Jordan Beswick, C.S.A.

German filmmaker Till Nowak (middle) seemed delighted if not a bit embarrassed at winning both the audience and jury prizes in the short film category for his film “Delivery” at the recently concluded AFI Fest in Los Angeles. The director said the prize was very important to him and will help him go forward with the film’s exposure. Pictured with Nowak are the film’s composers, Andreas and Matthias Hornschuh.

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“Brokeback Mountain” (and more), and Why Audiences Matter by Eugene Hernandez (November 17, 2005)

Prior to the release of Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice” in the U.K. two months ago, the film’s producers, Working Title, decided to shorten the original romantic ending of the movie, apparently feeling it was a bit too sappy for British audiences. Focus Features on the other hand, which opened the movie over the weekend in the U.S., kept Wright’s original ending, releasing a different, slightly longer version of the film in this country. In a statement to indieWIRE Wednesday, a Focus spokesperson explained that in the U.K., “audiences prefer a less overtly romantic wrap-up, so the filmmakers had prepared the movie accordingly.” Standing by their decision to release the film with the more romantic coda Stateside, the Focus spokesperson added, “What’s most gratifying is that, wherever in the world ‘Pride & Prejudice’ is being shown, critics and moviegoers are enjoying this classic love story.” Such decisions, reiterating how audience reactions are anticipated and accommodated ahead of major film releases, are increasingly commonplace in Indiewood, as a panel of insiders discussed Monday night at a New York Women in Film and Television seminar.

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is a Box office Rapture by Brian Brooks (November 15, 2005)

Roadside Attractions laughed all the way to the box office with the release of “Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic,” which opened on limited screens, capturing the premiere position on the indieWIRE box office table as ranked on a per screen basis. Fellow newcomer “Pride & Prejudice” from Focus Features debuted in over two-hundred theaters, instantly becoming the iW BOT’s overall top earner and ranking second on the chart with a plush screen average, while other weekend openers including Magnolia Pictures’ “Pulse” and Fox Searchlight’s “Bee Season” also placed on the chart’s top five. Sony Classics’ “Capote” and Warner Independent Pictures’ “Good Night, and Good Luck” remained big earners following limited expansions.

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Isabelle Huppert is certainly brave. The 52-year-old French film star has just made her New York stage debut in a play written by the late British playwright, Sarah Kane. But perhaps what these theatregoers loved was the sheer proximity to her. New York it seems, is in the grip of all things Huppert at the moment. This selection celebrates her work with filmmakers great and good, from Jean Luc Godard to the French master of mystery, Claude Chabrol, as well as the American auteur Otto Preminger. Damian Fowler reports….

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