News

A handful of indies bow or expand this weekend as Oscar hopefuls from Poor Things to The Holdovers and American Fiction crowd theaters after nominations earlier this week. Anatomy Of A Fall is getting a big bump. Oppenheimer is back on Imax.

New specialty releases include Daisy Ridley-starring Sometimes I Think About Dying by Rachel Lambert, and Tótem by Lila Avilés. Separately, Sundance has just wrapped up announcing winners from a new crop of independent films.

What we have post Oscar-nomination Tuesday, is this: Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos going wide on 2,226 screens, up from 1,400. The film starring Emma Stone had 11 nominations, second only to Oppenheimer. That Christopher Nolan blockbuster summer release from Universal is returning to 750 Imax screens worldwide, including iconic 70mm film theaters. Oppenheimer led all nominees for the 96th Oscars on Tuesday, with 13.

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction from Amazon MGM Studios moves to 1,500 theaters from 850. Released Dec.

Maybe there’s just something in the air. When Warner Bros. dropped a new trailer for Greta Gerwig’s eventual blockbuster and multiple Oscar nominee “Barbie” back in May, seemingly everybody went nuts for a single standout line that came to capture so much of its charm, as star Margot Robbie (as Barbie!) pauses during a candy-colored dance party to ask her cohorts if they “ever think about dying.”

Even before Gerwig and Robbie were thinking about dying, Daisy Ridley was already there. Five months earlier, the former “Star Wars” star came to Sundance 2023 with the alluringly titled Rachel Lambert dramedy “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” which Ridley both starred in and produced.

When I mentioned the line to Ridley when we spoke earlier this month, she laughed. “Oh, my God, yeah! Hilarious,” the actress and producer said. “I never even put two and two together. I was like, ‘Yes,...

Daisy Ridley is contemplating death. Well, not actual death — but the escape from the mundanities of corporate office culture because, really, aren’t we all?

The “Star Wars” actress leads the indie “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” which debuted at Sundance 2023. In the film, Ridley plays Fran, a woman who daydreams while at work and thinks about interesting ways to die. When a new coworker (Dave Merheje) tries to connect with her, though, Fran realizes there is more to life than its inevitable fatal end. Meg Stalter, Parvesh Cheena, Marcia DeBonis, and Brittany O’Grady round out the cast.

Director Rachel Lambert helms her sophomore feature, following her debut film “In the Radiant City,” which was produced by Jeff Nichols. Lead actress Ridley also serves as a producer on “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” along with fellow producers Alex Saks, Dori Rath, Lauren Beveridge, and Brett Beveridge. The film was written by Kevin Armento,...

Daisy Ridley stars as Fran, an introverted young woman whose life consists of cubicle-dwelling during the work week and sticking around home on the weekends, in Sometimes I Think About Dying. The trailer shows that although Fran prefers her own company, a new coworker draws her attention and might just be the connection to the world that she needs.

In addition to Ridley, the indie drama’s cast includes Dave Merheje, Parvesh Cheena, Marcia DeBonis, Meg Stalter, and Brittany O’Grady. Rachel Lambert directed from a screenplay by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, and Katy Wright-Mead.

Sometimes I Think About Dying opens in theaters on January 26, 2024.

“Lost on the dreary Oregon coast, Fran (Ridley) finds solace in her cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates and occasionally daydreaming to pass the time. She is ghosting through life, unable to pop her bubble of isolation, when a friendly new coworker, Robert...

Exclusive: SAG-AFTRA has granted an interim agreement to Sometimes I Think About Dying, an indie gem produced by and starring Daisy Ridley that made a big impression in its world premiere on the opening night of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by Rachel Lambert, the film co-starring Ramy‘s Dave Merheje is set to hit theaters in the U.S. via Oscilloscope, as we were first to report. It’ll roll out January 26th, opening exclusively in New York at the Angelika. The agreement with SAG means that cast will be able to promote the release, bringing the pic more visibility and hopefully thereby giving it a stronger shot to break out at the box office.

A dark comedy penned by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, and Katy Wright-Mead, Sometimes I Think About Dying tells the story of Fran (Ridley), who is lost on the dreary Oregon coast and finds solace in her cubicle,...

2023 Sundance is behind us, and mega deals for films like “Fair Play,” “Flora and Son,” and “Theater Camp” were back in a big way. And while the market was healthy, there still are a lot of films yet to find homes.

Here’s the latest deals we’re tracking after the festival.

Films Acquired After the Festival

Title: “Sometimes I Think About Dying”

Section: U.S. Dramatic

Distributor: Oscilloscope

“Sometimes I Think About Dying,” the Daisy Ridley drama that made its premiere in competition on the opening night of this year’s Sundance, was acquired by Oscilloscope for a theatrical release. O-Scope scooped up the U.S. rights to director Rachel Lambert’s film and will release it later this year.

