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“It’s interesting, more filmmakers this year are asking for laurels,” says Sam Fleischner when we spoke just a few days before the opening of the seventh annual Rockaway Film Festival. Fleischner’s the festival’s co-founder and artistic director, Courtney Muller is co-founder and program director, and the two, along with their small team, have grown the festival to the point where the schedule boasts more premieres, U.S. and world, than ever and, with that growth, directors wanting to add the Rockaway selection to their posters and websites. “We never wanted to make a laurel,” admits Fleischner. “So it was like, alright, […]

The post Movies with Sand Under Your Feet: Previewing The Seventh Annual Rockaway Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“It’s interesting, more filmmakers this year are asking for laurels,” says Sam Fleischner when we spoke just a few days before the opening of the seventh annual Rockaway Film Festival. Fleischner’s the festival’s co-founder and artistic director, Courtney Muller is co-founder and program director, and the two, along with their small team, have grown the festival to the point where the schedule boasts more premieres, U.S. and world, than ever and, with that growth, directors wanting to add the Rockaway selection to their posters and websites. “We never wanted to make a laurel,” admits Fleischner. “So it was like, alright, […]

The post Movies with Sand Under Your Feet: Previewing The Seventh Annual Rockaway Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Returning for its seventh edition this year, the 2024 Rockaway Film Festival kicks off next weekend, taking place August 17-25 and featuring a rich lineup of cinematic and artistic events. Highlights include Zia Anger’s My First Film, featuring a Q&a with star Odessa Young and post-screening DJ set by Andrew Vanwyngarden of Mgmt; the East Coast premiere of Ed Lachman’s new restoration of Report From Hollywood, his account on the set of Wim Wenders’ The State of Things, featuring a Q&a with Lachman and Sean Price Williams; a 50th anniversary screening of Wenders’ Alice in the Cities; a rare screening of Agnes Martin’s Gabriel with a live score; and much more. Ahead of the festival, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer.

“Every year, our program emerges intuitively,” said co-founders Courtney Muller and Sam Fleischner, “we choose films in consideration of the setting in which we’ll show them,...

Now in its seventh year at the beachy southern edge of Queens, the Rockaway Film Festival has revealed its 2024 lineup, which IndieWire shares exclusively. The festival runs August 17-25, 2024 and features outdoor screenings and conversations at the Rff’s regular yearlong venue, the Arverne Cinema.

This year’s highlights include Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood’s looping, multi-screen installation “Waking Up (For the First Time),” a tribute to experimental animator Faith Hubley, with live music performances and DJ sets featuring members of indie bands Animal Collective and Mgmt.

Special events include bio-art and stop-motion animated workshops, children’s cinema, the U.S. premiere of “The Future Perfect” director Nele Wohlatz’s comedy of misunderstandings “Sleep with Your Eyes Open,” the New York premiere of Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen’s “As the Tide Comes In,” plus the world premieres of Corey Hughes’ “Your Final Meditation” and Sam Fleischner’s “Jetty.

In a city where you can discover a film festival every weekend of the year, perhaps the most unique of such offerings is located in Rockaway, Queens. Taking place just a few blocks from the beach, the 6th edition of the Rockaway Film Festival will occur August 19-August 27, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the lineup of award-winning documentaries, premieres, live music and dance performances, shorts programmes, and rare repertory screenings.

Organized by Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller and sponsored by Blundstone®, Istic Illic Pictures, and NYC Ferry, this year’s edition will open at their flagship outdoor theater, Arverne Cinema (constructed using scraps of boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy), with Disney’s famous feature masterpiece Fantasia. There will be a program of shorts preceding it by cine-magician Oskar Fishinger, whose groundbreaking animations changed the cinematic frontier. The festival will also present the New York Premiere of...

The premiere post-tiff destination (September 20-25th) in the film community and a major leg up for narrative and non-fiction films in development, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced a whopping 140 projects selected for the Project Forum at the upcoming Ifp Independent Film Week. Made up of several sections (Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries), we find latest updates from the likes of docu-helmers Doug Block (112 Weddings) and Lana Wilson (After Tiller), and among the narrative items we find headliners in Andrew Haigh (coming off the well received 45 Years), Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls and Madame Bovary), Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal (Stranger Things) and new faces in Sundance’s large family in Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again) and Olivia Newman (First Match). Here...

Exclusive: Sam Fleischner’s drama will screen in the prestigious annual round-up by Mexico’s Cineteca Nacional as it emerged that sales agent Curator Films has secured a Mexican distribution deal.

Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta will join Fleischner to present Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors at a press screening on July 7 prior to the start of the Foro de la Cineteca Nacional.

The showcase will take in roughly 20 cinemas in Mexico City from July 10-August 7 before Alfhaville rolls it out on DVD, VOD and cultural channels.

Andrew Gallagher of Los Angeles-based international sales agent Curator Films brokered the distribution deal with Alfonso Lopez of Alfhaville. Alejandro Grande of Cineteca Nacional was also involved in negotiations.

Gallagher recently licensed rights to Sundance Channel in France and Benelux.

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors tells of an autistic Mexican boy who embarks on an 11-day adventure on the New York City subway.

The drama premiered...

Straight from BAMcinemaFest where it preceded Krisha last Friday is Sam Fleischner and Iva Gocheva‘s short film, Porcupine. A far cry from the subterranean world of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Porcupine features Gocheva as a woman holed up in her sun-drenched Brooklyn apartment, trying and failing to reconnect with her partner through a series of unanswered phone calls. Strung together, her voicemails intimate a relationship — and several household items — lost. Check it out above.

Straight from BAMcinemaFest where it preceded Krisha last Friday is Sam Fleischner and Iva Gocheva‘s short film, Porcupine. A far cry from the subterranean world of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Porcupine features Gocheva as a woman holed up in her sun-drenched Brooklyn apartment, trying and failing to reconnect with her partner through a series of unanswered phone calls. Strung together, her voicemails intimate a relationship — and several household items — lost. Check it out above.

