THE CIRCUIT

Thanks to Matt Dentler for pointing to Sundance-opener "Mary and Max" director Adam Elliot's Oscar-willing short "Harvie Krumpet," narrated by Geoffrey Rush.

Here's the full short:

The 25th Sundance Film Festival will open January 15 with Adam Elliot's clay-animated feature "Mary and Max," voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. 

Pic follows a 20-year, pen-pal friendship between an 8-year-old girl in Melbourne and an obese, 42-year-old man in New York.

“This portrait of a global friendship between two marvelously dysfunctional people is an exceptionally moving, funny and thought-provoking work,"  said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. ""Mary and Max" is the first film of its kind to open the Festival."

"Mary and Max" marks the first claymation feature to open Sundance. The first animated feature to lead the fest was Brett Morgan's docu "Chicago 10" in 2007.

Australian animator Adam Elliot screened his short "Harvie Krumpet" at the 2004 Sundance, which went on to win the Oscar.  Melanie Combs, Elliot's long-time producer, will return with him to Park City. 

“By Opening Night it will have been five years since Melanie and I began working on the film," said Elliot. "It has been a whale of a pregnancy and we are so thrilled that the birth will be in Sundance."

"Mary and Max" was financed by Screen Australia, Adirondack Pictures, and Film Victoria.  Icon is selling all available rights.

The Sundance Film Festival unspools January 15-25 in Park City, Utah.  The entire program will be revealed December 3 and 4.

Check out the "Mary and Max" website here.

by Matt Dentler
Scandinavia has been known for centuries as a great launching pad in the arts, but one of the countries that has spent the last decade paving the way for new cinema, is Denmark. So, it should come as no big shock that Copenhagen's annual documentary festival, CPH:DOX, has firmly planted itself as one of Europe's top destinations on the European doc calendar.

The festival, which wrapped this weekend in the Danish capital, has seen its profile in the international documentary community grow ever since the 2006 premiere of Pernille Rose Grønkjær's "The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun," which eventually became a European and American critical favorite in the months that followed. In addition, previous doc hits like "Darwin's Nightmare" (2004) have earned early festival berths before landing plaudits worldwide. So, it made sense this year and last, that delegates from around the globe attended looking for the next big hit.

Sitting firmly between the Sheffield Doc Fest in the UK and the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in Holland, CPH:DOX has become a spot for doc-minded audiences looking to travel the European circuit. It's a place where nonfiction films from around the world can have a relaxed but appreciative screening, intertwined with a strong pitching forum and panel seminars. Commissioning editors, sales agents, and distributors from almost every continent gathered at the Danish Film Institute daily while filmmakers looked for financing, advice, and more.

Speakers in attendance included: Esther van Messal from First Hand Films in Switzerland, Mark Adams from ICA Films in the UK, Liz Ogilvie from Indiepix in the U.S., and Cherelle Zheng from Beijing Channel Zero Media in China, among others.

Some of the discoveries at CPH:DOX 2008 that will undoubtedly help the event grow, include Anders Østergaard's "Burma VJ," which won the Jury Award as well as the Amnesty Awrad. Østergaard's exploration of the underground video journalists in Burma will next screen in competition at IDFA. Other award winners included both Nikolaj Viborg's "69" and Tina Katinka Jensen's "Solange On Love" (a tie for the Danish Dox Award).

CPH:DOX doesn't only shine a light on Danish work, as international successes like Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir" from Israel, Matt Woolf's "Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell" from the U.S., and Sacha Gervasi's "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil" (winner of the Sound and Vision Award) from Canada, rounding out the eclectic program.


Matt Dentler is the head of programming and marketing for Cinetic Rights Management, which releases independent features on digital platforms.

Killer Films, the indie film shingle of Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, has sold a 50% equity stake to GC Corporation, a New York-based VC fund.

Principles say the cash injection will dramatically change the kinds of projects the company does, while keeping the Killer brand intact.  Vachon and Koffler's company has been responsible for many indie darlings like "Boys Don't Cry," "Far From Heaven," and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

GC Corp's Joseph Grinkorn and Adi Cohen will join Killer's board, along with former ThinkFilm senior vp Randy Manis, who has been tapped as the shingle's new CEO. 

Vachon confirmed that they are looking at much bigger canvases for future projects. "Yes, it's a big change," she said.

"The average Killer movie has been anywhere between $6 to $15 million," said GC Corp's Adi Cohen,  "We'll seek to increase those budgets to $40 to $50 million."

Cohen wouldn't comment on the buyout's amount, only describing it as "significant."  He said GC Corp is capitalized north of $100 million.  Cohen's partner, Joseph Grinkorn, is a major real estate and mortgage banking investor.

