The good news is that, even with all companies exiting indie distribution over the past several years, the parties still in business continue to need fresh fare. Many of the films premiering at Venice, Telluride and Toronto already have distribution, but a few titles are still available. Several festival acquisitions were strong performers this year, led by “The Kids Are All Right,” which Focus Features acquired in January at Sundance. Film has scored more than $17 million domestically.

“Winter’s Bone,” acquired by Roadside Attractions at Sundance, has accumulated nearly $4.9 million, a strong gross for an arthouse drama.

IFC Films’ docu “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” also acquired at Sundance, has $2.8 million.

The Kids Are Alright is scheduled to open at Moxie Cinema on August 27th while it appears that Winter’s Bone is headed to downtown Springfield in September after a strong run at Wehrenberg’s Campbell 16, premiering here on June 18th.

Read more: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023149.html?categoryid=1061&cs=1#ixzz0xY8JF7as Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.

Winters Bone director, Debra Granik

Director Debra Granik and actress Jennifer Lawrence talk about working with locals in Missouri during the making of their new film, “Winter’s Bone.” Based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, “Winter’s Bone” tells the story of a girl living in the Ozark Mountains who sets out on a search for her drug-dealing father to help keep her family afloat. Granik reflects on the casting process, trusting Lawrence’s ability, and how she approached people to use their property as sets for the movie. Lawrence describes using the book to shape her performance as Ree Dolly and drawing from her childhood growing up on a farm. “Winter’s Bone” won the dramatic competition grand jury prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it also secured distribution through Roadside Attractions. But Granik says the hardest test is yet to come: showing the film to the people in whose backyard the story is set.

An announcement will be made this week on the screening dates for Winter’s Bone in Springfield as well as West Plains, Branson and Fayetteville. Stay tuned!

From the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Movie: Winter’s Bone
Directed by: Debra Granik
Written by: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee, Tate Taylor

Photo credit: Ron Hill Imagery/JC Bendock

The Gersh Agency has signed independent filmmaker Debra Granik and her writing-producing partner Anne Rosellini.

At last month’s Sundance Film Festival, Granik’s latest film, “Winter’s Bone,” won the grand jury prize in the dramatic competition. She and Rosellini also received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for their adaptation of the Daniel Woodrell novel. Rosellini produced the dark drama. Granik’s previous feature, the Rosellini-produced 2004 Sundance entry “Down to the Bone,” won her a dramatic directing award as well as a special jury prize for star Vera Farmiga that year.

Granik and Rosellini also are repped by manager Jon Rubinstein of Authentic Talent and Literary Management and lawyer Josh Sandler of Schreck, Rose, Dapello, Adams & Hurwitz.

Gersh was well represented at this year’s Sundance fest. Agency client Lucy Walker showcased two documentaries in Park City: “Countdown to Zero,” which Magnolia Pictures has picked up for theatrical release, and “Waste Land,” which won the audience award for world cinema, documentary.

Brazilian director Jose Padilha (the Golden Bear-winning “Elite Squad”) brought his Amazon Basin documentary “Secrets of the Tribe” to the fest. And “How I Met Your Mother” actor Josh Radnor delivered his first feature as a writer-director-star, “Happythankyoumoreplease,” which won the dramatic audience award.

“Twilight” star and Gersh client Kristen Stewart toplined two indie dramas at Sundance: “Welcome to the Rileys” and rock biopic “The Runaways,” which Apparition release March 19.

The multiple indie inroads come as Gersh makes its first serious moves into indie film financing and packaging, a field dominated by indie film groups at WME, CAA and UTA. Last year, Gersh agent Jay Cohen took on management of the new indie division, which reps a $40 million fund. Cohen’s recent packages include client David Schwimmer’s “Trust,” a feature starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener for Nu Image/Millennium and Tracey Edmonds’ “Trust in Her,” for Our Stories Films.

kathryn bigelow

Check out her appearance on the Charlie Rose show here – www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6688

The film has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Achievement in Cinematography (Barry Ackroyd), Best Achievement in Directing (Kathryn Bigelow), Best Achievement in Editing (Bob Murawski, Chris Innis), Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Paul N.J. Ottosson), Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Jeremy Renner) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Mark Boal).

