The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the films that will be featured in their New Auteurs and American Independents sections at the upcoming AFI Fest 2017 presented by Audi. Selections include a number of lauded features from around the festival circuit, including Cannes offerings like “I Am Not a Witch,” SXSW favorites like “Gemini” and “Mr. Roosevelt,” the Sundance breakout “Thoroughbreds,” and Joseph Kahn’s Toronto Midnight Madness favorite “Bodied,” among others.
Highlighting first- and second-time feature film directors, New Auteurs is designed as the festival’s platform for upcoming filmmakers from all over the world to showcase their new films. This year, the section includes 11 films, nine of which come from female directors. Similarly, AFI Fest’s American Independents section aims to represent the best of this year’s independent filmmaking. Pushing boundaries of form and content across narrative and documentary cinema, this section includes 11 films from both fresh...
Highlighting first- and second-time feature film directors, New Auteurs is designed as the festival’s platform for upcoming filmmakers from all over the world to showcase their new films. This year, the section includes 11 films, nine of which come from female directors. Similarly, AFI Fest’s American Independents section aims to represent the best of this year’s independent filmmaking. Pushing boundaries of form and content across narrative and documentary cinema, this section includes 11 films from both fresh...
- 10/16/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.
World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Pearblossom Hwy is the second collaboration between Director Mike Ott and Actress/Writer Atsuko Okatsuka. Their trilogy began with 2010's Little Rock and their forthcoming feature, Lake Los Angeles, will conclude their “Antelope Valley Desert” series.
The film opens in the style of a video diary with a teenage stoner filming himself. Ott uses extreme- close-ups to make Cory's stream of consciousness feel all the more personal, despite his slightly shallow hopes and dreams: “What can I say? I'm a troublemaker. I've always wanted to be a rebel with no cause. I've always wanted to be a rock star too...”
Director: Mike Ott
Writer: Mike Ott, Atsuko Okatsuka
Release Date: April 17 2013
Country: USA
Running Time: 78 mins
Certificate:15
Starring: Atsuko Okatsuka, Cory Zacharia, John Brotherton...
The film opens in the style of a video diary with a teenage stoner filming himself. Ott uses extreme- close-ups to make Cory's stream of consciousness feel all the more personal, despite his slightly shallow hopes and dreams: “What can I say? I'm a troublemaker. I've always wanted to be a rebel with no cause. I've always wanted to be a rock star too...”
Director: Mike Ott
Writer: Mike Ott, Atsuko Okatsuka
Release Date: April 17 2013
Country: USA
Running Time: 78 mins
Certificate:15
Starring: Atsuko Okatsuka, Cory Zacharia, John Brotherton...
- 4/28/2013
- Shadowlocked
Back in 2010, Mike Ott's second feature film, "Littlerock," made a considerable impression on the indie-film world. Beyond winning top awards at AFI Fest and Independent Film Festival of Boston, "Littlerock" won both the "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" prize at the Gotham Awards and the "Someone to Watch" award at the Independent Spirits -- pretty much the holy duo of support for an emerging American indie filmmaker. Two years later, Ott has followed up the promise that came with those accolades with "Pearblossom Highway," which had its world premiere at the just-wrapped Vienna International Film Festival last week before heading to AFI Fest for its American debut this past weekend. The film, in large part, continues both the themes and approach of "Littlerock," a risky move that pays off quite nicely. Ott again collaborates with Atsuko Okatsuka (co-screenwriter and lead actress) and Cory Zacharia...
- 11/8/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
The AFI Film Fest (11.01-11.08) have announced the line-ups for our favorite sections at the fest in the Young American selections and New Auteurs section and they’ve managed to stack up on titles that are amongst the year’s best and which in the case of two films were mysteriously passed over by the likes of Telluride, Tiff and Nyff. Michel Franco’s After Lucia (see pic above) and Antonio Campos’ Simon Killer will be making the Los Angeles premieres accompanied by the best title to come out of the Main Comp at this year’s Cannes edition in Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog. This trio will be joined by a trio of gems that recently premiered at Tiff in: Maja Miloš’ Clip, Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die and Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking. In the Young American Selections we find some filmmakers (Sean Baker and Amy...
- 10/3/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Forum panelist Mike Ott
Film Independent Forum panelists span a broad spectrum of filmmaker categories, from major Hollywood screenwriters, independent producers, crowd-funding experts, studio execs, and the list goes on. They’re coming together the weekend of October 21 to engage in meaningful conversations regarding the state of the indusry, the challenges we are overcoming and to talk about what we all love: film. One of the panelists participating this year is Mike Ott, Spirit Award grant winner for his film LiTTLEROCK, the story of two Japanese siblings deserted in the small Californian town of Littlerock and the characters they come across. Mike is also a professor at USC, and writer/director of his latest film, Teenage Wasteland. I sat down with Mike to cover a range of topics, from his quirky and oft-used leading actor, filmmaking influences, and finding a community among his peers.
