SXSW2017: Austin Production La Barracuda Has Real Bite

Shot and filmed in Austin by local filmmakers Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin, La Barracuda was a hometown darling at SXSW. The suspense drama stars Texas native Allison Tolman (Fargo) as Merle, the tone-deaf daughter of a country music legend. When a mysterious woman appears and introduces herself as Merle’s half sister, Sinaloa (Sophie Reid), tensions flare. Everyone in the family has their suspicions of her true intentions that range from selfish to sinister.

SXSW 2017: The Strange Ones Directors Play With Your Perceptions

Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein’s feature-length debut The Strange Ones is a slow burning, twisted coming-of-age story co-starring Alex Pettyfer and 14 year old James Freedson-Jackson, who won SXSW’s Special Jury Prize for breakthrough performance. He’s immensely deserving of the accolade, delivering a performance of almost unnerving poise for a 14-year-old actor. It had begun its life as a short six years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K86nhhNV058

The feature film opens with two brothers on the run.

SXSW 2017: Mark Weber’s Genre-Defying Stunner Flesh and Blood

In his label-defying fourth film as director, actor/writer/director Mark Weber (Green Room, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) has delivered a subtly powerful shot to the heart with Flesh and Blood. Calling the film “reality cinema,” Weber has turned the camera on his mother, Cheri Honkala, his half-brother Guillermo Santos, and himself, turning his unconventional upbringing and tight-knit, highly atypical family into a moving portrait of a uniquely American story. In fact,

SXSW 2017: Karen Skloss on her Mind-Bending Prom Thriller The Honor Farm

Prom. For some kids, it’s the night of their young lives. For most everybody else, it’s kind of a let down, a bunch of hype for what turns out to be a fairly forgettable dance, rented tuxedos and dresses you’ll never wear again, and the realization that riding around in the back of a limo can be a nauseous affair. For the characters in writer/director Karen Skloss’s The Honor Farm, however, prom is the beginning to a trippy,

Our Complete 2017 Oscars Coverage

And here it is, the complete guide to our 2017 Oscars coverage. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool.

Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Original Screenplay

We’ve gone big for our Oscars coverage this year. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool. Learn more about the nominees for Lead Actor, Foreign Language Film, Costume Designers, Documentary Short, Editing, Live Action Short, Actress in a Supporting Role, 

American Fable‘s Writer/Director Anne Hamilton on her Gothic Fever Dream

American Fable, which is available today, is an American gothic style fairy tale set against the farm crisis of the Reagan era that manages, without overt effort, to speak directly to today’s anxieties. The heroine of the story is Gitty (Peyton Kennedy), a soulful, intelligent young girl who finds herself in a major predicament when her father, pushed to the brink financially, makes a desperate decision that could spell doom for the entire family.

Oscar Watch: Why Ted Melfi Passed on Spider-Man: Homecoming to direct Hidden Figures

Before he became an award-winning TV commercial director, before he lured Bill Murray out of semi-retirement to star in his St. Vincent film, before he earned Oscar nominations for co-writing and producing this year's most popular Best Picture nominee Hidden Figures, Ted Melfi launched his creative journey in unlikely fashion by serving as child sports columnist for the M.A.F.I.A. Bulletin Board.

Melfi's volatile father,

Oscar Nominee Allison Schroeder on Adapting Hidden Figures

It’s an exciting and extraordinary time for screenwriter Allison Schroeder. The Hidden Figures scribe has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, is a finalist for a Humanitas Prize, and also received WGA, BAFTA and Critic’s Choice nods — all this after being named one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” this past November and giving birth to her first child.

“It’s incredibly surreal,

The Path Creator Jessica Goldberg on Finding Religion

If you haven't watched Hulu's The Path, now's your time to catch up before the second season begins tonight. The show, created by Jessica Goldberg, is a rarity for TV: a twisting, intriguing deep dive into the pitfalls of belief, the difficulties of marriage, and the risks of zealotry. 

