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The poster for Sanctuary features a blonde Margaret Qualley whispering to a mysterious Christopher Abbott. Its imagery — a seeming femme fatale, an unknowing male prey and all the imagined chaos in between — evokes the height of the cinematic erotic thriller era. But the strength, elegance and wit of Micah Bloomberg’s (TV series Homecoming) script and Zachary Wigon’s (The Heart Machine) direction is their interest in subverting your (and the characters’s) expectations at every step. In Sanctuary, Abbott plays Hal, a hotel mogul’s son and heir. He has ordered a fancy meal to a decadently opulent hotel suite where […]

The post “Music Will be a Prism That You Can See the Whole Movie Through”: Director Zachary Wigon on Story Beats, Miles Davis and His Bdsm-Themed Thriller Sanctuary first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The poster for Sanctuary features a blonde Margaret Qualley whispering to a mysterious Christopher Abbott. Its imagery — a seeming femme fatale, an unknowing male prey and all the imagined chaos in between — evokes the height of the cinematic erotic thriller era. But the strength, elegance and wit of Micah Bloomberg’s (TV series Homecoming) script and Zachary Wigon’s (The Heart Machine) direction is their interest in subverting your (and the characters’s) expectations at every step. In Sanctuary, Abbott plays Hal, a hotel mogul’s son and heir. He has ordered a fancy meal to a decadently opulent hotel suite where […]

The post “Music Will be a Prism That You Can See the Whole Movie Through”: Director Zachary Wigon on Story Beats, Miles Davis and His Bdsm-Themed Thriller Sanctuary first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In Sanctuary, a dominatrix and her wealthy client find themselves caught up in an intriguing game. Directed by Zachary Wigon (The Heart Machine) from a screenplay by Micah Bloomberg, co-creator of the Amazon Prime Video series Homecoming, the film centers around only the two players. And thankfully, Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley are more than up to the task. Abbott, who is always impressive, is terrific here as a conflicted man. And then there is Ms. Qualley who commands your attention with her mesmerizing work. It’s a fascinating film with a sharp script and two terrific leads.

Recently, I sat down to chat with Christopher and Margaret to discuss their latest. I’ve always admired the career path that Mr. Abbott has taken, and I mentioned that during the talk. He opened up about this particular role, and working with Zachary. As for Margaret, she works especially well opposite Christopher.

“Dominatrix rom-com” doesn’t sound like the most obvious (or light!) sub-genre, but for “Sanctuary” stars Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, the critically acclaimed romance marks one of the most fun projects to date in their respective careers. Even better: Qualley, after stealing scenes in Oscar-winning “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and Abbott, whose breakout performance in “Girls” made him an immediate indie darling, have been trying to work together for years.

“I was so excited to work with Margaret, finally,” Abbott told IndieWire during a recent interview. “There were a few jobs we had almost done together, but I’m glad this is the one that we got to do, because we had so much to do together.”

“Sanctuary” stars Abbott as hotel heir Hal, who tries to end his psychosexual relationship with dominatrix Rebecca (Qualley) after inheriting his late father’s empire. However, Rebecca has other ideas...

Nine years after Zachary Wigon’s feature debut The Heart Machine, the writer-director returns with another lean thriller, again with elements of romance and comedy. Sanctuary, coming in at a speedy 96 minutes, only features two characters––a dominatrix named Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) and a hotel heir named Hal (Christopher Abbott)––and a single location: the heir’s hotel room. It’s taut, sexy, and explosive, even with its clear theatrical leanings.

Wigon’s film, penned by Micah Bloomberg, follows Hal as he tries to end his business relationship with Rebecca, cornering these two characters into this hotel room, along with the corresponding hallway and elevator. The discussions soon turn personal, giving Abbott and Qualley ample opportunities to flex their chops. They devour Bloomberg’s script, and Wigon seems happy to honor these monologues, consistently pushing his lens closer and closer to their faces. It’s a showcase for two of...

After a decade of producing (beginning with The Heart Machine and more recently Resurrection), American indie producer Alex Scharfman is getting behind the camera for his feature debut – an A24 comedy that Production Weekly lists as a feature that Paul Rudd will topline. Set to go into production this July in Budapest, Death of a Unicorne will be produced by Square Peg’s Ari Aster and Secret Engine’s Lucas Joaquin. Expect further casting news in the weeks to come.

This tells the tale of Elliot and his teenage daughter Ridley who are en route to a crisis management summit with Elliot’s bosses – the pharmaceutical titan Leopold and his family in the remote wilderness when they accidentally crash into a unicorn.…...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto Intertnational Film Festival. Neon releases the film in theaters on Friday, May 19.

A sharp and silly and deliriously romantic single-location saga about a hotel chain heir (Christopher Abbott) who’s blackmailed by his long-time dominatrix (Margaret Qualley), Zachary Wigon’s “Sanctuary” unfolds like a kinky cross between “Punch-Drunk Love” and an off-Broadway play. The results are delightful and exasperating in almost perfectly equal measure until a last-minute hail Mary ends the movie on such a high that even its hoarier stretches seem like they were worth the walk in hindsight.

It starts with color swirls and a heart-stirring Ariel Marx score that sounds like it could be the overture of a musical; it ends with a rush of blood to the head. In between, it’s sustained by its performances. Not just the go-for-broke performances from two of the...

