It's Monday morning in Park City (and the rest of the United States) as folks are getting their first solid glimpses of the docu-class of 2010.
We've rounded up the critical reaction to opening night doc RESTREPO, big buzz title CATFISH, world cinema title THE RED CHAPEL and two US competition docs from Oscar winners - Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR SUPERMAN and Leon Gast's SMASH HIS CAMERA. We'll have more critics surveys of this year's doc class as the week continues.
In other Sundance coverage, the NY Times profiles Participant Media's Diane Weyermann (the company has four documentaries at Sundance this year). They also describe what happened when Bill Gates showed up at a screening of competition doc A SMALL ACT. Last week, Movieline's S.T. Vanairsdale reported on the opening day press conference where Robert Redford talked about the departure of Geoff Gilmore and said, "We were beginning to flatline". Anne Thompson digs further into Redford v. Gilmore. And remember when we asked back in November "what does it say, exactly, that John Cooper's first year at the helm begins with the declaration that Sundance needed a rebirth and a re-charge?".
Meanwhile, away from Park City, life continues. THE COVE, which before Christmas looked to be locked in a tight Oscar race with FOOD, INC., now seems to be pulling away. A string of critics prizes, three Cinema Eye Honors (including Outstanding Feature) and a win Sunday night at the Producers Guild - along with the sense that FOOD, INC. just isn't trying that hard - seem to suggest that Louie Psihoyos' film is on the fast track for the Academy Award. Anything can happen, of course - we don't even know who the five nominees are going to be. But unless there's some kind of huge momentum shift when the nominees are announced (to Agnes Varda per chance?), more and more industry folks now seem resigned to a COVE win.
Our own thoughts on this year's Cinema Eye Honors, along with links to others' coverage is here. More coverage since then by Tom Roston on the POV Blog, Hammer to Nail's Michael Tully, nominations committee member Tom Hall, IFC's Alison Willmore, Movieline's Airsdale and About.com's Jennifer Merin. Further, POV Intern Alice Rhee writes about playing Mad Libs with Albert Maysles and being inspired to tell her own stories and Bob Alexander of Cinema Eye founding sponsor Indiepix posts his welcome remarks from the ceremony.
You can find pictures from this year's ceremony and afterparty along with this year's winners at the Cinema Eye wesbite. [Kudos again to Cinema Eye's amazing 2010 design team - Ben Chlapek and Ryan Nelson.]
With Sundance having cleared its first weekend of premieres, some spring festivals are now locking in their schedules, ready to soon announce their own fest line-ups. Columbia, Missouri's True/False Film Festival has announced six titles for this year's festival, including Laura Poitras' THE OATH, Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME, Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman's THOSE WHO REMAIN, Kaspar Astrup Schröder's THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS, Don Hahn's WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY and Marshall Curry's RACING DREAMS.
And finally, much congratulations to our friends and colleagues Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, who welcomed their son Bez Powers Neihausen on Saturday. There are photos and a (humorous, not-at-all-graphic) blow-by-blow of the arrival on the Stranger Than Fiction blog, where Thom notes that mother and father decided to forgo having the event documented on camera. Here's a raised glass to the growing familia.
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