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SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN won the World Audience Prize in 2012.
In the lead-up to Sundance, I got to wondering how its documentary awards correlate to box office success. I looked at winners from the past 10 years in the categories of grand jury prize and audience award for both US and World competitions; and drew theatrical sales data from Box Office Mojo.
My question: how many grossed over $1 million at the box office?
BLACKFISH, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.
[Note: this post has been updated with a new date & place for Sundance panel on Jan 22]
Home movies normally aren’t intended for wide audiences. But that changes if you happen to record an Orca whale attacking its trainer. In the documentary Blackfish, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite mounts a devastating investigation into the practices of aquatic amusement parks by drawing upon numerous pieces of riveting footage shot with different intentions. Today, documentary makers increasingly employ “found footage” from multiple sources – amateur video, surveillance cameras, training tapes and more. The increased usage raises a number of questions: How do filmmakers track down non-traditional sources? What rights are needed to use found footage? How are archives coping with the exponential growth of material?
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Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s 5 BROKEN CAMERAS won the Oustanding Feature award at the Cinema Eye Honors this year.
This week the Cinema Eye Honors were held at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, with Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s 5 BROKEN CAMERAS taking home top honors with the Outstanding Feature award. DETROPIA by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing took home two awards, one for outstanding direction and another for original score. Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims snagged the outstanding debut award for their festival darling ONLY THE YOUNG. Adam Benzine had the wrap-up of all the awards for Realscreen, while Christopher Campbell did the same at the Documentary Channel blog. Peter Knegt covered the awards for Indiewire, while Wendy Mitchell on the beat for ScreenDaily.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) released its list of Oscar nominees this week, with the honors going to 5 BROKEN CAMERAS; SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN by Malik Bendjelloul; HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE by David France; THE GATEKEEPERS by Dror Moreh; and THE INViSIBLE WAR by Kirby Dick. Nods for short-form docs went to INOCENTE by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine; KINGS POINT by Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider; MONDAYS AT RACINE by Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan; OPEN HEART by Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern; and REDEMPTION by Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill.
Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times had a rundown of the Oscar nominees, while Laura J. Nelson had a piece on how the nominated shorts directors got the news. Alexandra Zeevalkink of DocGeeks rounded up trailers for the nominated films. Writing for Slate, Eric Hynes noted that the Academy had continued a tradition of nominating “newsy” docs in the face of recent rules changes regarding the Oscars. Christopher Campbell noted that an original song from the doc CHASING ICE and a remake of the film KON-TIKI had also received nods from the Academy. And Eric Kohn had a piece at Indiewire on how Kathryn Bigelow’s supposed snub had masked a greater one–the failure of Jafar Panahi to get a nomination for his film THIS IS NOT A FILM.
THE CRASH REEL, directed by Lucy Walker, playing at Sundance 2013.
If your film is lucky enough to be invited to Sundance, what do you need to succeed? I reached out to past Sundance directors and industry veterans for their perspectives. While some of this advice is Sundance specific, much of it can be applied to doc makers headed to SXSW, Tribeca, Hot Docs, TIFF or other festivals.
Do you need a publicist?
Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me): The best decision I made going into my first Sundance in 2004 was hiring David Magdael as our publicist. He’s been there before. He knew the lay of the land, and he was a calming presence. He really helped us craft a press strategy and he knew when to offer sound advice. He’s still my publicist. I’m never letting him go.
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Director Roman Paska with actor John Turturro present Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy
STF’s Winter 2013 season kicked off last Tuesday with a sold-out screening of Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy. Director Roman Paska follows actor John Turturro throughout Western Sicily as they research a future film project about traditional Sicilian puppeteering. In addition to his conversations with professional puppeteers, local historians, and young actresses, Turturro traces his maternal roots in the region, exploring the neighborhood where his grandmother lived before immigrating to the United States. Paska and Turturro’s trip coincides with preparations for the Day of the Dead, an annual celebration that, in the context of the film, provides Turturro with the opportunity to remember his recently-deceased mother and the ways in which he still feels their relationship when he visits Italy. Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy explores the connections between death, tradition, and memory, and the ways in which these themes inform one’s relationship to one’s familial and cultural identities. After the screening, Paska and Turturro joined STF’s Artistic Director Thom Powers for a Q&A.
