Hunting Santa Claus- literally.

In 2003, Finnish director Jalmari Helander made a zany short film about smugglers in the business of hunting Santa Claus and inadvertently created a viral sensation. The short, “Rare Exports Inc.,”  and its 2005 follow-up, “Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions,” contained a playfully inventive hook: Helander imagined Santa as a naked, bloodthirsty species far from the charitable bearded gentlemen of Christmas lore. Captured and tamed, Santas could be shipped to consumers each Christmas season and delight clueless children around the globe. By meshing action-adventure tropes with dark comedic inspiration, Helander created an utterly unique high concept premise that practically demanded elaboration. Seven years later, he has taken the inevitable next step with “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale,” a feature-length adaptation of the material. Although it contains the same goofy spirit, Helander fails to build on the original lunacy, suggesting that great short films may owe part of their appeal to brevity.

That does not make “Rare Exports” any less fun than its predecessors, at least for a little while. The movie technically functions as an origin story, setting the stage for the Santa export business that Helander so cleverly explored in the shorts. It opens with an excavation of Santa’s Finnish tomb, establishing a mood filled with such a familiar kind of cinematic wonder—aided by Juri and Miska Seppä‘s exaggerated orchestral score, and the exoticism of the barren icy climate—that you almost expect Indiana Jones himself to waltz through the scene. Helander mercilessly cribs from the energy of kids fantasy movies from the 1980s, establishing his self-made Santa mythos with a mixture of innocence, wonder and otherworldly creepiness worthy of Tim Burton. “The Coca-Cola Santa was a hoax,” concludes wide-eyed loner Pietari (Onni Tommila), a young boy whose father owns a slaughterhouse on the outskirts of the excavation site. After spying on the Americans unearthing Santa, Pietari does his homework, and learns that the creature was lured into a frozen lake by an ancient civilization. It turns out Saint Nick wasn’t so jolly, but rather a dangerous pest intent on kidnapping naughty children.

Absurd as it sounds, Helander actually manages to play it straight for much of the running time. Using a spare cast and relying more on atmosphere than special effects (the Santa creatures are, after all, just wizened old men), his narrative suggests John Carpenter’s “The Thing” for the holiday season. Sadly, the appeal of the director’s openly derivative approach grows redundant after he establishes the basic threat of Santa unleashed, and the build-up goes nowhere. Only when Pietro’s father and a colleague discover an elderly man caught in a bird trap outside, unaware of the situation at hand, does the suspense nudge upward. But there’s no follow through; we never get the chance to see the full lethal potential of the beast in question.

With hardly any of the run-and-gun entertainment or consumerist satire present in the shorts, it seems as though Helander couldn’t find an ideal strategy for expanding his initial conceit. The climax borrows the worst clichés of modern blockbusters where the earlier scenes borrow some of the best. Helander’s trite, half-baked resolution is held down by murky action and lacks a thrilling showdown. It’s like he suddenly lost a sense of humor, which demolishes the unique vision evident in the shorts. If anything, Helander should have taken even more liberties with the Santa myth and pushed the excessive genre components to an extreme.

An obvious bid for a franchise, “Rare Exports” leaves room for plenty of sequels and the possibility that Helander, a capable filmmaker with the capacity for emulating the feel of a polished Hollywood product, could nail it better the next time out. Then again, perhaps his follow-up should return to the short film realm. The flaws of “Rare Export” offer an important reminder that looking good on YouTube does not provide qualifications for a bigger screen. - Eric Kohn

SnagFilms to Expand Library’s Reach to New Platforms

Documentary distribution outlet SnagFilms—the parent company of indieWIRE—will unveil later today an expansion of the platforms for its nonfiction titles that is timed to its second anniversary, as well as deals with a range of companies for more films. Snag will bring its library of 1,500-plus films to a suite of new sources beyond the original web platform upon which it was launched. New outlets will include the creation of VOD channels with cable network Comcast and Verizon FiOS TV. Additionally, selections from SnagFilms’ library will be available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes and for rental from YouTube’s premium program. There will be both free and paid options for watching films on the new Apple iPad.

