“I remember seeing a film that became really formative for me called ‘Ruby in Paradise.’ It was a film about a young woman finding herself. It’s a simple film. A beautiful film. And I thought, ‘Wow. I didn’t know a film could be like this.’ I’d never seen anything like this before.”
That was director Ava DuVernay in the documentary “Only in Theaters” talking about “Ruby in Paradise,” winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and one of several exquisitely crafted dramas from Florida writer-director Victor Nunez. Since his feature debut “Gal Young Un” in 1979, Nunez has slowly, quietly, and consistently built one of the American independent cinema’s most vital bodies of work, one centered around complex regional character studies like “Ruby” and its follow-up “Ulee’s Gold,” for which Peter Fonda was nominated for an Oscar.
These films, along with Nunez’s 1984 masterpiece “A Flash of Green,...
That was director Ava DuVernay in the documentary “Only in Theaters” talking about “Ruby in Paradise,” winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and one of several exquisitely crafted dramas from Florida writer-director Victor Nunez. Since his feature debut “Gal Young Un” in 1979, Nunez has slowly, quietly, and consistently built one of the American independent cinema’s most vital bodies of work, one centered around complex regional character studies like “Ruby” and its follow-up “Ulee’s Gold,” for which Peter Fonda was nominated for an Oscar.
These films, along with Nunez’s 1984 masterpiece “A Flash of Green,...
- 6/30/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
When he made his first feature, Gal Young ‘Un, in 1979, director Victor Nuñez was a pioneer in an American independent film movement still in its early stages. Over the next several decades, Nuñez continued to work on personal projects on his home turf of northern Florida. He worked rewardingly with gifted actors like Ed Harris in A Flash of Green and launched Ashley Judd’s acting career with Ruby in Paradise in 1993. Peter Fonda earned his only Oscar nomination as an actor when he starred in Nuñez’s Ulee’s Gold in 1997.
But Nuñez has not directed a film in over a decade. He returns to the screen with Rachel Hendrix and helps to revitalize the acting career of Lori Singer, still best known for her starring role opposite Kevin Bacon in 1984’s Footloose. Singer, also an accomplished classical musician, had a few other notable acting credits, in Alan Rudolph’s...
But Nuñez has not directed a film in over a decade. He returns to the screen with Rachel Hendrix and helps to revitalize the acting career of Lori Singer, still best known for her starring role opposite Kevin Bacon in 1984’s Footloose. Singer, also an accomplished classical musician, had a few other notable acting credits, in Alan Rudolph’s...
- 2/27/2023
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in full swing, and our own Chris Bumbray covering the event, we wanted to know what film is your favorite of Sundance’s top prize: The Grand Jury Prize- Dramatic. From the very first winner (Old Enough) in 1984 to the most recent winner (Nanny) in 2022, let us know your favorite. If you’ve been to Sundance, please share your experience(s) in the comments section.
Favorite Sundance Grand Jury Prize WinnerNanny (2022)Coda (2021)Minari (2020)Clemency (2019)The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)The Birth of a Nation (2016)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)Whiplash (2014)Fruitvale Station (2013)Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)Like Crazy (2011)Winter's Bone (2010)Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)Frozen River (2008)Padre Nuestro (2007)Quinceañera (2006)Forty Shades of Blue (2005)Primer (2004)American Splendor (2003)Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)The Believer (2001)Girlfight (2000)You Can Count on Me (2000)Three...
Favorite Sundance Grand Jury Prize WinnerNanny (2022)Coda (2021)Minari (2020)Clemency (2019)The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)The Birth of a Nation (2016)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)Whiplash (2014)Fruitvale Station (2013)Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)Like Crazy (2011)Winter's Bone (2010)Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)Frozen River (2008)Padre Nuestro (2007)Quinceañera (2006)Forty Shades of Blue (2005)Primer (2004)American Splendor (2003)Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)The Believer (2001)Girlfight (2000)You Can Count on Me (2000)Three...