Some indie projects take their time to find proper footing. After falling in the laps of David Gordon Green, Jeff Nichols and actor Emile Hirsch, according to TheWrap, Brad Land’s Goat appears to have a new set of four legs in James Franco, Rabbit Bandini’s James Franco and Vince Jolivette is teaming with those that originally optioned the book almost a decade back in Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and David Hinojosa (associate producer for Lance Edmands’ Bluebird). Best know for “phoning” in King Kelly back in 2012 — the Louise Krause starrer premiered at SXSW, Andrew Neel has reworked the script and is tapped to direct — the only question now is to put the screenplay out to upcomer “it” type actors. Expect future casting announcements in the near future. Serving as as executive producer is John Wells (Love & Mercy).

Gist: Based on the screenplay by David Gordon Green, with revisions...

Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors centers on Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), a remarkably intelligent, often unfocused midrange autistic 13-year-old boy who gets lost in the NYC subway’s endless subterranean tunnels. After his older sister (Azul Zorrilla) fails to pick him up from school, Ricky finds himself entranced by the dragon decal on a stranger’s jacket while trying to get home. That Sanchez-Velez, a non-actor making his screen debut, does in fact have Asperger’s syndrome adds a layer of verisimilitude to one of the year’s most fascinating performances. Ricky is a Rockaway Beach native whose mother (Andrea Suarez Paz) is […]...

Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors centers on Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), a remarkably intelligent, often unfocused midrange autistic 13-year-old boy who gets lost in the NYC subway’s endless subterranean tunnels. After his older sister (Azul Zorrilla) fails to pick him up from school, Ricky finds himself entranced by the dragon decal on a stranger’s jacket while trying to get home. That Sanchez-Velez, a non-actor making his screen debut, does in fact have Asperger’s syndrome adds a layer of verisimilitude to one of the year’s most fascinating performances. Ricky is a Rockaway Beach native whose mother (Andrea Suarez Paz) is […]...

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

USA, 2013

Written by Rose Lichter-Marck and Micah Bloomberg

Directed by Sam Fleischner

Barry Levinson’s Rain Man is a decent film, but it did commit at least one serious mistake: it gave audiences almost no reasonable idea of what autism actually is. Being the first-ever movie about autism put it in the spotlight, but it also ensured that Dustin Hoffman’s character would be the most simplistic, audience-friendly, easy-to-grasp person with the condition that anyone is likely to see. The more impressive, artfully done portrayal of autism on film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, in the form of Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.

Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez) is a teenager in Queens afflicted with what doctors today call Asd – an autism spectrum disorder, which can include the many flavors of autism as well as Asperger’s Syndrome and other related conditions.

One of the films we named as among The Best And Brightest Of The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, "Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors," has spent much of the year since hitting festivals around the world, including Karlovy Vary, London, Athens, Deauville and more. And now, the film is finally getting set to hit theatres and we've got a clip to give you a preview of the well-received drama. Directed by New York filmmaker Sam Fleischner ("Wah Do Dem"), the story follows Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), an autistic youth who, after a particularly difficult day at school, escapes into the subways, while, above ground, his mom frantically searches for him. The drama is heightened with the setting of the film set against the backdrop of the waning days of Hurricane Sandy. And in this exclusive scene from the film, you can watch Ricky marvel at the multitudes as he takes in the...

Almost a year after winning a Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Sam Fleischner's "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" is now set for a theatrical release. The narrative feature film, starring newcomer Jesus Sanchez-Velez and Andrea Suarez Paz, received rave reviews for its authentic portrayal of New York City and its notable integration of Hurricane Sandy into the plot. "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" follows a thirteen year-old boy who suffers from autism and finds himself lost in the city's subway system. Due to his status as an illegal immigrant, his desperate mother must find him with whatever little means she has while her son explores and discovers NYC's countless eccentricities as only an alienated youth could. The danger increases, however, when Hurricane Sandy (which occurred right in the middle of shooting) is set to destroy the city. Indiewire's chief film critic Eric Kohn wrote...

Above: The Apple

The celebratory attitude at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, speaks to the healthy state of nonfiction filmmaking at present. True to its name, the festival spotlights new films that incorporate elements of both fiction and documentary (and sometimes blur the line between the two), yet even the selections that resemble more traditional investigative reporting uphold a certain standard of artfulness. More impressively, the festival organizers make a point of incorporating the Columbia community into the celebration. Somewhere between 700 and 900 residents of the town and surrounding areas volunteered at the fest this year, and many businesses I encountered seemed happy to get in on the act too. (“Don’t be fooled by False advertising,” read my favorite sandwich board. “Try our True Thai cuisine!”) Roughly half of the screenings took place in locations not usually reserved for movies—a rock venue, a couple of churches,...

One of the festival circuit’s most cherished enclaves, True/False announced their 2014 lineup yesterday evening. The festival, which takes place in Columbia, Missouri from February 27 to March 2, is technically beholden to the documentary form, though in recent years, that modifier has proven increasingly malleable. Among their forthcoming lineup are Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, two narrative films that, one may argue, fuse nonfiction elements into their framework. Other standouts include the Sundance Documentary Jury Prize winning Rich Hill, Sel’s Manakamana and the Golden Lion winner, Sacro Gra. The full lineup is below. 20,000 Days on Earth Actress Approaching...

Opening with Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive the latest edition of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland (22-27 October 2013) has screened some of the most important American independent films of the year. Being the only festival of its class in Eastern and Central Europe the festival has become the most important venue to connect American filmmakers with European buyers and audiences through programs like U.S. in Progress Wrocław (23-25 October 2013).

This year's program taking place at the New Horizons cinema presented 80 movies out of which 42 are Polish premieres, 3 are European premieres and 1 is a World Premiere. Among them 10 documentaries and 17 feature films competed for cash prizes in the audience-vote competitions.

