New York Film Festival Finds an Agent of Change in Director Eugene Hernandez

Let’s face it: The New York Film Festival has always been run by older white men, from its founder, the late great Richard Roud, through departing director Kent Jones, who now turns his focus to full-time filmmaking. New NYFF director Eugene Hernandez brings an exciting and welcome perspective to the 57-year-old festival, which is just five years older than he is. He’s an erudite cinema connoisseur, having scarfed up movies for decades at the major film festivals and beyond as a journalist (mostly at IndieWire) and, for the last decade, rising in the ranks at Film at Lincoln Center.

But he’s more than a passionate film lover. Hernandez will bring a change in focus to the NYFF in terms of long-term strategy, ongoing opportunism, and industry and filmmaker outreach. Dennis Lim will continue as the programming director for the October festival, which is the focal point of the Film at Lincoln Center’s year, as well as booking year-round repertory cinema at the Walter Reade Theatre and new films at the Elinor Bunin Center, and curating Rendezvous with French Cinema and Spring’s New Directors, New FIlms, in concert with the Museum of Modern Art.

The New York FIlm Festival has always been a fall gateway for emerging art films, but does so without a competition jury or awards. With more cinema venues, the festival has broadened its scope to VR and documentary showcases as well as more year-round events and retrospectives.

NYFF Director Kent Jones , “13th” Director Ava DuVernay, FSLC Executive Director Lesli Klainberg, and FLSC Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez last year on NYFF opening night

StarPi/for Netf/REX/Shutterstock

And going forward, given everything he has done so far, Hernandez will push for more inclusivity across the board. He knows the main film players in Hollywood and all over the world. He’s a charming, enthusiastic, embracing, bigger-than-life personality who brings the best out of everyone he meets, including me — he brought me into IndieWire just over 11 years ago, before he made his transition to run digital media at the Film Society under Rose Kuo.

Back then, Film Comment was locked into a strictly print focus, and the hidebound Film Society needed help bringing its programming and the festival into a larger conversation. Hernandez accomplished that and then some. When Lesli Klainberg joined the festival as managing director in 2011, she worked alongside Hernandez and when she ascended to executive director in 2014, she made Hernandez her deputy.

“Eugene was trying to do innovative things,” said Klainberg. “I saw what he had to offer. He has the deepest connections in the industry of anyone in the organization. He’s connecting us to the people who make the movies, have the green light, and promote and market movies. People actually like Eugene. He’s beloved and he brings with him a lot of goodwill. People trust him.”

Song Kang Ho and Bong Joon Ho (Director)
NEON’s ‘PARASITE’ premiere, Afterparty, 57th New York Film Festival

Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix/Shutterstock

Together, Klainberg and Hernandez have built education programs with local schools as well as nurturing writers via their Critics Academy, and nurtured a strong staff who, judging from one gathering I attended with Hernandez at last fall’s NYFF, adore the festival’s new director. He has helped bring in wider audiences to Film at Lincoln Center, along with special events coordinator Maria Ruiz, via studio and streamer premieres like the final episode of “Breaking Bad” and “Mindhunter,” or hosting the MetOpera’s memorable 2015 summer outdoor showing of “West Side Story” to the biggest crowd ever on the Lincoln Center Plaza.

The New York Film Festival lands in the sweet spot for the award season, not only in terms of opening night movies like “A Social Network” and “The Irishman,” but also by enhancing support for films like eventual Oscar-winner “Parasite.” “We offer an opportunity for the New York audience and community to come see films for the first time,” said Klainberg. Not only did NYFF play the Palme d’Or winner “Parasite,” but they booked the film at the Elinor Bunin Center, which played to full houses for months before director Bong and Dennis Lim hatched up over a dinner napkin a full-on retrospective of his films — and played them within three weeks.

When Jones was ready to leave the festival, Klainberg recognized an opportunity to assess where the festival was, she said, “and where it wanted to be. We began to consider how to set ourselves apart for the future. Our most important event has grown in the last few years. With the Elinor Bunin Center, we had reasons to be more strategic and thoughtful about what we’re doing with the festival, who it’s going to be accessible to, and what role we want it to play in the bigger ‘film industrial complex.’ Our core mission is supporting the art of film. And we have to be more open to the ways the industry and the world and the culture is changing, and in doing that, look farther and wider and with different eyes and voices.”

This winter, at the same time that Hernandez was under consideration for the Sundance Film Festival’s director post (with Klainberg’s knowledge and blessing), he chose to throw his lot in with FIlm at Lincoln Center. And Klainberg finalized who she really wanted to lead the festival into the future. As the director of NYFF, Hernandez will be the public face, the big boss, and a loud voice on the selection committee.

“He’s a positive robust personality, a people person, capable of representing us around the world at different festivals and events,” said Klainberg. “He wants to listen to what people have to say. He thinks about where we are going and will help us to move ahead and figure where we fit into this world, which is changing so quickly.”

While embracing the strong curatorial focus of the NYFF, a smaller and more focused festival than others in the fall corridor, Hernandez is excited about changing things up, too. And he has the advantage of a passionate and growing New York area cinephile community who sell out NYFF screenings.

“What we have to do is take a step back and figure out how we can showcase the best filmmakers around the world, but also invite the best new filmmakers,” he told IndieWire. “What’s great about the fall ecosystem is that [the fall festivals] all have different approaches. We exist in a very collaborative, collegial space, more than people might realize. We’re constantly trading information … Each festival is different. Our mandate is different. We can focus on a specific group of films and celebrate them deeply.”