Steve Karmen’s 70s radio jingle certainly comes to mind when considering the body of work from the likes of Scorsese, Spike Lee, Woody Allen. We can certainly add the name of Ira Sachs to this aural signifier/list. After Keep the Lights On (’12) and Love is Strange (’14) the future third volume in Sachs’ proposed trilogy of films also takes place in New York City and once again includes the notions of family and a certain displacement. Recently reading just how attached Sachs is to Sundance as both a patron and filmmaker, we’d think the natural route is for another Park City premiere but don’t be surprised if we receive the “silent treatment”. One of the most anticipated American indie films of ’16, Little Men (formerly known as Thank You for Being Honest) is a children’s family drama starring newcomers Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz alongside Greg Kinnear,...

Sundance Institute has announced the participants for its weeklong Creative Film Producing Initiative at the Sundance Resort in Utah, July 27 – August 3, including nine feature film and documentary projects for the Creative Producing Labs and more than 50 industry leaders for the Creative Producing Summit.

The Institute’s Creative Producing Initiative encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events focusing on nurturing the next generation of independent producers and renewing the community of veteran producers who sustain the vibrancy and vitality of independent film.

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab (July 27 – July 31) identifies emerging producers and, under the guidance of Creative Advisors, allows them to develop their creative instincts and evolve their communicating and problem-solving skills at all stages of their feature film project. This year’s Creative Advisors include producers Lindsay Doran ("Sense and Sensibility"), Lynette Howell Taylor (The Place Beyond the Pines), Gina Kwon ("Me You and Everyone We Know"), Paul Mezey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Jay Van Hoy (

"Beginners" ) and director Matthew Ross ("28 Hotel Rooms" ).

The Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab (July 27 – August 1) brings together documentarians with award-winning Advisors to focus on their current projects to explore the wide range of creative approaches to distribution, outreach and impact strategies. This year’s Creative Advisors include producers Julie Goldman ( "Best of Enemies"), Bonni Cohen ("3 1/2 Minutes," "10 Bullets"), Ryan Werner (Cinetic), Maxyne Franklin (Britdoc), and Wendy Cohen (Picture Motion).

The Creative Producing Summit takes place immediately following the Labs, July 31 – August 3. More than 50 industry leaders will participate in a series of curated panels, case studies, roundtables, and one-on-one meetings addressing critical issues producers face including financing, distribution, audience engagement, marketing and sustainability. Panelists this year include Len Amato (HBO Films),

Michael Barker (Sony Pictures Classics), Dori Begley (Magnolia Pictures), Josh Braun (Submarine), Dan Cogan (Impact Partners), Victoria S. Cook (Frankfurt Kurnit), Danielle Di Giacomo (The Orchard), Fred Dust (Ideo), Ted Hope (Amazon), Micah Green (CAA), John Hoffman (Discovery Channel), Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing), Charles King (MacRo), Jessica Lacy (ICM Partners), Stephanie Langhoff (Duplass Brothers), David Magdael (Tcdm Associates), Victor Moyers (Broad Green), Annie Roney (ro*co Films), John Sloss (Cinetic Media), Graham Taylor (William Morris Endeavor), and Jay Van Hoy (Parts & Labor).

The Fellows and projects selected for the 2015 Feature Film Creative Producing Lab are:

"50 Miles From Boomtown"

Producing Fellow: Alex Scharfman

After years of saving for her hard-earned dream, the only woman working on the fracking fields of North Dakota can finally quit but unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with the young man she's training to take her place. (writer/director Flo Linus Baumann).

Alex Scharfman is a New York-based producer whose past feature credits include "The Heart Machine" and "Lyle," as well as the short film "Superior," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015, and the WGA Award-nominated webseries "F to 7th." He is an executive at Parts & Labor Films where he worked on films including "Keep The Lights On" and "Loitering with Intent." He has also produced content for Vice, Google, the Ford Foundation, and At&T. Alex received his BA from Cornell University, is a former Mfa candidate from Nyu’s Tisch School of the Arts, and received his Mba from Nyu’s Stern School of Business.

"Bexar County"

Mark Silverman Honorees and Producing Fellows: Blake Pickens and Stephen Love Jr.

In sunny San Antonio, Texas, where nothing ever changes, a town is turned on its head when a delusional Texas housewife accidentally poisons her son’s fiancée, learning that killing people is an efficient way to solve her problems. (Co-writer/director Catherine Grieve, co-writer Dylan Slocum)

Blake Pickens is from the south side of Oklahoma City, from a neighborhood known as the Flats. Despite the community’s rampant drug use and gang wars, Blake found his way into storytelling with a writing position at National Lampoon. He later attended the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC where he and his producing partner, Stephen Love Jr., formed their company Bs Pictures. They are currently in pre-production on the Steven Caple Jr.’s film The Land and in development on "The Friendship Nine" with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi. Blake’s aspirations are to tell the stories that make people laugh, cry, and ultimately impact their lives.

Stephen Love Jr. grew up in the rural towns of Filbert and Bennettsville, South Carolina. During his time as a business major at Morehouse College, Love founded the Morehouse Filmmakers' Association, for which Spike Lee is the honorary advisor. He also received his Mfa from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program and formed Bs Pictures with fellow graduate Blake Pickens. Love’s primary career goal is to produce film and television that gives "a voice to the voiceless" while challenging the confines of the business of filmmaking.