The first competitive section - Spectrum ($10,000 audience award for the Best Narrative Feature) included films that have been well-received here in the U.S such as A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, and Bluebird by Lance Edmands. The second competition - American Docs ($5,000 audience award for Best Documentary Feature) had a selection of films depicting varied current issues in American society including Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, Our Nixon by Penny Lane, Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade and Stephen Silha and Before You Know It by Pj Raval.

The American Film Festival also ran a retrospective of Shirley Clarke and presented Polish premieres of high-profile films such as As I Lay Dying by James Franco, Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s Lovelace, Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon, Touchy Feely by Lynn Shelton, At Any Price by Ramin Bahrani, and Maladies by Carter. The festival also screened Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Sundance hit Don Jon along several U.S. in Progress participants and festival hits like I Used to be Darker by Matt Porterfier and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone. Lastly, a special section titled 'Masterpieces of American Cinema 90 Years of Warner Bros." showed 14 digitally-remastered productions by the studio from The Jazz Singer by Alan Crosland (1927) through A Clockwork Orange ,The Exorcist and Christopher Nolan’s Inception

The festival will close on October 27th with Steven Soderbergh's Emmy Award-winning film Behind the Candelabra.

All competitions titles:

Spectrum

American Milkshake by David Andalman, Mariko Munro, USA 2012, 82'

Blue Highway by Kyle Smith, USA 2013, 70'

Coldwater by Vincent Grashaw, USA 2013, 104'

The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, USA 2013, 95'

Drinking Buddies by Joe Swanberg, USA 2013, 90'

Lily by Matt Creed, USA 2013, 85'

A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, USA 2013, 75'

Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, USA 2013, 93'

Pearblossom Hwy by Mike Ott, USA 2012, 78'

Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, USA 2013, 105'

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors by Sam Fleischner, USA 2013, 102'

Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, USA 2013, 96'

The Cold Lands by Tom Gilroy, USA 2013, 100'

In a World... by Lake Bell, USA 2013, 93'

A Song Still Inside by Gregory Collins, USA 2013, 82'

Bluebird by Lance Edmands, USA 2013, 90'

American Docs

Big Easy Express by Emmett Malloy, USA 2012

Off Label by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher, USA 2012

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, USA, Italy 2013

Fall and Winter by Matt Anderson, USA 2013

The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, USA 2013

Lenny Cooke by Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie, USA 2012

Our Nixon by Penny Lane, USA 2013

Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, USA 2013

Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade, Stephen Silha, USA 2013

Before You Know It by Pj Raval, USA 2012

U.S. Progress Projects

This year 6 projects in the final production stages were chosen to take part in the two-day workshop knows as U.S. in Progress Wroclaw (23-25 October, 2013). The event presents the American independent projects to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of these films in Europe.

Selected from over 40 submission the chosen projects are the dramas Lake Los Angeles by Mike Ott (produced by Athina Rachel Tsangari), Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (produced by Jessica Caldwell ) and Some Beasts by Cameron Nelson (produced by Ashley Maynor and Courtney Ware), crime story Wild Canaries by Lawrence Michael Levine (produced by Sophia Takal, Kim Sherman and McCabe Walsh), frontier black comedy Sun Belt Express by Evan Wolf Buxbaum (producers: Noah Lang and Iyabo Boyd) and Summer of Blood – a New York vampire comedy by director-producer Onur Tukel.

The prizes are awarded by a jury of professionals and include post-production services from European partner companies worth almost $60.000 and promotional services from other partners. Us in Progress’ partners are: Platige Image (Warsaw), Di Factory (Warsaw), Alvernia Studios (Krakow), composer Maciej Zielinski of Soundflower Studio (Warsaw), Soundplace (Warsaw), DCinex (Belgium), Vsi (Paris), Europa Distribution, Cicae and Cannes Marche du Film’s Producers Network.

U.S. in Progress Wrocław (formerly Gotham in Progress) was started in 2011 by the New Horizons Association and Black Rabbit Film. Previous films presented at the event included, among others: I Used To Be Darker by Matt Porterfield, American Milkshake by David Andalman (both shown at Sundance Ff in 2013), Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Carbone (Berlinale Generation, Tribeca), Bluebird by Lance Edmands (Tribeca, Karlovy Vary), Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin’s Now, Forager: a Film About Love and Fungi (Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Gotham Awards nominee), Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine (SXSW, Edinburgh Iff, Gotham Awards nominee) and Devyn Waitt’s Not Waving But Drowning (Sarasota Ff).

U.S. in Progress Wrocław is supported by the City of Wrocław, American Embassy in Warsaw and Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

For more information on the American Film Festival and the U.S. in Progress projects visit Here...

The Audience Award went to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Us festival hit Short Term 12; The Athens International Film Festival wrapped with Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

Yann Gonzalez’s debut feature You and the Night was named Best Film at the 19th Athens International Film Festival (Aiff) which ran September 19-29.

A Modern day retelling of Sade’s Philosophy In The Bedroom, the film, written by Gonzalez, stars Alain-Fabien Delon alongside Eric Cantona, Kate Moran, Fabienne Babe and Niels Schneider.

It was chosen by a jury made up of film school students, aged 18-25.

The Best Director Award went to second timer American Sam Fleischner for Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors, a coming of age story about a 13 years-old autistic boy, son of an illegal Mexican immigrant mother in New York.

French debutant Antonin Peretjako picked up the Best Screenplay award for The Rendez-vous of Deja-Vu, about the adventures of a group of young Parisians...

Browse all the sections of the 57th London Film Festival (Oct 9-20) including the galas, competition titles and individual sections.

