SXSW 2025: Tapping Into Texas’s Vast Potential to Become the Next Cinematic Frontier
This year’s SXSW film festival in Austin blew into town with a considerable tailwind of enthusiasm for the Lone Star state’s film and TV future. Every state in the union can claim unique cultures, geographies, and mythologies, but there’s no disputing that Texas looms very large in our collective cultural imagination. It’s a state that takes very seriously the notion that it’s really a country.
Texas’s hold on our imagination is evident in how many great films and TV series are set there (whether they’re actually filmed there or not—we’ll get to that in a second),
Talking to Bryan Cranston & Director Jay Roach About Trumbo
Blacklisted in 1950s Hollywood for having been a member of the Communist Party, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo continued to do what he did best: write scripts. He just couldn't do that under his own name, even when he penned two Oscar-winning movies, Roman Holiday and The Brave One. This period in the writer's life is the subject of Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach and with Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston in the title role.
Sicario Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan on Writing Great Dialogue
In Sicario Emily Blunt stars alongside Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro as an FBI agent who is struggling to maintain her principles when she is recruited into the war on drugs at the border between Mexico and the US. The Credits talks to screenwriter Taylor Sheridan about what attracted him to this world and how being a “not terribly good actor” helped inform his scriptwriting.
What attracted you to this topic?
The Peanuts Movie’s Animation Supervisor on Getting the Gang’s into 3 Dimensions
This week marks the return of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s beloved "Peanuts" crew, with Charlie Brown and the gang making their big screen debut in 3D in The Peanuts Movie. Peanuts purists, of course, might be tempted to thumb their noses at a contemporified, animated version of the classic newspaper strip cartoon, a thought that was well anticipated by director Steve Martino and his animation team at Blue Sky Studios.
A Bond Unbroken: Spectre Stunt Coordinator Gary Powell Carries Family Legacy
Working on a Bond film isn’t anything new to Gary Powell, the stunt coordinator of Spectre. His family has been working on the series since the Sean Connery days.
“It was follow around in the family tradition or get kicked out,” Powell told The Credits about his choice to get into the movie stunt business, delivering the deadpan line with a British accent. Both his father and uncle were stuntmen on the early Bond movies with Sean Connery.
Guns & God Converge in Abigail Disney’s Doc The Armor of Light
To make The Armor of Light, documentarian Abigail Disney followed two people with strong feelings about guns. The Rev. Rob Schenck is a longtime anti-abortion crusader and conservative cleric who has come to question the American right's enthusiasm for firearms. Lucy McBath is the mother of Jordan Davis, an 18-year-old African American who in 2012 was killed by a Florida man who fired into a car because it was the source of loud music.
How Composer Daniel Pemberton Created 3 Scores for Steve Jobs
We spoke to Steve Jobs composer Daniel Pemberton, whose previous work includes Guy Ritchie’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E, about the joys of working with a director, Danny Boyle, who’s prepared to take risks, and the challenge of complementing screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced dialogue.
What were your original impressions of the script when you were approached about the scoring?
The first thing that happened was I had a meeting with Danny- which got moved around a lot because of the hoo-ha that was going on behind the scenes.
The Great ‘Chivo’ Reveals Photos From Set of The Revenant
Long before we interviewed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, known to his friends and collaborators as Chivo, we've been huge fans of his work. The two time Oscar winner (and five time nominee) has put his indelible stamp on some of the most visually ambitious films of the last twenty years. While he's won Oscars the last two years for Birdman and Gravity (the film we interviewed him about),
Why The Walk’s VFX Team Used Largest Amount of Cloud Computing in Film History
Director Robert Zemeckis’s long gestating project The Walk, on Philippe Petit’s once in a lifetime high-wire walk across the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center on August 7th, 1974 finally reached the screen this month, in glorious 3-D utilizing breathtaking visual effects. We spoke to VFX Supervisor Kevin Baillie & VFX Producer Camille Celluci by phone on how the production team was able to re- create in such immense detail both the Twin Towers and the 1974 New York skyline on a tight budget and production schedule,
The Martian’s VFX Supervisor on Creating Zero Gravity Without a ‘Vomit Comet’
As The Martian continues its impressive box office run and enjoys some early Oscar buzz, The Credits talks to Richard Stammers, the film's visual effects supervisor and a frequent collaborator with Ridley Scott, about the dual challenge of recreating the Mars landscape and simulating a convincing zero gravity environment without anyone having to get in a “vomit comet”.