Overall, the deals being announced today will increase the size of the company’s library and also bring the titles to an array of outlets instead of relying just on the Internet. Notably, the move highlights a shift away from an entirely free model for accessing some documentary features and shorts.

Select SnagFilms titles will be available through mobile phone carriers worldwide via A3 Media Network, Snag will announce. In the fall, its library will be accessible to internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and set-top boxes. Plans are underway as well for the launch of SnagLearning, a site that will be made available next month to educators in time for the new school year, with over 100 films available to educators for grade and subject, to which supplemental study materials will be added.

Also on tap, SnagFilms will now offer films produced by indie studio Lionsgate, large documentary aggregator New Video/Docurama, select student films from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, selections from the National Film Board of Canada, a Flip Cam film from the Disney Imagineers showing their creative process, and an array of extreme adventure and music films from the production arm of Red Bull.

Currently, SnagFilms is hosting its second annual SummerFest, which began July 15th. The series offers viewers screenings for two weeks of six documentaries headed to theaters or television in the Autumn. This year’s crop includes “The Age of Stupid,” “Shooting Robert King,” “Disco and Atomic War,” “Videocracy,” “The Socalled Movie,” as well as “A Fighting Chance,” which will later be shown on ESPN.

“Our first two years were aimed at building our library and making those films widely available,” commented SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen, in a statement to be widely distributed this morning. “Our 1,500 films are available on mainstream media sites.”

“We started SnagFilms two years ago for four simple reasons,” said SnagFilms founder Ted Leonsis in a separate statement being issued today by the company. “We wanted to use the scale and interactivity of the web to bring great films to a broader audience. We wanted to create new tools and revenue opportunities for the entire indie ecosystem – filmmakers, festivals, film schools, non-profits, journalists and advertisers. We wanted to provide context and a community for film fans and the industry. And we wanted to deepen the reach of what we call filmanthropy.”

A profile in The New York Times today that broke the news of the deals said that Snag is also working on a deal to put its films on Netflix, but the Times said that the pact is still in the works. The piece, by Michael Cieply, said that Snag is aimed at, “distributing as many as 100,000 films,” quoting Ted Leonsis.

Founded by AOL Vice-Chair Emeritus Leonsis, SnagFilms has become the web’s largest home for non-fiction films, with more than 1500 documentaries streamed free to consumers on 90,000 websites and webpages. 

“Two years in, we believe we are benefiting every aspect of the indie world,” Rick Allen said in his statement, “And define our success as a ‘double bottom line’ business that does well by doing good.” - Brian Brooks

New Non-Profit aims to rep & support Indie Films

Nine films, including Sundance 2010 feature “One Too Many Mornings,” have allied with The Film Collaborative, a new non-profit group that aims to provide a range of services, including distribution and social networking services. Founded by former Wolfe Releasing exec Orly Ravid and Jeffrey Fabian Winter,  programmer/co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival’s “New Frontier” section, The Film Collaborative aims to provide a range of what it describes as “affordable” distribution, educational and marketing services to independent filmmakers, but it will not take film rights. Other notable insiders aligned with the organization include Rose Kuo, who recently left AFI Fest.

Additionally, the organization plans to present itself as an aggregator, allowing members of The Film Collaborative access to various digital and VOD distributors, including iTunes, Brainstorm Media, The Cinema Guild, Babelgum and others. According to the group’s website, deals are also pending with Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand.

Projects involved with The Film Collaborative in various capacities, so far, include: SXSW Film Festival winner “Made in China” by Judith Krant, Joshua Grannell’s “All About Evil,” Ari Gold’s “Adventures of Power,” Michael Mohan’s “One Too Many Mornings,” Haim Tabakman’s “Eyes Wide Open,” George O’Donnell’s “College Boys Live,” Meredith Scott Lynn and Bradford Tatum’s “Standing on Fishes,” Matt Dunnerstick’s “The Custom Mary” and Jonathan Leyser’s “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within.”