"Dolores"

Producing Fellow: Drew Houpt

A restless teenager becomes obsessed with a mysterious Colombian woman who exploits his desire and lures him into her plot for revenge. (Writer/director Mary Angélica Molina)

Drew Houpt is an independent producer based in Brooklyn. For over ten years he was the head of operations at Mike Zoss Productions, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Tribeca-based production company. During that time he worked on the Academy Award-winning "No Country For Old Men" and the Academy Award-nominated "A Serious Man" and "True Grit." He served as Associate Producer on the Coens’ Grand Prix-winning "Inside Llewyn Davis" and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning film "Birdman: or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance." This past year he co-produced Maris Curran’s directorial-debut "Five Nights in Maine" and produced "Every Day,' a short documentary for Espn’s 30 for 30 Shorts series that had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015. He has also produced music videos for the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang and an experimental documentary, "When A Priest Marries A Witch," by Suzanne Bocanegra.

"Rita Mahtoubian Is Not A Terrorist"

Producing Fellow: Deanna Barillari

When Iranian-born Rita Mahtoubian sets out to change her life from ordinary to extraordinary, she accidentally captures the attention of a homeland security agent in this satirical comedy about romance, terrorism and trying to be a better person. (Co-writers/directors Roja Gashtili & Julia Lerman)

Upon graduating Nyu Tisch, Deanna Barillari co-founded a non-profit theater company producing Off-Off-Broadway plays, including the NYC premiere of Leslye Headland's "Cinephilia" (2008), which funded in-school arts initiatives in the NYC Public School system. She then went on to work in TV on NBC's "Mercy" (2009), CBS’ "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" (2010), ABC’s "Pan Am," 86th Oscars (Ellen DeGeneres; 2014) and in Drama Development at Universal Television. Recently, she collaborated with AFI Dww Fellows Roja Gashtili and Julia Lerman, producing their web-series K(ID) starring Caterina Scorsone ("Grey's Anatomy") and their short "Rita Mahtoubian Is Not A Terrorist" starring Patrick Fugit ("Almost Famous") which made its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. She also produces for the La based Ovation Award-winning Iama Theatre Company.

"The Space Between"

Producing Fellow: Angela C. Lee

A female body builder devotes her life to turning ‘pro’ when she unexpectedly falls in love, forcing her to confront her fractured past with her dying father. (Writer/director Philiane Phang)

Angela C. Lee is a Los Angeles based independent producer. She produced "Songs My Brothers Taught Me," which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and recently screened in the Directors’ Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. Angela is also the Artist Development Manager at Film Independent, where she oversees the selection process and curriculum for the Filmmaker Labs program, including Screenwriting, Directing, Producing, and Documentary Labs, the Fast Track Finance Market and the Fox Writers Intensive, managed in conjunction with Fox Audience Strategy. Previously, Angela served as Director of Creative Affairs at New York based Vox3 Films. Prior to her career in film, Angela was an Associate at Goldman Sachs. A native Chicagoan, Angela graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Economics and is on the Board of Directors for the University of Chicago National Arts Alumni Network.

The Fellows and projects selected for the 2015 Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab are:

"Brick"

Co-Directors/Producers: Jessica Dimmock & Christopher Lamarca

"Brick" reveals the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman coming out for the first time in the Pacific Northwest. The film follows three intersecting stories of individuals who have lived their whole lives as men and decided this burdensome secret is one they can no longer keep.

Jessica Dimmock is the recipient of the 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest as the director and cinematographer of the online feature, "Too Young to Wed." In 2010, Dimmock won Kodak's Best Cinematography Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival for "Without." The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, received an Independent Spirit Award, and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award. Dimmock contributed two short films to Doctors Without Borders' Emmy-nominated campaign, “Starved for Attention.” Her first photojournalism project, “The Ninth Floor” was published as a monograph. Most recently, she worked as photographer and videographer for Emmy-nominated HBO series, "The Weight of the Nation." She is represented by VII agency.

Christopher Lamarca is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker and based in Portland, Oregon. Lamarca has recently entered post-production on his first feature length film, "Boone." In 2012, it was chosen as one of eight films for Film Independent's Documentary Film lab. Lamarca's monograph, “Forest Defenders: The Confrontational American Landscape ” was published by PowerHouse Books in 2008. He was chosen to participate in the International Center of Photography’s triennial exhibition (2007), New York Photo festival (2009) and Lishui photo festival in China (2010). He reported on environmental and energy issues for magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, Fortune, and Newsweek.

"The Island and the Whales" (working title)

Directore/Producer: Mike Day

The pilot whale hunters of the Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but when a local professor makes a grim discovery about the effects of marine pollution, and the seabirds populations collapse, environmental changes threaten to change the community and their way of life forever.

Mike Day is a Scottish director and producer. Formerly a lawyer in London and the Middle East he founded Intrepid Cinema in 2009 before heading out into the North Atlantic to make his previous film. His debut documentary "The Guga Hunters of Ness" broadcast on the BBC in 2011 and screened at festivals internationally to critical acclaim. It was while at sea in the Atlantic that he met a group of Faroese sailors, leading to his next film. Mike was listed as one of '10 Filmmakers to Watch' by Filmmaker Magazine, he was one of Edn's ’12 for the Future 2012’, and is supported by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Docscene programme. Intrepid Cinema also has two other feature documentaries in development.