Alphabetical list of titles by section including feature premiere status

Wp = Wp

Ep = European Premiere

IP = International Premiere

UK = UK Premiere

Gala’s

Opening Night

Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass (Us) Ep

Closing Night

Saving Mr Banks, John Lee Hancock (Us/UK) Ep

Philomena, Stephen Frears (UK) UK12 Years A Slave, Steve Mcqueen (UK) EPGravity, Alfonso Cuaron (Us) UKInside Llewyn Davis, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (Us) UKLabor Day, Jason Reitman (Us) EPThe Invisible Woman, Ralph Fiennes (UK), EPThe Epic Of Everest, John Noel (UK) WPBlue Is The Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche (France) UKNight Moves, Kelly Reichardt (Us) UKStranger By The Lake, Alain Guiraudie (France) UKDon Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Us) UKMystery Road, Ivan Sen (Australia) UKOnly Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch (Us) UKNebraska, Alexander Payne (Us) UKWe Are The Best!, Lukas Moodysson (Sweden) EPFoosball 3D, Juan Jose Campanella (Argentina...

New photos today including Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lily in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the entire cast of George Clooney's WW2 drama The Monuments Men, Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

There's also Jesse Eisenberg in Night Moves; Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson in Don Jon; and Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams in American Hustle,

Posters for Ender's Game, Don Jon, The Next Spike Lee Joint, Don Jon, Rush, Her, The Family and Haunter.

"The MPAA has just awarded "300: Rise of an Empire" an R rating for 'strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity, and some language'…" (full details)

"Spike Jonze's 'Her' will have its world premiere as the closing night film at the 51st New York Film Festival this Fall…" (full details...

An indie drama standout at the last edition of the Tribeca Film Festival (I would subsequently catch the film at Karlovy Vary – see footage below) with critical cred and the Special Jury Prize in the Narrative Feature Section to boot, Stand Clear Of the Closing Doors has found its way home via the Oscilloscope Laboratories folks. Filmed during with a portion of Superstorm Sandy in the backdrop, Sam Fleischner’s sophomore film received an extended invite to be part of the first edition of Next Weekend in Los Angeles (celebrating mostly Sundance films from the Next section) will, according to Deadline, receive a theatrical release in 2014. Expect further U.S. indie fest and international play beforehand.

Gist: Based on a script by Rose Lichter-Mark and Micah Bloomberg, when a young autistic boy runs away from his Mexican-immigrant family on the fringes of New York City, he embarks on an odyssey...

Oscilloscope Laboratories plans a 2014 release after it announced that it had acquired all North American rights to Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors .

Directed by Fleischner from a script by Rose Lichter-Mark and Micah Bloomberg, the film tells the story of Ricky, a 13-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who gets lost in the New York City subway system.

While his mother searches for him above ground, the sensory-sensitive Ricky is exposed to the cacophony, eccentricity and menace found in New York’s underground.

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won the special jury prize in the narrative feature section and had its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

It will next be seen in Sundance’s inaugural Next Weekend festival which starts on Thursday [8] and runs through Aug 8 in Los Angeles.

“We knew this film was an ideal fit for...

Oscilloscope Laboratories plans a 2014 release after it announced that it had acquired all North American rights to Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors .

Directed by Fleischner from a script by Rose Lichter-Mark and Micah Bloomberg, the film tells the story of Ricky, a 13-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who gets lost in the New York City subway system.

While his mother searches for him above ground, the sensory-sensitive Ricky is exposed to the cacophony, eccentricity and menace found in New York’s underground.

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won the special jury prize in the narrative feature section and had its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

It will next be seen in Sundance’s inaugural Next Weekend festival which starts on Thursday [8] and runs through Aug 8 in Los Angeles.

“We knew this film was an ideal fit for...

After earning a Special Jury Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, Sam Fleischner's "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" has been picked up for North American distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories. The company will release the film -- which is also scheduled to play at Sundance's inaugural Next Weekend festival in Los Angeles, ironically enough, this upcoming weekend -- in 2014. "We knew this film was an ideal fit for us the moment we saw it," said Oscilloscope's Dan Berger and David Laub in a joint statement. "Not only does it showcase the work of an exciting young filmmaker and tell a compelling, original story, but it is also a quintessential New York film, capturing the mood and feel of the city in a way few films do any more." Shot on location in Manhattan subways, "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" tells the story of a lost...

I’m pretty sure that four years back when Trevor Groth and John Cooper (Sundance programming tandem who overhauled, switched over and re-defined the Spotlight section) knew just how significant the Next section (“less is greater than”) would become in the American independent-filmmaking sphere. Tomorrow, the Sundance Institute debuts its first ever Next Weekend program in Los Angeles and over the course of one weekend, denizens of La will get to experience a slew of films from the 2013 program, including much talked about titles like Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher (pictured above), Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love and Alexandre Moor’s Blue Caprice. More intriguingly, a pair of titles not included in the original fest lineup, like Madeleine Olnek’s The Foxy Merkins and Chadd Harbold’s How to Be a Man make an appearance in the mini-festival event, which we assume were not ready in time to make the initial selection,...

Sam Fleischner's Stand Clear of The Closing Doors has landed at Oscilloscope Laboratories for N. American distribution, reports Variety. The film screenwritten by Rose Lichter-Marck and Micah Bloomberg, took home the special jury prize at the last Tribeca Film Festival. focuses on a 13-year old boy with Asperger syndrome who gets lost in the New York City subway system. The drama stars Andrea Suarez Paz, Jesus Sanchez-Velez and Azul Zorrilla.

Along with the post-screening Q&A’s and “Carte Blanche” series, Borderline Films’ Josh Mond, Antonio Campos and Sean Durkin (with often collaborator Brady Corbet pitching in) kept on giving, with the fest holding what they call a Kviff Talks session with the foursome. In the festival video below you can get a timeline for how they got together before they started the creative process, and how they went about producing films such as Afterschool and Martha Marcy May Marlene, and fielded some Q’s from the public.

Though the Karlovy Vary program is indeed filled with a plethora of Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes preemed items, much of my focus was on the Berlin film festival titles (as it’s not part of my film fest flight plan). Before even considering the Golden Bear winner (also showing), the biggie title was Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster. While somewhat thin...

