Oxford International Film Festival

Just got a call from the Oxford International Film Festival. Oxford, Ohio, another young ambitious college town festival has invited Wrath of Gods. The festival director is a filmmaker himself and it sounds like they are going to have a great first festival.

RiverRun International Film Festival

I just received a message from the RiverRun International Film Festival. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wrath Of Gods has been invited, and we are in their 2007 documentary feature competition. Not a bad Valentine’s day present. I’ve read nothing but good things about this festival, and apparently Winston-Salem is one of the best places to live in the U.S. After all it is “The City of Arts”. I like their “Arto-O-Mat” project. Clever idea.

Final Version of the Poster

The designer (Armann Kojic) just sent me the final version of the poster. Now it’s just a question of making a deal with the right printing company. Hopefully we can start shipping the posters soon.

Wrath of Gods poster by Armann Kojic

Panorama of Canadian Feature Films

I just received an e-mail with the program listing from the Wrath Of Gods listing from the NSI FilmExchange festival. Here is what the wrote:

WRATH OF GODS

Saturday, March 3, 6:15 p.m.
Canada/Iceland, 2006, 71 min

Canadian theatrical premiere

Director/writer: Jon Gustafsson
Producers: Jon Gustafsson, Karolina Lewicka
Co-producers: Jón Ármann Steinsson, Gerard Butler
Cinematography: Jon Gustafsson, Gunnar Orn Heimisson, Sarah Moffat, Ósk Gunnlaugsdóttir, Wendy Ord
Cast: Sturla Gunnarsson, Paul Stephens, Wendy Ord, Gerard Butler, Eric Jordan, Michael Cowan, Andrew Berzins, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley

In July 2004 film director Sturla Gunnarsson arrived in Iceland to begin production on the movie Beowulf & Grendel. Delays in closing the funding for the picture, a Canada/Iceland co-production pushed the start of shooting to the beginning of September and before long the cast and crew found themselves coping with filming a movie outdoors in the stormiest autumn in Iceland in 60 years. The international crew and cast, which included Scottish actor Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera), Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves) and Canadian actress Sarah Polley (My Life Without Me), braved wind, rain, mud and cold, all the while wondering if perhaps the pagan blessing invoked at the start of filming had actually been a curse. Documentary filmmaker Jon Gustafsson was there, capturing it all with his own camera — the physical hardships, the anxiety caused by delayed financing and the formidable beauty of the windswept Icelandic coasts. A “making of” documentary that attests to the passion and folly of movie-making.

300

I just saw some preview materials for the movie 300. It looks very impressive and I would go see this film, even if GB wasn’t in it. I think this will be an amazing year for Gerry, and he deserves it. I remember back at the Toronto Festival when he was telling me about the different kind of “hardship” they had to go through for this one. This is all about to pay off for them. The film looks masculine and tough and visually compelling at the same time. Their promotion is genious as well. They seem to have taken everything that I was attempting with the internet campaign of B&G to a new level – and done a fantastic job of it. The difference is that I had $10 to do it, but Warner Brothers has realized that it is worth spending a lot of money on the web campaign.

The Taxi Driver From Pakistan

Icelanders have been making a bit of a splash in Danish busines lately. Some people say that the Danes are a bit sensitive over the whole thing. I went drinking in downtown Reykjavik with a friend last night. The bars were packed as usual. My friend told me about his recent trip to Denmark. The Pakistani taxi driver told him that he loves Icelandic people, not for their hard work and for what they have been building up in Denmark, but because they are now so hated in Denmark that they have “taken the pressure of other immigrant groups”. Anyway, we ran into a journalist from one of the TV stations.
He asked if he could get to see Wrath Of Gods because he has heard so much about it. He is hoping that it will restore his faith in the Icelandic documentary world. It is true, we have a very poor documentary tradition over here, and a very limited knowledge and understanding of what a documentary is. We need to make more documentaries in this country.