"The Road From Hainan"

Director/Producer: Nanfu Wang

State surveillance. Harassment. Imprisonment. Human rights activist Ye Haiyan, Aka Sparrow, knew she faced these risks when she went to Hainan Province to seek justice for six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. But the scale and intensity of the government's reaction surprised even the most seasoned activists across China.

"The Road From Hainan" follows Sparrow as she was chased from town to town by local governments, national secret police, and even her own neighbors. Nanfu Wang is a documentary filmmaker based in New York. Originally from a remote village in China, Wang overcame poverty and lack of access to formal secondary education and went on to earn graduate degrees in communications and documentary film from universities in China and the United States. Her work often features the stories of marginalized or mistreated people, from Chinese blood donors stricken with HIV after being issued used needles by the government to the left-behind children of migrant laborers. During the production of her first full-length documentary, Wang lived on the streets of Miami with a homeless former drug dealer who relied on the kindness of strangers for his survival. Wang’s short films have been distributed on many platforms and translated into several languages, and she continues to seek out and tell the stories of people who have been ignored by their societies.

"Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four"

Director/Producer: Deborah Esquenazi

"Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four" excavates the nightmarish persecution of Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez — four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of allegedly gang-raping two little girls in San Antonio, Texas. The film also unravels the sinister interplay of mythology, homophobia and prosecutorial fervor which led to this modern day witch hunt during the 'Satanic Sexual Abuse Panic' of the late-80's and early-90's in the United States.

Deborah S. Esquenazi is an Austin, Texas-based documentary film and radio producer, instructor, and journalist. Her in-progress documentary feature, "Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four," has received international attention for its investigation into this controversial criminal case, and has been mentioned in Forbes Magazine, New York Times, Texas Observer, Vice Magazine, among others. Her film and radio documentaries have been funded by Chicken & Egg Pictures, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program | John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Initiative, Humanities Texas, Astraea Global Arts Fund, and many others.

The winter holidays can, indeed, be out of this world. And a group of local filmmakers and science-fiction enthusiasts are pushing those boundaries with the launch of Austin's first dedicated science-fiction film festival, Other Worlds Austin, from Dec. 4-6 at Galaxy Highland 10 (6700 Middle Fiskville).

Less than six months after its founding, Other Worlds Austin recently announced its lineup, which includes:

The Well (Texas premiere, opening-night movie) -- It hasn't rained in a decade, and a greedy water baron has laid claim to the remaining resource. Because of this a teenager must decide whether to run and hide or fight for the people and things she cherishes most.Time Lapse -- A thriller about three friends who discover a camera that takes photos 24 hours into the future. They decide to use the machine for personal gain, until disturbing images begin to appear.Apt 3D (world premiere) -- A young couple moves...

As more tools, apps, devices, and iProducts emerge to ease the struggles of modern existence, the manifestations of each invention come with unforeseen consequences. And as such, as the digital age progresses, the complexities of intimacy, relationships, and sex are increased. While the stigma of online dating has largely vanished, the prevalence of hook-up driven culture via apps like Blendr, Grindr, and such reveal that, as technology evolves, options we didn’t even realize we wanted become available. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? New sexual possibilities could lie at the click of a button, and disconnecting anxieties will appear as the endlessly changing terrain continues to shift. And so, “The Heart Machine,” written and directed by filmmaker Zachary Wigon, explores these concepts while examining the byproduct of the distance, estrangement, and alienation these applications for connection produce. Beginning in medias res, John Gallagher Jr. (HBO's "The...

Feel It In Your Heart Beat: Wigon’s Debut Explores Jagged, Media-Moderated Romance

Film critic Zachary Wigon makes his directorial and screenwriting debut with The Heart Machine, an expansion of his 2012 short, Someone Else’s Heart. A rumination on the difficulties of fostering a romantic connection in the age of digital immediacy, initially Wigon seems to be exploring the complications associated with the dependence on technology in a long distance relationship, how it proves to be a poor or insubstantial substitute for human interaction. But then, quickly, it becomes something else, a case study of mutation in a modern struggle to connect with another person intimately in a world that no longer conditions us to have the patience or mind frame to do so.

Cody (John Gallagher Jr.) and Virginia (Kate Lyn Sheil) are in the middle of a long distance relationship, communicating primarily via Skype. He’s in...

We live in age where we can hook up with prospective partners with no more than an app, look for our soul mates by answering a questionnaire, and keep in touch with our significant others by sending texts and not saying a word. It's within this digital age where the romantic drama "The Heart Machine" kicks off. Directed by Zachary Wigon and starring John Gallagher Jr. ("The Newsroom") and Kate Lyn Sheil ("House Of Cards," "You're Next"), the story follows Cody and Virginia, who meet and fall in love online. Despite the distance between them—he's in New York City, she's in Berlin—their romance blooms, until Cody begins to suspect that Virginia might be not be telling the whole truth about where she lives. In this exclusive clip, we see Cody's uncertainty about Virginia, fueled by recently seeing her on the subway....or did he? "The Heart Machine" opens...