‘Parasite’ Child Actor Watched the Oscars at Home and Lost His Mind Over Historic Wins — Watch

Oscar viewers were treated to a historical moment this year when Bong Joon Ho and his “Parasite” cast took the stage at the Dolby Theater to accept the Academy Award for Best Picture, marking the first time a foreign-language film won the top Oscar prize. “Parasite” cast members Song Kang-ho, Park So-dam, and Lee Sun-kyun were all in attendance at the Oscars, but one part of the ensemble who was not on stage was 10-year-old child actor Jeong Hyeon-jun. Jeong was watching the Oscars from home in South Korea, and fortunately Jeong’s family members recorded him losing his mind as “Parasite” earned one history-making Oscar win after another.

“I thought it would be awesome to get it, and we actually won the award!” Jeong told the Associated Press in a video interview from home the day of the Oscars. “So I am wondering if I am in heaven. I think I was born to receive an Oscar.”

“Parasite” marked the first time a South Korean feature film competed for Academy Awards, and the drama was nominated in six categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Best Production Design, and Best Film Editing. The movie dominated the ceremony by winning the first four aforementioned categories, giving South Korea its first-ever Oscar wins for a feature and breaking through an Oscars glass ceiling. Jeong was too young to make the trip to Hollywood, but it’s clear from the videos below he shared in the world’s excitement over “Parasite’s'” victories.

For Jeong, “Parasite” was his first foray into acting in feature films. Prior to his experience working with Bong, Jeong got his start as an actor on South Korean television series such as “You Are Too Much,” “Through the Waves,” “At Eighteen,” and “Vagabond.” As part of the “Parasite” cast, Jeong received the Screen Actors Guild awards this year for Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture. Watch Jeon flip out over the “Parasite” Oscar wins below.

PARASITE PARTY: 10-year-old #Parasite #기생충 star Jung Hyeon-jun might have been too young to go to the #Oscars – but he still enjoyed the excitement of the best picture win. #AcademyAwards pic.twitter.com/sbn71fJ44z

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) February 18, 2020

‘Parasite’ Rakes in Box Office Even While Streaming, and That’s a Gamechanger

For “Parasite,” Oscars were not the end of its achievements. It will have the biggest post-win gross of any Best Picture since “The King’s Speech” in 2011. And, it will take in the majority of its box-office gross while streaming, selling more tickets as a first-run release while viewable at home than any release ever.

Before we dive too deeply into praise: With the Bonghive following post-Oscar grosses for “Parasite” as if they share personally in the bounty, there’s a risk of “Parasite” becoming the specialized version of last year’s “Avengers: Endgame,” which claimed to be the biggest all-time grosser. (No, “Parasite” is not the fourth-biggest subtitled release. That would require ignoring adjusted ticket prices, as well as films released before 1980 — the golden age of foreign-language films.)

With that out of the way: The real achievements of “Parasite” post awards are significant and worth celebrating. As of February 9, Oscar night, “Parasite” grossed $34 million. As of February 18, it stands at $44 million; after next weekend, $48 million. Given its current strength, it should keep most of its top theaters and cross $55 million. Even $60 million isn’t impossible (although less likely).

“Parasite”

Neon

Nearly $30 Million in Box Office While Home Viewing Available

As of January 13 (the morning Oscar nominations were announced), its gross stood at $25.5 million — nearly four times as big as any specialized subtitled release since 2011, and the best overall since 2006. On January 14, “Parasite” was available for streaming purchase; streaming rentals, along with DVD/Blu-Ray, followed on January 28. Never in history has a first-run release done this well in theaters in the face of these cheaper alternatives.

Boosted by nominations and wins, Oscar films can have extended releases that go past 90-day windows and create day-and-date theater/streaming. Even so, with many people choosing theaters for an event film even while it can be purchased for viewing for $3.99 on ITunes (#2 at the moment, behind “Frozen II”), that has to get the attention of studio executives eager to create more flexible theatrical windows. It’s proof that co-existence, under certain circumstances, works.

A film that can gross as much as $30 million and most of its take while streaming is a historic and important moment. Theaters probably won’t see it that way. Still: At some point, expect a distributor to announce that theaters have the option of playing their top release with possible home availability after 45 or 60 days.

Post-Oscar Box Office: $20 million

At $20 million, “Parasite” would make $5 million more than any Best Picture winner since “The King’s Speech.” If it gets to $25 million post Oscars, it will be the clear winner. Although “Green Book” added $14.5 million, the Best Picture norm is to add $5 million-$6 million (“Green Book” was also already streaming last year.)

“Parasite” is no ordinary Oscar winner, of course. It’s historic; the news coverage has been relentless (and, positive); its victory hit the top of page 1 of the New York Times The film was at the lower end of grosses when it won, so it had room to grow. Its sense as a particularly strong communal experience may have helped theaters. Perhaps the idea of seeing subtitles on a large screen rather than straining at home (particularly for older viewers) aids the surge. And it’s possible new viewers add to the strong word of mouth that boosted this since the start.

“Parasite”

Neon

“Parasite” generated massive numbers in its home country, terrific showings of around $12 million in France and Germany, and reasonable takes elsewhere in advance of the awards. But weirdly, the U.K. release came just two days before the Oscars. Now in its second weekend, “Parasite” doubled its still-limited theaters to 400 and it jumped to #2 in the country with $3.25 million, behind “Sonic the Hedgehog.” It’s grossed about $6.5 million to date — well on its way to taking the no. 3 slot in worldwide performance.

That, of course, comes with no U.K. home viewing yet available. Nine months after its Cannes premiere, it is still a hot title with many more viewers to come.

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The Safdie Brothers and Nathan Fielder Team Up for Showtime Comedy Series ‘The Curse’

Nathan Fielder and “Uncut Gems” directors Benny and Josh Safdie are bringing their talents to Showtime, which has given the green light to a pilot for “The Curse.”

