The Independent Film Festival Boston would like to congratulate three alumni of our festival who were invited to become voting members of the Academy of Arts & Sciences (the people behind the Academy Awards) this past week. Our congratulations go out to:

- Michael Cera (actor), who attended the festival in 2006 with the short film DARLING, DARLING.
- Michael Wilkinson (Costume Designer), who served on our short film jury in 2004.
- Doug Pray (documentary filmmaker), who attended the festival in 2006 with his film INFAMY and again in 2009 with his film ART & COPY.

It was announced today that Joe Berlinger’s IFFBoston 2009 Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary CRUDE has been picked up for distribution by First Run Features. A theatrical release is scheduled for this September so if you missed it at the festival, don’t make that same mistake in September. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t seen Berlinger’s previous phenomenal work, go rent BROTHER’S KEEPER, PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER. You won’t be sorry.

Congratulations to Joe on the award, the distribution deal, and on making another great film.

Several distribution deals were announced for IFFBoston titles during the festival last week and we’d like to congratulate these filmmakers and the distributors wise enough to pick them up.

Robert Siegel announced during his Q&A for BIG FAN (IFFBoston 2009) that his film had just been acquired by First Independent Pictures for a theatrical release set for late summer/early fall of 2009.

Andrew Bujalski’s BEESWAX (IFFBoston 2009) was picked up last weekend by the Cinema Guild and will open on August 7th at the Film Forum in New York, to be followed by a national release shortly after.

And lastly, director Jared Goodman informed us at the festival last week that ESPN had attended IFFBoston 2008 to see his documentary feature, RUMBO A LAS GRANDES LIGAS and shortly thereafter acquired the film.

So congratulations to these filmmakers for making great films and we hope everyone reading this will make sure to check out all three of these films when they play in your area. We’ll keep you updated here on other IFFBoston titles that get picked up for distribution.

The 2009 Independent Film Festival of Boston has just concluded and its time to announce all of the award winners.

Best Marketing: (TIE) SHOOTING BEAUTY and LOLLIPOP MAN
The crews of these two films worked the hardest throughout the festival to promote their films’ screening.

Another tradition at IFFBoston is that there is a filmmaker candlepin bowling challenge each year. The bowling awards went to:

BEST BOWLER: Scott Teems, THAT EVENING SUN
MOST CONGENIAL BOWLER: Tze Chun, CHILDREN OF INVENTION
BOWLS MOST LIKE A FILMMAKER: Michael Axelgaard, LOLLIPOP MAN

Congratulations to all of our award-winning filmmakers!

If you like the rest of the IFFBoston Staff can’t believe yet another festival has come and gone, you can keep the spirit alive by attending a screening of INTIMIDAD (IFFBoston 2008).

One of our kick-ass volunteers, Scot, has organized a screening of the film with Directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (INVISIBLE GIRLFRIEND 2009) in attendance at the Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge.

Here are the details! Be there or be… square? (That’s lame - I’m tired)

INTIMIDAD: A HOME MOVIE - an original Mexican love story about family relationships and the meaning of “home.” Cecy and Camilo – ages 21 – recently moved to the border, Reynosa, Mexico, from Santa Maria, Puebla with a dream to save money, buy land, and build a home. A year later they return to their rural hometown to reunite with their two year-old daughter Loida. What seems like a satisfying reunion turns into a confusing dilemma that transforms the course of their marriage. Both the family in the film - and the directors - documented INTIMIDAD over the course of 5 years, lending the story to an incredibly intimate, dream-like impression. INTIMIDAD mixes digital verite with Super 8 and 16mm film stock. Running Time: 72 mins

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday April 29th
Where: Fayerweather Street School 765 Concord Ave, Cambridge
Who: Directors David Redmon & Ashley Sabin will be present for a Q&A after the film
Cost: $5
More info: oxholm@gmail.com or 617 876 4746 (school’s number)

Hey everyone,

It has been a great festival these past six days and we hope you’ll all come out to help us finish it off with our Closing Night film, WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. Bobcat will be in attendance for a Q&A about this excellent dark comedy. Tickets can be purchased and picked up at the Coolidge Corner box office window starting at 6pm tonight.

And please note, the screening IS at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, not the Somerville Theatre, as was incorrectly reported in today’s Boston Metro. The screening will be at 8pm and there will be some nice surprises before the screening.