The film is set on the dreary Oregon coast and follows a lonely woman who finds solace in her cubicle and the doldrums of office life. She is ghosting...

Exclusive: Oscilloscope has acquired U.S. rights to Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert, and starring Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh Cheena, Marcia Debonis, Meg Stalter, and Brittany O’Grady. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. O-Scope is planning a traditional theatrical release for the film later this year.

“I am thrilled that this film I love so much, and was created with so much care by our team, has found its home with Oscilloscope,” said Lambert. “Their legacy precedes them. Every time I see their logo pop up before a film, I can rest assured I am about to watch something artful and moving. Knowing that stamp will precede a film I directed is a real honor. I so look forward to sharing Sometimes I Think About Dying with audiences.”

Daisy Ridley

The film was written by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz,...

Magazine Dreams.The Sundance Film Festival returned this year for its first in-person edition since the oblivious winter of 2020, when Zola was the talk of Park City and the coronavirus still seemed like something that Purell could contain. During two consecutive years of virtual iterations, Sundance managed to launch visionary, critically-praised narrative features onto dissimilar post-festival trajectories. Rebecca Hall’s Passing, a provocative adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novella, rode out awards season on the considerable strengths of its lead performances, only to fizzle out come Oscar time. Conversely, the Academy Awards triumph of Siân Heder’s Coda, now the first festival selection to win Best Picture, is surely fueling the daydreams of many past, present, and future Sundance-stamped filmmakers. Acquired by Apple for $25 million and showered with a $10 million awards campaign that equaled its production budget, Coda seems to offer definitive proof that no matter how visually flat and...

Daisy Ridley in ‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ (Courtesy of Sundance Institute / photo by Dustin Lane)

Fran is the sort of person neighbors would describe to reporters as quiet and kept to themselves after the discovery of a basement full of dead bodies. Robert is the guy people are just drawn to, a decent man who you feel has been a part of your friend group for years even though you just met him. In typical films, these two would have a meet cute and Fran would ultimately transform from a colorless caterpillar into a stunning butterfly. A happily ever after would follow. The End. But, thankfully, Sometimes I Think About Dying is anything but typical.

Fran (Daisy Ridley) works in a nondescript office that could be anywhere in the world at any time in modern history. There’s nothing that distinguishes it from a million other offices around the globe.

Sometimes I Think About Dying is directed by Rachel Lambert, written by Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Kevin Armento, and Katy Wright. The movie stars Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Megan Stalter and Brittany O’ Grady. It had its world premiere Thursday on the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival.

The film begins with shots of a seaside northwestern town on the Oregon coast. It appears to be a dreary and somewhat lonely place. Next we see Fran (Ridley) laying in bed peering outside the window at the gray sky. Instead of embracing the morning, she looks terrified to confront it. She works a mundane office job that she likes but is the least animated of her colleagues. Most of her work day is spent daydreaming about death or being overly observant of small things. Her night routine is also humdrum. Fran comes home, cooks dinner (in the microwave), thinks about dying,...

While she says her banal, nondescript, spreadsheet-crafting office job is the only thing she loves in life––besides cottage cheese––one wouldn’t guess it from the way Fran Larsen (Daisy Ridley) carries out her dreary 9-to-5 routine. Spending the labored minutes staring at leakage in the ceiling tiles, gazing at her computer screen, and barely speaking a word to her overenthusiastic colleagues, Larsen has something more existential eating away at her soul: she’s preoccupied with dying. Whether it’s being washed up on a beach, hanging from a crane outside her window, being consumed by the forest, or a violent car crash, she has recurring visions of what could be an escape from her lonely life of isolation. Although not feeling fully formed with its emotionally rushed finale, Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying is a humorously droll, narratively restrained look at the feigned personalities of...

Loneliness is the subject of a poetic exploration in Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying. Premiering in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition and adapted from the Oscar-shortlisted live-action short of the same name (which was based on Kevin Armento’s play killers), Lambert’s film quietly observes the life of Fran (Daisy Ridley), a woman who feels most at home in her daydreams.

Fran is too distinctively drawn to be just an avatar, but the impressions of her solitude are aching reminders of how modern life nurtures an unsettling separateness. No time was that more evident than during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when quarantine measures revealed the degree to which many of us live in isolation. Sometimes I Think About Dying, then, is a graceful treatise on how challenging — but liberating — it can be to make connections.

It’s not easy for Fran, a single...