Deadline reported that the half-hour comedy series, co-written by Benny and Fielder (“Nathan For You”) and directed by the Safdie brothers, will center on a mysterious curse that disturbs the relationship of a married couple who star in a fictional HGTV show. Fielder is expected to play the husband, while Benny will play the producer of the fictional show. Fielder and the Safdie Brothers will executive produce the pilot, which will be produced by Showtime.

Additional details about the series, including additional casting and a release date, are still under wraps. A Showtime representative declined to comment.

The Showtime pickup continues what has been a prolific few months for the Safdie brothers, whose Adam Sandler-led “Uncut Gems” became a smash critical and commercial hit. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn lauded the Safdie brothers’ abilities to create nuanced and flawed characters in his effusive “Uncut Gems” review last year. The drama was nominated for an array of awards and the Safdie brothers won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. “The Curse” will serve as the Safdie brothers’ first television venture.

As for Fielder, the comedian and actor was recently nominated for an Emmy for his directing work on Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who Is America?” Fielder also signed a one-year overall deal at HBO last year which will see him executive produce half-hour documentary series “How To…With John Wilson.” Fielder will also star, write, and direct an untitled comedy pilot for HBO, though details about that project are still unavailable.

“The Curse” will need to be picked up to series after the pilot process is completed, but Showtime has already announced the impending return of several of its popular comedy series. An eleventh and final season of “Shameless” will hit the network in mid-2020, and “Work in Progress” was also renewed in January.

Showtime also formally announced its deal with recent Oscar-winner Taika Waititi, who’s on board to direct and co-write the horror-comedy series, “The Auteur,” starring Jude Law. The series is officially in development and Showtime has ordered several scripts.

The premium network’s other comedy pilots include the Vanessa Bayer-led “Big Deal” and the bluntly titled “How To Make Love To A Black Woman (Who May Be Working Through Some Sh*t).”

Ben Affleck Says Friends Worried He’d ‘Drink Himself to Death’ If He Didn’t Give Up Batman

Ben Affleck said last year one of the reasons he gave up his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne after two Warner Bros. tentpoles was because he “couldn’t crack” the script for the Caped Crusader’s standalone superhero movie “The Batman.” While that may be true, Affleck gives a far more personal reason for giving up Batman in a New York Times profile that dropped ahead of the theatrical release of the actor’s upcoming drama “The Way Back.” The Times spoke with Affleck about his decision to exit his Batman role and reports that “the troubled shoot for ‘Justice League’ had sapped his interest” in helming a standalone Batman movie.

Affleck starred as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the Zack Snyder-directed “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League,” both of which were widely panned by film critics. “Justice League” was also a box office disappointment, grossing just under $250 million in the U.S. Affleck tells The Times his struggles with alcoholism hit hardest between 2015 and 2016, which just so happens to be during the release of “Batman v Superman” and the production of “Justice League.” Affleck said it was a friend of his who put into perspective how dangerous it would be to go through with another superhero tentpole, one in which he would have the added responsibilities of writing and directing.

“I showed somebody ‘The Batman’ script,” Affleck said. “They said, ‘I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.’”

Warner Bros. announced January 31, 2019 that Affleck was leaving the Batman role and “War of the Planet of the Apes” helmer Matt Reeves was boarding the project as the new director. Affleck appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” a few weeks later to explain what happened. “I tried to direct a version of it and worked with a really good screenwriter but just couldn’t come up with a version,” he said on the show. “I couldn’t crack it and so I thought it’s time for someone else to take a shot at it. They got some really good people so I’m excited.”

Following Affleck’s exit, Reeves and Warner Bros. brought on Robert Pattinson to play Batman/Bruce Wayne. “The Batman” is currently in production and already has a theatrical release date set for June 25, 2021.

Ana de Armas Teases Groundbreaking ‘Blonde’ Role: ‘A Cuban Playing Marilyn Monroe’

Fresh off a Golden Globe nomination for her acclaimed performance in Rian Johnson’s murder mystery “Knives Out” (a worldwide box office hit with over $300 million), Ana de Armas is gearing up for her biggest year yet with high profile roles in the upcoming James Bond tentpole “No Time to Die” and Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde.” The latter is the first narrative feature in eight years from “The Assassination of Jesse James” and “Killing Them Softly” director Dominik, who handpicked de Armas to be his leading lady. “Blonde” is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel that takes a fictionalized look at the inner life of Marilyn Monroe. Becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest icons is no easy task for de Armas, but she tells Vanity Fair that the chance for a Cuban actress to play an American icon was too history-making to pass on.

“I only had to audition for Marilyn once and Andrew said ‘It’s you,’ but I had to audition for everyone else,” de Armas told the magazine. “The producers. The money people. I always have people I needed to convince. But I knew I could do it. Playing Marilyn was groundbreaking. A Cuban playing Marilyn Monroe. I wanted it so badly. You see that famous photo of her and she is smiling in the moment, but that’s just a slice of what she was really going through at the time.”

De Armas says she has never worked closer with a director than she did with Dominik during the making of “Blonde,” which has the backing of Netflix and is expected to debut at one of the major 2020 film festivals. “Yes, I have had collaborative relationships [with directors],” de Armas said, “but to get phone calls at midnight because he has an idea and he can’t sleep and [then] all of a sudden you can’t sleep for the same reason.”

Jamie Lee Curtis starred opposite de Armas in “Knives Out” and was one of a few people who got to see de Armas’ early screen tests as Marilyn Monroe. Curtis’ father, Tony Curtis, famously starred opposite Monroe in the classic comedy “Some Like It Hot.” Curtis reacted to de Armas’ screen tests by telling Vanity Fair, “I dropped to the floor. I couldn’t believe it. Ana was completely gone. She was Marilyn.”

