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Plot: A haunting psychological thriller based on one of America’s most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing events leading up to the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Review: Anyone around in the 90s likely remembers the name Timothy McVeigh. And if you don’t, chances are the words “Oklahoma City Bomber” ring a bell at least. Serving as the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in US History, the bombings were an absolutely tragic loss of life. Now, McVeigh looks to shed light on the motivations of the two bombers: Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.

McVeigh is a slow-burn story that follows Timothy as he gets radicalized after the Waco shootings. He viewed himself as a constitutionalist and felt the government was fascist, not following the Declaration of Independence as intended.

As a psychological crime thriller, McVeigh (2025) relies on the tense atmosphere surrounding its characters. It centers around a war veteran who commits an act of domestic terrorism. Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) plays Timothy McVeigh, a real-life terrorist the film is based upon, who is the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Mike Ott has directed this film, whose efforts turn it into a brooding affair. The entire film feels like the silence before the storm. It shows McVeigh slowly getting sucked into a destructive philosophy that destroys several lives.

Spoilers Ahead

McVeigh (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Mike Ott’s direction makes McVeigh appear like a gradually escalating affair, leading up to something devastating. However, it steers clear of using heightened moments, turning the film into a study of the character’s indecipherable interiority. The film moves at a glacial pace and presents its protagonist as an enigma, whose...

It’s not the easiest task to talk to actors about such dark subject matter, especially when the events are based on reality. Brett Gelman gets into all of the research that went into his role as Terry Nichols, McVeigh’s partner and the one who taught him how to build bombs. I was then shocked to discover that Ashley Benson had been involved with the project for nearly 6 years! Anthony Carrigan was more soft-spoken, and I wish I could have gotten into something lighter like his Barry days. But he gets into what kind of research he was able to do, given that his character was mostly based on an unknown third assailant.

McVeigh is “a haunting psychological thriller based on one of America’s most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing...

McVeigh is a haunting psychological thriller based on one of America's most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing events leading up to the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Alfie Allen plays the movie's title character and he's surrounded by a phenomenal supporting cast that includes Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), and Anthony Carrigan (Superman).

Earlier this week, we were fortunate enough to speak with them about their work on the must-see new movie. While we'll bring you a full transcription of our interview soon, Anthony was kind enough to share a few brief remarks about his role as Metamorpho in James Gunn's upcoming Dcu reboot.

The character's role in the story has been kept under wraps, though we did catch a glimpse of...

Timothy McVeigh ruthlessly murdered 167 men, women, and children when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It is the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. McVeigh does not portray this man as a monster with devil's horns and scales. Director/co-writer Mike Ott uses subtlety to craft a chilling portrayal of a calculating white supremacist hellbent on causing the most carnage possible. You could have passed him on the street without much outward clue of his malicious intentions. McVeigh operated quietly in the shadows, but had allies and accomplices that shared his heinous vision. This is the most disturbing aspect of the film.

Alfie Allen stars as McVeigh. We first see him getting pulled over by a state trooper. He uses a fake driver's license to conceal his true identity. There doesn't seem to be anything threatening about the soft-spoken man. He's...

Cinema’s obsession with murderers – especially famous ones – seems never ending, yet the picture it paints is very different from reality. We’re all familiar with the latter-day movie archetype of the cool, charismatic killer, well dressed, bright-eyed, witty and smarter than everyone around him. Whilst a few well known murderers have perceived themselves that way, the reality tends to be very different. How does one successfully tell a story about someone who is socially withdrawn, living along, rarely speaking even when he is in company? How does one illustrate the development of his ideas when he keeps his thoughts locked up inside his head? Tony Stone tried it in 2001 with Ted K, his take on the story of the Unabomber, and now Mike Ott is here, taking a similar approach, with McVeigh.

It all hinges on finding the right actor. Whilst he’s no Sharlto Copley, Alfie Allen has acquitted.

At a time when the stories behind shocking headlines are routinely turned into true crime podcasts and star-studded Netflix series, the question of how to tell them ethically is often raised. For its part, Mike Ott’s McVeigh delivers about as un-exploitative and un-sensationalized a depiction of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh as could possibly be imagined—to the point that, if anything, the film ends up understated to a fault.

McVeigh begins with Timothy (Alfie Allen) driving down a country road as weathered as his car. Nothing happens for a spell, until Timothy is pulled over by a cop. But nothing much happens at this point either, and Timothy is soon free to continue on his way. Something about the relative lack of incident and the dreary, sparse environment puts us on edge. From the start, McVeigh thrums with a sense of alienation and hostility so pronounced that even those...