We look forward to seeing all of you there!

IFFBoston Volunteer Spotlight: Susannah Buzzard

What can you say about Susannah Buzzard that hasn’t already been said? Wait, most of you folks probably don’t know her so there’s actually a ton that needs to be said. Susannah first and foremost wins the award for Best Dressed Volunteer at IFFBoston.

She’s the kind of volunteer that shows up for her shift wearing an adorable vintage skirt, a scarf, her red “crew” shirt and red heels to match… it takes a certain person to pull that off and we love that she can. In 2009 she not only offered to work over 4 shifts but she also brought us 8 new volunteers this year. She’s like our very own personal PR person and we adore her for that!

Here’s what Suzy had to say about working with IFFBoston:

I just returned from seeing THE VICIOUS KIND, a film that Dan (IFFBoston Managing Director) describes as a “relationship melodrama.” I biked home to write this profile while still in the afterglow of this film. I loved how Krieger takes a character whose external actions and language is despicable and asks us to like him anyway. And we do. I knew I would adore the film, as Neil Labute (The King of the Psychologically Perverse but Likeable Character) produced it; VICIOUS KIND shows us the vulnerability of those who are in pain and deflect that pain by trying to hurt others. As a counseling psychology graduate student who works with troubled adolescents, it is fitting the genre “relationship melodrama” would be my favorite.

I grew up in a family where analyzing movies was not only natural, it was expected. We would speak in the car ride home about the motivations of characters, the symbolism inherent in a specific line, or a theme we thought the director may have intended for viewers to internalize. I went to writing school just after college, and though I have chosen psychology as my chosen career, the writer in me never completely disappeared. Due to my passion for stories, I love to surround myself with creative people, even when the muse within has retreated to a mere corner of my consciousness.

The Independent Film Fest gives me the rush of witnessing the creative process. Whether through filmmaker parties or Q & A’s which occur directly after a showing, being a volunteer at the IFFB offers me a window into an entire slew of new fictional characters in the movies themselves as well as a glimpse of how these stories are created. As much as I have always loved movies, when the credits roll, all you have left is your imagination and the conversations that ensue. Hopefully you brought an interesting friend. But at the film festival, everything from the character motivations to the type of film that was used are fodder for questions that you can actually ask the filmmakers. I was stunned last year after sitting in the back of the theater to watch NATURAL CAUSES (an ostensibly simple but extremely powerful story of all the little moments that seem to inevitably erode a romantic relationship), the filmmakers walked on stage. It was the first time I have been so close what happens behind the curtain. I was especially floored to learn that these young filmmakers were going to sing karaoke afterwards, just as regular people do. I liked NATURAL CAUSES and was so impressed by the genuine affable quality of its filmmakers that I wrote about it on my Live Journal, and the filmmakers actually found the entry and wrote to say they were glad I liked the film. The IFFB allows you to see a film and talk the people who created it before the hype eclipses the film itself, which can unfortunately happen. Just as those in the music world like to see bands at TT’s before they hit Foxwoods, I love seeing films at the IFFB before they hit Netflix. I’m not sure if the filmmakers at IFFB are approachable because they make indie films, or because they’re not super famous yet, but whatever the reasons, I really dig the lack of pretension of which the IFFB seems entirely devoid. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey everyone,

The first screening of THE LOST SON OF HAVANA has sold out of advanced tickets. A second screening has just been added for Sunday April 26th at 5pm at the Somerville Theatre, but tickets are expected to sell quickly, so buy your tickets here.

Don’t miss this one!

We thought it would be fun to shine some web-time on our amazing volunteers this year.  As a 100% volunteer run organization, the festival would not be possible without the 200+ volunteers that help us put on the festival.  Because they are the heart and face of IFFBoston, it’s only fitting we give some of them a moment in the spotlight.

IFFBoston 2009 Volunteer of the Day: Scot Oxholm

Scot has been a huge supporter of IFFBoston and our Alumni filmmakers.  Not only is he a volunteer that goes out of his way to help us at any cost, he’s a volunteer that attends more films than almost anyone coming to the festival.  In 2008, he saw 17 films and worked a number of shifts for us while somehow maintaining his full-time job… corrupting educating children!

