Festivals

That so many of the films at the New York Film Festival this year focused on ugly and stressful subjects feels not like a demerit, but rather a catharsis—a healing that can only be done in a dark room, surrounded by others.

Sundancing With Myself, Vol. 2

For any theoretical questions concerning how to Sundance, I was more concerned with the question of why to Sundance. And the answer is: access to a week of new sensation and perception in the doldrums of mid-winter.

I Love To Love: Dispatches from NYFF 59

Festivals Issue 100: Transcendence

As I walked up the steps to the Walter Reade theater, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of triumph, my first day back on campus. Everyone was there! In line, tired, clutching cheap coffee and festival badges. Some people got haircuts. Even the grumps were buzzing, happy to finally have some place to be.

Getting into a TIFF

Zosha Millman·

There are worse ways to ride out the pandemic than mainlining some three dozen or so movies in a week, finding delights where you least expect them.

South-By-Pacific-Northwest

Zosha Millman·

There were days where I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be able to sit with loved ones and share these first-time viewings in real time, and others when the combination of quarantine cabin fever and less-than-stellar runs of films made it seem like everything would be mediocre. A privilege and, 32 movies, shorts, and episodes later, a pile-up.

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (all images courtesy of the Sundance Institute)

Sundancing with Myself: Dispatches from a Virtual Festival

If there was any tangible loss in a virtual Sundance, it wasn’t the loss of celebrity sightings and frostbitten extremities; it was the loss of a shared narrative on what the week had provided.

The Festival!

Fran Hoepfner on Nomadland, Lovers Rock, Malmkrog, Undine, The Human Voice, The Truffle Hunters, Night of the Kings and more from this year's (remote) New York Film Festival.

Wendy (Benh Zeitlin) | Courtesy of Sundance Institute

I Lost It at Altitude: Missives from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Part Two

I frequently took my mental temperature after this year’s Sundance screenings, searching for symptoms of that dreaded ailment, festival fever. I’ve fought mightily to maintain critical detachment, but it bears acknowledgement that the following assessments were made during one of the most emotionally tumultuous weeks I can remember.

Reeling at Altitude: Missives from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Part One

There’s a question that has long been my personal riddle of the sphinx: what is “a Sundance movie”?

Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman' premiered at this year's NYFF | Netflix

Fran At The Festival: Dispatches From NYFF ’19

Fran Hoepfner on The Irishman, Uncut Gems, Marriage Story, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Parasite, First Cow, and other highlights (and not so highlights) from the New York Film Festival.

The Great Celluloid North: BW/DR’s Post-Mortem from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

Charles Bramesco·