"A movie rooted in small-town American rage." Yep it definitely seems like it. Decal Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for a psychological thriller film titled McVeigh, yes indeed about the notorious domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh. Not sure why we need this film right now? Or ever? McVeigh is directed by indie filmmaker Mike Ott, and it first premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival last year - it's next available to watch in March. A haunting psychological thriller based on one of America's most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing events leading up to the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history - the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995. Starring Alfie Allen as Tim, Brett Gelman, Tracy Letts, Ashley Benson, and Anthony Carrigan. There was a movie just few...

“McVeigh,” which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and will soon be in theaters, tells the story behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead and 675 injured.

Director Mike Ott’s narrative film “McVeigh” charts the days leading up to the attack, with Alfie Allen portraying domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh. Brett Gelman plays Terry Nichols, with “Barry” breakout Anthony Carrigan, Tracy Letts, and Ashley Benson co-starring.

“Actor Martinez” filmmaker Ott co-wrote the film with his “California Dreams” co-writer Alex Gioulakis.

The official synopsis reads: “A haunting psychological thriller based on one of America’s most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing events leading up to the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.”

“McVeigh” is produced by Miles Alva, Ash Christian, Nicolaas Bertelsen, Joe Pirro, Shaum S. Sengupta, and Monte Zajicek.

Exclusive: This year’s Manchester Film Festival is set to run from March 14 – 23 and will open with a screening of The Penguin Lessons, directed by British filmmaker Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan.

Based on the best-selling memoir, the film tells the story of an Englishman’s personal and political awakening during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history, brought about by his unlikely adoption of a penguin.

Manchester will screen 37 features, including 15 UK premieres and 4 world premieres. All films will be screening in Manchester for the first time. This includes the Manchester premiere of the UK’s Oscar selection Santosh from Sandhya Suri, Sundance, and Cannes hit Good One directed by India Donaldson, and South by Southwest Audience Award Winner My Dead Friend Zoe from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.

Other highlights include the UK premieres of Y2K, A24’s latest horror comedy starring Fred Durst and directed by Kyle Mooney, the...

Myriad Pictures will launch sales at AFM on the psychological thriller McVeigh from Symbolic Exchange and CinemaWerks starring Alfie Allen as Timothy McVeigh, the deadliest domestic terrorist in United States history.

The film premiered at Tribeca Festival this year and is directed by Mike Ott. It tells of the titular military veteran, who masterminded the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building inOklahoma City that resulted in the death of 168 people and injured many hundreds more.

Allen, whose credits include Jojo Rabbit and Game Of Thrones, stars alongside Ashley Benson, Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Anthony Carrigan (Barry), and Tracy Letts...

On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, leaving 168 people dead in the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. The perpetrator was Timothy McVeigh, an Iraq war veteran disaffected with the government. Writer Alex Gioulakis and director Mike Ott seek to understand how such a tragedy could occur through their film McVeigh, starring Alfie Allen as McVeigh.

Shot in a mood-sobering style, Ott keeps viewers at arm’s length from McVeigh. Through master shots and meditative pacing, we observe his descent not as a thriller but as a study of radicalization emerging from the ordinary. McVeigh lives a mundane life—selling bumper stickers at gun shows alongside friend Terry and starting a relationship with Cindy. But political unrest simmers beneath the surface as he falters further into antigovernment ideology, impacted by events like the Waco siege.

In vivid yet restrained performances,...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival kicked off June 5 with the world premiere of the documentary Diane Furstenberg: Woman In Charge, launching the 12-day New York-set fest that features narrative and documentary competitions as well as a slew of A-list panels that always seem to make news.

Among the 108 feature films in this year’s lineup includes world premieres of movies starring Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone, Elizabeth Banks, Naomie Harris and Jenna Ortega to name a few. In addition to Furstenberg, high profile documentaries include Brats, Andrew McCarthy’s look back at the Brat Pack, and ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, about South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone restoring an iconic Colorado restaurant.

Check out Deadline’s reviews from the festival, and keep checking back as new titles are added. Click on the film’s title to read our full review.

Brats ‘Brats’

Section: Spotlight

Directors: Andrew McCarthy

With: Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy,...