Membership in the organization ranges from $50 to $250 through its formal launch in March and prices will increase afterward. Fees and percentages are also attached to its various services.
In addition to digital distribution and social networking services, TFC plans to provide marketplace consultation, handle non-theatrical, festival and educational bookings and outreach, provide strategies for domestic and international sales, assist on DIY theatrical sales. Former AFI Fest artistic director Kuo is also coming on board to spearhead the group’s exhibition components, including what it calls national film showcases, including a traveling film festival and an online film event.

“I started out in distribution 10 or 12 years ago,” TFC co-founder Orly Ravid told indieWIRE by phone. “I never felt comfortable with layers of middle men. At some point I thought, ‘let’s make this a non-profit and I want it to be service based.’”

Ravid went on to say that they are not against distributors, but said that since not every filmmaker will find a deal, they want to become a destination for their projects. “It’s great to be able to tell filmmakers that if you don’t get a deal, you can get your film out there.” - Brian Brooks

The World As We Know It Is Over? 10 Insights on Today’s Film Business

“The way we operate is being dissected and reassembled in front of our eyes,” noted Endgame’s James D. Stern in a keynote speech at the Los Angeles Film Festival over the weekend (which was published in its entirety by indieWIRE). Later that day, a panel of key industry players gathered at the fest’s Film Financing Conference to, as moderator and industry blogger Anne Thompson put it, “parse the desperate stage of the indie economy” right now. The panel, titled “The World As We Know It: Is It Over?,” included “Che” producer Laura Bickford, Christian Gaines of Withoutabox, Ted Mundorff from Landmark Theatres, “Notorious” producer Bob Teitel, and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch from Oscilloscope Laboratories.

The discussion touched on how to profit from Internet and VOD distribution plans, the increasingly uncertain fate of traditional media, the financial limitations of producing independent film in the current economic climate, and the recent formation of DF Indie Studios. Though realistic about the challenges facing the industry, all the panel members offered valuable insights on how to make the financing, marketing and distribution of independent films come together during tough times.

1. Christian Gaines on the changing role of film festivals.
Insight: Festivals may be returning to their roots as a showcase for filmmaker’s work and become less of a platform for corporate sponsors and the industry to promote themselves.
“The 80s and 90s came along and there was a proliferation, a globalization and standardization of film festivals. All of a sudden film festivals had to serve other constituents besides simply filmmakers and audiences but also sponsors and the media, the film industry and so on… Every town has a film festival, there are film festivals of every possible genre, every possible niche that you can think of. And so now we’re kind of entering this world where nontraditional distribution platforms are starting to emerge and film festivals are definitely coping with and struggling with that new world. There’s real fear, I think, of obliteration. People think that technology will obliterate anything that came before it and I don’t believe that at all. I do think that film fess have to recalibrate, reboot, what their role is and why they’re important beyond simply promoting a sponsor’s product or beyond being a good junket for a few celebrities prior to the theatrical release of a big film. I do think that there are some fundamental core principals that film festivals are returning to such as presenting a film in the best possible picture and sound and honoring the artist by yielding to the experience, yielding to their work of art from beginning to end. I believe that film festivals are returning to that.”

2. Adam Yauch on starting an independent distribution company, Oscilloscope Laboratories, during a recession.
Insight: Allow your company to grow at a manageable rate and don’t just rely on traditional marketing to get the word out about your film.
“The time we actually launched the company was just before the economy tanked so that was not actually part of the decision making process. But it actually worked out all right because the company’s already so small and we started looking at picking up inexpensive films and distributing them in ways where we weren’t spending too much on ads and finding other ways to do the press for it… And so far it’s been okay because we’ve been able to ramp up the company in a way that feels like it makes sense with where the economy is at, rather than being in a place where there’s already a company that has hundreds of employees and has to refigure how to deal with people buying fewer DVDs.”

