chlotrudis

Mark your calendars!  The 18th Annual Chlotrudis Awards ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, March 18, 5pm at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA.  This gala event with a grass roots twist features the announcement of the Society's picks of the best films and performances of 2011, musical numbers, special tributes, and special awards presented to guest filmmakers.  We hope to announce our first guest next week, and it's very exciting! 

In the meantime, Chlotrudis member will be gathering next weeked on January 21, to create the ballot for this year's awards.  Once the ballot is set, Chlotrudis members will begin watching the nominated films in earnest to prepare for voting.  It's usually hard to predict what film will win the coveted Chotrudis Award for Best Movie -- or even more exciting, Buried Treasure!  Do you have any guesses?

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film (CSIF) is pleased to partner with the Boston LGBT Film Festival in co-presenting THE GREEN, part of the CELEBRATING WORLD CINEMA series sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The film screens on Friday September 23rd at 7:30, in the Alfond Auditorium at the MFA. As an added bonus, the film’s screenwriters Paul Marcarelli and Molly Pearson will be in attendance and a Q&A will follow the screening. | Read more »

It was a big weekend for Chlotrudis as nominations for the 17th annual Chlotrudis Awards were finalized by the nominating committee. Leading the pack is Debra Granik’s stunning WINTER’S BONE, with 8 nominations, including Best Movie, Best Director and Best Actress. Five other films received 4 or more nominations, including fellow Best Movie nominees THE KING’S SPEECH, starring Colin Firth & Geoffrey Rush; Quebecois wunderkind Xavier Dolan’s I KILLED MY MOTHER; JACK GOES BOATING, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut; and MOTHER, the latest from Korea’s Joon-ho Bong. Rounding out the category is the Peruvian ghost story, UNDERTOW. In all, 40 films received nominations; 20 countries were represented, with US films making up just over 30%. There were other multiple nominees, among them three-timers ANIMAL KINGDOM, FISH TANK and RABBIT HOLE. | Read more »

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film began its 12th year as a 501(c)3, non-profit organization this summer, and we’re busier than ever! As a non-profit, membership-driven organization, we are committed to teaching audiences to view films actively and to increase awareness about independent, international and documentary film through our Annual Awards Program and Ceremony, special screening series at partner theaters, partnerships with film festivals, and our online news and reviews. We are in the midst of our Annual Fund drive and we are asking for your help to insure that we are able to provide members with some exciting programs and events over the coming year. | Read more »

Bruce is a Chlotrudis Board member living in Manhattan. He sees lots of movies and lots of theater, and here he offers his Top 10 films of 2009!

1. Hunger
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
4. California Dreamin'
5. A Single Man
6. Séraphine
7. The Beaches of Agnès
8. O'Horten
9. Still Walking
10. Of Time and the City

Hey Everyone! For a change, we've actually got pretty good versions of the musical numbers, and indeed, the entire awards ceremony! Scot is going to get the musical numbers at least up on YouTube, and the first is ready. Check out our introduction to the Buried Treasure in the night's opening number.

Okay, so it's taken a year-and-a-half, but the photos from 2007's 13th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony featuring Don McKellar and Tracy Wright are finally up on the website. Perhaps we'll even get the pictures from this year's 14th Annual Ceremony up before the calendar year ends! Take a look at the 13th Annual Ceremony here.

Chlotrudis members TC Kirkham and Kim Brown are the driving force behind the online website and podcast Popcorn 'N Roses. With their Subject: Cinema #116, Popcorn 'N Roses turn their attention to the indies, with State of Independents, the first of a two part series on independent cinema. One of the people they interview this week is none other than Chlotrudis President Michael Colford (yes, that's me.) Check it out here (http://popcornnroses.typepad.com/popcorn_n_roses/2008/06/subjectcinema-2...) and while you're there, check out some of TC and Kim's other great shows.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its Shortlist for the Oscars Documentary category yesterday, and much of the film blogging world has been reacting. A.J. Schnack, documentary filmmaker and Chlotrudis Advisory Council member, whose first feature doc, GIGANTIC: A TALE OF TWO JOHNS was the Chlotrudis Award for Best Documentary, and whose latest work, KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON is enjoying a theatrical run right now, shares his thoughts on the Academy's selections in an insightful post over at his blog, All These Wonderful Things. Check it out.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Apicatpong "Joe" Weeasethakul's new film SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. Apparently there's quite a story brewing around this film by the director of Buried Treasure nominee TROPICAL MALADY. After Thailand's Censorship Board demanded Joe cut four "sensitive scenes" from his film, he decided not to release the film in his home country unless the laws were changed to allow it to be screened in its intended form. Joe has started a petition of have those laws changed called the "Free Thai Cinema Movement" where he says, ""We're petitioning not only for a just decision for Syndromes and a Century, but also for a long-needed modernization of Thai legislation concerning movie censorship." GreenCine Daily reports that the movement is receiving some serious backing from political and cultural heavyweights. Chlotrudis members, especially those that voted for this year's Best Documentary winner THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, should take a look at the petition and consider signing it. I did.

Incidentally, according to Limitless Cinema, the four "sensitive scenes" that the Thai Censorship Board demanded cut showed:

1. a young monk playing a guitar
2. a group of doctors drinking whisky in a hospital basement
3. a doctor kissing his girlfriend in a hospital locker room
4. two monks playing with a radio-controlled flying saucer

Now don't you really want to sign the petition?