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s an unfortunate societal reality that the perpetrators of terrible crimes inevitably become famous. Rather than focus on immortalizing the names of the victims, it’s the person who took their lives who is often best remembered by the public. That may well be because it’s hard to understand what could push someone to do such a thing, and even with confessions, a motive may still remain unknown long after a criminal’s death. Mike Ott’s McVeigh looks at one of the most infamous domestic terrorists in United States history and constructs a narrative around why he did what he did...

Mike Ott’s McVeigh is an immersive, chilling, meticulously paced portrait of Timothy McVeigh, played by Alfie Allen, who embodies the bleak, quiet rage of the radicalized terrorist. Entering the story months before he carries out the deadliest attack of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, McVeigh is a loner who spends his days selling bumper stickers and books at gun shows and visiting with Richard Snell (Tracy Letts), a white supremacist on death row. Bothered by the political temperature of the era and Snell’s pending execution on the anniversary of the Waco Siege, McVeigh and Terry Nichols (Brett Gelman) start stockpiling weapons and planning an attack. The details of said attack are never mentioned. Ott and co-writer Alex Gioulakis instead meditate on the man’s psychology.

McVeigh is narratively sparse by design, making certain assumptions and taking liberties, such as the character of Cindy (Ashley Benson), a waitress...

“McVeigh,” a drama about Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is a movie rooted in the forlorn underbelly of small-town American rage.

A car snakes its way along an empty road in the desolate dusk. Men nursing cheap beers sit around in roadside bars, strips clubs, or living rooms with ugly wood paneling. And Tim (Alfie Allen), an impassive loner whose scraggly beard is an outgrowth of his not bothering to shave, sits behind his table at a gun show, hawking $2 bumper stickers that say “When guns are outlawed, I will become an outlaw.” At home, he points a weapon at the TV set, like Travis Bickle, miming the execution of the U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as she testifies at hearings about the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco. Tim also travels to an Arkansas prison...

“We have to do something,” says one of the many shadowy extremists who populate the fringes of Mike Ott’s tense drama McVeigh, a condensed account of the events that led Timothy McVeigh, an Iraq war veteran, to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring 680 more. His close ties to white supremacist Richard Snell, a convicted murderer put to death by lethal injection that same day, might — reasonably — lead one, and especially people of color, to wonder why this man needs the oxygen of publicity, nearly 23 years after his own execution. But Ott’s film is a rare study of the radicalization of white working-class Americans, a phenomenon that went overground in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

Ott carefully keeps us at arm’s length from his subject at all times, and his direction makes that clear from the outset. When we’re not following McVeigh,...

The June skies are clear as the Tribeca Festival gathers indie filmmakers from around the globe with a large slate of features and shorts, music, games, TV, audio storytelling and a major addition this year in De Niro Con, a tribute to the prolific actor and Tribeca co-founder.

The fest moved from April to June in part for the weather but that can’t be taken for granted — last year’s edition opened to a city blanketed with acrid smoke from Canadian wildfires as Mayor Eric Adams handed De Niro the key to the city at a press conference and Tribeca unveiled De Niro Con. Fan events and screenings with star power from Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, David O. Russell, Christopher Walken and others will unspool over the last four days of the festival.

Other retrospectives and reunions will see Steven Spielberg screen and discuss his...

The world premiere of Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge chronicling the life of the fashion designer will open Tribeca Festival, running June 5-16 in New York.

Some 103 features – including 86 world premieres – from 114 filmmakers in 48 countries were selected from a record 13,016 submissions. Half of the films in competition are directed by women and 35% (36) of the selection hails from Bipoc filmmakers.

This year’s selection includes world premieres of Michael Angarano’s road movie Sacramento starring Michael Cera, Angarano, and Kristen Stewart; Andrew McCarthy’s documentary Brats in which the filmmaker catches up with fellow Brat-Packers Rob Lowe,...

Tribeca Festival will premiere new fims from Lily Gladstone, Jenna Ortega, Michael Cera, and Andrew McCarthy when it runs in New York from June 5-16.

The event will open with the world premiere of Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge chronicling the life of the fashion designer.

Some 103 features – including 86 world premieres – from 114 filmmakers in 48 countries were selected from a record 13,016 submissions. Half of the films in competition are directed by women and 35% (36) of the selection hails from Bipoc filmmakers.

This year’s selection includes world premieres of Michael Angarano’s road movie Sacramento starring Cera,...

Independent film supporter Rooftop Films announced the 2022 Filmmaker Fund winners February 28, exclusively on IndieWire.

The prestigious Water Tower Feature Film Cash Grant was awarded to “The 40-Year-Old Version” writer-director-producer-star Radha Blank, for her upcoming untitled dark dramedy.

