fact that he has a demon baby living in his colon. Starring Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Peter Stormare, Stephen Root and Mary Kay Place. (World Premiere) Much Ado About Nothing Director: Joss Whedon Shakespeare's classic comedy is given a contemporary spin in Joss Whedon's film, Much Ado About Nothing.

Because, looking forward, 2013 promises to be such a fruitful cornucopia of cinema, we were excited to be able to easily list an additional 100 titles we are eagerly looking forward to catching in the new year. From these 200-101 titles, we’re happy to list several projects featuring the extremely busy Isabelle Huppert, include two English language projects, Ned Benson’s split film project The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby His/Hers and the Niels Arden Oplev film, Dead Man Down (and don’t forget her French projects, a starring turn in Serge Bozon’s followup, Tip Top as well as Guillaume Nicloux’s The Religious).

Additionally, the horror genre should be extremely noteworthy in the coming year, with new projects from Neil Marshall (The Descent), Alexandre Aja (High Tension), Fabrice Du Welz (Calvaire), Lucky McKee (May) and directing team Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury (Inside). We’ve got two Australian beauties playing...

Over the long weekend, plenty of folks got the news that they’ve had their feature, doc or short films accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. This Wednesday, the festival begins making their line-up official while keeping the short film announcements for the following week. The previous week we’ve made some prognostications as to what should be included in the 2013 edition. Here’s an easy to click recap of some of those predictions. We’ve added those who’ve been mentioned in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, the fortunate ones who’ve had their work run inside the Sundance Labs, those who are working from a Blacklist named screenplay, those who are basing their feature on a short film that was accepted into the festival in a previous edition and finally those who’ve had funding via Kickstarter. * denotes feature directorial debut while ++ denotes that person...

I had M. Blash’s The Wait on my predictions list last year. A fitting title for the shot in Oregon, sophomore feature that wrapped production in 2010. Word is, it is clearly finished as footage was shown at the Afm last month. Jena Malone, Chloë Sevigny, Luke Grimes and Devon Gearhart star, while on the tech side we find Cinematographer Kasper Tuxen (3 Backyards), Production Designer Ryan Smith (For Ellen), and Editors Jessica Brunetto (Capitalism: A Love Story), Lance Edmands (director of Bluebird) and Justin Kelly.

Gist: Two sisters decide to keep their deceased mother in their home after being informed that she will come back to life.

Production Co./Producers: Ryan Crisman, Neil Kopp (Meek’s Cutoff) and David Guy Levy

Prediction: Park City at Midnight

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

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M. Blash's The Wait, starring Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone, is now in post-production, and Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films has acquired world sales rights for the film at the currently running American Film Market.

Per Screen Daily, Kampe is showing footage at the Afm and has closed a deal with Regency Media for Australian and New Zealand.

The Wait charts what happens when a mysterious phone call from a psychic plunges a family into a state of suspended disbelief while waiting for their recently deceased mother to be resurrected. Luke Grimes also stars.

Neil Kopp, Ryan Crisman, Riel Roch Decter, and David Guy Levy produced, and Olympus Pictures served as executive producer on the film, which is expected to be ready early next year.

“I love when a director can take strong talent and drama and infuse it with the supernatural,” said Kampe. “These are the films that...

Jena Malone has joined been cast as the lead in "The Go-Getters" in the Michael C. Martin film, reports Deadline. Apparently, she'll play Danneel Dobson, a struggling actress involved in a heist put together by two brothers Route 17 Entertainment's Matt Tauber, Damon Alexander, Jt Alexander and Andy Hyde produce "The Go-Getters." Interesting news since we just added an article about Malone's "Sucker Punch" co-star Abbie Cornish in talks to join the "Robocop" remake. Malone was in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-nominated "For Ellen" drama alongside Paul Dano and Jon Heder. The actress is currently in post-production phase for "The Wait" helmed and scripted by M. Blash. That film also includes Chloë Sevigny, Luke Grimes, Devon Gearhart, Michael O'Keefe and Josh Hamilton.

Jena Malone has joined been cast as the lead in "The Go-Getters" in the Michael C. Martin film, reports Deadline. Apparently, she'll play Danneel Dobson, a struggling actress involved in a heist put together by two brothers Route 17 Entertainment's Matt Tauber, Damon Alexander, Jt Alexander and Andy Hyde produce "The Go-Getters." Interesting news since we just added an article about Malone's "Sucker Punch" co-star Abbie Cornish in talks to join the "Robocop" remake. Malone was in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-nominated "For Ellen" drama alongside Paul Dano and Jon Heder. The actress is currently in post-production phase for "The Wait" helmed and scripted by M. Blash. That film also includes Chloë Sevigny, Luke Grimes, Devon Gearhart, Michael O'Keefe and Josh Hamilton.