3. Laura Bickford on the innovative VOD distribution model for “Che.”
Insight: VOD may be able to maximize a relatively small marketing budget’s impact.
“On ‘Che’ we couldn’t get a US distributor to be interested while we were shooting because it was in Spanish. And it wasn’t politics like a lot of people thought it might have been. It was that the US distributors make a huge chunk of change on pay television. Pay television deals cover their marketing costs on movies. The more your movie makes at the box office, the more pay television has to pay for it. But it’s only for English-language products. It was a financial reason that they didn’t want to spend the marketing dollars on it. We thought if we went to Cannes and won an award—which we did—that there would be a buyer… Fortunately we ended up with IFC films and approximately one million dollars in marketing money—no money to go to the Oscars—and happily at Landmark and VOD which was fantastic for us. We got to maximize all our marketing dollars by having people be able to buy it at home at a good price at the same time they went to the theater.”

4. Bob Teitel on the announcement of the formation of and speculation surrounding DF Indie Studios.
Insight: If DF Indie Studios is, in fact, real, the formation of an independent production company is a risky move but a hopeful sign.
“It’s like opening a car company now… People were so surprised that during these times a company would come out like that. I know everyone’s trying to figure out if it’s real or not, who’s in it and who’s not. It’s a positive thing if it is real. And I hope it is real for everybody’s sake.”

5. Laura Bickford on the state of the major studios.
Insight: The current distribution model of major studios is simply not sustainable and can not successfully be applied to smaller budget films.
“The reason the studios aren’t doing these [smaller budget] movies isn’t because of taste, it’s because the economic model didn’t work for them. And right now they know they’re on their way down, too. The studios are facing what the music industry was facing. They know that they’re dinosaurs, they know that they’re bloated and they know that they’re going to be over. But they don’t know when and they don’t know what’s going to replace it. Nobody knows how to monetize the internet, nobody knows how monetize video on demand and other forms of that, which is the way of the future shared with the theatrical experience… But they just don’t know where their revenues are going to come from… If we can show them how to make money on smaller budget films they’d be doing it.”

6. Ted Mundorff on the changing roles of traditional media and the film critic.
Insight: The impact that a local critic in print can have on a film’s performance at the box office has not been supplanted by the internet.
“We’re scared to death that critics have gone away. Wire services don’t cut it. Those reviews, the aggregators, just don’t do the same job as your local critic does in all the markets in the country. Currently, when a local critic reviews a film positively, there’s a spike in box office. I have never seen a spike in box office because of an online critic.”

7. Christian Gaines on piracy.
Insight: The often long period of time between a film’s premiere at a festival and its eventual theatrical release can harm its success in an increasingly on-demand world by killing buzz and encouraging piracy.
“I think the long lag between the excitement a film generates on the festival circuit and then its eventual theatrical release—the three, four, five, six, ten month lag—can kill a film and open it up for piracy… I think the only thing one can do is have due diligence, have caution [to guard against piracy at festivals]... It’s the answer to a lot of things but it really has to do with education and letting people know that pirating something and receiving something that is pirated is a crime.”

8. Laura Bickford on the state of indie distributors.
Insight: Filmmakers have to be realistic about their chances of getting distribution through an indie studio which is even tougher now than it has been in recent years and budget accordingly.
“The bad news is, there’s a huge constriction. Most of the indie distributors have gone down as we’ve known it so there will be new ones… It’s a great time for new ones. But they take a while to ramp up so right now it’s very constricted for US distribution. As your financing model for film, you can’t really count on that as a ‘money piece,’ you can’t give a value to it, if you can get it. So that’s really, really tough. And at the same time the foreign buyers are not buying [like they were before the recession]. It’s devastated them so they’ve bough nothing this year… [Indie filmmmakers need to be] realistic about what the economic value of your film is so that you can price it accordingly.”

9. Ted Mundorff on how the recession has affected theatrical releasing.
Insight: In many ways, the recession has not affected box office performance and ticket sales are up from last year.
“We’ve had only one week this year that’s actually less than last year… November and December—key months—were record months for Landmark theaters. It never was better. So it’s amusing, amazing to watch the depression, almost, that has set in that ‘independent film is dead.’ I think there’s a concern but there’s also a huge, huge opportunity in the marketplace… People want and will support the theatrical experience and we’re pretty happy right now.”