Environmental director Eleanor Mortimer also won a Water Tower grant for an untitled deep sea taxonomy documentary, which “follows biologists through the intricate process of discovering deep-sea species as they piece together the unknown ecosystems of the largest biome on the planet.”

The $15,000 grants are made possible by generous support from the Laurence W. Levine Foundation.

The Rooftop Filmmakers Fund grants are available to Rooftop Films alumni directors who have previously had their work screened during the annual Summer Series in New York City. Blank screened her debut feature, “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” with Rooftop Films in 2020 at the Queens Drive-In. Mortimer screened her award-winning short film “Territory” at Rooftop Films in 2016.

This year,...

Now in its eighth year, the American Film Festival offers a unique perspective on recent developments in U.S. indie filmmaking. That’s because it happens in Poland, staged at the stylish Kino Nowe Horyzonty film center in Wroclaw, also home to the summer New Horizons festival, which has more of a European tilt.

Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.

That spirit is...

The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the films that will be featured in their New Auteurs and American Independents sections at the upcoming AFI Fest 2017 presented by Audi. Selections include a number of lauded features from around the festival circuit, including Cannes offerings like “I Am Not a Witch,” SXSW favorites like “Gemini” and “Mr. Roosevelt,” the Sundance breakout “Thoroughbreds,” and Joseph Kahn’s Toronto Midnight Madness favorite “Bodied,” among others.

Highlighting first- and second-time feature film directors, New Auteurs is designed as the festival’s platform for upcoming filmmakers from all over the world to showcase their new films. This year, the section includes 11 films, nine of which come from female directors. Similarly, AFI Fest’s American Independents section aims to represent the best of this year’s independent filmmaking. Pushing boundaries of form and content across narrative and documentary cinema, this section includes 11 films from both fresh...

Business as usual for festival unfolding on famous Paris avenue hit by two terror attacks in recent weeks.

Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff’s thriller The Strange Ones has scooped the top prize at the sixth edition of France’s Us-focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, which wan June 15-22.

The feature, starring Alex Pettyfer and James Freedson-Jackson as two brothers on a mysterious trip into the wilderness, premiered at SXSW earlier this year.

The American Independent Jury Prize comes with a €10,000 cash award for the French distributor of the film but, as it has yet to be acquired for France, the...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the full slate of films for AFI Docs 2017, a five-day documentary celebration in the nation’s capital. Each year, the festival is committed to providing artists with the opportunity to present powerfully told, artfully constructed stories — and to connect audiences and filmmakers with policy leaders. AFI Docs 2017 runs June 14 – 18 in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD.

“The 2017 slate of films reflects AFI Docs’ mission to celebrate powerfully told stories and the people at the heart of them,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director, AFI Docs. “Documentaries continue to play an important role in our country regardless of partisan lines. No matter your background, these human stories have the power to inform and inspire. We look forward to another year of dynamic nonfiction cinema.

How can we not talk about family When family's all that we got?—Wiz Khalifa (feat. Charlie Puth), See You AgainWhat a long, strange ride it's been… and still some way to go. As I write, the eighth film in the Fast/Furious series (Ff) is still playing in thousands of cinemas worldwide. I won't concern myself here with the box-office performance of The Fate of the Furious—nor will I attempt synopsis of this or the previous installments—except to note that enough money was taken on opening-day alone to confirm we can expect the ninth and tenth in this prodigiously lucrative Universal franchise to hit our screens late spring or early summer, in 2019 and 2021.Ideally the 10th—and, presuming Vin Diesel's September 2015 comment about "one last trilogy" is honored, final—picture should arrive exactly 20 years after Rob Cohen’s The Fast and the Furious bowed on 22nd June,...

Rooftop Films has announced its lineup for the 2017 Summer Series. This year’s series will feature more than 45 outdoor screenings in more than 10 venues, including films like Michael Showalter’s Sundance hit “The Big Sick” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “The Bad Batch,” (dates still Tbd).

The series kicks off on Friday, May 19 with “This is What We Mean by Short Films,” a collection of some of the most innovative, new short films of the past year. The screening will take place on the roof of The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The following night, Saturday, May 20, Rooftop will present a sneak preview screening of Zoe Lister-Jones’ 2017 Sundance entry, “Band Aid,” free and outdoors at House of Vans in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The entire lineup so far is below. Tickets are already for sale.

