The International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) has announced the winners of its third annual Short Film Showcase competition.
The winners include: Cynthia Pusheck’s One Hand Left; Ken Glassing’s Everyday; Todd A. Dos Reis’ Fortunate Son; Philip Hurn’s Rebirth; Jay Williams’ The Boy with the Flip-Top Head; Hisham Abed’s Mi Abuela; Ed Gutentag’s Cosmos Tale; Frederick Iannone’s Decent; Richard Cantu’s The Dog People; William Molina’s Reducing Stanley; and Rodney Taylor’s Grind.
The films will be initially screened at the Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles, on May 2, and later be shown at the TriBeca Film Center, New York, on May 8. They will also be featured at The American Pavilion at the Cannes International Film Festival, May 12-23. Dates for subsequent screenings in Chicago and Orlando, Fla., will be announced.
A lavish, MGM-style musical is not typical Sundance Film Festival fare. But Sunday night Bill Condon brought such a creation—well, part of one—to Park City, Utah, with his adaptation of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," starring Jennifer Lopez.
Audiences broke out in spontaneous applause during the screening for Lopez's song and dance numbers. She plays an old Hollywood screen siren in a movie-within-the movie. The packed Eccles Theater also gave Lopez, wearing a glittery spiderweb themed frock, a standing ovation after the show.
"I've been waiting for this moment my whole life," Lopez said.
The story, which revolves around the conversations between two cellmates in an Argentine prison, was first a novel by Manuel Puig in 1976 and has been adapted for stage and screen over the years. A 1985 film adaptation starred William Hurt and Raul Julia. Hurt won an Oscar for his performance. On Broadway, it won multiple Tony Awards.
Condon wrote and directed this new version, which is seeking a distributor. Diego Luna plays an imprisoned revolutionary Valentin Arregui, whose new cellmate Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) loves movies, celebrity and glamour and enthusiastically recounts the story of a favorite movie musical, called "Kiss of the Spider Woman" to Valentin, giving them and the audience a break from their bleak reality.
While the film has memorable moments of escapist spectacle, it also delves into serious topics of gender identity. Molina tells Valentin that they don't feel like a man or a woman—which Valentin finds odd at first but grows to understand.
Before the screening, Condon said that one of the things the movie is about is "the attempt to bridge the incredible differences that separate us so often." He quoted President... Read More