Image Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Movie awards season is right around the corner, and that means news of who will host the many awards ceremonies will start trickling in. The Independent Filmmaker Project announced Wednesday that comedian and actor Mike Birbiglia is set to host this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards.
The ceremony is presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project and will be held on Monday, Nov. 26 in New York City to honor independent films released in the past year.
Image Credit: CHRISTOPHER BEYER FOR EW
It’s a pretty common dream: Let’s make a movie.
Every kid who grew up with a video camera had it, even if it ranked in likelihood alongside becoming a “major league baseball player” and “astronaut” as possible professions.
Mike Birbiglia also had this dream — though he has a lot more of those than he knows what to do with.
The actor-writer-director’s new film Sleepwalk With Me, which expands nationwide today, is a fictionalized version of his bizarre experience with somnambulism — that is, acting out his dreams while still asleep — an affliction that hit him during one of the worst periods of his life.
It also turned out to be one of the best times of his life, or at least a very fortunate one. It gave him a story to tell, and everyone knows that’s the main ingredient for making a movie. That and money.
Here’s the story of how Sleepwalk With Me became a reality (with help from This American Life‘s Ira Glass, grappling with him in the photo above.)
Image Credit: CHRISTOPHER BEYER FOR EW
Puny Whedon …
Sleepwalk With Me, an indie film about a stand-up comic who discovers that his act gets funnier the more his life falls apart, expands to cities across the country today, and it has already declared victory over the biggest movie of the year after debuting last week on just one New York City screen.
Take that, Joss Whedon! Oooh, “The Avengers”! You think you’re so smart with your billion-dollar superhero franchise. Who’s laughing now!?
Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal
Mike Birbiglia, that’s who! The guy who wrote, directed, and stars in the film (which is based on his own life.) And Ira Glass, the mild-mannered host of public radio’s This American Life, who produced Sleepwalk With Me — he’s laughing, too!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! In … your … FACE, Joss Whedon!
Check out the exclusive video of their victory declaration, and Whedon’s pathetic capitulation, at Sleepwalk With Me‘s recent Los Angeles premiere. READ FULL STORY »
Sundance 2012 took place over 10 days, featured 117 movies, marked the debut of 45 first-time filmmakers, and for film lovers there was no better place to be than Park City, Utah — even if not all the news coming out of the festival was happy.
Studio sales were strong, which means many of the most buzzed-about titles will make it to theaters, and — as usual – a few previously unknown storytellers emerged as stars, while a handful of Hollywood veterans faceplanted in the snow.
One high-profile death cast a sense of mourning over the gathering, but a particularly upbeat lineup of movies managed to keep spirits high overall.
Here’s a wrap-up of what went down at Sundance 2012. READ FULL STORY »
CHRISTOPHER BEYER FOR EW
Every fan of This American Life has listened to a particular episode and thought: THAT would make a great movie.
Though Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! and the 2006 family comedy Unaccompanied Minors were both inspired by reports from the WBEZ Chicago public radio show, the minds behind This American Life have finally created their own feature-length movie.
Sleepwalk With Me was produced by Ira Glass and based on writer-director-star Mike Birbiglia’s harrowing tale of life as a not-so-good, but-getting-better comedian. The film has been a bright spot in a Sundance lineup already brimming with comedies.
Click through for an EW video interview in which:
– Glass edits Birbiglia’s storytelling in real time. (“I’m going to shortcut this…”)
– Birbiglia discusses the peculiarities of pretending to bomb on stage.
– The two storytellers provide the greatest-ever description of Sundance. (“It’s like a weird theme park where you keep running into celebrities. Like, ‘Oh…Paul Giamatti!’”) READ FULL STORY »