Friday, May 19

“This is What We Mean by Short Films”

Saturday, May 20

“Band Aid” (Zoe Lister-Jones)

Saturday,...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Cardiff Animation Nights will be returning to run a dedicated animation strand at Cardiff Independent Film Festival (C.I.F.F.) for a second year this May. This year’s animation strand at C.I.F.F. will comprise three programs of animated short films in competition for the Best Animation Award, as well as an Animated Family Shorts program curated by renowned Cardiff-based studio Cloth Cat Animation, networking events, and an Animation Quiz run by the team at Skwigly Animation Magazine.

The competition program features animated short films from across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia, including Mikey Hill’s The Orchestra, Anete Melece’s Analysis Paralysis, Chris Shepherd’s Johnno’s Dead, Ross Hogg’s Life Cycles and Alois Di Leo’s Way of Giants.

“It’s a job.” –Arthur Martinez I had two features as a cinematographer under my belt by late June of 2015, both close and comfortable collaborations with a single director: Joel Potrykus (Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook). It seems fitting that he made the phone call I received only a week and a half before Actor Martinez began principal photography. Joel eagerly informed me that two directors, Nathan Silver (Stinking Heaven, Uncertain Terms) and Mike Ott (Lake Los Angeles, Littlerock), had contacted him asking about my nearly immediate availability. I didn’t know them personally, but I certainly had been aware of their […]...

Taken at face value, Mike Ott's California Dreams is a slowly-drawn portrait of ordinary people who harbor dreams of something better. It mixes documentary footage and staged scenes without demarcation. To what effect? That is left up to the viewer to decide. Frankly, the five subjects of the film -- who are sometimes actors and sometimes, perhaps, playing variations on themselves -- are not terribly compelling. Watching them perform auditions in the opening sequence is painful; has no one told these poor souls that they should focus on something other than acting? Well, maybe they have been informed, and they have chosen to hold on to their dreams anyway, in which case their resiliency is remarkable. Through one on one interviews that sometimes become uncomfortably...

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Straight from Berlin, Mike Ott’s California Dreams has its North American premiere at the SXSW premiere on March 11 in the Visions Program. Courtesy of the filmmakers and the Film Sales Company, which is handling world sales, Filmmaker has this exclusive clip from the film. From the filmmakers: In this clip from Mike Ott’s comedy doc California Dreams, various subjects recite monologues at the beginning of the film – all in pursuit of their own dreams. Director Mike Ott’s film is about the dreams we all have — of being something else, or somewhere else, or someone else. Director Bio: […]...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out….but mostly movies.

This Past Weekend:

It was absolutely no surprise that Hugh Jackman’s last Wolverine movie Logan would top the box office, but it actually ended up doing even better than my prediction when actual numbers came in, grossing $88.3 million over the weekend. That makes it the fourth highest X-Movie opening (including Deadpool) but also the biggest R-rated opening for March, defeating 300’s once-impressive $70 million opening. It’s also the fourth highest R-rated opening of all time after Deadpool, The Matrix Reloaded and American Sniper.

The bigger surprise was how well Jordan Peele’s thriller Get Out held up in its second weekend, not only because it was going up against Logan, but also because high-profile horror films tend...

Arthur Martinez is a Denver computer technician who moonlights as an actor. He looks something like the late comics writer Harvey Pekar: schlubby and with sideburns, a heavy brow, and a mess of thinning hair. As the star of Actor Martinez, in which he plays himself, Arthur comes across as “a character”—not a Pekar-esque grouch, but a sweet and needy puppy with personal issues that he is unequipped to address. How much of this is real or a performance is unclear and maybe even irrelevant; besides, movies that play with the difference between being yourself and playing yourself work best when they can keep their exact recipes secret. Because what this funny, low-key head-scratcher presents, in pieces that viewers sometimes have to put together themselves, is a story about two indie filmmakers (Mike Ott and Nathan Silver, also the film’s real directors and also playing themselves) who...

Vox has released the new episode of its nonfiction web series “The Secret Life of Muslims,” titled “Dear Hollywood: stop portraying Muslims as terrorists.” In the new installment, Iranian-American author and commentator Reza Aslan, “Glee” actor Iqbal Theba and other prominent Muslims sound off on the problems of Hollywood’s portrayal of the group.

Read More: Mike Ott & Nathan Silver Blur the Line Between Fiction and Reality in ‘Actor Martinez’ — Trailer

“I loved the 1980s, when Chuck Norris used to kill swaths of my people with a machine-gun in some brown bouillabaisse of a country. It was awesome to watch,” says reporter Wajahat Ali at the beginning of the clip. This new episode also features comedian Omar Regan, who claims that “Muslims are always terrorists!” on the big screen.