Netflix has yet to announce a release date for “Blonde.” De Armas can next be seen as the CIA agent Paloma in the James Bond movie “No Time to Die,” in theaters nationwide April 8.

‘High Fidelity’ Soundtrack: The Story Behind Songs from Season 1 of the Hulu TV Show

[Note: The following contains music-based spoilers for Season 1 of “High Fidelity.”]

It would have been very easy for the Hulu adaptation of “High Fidelity” to stick to a narrow set of musical ideas to help tell its story. But at the end of the show’s opening season, not only did series co-creators Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka look back on a show that had stretched its musical taste in a number of different directions, it had done so on a global scale.

“These people sit in a record store all day every day. They’re listening to everything. To make it feel like there’s one genre of music or, or one time period of music that is all that we’ve listened to, would feel inauthentic,” West told IndieWire. “It was very cool that at the end of the season, we had a song from every single continent.”

The search for far-reaching songs spanning time zones around the world — “except Antarctica,” West jokingly pointed out — was the result of a collaborative process headed by a whole team of music supervisors, including Alison Rosenfeld, Manish Raval, and Tom Wolfe. Zoë Kravitz, who stars as the “High Fidelity” romantic rememberer-in-chief Rob, also worked to help secure the rights to certain songs, along with executive music supervisor Questlove.

Not only are some of those songs referenced directly within the dialogue on the show, many of them originated as part of a key step in the show’s writing process. And while some songs were key component parts from the outset, some additions came much later in the process. Such was the case for Silk Rhode’s “Pains,” the backing track for Rob’s rooftop birthday encounter with Mac, one that makes up a sizable part of the season’s last two chapters.

“It was a selection that our editor Kate Hickey had found and really loved and felt like was a great template for the scene. She put it in and said, ‘Maybe it’s just a starting point for conversation.’ When we heard it and saw the way that she cut it with the scene, we were like, ‘We can’t change this.’ It drove the way that we edited the scene and helped us build the emotion in what was one of our biggest emotional peaks of the entire season,” West said.

One of the key strengths of “High Fidelity” is its ability to find a balance in the songs it uses. There are tracks that feel like they’ve been waiting patiently on a vinyl-laden shelf to be the perfect scene accompaniment. Some are overlooked jams from some of the most iconic musicians of the past half-century. Others still are karaoke staples, reworked in a different context to be one of the show’s main engines.

Maybe the best example of that last category is Dexys Midnight Runners’ “Come on Eileen,” which Cherise (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) belts out in the middle of Championship Vinyl halfway through the pilot.

“That was one of the suggestions from Alison Rosenfeld. For us we had to find something that grabs everybody’s attention with that exuberance and that joy that that song has. It’s not just our character singing along to it, but everybody in the audience,” West said. “I think what Da’Vine brought to that moment was the ability to take a song that you know could become an earworm that you can’t get rid of and just make it the song you’re happily humming all day.”

Of all the artists on the “High Fidelity” soundtrack, the one with the biggest presence might well be David Bowie. Not only is one of his albums a key plot point in an episode, three of his songs (from different points in his career) help to anchor the first half of the season. West and Kucserka didn’t just see “Modern Love,” the show’s initial taste of Bowie, as a bolt of energy. They saw it as a way to help understand Rob’s state of mind.

“That song was a suggestion from Jenny Eliscu, who was helping us just try to get inside Rob’s head, what her musical tastes would be,” Kucserka said. “It was in the script from the first draft and I absolutely fell in love with it. It just made you feel her pain in a weird way, but also the pleasure that comes with diving into those memories that can sometimes be hurtful and sometimes be romantic.”

As a way to bookend this opening set of episodes with nods to its “High Fidelity” predecessor, the show prominently features the Stevie Wonder song “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” in the Season 1 finale. In one of the tiny, authentic moments that helps wrap up the various journeys its characters have taken over the course of the season, Cherise learns to play the song on the new guitar that Rob bought for her.

“I think Da’Vine learned to play that song on the guitar maybe 12 hours before we shot that scene,” West said. As Cherise continues to find her voice, strumming along with her new prized possession, the audience sees she hasn’t quite mastered the chords yet. Even so, it’s a hopeful moment for her to end on. “It was a song that we always wanted to use. It was definitely a call back to the DNA of the movie and the book and everything. And we wanted to find the way to use it that wasn’t the way that they used it in those places.”

For a list of songs that help make “High Fidelity” a veritable treasure trove of classic favorites and new choice deep cuts, sample a bit of the Season 1 soundtrack below:

“High Fidelity” Season 1 is now available to stream on Hulu.

‘The Plot Against America’ Official Trailer: HBO’s Alt-History Adaptation Reveals Lindbergh’s Fascist America

HBO has released the full official trailer for its upcoming limited series “The Plot Against America,” set to premiere this March.

Starring Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro, the six-part series comes from executive producers and longtime collaborators David Simon and Ed Burns (“The Wire,” “Generation Kill”). Based on the prescient novel by Philip Roth, “The Plot Against America” takes place in an alternate-history version of America, in which the United States turns toward fascism during the Second World War. The story is told through the eyes of a New Jersey working-class Jewish family, as aviation hero and xenophobic populist Charles Lindbergh (Ben Cole) runs for President of the United States and wins.

HBO released the teaser trailer for the limited series back at the end of January, revealing just how tense things would get in the lead-up to Lindbergh’s election. The official trailer, however, includes more about the aftermath and brazen rise of fascism and anti-Semitism within this alt-world, with young Philip Levin (Azhy Robertson) growing terrified with the inevitable possibility of fascism after learning what it means.