This is a reprint of our interview from the 2014 SXSW Film Festival. "The Heart Machine" opens on Friday, October 24th. Part of the pleasure of attending an established film festival like South By Southwest is the caliber of emerging talent it attracts. When you’re seeing a new director’s feature debut, you can rest (reasonably) assured that the cream of the submissions pile has risen to the top. Such is the case with Zachary Wigon’s first film, “The Heart Machine.” Starring John Gallagher, Jr. (“The Newsroom” and last year’s SXSW breakout, “Short Term 12”) and Kate Lyn Sheil (an indie darling who recently appeared in season two of “House of Cards”), the film explores the technological implications of the current dating climate, where sex-with-no-strings is available at the touch of an app, yet intimacy can be kept safely at bay via one’s computer screen (read our...

Films about ultramodern technology tend to have an air of alarmism about them. Jason Reitman’s dismal Men, Women & Children seized the ubiquity of smartphones as an opportunity to decry the state of the world today, wagging its finger reproachfully like a luddite Reefer Madness. Such films warn us of the dangers in our earbuds or the sedative glow of our mobile screens, as if staring at an iPhone were only a notch above looking inside the Ark of the Covenant.

In its opening minutes, Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine likewise seems poised to mount an argument against tech-bound modern living. It begins in a nightclub — thumping techno and lights in pink and blue, a Day-Glo blur of bodies in motion. In the corner we come upon Cody (John Gallag...

At SXSW, I must admit I was rather underwhelmed by the offerings. Maybe it was all the Brooklyn settings, or the abundance of 20 and 30-something malaise. Hasn’t this become stale by now? And this is coming from someone in the key demo to appreciate 20 and 30-something malaise. However, one performance stuck with me. Kate Lyn Sheil ("Sun Don't Shine"), a ubiquitous face in the indie scene if not yet a well-known name like, say, Greta Gerwig or Joe Swanberg, is undeniably a standout in Zachary Wigon’s tale of long-distance relationship woes and paranoia, “The Heart Machine.” Sheil stands out not because she “kills” the performance -- it’s not a big, showy turn -- but rather because she underplays it. It’s a difficult, somewhat inscrutable role -- and, alas, female characters who make murky choices typically throw viewers for a loop -- but as I watched her...

Welcome to Bww's exclusive talk show, Backstage With Richard Ridge. Follow Richard as he visits the theater's best and brightest in their dressing rooms, on their stages and favorite hang outs to talk about their lives, careers and all of the things you don't know, but want to know. In the special interview below, Richard welcomes stage and screen star John Gallagher Jr., who leads the upcoming film, The Heart Machine. Watch as they discuss the new movie, reminisce about his past stage roles and so much more. Check out the full interview below...

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile, we ask the filmmaker (in this case American independent writer-director Zachary Wigon) to identify their all time top ten favorite films of all time. Wigon’s The Heart Machine (see pic of actor John Gallagher Jr above) receives a limited theatrical and VOD release on October 24th via the Film Buff folks. This top 10 is a countdown folks. Drum roll please!

10. City Lights- Charlie Chaplin (1931)

“The deep pathos of pretending to be someone you’re not so that you may win over your love is taken, here, to heights alternatively comic and tragic, with the greatest closing shot in all of cinema.”

9. Goodbye, Dragon Inn – Tsai Ming-liang (2004)

“The loneliness of being a person, the desire to connect to each other through our behavior and through art,...

Ioncinema.com’s Ioncinephile of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This October, we put the spotlight on an indie personality who moonlights as a film critic/writer for the likes of The Village Voice and Filmmaker Magazine and who saw his feature film debut land in 2014 SXSW Film Festival’s Narrative Feature competition. Toplined by John Gallagher Jr. (Short Term 12) and Kate Lyn Sheil (Listen Up Philip) with supporting players in the shape of David Call (Gabriel), Katie Paxton and Louisa Krause (Bluebird), The Heart Machine (October 24th limited release/VOD FilmBuff) is according to the glowing remarks made in the trades with Variety calling it “thoroughly modern without being ostentatious” and THR dissecting it as “a thoughtful, emotionally tricky debut”. This month we profile Zachary Wigon — be sure to check out his top ten films of all time.

Eric Lavallee: During your childhood…...

If Her granted a view of the love landscape in the near-future, then The Heart Machine adopts a similar approach set in the here and now. The days when dating and interaction were limited to actual physical experience are a thing of the past. I know it, you know it. Online romance isn’t reserved for those outliers who struggle to thrive in social situations – everyone’s at it now.

What’s possibly the most compelling conceit of The Heart Machine is that at its core are two young people capable of making easier romantic choices, who choose to involve themselves in the difficulty of digital dating. Directed by Zachary Wigon the two leads, John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom) and Kate Lyn Sheil (You’re Next) are at the centre of a movie than spans in two directions. We get an idea of how the movie functions based on this first trailer.

Cody and Virginia start talking while he’s in Brooklyn and she’s in Berlin. It’s a romance that could only happen online, and they’re happy together—except they’ve never really met. But Cody’s questions about Virginia’s life in Berlin become an obsession, leading him to doubt that she’s there at all. Combing NYC for clues, an increasingly driven Cody begins overstepping boundaries of privacy in his desperate quest for answers. Tracking two parallel journeys that show how digital mediation complicates modern love,The Heart Machine explores the evolving relationship between physical and emotional intimacy, isolation in the urban hive, and the seduction of hiding behind a screen. The movie stars John Gallagher Jr., [ Read More ]

The post The Heart Machine Gets A New Trailer appeared first on Shockya.com.

