Stay in the loop!

With The Auteur heading to the great world of Theatrical, DVD, and Internet distribution over the coming weeks, now is a good time to subscribe to our feed to make getting updates easy! On the right side of the blog you'll see an easy way to signup for email updates, and below that a RSS feed subscription service for those of you in that world.

Also, head over to the website to sign up for the very special Auteur email list. We haven't sent out an email to those signed up over there, so you still have time to be a recipient of that very special news bulletin. Might even include a premiere party invite...

Thespian Malkasian wins Award in Florida!

Our hugely talented leading man, Melik Malkasian, has been named BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival!!!  

He joins other winners JANE LYNCH (Best Actress in a comedy) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Best Actress/Drama); not bad company at all. Way to go, Melik!

Check it out here.

CUFF!

Chicago Underground Film Festival.

The screening last night KILLED.  Some old friends were in the audience (some of whom acted in and worked on the movie) so it was an extra special night!  A riotous reaction was had to FULL METAL JACKOFF, as usual.  

Watched Digital Distribution panel with Matt Dentler from Cinetic Rights Management (who is repping The Auteur) and others this morning. Very easygoing and informative.  Then I was on the CUFF Director's Panel with two documentarians and Chusy Haney-Jardine, who made ANYWHERE, USA.  

Lance Hammer, the BALLAST director, was in the audience and referenced several times by folks on the panel, for his work (and the documenting of that experience) in self-distributing his film.  I sat next to Mr. Jardine, whose movie was the opening night film here (and also played in competition at Sundance).  He was very down-to-earth and we bonded over our love for low-fi filmmaking. 

 

Also saw the other CRM-repped film at CUFF, We Are Wizards-- a documentary about serious Harry Potter fans.  VERY funny and original (thanks to amazing subjects and remarkable craftsmanship).

Waiting for a photo of my panel by a wire photographer who promised to send me one-- so in the meantime, enjoy this (none TOO fascinating) video of people piling into the Viaduct to see The Auteur!

Denise and I at Lake Michigan

Giovani Knox and Comic Book Extraordinaire Ezra Daniels after the screening.

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