Like in the novel, the story follows Herman Levin (Spector) as he goes from believing that the American people will see through Lindbergh and “what he is” to quickly realizing that Lindbergh’s anti-war message is at the expense of the Jewish people. While the teaser trailer focused more on the internal struggle between the Levins and their Lindbergh-supporting family members — Elizabeth’s sister Evelyn (Ryder) and her husband, conservative Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf (Turturro) — this official trailer reveals more of the swift change to open anti-Semitism as a result of Lindbergh’s campaign and ultimate election. The borders are closed, the Levins are turned away from a hotel for being Jewish, Philip is plagued with nightmares of Adolf Hitler’s America.

Despite this, Evelyn — who claims Lindbergh’s not anti-Semitic, despite his anti-Semitic rhetoric — still tells her nephew, “I don’t want you to be frightened like your parents.” However, from the prevalent swastikas out in the open within the trailer to the instrumental (and sardonic) version of “America the Beautiful” that plays over the trailer, all signs point to it being perfectly reasonable to be frightened at this point. Especially as Herman attempts to fight back, saying that this is his country, only for a resigned Elizabeth tell him, “Not anymore! It is the Jew-haters’.”

While the teaser trailer danced around the fact that Lindbergh does, in fact, win the presidency in this story, the full trailer confirms that it’s unavoidable. (Philip’s reaction to the news of Lindbergh’s win: “What just happened?”)

“The Plot Against America” premieres Monday, March 16 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. Watch the two-and-a-half-minute preview below:

Bong Joon Ho’s Translator Sharon Choi Publishes Essay on Her ‘Parasite’ Oscar Season Journey

Sharon Choi, Bong Joon Ho’s awards season translator and the undisputed MVP of Oscar season, had a front row seat to the legendary awards season run of “Parasite.” Choi attended the Cannes Film Festival alongside Bong and was front and center when “Parasite” made history as the first South Korean film to take home the Palme d’Or. Months later, Sharon would take the stage at the Dolby Theater as Bong received Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Picture. “Parasite” is the first South Korean film to win Oscars and the first foreign-language movie to ever be named Best Picture. In between Cannes and the Oscars, Choi traveled with Bong to various festivals and award ceremonies and experienced firsthand the adoration for both the director and “Parasite.” The translator and aspiring filmmaker reminisces on her whirlwind Oscar season in a new first-person essay published on Variety.

“The past six months has been a blur of new cities, microphones and good news, with endless orders of honey lemon tea as I tried to preserve my voice,” Choi writes. “Driven from one crowd to the next, I shook hands with hundreds of people whose eyes shone with the excitement of having watched a special film. Moments alone were still riddled with the absurdity that I was sharing hand sanitizers with a man whose films I’d organized movie nights for in college. Somehow, despite having only micro-short films to my name, I got sucked into the heart of Hollywood.”

Choi explains that she first met Bong when she was asked in April 2019 to interpret a phone interview with the director. Choi was in the middle of trying to start work on a new screenplay when the offer came in, and she had prior experience translating for Lee Chang Dong for a week during the press tour for “Burning.” Bong’s team ultimately asked Choi to travel to Cannes with him, and she vividly writes about the night “Parasite” was unveiled for the first time.

“There was palpable electricity in the Grand Theater Lumiere when the film premiered at Cannes,” Choi writes. “It was moving to see a film about my home country touch people from so many different cultures. The two years I spent in the U.S. as a kid had turned me into a strange hybrid — too Korean to be American, too American to be Korean, and not even Korean American…Two cultures are usually just one too many for a film to contain. And yet here was this story that seemed to effortlessly break through all barriers. Originally, I was only needed at the festival for two days to do English press, but I ended up backstage at the closing ceremony sweating with anticipation until ‘Parasite’ was the only one left on the list of films to win an award.”

As for what it was like translating for Bong, Choi writes, “My job was made easy by his consideration, and it helped that I was already familiar with his language as a filmmaker and a thinker, having written college papers about him. Yet I was constantly battling impostor syndrome, and an anxiety that I might misrepresent the words of someone so beloved in front of people I’d grown up admiring. The only cures for stage fright were ten-second meditations backstage, and knowing that I was not who they were seeing.”

Now that Oscar season is over, Choi is returning to her normal life and her aspiring filmmaking career. Choi told press backstage at the Oscars that she is currently writing a screenplay herself for a new movie. Visit Variety’s website to read Choi’s essay in its entirety.

How the ‘Disclosure’ Filmmakers Assembled the First Chronicle of Trans Narratives on Screen

Editor’s Note: This article is presented by Adobe. Adobe is committed to celebrating creativity for all and empowering everyone to bring their stories to life. That’s why Adobe is thrilled to spotlight “Disclosure,” an in-depth exploration of trans representation featuring interviews with leading trans thinkers. By creating greater opportunity for all voices, we can empower change in our communities and move the world forward.

When assembling the footage for “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” director Sam Feder and editor Stacy Goldate knew they were dealing with something big. The film, which played in the Documentary Premieres section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, represents the first major chronicle of transgender narratives in film and television, weaving archival clips — some from the earliest days of cinema — with personal reflections from luminaries like Laverne Cox, Yance Ford, and Jen Richards. With careful research and insightful editing, Feder and Goldate have crafted an unprecedented exploration of trans narratives onscreen, and the result is a wake-up call.

How did you tackle your research for this film?

Sam Feder: The most challenging part of this project, and the most rewarding part, was that primary documentation didn’t exist. There was no book or film on this. I spent years on research before sharing it with Laverne Cox, who had a ton to add. We ended up with over 600 film titles and over 700 television titles, and we went through them all, familiarizing ourselves and finding the overlaps and touchstones. I consider all of our talent creative consultants, because they were crucial in building a collective memory.