The story follows Eddie Lane (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), who lives in upstate New York with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and their two children,

Writer/Director Vincent Perez on his Timely, Devastating new Film Alone in Berlin

A somber, restrained World War II picture, Alone in Berlin, opens this week from director/actor Vincent Perez. Swiss by birth and of Spanish and German ancestry, Perez optioned the rights to Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel, Every Man Dies Alone, two years before an English translation in 2009 became a surprise bestseller in the UK and US. The story of Nazi resistance from a working class Berlin couple,

Oscar Watch: Writer Taylor Sheridan Gets Personal in Hell or High Water

Offering context for his stirring Hell or High Water screenplay, Taylor Sheridan expertly expounds on West Texas cattle farming, the 1930's dust bowl, predatory banking practices, boom or bust oil economy and the isolation engendered by wide open spaces. But Sheridan also invested plenty of his own experience into the story. Nominated for a Writers Guild Award and Golden Globe for best motion picture screenplay, Hell or High Water follows a broke,

Writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve on Things to Come

French actress Isabelle Huppert is reaping awards from critics’ groups for her roles in two films this year:  Elle, from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, and the quietly poignant Things to Come, from young French writer/directer Mia Hansen-Løve.

While Huppert’s audacious performance in Elle jut might earn the actress her first Oscar nod, it’s the delicate blend of youth and wisdom, melancholy and joy,

Arrival‘s Screenwriter on Crafting one of the Year’s Best Films

For sci-fi fans, there was something doubly wonderful about watching director Denis Villeneuve's Arrival; it proved that the most malleable of genres is still alive and well, and, confirmed that Villeneuve was absolutely the right choice to helm the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049. 

Ridley Scott's 1982 Blade Runner is one of sci-fi's most iconic films (coming just a few years after his equally iconic 

Writer/Director Garth Jennings Mixes Legendary Music & Animation in Sing

If you have ever watched American Idol or The Voice and wished that the contestants were animals instead of humans, then Sing is definitely playing your tune – or should that be ‘toon?  Writer/director Garth Jennings – the British filmmaker whose quirky vision graced the cult hit Son of Rambow as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy –takes his first stab at an animated feature,

Screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick on Deadpool 2 & More

Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have created the perfect recipe for mixing high-octane action, gore, and comedy without being heavy handed. The duo struck gold with Zombieland and if you thought their success might be a fluke, they came back and did it again in Deadpool. The R-rated Marvel box-office smash was just nominated for two Golden Globes, thanks in no small part to Reese and Wernick's mastery of combining humor and action. Their ability to mix genres could be disastrous in less skilled hands.

Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 2

In Part 2 of an interview with writer/director Kenneth Lonergan about his latest release, Manchester by the Sea, which opens Friday, the New York City native speaks about his penchant for acting in his own films, his choice of classical music to accompany a drama like Manchester by the Sea that is set in a working-class milieu and how the current political climate might affect his artistic vision in the future –

Talking to Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 1

At 54, Kenneth Lonergan has experienced the highs and lows of the movie biz. The filmmaker has basked in the glow of having his directorial debut, 2000’s You Can Count on Me,  bestowed with rave reviews and two Academy Award nominations – one for his screenplay and the other for his leading lady, Laura Linney. And he has dealt with the frustration when  the running time of his more ambitious sophomore effort,

Oscar Watch: La La Land‘s Director Damien Chazelle & Star Emma Stone on Their Moving Musical

Oscar-nominated writer/director Damien Chazelle set out to make a genre film with La La Land.  Inspired by classic song-and-dance movies such as Singin’ in the Rain and Swing Time, he wanted to create an old-fashioned musical but “keep it grounded” in realism and contemporary Los Angeles.

“It was about trying to use real locations, use a lot of real spaces,

Mark Duplass on Stripping Away Artifice For Blue Jay

Mark Duplass readily admits he’s “a schmaltz hound.”

“I have it deep in me. I can put on Same Time, Next Year or Somewhere in Time and just go for it,” he says. “I’m a nostalgic and melancholic person and I normally try to curb that in my art because I feel like if I don’t, it’s going to run rampant over everything. With this movie,