Is John Gallagher Jr. getting Catfished in this trailer? Let’s back up a bit. Part drama, part thriller to a smaller degree (or mystery, perhaps), “The Heart Machine” is about a man living in New York City who begins to suspect that his long-distance girlfriend who he met on the Internet has been living in the Manhattan the whole time, instead of Berlin like she claims. Of course, he sets out to find her. The movie stars John Gallagher Jr. of “The Newsroom” and Kate Lyn Sheil, an indie darling known for Amy Seimetz's "Sun Don't Shine," the early films of Alex Ross Perry (including a brief turn in his latest "Listen Up Philip") and “House of Cards.” Here’s the official synopsis: Tracking two parallel journeys that show how digital media complicates modern love, The Heart Machine explores the evolving relationship between physical and emotional intimacy, isolation in the urban hive,...

“In a digital age…” Love in a digital age. Dating in a digital age. Sex in a digital age. You are going to see a lot of movies about exploring [X] in a digital age. But if we’re not careful, films about the Internet, social media and modern technology are going to come across as surface and obvious. (See Jason Reitman’s latest misfire “Men, Women & Children," or the indie “The Heart Machine,” which is actually quite decent little movie thanks to its cast, but says very little about relationships in the digital age beyond what you already know: the Internet, apps, etc. complicate life.) So in this film, centered around the sinister corners of the modern information age, identity is slippery and malleable, but not self-made. An identity thriller with would-be Kafkaesque overtones that are often too slight and even turgid, Chilean film "I Am Not Lorena" takes some interesting ideas about identity,...

The relationship/sex comedy is encompassing new variables in the modern age, as notions of hookup culture change and expand beyond outdated ideas of “slut” or “stud.” There’s “Friends With Benefits,” “No Strings Attached,” and even the 2014 indie “The Heart Machine” explores sex and relationships through social media, Tinder, Grindr and other related apps. The latest film in this genre is “Two Night Stand,” starring up and coming star Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton. Here’s the official synopsis: After an extremely regrettable one night stand, two strangers (Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton) wake up to find themselves snowed in after sleeping through a blizzard that put all of Manhattan on ice. They're now trapped together in a tiny apartment, forced to get to know each other way more than any one night stand should. Marking the directorial debut of Max Nichols, and with a screenplay by Mark Hammer,...

The slow, rhythmic creaking of a rocking chair can be soothing… or disconcerting. In the case of our clip from Stewart Thorndike’s Lyle, it’s definitely the former. A psychological horror film that played at the Outfest Film Festival, Lyle is now available to watch in its entirety for free, and we have a clip featuring the lead actress wielding scissors for protection.

In an effort to address the lack of horror films directed by women, female Director/Writer Stewart Thorndike is in the process of making three female-centric horror movies. Lyle is the first of the three, and Putney, currently raising funds via a Kickstarter campaign, is the planned second entry. There are 44 days left of the Putney Kickstarter campaign, and Stewart recently announced that fans can watch Lyle for free on the movie’s website for the rest of the Putney Kickstarter campaign.

To watch Lyle, whose...

The FilmBuff have grabbed the rights to The Heart Machine - the thriller that preemed in SXSW’s eight film Narrative Feature Comp this past March. Produced by Lucas Joaquin (featured here) and Alex Scharfman and executive-produced by Parts & Labor’s Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jordan Lewis, Abe Schwartz, Andrew Kelley, and Eric Schultz, Zachary Wigon’s directorial debut will hit theatrically and via VOD on October 24th.

Gist: Cody (John Gallagher Jr.) and Virginia (Kate Lyn Sheil) start talking while he’s in Brooklyn and she’s in Berlin. It’s a romance that could only happen online, and they’re happy together—except they’ve never really met. But Cody’s questions about Virginia’s life in Berlin become an obsession, leading him to doubt that she’s there at all. Combing NYC for clues about her whereabouts, an increasingly driven Cody begins overstepping boundaries of privacy...

Exclusive: FilmBuff has acquired newcomer Zach Wigon’s debut feature The Heart Machine, starring Newsroom‘s John Gallagher Jr. and House Of Cards‘ Kate Lyn Sheil. The digital-age romantic thriller stars Gallagher Jr. as Cody, a Brooklynite who begins to suspect that the woman he fell for online, Virginia, might not actually live in Berlin. Wigon wrote and helmed the pic, which debuted in competition earlier this year at SXSW. The Heart Machine is based on Wigon’s award-winning 2012 short Someone Else’s Heart and was completed with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Exec producers are Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, […]...

Along the lines of when Greta Gerwig landed Greenberg and essentially moved higher up in the indie echelons, the hardworking Kate Lyn Sheil has been Total Recalled for fellow Sundance alumni Drake Doremus’ next directing gig which already includes the threesome of Nicholas Hoult, Kristen Stewart and Guy Pearce. In Equals, which is set for a shoot next month in Asia, Sheil will play Kate, a fellow co-worker of Hoult and Stewart’s characters.

Gist: Set in a future society where emotions have been eradicated. A new breed of humans, called Equals, live peacefully until a disease begins activating emotions in its victims, who are sent away and never seen again. Hoult is set to star as Silas, who becomes infected and is outcast until he connects with Nia (Stewart), another “switched on” Equal who is able to hide her emotions.

Worth Noting: Deadline mentioned a who’s who indie...

