An inaugural student film fest
April 11 — It’s Friday, and the kids are alright.
A class at Emory University is hosting a student-run film festival – The Aperture International Student Film Festival – from April 15-17 with film screenings at the Plaza. These kids reached out to top film schools all over the world and garnered more than 100 submissions, ultimately choosing 16 movies to screen. I talked with their professor, James Pellerito, ahead of the festival next week – you can learn more about the fest here.
Without further ado … Action!
🇫🇷 The 2025 lineup for the Cannes Film Festival is here! This year’s festival will include new movies from the likes of Spike Lee, previous Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, Kelly Reichardt, and more. Check out the full lineup here.
🥊 In other Cannes news, Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s festival.
🇨🇳 China has confirmed that it plans to cut back on its imports of Hollywood films, with the announcement coming in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to increase tariffs on Chinese goods.
💔 Eric Dane, the actor know for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan on “Grey’s Anatomy,” has announced that he was diagnosed with ALS.
🏍️ The Oscars have decided to add a new category honoring stunt design starting in 2027.
🍿 The African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta has a new exhibition called “Double Feature.” The exhibit starts April 18 and celebrates the world of Blaxploitation cinema with vintage movie posters from movies like “Shaft,” “Cleopatra Jones,” and more.
🎬 The nonprofit RE:IMAGINE is celebrating Atlanta’s next generation of filmmakers with an event on April 24, held in conjunction with the Atlanta Film Society. Check out more information here.
😱 Local actor, stunt performer, and filmmaker Jenna Kanell has recently joined the Atlanta-based HOCA Studio as head of development.
💸 The Georgia Department of Revenue recently made significant changes to the film tax credit audit process. Stay up to date here.
This week’s newsletter includes a look behind the scenes at what it’s like to make an indie film, a conversation with the director and star of the new film “Warfare,” and two movie reviews: “The Ballad of Wallis Island” and “The Amateur.” Plus, a new episode of my podcast Crash Zoom and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
🏃 Join Move For Grady on April 26! With three cycling distances and two run/walk options, there’s something for everyone. Then celebrate your accomplishment – and support for Grady – with a fun finish line celebration at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium. SPONSOR MESSAGE
‘Carter and the End’ gets apocalyptic at Swampfest
🚴 Making a movie is hard enough in a controlled environment. Making one in armageddon-inspired chaos? That’s another story.
That’s exactly what filmmakers Charlotte Geissler and Kiki Griffin aimed to do with “Carter and the End,” a fictional story that takes place within the boundaries of a real-world event. The film was shot at Swampfest, a Florida festival that celebrates the world of BMX and skateboarding. During the film, Carter Bass, the film’s lead actor, interacts with real festival-goers in character, treating the festival as an “end-of-the-world” celebration.
“Carter and the End” is still in the post-production stage, but I was recently able to speak with Charlotte and Kiki about the filming process and how they thrived in the chaos.
🛹 Check out that interview here.
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Ray Mendoza and Kit Connor talk memory and preparing for ‘Warfare’
🪖 While making “Warfare,” writer/director Ray Mendoza had to contend with the tricky matter of memory.
The film is about a platoon of Navy SEALS on a mission gone horribly wrong. The mission is based on one that Mendoza, a former SEAL, actually experienced, and the film’s events are a conglomeration of the memories of Mendoza and other members of the SEAL team that were there that day.
There’s not a ton of time in “Warfare” for character development, but in a clever bit of casting the ensemble includes numerous young stars who audiences already have an attachment to – such as Kit Connor of “Heartstopper” fame. Ahead of the film’s release, I spoke to Mendoza and Connor about the making of the film and sifting through all those memories.
📽️ You can find that interview here.
‘Ballad of Wallis Island’ and leaving the past behind
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎵 There’s something to be said for predictability – for coziness and safety, so to speak. And “The Ballad of Wallis Island” might be the coziest movie to come along in quite awhile. And I mean that in the most positive way possible.
Directed by James Griffiths with a screenplay from Tim Key and Tom Basden, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” follows an eccentric – to put it lightly – millionaire named Charles (Key) who invites his favorite musician, Herb McGwyer (Basden), to perform a solo show on the remote island where Charles lives. The catch? He’s also invited Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), Herb’s ex-bandmate and ex-girlfriend, without Herb’s knowledge.
And so begins as cozy of a dramedy as you could ever want. And yet, even with its gentle, comfortable nature, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” aims to make a strong point about the very feeling of comfort it projects, about how we deal with nostalgia and move on.
🏝️ Check out my full review here.
‘The Amateur’ is asleep at the wheel
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🖥️ In “The Amateur,” directed by James Hawes and co-written by Gary Spinelli and Ken Nolan, Rami Malek plays Charles Heller, a CIA cryptographer who, after his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, blackmails the CIA into sending him out into the field so he can avenge her death.
But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill spy revenge thriller, oh no – this one is different, you see, because Charles – nerdy, quiet Charles – hates killing people. Or, more truthfully, he’s really bad at killing people. At least with a gun. Give him an explosive? He’ll get the job done.
Charles Heller might be the smartest guy at the CIA, but “The Amateur” isn’t a very smart film at all. It’s a far cry from the best of the films about men seeking vengeance for their dead wives – a spy thriller with more lulls than twists, and a waste of a talented cast.
💣 Read my full review here.
🌼 Springtime in Atlanta means it’s time for the 89th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival. Held in Piedmont Park April 11-13, this three-day outdoor event has fine art, live music and entertainment, children’s activities and more — and it’s free to attend! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Crash Zoom: Top five music biopics and a 45-day window ultimatum
🎼 Welcome to Crash Zoom, a podcast where we take a deep dive into film and entertainment industry news!
Each week, join me and my cohost, indie filmmaker Aaron Strand, as we explore how things happening at the highest level trickle down and affect the independent artist. This week, we discuss favorite music biopics, what went down at CinemaCon last week, and more.
📽️ Check out the episode here!
Lights, Camera, Action!
🐺 If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you’ll know that OpenAI has come under fire for its artificial recreation of the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio co-founded by the master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. If you know anything about Miyazaki, you’ll know how opposed to AI he is, and thus how deeply soulless the AI images feel – but the thing about Miyazaki is, the spirit of his work could never be captured by a computer. I recently saw “Princess Mononoke” on a big screen, and felt like crying pretty much the entire time – this lovely piece from Wilson Chapman at IndieWire really captures what I’m talking about.
☂️ As readers of this newsletter will know, I’ve been listening to Karina Longworth’s great series, The Old Man is Still Alive, on her podcast You Must Remember This. Recently, she did an episode on one of my favorite (and I think one of the most under-sung) directors in American cinema, Stanley Donen. On this episode, Longworth dives into Donen’s later career. She also shares a story about a time he clapped back at film critic Andrew Sarris that I hope makes you laugh as much as it made me laugh.
✍️ Pauline Kael, one of the most important film critics of the 20th century, broke out in the culture when she wrote her now famous review of 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde.” But that was actually the second piece she wrote for The New Yorker. Her first piece was called “Movies on Television,” in which Kael examines her experience watching older movies on television. Decades later, Richard Brody dissects the piece for the same publication, considering why Kael remains an important and vexing figure to this day.
