As Magnum PI was fond of saying in every golden episode, "I know what you're thinking. Why is this picture of Christina Hendrick's lovely bustline gracing a post about the Oscars?"

Just because.

No real surprises in the Oscar noms and you probably already know who is gonna win. Pool up at your office; that is, if you still have an office to go to.

2010 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners:

Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik (film page).

Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington (film page).

World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Animal Kingdom, written and directed by David Michôd (film page).

World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary:
The Red Chapel (Det Røde Kapel), directed by Mads Brügger (film page).

Dramatic Audience Award:
happythankyoumoreplease, written and directed by Josh Radnor (film page).

Documentary Audience Award:
WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, directed by Davis Guggenheim (film page).

World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award:
Contracorriente (Undertow), written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Leõn (film page).

World Cinema Documentary Audience Award:
Wasteland, directed by Lucy Walker (film page).

The Best of NEXT:
Homewrecker, directed by Todd Barnes and Brad Barnes (film page).

Directing Award, Dramatic:
3 Backyards, directed and written by Eric Mendelsohn (film page)

Directing Award, Documentary:
Smash His Camera, directed by Leon Gast (film page)

World Cinema Directing Award, Dramatic:
Southern District directed and written by Juan Carlos Valdivia (film page).

World Cinema Directing Award, Documentary:
Space Tourists, directed by Christian Frei (film page).

Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award:
Winter’s Bone, written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini.  (film page).

World Cinema Screenwriting Award:
Southern District, written and directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia (film page).

Documentary Editing Award:
Joan Rivers—A Piece Of Work, edited by Penelope Falk

World Cinema Documentary Editing Award:
A Film Unfinished, edited by Joëlle Alexis (film page).

Excellence in Cinematography Award, Dramatic:
Obselidia Cinematographer: Zak Mulligan (film page). 

Excellence in Cinematography Award, Documentary:
The Oath Cinematographers: Kirsten Johnson and Laura Poitras (film page).

World Cinema Cinematography Award, Dramatic:
The Man Next Door (El Hombre de al Lado) Directors and cinematographers Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat (film page).

World Cinema Cinematography Award, Documentary:
His & Hers  Cinematographers: Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle (film page).

Special Jury Prize: Dramatic:
Sympathy for Delicious, directed by Mark Ruffalo (film page).

Special Jury Prize: Documentary:
GASLAND, directed by Josh Fox (film page).

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary
Enemies of the People, directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath (film page).

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking:
Drunk History: Douglass & Lincoln, directed by Jeremy Konner

Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking:
The Six Dollar Fifty Man, directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland (New Zealand)

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic for Breakout Performance:
Tatiana Maslany, for her role as a starry-eyed teenager in “Grown Up Movie Star.”

Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking:
Born Sweet, directed by Cynthia Wade (USA, Cambodia)
Can We Talk?, directed by Jim Owen (United Kingdom)
Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No, directed by James Blagden (USA)
How I Met Your Father, directed by Álex Montoya (Spain)
Quadrangle, directed by Amy Grappell (USA)
Rob and Valentyna in Scotland, directed by Eric Lynne (USA, United Kingdom)
Young Love, directed by Ariel Kleiman (Australia)

Alfred P. Sloan PrizeL
Obselidia, directed by Diane Bell

Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards:
Amat Escalante, Heli (Mexico)
Andrey Zvyagintsev, Elena (Russia)
Daisuke Yamaoka, The Wonderful Lives at Asahigaoka (Japan)
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild (USA) (via Indiewire)

Conventional wisdom says have an aperitif before dinner, chat with the grand kids about boring topics, attend a charity event or two, maybe do a revival Q & A on one of your old, better movie roles, get to bed by ten pm, take your meds.

Unless you're Rip Torn that is. Then you get drunk and rob a bank. You gotta love this guy.

"To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.”

The legendary Harvey Weinstein has had his share of run-ins with filmmakers, usually on final cut, but the letter below where he admonishes doc filmmaker Errol Morris for being "boring" and to be more of saleman, is funny indeed

MIRAMAX FILMS

August 23, 1988

Errol Morris
c/o The Mondrian Hotel
8440 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Dear Errol:

Heard your NPR interview and you were boring. You couldn't have dragged me to see THE THIN BLUE LINE if my life depended on it.