Premiering at SXSW in its Narrative Feature Competition, The Heart Machine, the first feature from film journalist Zachary Wigon, is an astute romantic drama tackling the interpersonal confusion of our internet age. (Full disclosure: Zach Wigon has written for Filmmaker, and I contributed to the film’s Kickstarter campaign.) With technology altering and intermediating the ways we discover each other, meet, communicate and even break up, our romantic rulebooks are being surreptitiously rewritten, and right under our noses. Yes, a kiss is still a kiss, but is a text just a text? Or, in the case of Wigon’s film, a Skype […]...

Premiering at SXSW in its Narrative Feature Competition, The Heart Machine, the first feature from film journalist Zachary Wigon, is an astute romantic drama tackling the interpersonal confusion of our internet age. (Full disclosure: Zach Wigon has written for Filmmaker, and I contributed to the film’s Kickstarter campaign.) With technology altering and intermediating the ways we discover each other, meet, communicate and even break up, our romantic rulebooks are being surreptitiously rewritten, and right under our noses. Yes, a kiss is still a kiss, but is a text just a text? Or, in the case of Wigon’s film, a Skype […]...

“There are no rules. It’s the wild west out there baby.”

That’s a line that Kate Lyn Sheil’s Virginia says near the beginning of The Heart Machine to describe online dating. In reality, the experiences in Zachary Wigon’s film are less like a saloon shootout and more like a psychological thriller, where paranoia and lies consume the mind until everything else falls by the wayside.

Cody (John Gallagher Jr.) is a fairly average twenty-something New Yorker who spends much of his time talking to his girlfriend Virginia. The difference between Cody and most is that he’s never actually met his girlfriend. That’s because he found her online while she’s away studying in Berlin. Despite the lack of actual physical intimacy, Cody has fallen hard and stays devoted to the girl he hopes to meet one day, as they spend night after night talking,...

As more tools, apps, devices and iProducts emerge to ease the struggles of modern existence, the manifestations of each invention come with unforeseen consequences. And as such, as the digital age progresses, the complexities of intimacy, relationships and sex are increased. While the stigma of online dating has largely vanished, the prevalence of hook-up driven culture via apps like Blendr, Grindr and such reveal that, as technology evolves, options we didn’t even realize we wanted become available. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? New sexual possibilities could lie at the click of a button, and disconnecting anxieties will appear as the endlessly changing terrain continues to shift. And so, “The Heart Machine,” written and directed by filmmaker Zachary Wigon, explores these concepts while examining the byproduct of the distance, estrangement and alienation these applications for connection produce. Beginning in medias res, John Gallagher Jr. (HBO's "The Newsroom," "Short Term.

Now in its 27th year, SXSW is like the late bloomer who stuns his parents by announcing his basement-based online venture is now worth a million bucks. The Austin, Texas-based festival isn’t glamorous, like Cannes, or corporate, like Toronto, or even insistently anti-Hollywood, like Sundance. Compared to its more-pedigreed rivals, SXSW is simply more chill. It puts the festive back in festival — there’s a giant music and growing interactive element as well — and artists of all sorts are eager to come to the party. Jimmy Kimmel Live will broadcast there for a week. Lady Gaga will drop in.

Cody suspects his girlfriend is lying to him. After all, he’s in Brooklyn, Virginia is an ocean away in Berlin, and they fell in love over the Internet. Who knows if she’s as committed to this relationship as he is — they’ve never even met in person! For all he knows, she could be… secretly living in New York?

In The Heart Machine, which premieres tomorrow at SXSW in Austin, Tex., The Newsroom’s John Gallagher Jr. plays Cody, who begins to unravel when his suspicions about Virginia become paranoid obsessions. House of Cards’s Kate Lyn Sheil is his elegant girlfriend,...

SXSW kicks off the film festival portion of the event Friday night with Chef, a film from Iron Man director and actor Jon Favreau. Favreau directs and stars in this film about a chef who quits his job at a restaurant and ends up opening a food truck. The film co-stars Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara and John Leguizamo. Favreau will also participate in a conversation on the film and his career on Sunday, March 9.

Other Friday premieres include Kelly & Cat, a new comedy-drama staring Juliette Lewis and Jason Bateman’s Bad Words.

Veronica Mars, arguably one of the most anticipated films premiering at SXSW, will hold its big world premiere Saturday, March 8. The fan-funded, Kickstarter flick is sure to make headlines among festival goers and Marshmallows (fans of the show).

Space Station 76, a comedy staring Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler and Matt Bomer will have its world premiere on Saturday,...

One of the must-sees on our SXSW 2014 forecast is Zachary Wigon's The Heart Machine. Starring John Gallagher Jr. and Kate Lyn Sheil, this romantic mystery/thriller looks like a tense exploration of modern love. But with the Austin premiere looming, the filmmakers are turning to Kickstarter to get the movie finished and to the fest. Will the film reach its $25,000 goal in time? Sounds like we've got our own real life thriller on our hands -- and you can help! Here's the film's synopsis: Cody (John Gallagher Jr.) and Virginia (Kate Lyn Sheil) start talking while he's in Brooklyn and she's in Berlin. It's a romance that could only happen online, and they're happy together-except they've never really met. But Cody's questions about Virginia's...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Nearly a year ago, I devoted the Fund This Film column to an indie feature called Funny Bunny in part because it was to star Kate Lyn Sheil, one of the most interesting young actresses working today. You should know her from such movies as The Comedy, The Color Wheel, V/H/S, Sun Don’t Shine, Somebody Up There Likes Me and maybe Listen Up Philip if you were at Sundance this year. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of Funny Bunny (which was funded and then made, and we’re still looking forward to it), and now here I am to spotlight another Kickstarter project with Sheil’s name attached. I can guarantee she’ll be in this one, as it’s already been shot and is set to debut in competition at SXSW next month. It’s called The Heart Machine. Co-starring with Sheil in this romance thriller is Short Term 12‘s John Gallagher...