Daisy Ridley stars in Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert and co-written by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz and Katy Wright-Mead. Ridley plays Fran, an office worker who, as the film’s title suggests, is driven to such mind-numbing boredom that she often thinks about her own death to pass the time. That is, until a new employee named Robert (Dave Merheje) begins striking up conversation with her. Surprisingly, he manages to pique her interest, effectively breaking the monotony of her isolating office job. Dp Dustin Lane tells Filmmaker how he crafted the visual language of the film […]

The post “We Needed To Embrace a Certain Amount of Ugliness”: Dp Dustin Lane on Sometimes I Think About Dying first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Daisy Ridley stars in Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert and co-written by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz and Katy Wright-Mead. Ridley plays Fran, an office worker who, as the film’s title suggests, is driven to such mind-numbing boredom that she often thinks about her own death to pass the time. That is, until a new employee named Robert (Dave Merheje) begins striking up conversation with her. Surprisingly, he manages to pique her interest, effectively breaking the monotony of her isolating office job. Dp Dustin Lane tells Filmmaker how he crafted the visual language of the film […]

The post “We Needed To Embrace a Certain Amount of Ugliness”: Dp Dustin Lane on Sometimes I Think About Dying first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

After two years of hosting an online festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sundance Film Festival returns to Park City this year for its 2023 edition from Jan. 19-29. Film lovers, filmmakers, industry insiders, actors, artists and more are expected to return en masse for the festivities that will include a packed calendar of parties, panels, concerts, gatherings and networking opportunities, in addition to all the big-screen showings.

Below is a roundup of all of the intel The Hollywood Reporter has gathered thus far, featuring events in Park City. All times listed are local.

Thursday, Jan. 19

Sundance Scoop – Day One

Filmmaker Lodge, 550 Main St., 1:30-2:30 p.m.

A conversation and Q&a for media featuring Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente, Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani, senior programmer and strategic initiatives director John Nein with moderator Eugene Hernandez, incoming Sundance festival director and head of public programming.

Opening...

Setting the stage for the year in cinema, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival will take place January 19-29, both in person in Utah as well as virtual viewings kicking off five days into the festival. Ahead of next month’s festivities, the festival has now unveiled its features lineup, which features 99 films.

Initial highlights of the lineup include Ira Sachs’ Passages, starring Franz Rogowski, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Ben Whishaw, William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth follow-up Eileen, Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, produced by Barry Jenkins, Bad Behaviour, the directorial debut of Jane Campion’s daughter Alice Englert, Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth, Nicole Holofcener’s’ You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

The 12 films in this section are all world premieres. All 12 will be available to stream online.

The Accidental Getaway Driver (Director and Screenwriter: Sing J. Lee,...

HBO Max and A24 are developing “Church Girls,” a comedy pilot from Megan Stalter.

“Church Girls” is a half-hour comedy that follows Beth Parker (Stalter), a 20-year-old Christian closeted lesbian as she wrestles with her sexuality and faith in God, while entering adulthood in suburban Ohio. The series is inspired by Stalter’s own experiences.

Stalter is best known for playing Kayla, Jimmy’s (Paul W. Downs) wealthy and dysfunctional assistant in the HBO Max comedy “Hacks.” Her other screen credits include guest starring in the 2022 reboot of “Queer as Folk” and voicing several characters in Stephen Colbert’s satirical animated program “Tooning Out the News.” As a writer, she has hosted the web series “The Megan Stalter Show,” worked on the 2019 reboot of “The National Lampoon Radio, which she also starred in, and is a touring standup comedian.

Up next, Stalter will star in the dark comedy “Cora Bora...

Exclusive: Daisy Ridley is set to star and produce the indie drama Sometimes I Think About Dying, which recently wrapped production in Oregon. Rachel Lambert directed the pic with Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, and Katy Wright-Mead penning the script. Dave Merheje, Meg Stalter, Bree Elrod, Brittany O’Grady and Parvesh Cheena round out ensemble.

Based on play Killers by Armento as well as the short film Sometimes I Think About Dying, the film follows Fran who likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.

Joining Ridley as a producer are Alex Saks, Dori Rath, Lauren Beveridge and Brett Beveridge. Saks’ page fifty-four pictures produced the film alongside the Beveridge’s Point Productions and Mirror Image Films.

For the inaugural season of Disney’s “Launchpad” shorts incubator, the studio centered on the theme, “Discover,” encouraging audiences broaden their worldview through their short films.

But another word that could describe this first group of films and the filmmakers who crafted them over the last 19 months is “Perseverance.”

When Aqsa Altaf, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Ann Marie Pace, Moxie Peng, Jessica Mendez Siqueiros and Hao Zheng got the call that they’d been selected to become the first class of filmmakers in Dec. 2019, no one expected they’d have to overcome a five-month production delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It has taken us almost three years to get to this point,” Mahin Ibrahim, director of Disney’s diversity & inclusion, market, who oversees the “Launchpad” program, tells Variety.

The drive to continue on came down to the simple fact that the mission — spotlighting underrepresented stories and storytellers in the marketplace...

Exclusive: Oscar-winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) is returning for the second season of hit QCode podcast Blackout, with Aja Naomi King (How To Get Away With Murder) joining the cast.

