Tag Archives: Filmland

FILMLAND to feature Andrew Stanton of TOY STORY 4 and “Stranger Things”

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Two-time Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton is bringing Toy Story 4 to FILMLAND!

He also directed episodes of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and will screen Episodes 4 & 5 of Season 2 as well.

Tickets are not yet on sale for individual screenings, but if you want to have the first opportunity to reserve a seat, you can purchase a FILMLAND Pass.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton was raised in Rockport, Massachusetts. He was educated at The California Institute of the Arts (or “CalArts”) in Los Angeles, where he studied character animation. After graduation, Stanton began working as a writer on the TV series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987). In 1990, he became only the second animator and ninth employee to join Pixar Animation Studios.

Stanton went on to help establish Pixar as one of the world’s leading animation studios. He was designer and writer on Toy Story (1995), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He went on to write and direct such worldwide hits as A Bug’s Life (1998), Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL·E (2008), the latter two both winning Oscars for Best Animated Feature. Stanton also dabbles in voice work, perhaps most memorably as Crush, the laid back turtle, in Finding Nemo (2003).

Submissions open for Arkansas Cinema Society Filmland: Arkansas 2019

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LogoThe Arkansas Cinema Society and its premiere event Filmland were created to build a film community in Arkansas where film lovers can watch films, share ideas, connect with each other and nurture the new and existing film talent within our state through increased exposure to filmmakers and their art.

Filmland returns this August to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock, furthering ACS’s mission to promote local filmmakers with Filmland: Arkansas. Information and details on how to submit to Filmland: Arkansas can be found in the specific short film and feature film categories.

The past two years have included Academy Award nominated actor Adam Driver, five-time Oscar nominated Director Richard Linklater, Director David Lowery, Producers Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Actors David Arquette, WIll Forte and Ted Danson and Oscar winner and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen. Screenings also feature Q&A’s moderated by ACS Founder and Director Jeff Nichols and every night is topped off with a party for filmmakers and attendees.

Filmland 2019 will take place the weekend of August 23rd. The exact dates, events and other details will be announced once special guests are finalized.

Awards & Prizes

ACS Filmland is a non-competitive, curated event but there will be an audience award for the Filmland: Arkansas program.

Rules & Terms

Submissions are for Arkansas filmmakers who either made their film in Arkansas or for an Arkansas Filmmaker who is an Arkansas producer, director, or writer of a film. Films may also be considered if an Arkansas native was the lead or key role as an Actor, Supporting Actor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Sound Designer, Composer, Editor, Cinematographer, Animator, Visual Effects, Makeup and Hair or First Assistant Director. The Arkansas filmmaker(s) must be available to attend the screening for a conversation after the film.

More information (including a link to submission) can be found here.

Rock the Oscars 2019: Mary Steenburgen

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It is Oscar month, so it is fitting to highlight at Arkansas’ own Academy Award winning actress, Mary Steenburgen on her birthday.  She was born on February 8, 1953, in Newport, Arkansas.  After moving to North Little Rock as a schoolgirl, she had her first starring role as Emily in the 1971 Northeast High School production of Our Town, which was the new school’s first play.

Her big break in the movies came when Oscar winner Jack Nicholson picked her to star opposite of him in Goin’ South.  This was followed by Time after Time before she appeared in Melvin and Howard.  For that film, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  It also marked the first of three times she starred with Jason Robards (the other two being Parenthood and Philadelphia).  Over the years, her films have run the gamut from period piece (Ragtime, Cross Creek) to sophisticated comedy (Romantic Comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy) to fantasy (Back to the Future III) to holiday comedy (Elf).  She has been hard to pigeonhole into a specific “type” of actor because she has played so many different types of roles.

Throughout her career, Mary Steenburgen has been a champion of the arts in Central Arkansas.  In 1986, she starred in and was executive producer of End of the Line, filmed in Central Arkansas, directed and co-written by Arkansan Jay Russell, and also starring Kevin Bacon, Wilfred Brimley, Levon Helm, Barbara Barrie and Holly Hunter.  More recently, Steenburgen has also been an active supporter of the Oxford American magazine as well as South on Main restaurant and performance venue.

She has been an active supporter and a board member of the Arkansas Cinema Society.  During the 2018 FILMLAND she appeared in panel discussions on comedy and on her TV show “The Last Man on Earth.”

Rock the Oscars 2019: Richard Linklater

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Arkansas Cinema Society’s Jeff Nichols (left) with 5 time Oscar nominee Richard Linklater at ACS’s 2018 FILMLAND opening night. (Photo from ACS)

The 2018 Arkansas Cinema Society FILMLAND kicked off with a screening of Richard Linklater’s THE NEWTON BOYS. 

Linklater, a multiple Oscar nominee, founded the Austin Film Society, which was one of the models for the creation of the Arkansas Cinema Society.  Following the screening of his film, he engaged in a conversation with filmmaker Jeff Nichols, who is a founder of the ACS.

Linklater is mostly known for his realistic and natural humanist films which revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. Some notable films of his include the observational comedy film Slacker, the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused,” the romantic drama film trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, & Before Midnight and the music-themed comedy School of Rock, as well as the rotoscope animated films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

In 2002, he began filming “Boyhood,” a passion project which took over twelve years to complete. The film was released in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim. Linklater won the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture.

Linklater was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2004’s Before Sunset, 2013’s Before Midnight, and 2014’s Boyhood. He also picked up a Best Director and Best Picture nomination for the latter.

 

ANTIQUITIES plays Riverdale 10 Cinema January 25 to 31

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One of the hits at the Arkansas Cinema Society’s August 2018 Filmland event was Arkansas made film Antiquities.

It has been picked up for distribution and will screen at the Riverdale 10 Cinema from January 25 to 31. Tickets can be purchased here.

After the first screening during Filmland sold out quickly, a second screening was added.  But there are many people who did not get to see it, or want to see it again.  Now is that chance!

After his father’s death, a young man – WALT (Andrew J. West) – moves to his dad’s hometown in order to learn more about who his father was. Walt decides to stay with his awkward aunt and her family, whose denial makes his search nearly impossible. He accepts a job in a local antique mall where his boss quickly offers him the possibility of a management position; however, a mean-spirited co-worker isn’t pleased by his new competition and proceeds to sabotage any chance Walt has. Walt then meets ELLIE (Ashley Greene), an eccentric and crude free spirit who still manages to be irresistibly charming. He finds himself completely enamored, though both are hesitant to pursue a relationship. Walt ends up not only finding out who his father really was, but learns more about himself than he ever thought possible.

The cast includes many Arkansas actors such as Mary Steenburgen, Graham Gordy, Jason Thompson, Alanna Hamill Newton, Jeff Bailey, Damon McKinnis, Joanne Riddick, the late Fran Austin, and a brief cameo by David Bazzel as well as Rett Tucker as a bingo caller.

Filmed in and around Arkansas, the movie was directed by Daniel Campbell from a screenplay by Campbell and Gordy.  Cinematography was by Gabe Mayhan.  The film was produced by Campbell, Gordy, David Jennis, Jayme Lemons, Gary Newton, Angela Prosser, and Kathryn Tucker.