10. Christian Gaines on making your short film available online while submitting it to festivals.
Insight: Film festivals are becoming increasingly more comfortable with accepting work that is already available online.
“This is happening more and more lately. More and more filmmakers have been calling up the film festival [they’ve submitted to] and said, ‘My film is paying on YouTube right now. Is that a problem?’ And I think you’re going to see more and more and more film festivals make it not be a problem. And it shouldn’t be a problem, actually, because at the end of the day what a film festival should really be doing is providing as many opportunities as possible to the artist, to the rights holder, to the filmmaker… A few festivals still really do have a problem with you showing your film on the internet but more and more don’t. Sundance this year actually showed a few shorts that were on the web.” - Andy Lauer

Whether you agree with the quotes from Andy's article, you must admit, there are certainly A LOT of things to think about.

Major Shakeup at Denver Fest

From indieWire: A dramatic mass exodus is underway at the Denver Film Society, organizer of the three decade old Denver International Film Festival. Longtime veterans of the organization, including Festival Director Britta Erickson and Artistic Director Brit Withey, as well as esteemed co-founder Ron Henderson, have resigned in Denver. And now they are being followed out the door by some seventeen other people at the Film Society and the festival. The move marks a striking mutiny currently taking place at the leading Colorado film institution.

Word of the mass exodus from the Denver organization and festival, an increasingly popular stop on the fest circuit for filmmakers and industry alike, began to emerge late last week with the departures apparently stemming from a growing rift with Burleigh “Bo” Smith, the new DFS executive director who joined the organization in October. Smith, a twenty-one year veteran who was the head of film, video and concerts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, was chosen in part by DFS founder Ron Henderson who began his retirement in 2007. Henderson had agreed to stay on as a consultant but also gave final notice earlier this week after attempting to rescue the group in the wake of the impending departures. He is currently negotiating his departure date.

The volatile situation at the Denver Film Society and film festival has taken quite dramatic turns in recent days as more and more resignations were confirmed. indieWIRE reached out to Bo Smith and board chair David Charmatz yesterday, but both have provided only limited comments and responses to our inquiries. David Charmatz, an executive at lead Denver fest sponsor Starz Entertainment, is understood to have led an emergency board meeting about the situation on Tuesday. The body, in an apparently sharply divided decision, ultimately voted to continue to back Smith as the executive director of the organization.

“Let me say that I can’t give any specifics as we do not comment on personnel matters,” Smith told indieWIRE Tuesday by email. “Here’s what I [will] tell you is that due to realities of the current economy, DFS, like many other organizations, will need to downsize its staff. The result of informing the staff of this situation was that some staff members decided to resign from the organization,” he continued. But, Smith was countered by a key organization figure today.

“That’s not true,” said departed artistic director Brit Withey in a telephone call with indieWIRE this afternoon. “The staff began resigning before there were any statements made that there were going to be layoffs,” he explained, “The reason the staff is leaving is because of Bo [Smith’s] handling of the organization and not the economic situation facing the organization.” Withey, however, confirmed that DFS is facing financial challenges just as many other film festivals are.

The mass resignations are deep, according to multiple sources reached by indieWIRE today, ranging from programmers to logistics staff including projectionists and other recurring personnel who have worked for the festival for up to three decades. “Year-round staff are going as well as others, [from] programmers to customer service people, guest arrangements - every aspect of the festival are leaving,” Withey told indieWIRE. A list provided by an insider detailed a total of twenty people who have resigned in recent days. Britta Erickson declined to comment but confirmed her departure. One source indicated that there are just five staff members left at the Starz Film Center, two who work in development, one in membership, and a receptionist. No one will be left on the Film Center staff as of June 12, the source indicated.

“I see the organization not continuing under its present leadership, I’d rather leave now than see it fall apart,” Starz FilmCenter General Manager Oaken Beeson told indieWIRE today. He is among the many people who have resigned in Denver. “We’ve been ignored by the board of directors and I don’t want to be there as the organization destroys itself.”

