Like a boisterous, smiley, fur covered behemoth, LOCO has arrived at the BFI Southbank, literally putting a smile on London in what is meant to be its most depressed week. Whilst the sky outside looked overcast, amongst the gathered attendees at the comedy film festival’s inaugural education event, the Locollege, there was not a grey cloud in sight. Before the festival had even begun, its organisers were already thinking of the future by enabling participants to kick start their comedy…

I was honored to be on the jury for IDFA DocLab this month in Amsterdam. It was a treat to be able to spend a couple of days reviewing and discussing interactive projects and no easy task to pick a winner but in the end we went with Insitu, a cinematic and delightful exploration of public space and how we interface with it through art, philosophy, city planning and design. This is what we said about it: Cinematic, poetic and…

When it was announced that David Cronenberg was to direct the screen adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure, there was a palpable buzz in the air. Given Cronenberg’s history of producing idiosyncratic and rigorously intellectual films with a taste for the psychoanalytic, the idea that he was to venture forth into the combative relationship between Freud and Jung was a tantalisingly sexy prospect. Set in turn of the century Vienna, A Dangerous Method details the relationship between psychoanalysists…

The Descendants is the latest film from indie kingpin Alexander Payne. Whereas directors such as Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach have snared the market for disenfranchised New York youth, Payne has been slowly chipping away at securing the thirty to forty demographic with his brand of ever so slightly acerbic elegies to Middle America.  However, with his latest film, also his first in seven years, the bile seems to have evaporated and instead been replaced by a mawkish, touchy-feely sensibility…

Carnage might be the most efficient film Roman Polanski has ever made. Sprinting in at a nimble eighty-one minutes, it contains only four main speaking roles (minus a few phone conversations) and apart from the opening and closing shots is contained entirely within the fussy confines of an upper-middle class New York apartment.  Based on Yasmina Reza’s award-winning comedy The God of Carnage , the film concerns itself with two couples who have come together to sort out an altercation…

Shame the latest film from Turner Prize winner artist turned filmmaker Steve McQueen, has slinked into town on a wave of tremendous hype and prestige.  Having gone down a dirty little treat in Toronto and been awarded the Volpi Cup at Venice for Michael Fassbinder’s all too revealing performance, Shame dares to look at the sheet stained world of sex addiction. Whilst drug dependency has often been a source of dramatic tension in cinema, sex addiction is often presented in comedic fashion.…

Take Shelter is the second feature from director Jeff Nichols which has already acquired a fair amount of hype in the UK after its well received screenings at both Sundance and Cannes; where it won the Critics Week Grand Prize.  The film stars Michael Shannon, whose reptilian features and cracked southern drawl (think Buffalo Bill a la Silence of the Lambs) have secured him the role of Hollywood’s latest psychopath du jour (next seen as General Zod in the latest…

This Must Be the Place, the latest release from Il Divo director Paolo Sorrentino, exists paradoxically as one of the best, most refreshing, films of the year, whilst simultaneously displaying such a perverse disregard for taste, logic and convention that it’s surprising how well its exceptionally disparate parts hold together. Seemingly influenced by David Byrne’s directorial début True Stories ( the evidence being that both films share an idiosyncratic view of brash, primary coloured Americana, the Talking Heads title song and Byrne…

Interview by Hélène Mitjavile, filmmaker / producer at Melocoton Films After four marvelous days at Sheffield Doc/Fest, where I watched a number of great documentaries, attended a series of passionate masterclasses, met lovely people from all over the world and took part in a crazy hustling and break dancing sessions, I must say the highlight of this year’s festival for me was the screening of The Interrupters and to meet its director, Steve James. The film tells the story of…

We’re heading to EIFF next week to run our third Short Sighted event, a half day session devoted to helping filmmakers get their short film exhibited and distributed. All the details of the event can be found in our Calendar. We’re particularly pleased to be welcoming Jon Reiss as our Keynote Speaker. Jon is not only a successful filmmaker himself, but also has a lot to teach UK creatives about the evolving landscape of film distribution which is being shaped…