Season two of the apocalyptic thriller will be released early this summer with Malek reprising his role of Simon Itani, a small-town radio DJ fighting to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization.

Writer and co-director is Jeremy Novick (Queen Of The South) and Stef Abel Horowitz (Borrasca). Along with QCode, Rami Malek, creator Scott Conroy, and Endeavor Content will serve as executive producers. QCode will finance and distribute and handle sales.

A TV series package based on the podcast is in the works with Planet Of The Apes and The Greatest Showman outfit Chernin Entertainment, Endeavor Content and QCode. No word yet on cast or whether Malek would be involved.

Season...

Disney’s Launchpad, a new filmmaking program dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices, has unveiled the trailer for six original short films coming to Disney Plus.

All six short films, each centering on the theme of “discover,” will launch on Disney Plus on May 28. The program’s inaugural year features stories by Ann Marie Pace, Aqsa Altaf, Hao Zheng, Jessica Mendez Siqueiros, Moxie Peng and Stefanie Abel Horowitz.

“As a first-generation Muslim Bangladeshi woman, I know how important it is for communities to see themselves on screen, and to empower emerging filmmakers,” said Mahin Ibrahim, director of Disney’s diversity and inclusion, market, who oversees the Launchpad program. “Our goal with the Disney Launchpad Shorts Incubator is to tell six deeply meaningful personal stories straight from the filmmakers’ heart, amplified with the scale and reach that only Disney has.”

Disney plans to continue its Launchpad program, with the theme of “connection” to anchor the second season.

Exclusive: As diversity becomes more of a staple rather than a trend in Hollywood, Disney is stepping up to the plate to amplify underrepresented voices with the inaugural Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator program. Filmmakers Aqsa Altaf, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Jessica Mendez Siqueiros, Ann Marie Pace, Moxie Peng and Hao Zheng were revealed as this year’s participants.

Launchpad is an immersive program in where the aforementioned six directors, who represent diverse perspectives, will produce original, live-action short films. They will have the opportunity to be considered for an exhibition on Disney+ and possible further development. The program also includes professional and storytelling classes led primarily by the program’s educational partner, the American Film Institute.

“We are so excited to work with these six wonderful and talented directors who have so much to say to the world and have such beautiful ways of saying it,” said Mahin Ibrahim, Director, Diversity & Inclusion,...

"We all think about dying," says Stefanie Abel Horowitz, director and co-writer of the short Sometimes, I Think About Dying. Indeed, this universal truth is at the center of her introspective film, which focuses on a few days in the life of young office worker Fran (played by Katy Wright-Mead), who is overcome with debilitating loneliness.

"Fran has closed herself off to the world in so many ways, and death is just more of a chance to be unmoved, to be someone who can't be in pain. She just wants to experience a nowhere, nothing place,"...

"We all think about dying," says Stefanie Abel Horowitz, director and co-writer of the short Sometimes, I Think About Dying. Indeed, this universal truth is at the center of her introspective film, which focuses on a few days in the life of young office worker Fran (played by Katy Wright-Mead), who is overcome with debilitating loneliness.

"Fran has closed herself off to the world in so many ways, and death is just more of a chance to be unmoved, to be someone who can't be in pain. She just wants to experience a nowhere, nothing place,"...

The Palm Springs International ShortFest wrapped Sunday with top prizes going to “The Christmas Gift,” directed by Bogdan Muresanu, for best of the festival, Nara Normande’s “Guaxuma” for best international short and Horatio Baltz’s “King Wah (I Think I Love You)” for best North American short.

The festival is the largest shorts-focused event in North America, screening 369 films during the festival as well as 5,600 in the film market. Juried award winners of some categories are qualified to enter the shorts categories for the Oscars.

Best U.S. short went to “Manila is Full of Men Named Boy,” by Andrew Stephen Lee, while Best animated short went to “Dani” directed by Lizzy Hogenson.

Full list of winners below:

Jury Awards

Best Of Festival Award – The Christmas Gift (Romania/Spain), Directed by Bogdan Muresanu

Best International Short – Guaxuma (Brazil/France), Director Nara Normande

Best North American Short – King Wah (I...

The Chicago Critics Film Festival Runs May 17th – 23rd. Stephen Tronicek is covering the event for We Are Movie Geeeks

The shows didn’t start until 3 pm yesterday, so I decided to take a moment to enjoy the city…by going to see Bi Gong’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night in 3D. That was worth it. It may have, in fact, been better than the city.

But at 3 pm, it was time to get back to business. The introducer of Richard Shepard’s The Perfection mentioned that he wouldn’t give it a trigger warning but rather he’d list the very few things that weren’t triggering about it. To me, that sounded a bit like a threat. If a movie leans in too much for the sake of drama, then it might come out false and offensive. The Perfection does, at times. When it works, it...