- 1/22/2023
- by Brad Hamerly
- JoBlo.com
No, she’s not playing a superhero (unless you are a lifelong Tanglewood member) but Cate Blanchett is heard describing how she can stop time in the new, strange trailer for “TÁR,” the mysterious upcoming feature from Todd Field.
It’s been 16 years since Field’s last film, “Little Children,” for which Kate Winslet received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as did Jackie Earle Haley for Best Supporting Actor and Field himself, shared with Tom Perrotta for Best Adapted Screenplay. Prior to “Little Children” was 2001’s “In The Bedroom,” which accrued five Oscar nominations: Sissy Spacek for Best Actress, Tom Wilkinson for Best Actor, Marisa Tomei for Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay for Field and Robert Festinger, and Best Picture.
Field has spent the years since his awards-heavy films not-quite-getting projects off the ground, like a television adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity” and a movie version of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian.
It’s been 16 years since Field’s last film, “Little Children,” for which Kate Winslet received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as did Jackie Earle Haley for Best Supporting Actor and Field himself, shared with Tom Perrotta for Best Adapted Screenplay. Prior to “Little Children” was 2001’s “In The Bedroom,” which accrued five Oscar nominations: Sissy Spacek for Best Actress, Tom Wilkinson for Best Actor, Marisa Tomei for Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay for Field and Robert Festinger, and Best Picture.
Field has spent the years since his awards-heavy films not-quite-getting projects off the ground, like a television adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity” and a movie version of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian.
- 8/26/2022
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
On Tuesday, Ashley Judd revealed that she is walking again in a social media post six months after shattering her leg in four places on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Judd is best known for appearing in films such as Ruby in Paradise in 1993, Heat in 1995, A Time to Kill in […]
The post Ashley Judd Is Walking Again After Shattering Her Leg In Congo appeared first on uInterview.
The post Ashley Judd Is Walking Again After Shattering Her Leg In Congo appeared first on uInterview.
- 8/3/2021
- by Adam Grunther
- Uinterview
Todd Field may finally, at long last, be sliding back behind the camera after many projects have fallen by the wayside.
The “In the Bedroom” director will team with Oscar winner Cate Blanchett on “Tar,” which Field also wrote. Focus Features will release the film. Details are being shrouded in secrecy, but according to Deadline, which broke the news, production will begin in the fall.
Field hasn’t directed a movie since 2006’s “Little Children,” but in that fifteen year break he has been linked to several projects. The list of might-have-beens includes “The Creed of Violence,” which was set to star Daniel Craig, and “America’s Last Prisoner of War,” an adaptation of a Michael Hastings’ article that he abandoned. At this point Field’s absence from the director’s chair is rivaling the likes of Terrence Malick for longest breaks between pictures.
He has previously been nominated for...
The “In the Bedroom” director will team with Oscar winner Cate Blanchett on “Tar,” which Field also wrote. Focus Features will release the film. Details are being shrouded in secrecy, but according to Deadline, which broke the news, production will begin in the fall.
Field hasn’t directed a movie since 2006’s “Little Children,” but in that fifteen year break he has been linked to several projects. The list of might-have-beens includes “The Creed of Violence,” which was set to star Daniel Craig, and “America’s Last Prisoner of War,” an adaptation of a Michael Hastings’ article that he abandoned. At this point Field’s absence from the director’s chair is rivaling the likes of Terrence Malick for longest breaks between pictures.
He has previously been nominated for...
- 4/12/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Quiver Distribution announced today that it will be rereleasing writer and director Victor Nunez’s 1993 award-winning film “Ruby in Paradise” in a new HD master that was fully restored from the original camera rolls and audio tracks and looks and sounds better than ever before. Ashley Judd leads in her first starring role, along with Todd Field, Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, and Dorothy Lyman. “Ruby in Paradise” will be available via Virtual Cinemas as well as to rent and own on North American digital HD internet, cable and satellite platforms through Quiver on February 16, 2021. Here’s a new trailer:
Ruby Lee Gissing (Ashley Judd) is on the run, determined to find something better than the closed rough life in the mountains of East Tennessee. She flees to a place once visited as a child, the “Redneck Riviera” of Panama City Beach. Arriving during the off-season, Ruby finds work in a...