Last year he began pimping IFFBoston alumni films on his own by bringing the cast and crew of DARIUS GOES WEST (IFFBoston 2007) to his students at the Fayerweather Street School!  Come on, that’s pretty amazing.  You can’t deny it!

Here’s what Scot had to say about why he came to IFFBoston - in his own words.

My first experience with IFFBoston came during the first year of the festival when I saw MELVIN GOES TO DINNER.  I was excited about the idea of a new film festival in Boston, and saw one or two things every year thereafter.  It wasn’t until two years ago, though, that I actually got involved.  In February or March I was checking the website for info and saw that there was a link about volunteering for the festival.  I hadn’t really thought about volunteering until the opportunity was right there in front of me, but it didn’t take me long to decide that it was something I wanted to do.  So, I filled out all of my information and waited to see if/when I’d be working.  I remember being really excited when I got my first e-mail from Tania listing my volunteer shifts for that year.  (And being thankful that she was so gracious about allowing me to shift my schedule when I needed to!)

My first year at the festival was a revelatory experience.  I was amazed at the energy and spirit of the organizers and my fellow volunteers, as well as the quality of the films and the post-film discussions with the filmmakers, and I knew after that year that the second half of my April vacation was going to be devoted to IFFBoston for a long time to come.  My second year at the festival was similarly incredible and I still have all of my ticket stubs from the films I saw last year.  I’m looking forward to this year’s festival starting up and am excited to continue to be involved.  I’ve already spent hours looking over the schedule trying to decide what I want to see when I’m not volunteering.  As always, this year’s festival is so densely packed with things I’d like to see that I can’t possibly see them all.  And frankly, given that most of the year if I saw three movies in a week there would be very little left that I was interested in, having a week where I can see 17 and still have ones left that I didn’t get to see is pretty incredible.

My favorite experience of my first year at IFFBoston was meeting the crew from DARIUS GOES WEST at one of the festival parties and realizing that their movie was an absolute must-see for me. DARIUS GOES WEST became my favorite film from that year’s festival, and a year later I organized a screening of it at the Fayerweather Street School, where I teach middle school math.  We had an incredible night watching the film and were lucky enough to have Darius and some of his crew there to answer questions and hang out with some of my students after the film.  And that is precisely why I love IFFBoston so much: because it hasn’t just given me a week of incredible films to see, it’s also allowed me to feel more connected to the world of film, and has inspired me to do more to bring that connection into my school.  And this year I’m continuing the tradition of showing an IFFBoston alum at Fayerweather with a screening of INTIMIDAD the day after the festival ends. David Redmon and Ashley Sabin have a film in this year’s festival as well (INVISIBLE GIRLFRIEND) and will be staying in town an extra day so that they can attend our screening.  It should be an incredible evening and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gotten involved in IFFBoston!

If you’d like information on Scot’s next presentation of an IFFBoston alumni film here you go!

INTIMIDAD: A HOME MOVIE - an original Mexican love story about family relationships and the meaning of “home.” Cecy and Camilo – ages 21 – recently moved to the border, Reynosa, Mexico, from Santa Maria, Puebla with a dream to save money, buy land, and build a home. A year later they return to their rural hometown to reunite with their two year-old daughter Loida. What seems like a satisfying reunion turns into a confusing dilemma that transforms the course of their marriage. Both the family in the film - and the directors - documented INTIMIDAD over the course of 5 years, lending the story to an incredibly intimate, dream-like impression. INTIMIDAD mixes digital verite with Super 8 and 16mm film stock. Running Time: 72 mins

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday April 29th
Where: Fayerweather Street School 765 Concord Ave, Cambridge
Who: Directors David Redmon & Ashley Sabin will be present for a Q&A after the film
Cost: $5
More info: oxholm@gmail.com or 617 876 4746 (school’s number)

The festival kicked off to an amazing crowd for THE BROTHERS BLOOM!  The entire IFFBoston Staff wants to thank everyone for standing outside in the pouring rain and celebrating Opening Night with us!

Director Rian Johnson was incredibly adorable and we hope that you enjoyed his Q&A.  Once again, if you haven’t seen his film BRICK, rent it immediately - you will not be disappointed.

Huge thanks to Rian for coming and celebrating our 7th year of bringing the best of independent film to Boston.