2013 has been an epic year for me in terms of film festival attendance. Along with my habitual movie-watching feasts of Park City (Sundance) and the Superbowl of fests in Cannes, this year’s gorging on films away from home has included SXSW, Panama (2nd edition of iffpanama) and have now landed in the picturesque dwellings of a festival I had wanted to attend for ages. Among the top tier world best film fests which I’ve yet to have attend and have appreciated from afar, the Karlovy Vary Int. Film Festival is up there with Rotterdam, Berlin, Locarno, Sitges and Venice on my must do wish list.

As I’m nowhere near the film fest travel fatigue/grind that some of my confrères (fellow journalists and industry people) face year-in and year-out, my giddiness has yet to subside when breaking bread in a new backdrop. Now in it’s 48th edition,...

Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo (L’écume des jours) was a surprise no-show in Cannes this year (his film debuted theatrically in France the previous month) but the stage is set for an opening gala opening ceremony for the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Among the slew of titles that were announced today, at the top of must see list we find Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England making its world premiere in the Main Competition category, a pic we thought would end up showing on the Croisette. Another item we had short-listed for a Cannes showing but will be shown in the Spa village backdrop, we have János Szasz’s The Notebook, and making it’s international debut after a stellar Tribeca debut, Lance Edmands’ Bluebird will compete against a pack that also includes hometown favorite Jan Hřebejk and his his psychological thriller Honeymoon. In the Docu...

Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England is to receive its first screening at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as one of the 14 titles in Competition.

The psychedelic horror film, set during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, will screen at the festival in the Czech Republic on July 4.

As previously reported, it will be the first UK film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, free TV and VoD. This will take place on July 5.

Scroll down for full line-up

The main section of Karlovy Vary will include a further six world and seven international premieres, with new films from six returning directors – two of whom have already won Crystal Globes for Best Film at the festival in recent years.

Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, who won at Kviff in 2005 with My Nikifor, will compete for the third time with the story of Papusza, the first Roma...

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors is one of those rare tone poems that successfully straddles the line between an abstract avalanche of emotions and images and true narrative, complete with arcs, climax, and resolution. It's the story of a young autistic boy who struggles to fit in, both at school and inside of his own family. The added element of Hurricane Sandy lends a ticking clock realism to the proceedings that might otherwise had become mired in tedium. As is, Sam Fleischner's feature about a child who loses himself in the labyrinth of the New York City subway system is an engaging and moving drama that utilizes some rather unorthodox techniques to achieve its emotional goals. First and foremost, the film is about disconnection...

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

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

USA, 2013

Written by Rose Lichter-Marck and Micah Bloomberg

Directed by Sam Fleischner

Barry Levinson’s Rain Man is a decent film, but it did commit at least one serious mistake: it gave audiences almost no reasonable idea of what autism actually is. Being the first-ever movie about autism put it in the spotlight, but it also ensured that Dustin Hoffman’s character would be the most simplistic, audience-friendly, easy-to-grasp person with the condition that anyone is likely to see. The more impressive, artfully done portrayal of autism on film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, in the form of Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.

Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez) is a teenager in Queens afflicted with what doctors today call Asd – an autism spectrum disorder, which can include the many flavors of autism as well as Asperger’s Syndrome and other related conditions.

The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival has announced this year's big award winners, and while we may be waiting awhile before many of these feature films arrive in theaters (or on VOD), we collected all the available trailers and previews for these movies to give you a headstart on properly anticipating them. Check out all of our Tribeca Film Festival coverage here. Narrative   The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature/Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film (Sitthiphon Disamoe as Ahlo)   The Rocket Directed by Kim Mordaunt       Special Jury Mention   Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Directed by Sam Fleischner      Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film (Veerle Baetens as Elise...

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The Tribeca Film Festival still has a couple more days left, but earlier today they announced the winners of the competition categories. The big winner was The Rocket, a film about a displaced 10-year-old Laotion boy who, while searching for a new home with his father and grandmother, stumbles upon and decides to enter a rocket-building contest. It won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor, for Sitthiphon Disamoe, who played the young boy. Read the full list of winners below, and congratulate them with the customary Robert De Niro impression: "You talking to me, international cinema?" The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature — The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia). Special Jury Mention — Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, directed by Sam Fleischner. Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film — Sitthiphon Disamoe as Ahlo in The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia). Best Actress in a...

If there was any doubt that this year’s Tribeca Film Festival featured one heck of a varied slate, last night’s awards ceremony put that question to rest. The festival’s many winners included films about rockets, Flemish bluegrass music, an Internet-popular dwarf cat, Oxycontin, Hurricane Sandy, and Thomas Haden Church (well, sort of). The night’s big winner was Kim Mordaunt‘s feature, The Rocket, an Aussie entry that picked up both The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film for young star Sitthiphon Disamoe. Other standout winners include The Broken Circle Breakdown, Whitewash, Oxyana, and The Kill Team. You want variety? Tribeca has got variety in spades. After the break, check out all the winners of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia). Winner receives $25,000, sponsored by Aka, and...

Winners of the 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival competition categories were announced last night, with “The Rocket,” “The Kill Team,” “Whitewash,” and “Oxyana” taking home the top prizes. The winning films will be screened again on Sunday, April 28. A full list of winners is below. The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature “The Rocket,” directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia) Special Jury Mention “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors,” directed by Sam Fleischner Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film Sitthiphon Disamoe in “The Rocket,” directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia) Best Actress in a Narrative Feature FilmVeerle Baetens as Elise Vandevelde in “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” directed by Felix van Groeningen (Netherlands, Belgium) Best Cinematography in a Narrative Feature Film Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen, for “Before Snowfall,” directed by Hisham Zaman (Germany, Norway) Best Screenplay for a Narrative Feature Film “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” written by Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen...

Tribeca’s 12th annual festival, running from April 17-28, recently announced that their festival awards, including the top juried world competitions going to The Rocket, The Kill Team, Whitewash and Oxyana. See below for the official press release.