Stacy, how did you begin your collaboration with Sam?

Stacy Goldate: No matter who you are as an editor, a project like this, one that can make a real impact — you’re lucky if it comes around once in your career. If there was anything that I could do as an ally, I wanted to help. When I worked on past archival projects like “The Nineties,” it was exciting to study my craft through an editorial lens. Sifting through film or television history allows you to see repetitions and make connections. For instance in comedy, there’s always the door opening. That’s the entrance. But it takes on a whole new meaning when it’s a man entering in a wig.

In my editing process, I like to have distance, where all I have to work with is what’s captured in the frame. I don’t want to know what happened two seconds before the camera was rolling or two seconds after. That allows me to have a relationship with the footage as it’s there, and to meet the interviewees as they are in conversation with Sam. At the end of every edit day, I would take what we called night notes. I would write almost a journal entry, recording anything that gave me that little feeling in my chest, or made me angry or sad or laugh. Then I raised those moments in dialogue with Sam.

How did you approach organizing the footage?

Stacy: From the beginning, we asked the question: Will people bump on this if we’re not telling this story chronologically, or should we organize it thematically? I think from a practical, editorial sense, chronology is tricky. If you have something happening in early cinema that’s making fun, and then a similar image comes back later, you’re going to have a lot of repetition. It starts to feel less like a story and more like a historical survey. You want there to be a build, and for people to be able to see the connections.

Sam: We were also basing the film in the experiences of the talent who were interviewed, and I really wanted the story to follow an organic memory flow. The reality of these stories is that they’re not chronological. The images are incessant. They repeat over and over, and then circle back later and reappear looking a little different. Stacy is really meticulous, and only after watching everything did she create these brilliant pods that were completely thematically reflective of my interviews.

How long have you been working with Adobe Premiere Pro, and how does it help your process?

Stacy: This was my second project on Adobe Premiere Pro. I think this is a great film to showcase Adobe, because I was dealing with so many ideas that needed organizing. Sam had structured each interview with his questions, and in my process in Premiere, I needed to mirror that. I found that Premiere is great for organizing because of its marking system. Something that’s really special is that, when you make a marker, there are two columns — basically a subject and then a description. So as themes would recur, I would write in “social order” or “history” or “visibility,” and then also add a more specific description. Later, when it came time to organize bite maps, I could easily pull everything about “visibility” to add to a map.

On Premiere, you can also color your different interviews, which helped me balance different voices and remember who was talking at which time. I’d say, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen blue in awhile, I’ll bring them back in here.’ You can read your timeline really cleanly that way, which also helped Sam when he was working remotely. Somebody once told me that your timeline is like sheet music. I’m not a musician, but I like to think of myself as a composer. In my heart it’s music.

A24 Sets Claire Denis Romance Thriller With Pattinson, Margaret Qualley — First Details

Claire Denis and Robert Pattinson openly talked about wanting to work together again while promoting their first collaboration, the space drama “High Life,” and now they’re going to get the chance with the French director’s next feature film, “The Stars at Noon.” Deadline reports that A24 has picked up North American distribution rights to “The Stars at Noon” ahead of the European Film Market kicking off this week. The project pairs Pattinson with “Fosse/Verdon” Emmy nominee and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” favorite Margaret Qualley. “The Stars at Noon” script is being adapted from Denis Johnson’s 1986 novel by co-writers Denis, Lea Mysius, and Andrew Litvack.

“The Stars at Night” is set during the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1984. Pattinson will star as a mysterious English businessman who meets an American Journalist (Qualley) reporting on the revolution. The two have an instant connection and a passionate romance ensues, only for a “dangerous labyrinth of lies and conspiracies” to force them to try and escape the country.

Denis and Pattinson’s “High Life” was released last year domestically by A24, making “The Stars at Noon” a reunion for the director and the actor. “High Life” grossed $1.2 million at the domestic box office. Wild Bunch is launching international sales on the project at the European Film Market. Deadline reports that Curiosa Films is producing with an eye on shooting the project later this year, making a 2021 theatrical release most likely.

For Pattinson, “The Stars at Noon” will mark a return to indie dramas after making a rare excursion into blockbuster territory with Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” and Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” Pattinson is currently in production on the superhero tentpole, which Warner Bros. will release in theaters June 25, 2021. The studio is also distributing “Tenet,” which stars Pattinson opposite John David Washington and opens nationwide July 17. “The Stars at Noon” is lining up to be Pattinson’s first post-Batman film project. The actor is also no stranger to headlining A24 films after starring in “The Rover,” “The Lighthouse,” “Good Time,” and “High Life.” The latter marked Denis’ English-language debut and she’ll be staying in that lane for “The Stars at Noon.”

New ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Clip Promises High-Stakes Action in Final Season

The six-year wait for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Season 7 is nearly over. The first episode of the series’ final season will premiere on Disney+ on Friday, February 21, and Disney has unveiled a new clip and several images to hype up the beginning of the end.

Like the show itself, Season 7 will focus on the end of the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars that defined much of the franchise’s mythology. The new clip from “The Bad Batch” teases a team-up with a squad of “favorably mutated” clone troopers, who will kick off the season with a mission behind Separatist lines.

Per Disney: “The forces of darkness have amassed great power in their bid to transform the Republic into the Galactic Empire. With the Republic on a losing streak, Captain Rex fears the Separatists are using stolen data to help predict the Grand Army’s every move. As the threat of defeat looms, Rex teams up with experimental Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch. Together, they embark on a high-risk mission behind enemy lines to uncover the truth behind the Separatist victories.”