Sometime late this month (or at the beginning of the month of December) the Sundance Film Festival will start unveiling the line-up for their 2012 edition. In an effort to give our readers a heads up on what we'll most likely be seeing at the fest, I've put together yet another predictions list. Caution: I cast a wide circle with a total of 80 predix so I'm bound to get some wrong, but as I've proven in prior years, I'm spot on with at least half the titles you'll find here. One of the most common questions I receive is: how do I know what'll be at the fest and where do I get my information? The answer: I've been going there seven years straight, been privileged to share professional relationships with those in the indie and foreign film sphere, but unless you're one of the programmers led by John Cooper, then...

#73. The Wait - M. Blash Another title that I pegged as a prediction for last year's fest, but not only did this not show up in Park City but M. Blash's sophomore pic wasn't shown anywhere else including perhaps the more probable lieu of Cannes (where his debut film. Lying was shown back in 2006). Photographed by the excellent Kasper Tuxen (3 Backyards, Beginners), I hope to see this second effort will debut at the beginning of the year. The Wait stars Jena Malone, Chloë Sevigny and Luke Grimes. Gist: The film follows two sisters (Jena Malone and Chloë Sevigny) who decide to keep their deceased mother in the house after receiving a call that she will come back to life. Grimes will portray a philosophical and enigmatic man who becomes smitten with Malone's character. Producers: Ryan Crisman, Neil Kopp (Meek's Cutoff) and David Guy Levy (Lying)(Ioncinema.com Preview Page...

#48. The Wait - M.Blash M. Blash’s debut film Lying went straight to Cannes, I wonder if this time out he'll hit a fest like Sundance before attempting to repeat with the French. M. Blash's The Wait comes in with virtuality no buzz, but then again, Meek's Cutoff wasn't even a blip on the radar before the Venice announcement. Starring Jena Malone, Chloë Sevigny, Luke Grimes and Devon Gearhart, the film follows two sisters who decide to keep their deceased mother in the house after receiving a call that she will come back to life. Grimes will portray a philosophical and enigmatic man who becomes smitten with Malone's character. * Producers: Ryan Crisman, Neil Kopp (Meek's Cutoff) and David Guy Levy (Lying)(Ioncinema.com Preview Page // IMDb Link)...

In the identikit world of the Hollywood leading lady, Chloë Sevigny defies convention. Her quirky looks, iconic sense of style and fearless approach to acting have made her the often controversial queen of the indie movie. Here she reveals why she regrets nothing

Chloë Sevigny's laugh is deep and honking, like a seal drunk on punch. Once I've heard it, I'm slightly preoccupied with the thought of hearing it again. First laugh: at the image of the "right man" eventually falling into her lap, "Like: 'Whoops!'" Second laugh: the thought of asking sex advice from her mother, Janine. Third: remembering Jay McInerney following her round Manhattan like a smell, researching the seven-page New Yorker profile of Sevigny, then 19, where he wrote that she was "the coolest girl in the world", the phrase that was, in turn, to follow her round for the rest of her life.

Now 35, she...

M. Blash's Lying made it to Cannes, but it failed to make much of a splash anywhere else. Benefitting from a name cast in thesps Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone, it took me a couple of tries to work through the denseness of the quasi-drama. Bobby Bukowski's muted colors and the applied improvisational technique were perhaps the film's most difficult hurdle to overcome. Blash is back with what I imagine is a more applied screenplay and instead of upstate New York, he has set up his next project in Van Sant country - Portland, Ore.. According to Variety, Sevigny and Malone are once again joining Blash and the new add-on comes in the shape of Shit Year's Luke Grimes and Devon Gearhart (the kid in Haneke's Funny Games U.S. also has a part). Filming began this week. Titled The Wait, it appears the project is part of...

Luke Grimes ("Shit Year," "Brothers and Sisters") has been set as the male lead in the indie thriller "The Wait" reports Variety

Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone star as two sisters who decide to keep their deceased mother in the house after receiving a call that she will come back to life. Grimes plays a philosophical and enigmatic man who becomes smitten with Malone's character.

M. Blash, who previously worked with the two female leads on "Lying", has penned the script and is directing. Neil Kopp and Ryan Crisman are producing and shooting kicks off this week in Portland, Oregon.

Ever since newbie writer-director Cary Fukunaga stormed this past Sundance Film Festival, taking the Best Director award for his fantastic film Sin Nombre (read my review here), I've been itching to see what the guy does next. While he's probably busy working on projects as part of deals with both Focus Features and Universal Pictures, it looks like Fukunaga carved out enough time to direct a commercial for Levi's 'Go Forth' campaign.

The commercials (there are two in total, with one directed by Lying helmer M. Blash) use Walt Whitman poems ("America", "O Pioneer") in a voiceover to illustrate the spirited adventure and liveliness of today's American youth, "but also to refresh and reinvent the idea of a pioneering spirit for the times in which we live," according to creative director Susan Hoffman. Fukunaga directed the "America" commercial, while Blash helmed the "O Pioneer" spot. The ads themselves are pretty unique and fun,...