2013 Tribeca Film Festival Announces Awards

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The Rocket, The Kill Team, Whitewash And Oxyana

Win Top Awards In Juried World Competitions

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Sandy Storylines Wins First-ever Bombay Sapphire Award For Transmedia

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Festival Awards $155,000 In Cash Prizes

[April 25, 2013 – New York, NY] – The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, and presented by founding sponsor American Express, announced the winners of its competition categories tonight at a ceremony hosted at the Conrad New York in New York City. The Festival runs through April 28, 2013.

The world competition winners for narrative and documentary films were chosen from 12 narrative and 12 documentary features from 14 countries. Best New Director prizes were awarded to a first-time director for both narrative and documentary films,...

Kim Mourdant’s The Rocket and Dan Krauss’s The Kill Team picked up the top World Narrative and World Documentary prizes at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival’s closing ceremonies tonight at downtown’s Conrad Hotel. Both awards come with a $25,000 cash prize. Among the other awards, Whitewash director Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais won Best New Narrative Director while Oxyana‘s Sean Dunne picked up the Best New Documentary Director award. Sam Fleischner’s New York-shot, Sandy-set Stand Clear of the Closing Doors was given a Special Jury Mention, as was Dunne’s Oxyana. Another Sandy-themed project, Sandy Stories, won a new Bombay Sapphire-sponsored award for transmedia …...

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival presented the winners of its competition categories with awards tonight in New York City. Topping the night with two awards each were Kim Mordaunt's Australian drama "The Rocket" and Felix Van Groeningen's Belgian film "The Broken Circle Breakdown." "The Rocket" nabbed Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor for Sitthiphon Disamoe, while "Broken Circle" walked away with Best Screenplay for a Narrative Film for Carl Joos and Van Groeningen, and Best Actress for its star Veerle Baetens. The locally shot "Stand Clear of Closing Doors," from Sam Fleischner, got a Special Jury Mention in the Narrative category. Over in the World Documentary Competition, Best Documentary Feature went to the war film "The Kill Team," directed by Dan Krauss, with a Special Jury Mention for Sean Dunne's "Oxyana," which went on to win Best New Documentary Director. Below, find the full list of winners.

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival has announced the winners of its competition categories for a festival that runs through Sunday. Here are the feature film winners: World Narrative Competition Categories The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia). Winner receives $25,000, sponsored by Aka, and the art award Two Voices #1 by Angelina Nasso. The award was given by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. The jurors for the 2013 World Narrative Competition were Bryce Dallas-Howard, Blythe Danner, Paul Haggis, Kenneth Lonergan, and Jessica Winter. Jury Comments: “The Rocket is a spectacular achievement that is powerful and delightful in equal measures. Artfully structured and gorgeously shot, it chronicles the struggles of a displaced family while steering well clear of either sentimentality or despair. Complex in its tone and characterizations, the film takes an unflinching – and edifying – look at the suffering caused both by a legacy of...

One of the buzz titles at the Tribeca Film Festival this year is director Sam Fleischner’s sophomore feature, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors. The film has a compelling premise, as it deals with Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), an autistic 13-year-old boy from Brooklyn’s Rockaway Beach, who runs away from home and spends days on end traveling around on the New York subway system as his mother (Andrea Suarez) and sister (Azul Zorrilla) do their best to find him. Fleischner’s movie also garnered a modicum of attention as it was shot partly during Hurricane Sandy, and ultimately incorporated the storm into …...

Making our list of the 20 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, "Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors" caught our attention by taking a true story set against a recent natural disaster and delivering what sounds like a potent little drama. Directed by New York filmmaker Sam Fleischner ("Wah Do Dem") in the Rockaways during the waning days of Hurricane Sandy, the movie uses that setting to tell the story of an autistic youth named Ricky who, after a particularly difficult day at school, escapes into the subways. It's here that he starts his real journey, on a days-long voyage of discovery while, above ground, his mom frantically searches for him. This exclusive poster nicely captures what looks like a defining moment from last fall, spun into an intimate personal tale. "Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors" premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20th at the...

When Sam Fleischner set out to film "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors," he fully expected the kind of headaches and logistical nightmares that crop up when operating a shoe-string budget while directing a cast comprised of many non-actors. What he hadn't bargained for -- indeed what no one in his New York City neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Queens could have foreseen -- was the devastation that ripped up the boardwalk, flooded homes and city streets and tore down power lines after Hurricane Sandy pummeled the waterfront area last fall. Also read:...

Hurricane Sandy was a challenge for director Sam Fleischner ("Wah Do Dem" which won Best Dramatic Feature at the 2009 La Film Festival) both personally and for his latest film. The traumatic storm hit during the filming of Fleischner's second feature, "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors," which takes place in Rockaway Beach, and ended up becoming a part of the film. As the storm comes closer, the film looks at New York City both above and underground as we follow a young autistic boy on a subway excursion and his mother searching for him above. What it's about: This is a parallel story about an autistic 8th grader who runs away on the subway for 10-days, and his undocumented mother who searches for him. During this dramatic time, the mother forms a new relationship with the beach, makes friends with a shopkeeper who knows her son, comes to better understand her daughter,...

Now in its 12th year, the Tribeca Film Festival is one of the premiere artistic showcases and industry marketplaces for independent cinema. Sundance might still be the place to go to discover new talent on the cheap, Toronto is the festival to generate Oscar buzz, but Tribeca has an eclectic mix that both reflects the soul of native New Yorkers and what the city means to the rest of the world as a cultural international capital. In between tonight’s opener — the music documentary Mistaken for Strangers about the National — and the closing night’s special screening of Martin Scorsese...

If you've read my last two Wtf is Latino posts on Sundance and SXSW, you know I do my best to embody a manic optimist and find a silver lining when it comes to magnifying the limited representation of Latino stories and writer/directors at mainstream film festivals. I do that by expanding and deconstructing the broad term, hoping to educate myself and the masses on what 'qualifies' as Latino. However, the relative dearth of Latinos and Latin America at this year's 2013 Tribeca Film Festival program has seriously challenged me to find a positive spin on this woeful slate of brown in the world's most celluloid famous, multi-culti metropolis. It is especially stupefying considering the number of electrifying premiere film submissions there are to choose from at this moment.