While the series’ new clip is focused on the Clone Troopers, plenty of fan-favorite Force users will be returning throughout the upcoming season, including Anakin Skywalker, Darth Maul, and Ahsoka Tano.

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars”

Disney

“The Bad Batch” was intended to kick off Season 7 several years ago before production on the series was stopped. The episode would’ve been part of a four-episode arc. One of the series’ writers released plot details about the story arc in 2014, when the series’ future was uncertain — and unfinished story reels were also released — but only time will tell how the experimental Clone Troopers play into the overall series.

The seventh season of “The Clone Wars” will premiere a few months after Dave Filoni’s Disney+ tentpole “The Mandalorian” hit the streamer. Filoni served as creator and showrunner on “Star Wars Rebels” and is the showrunner for “The Clone Wars.” Like his animated series, “The Mandalorian,” which will return for a second season in October, enjoyed stellar fan reception.

“The Mandalorian” Season 1 finale teased that the Darksaber, a black-bladed lightsaber that originated in “The Clone Wars,” would play a significant role in future installments. Given the interconnected nature of recent “Star Wars” projects — and Disney’s need to keep the franchise in the public eye — don’t be surprised if similar teases pop up in the upcoming “The Clone Wars” season.

Check out the clip from “The Bad Batch” below:

‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Bonfire Scene: How Céline Sciamma Crafted the Year’s Best Musical Moment

The moment comes just a little past the halfway mark of the two-hour “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) have yet to acknowledge their growing desire when they are brought to an evening gathering of the women who live on the isolated island in Brittany. As the two soon-to-be-lovers exchange glances across the bonfire, a low, slow chant starts to rise as the rest of the women gather to sing.

The song grows, clapping starts, and they begin to repeat a lyric. When she was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, director Céline Sciamma talked about how she looked for an 18th century song to adapt, but wasn’t able to find one that fit her needs.

“I listened to a lot of old melodies from the time; some of them we are still singing to our kids to bed,” said Sciamma. “But I wanted it to be kind of a trance, I wanted the BPMs to be very high, and didn’t find something. It was all very instrumental, and I wanted no instruments. I wanted just the voice and the clapping of women.”

[You can listen to the song, which plays during the second half of the trailer below].

In an effort to get a song that had the beats per minute, polyphonic, and polyrhythmic qualities she needed, Sciamma decided to write the lyrics herself.

“I wrote the lyrics in Latin. They’re saying, ‘fugere non possum,’ which means ‘they come fly,'” said Sciamma. “It’s an adaptation of a sentence by [Friedrich] Nietzsche, who says basically, ‘The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.'”

As important as the love that develops between the two women is the backdrop that enables it: Héloïse’s mother (Valeria Golino), who is trying to marry off her daughter with the aid of Marianne’s portrait, has left. The barriers between artist, maiden, and their servant (Luàna Bajrami) break down. In the scene prior, we watch the three women relax together as they prepare a meal, drink wine, and debate Ovid’s version of the “Orpheus and Eurydice” myth. The scene that follows literally sets Marianne and Héloïse’s love aflame against an even larger scene of sorority. That was a specific choice by Sciamma.

“There’s a lot of lines that are merging at that moment,” she said. “This group of women, this big sorority that actually accompanies them, and taking the leap of love. There’s also literally the incarnation of the film; it’s very literal. They are facing one another, there’s fire between them, and one of them is going to be on fire, for real. I’m not spoiling because it’s on the poster. It’s also the moment where the film shows how literal it is, and that we’re going to set fire to the characters. The mise-en-scène is totally [consuming]. There’s no special effects; everything is done practical. So it’s also this idea of cinema.”

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

screen shot

Sciamma described the scene as the film’s clear turning point. The transition from putting out the fire on Héloïse’s dress is a fluid match cut to the lovers leading each other to their hidden spot on the beach where they will finally kiss. In addition to mirroring the rising of emotions that propel the transition, Sciamma also wanted the chanting and gathering around the fire to reference the 18th-century concept of witchcraft.

“It was a way to also convoke the imagery [of] witches,” said Sciamma. “In the meantime saying, ‘Well, you know, it’s just women gathering, living their friendship, exchanging knowledge, wise women, doctors, whatever, and, you know, drinking. It’s cold, so there’s a fire, and they might do drugs, you know, they fly. We wanted to convoke the imagery around witches.”

Prior to this scene, there is no music in the film. Sciamma knew that decision would force her to find the musicality in the rhythm of the scenes and movements of the actors. In directing her leads, she would even count out the number of steps they would take toward one another, so as to control the tempo and pace.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast

“Thinking about making a love story without music was really frightening,” Sciamma admitted. “Because every love story we know, we think about ‘Titanic’ we think about the music, we think about ‘Gone with the Wind’ we think about the music, we think about ‘E.T.’ we think about the music, and every love story has its own tune, ‘That’s our song.'”

In the film, Héloïse asks the far more worldly Marianne about music, which she dreams about, but has never heard. Sciamma’s choice to deny the audience music stemmed from wanting to place us in the character’s perspective, as well as the ideas of the film itself.

“The movie is also talking about the connection between love and art, and how love makes you love art,” said Sciamma. “I wanted the audience to be in the same position as the characters that they are frustrated because they don’t have access to beauty, in general, and to art in particular, so that was to put the viewer in the same physical condition and frustration regarding music, so when it occurs, it’s something.”

And it is really something. It’s one of the most powerful musical moments in recent cinema.

The Filmmaker Toolkit podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and Google Play Music. The music used in this podcast is from the “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present” score, courtesy of composer Nathan Halpern.

