1/27/12,
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The Berlin International Film Festival has announced the opening films for its Generation competition.
Opening the Generation 14plus competition will be Rebecca Thomas's directorial debut, "Electrick Children," the story of a young Mormon girl who breaks from her community.
Opening the Generation Kplus competition will be Alice Schmid's Swiss documentary "Die Kinder vom Napf." The film documents 50 mountain children over four seasons in the "Wil West" of Lucerne Canton.
Both films will premiere on February 10th.
Press release below: Generation 2012: Opening Films and Guests Once again the festival centre of Generation will be in the House of World Cultures(Haus der Kulturen der Welt). The two cinemas in this architectural landmark on the Spree River have a total seating capacity of around 1,400. They provide the perfect setting for the section’s opening celebrations and the festival premieres of its... 
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1/27/12,
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This is Indiewire's frequently updated guide to all the films playing in this year's edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Keep checking back to the guide for links to reviews, interviews and Criticwire grades.
More: Latest Reviews | Latest Interviews | Complete Coverage
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Twitter: Dana Harris | Eric Kohn | Peter Knegt | Nigel M. Smith | Bryce J. Renninger | Anne Thompson
Premieres:
2 Days in New York / France (Director: Julie Delpy, Screenwriters: Julie Delpy, Alexia Landeau) — Marion has broken up with Jack and now lives in New York with their child. A visit from her family, the different cultural background of her new boyfriend, her sister’s ex-boyfriend, and her upcoming photo exhibition make for an explosive mix. Cast: Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Alex Nahon.
Arbitrage / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Nicholas... 
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1/27/12,
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"From the producers of 'The Tillman Story' and 'Man on Wire,'" reads a description for "The Imposter" provided by the Sundance Film Festival, which might have added "No kidding." Documentarian Bart Layton's engaging investigation into a bizarre 1997 case in which a Spanish man impersonated a missing adolescent from San Antonio--convincing the boy's relatives that he was the real deal--combines non-fiction detective work with an alluring sense of mystery. Sustained by its weird-but-true hooks, "The Imposter" only suffers from being too enamored of its unknown variables to reach a satisfying whole.
The aforementioned documentaries provide a less apt description of the movie's central premise than imagining the prospects of "Catch Me If You Can" directed by Errol Morris; Layton's biggest coup involves a dominant interview with an outgoing Spanish man who remains unnamed for most of the movie. His... 
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1/27/12,
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The Sundance Institute has revealed this year's jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking at the festival. Winners include "Waste Land" director Lucy Walker, for her non-fiction short "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom"; "Fishing Without Nets," helmed by Cutter Hodierne; and "The Black Balloon" by Benny and Josh Safdie.
The award recipients will be honored at the festival's awards ceremony, hosted by Parker Posey on Saturday, January 28.
Below is the full list of winners with synopses courtesy of the Sundance Institute:
The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to:
FISHING WITHOUT NETS / U.S.A. (Director: Cutter Hodierne, Screenwriters: Cutter Hodierne, John Hibey) — A story of pirates in Somalia, told from the perspective of the pirates themselves. Said the Short Film Jury of the film, “By approaching a story of epic scope with an intimate perspective, this visually stunning... 
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1/27/12,
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered with Everyone Counts, Inc to implement an electronic voting system for next year's Academy Awards.
Everyone Counts will work with PwC, the Academy's accounting firm of record, whose role in tabulating Academy members' votes will remain unchanged. Over the next year, the Academy will undertake a rigorous security and user-acceptance testing process.
"This is the first of many steps that we'll be taking toward developing a secure and convenient electronic voting system, beginning with next year's ballot," said Academy Chief Operating Officer Ric Robertson, in a statement. "We're excited to have found great partners in the people who do this best."
The selection of Everyone Counts is the result of an 18-month search conducted by the Academy. The company's other clients include the United States Department of Defense; the United Kingdom's Ministry of... 
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1/27/12,
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Jake Schreier's "Robot & Frank," which stars Frank Langella as an old man with a declining memory who befriends a robot, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Worldwide and Samuel Goldwyn Films.
See Indiewire's in-production report of the film from last year here.
The full release is included below: SONY PICTURES WORLDWIDE ACQUISITIONS AND SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS PARTNER ON SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL FAVORITE, ROBOT & FRANK Park City, UT (January 25, 2012) – Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) and Samuel Goldwyn Films are partnering on the U.S. theatrical release in addition to jointly acquiring North American rights to Park Pictures Features’ ROBOT & FRANK, the 2012 Sundance Film Festival favorite, starring Academy Award® nominee Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Academy Award® winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking), James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Golden Globe® nominee Peter Saarsgard (Shattered Glass), Jeremy Sisto... 
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1/27/12,
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IFC Films has taken North American rights to Josh Radnor's "Liberal Arts," which debuted in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival this past weekend.
Full press release below. Park City, UT (January 25, 2012) – IFC Films announced today from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that the company is acquiring North American rights to Josh Radnor’s LIBERAL ARTS. Radnor also wrote the screenplay, produced and stars in the film. In addition to Radnor, the film was produced by Jesse Hara and BCDF partners Brice Dal Farra, Claude Dal Farra, and Lauren Munsch, and it co-stars Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), four-time Emmy Award winner and five-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner Allison Janney (Juno, The Help), Elizabeth Reaser (The Family Stone, Twilight) and John Magaro (The Brave One). The film made its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on January 22nd. IFC... 
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1/27/12,
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The "found footage" horror movie has been, if you will, done to death. Handheld camcorder footage provides an excuse to eschew cinematic storytelling in favor of sloppiness, under the assumption that the amateur quality fits the narrative. The anthology horror movie "V/H/S" is a sharp rebuke to this laziness, delivering the creepiest first-person horror movie since the original "Paranormal Activity" while pushing the genre in a fresh direction with the sheer visceral energy of its execution. The camera never sits still and neither will nail-biting audiences as they endure the heightened uneasiness created by this marvelously frantic accomplishment.
"V/H/S" contains contributions from some of the more ambitious microbudget American filmmakers working today, not all of whom exclusively work in horror. The concept's parameters were developed by Brad Miska, founder of the horror fan site Bloody Disgusting: A group of young hooligans... 
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1/27/12,
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Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
“Reporting on The Times”
Tweetable Logline:
Why did The New York Times--a Jewish-owned newspaper--bury reports of The Holocaust during World War Two?
Elevator Pitch:
We all know of the six million lives that ended as a result of the Nazi’s campaign against Jewish Europeans. But what many of us don’t know is that countless Americans looked the other way as the Holocaust took place. The New York Times was one such bystander.
This film explores why The Times buried more than one-thousand articles about the Holocaust during WWII. Was it simply an oversight? Or did the publisher fear an Anti-Semitic backlash?
Through interviews with Holocaust survivors, historians, journalists, and American citizens, this... 
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1/27/12,
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This hasn't been a great Sundance for Spike Lee. Reviews for "Red Hook Summer" were generally not good; nor were reviews of his post-premiere Q&A, in which the director launched into an extended rant about Hollywood's marginalization of black stories. Today, Lee's "Red Hook" co-writer, James McBride, published an open letter on the 40 Acres and a Mule website that takes the film community, indie and studio, to task.
McBride explicitly says that this is not a response to bad reviews, but to a state of things that don't seem to change: That for African-American storytellers, the industry interest in their stories is limited to how it intersects with the white stories. He points to this week's Oscar nominations for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, for portraying maids, some 70 years after Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for playing a maid in "Gone With the Wind." Writes McBride, "The irony of this is too much." ... 
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