Sundace Film Festival reveals jury prizes in Short Filmmaking

Jury prizes and honorable meritions to short films were announced on Tuesday at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

The awards, which will also be honored at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony on Saturday, were presented at the event held in Park City, Utah.

Trevor Groth, director of programming for the Sundance Film Festival, said: “The explosion of interest in the short form is evidenced by the record number of short films submitted to this year’s Festival. Our shorts programming team as well as audiences at the Festival have been struck by the depth of quality and uncompromised voices present in these stories from around the world. Our esteemed jury selected seven winners from a field of 64 that represent a talented group of artists who are sure to continue pushing the limits of creative filmmaking.”

This year's Short Film program, presented by Yahoo!, was comprised of 64 short films selected from a record 7,675 submissions and the list of winners includes:

“Fishing without Nets”, a story of pirates in Somalia, told from the perspective of the pirates themselves. The film was awarded with the jury prize in short filmmaking.

“The Black Ballon” strays from the herd and experiences what life as an individual is like. He explores New York City in the deepest way, seeing all of its characters. It won the jury prize in U.S. fiction.

“The Return (Kthimi)”, a man comes back from a Serb prison to his wife and son. Much has changed since he was declared missing and continuing where they left off four years ago may not be as easy as it seems. The Kosovian movie was awarded with the jury price in international fiction.

“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” tells the story of the survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan's recent tsunami and how they find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins. A visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan's most beloved flower. The film won the jury prize in non-fiction.

“A Morning Stroll”, when a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we are left to wonder which one is the real city slicker. The movie got the jury prize in animated short film.

“The Arm”, in an attempt to keep up with social pressure in a technologically advanced world, Chance starts a texting relationship with Genevieve, a girl he meets at a yogurt shop. The film was awarded with the special jury award for comedic storytelling.

“Robots of Brixton”, immerses the spectator into the trials and tribulations of young robots surviving at the sharp end of inner city life, living the predictable existence of a populous hemmed in by poverty, disillusionment and mass unemployment. The British cinematic tale was presented with the special jury award for animation direction.

This year’s edition runs through January 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

The Festival’s Awards Ceremony will be hosted by Parker Posey on Saturday 28 at 7.00 pm MT and will be live streamed at www.sundance.org/live.

A complete list of film and events is available by clicking here.

Peter Jackson’s film about the WM3 to premiere at Sundance

The documentary produced by Peter Jackson based on the case of the West Memphis Three is set to premiere out of competition at the Sundace Film Festival this Saturday.

“West of Memphis” (WingNut Films), which goes under the direction of American Filmmaker Amy Berg, reopens the investigation of the case of the US teens- known as the West Memphis Three-  convicted of the satanic ritual killings of three eight-year-old boys (Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers) in Arkansas in 1994.

The film, following the steps of the three previous HBO documentaries by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (“Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”, “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations” and “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”), raises questions about the evidence as it is widely believed that the trio (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr.) has been wrongly convicted -in fact some supporters include Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder- and they were set free on August 19, 2011 after spending 18 years in jail.

Jackson, who scooped another award winning best animated feature film for “The Adventures of Tintin” (Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures, 2011) at Monday’s Golden Globes ceremony, and his partner, Fran Walsh, produced the film alongside Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis.

The first screening will be held at Utah's Sundance Festival on Saturday afternoon.

For more information about the movies competing in the festival click here.

If you want to know more about the case or the documentaries you can visit the WM3 official website.

The Boss’ new album out in March

Bruce Springsteen 17th studio album “Wrecking Ball” (Columbia Records) has been set for a March 6 release, as confirmed by Doctor Music.

The new record will include 11 new tracks and has been produced by the own Springsteen and Ron Aniello with the band’s longtime manager Jon Landau as executive producer.

Landau said: “Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life.

“The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else, and the music is his most innovative of recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on ‘Wrecking Ball’.”

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will be touring the US and EU during the whole 2012. The UK tour is set to kick off on June 21 in Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. The band will also perform at the Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park on July 14 and the Isle of Wight Festival, Newport, on June 23.

What follow is “Wrecking Ball” tracklist:

1.  We Take Care of Our Own
2.  Easy Money
3.  Shackled and Drawn
4.  Jack of All Trades
5.  Death to My Hometown
6.  This Depression
7.  Wrecking Ball
8.  You’ve Got It
9.  Rocky Ground
10. Land of Hope and Dreams
11. We Are Alive                                 

Enter Shikari on tour at HMV

Post-hardcore band Enter Shikari will be signing copies of their new album “A Flash Flood of Colour” at HMV stores.

Rou Reynolds and his troop will be meeting fans at Leicester HMV in High Street today at 5pm and will come home to St Albans tomorrow at the same time.

Their self-released third album which was released on Monday has already outsold the rest of the Top 10.

The Hertfordshire quartet will commence its UK 2012 tour on March 17 in Edinburgh and will be supported by Young Guns and other guests to be confirmed.

For more information about the tour dates and how to get your ticket click here.

“A Flash Flood of Colour” tracklist:

1. System…
2. …Meltdown
3. Sssnakepit
4. Search Party
5. Arguing With Thermometers
6. Stalemate
7. Gandhi Mate, Gandhi
8. Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here
9. Pack Of Thieves
10. Hello Tyrannosaurus, Meet Tyrannicide
11. Constellations

New images from Burton’s “Frankenweenie”

It seems the development of Tim Burton’s new animated flick has been masked in secrecy, but a new set of pictures from “Frankenweenie” (Disney) has been released to pique your curiosity.

On one way protagonist we see protagonist Victor checking to make sure his worse-for-wear but beloved dog Sparky is in his rightful place under the bed, animator Jens Gulliksen bringing Victor to life on the Pet Cemetery set, assistant art director, Barry Jones, set dressing the Classroom set, and Matias Liebrecht animating the little boy on the Attic set.

“Frankenweenie” is a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments.

The movie, which is being filmed in black and white and will later be rendered in 3D, will hit theaters on October 2012.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” trailer unveiled

Say hello once again to ‘little people’, elves, bearded wizards and other creatures from the Middle-earth because Warner Bros via their social networks and the film’s official blog has uncovered the trailer for Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” one year ahead of its release.

The movie based on another J.R.R. Tolkien classic fantasy novel travels back in time to immerse the spectator in an epic journey to the Lonely Mountain where hobbit Bilbo Baggins accompanied by a group of dwarves is in the search for a treasure taken from them by the dragon Smaug.

The new episode reunites part of “The Lord of the Rings” fellowship with Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom and Andy Serkis reprising their roles, and some new faces like comedian Stephen Fry, Martin Freeman as a young Bilbo, and lostie Evangeline Lilly.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is set to hit the silver screen on December 14. The adventure will conclude with the arrival of “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” on 2013.

What follows is the film trailer.

 

“[REC]” video game on its way

Film company Filmax has signed a deal with Tonika Games to develop a video game based on the horror blockbuster “[REC]”, which will be released during the first quarter of 2012. 

Developed on Unity3D, designed to focus on creating tools for different platforms, it will recreate scenes from the movie and will have four worlds (levels), any representing a opposite section of a “[REC]” franchise. Players will feel the fear playing the two first episodes and in the future they will have the chance to do so when the next couple of films come out.

The game, based on first-person shooter mode where players will have an array of different weapons at their disposal, exploits a possibilities of a 3D engine to yield a actor with an immersive knowledge in initial chairman whose idea is to accommodate modeled scenarios unbroken missions from a strange locations of a films.

“[REC]” the video game will be accessible for download for iOS, Android, Blackberry and PC.