Sundance just ended, and we are already preparing for the next big film festival, South By Southwest. Not too long ago, the festival announced a few of the films premiering this year, but now they’ve announced the main slate. The midnight selections and some inevitable late-breaking additions are still to be announced, but this should be more than enough to get you excited. Along with many World Premieres, and Sundance favorites like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the line up also includes an anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and an extended Q&A screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel with Wes Anderson. SXSW 2014 runs March 7 through 15 in Austin, Texas. Check out the line up after the jump.

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Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,324 films submitted to SXSW 2014. Films screening in Narrative...

Today the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced a diverse features lineup for this year’s Festival, the 21st edition and running March 7 – 15, 2014 in Austin, Texas. The 2014 program expands on SXSW tradition of embracing a range of genres and span of budgets, featuring a wealth of vision from experienced and developing filmmakers alike.

For more information visit http://sxsw.com/film.

Listed in the announcement are 115 of the features that will screen over the course of nine days at SXSW 2014. The lineup below includes 68 films from first-time filmmakers, and consists of 76 World Premieres, 10 North American Premieres and 7 U.S. Premieres. These films were selected from a record 2,215 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,540 U.S. and 675 international feature-length films. With a record number of 6,482 submissions total, the overall increase was 14% over 2013. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 5, with the complete...

After announcing earlier this month that Jon Favreau’s Chef and the Veronica Mars movie will be making their world debuts at SXSW this year, the festival has revealed its full line-up, including further very promising world premieres, alongside appearances from some of the year’s most high-profile films.

The Midnight programme will be announced early next month, along with the Shorts line-up, and the complete Conference slate a little later as well.

Led by Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Nicholas Stoller’s anticipated R-rated comedy, Neighbors, will be making its world debut at the festival, notably marked out as a ‘work-in-progress’ ahead of its theatrical release in May.

David Gordon Green’s acclaimed Joe will make its Us premiere, having bowed at Venice and then Toronto last year. Early reviews have Nicolas Cage giving one of the finest performances of his career, with Tye Sheridan (Mud) excellent alongside him.

Not sure if there is a Short Term 12 equivalent in this year’s Narrative Feature Comp, but on paper SXSW programmers are serving up a mean (and the usual lean group of 8 out of a whopping 1,324 film entries) for the upcoming competitiuon of eight which includes notable entries (that we’ve been tracking for a good time now) such as Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine, John Magary’s The Mend, Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns and Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated docs of the year, on the non-fiction side we find Margaret Brown’s The Great Invisible. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the other sections (notable world preems in We’ll Never Have Paris and Faults (see Mary Elizabeth Winstead above), some Sundance items with Texan connections and other nuggets.

Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight...

Headliners strand includes first screenings of the upcoming Universal comedy Neighbors (pictured) starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron and Australian time-travel thriller Predestination with Ethan Hawke.

The 21st edition of the festival in Austin, Texas, runs from March 7-15. The new Episodics programme will include new upcoming television work including Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn for his El Rey Network, HBO’s upcoming Silicon Valley and Fox’s Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey.

The first ever SXsports section will include as previously announced an on-stage conversation with Jurgen Klinsmann, the former German international striker and current Us national team coach in the run-up to the World Cup in Brazil this summer.

Among the Special Events is a screening of Berlinale opener The Grand Budapest Hotel followed by an extended Q&A with Wes Anderson.

The eight world premiere selections in the Narrative Feature Competition are:

10,000km (Spain) by Carlos Marques Marcet;Animals by Collin Schiffli;[link...

Kids. Such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape or Reservoir Dogs before it, and such as Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine and Fruitvale Station after it, Larry Clark & Harmony Korine’s seminal film is forever connected in “spirit” to the lieu where it received its secret midnight premiere screening in 1995. The Sundance Film Festival might be known as the birthplace of U.S indie filmmaking innovation, avant-gardism, a larger definition of the low budgeted film response to Hollywood in not only narrative but in the non-fiction form, but it is a festival made strong by its renewal and familiarity. That close acquaintanceness exists in Kids‘ starlets Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny filmography/career path trajectory and connection to Park City (both have several indie films slated for ’14 – of which I’ve included in our predictions list) and it is that “familiarity” that is visibly noticeable in how I map out my annual predictions list.

Short Term 12 and The Newsroom actor John Gallagher Jr. has boarded The Heart Machine indie, alongside House of Cards, Pollywogs and V/H/S's Kate Lyn Sheil, reports Deadline. The project from Zachary Wigon stars Gallagher and Sheil as a couple called Cody and Virginia who are in a long distance, online relationship and have never actually met each other. When Cody, who's in New York, has suspicions that Virginia has also been in N.Y. all this time, he starts investigating.