"Juno" Acclaimed at Rome Film Festival

"Juno," a U.S. film about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and tries to find a couple to adopt her baby, won best film Saturday at the Rome Film Festival.

The film is directed by 30-year-old Canadian-born Jason Reitman, whose 2005 comedy "Thank you for Smoking" scooped a string of awards and was nominated for two Golden Globes. It was first runner-up for the people's choice award at last month's Toronto International Film Festival.

Critics praised the performance by actress Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff, the quick witted young woman who falls pregnant at her first sexual experience. Suddenly plunged into adulthood, she sets out to find a suitable set of parents to adopt her unborn child.

The best actress award went to Chinese actress Jang Wenli for "Li Chun" (And the Spring Comes), about a provincial opera singer who dreams of becoming the star of the Beijing Opera in the years between the end of the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Rade Serbedzija of Croatia won best actor for his role in the Canadian-Greek production "Fugitive Pieces." In the film, he plays Athos, a Greek archaeologist who saves a Jewish child from Poland who is orphaned during World War II.

A 50-member public jury, made up of selected moviegoers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, judged the in-competition films at the second annual Rome Film Festival. Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who won the best foreign film Oscar with 2001's "No Man's Land," presided over the jury.

Source: AP, Canada.com and IHT

Film Editor's Cut

Notable passage from On Film Editing, by Edward Dmytryk:

Should the cutter make the cuts exactly as the director spelled out, or should he cut the film his way to arrive at the results which he thinks the director wanted, basing his judgment on his interpretation of the director’s expressed instructions?

The wise cutter will, of course, follow the second procedure, making the cuts in question his way to arrive at the desired result. And, if he is a very good cutter, that result will be, in the director’s words, “exactly what I was looking for.”

Here’s a quote I especially like:

In any creative effort, one must do one’s own thing, even if that thing is being done in response to another’s order. To do otherwise is to seriously risk a result which will please neither the requestor nor the executor.

Pitching Your Film Script in Hollywood

The studios and other large production companies are signatory to the Writers Guild. This means they have agreed to use Writers Guild-approved contracts. Their names can be easily found in a variety of directories.

What are large producers looking for?
Their perceived needs can change monthly, or even weekly. They are constantly assessing the markets for the right formula. In general, they want something that can be easily pitched to other producers, studios, distributors and moviegoers. So the concept or central idea must grab them immediately.

They also want something written for the actor. They want a script that makes the difference between Bruce Willis doing the movie and Tom Cruise doing it, or Julia Roberts as opposed to Lindsay Lohan.

We must be aware that when a producer produces the script of a new writer, he's putting his job on the line. If the resulting movie fails, he could be canned for trying someone new. Whereas if a film using a proven writer fails, it can be seen as a fluke.

When a producer hires you, she's hoping you're up and coming.

These large producers have deals with studios, meaning that they have contractual agreements to produce a certain number of pictures with a studio or production company, or a studio may have first right of refusal. This is another reason why its better to let a producer take your project to a studio than go directly to the studio yourself. These producers are big because they have the money needed to finance a film.

Generally, large producers accept scripts only from agents.

However, if your query is strong enough, there are some WGA-signatory producers who may accept a script without an agent. In such cases, they may require a submission agreement or release. A submission agreement is a legal document is a legal document that basically absolves the producer or executive of responsibility if your work is accidentally stolen. It sounds horrible, but you should consider signing the release to get your work sold and produced.

Generally, these folks aren't interested in stealing your story. Theft occurs occasionally, but large producers are more interested in avoiding lawsuits than they are in a theft. Writer's paraonia is the hallmark of an amateur.You've got to get your ideas out there. Perhaps your best protection is your writitng ability, industry savvy and completed script.