It's time you start being a performer and understand the media.

Let's rehearse:

Q: What is this movie about?

A: It's a mystery that traces an injustice. It's scarier than NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. It's like a trip to the Twilight Zone. People have compared it to IN COLD BLOOD with humor.

Speak in short one sentence answers and don't go on with all the legalese. Talk about the movie as a movie and the effect it will have on the audience from an emotional point of view.

If you continue to be boring, I will hire an actor in New York to pretend that he's Errol Morris. If you have any casting suggestions, I'd appreciate that.

Keep it short and keep selling it because that's what's going to work for you, your career and the film.

Congratulations on all your good reviews. Let's make sure the movie is as successful.

Best Regards,

(Signed)

Harvey Weinstein

The movie went on to win awards and $$$$ for the Weinstein Co or Miramax as it was called at the time. (via Letters of Note)

Me on the couch, late 80s rom-com on the tube, salty-sweet snack at hand, mid-forties, and most damning of all, a thousand-yard stare.

Right.

But don’t let that stare fool ya. The work of Simpson-Bruckheimer, Feldman, Estevez, Hughes et al, really does deserve a closer reading but anyway, I veer off topic. I don’t dream of changing your judgment reader, tourist, manic-depressive, or pick- pocketing your pity, or even worse, eliciting your impassioned edification. Nothing from you would be nicest but just in case anyone gets any ideas, let the record show: It took me years of blood, sweat, and tears to reach this state of nirvana, to learn what Clint Eastwood really meant when he muttered that immortal line “a man’s got to know his limitations.”

I’ll make it quick. I got a decent public school education despite having little ability beyond reading comprehension. I put in the time on my dreams of becoming a film auteur- ramyen, 17-hour-days, terrible films; a traveler- dysentery, mind-crushing boredom, RSL (Retardish as a Second Language) affairs; a writer- bone-chilling loneliness, sling-bladed rejection, alcoholism; and last but not least, a real estate agent- staggering dental debt, affidavits, the devil’s own ill-timing.

Being part Irish bulldog, part American Indian aardvark, I held on to my dreams even tighter, going so far as to write “Genius is 99% Persistence” on a post-it note and super-gluing it to my bathroom mirror. I read books of philosophy, finding-your-way-in-life best-sellers (never knew there were so many) books that guided me to self-help groups where I meant some really cool, interesting people, you name it I tried it. Actually, let me quantify that: I drew the line at “Plant Fucking: Getting Off the Beaten Path and Finding Your Higher Calling.” Yet, the  truth be told, in the back of mind that 1% kept getting bigger, bigger, and bigger like a Mega-Lotto figure until one rainy day love came through my front door, sized up the situation remarkably fast, and said on the way out my door: “Wake up and smell the coffee! Get a job in customer service, reduce your expenses, and RELAX.”

And like a man drowning, burning and expanded lungs full of water, I let go, got an entry-level job at a Korean-owned wig-manufacturer, and finally relaxed for the first time in my life.

“Only part of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the longer day of happiness, wants to live to our nineties and die in peace, in a house that we built, that shall shelter those who come after us. The other half of us is nearly mad. It prefers the disagreeable to the agreeable, loves pain and its darker night despair, and wants to die in a catastrophe that will set back life to its beginnings and leave nothing of our house save its blackened foundations.”

-Rebecca West

Some of you know we shot a short movie this past summer called Motel. We are nearing the end of post work but in the meantime, here are some shots that Eric snapped on location in Chinatown.

                 Look for info at the Sundance site

           BOOK"EM DANO!

Drift from mustardcuffins on Vimeo.

In a French housing project in 1995, one young girl named Laurence was going through it: The abusive step-father, substance abuse, eviction, next stop homelessness, the works. She wrote this rather strange punk rock performer named Iggy Pop telling him all about it. Punk rock life being what it is, it took Iggy awhile, but this is what he wrote back -which she recieved right before she became an ward of the state

dear laurence,

thankyou for your gorgeous and charming letter, you brighten up my dim life. i read the whole ****ing thing, dear. of course, i'd love to see you in your black dress and your white socks too. but most of all i want to see you take a deep breath and do whatever you must to survive and find something to be that you can love. you're obviously a bright ****ing chick, w/ a big heart too and i want to wish you a (belated) HAPPY HAPPY 21st b'day and happy spirit. i was very miserable and fighting hard on my 21st b'day, too. people booed me on the stage, and i was staying in someone else's house and i was scared. it's been a long road since then, but pressure never ends in this life. 'perforation problems' by the way means to me also the holes that will always exist in any story we try to make of our lives. so hang on, my love, and grow big and strong and take your hits and keep going.