Details about the apparently intense internal conflict are still sketchy, but Withey indicated staff members were unhappy with Smith’s programming decisions and general leadership style. Pressed further after sending the statement to indieWIRE yesterday, Bo Smith reiterated via email, “We are making no changes to our annual festival. The 32nd Starz Denver Film Festival runs from Nov. 12 to 22.” He indicated that Ron Henderson remains the senior program consultant and touted year-round programming, including upcoming series and events at the Starz Film Center. But, Henderson has said he is leaving.

Ron Henderson founded the Denver film organization over 30 years ago in the Mile High city, with the first festival taking place in 1978. Though he formally retired from the organization nearly two years ago, he has remained close to the organization and an important consultant who worked closely with Britta Erickson and Britt Withey. After putting together a plan to save the organization in recent days in the wake of the resignations, he finally informed Smith of his official resignation on Monday.

“Over the past 31 years, I have watched with great pride this organization grow from a once-a-year single event (the Denver International Film Festival), to a vibrant year-round cultural arts organization (the Denver Film Society), to a highly respected bricks and mortar film arts institution (the Starz FilmCenter) which has become a jewel in Denver’s rich cultural landscape,” Ron Henderson told indieWIRE in a statement this afternoon. “As the Denver Film Society begins a new era, it is clearly time for me (as they did so often in those Hollywood movies I watched as a child) to ride off into the sunset. My fervent hope is that the Denver Film Society, in this volatile transitional period, lives happily ever after.”

Although the Denver Film Festival remains a regional event, it has become an important one, having increased its stature in recent years. Henderson, Erickson and Withey have been active on the North American film festival circuit and the fest has cultivated a loyal fanbase of yearly attendees that stretches well beyond Colorado. indieWIRE has also covered the Denver Film Festival annually for many years.

Last summer, DFS helped organize the Impact Film Festival during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, spotlighting documentaries. Erickson, who joined the festival in 1999, co-produced a documentary about the nomination last August, titled simply, “Convention,” which is directed by a group of documentary filmmakers, spearheaded by AJ Schnack (“Kurt Cobain, About a Son”), which will screen at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival and SilverDocs.

A list of resignations from the organization, with information provided or corroborated by multiple sources, follows:

Denver Film Society
Ron Henderson, Co-Founder and programming consultant
Britta Erickson, Associate Director (former Festival Director)
Brit Withey, Director of Programming (former Artistic Director)
Keith Garcia, Programming Manager, Starz FilmCenter
Natasha Hoover, Operations Manager
Emily Reaser, Manager of Major Gifts
Neil Truglio, Marketing Director

Starz Film Center staff
Oaken Beeson, Starz FilmCenter General Manager
Josh Perry, Technical Director, Starz FilmCenter
Sigri Strand, Manager, Starz FilmCenter
William Heydt Minor, Projectionist/Manager
Chris Simpson, Projectionist
Alex Fountain, Projectionist
Matthew Ballantine Patton , Projectionist (festival tech director)
Max Boyd, Box Office/Concessions
Margaret Betzen, Box Office/ Concessions
Julio Briones, Box Office/Concessions

Starz Film Center contract staff
Ryan Smith, Projectionist
Kristin Nolan, Production Manager
Bob Forsyth, Technical Support (IT)

Apple & indieWIRE Unveil Tribeca ‘09 Filmmaker Talks At Apple Store in Soho

Apple and indieWIRE are once again teaming up to present Filmmaker Talks at the Apple Store, SoHo during the upcoming 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, April 22 to May 3. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest projects from leading filmmakers and actors. All events are free and seating is available on a first come, first served basis. Guests are invited to arrive early at the Apple Store, SoHo (103 Prince Street in New York City) to hear the following directors, producers and actors speak about their work:

Spike Lee: Wednesday, April 22, 7:00 p.m.
The Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor, writer, director, and producer speaks to us about “Passing Strange,” which brings the hit Broadway rock musical to the screen, and “Kobe Doin’ Work,” his documentary about Kobe Bryant. Both films screen at Tribeca.

