Months after you thought Award Season was over for the year, MTV reminds you that it doesn’t have to be. While MTV already falsely takes credit for being “music” television, they also like to assume power over the film industry as well. Only at the MTV Movie Awards, to air May 31, would Slumdog Millionaire, Twilight and High School Musical 3 be competing for Best Movie (what an insult to Danny Boyle).

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Missed Tribeca? Or just missing it? Check out the School of Visual Arts’ 20th Annual Dusty Film and Animation Fest. The festival, featuring 100 films by graduating students, started yesterday and will continue through May 10.

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Looking to see some real scandalous cinema? The Film Society of Lincoln Center is hosting “Clandesti: Forbidden Catalan Cinema Under Franco” beginning Friday, May 8 and running through May 12. Here you’ll be able to witness the most radical filmmakers living under Franco’s reign in the 1960s and '70s, those who captured the ongoing social, economic and cultural effects of the Civil War that pervaded through Spanish life and politics.

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Tomorrow night, the 92nd St. Y is presenting Jim Henson’s documentary from 1968. And no—it doesn’t document a day in the life of Kermit and Miss Piggy (but that would sort of be amazing). Before his Muppet days, Henson created a doc called Youth ’68 for NBC’s “Experiment in Television” series, which has yet to be screened since its network premiere. The film juxtaposes interviews with musicians and students with avant-garde stylizations, including appearances by Jefferson Airplane and The Mamas and The Papas.

And now we have our answer to how Henson came up with his brilliant idea of the Muppets: he was a hippie. Maybe that was too obvious.

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The 8th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival terminated with one final blast of green. At the Heineken-sponsored Wrap Party at the Union Square Ballroom on Saturday, the lighting matched the beer’s iconic labeling and the Audience Award Winner, Raymond De Felitta of City Island, received $25,000 for making so many Tribeca-ers happy. And that was without beer. The fest’s final debaucherous hours sort of became the ultimate college frat party: undernourished Heineken goddesses served a bustle of plus ones from a jumbo-sized keg as the bowtie and black-rimmed glasses wearing DJ spun snippets of Phil Collins and Flo Rida. You could sign your name (or write obscenities) on the glow in the dark board marked with motivational phrases like “Give Yourself a Good Name,” “Greenlight Yourself“ and “Choose Substance Over Special Effects,” while sipping the special Tribeca cocktail coined “The Red Carpet” a delicious combo of Stoli Raz, cranberry juice and Snapple. (And really, do try that at home.) All around, a perfect way to cheers the end of a week and a half of re-instilling economy back into lower Manhattan...even if most of the films were screened above Houston Street. 

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Stripped of the thrill of celebrity sightings and indie film screenings, film fests are basically about one thing: partying. I assume this to be a mantra of festivals in general: “work” in the daytime (aka watch movies) and “celebrate” in the evening (aka get wasted on free booze).

At Tribeca’s “Industry & Filmmakers” party last night at M2 Ultra Lounge, this mantra was fully realized. Imagine a sea of lonely wandering journalists, vague industry mavens and nondescript filmmakers flooding a trendy nightclub blaring the sounds of Lady Gaga and Depeche Mode. Above, “acrobats” adorned in corsets and fishnets swung from the ceiling by lush pieces of fabric and a man in a checkered body suit wrapped himself in bubble-like latex. No resemblance to the Tribeca film festival whatsoever. Really.

As for real Tribeca updates (aka the daytime shenanigans), De Niro & Co. announced the award winners of the fest.  The lucky ones included Ian Olds of Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi for Best New Documentary Filmmaker, Here and There for Best NY Narrative and About Elly for Best Narrative Feature. With jurors such as Uma Thurman, Meg Ryan and Mary-Kate Olsen, that’s quite an honor.


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In a world where a chess game is equivalent to a night of steamy passion, you have to be a little skeptical. In Caroline Bottaro’s first feature, chess is played up to the extreme, turning the game into an excruciatingly obvious motif throughout the film.

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“It’s a story about brotherhood made by brothers,” Carlos Cuarón prefaced the NY premiere of his film, Rudo y Cursi on Sunday. Brotherhood is essential when discussing Cuarón’s latest— his own brother, Alfonso, directed Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna in Y Tu Mamá También (which the two Cauróns co-wrote) eight years ago. Now, Bernal and Luna (“with less hair and more body fat,” said Bernal) play brothers in Carlos’ film inspired by his own relationship with his sibling. It’s one of those interconnected movie circles that makes you happy to witness such an amiable role-reversed reunion.

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Ever dream of looking as cool as James Cagney in a gangster film? Well, probably the best (read: the smartest, no doubt) way to simulate this suicidal lifestyle is through passively engaging in a movie. Film Forum is hosting a “Con Man Film Festival” from May 8 through 21, featuring 21 movies of cinema's great criminals, con-artists, prisons, etc. The fest will kick off with a double feature of Howard Hawks’ The Criminal Code and Mervyn LeRoy’s I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. Later on, you can catch some other classics involving masters like Cagney and Bogart, in addition to some Pre-Code scandals. The mini crime fest will also screen some newer additions to the genre, like Cool Hand Luke, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Les Miserables. So put down the gun and plan to head to film forum for this little sampling of cinematic criminal activity throughout the ages.

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Tribeca has not traditionally been known for much of a marketplace. Yet, amidst the majority of films entering Tribeca without distribution, a few lucky have already been snatched up.

Early in the fest, ESPN Films bought the right for the doc “The Lost Son of Havana,” directed by Queens-native Jonathan Hock. With the Farrelly brothers as backers and exec producers, and Chris Cooper as narrator, the film tells the story of baseball pitcher Luis Tiant (Boston Red Sex, Cleveland Indians) returning home to Cuba and witnessing the immense transformations his country has undergone.

HBO claimed TV rights to “Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi,” a documentary about the 24-year-old Afghani “fixer” translator who was kidnapped and killed by the Taliban in 2007. The film is set to premiere in August.

This past Sunday, First Run Features picked up “Defamation,” a doc exploring current issues of anti-Semitism and identity crises in and around the Jewish community.

Meanwhile, companies are vying for “Eclipse,” Tony-nominated writer/director Conor McPherson’s drama starring Ciaran Hinds, Iben Hjejle and Aidan Quinn. Submarine Entertainment, Lionsgate, Magnolia and Roadside are allegedly in a cash battle for the film’s rights, which could mark Tribeca’s biggest sale in four years. Recession? Movie companies–even "indie" ones—don't stop for a silly little recession.

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