On LiTTLEROCK and Working with First...
Film Independent Forum panelists span a broad spectrum of filmmaker categories, from major Hollywood screenwriters, independent producers, crowd-funding experts, studio execs, and the list goes on. They’re coming together the weekend of October 21 to engage in meaningful conversations regarding the state of the indusry, the challenges we are overcoming and to talk about what we all love: film. One of the panelists participating this year is Mike Ott, Spirit Award grant winner for his film LiTTLEROCK, the story of two Japanese siblings deserted in the small Californian town of Littlerock and the characters they come across. Mike is also a professor at USC, and writer/director of his latest film, Teenage Wasteland. I sat down with Mike to cover a range of topics, from his quirky and oft-used leading actor, filmmaking influences, and finding a community among his peers.
On LiTTLEROCK and Working with First...
- 10/10/2011
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent
Title: Littlerock Writer-director: Mike Ott Starring: Atsuko Okatsuka, Cory Zacharia, Rintaro Sawamoto, Roberto Sanchez, Brett L. Tinnes, Ryan Dillon A nicely photographed and initially intriguing character study of a road trip gone awry, and a sibling pair of foreign travelers waylaid in a land foreign to them, “Littlerock” quickly fumbles away any sense of delicate engagement, and ends up a collection of posed and meandering down-tempo moments in search of an inciting incident or clarifying signifier. Pleased with itself more than it ought to be, the movie seems to believe or feel that dawdling for dawdling’s sake is in the end its own kind of precious artistic statement, a fact only underscored...
- 9/3/2011
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
As a way of celebrating this year's nominees for the Spirit Awards in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, we reached out to as many as we could in an effort to better understand what went into their films, what they've gotten out of the experience, and where they've found their inspiration, both in regards to their work and other works of art that might've inspired them from the past year. Their answers will be published on a daily basis throughout February.
Honored already at the Gotham Awards as this awards cycle's "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You," Mike Ott's sophomore feature will no longer bear that title after its win guaranteed a theatrical run in New York at the Cinema Village sometime in the immediate future. And as it turns out, that was merely a precursor to its win as this year's recipient of...
Honored already at the Gotham Awards as this awards cycle's "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You," Mike Ott's sophomore feature will no longer bear that title after its win guaranteed a theatrical run in New York at the Cinema Village sometime in the immediate future. And as it turns out, that was merely a precursor to its win as this year's recipient of...
- 2/6/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Best Documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" It's hard to know whether street artist Banksy's feature documentary is what it claims to be—a doc about an obsessive man who falls in love with the world of street art (where artists place their work in public, risking arrest for vandalism), fashioning himself as the most financially successful street artist in history—or is Banksy's best prank to date. The film follows the life of buffoonish French expatriate Thierry Guetta, a happy-go-lucky proprietor of an overpriced hipster-wear store in West Hollywood with the curious habit of videotaping everything that happens to him. Guetta persuades his cousin, a street artist known as Space Invader, to become the subject of a "documentary," which leads Guetta to other street artists like Obama icon-maker Shepard Fairey and ultimately to the white whale of street artists: the ultra-secretive Banksy (interviewed in silhouette, of course...
- 1/20/2011
- backstage.com
Year: 2010
Director: Mike Ott
Writers: Mike Ott, Atsuko Okatsuka, Carl McLaughlin
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Littlerock California is a quiet little town located in the “fruit basket” of the Antelope Valley. It’s also the titular town of Mike Ott’s new film and the place where two Japanese tourists, siblings Rintaro and Atsuko, end up after their car breaks down while en route to San Francisco. This is the duo’s first trip to the United States and they end up stranded in small town California waiting for their new rental car to arrive.
Their first night in town, the siblings find their way to a party with a group of local kids and it’s there that they meet Cory, a friendly local smitten by Atsuko who offers to show the girl around town. From here, Rintaro and Atsuko hang out...
Director: Mike Ott
Writers: Mike Ott, Atsuko Okatsuka, Carl McLaughlin
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Littlerock California is a quiet little town located in the “fruit basket” of the Antelope Valley. It’s also the titular town of Mike Ott’s new film and the place where two Japanese tourists, siblings Rintaro and Atsuko, end up after their car breaks down while en route to San Francisco. This is the duo’s first trip to the United States and they end up stranded in small town California waiting for their new rental car to arrive.
Their first night in town, the siblings find their way to a party with a group of local kids and it’s there that they meet Cory, a friendly local smitten by Atsuko who offers to show the girl around town. From here, Rintaro and Atsuko hang out...
- 10/19/2010
- QuietEarth.us
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