Winters Bone director, Debra Granik

Back in 2004, Granik premiered her debut feature, Down to the Bone, at the Sundance Film Festival, and now she’s back several years later with another unique story about a female protagonist struggling to fight the odds stacked against her.

Winter’s Bone will premiere on Saturday January 23rd in the US Dramatic Competition category at Sundance, and it stars Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Tate Taylor, Casey MacLaren, Cody Brown and Charlotte Lucas. Cinematical caught up with Granik to ask her some brief questions about the film and the festival life.

Cinematical: Give us the “dude on the street” description of your film.

Debra Granik: Ree, a teenager living in the Missouri Ozarks, has to find her father. He put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she can’t turn him up, she and her family will lose the house. She is blocked and threatened by her relatives who have something to hide. With the help of her closest friend and her intimidating uncle, she begins to piece together the truth.

Cinematical: You don’t see many movies shot in the Missouri mountain region. What were some of the unique challenges you came across, and what is it about this story that makes it accessible to people who aren’t familiar with the region?

Debra Granik: Ree has got some of the daunting challenges that many young people have in remote areas, places where ways of making a living are scarce and marginal. She is a kid with a lot of responsibilities who witnesses the adults around her making dangerous and dead-end choices. Without many buffers, Ree has to navigate her survival in a place that is hardscrabble to its core. She has no map to follow except for loyalty to her family. The particulars of the region that are “foreign” are found in some of the language, eating wild game, learning to hunt and ride ATVs at a young age. These things were all unfamiliar in my existence. Yards may have an accumulation of objects and debris, and this may feel strange or reinforce certain assumptions, so perhaps the only thing a film can do is to try to show the life, the specific life attached to that yard. The author of the novel from which this film is based did not try to speak in broad strokes. He zoomed in and tried to focus on one girl, depicting in detail her moxie to survive.

Visit the website for the rest of the interview. For more on Debra Granik and Winter’s Bone, here is a video profile from the Sundance Film Festival:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBepZwxde7I]

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to be preserved for all time. These films are not selected as the “best” American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture.

National Film Registry 2009 Selections

Desperate times call for desperate measures and Ray Drecker’s situation couldn’t be much tougher. The former high school sports legend turned middle-aged high school basketball coach is divorced and struggling to provide for his kids when his already run-down house catches fire. Looking to take on a second job, Ray decides to exploit his best asset in a last-ditch attempt to change his fortunes.

There’s a local connection. MSU grad Byron White is working as an editor on the series. His first show is next Sunday, July 12th. Check it out Sunday’s at 9pm on HBO. Byron has also worked on “Nip/Tuck”, “Big Love” and “Running with Scissors”

You can also join us on our Facebook page at http://Facebook.com/MissouriFilm.org and consider signing up for our newsletter (above right).

Mr. Schwartz, the owner of 20th Century Props, plans to go out of business next month and auction the inventory. Battered by the surge in out-of-state movie production and the demise of scripted programming on network television, the once-thriving business — one of a handful of its type remaining — is failing.

“I ran out of money three months ago, and I don’t know what else to do,” he said softly. “It’s terrifying. I’ve devoted my entire life to something that is over.”

Votes in favor of the contract exceeded 70% in all three of the union’s major divisions, including in Hollywood, where much of the most high-profile opposition was centered.

With the new, two-year contract, the union gets an immediate 3% wage increase and a 3.5% increase after one year. Also provided were benefits for actors working on content created for digital distribution, including residual payments for ad-supported internet streaming of feature films and television programs.

The Producers Alliance offered essentially the same terms to the Screen Actors Guild when its previous contract expired a year ago. During that period, the producers had reached accord with the DGA, WGA and AFTRA.

Full details can be found on Ruth’s website ReelChicago.com

2006 Academy Awards Poster

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