all my love to a really beautiful girl. that's you laurence.

iggy pop

                             (from Letters of Note)

One filmmaker named Paul Sapiano, who directed the masterpiece, "The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down" which IMDB describes as a: "Tongue-in-cheek look at 20-something singles clubbing and partying in L.A." Intrigued, we found this revealing interview with Sapiano

M&C: What in the world were you thinking when you decided to make “Getting Down”?

PS: It was a way of convincing my mother that the last 15 years of partying were actually spent researching for this film. I had been writing scripts and trying to get into movies for many years, but in the end I decided to re-mortgage my place and put my money where my mouth is and together with a friend, Enrique Aguirre, who edited the film, we raised the money.

He's now peddling his mortgaged-to-the-hilt condo to pay the bill.

Groovy dude, looks like something you would put on movie food. (Madvillian, LA Curbed)

At any rate, good luck.

Would you rather go to the Golden Globes or the Oscars? I would prefer the Globes for the laid-back booze factor where at least there is the spectre that somethig crazy could happen. The very funny Mr. Gervais is hosting this year so we can keep our fingers crossed. Maybe some surprises awards-wise but don't count on it.

These things are political you know...:)

"I'm going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There's something ancient and deeply-rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I'll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don't want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave." - from a letter to his mother Helen Pancake that Breece wrote in Charlottesville, where he was studying writing.

Amazing short stories. Do check them out.

“You get the reward of distraction — you don’t think about the outside world, and you’re faced with solvable problems, and if they’re not solvable, you don’t die because of it. I get to live with very beautiful women and very witty men and they have costumes, and the sets are beautiful. It’s a very pleasant way to waste your life.”  Who else? Woody Allen.

Not to make light of Mr. Coleman's health problems, but I might suffer fuzziness too if I had to do full frontal for my latest flick. From Yahoo news: Diff'rent Strokes" actor Gary Coleman is in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering what he believes was a slight seizure. Coleman's agent, Robert Malcolm, says the 41-year-old actor was taken by ambulance to a hospital shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday after he began feeling "fuzzy" and vomited while resting at a hotel.

Malcolm says Coleman was in town to meet with producers of his latest film about removing a brief scene of frontal nudity that Coleman says was unauthorized. The meeting was rescheduled for Thursday

Indiewood might be a better moniker here than Indie but at any rate, here they are via the wonderful compilers at Indiewire.

Top Grossing Independent Films of the 2000s

1. The Passion of the Christ, 2004 (Newmarket)  $370,274,604
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2003 (IFC Films)  $241,438,208
3. Juno, 2007 (Fox Searchlight)  $143,395,265
4. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008 (Fox Searchlight)  $141,319,928
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000 (Sony Pictures Classics) $128,078,872
6. Traffic, 2000 (USA) $124,115,725
7. Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004 (Lionsgate) $119,194,771
8. Paranormal Activity, 2009 (Paramount)  $107,753,000
9. Brokeback Mountain, 2005 (Focus Features)  $83,043,761
10. March of the Penguins, 2005 (Warner Independent) $77,437,223
11. Coraline, 2009 (Focus Features)  $75,286,229
12. Sideways, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $71,503,593
13. Burn After Reading, 2008 (Focus Features)  $60,355,347
14. Little Miss Sunshine, 2006 (Fox Searchlight)  $59,891,098
15. Crash, 2005 (Lionsgate) $54,580,300
16. Atonement, 2007 (Focus Features) $50,927,067
17. 28 Days Later, 2003 (Fox Searchlight)  $45,064,915
18. Lost In Translation, 2003 (Focus Features)  $44,585,453
19. Napoleon Dynamite, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $44,540,956
20. Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, 2009 (Lionsgate)  $42,432,006

Alex Ferarri  shares the latest update on his kick-ass film Broken.  After many requests we decided to for the first time ever to finally release BROKEN on youtube.

Click here to watch the full short for the first time on-line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W3f3JGJD20.