I worked as an Industry Coordinator for the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival under Director of Programming David Kwok and Festival Director Nancy Schaefer. Back then Latin America was not only well represented in the program but Tribeca was at the forefront of showing bourgeoning film renaissances taking place in countries such as Panama, Peru and Colombia. No doubt this sensibility and charge came from the legendary jet-setting of one such Peter Scarlet, the cognoscente Artistic Director beloved by many Latin American festivals. At 8 years old, the Festival was fast outgrowing its post 9/11 birthmark and has since stubbornly and desperately struggled to position itself as a blank World Cinema festival. This is a strategy I find puzzling, given it is way out of league and under the heavy shadow cast from uptown by the auteur and discovery art house Lincoln Film Society. One would think it an ideal and very NY synergy thing to do would be to carve out your own identity in specializing in the kaleidoscopic, fertile microcosm of Us immigrant odyssey found in every corner from Manhattan to the five boroughs. Not only is there a lack of Us Latino stories this year, nowhere to be found are films from Latin America. Seriously. Click on the online film guide's search by country scroll down menu and visibly absent are Chile, Mexico and Argentina - three of Latin America's most renowned and heralded world cinema incubators. The closest we get is one feature from Brazil by veteran director, Bruno Baretto, and two shorts from Spain. Its plain to see that the Festival's new Artistic Director, Fredric Boyer (who headed bougie prestige fests, Cannes' Directors Fortnight and then Locarno Film Festival) is seriously 'Euro-cizing' the Triangle Below Canal.

So, what's my silver lining? Well, its based on the Short Term 12 lesson I just experienced at SXSW. I did not target the indie film as a Latino film but being familiar and a fan of Hawaiian filmmaker, Daniel Cretton's work, I went to see it and was immediately absorbed by the effortless kid-adult social psychological narrative. A detail that resonated with me was that one of the main juvy instructors was a foster kid who was raised and adopted into a big loving home by Mexican parents. He's as white as they come, yet he cooks a mean Mexican dish and expresses his emotions outwardly, attributes of Latino culture that informed his personhood. Maybe that's how subtle, relative yet impactful Latino culture is seeping into all of our lives. Maybe my barely passing grade on the Latino at Tribeca diagnosis is premature having not seen all of the films. Maybe where we least expect it, beyond cast and loglines, there are films buried in here with deeper social undertones of brown representation. I'm willing to excavate. All that big picture stuff aside, I am quite excited about the six films (out of some 168) I highlight here which offers a diverse albeit thin slice of Latino - whether its the narrative's themes, up and coming actors, and real life Americans - who knows how many times removed from their Latin roots - and how cool that looks like.

Without further ado, here it is; Wtf is Latino at Tribeca Film Festival.

World Narrative Competition

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors directed by Sam Fleischner and written by Rose Lichter-Marck, Micah Bloomberg

Logline: When autistic teen Ricky is scolded for skipping class, he escapes into the subway for a days-long odyssey among the subway’s disparate denizens. Meanwhile, his mother wages an escalating search effort above ground. Based on a true story and set in Far Rockaway, Queens, in the days leading up to Hurricane Sandy, these parallel stories of mother and son take the viewer on a touching journey of community and connection in and below New York City. Cast Andrea Suarez, Jesus Valez, Azul Rodriguez, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Marsha Stephanie Blake

Sam Fleischner's first film, Wah Do Dem was about a broken hearted hipster who goes on a cruise and gets stuck in the dangerous wild of Jamaica - just as President Obama is being sworn into office for the first time. The filmmaking felt so fresh, real, tense and engrossing. Just like you were on the adventure with him. Sam and his co-director Ben Chase won the $50,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival. I'm so happy he is premiering this NY based film which features a Latino cast including Tenoch Huerta (Dias de Gracia), and half of the film is spoken in Spanish. No, Sam is not a Latino but a native New Yorker and I love his take and thematic weaving in this story. His statement and inspiration behind the film demonstrates his sensibility and vision, surpassing and waiving any requirement or notion that says you have to be Latino to tell authentic Latino stories. This is what Sam was able to tell me over email:

"I am not Latino but this story is inspired by true events that happened to a Mexican family. I was attracted to the parallel between people on the autism spectrum and people living as illegal immigrants in the Us. Both instances are people wading through systems that aren't designed for them, interesting to think about the term 'alien'. "

Narrative Spotlight

The Pretty One, written and directed by Jenee Lamarque

Logline: Audrey has all of the qualities that her twin sister Laurel wishes she possessed: confidence, style, independence. When tragedy strikes, Laurel has the opportunity to reinvent herself. In a complex performance, Zoe Kazan poignantly captures Laurel’s complex mix of loss and awakening, especially as she begins a new relationship with her neighbor (Jake Johnson). Jenée Lamarque’s first feature film is a quirky, lovely tale of identity and the eternal bond between two sisters. Cast Zoe Kazan, Jake Johnson, John Carroll Lynch, Shae D'lyn, Frankie Shaw, Ron Livingston

I first met Jenee with her edgy girls short film Spoonful, a ridiculous real life scenario in which friends help out their lactating friend, which played the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She was also kind enough to email me amid the crunch of finishing her first feature for its world premiere. I'm so grateful she responded because she truly personifies what I'm trying to convey about Latino identity (its American and expansive and our creativity relates to it vastly different ways). She says, "As for my Latina origin: my dad is Mexican, born and raised in Chino, CA. His mother's family is Mexican and has been in CA for a long time. His father's family is from Mexico City...we have a French last name, presumably because of the French who came to Mexico during the 19th century but I really don't know anything about my French-Mexican origins. My grandfather came to CA during WWII with the Bracero program. My Mom is Danish, Norwegian and French. I do identify as Mexican, as Latina, but I also identify as American and as white. I really wish that I had more of a connection to my Mexican heritage but unfortunately, my dad didn't speak Spanish to us growing up (even thought he's fluent) and he really identifies as American. It's funny, because I'm mixed, I don't feel I'm fully one thing or another, I feel like my identity is sort of slippery because of it. I think that my mixed heritage plays a central role in my voice as a storyteller; one of the themes of The Pretty One is identity (a struggle with identity) and I also find myself drawn to this theme again in again in my other work. "