You've worked with Ridley Scott before on films like Prometheus?
Third Annual Middleburg Film Festival Draws Deep Roster of Talent
In it's third year, the Middleburg Film Festival is becoming a vibrant late festival season stop for filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike. Middleburg is in Virginia's horse country, and its beauty can hardly be improved upon in late October, but as much as a draw as the setting is, the festival itself, created by BET co-founder and Sundance Institute member Sheila Johnson and ably directed by Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker Susan Koch, is drawing people for it's discerning slate and roster of talent.
Middleburg Film Festival: Miss You Already Director Catherine Hardwicke
Director Catherine Hardwicke is well into her third successful career. The former architect was one of the most ambitious, consistently excellent production designers in Hollywood, working on gorgeous, genre-defying projects like Three Kings for David O. Russell and Vanilla Sky for Cameron Crowe. She launched her directing career with the excellent Thirteen, which she co-wrote, about a young girl’s relationship with her mother as she begins experimenting with drugs,
Ice Age & Rio Director Carlos Saldanha Shares Wisdom at Tokyo International Film Festival
Renowned film director Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, RIO, RIO 2) passed on his passion and process to the next generation filmmakers.
Suffragette Director Sarah Gavron Puts Struggle on Screen
Carey Mulligan stars alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep in Sarah Gavron’s moving drama about the turning point of the women’s suffrage movement. Suffragette begins in 1912 London and follows a group of women from different walks of life who come together as activists and engage in acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to their cause: gaining the vote for women. We talk to Gavron about the process of bringing this story to the big screen for the first time.
Bridge of Spies Costume Designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone on Cold War Style
Bridge of Spies costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone, who previous work includes Moonrise Kingdom, discusses the logistics involved in dressing thousands of extras and her first time working with Steven Spielberg.
What are the challenges working on a period film, particularly when you're telling a true story?
I feel it's a very structured process, so my job is so much driven by the vision of the director and the script.
Showrunners From Power, Veep, Louie & More at NYTF’s Creative Keynote Panel
Last night at the New York Television Festival creative keynote panel "Running the Show: A Big Picture Conversation on Creating for the Small Screen," Power showrunner Courtney Kemp Agboh expressed her frustration with gender politics in the entertainment industry.
“I’d like for it not to be a thing when there are a bunch of women showrunners,“ she said. “And also not for it to be pointed out all the time,
Talking to Julianne Moore & Ellen Page About Freeheld
Part love story, part evolution of reluctant activists, Freeheld represents a personal and professional turning point for producer/actress Ellen Page.
“It is pretty mind-blowing how much my internal journey went along with getting this movie made. I wasn’t out when I signed on to produce the film and play Stacie. I remember thinking, ‘there is no way you can make this movie and not be out. There’s just no way,’”
Oscar-Winning Production Designer Adam Stockhausen on Bridge of Spies
Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (who we previously interviewed for his work on Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel) discusses his work on Steven Spielberg’s latest film, the Cold War-era Bridge of Spies, which is based on real events, and how you tackle such a well-documented period of history.
I understand Steven Spielberg is big on authenticity, particularly with this kind of true story.
Editor Joe Walker on Cutting the Brilliant Sicario
Joe Walker’s reputation has soared in recent years, from his work with director Michael Mann on the cyber thriller Blackhat (2014), and from his long collaboration with director Steve McQueen on McQueen’s loose trilogy of films dealing with suffering: Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), and 12 Years A Slave (2013), for which Walker received his first Oscar nomination for Best Editing.
Goosebumps VFX supervisor Erik Nordby on Creating R.L. Stine’s Monsters
Rather than choose one book from the phenomenally successful “Goosebumps” series to adapt, the film, starring Jack Black as author R.L. Stine, is a meta-story where all the best Goosebumps creatures come out of the woodwork. Visual effects supervisor Erik Nordby tells The Credits how they tackled this rather daunting task.
The film is essentially the culmination of nearly 200 Goosebumps books with all the monsters and creatures coming to life.