How to Watch Tomorrow Night’s Democratic Debate

The ninth Democratic primary debate airs tomorrow night (Wednesday, February 19) at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, broadcast live from Las Vegas, Nevada, a few days before the Nevada caucuses (Saturday, February 22). This debate will be hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, Telemundo, and The Nevada Independent.

The Candidates

Six Democratic candidates have qualified to participate in this debate:

• Former Vice President Joe Biden


• Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg


• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota)


• Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont)


• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts)


• Billionaire and Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

This is the first time Bloomberg will appear alongside his Democratic presidential rivals on the debate stage.

Billionaire Tom Steyer and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) failed to qualified the debate on both the polling threshold and delegate threshold fronts. Since the last debate (on February 7), Entrepreneur Andrew Yang has dropped out of the presidential race.

The Moderators

This debate will be moderated by “NBC Nightly News” and “Dateline NBC” anchor Lester Holt, “Meet the Press” moderator and NBC News political director Chuck Todd, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and host of “MSNBC Live” Hallie Jackson, Noticias Telemundo senior correspondent Vanessa Hauc, and Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent.

Where and How to Watch

There are a number of opportunities to watch the Democratic debate.

The event will be broadcast on NBC and MSNBC, as well as live-streamed on NBC News NOW, NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, the NBC News mobile app, NBC News and MSNBC’s Facebook pages, and online at The Nevada Independent. The debate will also air live in Spanish on Universo, as well as the Noticias Telemundo mobile app and website and Noticias Telemundo’s Facebook page.

The politics team at NPR.org will also be offering fact checks and live analysis throughout the night.

Amazon Studios, Once an Indie Haven, Concludes That Films Are Products

Amazon Studios went bold when it chose the first film to bear its name in 2015 — Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq,” the gun-violence musical satire based on an Aristophanes play, with a portmanteau title that combined “Chicago” and “Iraq.” It was a tough sell, even for Lee, who said “everybody said no except Amazon.”

It was also that year Amazon assembled an indie dream team to run its film operation — festival-favorite producer Ted Hope, “Pan’s Labyrinth” marketer Bob Berney, and former critic Scott Foundas. For independent filmmakers and audiences who loved them, the e-commerce giant’s foray into movies looked like a much-needed boost.

But just a few years later, that era is over. Although Hope and Foundas are still in place, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke has spent 18 months heading the operation and, as she told the New York Times, she is steering the film division in a new direction: It will focus on movies that build its subscriber base.

Salke said Amazon will release as many as 30 movies annually: young adult films (a lesbian romance from “The Babadook” writer-director Jennifer Kent), dark thrillers from “Get Out” producer Blumhouse Prods., and “provocative” dramas from producing partners like Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films. Some will see a theatrical release; many won’t.

“My mission is clear,” Salke told the Times. “The details of it are in progress.” She then continued: “The mission is to align the movie side to the same values of trying to get premium content to the global consumer. That’s what pays the bills. I will have streaming movies that I will deliver at a regular cadence to my customers globally.”

“I will have streaming movies that I will deliver at a regular cadence to my customers globally” may not be much of a rallying cry, but it’s very likely the truth: Amazon Studios realizes that serving its corporate parent means that film content is a product not unlike those that fill its endless digital shelves.

Certainly, Amazon still can be expected to place its bets on a few auteur-driven, Oscar-seeking theatrical releases each year. However, while Amazon’s 2016 “Manchester by the Sea” became the first Best Picture Oscar nomination for any streamer, Salke serves at the pleasure of a publicly traded company that currently trades at $1,722 per share. That means thinking on a worldwide scale — the same equation that’s led major studios to shift their focus to billion-dollar franchise tentpoles.

One of the first casualties was the death of Amazon Film Festival Stars, a short-lived program open to official selections at major festivals. Amazon would cut a guaranteed check, with preferred royalty rates, for films that would premiere on Amazon Prime. In 2017, 100 Toronto International Film Festival titles took advantage of the deal, which cost Amazon advances of $5.8 million.

Amazon has been mum on killing the popular program, but it clearly didn’t make financial sense — likely because the audiences for those movies didn’t move the needle on Amazon Prime subscribers, the mandate for any streaming service.

Salke’s directive also puts into question development projects like “This is Jane,” the underground abortion network drama with Michelle Williams attached to star and Kimberly Peirce in line to direct, and Andrew Sodroski’s “Holland, Michigan,” a script that topped the 2013 Black List.

“Late Night”

Emily Aragones

At Sundance 2019, Salke was busy acquiring films that would go on to perform poorly at the box office: “Late Night” (acquired for $13 million, grossed $15.49 million) and “Brittany Runs a Marathon” (acquired for $14 million, has grossed $6.86 million).

The press slammed her buying spree as ill-advised — coverage that Salke told the Times was “frustrating.” “Late Night” has performed particularly well on Amazon Prime, she said, it’s been streamed more than any other Amazon original since it dropped on the service just a month and a half ago.

That’s a particularly important point for Amazon as it moves toward a distribution model that concentrates on its core entertainment product — its streaming service.

The studio previously abided by the traditional three-month exclusive window before putting its movies up on Prime. Lately, it’s mirrored Netflix’s strategy of releasing films in very limited runs before making them available online. The studio originally intended “The Aeronauts” to see a full release, including IMAX; now, it gets two weeks before it moves to Prime December 20.

Ultimately, it’s not an unfamiliar strategy. Netflix has strong Oscar contenders like “Marriage Story” and “The Irishman;” it also maintains a multi-picture Adam Sandler deal that produced popular films like “The Hateful Eight” and “Murder Mystery.”

Amazon Studios, Once an Indie Haven, Concludes That Films Are Products