Ruby Lee Gissing (Ashley Judd) is on the run, determined to find something better than the closed rough life in the mountains of East Tennessee. She flees to a place once visited as a child, the “Redneck Riviera” of Panama City Beach. Arriving during the off-season, Ruby finds work in a...
- 2/4/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Annabelle Attanasio’s impressive debut, “Mickey and the Bear,” premiered at SXSW, but over Columbus Day weekend it returned to the Hamptons Film Festival, which developed the project at its screenwriting lab. At one point, star Camillia Morrone jokingly pitched herself to “The Farewell” director Lulu Wang, a fellow member of the Winick Talks: Breakthrough Artists panel. “My schedule is open,” Morrone said.
Not for long.
Watching Morrone’s performance as a small-town Montana teenager working overtime to support her opioid-addicted vet father (James Badge Dale) reminded me of that “star is born” moment at the Sundance Film Festival when I first saw Sam Rockwell in “Box of Moonlight,” Tilda Swinton in “Orlando,” Ashley Judd in “Ruby in Paradise,” Kerry Washington in “Lift,” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.”
This is what film festivals do. Of course, they help push awards contenders up the hill every fall; since 2010, Hamptons...
Not for long.
Watching Morrone’s performance as a small-town Montana teenager working overtime to support her opioid-addicted vet father (James Badge Dale) reminded me of that “star is born” moment at the Sundance Film Festival when I first saw Sam Rockwell in “Box of Moonlight,” Tilda Swinton in “Orlando,” Ashley Judd in “Ruby in Paradise,” Kerry Washington in “Lift,” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.”
This is what film festivals do. Of course, they help push awards contenders up the hill every fall; since 2010, Hamptons...
- 10/16/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Annabelle Attanasio’s impressive debut, “Mickey and the Bear,” premiered at SXSW, but over Columbus Day weekend it returned to the Hamptons Film Festival, which developed the project at its screenwriting lab. At one point, star Camillia Morrone jokingly pitched herself to “The Farewell” director Lulu Wang, a fellow member of the Winick Talks: Breakthrough Artists panel. “My schedule is open,” Morrone said.
Not for long.
Watching Morrone’s performance as a small-town Montana teenager working overtime to support her opioid-addicted vet father (James Badge Dale) reminded me of that “star is born” moment at the Sundance Film Festival when I first saw Sam Rockwell in “Box of Moonlight,” Tilda Swinton in “Orlando,” Ashley Judd in “Ruby in Paradise,” Kerry Washington in “Lift,” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.”
This is what film festivals do. Of course, they help push awards contenders up the hill every fall; since 2010, Hamptons...
Not for long.
Watching Morrone’s performance as a small-town Montana teenager working overtime to support her opioid-addicted vet father (James Badge Dale) reminded me of that “star is born” moment at the Sundance Film Festival when I first saw Sam Rockwell in “Box of Moonlight,” Tilda Swinton in “Orlando,” Ashley Judd in “Ruby in Paradise,” Kerry Washington in “Lift,” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.”
This is what film festivals do. Of course, they help push awards contenders up the hill every fall; since 2010, Hamptons...
- 10/16/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. How to decide in the grand scheme of things which film year stands above all others? History gives us no clear methodology to unravel this thorny but extremely important question. Is it the year with the highest average score of movies? So a year that averages out to a B + might be the winner over a field strewn with B’s, despite a few A +’s. Or do a few masterpieces lift up a year so far that whatever else happened beyond those three or four films is of no consequence? Both measures are worthy, and the winner by either of those would certainly be a year not to be sneezed at. But I contend the only true measure of a year’s...
- 4/27/2015
- by Richard Rushfield
- Hitfix
The Tribeca Film Festival announced its jurors for this year’s event, which runs from April 16-27. The list includes Toni Collette, Lake Bell, Whoopi Goldberg, Catherine Hardwicke, Heather Graham, Anton Yelchin, Paul Wesley and 26 other leaders of the filmmaking community.