Natalie Portman: Friday, April 24, 3:30 p.m.
Natalie Portman joins CEO Christine Aylward on the stage of the Apple Store, SoHo, to discuss their new web project—MakingOf—a site that promises to transform the way people view, enjoy, and participate in entertainment.

Dan Fogler: Friday, April 24, 6:00 p.m.
Dan Fogler The Tony Award–winning actor (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Balls of Fury,” “Fanboys”) makes his directorial debut with “Hysterical Psycho,” which screens at this year’s festival. The film takes place at the Moonlake Inn Motel, where supernatural chaos thrives.

Lee Daniels: Friday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.
A talented director (“Shadowboxer”) and producer (“The Woodsman”), Daniels produced the much-heralded “Monster’s Ball,” for which Halle Berry won an Academy Award for Best Actress. During his Meet the Filmmakers discussion, Daniels speaks about his career, including his latest film, “Precious,” which tells the story of Precious Jones, a Harlem teen struggling for a better life.

So Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray: Saturday, April 25, 4:00 p.m.
So Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray Writers, film editors, directors, producers, and spouses — the talented team have collaborated on numerous films. Here, they discuss Kim’s “Treeless Mountain,” a semi-autobiographical film about abandonment, and Gray’s “The Exploding Girl,” making its North American premiere at Tribeca.


Ti West: Saturday, April 25, 6:30 p.m.
Ti West A multitalented film director (“Trigger Man,” “The Roost”), Ti West has also served as an actor, cinematographer, producer, and writer. He’ll speak about his new film, “The House of the Devil,” a Tribeca selection that stars Jocelin Donahue as a babysitter with demon-friendly clients.

Connor Mcpherson: Sunday, April 26, 5:00 p.m.
Hear the Tony Award–nominated playwright (“The Seafarer,” “Shining City”) discuss his latest film and Tribeca selection, “The Eclipse.” One of Ireland’s most celebrated living playwrights, McPherson wrote and directed “The Eclipse,” which stars Aidan Quinn, Ciarán Hinds, and Iben Hjejle in a supernatural drama about a widower who suspects his house is haunted.

Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Carlos Cuarón: Monday, April 27, 5:00 p.m.
Reuniting with his collaborators in “Y Tu Mamá También,” Cuarón wrote and directed “Rudo y Cursi.” The director’s first full-length film stars Bernal and Luna as brothers whose desire to excel as professional soccer players often finds them battling one another on and off the field.

Gabriel Noble: Monday, April 27, 6:30 p.m.
The director and producer of documentary films, including “I Won’t Love You to Death” and “Autumn’s Eyes,” Noble discusses his latest project and Tribeca selection, “P-Star Rising.” The film tells the story of a single father determined to see his young daughter realize his own dream of being a rap star.

Atom Egoyan: Monday, April 27, 8:00 p.m.
Nominated for two Academy Awards for “The Sweet Hereafter,” Egoyan discusses “Adoration,” which Sony Pictures Classics releases in May. In the film, a young student translating a news story about a terrorist uncovers the truth about his own family history.

Eric Bana: Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.
The actor (“Black Hawk Down,” “Munich,” “The Other Boleyn Girl”) makes his directorial debut in “Love the Beast.” The Tribeca documentary selection tells the story of Bana’s 25-year love affair with “the beast,” his Ford GT Falcon Coupe. It premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 29.

Kirby Dick: Thursday, April 30, 5:00 p.m.
The Academy Award-nominated documentary film director (“Twist of Faith”) discusses his new film, “Outrage,” which enjoys its world premiere at this year’s festival. The film highlights the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who campaign against the gay community.

Nia Vardalos and Donald Petrie: Friday, May 1, 7:00 p.m.
Hear Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) and director Donald Petrie (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) discuss their new romantic comedy, “My Life in Ruins.” In the film, Vardalos plays a discouraged tour guide who begins to see things in new ways, finding her kefi—Greek for mojo—in the process. The Fox Searchlight film opens in June.