Documentary Spotlight

The Motivation by Adam Bhala Lough

Logline: Go inside the lives and training regimes of eight of the world’s gutsiest professional skateboarders. These fearless stars face unique obstacles on the way to the Street League Championship and the coveted title of best street skateboarder in the world. Adam Bhala Lough, creator of the independent hit Bomb the System (Tff 2003), directs this fresh, energetic documentary search for that elusive quality that separates winners from the pack.

This skateboarding shred competish doc about the sheer intensity and will to defy the terror of cracked bones features some of the youngest, most successfully branded and competitive skaters in the game like Nyjah Huston (Puerto Rican father), Paul Rodriguez known as P-Rod, and Chaz Ortiz. I can't wait to meet these guys and get to know them. Adam is good like that. His last film, The Carter, about autodidactic and auto-real voiced rapper Lil Wayne impressed me for its gloss and floss but also by its covert way of infiltrating the hyped up insular world and mind of a subculture pop king. His flashy aesthetic and sneak transparency is bound to capture the badass jaw dropping leaps and outrageous rail tricks along with distilling the high intensity pressure and rush of winning in The Motivation.

Midnight

Frankenstein's Army (Netherlands, Czech Republic) directed by Richard Raaphorst and written by Miguel Tejada Flores

Logline: In the waning days of World War II, a team of Russian soldiers finds itself on a mysterious mission to the lab of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. They unearth a terrifying Nazi plan to resurrect fallen soldiers as an army of unstoppable freaks and are soon trapped in a veritable haunted house of cobbled-together monstrosities. Frankenstein’s Army is the wild steampunk Nazi found-footage zombie mad scientist film you’ve always wanted.

Veteran Hollywood screenwriter, Miguel Tejada Flores has written such horror reboots as Beyond Reanimator and family classics as The Lion King but notably this is the guy who gets story credit for Revenge of the Nerds back in '84. His next film is the upcoming I Brake for Gringos starring Camilla Belle directed by Mexican filmmaker Fernando Lebrija. A frequent mentor over the years at Nalip's screenwriting and producing labs, it sounds like this guy is accessible and interested in nurturing the younger generation of Latino talent. A California native, his family is from Bolivia. Read his wordpress blog here

V/H/S/2 - Eduardo Sanchez is one of the seven filmmakers of the second found footage horror anthology which has screened at Sundance, SXSW and now Tribeca (that might be a record), and most famously directed The Blair Witch Project. Cuban born filmmaker.

Short Film Competition

Close Your Eyes written and directed by Sonia Malfa

Logline: Thirteen-year-old Imani Cortes is a gifted photographer longing to experience her first kiss. She has a crush on a quiet artist, Junito, with whom she has a natural connection, but she also faces an enormous challenge: she is slowly losing her sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease. Will Imani let her disease stop her or be the path to independence? Cast Kimberly Lora, Julian Fernandez-Kemp, Sara Contreras, Victor Cruz, Rhina Valentina, Mia Ysabel

I'm looking forward to seeing this short set in Spanish Harlem. I don't know much about the filmmaker except that she raised 10k off Kickstarter for this, her directorial debut. And she looks Boricua. Check out her website which shows a number of her photos and videos that show off her 'eye'.

The Tribeca Film Festival starts April 17-28. Ticket info here...

The Tribeca Film Festival announced their signature Tribeca Drive-In movie series today along with the full lineup of the festival's other free community events, including the Street Fair, Sports Day, and new additions. This year's Tribeca Drive-In, which is held at Brookfield Place, will screen Hitchcock's "The Birds," followed by Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice," and the festival's new cat documentary "Lil Bub & Friendz." The screenings will also feature family events including movie trivia, face painting, costume contests, and more. In partnership with MoMA PS1, the festival will offer a special Tff screenings of Michelangelo Frammartino's ("Le quatro volte") "Alberi" and Sam Fleischner's "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors." "Alberi," a sonic journey through the Italian countryside will run as a free installation at the Vw Dome at MoMA PS1 and "Stand Clear," about an autistic boy who skips class for a day-trip on the NYC subway, will screen...

Tribeca Film Festival organizers on Wednesday announced 46 of the 89 feature films screening at the New York-set festival starting next month, including selections in the World Narrative and Documentary Competition film sections, as well as out-of-competition Viewpoints screenings.

"Big Men," a documentary about American corporations pursuing oil reserves in Africa, will serve as the opening night film for the World Documentary portion; "Bluebird," a small-town drama featuring "Girls" star Adam Driver, will kick-off the World Narrative slate. "Flex Is Kings," a documentary about Brooklyn street performers, is the Viewpoints opener. All three films premiere on April 18. The Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 17 through April 28, with "Mistaken For Strangers," a documentary about The National, serving as the fest's opening night film.

"Our competition selections embody the quality and diversity of contemporary cinema from across the globe,” Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frederic Boyer said in a release. “The cinematic proficiency that...

The Tribeca Film Festival announced the first half of its 2013 movie slate today, including its World Narrative and Documentary Competition film categories, along with selections from the out-of-competition Viewpoints section, which highlights international and independent cinema. Festival organizers reviewed more than 6,000 submissions to select 89 feature-length films from 30 different countries for this year’s festival, which boasts 53 world premieres. “Our competition selections embody the quality and diversity of contemporary cinema from across the globe,” said Frederic Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director. “The cinematic proficiency that harnesses this lineup is remarkable and we’re looking forward to sharing these new perspectives, powerful performances,...