In addition to the Festival’s main competition juries in seven categories, Tribeca named Delia Ephron, Natasha Lyonne, and Gary Ross to select the second annual Nora Ephron Prize, which awards $25,000 to a female writer or director.
Click below for the entire list of jurors, with biographical information courtesy of the Tribeca festival:
World Competition Categories
The jurors for...
In addition to the Festival’s main competition juries in seven categories, Tribeca named Delia Ephron, Natasha Lyonne, and Gary Ross to select the second annual Nora Ephron Prize, which awards $25,000 to a female writer or director.
Click below for the entire list of jurors, with biographical information courtesy of the Tribeca festival:
World Competition Categories
The jurors for...
- 4/8/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
From Film.Com
The Toronto International Film Festival was going strong over the weekend, debuting just about every serious awards contender for the year, so naturally there are a lot of reviews to go through.
Thankfully, the folks over at Film.com have their crack team up in the Great White North, taking in the best of what Tiff has to offer. We've rounded up some of their most recent reviews, so take look after the jump!
"Cloud Atlas"
Grade: C+
“Cloud Atlas” is like the entire “Matrix” trilogy in micro. It starts out absolutely brilliantly, then segues into a pretentious slog. It is ambitious and bold has many intensely clever moments, but to say it fails to come together is almost beside the point. It chooses a form in which to make its thesis that, while oftentimes artful, is ultimately detrimental to the movie. One is left wondering what the movie is hiding,...
The Toronto International Film Festival was going strong over the weekend, debuting just about every serious awards contender for the year, so naturally there are a lot of reviews to go through.
Thankfully, the folks over at Film.com have their crack team up in the Great White North, taking in the best of what Tiff has to offer. We've rounded up some of their most recent reviews, so take look after the jump!
"Cloud Atlas"
Grade: C+
“Cloud Atlas” is like the entire “Matrix” trilogy in micro. It starts out absolutely brilliantly, then segues into a pretentious slog. It is ambitious and bold has many intensely clever moments, but to say it fails to come together is almost beside the point. It chooses a form in which to make its thesis that, while oftentimes artful, is ultimately detrimental to the movie. One is left wondering what the movie is hiding,...
- 9/10/2012
- by MTV Movies Team
- MTV Movies Blog
At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, there was Beast of the Southern Wild and then there was everything else. A number of past Sundances are thought of that way—the years of Ruby in Paradise, sex, lies, and videotape, Reservoir Dogs and perhaps a couple of others—but it's difficult to think of a festival at which, from an artistic pont of view, one film stood so completely apart from the others. But discoveries like Benh Zeitlin's first feature, a model American independent film that poetically examines the spirited, organic, punishing and determined lives of Louisiana fringe dwellers, don't come along every
read more...
read more...
- 1/30/2012
- by Todd McCarthy
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"The Darjeeling Limited" (2007)
Directed by Wes Anderson
Released by Criterion Collection
Anderson's underappreciated trip to India on the backs of three brothers (Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson) who take a train the country to honor their late father gets a reexamination with this Criterion Collection edition that includes a new documentary, an audio commentary from Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, audition footage, a video essay from Matt Zoller Seitz, a chichat between Anderson and the late James Ivory about the film's music and Anderson's ad for American Express and the short "Hotel Chevalier" with Natalie Portman.
"As Good As Dead" (2010)
Directed by Jonathan Mossek
Released by First Look Entertainment
Andie MacDowell, Frank Whaley and Matt Dallas star as spurned cult members from the South who take a New Yorker (Cary Elwes) hostage years after they believe he's killed their leader in this thriller.
"The Darjeeling Limited" (2007)
Directed by Wes Anderson
Released by Criterion Collection
Anderson's underappreciated trip to India on the backs of three brothers (Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson) who take a train the country to honor their late father gets a reexamination with this Criterion Collection edition that includes a new documentary, an audio commentary from Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, audition footage, a video essay from Matt Zoller Seitz, a chichat between Anderson and the late James Ivory about the film's music and Anderson's ad for American Express and the short "Hotel Chevalier" with Natalie Portman.
