FLIFF!

The Ft Lauderdale International Film Festival is the world's longest film festival - meaning the festival itself lasts longer than any other -- almost an entire month.  Are these people insane?

Seriously, this fact can be attested to by the Guiness Book of World Records seal on the cover of the catalog.

In addition to this fun fact, FLIFF is a great time. THE AUTEUR enjoyed a raucous screening at the cutest theater called Cinema Paradiso.  It used to be a church, this theater, and it gave us a perverse sort of thrill to be showing this particular movie there.  

Crowd was wildly enthusiastic, laughing and gagging in equal measure.  

Met lots of cool filmmakers.  One of the best parts of any festival experience is co-mingling w/ the locals and being in a stranger's car on strange roads-- a person whom you who neither know nor trust-- and getting that feeling of both "I'm gonna have fun and get drunk with the locals," and "this person is gonna thrill-kill me."

To Chicago now.  

Cinema Paradiso!

Wanted to share a picture I just got from James on his way into the afterparty in Florida. Sounds like it was a great screening and I hear that those Floridians know how to pour a strong drink!

Ft. Lauderdale and Chicago

The Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival is throwing us an Auteur party!  I will be arriving with one of the stars of the movie, Ms. Denise Chanterelle Dubois, and we will be likely hanging out with what I like to picture as a combination of High-Society Floridians and hardcore porn nerds.  More on that when it happens...

The last time I was in Florida was with Film Geek at the Sarasota Film Festival, and my producer Byrd McDonald and I were at a party with Katherine Harris!  And then we met her again the next day!  Hopefully something that scary will happen around Halloween, when Denise and I fly from Florida to....

Chicago Underground FF!

This will be something of a homecoming for me, as I took my 2nd feature BLOODY MARY there way back in 1996.  It was a super atmosphere-- the programmer Bryan Wendorf let me stay at his house, the screening was packed and people were laughing, and-- seriously, now-- Roger Ebert wrote about the movie.  In a positive way.    

It was like summer camp, this place, this CUFF-- and I met some awesome film people: Tommy Pallotta, Marne Lucas, Dante Harper, Sarah Jacobson (RIP), and many others.  

This year we have a prime Thursday night (9pm) screening, and Matt Dentler-- who heads up Cinetic Rights Management (which is repping THE AUTEUR), will be there for the IFP Filmmaker's Summit (all day long on Nov. 1st) talking about the ins and outs of digital distribution.  Matt mentioned the festival (and us) the other day on his blog.

In other news, the IFC featurette that came out during our run at Tribeca (and went seriously viral) continues to be very popular and now has over 7 million views.  Check it out here.  

If anyone knows how to turn those kind of numbers directly into cold hard cash, please let us know...  

Florida Press

New review (kind of) of the film out in Florida. Honestly not sure what to make of it, but a little press is a little press, right? If anyone has Leslie Nielsen's info, please forward to him with Arturo's regards...

Read the review here

Florida and Chicago...in one weekend

Our heart goes out to our fearless director James - next week he heads to Florida and Chicago to attend the screenings of The Auteur. He's going to need some company, so hoping you'll come out and have a beer with him after the screenings.

Incredible London Screening!

On the way home to Portland after an incredible Raindance screening. Sold-out, raucous crowd seemed to love the movie. If the ensuing partying is any guide, the film definitely got everyone in a good mood.

Everyone at Raindance has been incredible. While we are exhausted, it's still hard to leave this awesome festival.

Time to rest up for three state-side fests in the next three weeks! And, our Portland premiere is less than 7 weeks away!

Auteur Screening Tonight!

   

Last night, we had the good fortune of catching Les Claypool's hilariously spot-on mockumentary ELECTRIC APRICOT, which, you know, reminded us of Portland hippies and how much we love them.  A behind-the-scenes look at a "jam band" on their way to a Cochella-like music festival, the movie feature surprisingly strong music and some hilarious performances, especially from Claypool himself.  We got to hear him talk after, which was super-cool. 

We are less than 4 hours away from the U.K. premiere of THE AUTEUR.  

The gang is frantically getting dolled up, rushing to make our dinner reservations, and in general enjoying our London adventure.  

Today we attended an awesome workshop led by Stacey Parks, whose book has been a battle-

guide for us.  She was great, and we invited her and her cool assistant to our screening tonight.  

We've met a great many people, and are totally stoked about tonight! Fingers crossed, wish us luck, and check back for at least one more blog from our trip ends! 

Raindance Film Festival

The AUTEUR team is in London for our UK Premiere!  We're having a swell time: going to pubs, getting really drunk, seeing movies, meeting other filmmakers (and getting really drunk with them), etc.  

Tonight we're going to Les Claypool's movie ELECTRIC APRICOT, which sounds quite hilarious.  Tomorrow night is our premiere and we are PUMPED.  

Also excited cuz we just found out we are in the Chicago Underground Film Festival!  This fest is an absolute BLAST and we are thrilled to be included in the lineup.  It takes place October 29th thru November 2nd...

THE AUTEUR gets a rep

THE AUTEUR just signed a deal with Cinetic Media's new Digital Rights Management Division to rep our film.  Um, yay!  This is the company that sold Little Miss Sunshine and Napoleon Dynamite.  

We are very excited about the online, on-demand, and DVD possibilities for the movie, and partnering with this amazing company will help insure its success.  

For more info on this new enterprise, click here.

Cocktoberfest

Cocktober is here and THE AUTEUR has things to do.  

We are leaving for London on Monday to show the British our outrageous porn comedy.  The Raindance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in all of England, and we are SO honored to have our UK premiere there.  ALSO, Kim Deal from The PIXIES is one of the festival jurors this year!  This is especially meaningful to writer-director James Westby, who has had a Pixies-boner for most of his life.  

And get this!  The festival has an online tv station where you can watch a really neat (and exclusive) behind-the-scenes making of The Auteur video!  Just click here.

More great news cumming soon!