"Killer will be the platform through which GC Corporation does all our movie business," said Joseph Grinkorn. "Studio work is definitely the goal, but Killer will not stop doing indie movies."

"There is not much good news in the paper these days," said Koffler.  "So this is a gift.  It's a great opportunity for us to turn a corner."

The announcement comes weeks after Killer inked a deal with GC to co-produce "William the Conqueror" (Variety, Oct. 27), a big-budget, period actioner that is currently out to directors.  Cohen said GC has committed coin for half of "William's" budget.

Cohen explained they are committed to a five year business plan with Killer.  "We want Killer to compete," said Cohen, who said he envisions the company becoming as big a player as Miramax or Fox Searchlight.

"Killer is an undervalued asset," said Manis. "We're repositioning it by bringing in a proper infrastructure and development funds to move to the next level.  It'll take us some time to ramp up, but nothing will be too big for Killer."

Manis helped orchestrate the deal with CAA.  His history with Vachon and Koffler goes back to Killer's deal with ThinkFilm.

"The deal with ThinkFilm had its ups and downs," said Vachon, "but one of the best things was a meeting of the minds with Randy."

TV producer John Wells, who has long supported Killer's overhead and is an exec producer on many projects, will remain involved though how exactly remains unclear.  Vachon would only say that he is still very committed to the company.

by Steven Rosen
It’s been a very good year for Denver, and the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival – which began Thursday – hopes to continue the city’s hot streak. The event, which started with comic caper film “The Brothers Bloom” and continues with 215 films from some 30 countries through Nov. 23, uses Denver Film Society’s own Starz FilmCenter as well as larger venues around town.

The city, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, hosted the Democratic National Convention in August. It was central to the excitement of Barack Obama’s candidacy and election. (He carried Colorado.) So close does the city feel to Obama that signs are still everywhere, and the Denver Post newspaper has published a special book, “Obama’s Mile High Moment,” for the holiday gift-giving season.

Britta Erickson, in her first year as the film festival’s director although she’s been with organizer Denver Film Society for 10 years, referenced that recent past in her opening-night introductory remarks. She recounted the film society’s involvement in co-sponsoring a “citizen filmmaking” event during the convention called Cinemocracy. (This is also the first festival for the film society’s new executive directory, Bo Smith, who had been in charge of film programming at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.)

“And it all culminated just nine days ago with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States,” Erickson said, to applause and cheers from the roughly 1,800 people in attendance at the city’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House for “Brothers Bloom.”

That film’s director/writer, Rian Johnson, was on hand for the screening of of his first movie since 2005 debut “Brick.” As some of his friends and family sat in the audience, he recalled attending a Denver-area elementary school, and how he became interested in filmmaking early. “My dad got the first video camera on the block,” he said. “And that was when you had to plug a videocamera into a VCR and lug it around, which is especially hard when you’re nine.”

The film, which has played other festivals including Toronto, stars Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz and is about con artists and their targets. After the screening, at a packed-to-the-gills party at a nearby dark and stylish (and loud) nightclub, response was generally positive to its light tone and to Weisz’s performance, with some dissenting opinions.

Among the topical issues receiving festival exposure is transgender, with two documentaries and a panel discussion on the topic. One of those films is “Prodigal Sons” by Kimberly Reed, about her complicated Montana family’s response to her own transgender operation. But the film becomes as much about her physically challenged, older adopted brother Mark as it is about her. He discovers his birth mother is the (now-deceased) daughter of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, which prompts an invitation from Welles’ late-in-life companion Oja Kodar to visit her in Croatia. Reed accompanies him.

Among the myriad other activities on the first weekend was a scheduled Sunday tribute to actor Richard Jenkins of “The Visitor.” And there were early screenings of films touted as awards-season favorites. One of those, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” packed some 500 people into a large college auditorium on Friday night, where many were mesmerized by Mickey Rourke’s downbeat turn as a down-and-out professional wrestler.

There were also films about the arts, a favorite topic of the festival. At a Friday screening of the documentary “HAIR: Let the Sunshine In,” director Pola Rapaport revealed during a Q&A why Milos Foreman’s filmed version of the milestone countercultural musical didn’t come out until 1979, some 12 years after it had debuted on the New York stage. By then, its moment had seemed to pass.

Rapaport said Foreman had wanted to make it much earlier, but was stalled while director Hal Ashby, who had the first crack at it, couldn’t move forward because of a drug problem. 

Learning the story behind films – and filmmaking – is an important component of what the Denver Film Festival is about.