"As Good As Dead" (2010)
Directed by Jonathan Mossek
Released by First Look Entertainment
Andie MacDowell, Frank Whaley and Matt Dallas star as spurned cult members from the South who take a New Yorker (Cary Elwes) hostage years after they believe he's killed their leader in this thriller.
- 10/12/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Today’s is Fall, 1993. Peter Bowen interviewed Derek Jarman about his Wittgenstein for our Fall, 1993 cover. Holly Willis interviewed D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus about their doc on the Clinton Presidential campaign, The War Room. And there is still some useful advice in this article by Daniel Einfeld, a producer of the indie hit My LIfe’s in Turnaround, on bartering and production placement. (In the Filmmaker office, this article is kind of infamous for having what is perhaps our worst article design ever, with floating clip-art dollar signs all over the page.) I interviewed Victor Nunez about his Ruby in Paradise, which...
- 8/6/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Next time you’re tempted to complain that the Sundance Film Festival has become a wasteland of cookie-cutter romantic comedies starring slumming TV actors, and tortured dramas about gay cowboys eating pudding, consider this: It could be worse. There was a time when “American independent film” meant indifferently shot, life-sappingly earnest melodrama, invariably with some sort of dishwater-mild social uplift. Director Victor Nunez represents a throwback to those drab old days. Like his better-known Ulee’s Gold and Ruby In Paradise, his latest movie, Spoken Word, is an up-the-middle character study, this time about a spoken-word poet (the Goal! trilogy ...
- 7/22/2010
- avclub.com
A Cannes poster for Kane and Lynch and a UK poster for The Killer Inside Me.
"Zack Hemsey's music track 'Mind Heist', which is used in the new trailer for "Inception", can be found online. Cheers to Devin 'The Spandex Fog' Faraci at Chud for the digging..." (full details)
"Michael Bay has denied reports that the somewhat racist Autobot twins - Skids and Mudflap - will be back for the third "Transformers" installment..." (full details)
"Harold Ramis apparently revealed in an ABC 7 interview that a Christmas 2012 release date is being targeted for a third "Ghostbusters"..." (full details)
"Colin Farrell will play one of the title characters in the Seth Gordon-directed New Line comedy "Horrible Bosses"..." (full details)
"IFC films has launched a new genre label called IFC Midnight. Included in their early slate are Jake West's "Doghouse" and Marina de Van's "Don't Look Back" in June, Nicolas Winding Refn...
"Zack Hemsey's music track 'Mind Heist', which is used in the new trailer for "Inception", can be found online. Cheers to Devin 'The Spandex Fog' Faraci at Chud for the digging..." (full details)
"Michael Bay has denied reports that the somewhat racist Autobot twins - Skids and Mudflap - will be back for the third "Transformers" installment..." (full details)
"Harold Ramis apparently revealed in an ABC 7 interview that a Christmas 2012 release date is being targeted for a third "Ghostbusters"..." (full details)
"Colin Farrell will play one of the title characters in the Seth Gordon-directed New Line comedy "Horrible Bosses"..." (full details)
"IFC films has launched a new genre label called IFC Midnight. Included in their early slate are Jake West's "Doghouse" and Marina de Van's "Don't Look Back" in June, Nicolas Winding Refn...
- 5/11/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Victor Nunez is attached to direct "El Lector" which is being produced by produced by Jane Startz Productions., Lauren Versel and Lucky Monkey Pictures. The upcoming movie adaptation of the 2007 William Durbin novel follows a Floriday girl who hopes of becoming a reader hired to entertain workers in a cigar factory. Flaminia Ocampo and Nunez ("Ruby in Paradise" and "Ulee's Gold") wrote the screenplay. Also in the cards for Lucky Monkey ("City Island") is upcoming Amy Heckerling pic "Vamps." Jane Startz Productions, known for "Ella Enchanted," has "The Cold Kiss" and "Lord of the Nutcracker Men" upcoming.
- 5/11/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
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