Comedian Maz Jobrani, author of “I’m Not a Terrorist, but I’ve Played One on TV,” says how much he...

“Actor Martinez” had its North American premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Now, the comedy from acclaimed indie directors Mike Ott (“Lake Los Angeles”) and Nathan Silver (“Uncertain Terms,” “Stinking Heaven”) is set to debut in theaters March 10.

Read More: Mike Ott & Nathan Silver’s ‘Actor Martinez’ Is A Fascinating And Experimental Meta-Movie — Tribeca Review

“Actor Martinez” focuses on Arthur Martinez (played by the actor of the same name), a Denver-area performer who hires two indie filmmakers (Silver and Ott) to make a film with him as the lead. But instead, the filmmakers design a completely different project based on Arthur’s real-life persona, even casting him a girlfriend, actress Lindsay Burdge (“Mistress America,” “The Invitation”), to try to draw out any remaining emotions from Arthur about his ex-wife.

Inspired by Kiarostami’s distinctive style of combining conventional narrative with documentary filmmaking, Silver and Ott deliberately blur the line between fiction and nonfiction,...

In Mike Ott’s California Dreams (which I reviewed here), five aspiring actors are shown giving auditions and later acting out scenes in a film-within-the-film. Although this nested film is supposed to be a fiction, and also looks like one thanks to the gorgeous work of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, the script is drawn – or appears to be drawn – directly from the actors’ biographies. One of the fascinating aspects of California Dreams is that Ott never allows you to know for certain how much is real and how much is fabricated. It was therefore a pleasure to be able to […]...

Mike Ott’s latest feature “California Dreams” — receiving its World Premiere as part of the fledgling Critics’ Week program that runs concurrently with the main Berlin Film Festival — is one of those barely-there, micro American indies that is a little more SXSW than Sundance. The film — Ott’s sixth — places the audience in medias res of its hybrid fiction/non-fiction narrative, offering minimal orientation and ultimately resolution to the travails of a handful of marginal figures.

Continue reading Superficial ‘California Dreams’ Struggles To Find A Purpose [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

Mike Ott’s semi-documentary, about delusional people with dreams of making it big in Hollywood, is beautifully filmed but snickering and uncomfortable

Cory is an aspiring actor who is holding a yard sale to raise the cash he needs to fly to Berlin for an audition. Patrick is 28 and has never kissed a woman, unless you count his mother or grandmother. Neil is a budding screenwriter obsessed with Taco Bell. Carolan lives in her car but has already written her Oscar acceptance speech. And Kevin, who sports a custard-coloured mullet and runs a storage company, is confident about his own star quality. “When I walk into a room of 1,000 people, 999 of them are looking at me,” he says. “The one who isn’t is blind.”

This is the cast of California Dreams, a bittersweet comedy that occupies the grey area between documentary and scripted reality, and comes across like Napoleon Dynamite meets American Movie.

In the age of Insta-celebrities, reality TV luminaries — and I use the word luminaries very loosely — and countless variations on American Idol, the dreams of many seem to have less to do with possessing any kind of innate talent than with simply becoming famous. This would seem like fertile ground for a docu-fiction project, and the early going of Mike Ott’s California Dreams appears to tap into this idea, as the director asks unknowns from several small towns in California who dream of becoming actors to audition for him with their favorite Hollywood scene.

All the aspiring actors that...

This year’s Berlin International Film Festival bows in Germany later this week and with it, one of Europe’s most exciting and singular film festivals. As ever, the annual fest is playing home to dozens of feature films and short offerings, with picks aplenty from both modern masters and fresh faces. The Berlinale often breeds some of indie film’s most unexpected and unique standouts, so if it’s at the fest, it’s likely worth a look.

Read More: 5 Exciting Films in the 2017 Berlin Film Festival Competition Lineup

Ahead, check out the 8 titles we are most excited to check out at this year’s festival.

“Have a Nice Day”

Expectations are high for this Chinese animated feature that marks the sophomore effort from director Liu Jiang, whose surreal debut “Piercing” offered an inventive look at modern day city life in China’s capital. If the gorgeous stills from...

SXSW is coming up quick! The fest runs March 10-18 and the good folks in Austin announced the bulk of their lineup today. There are still a few of the program's 125 films to be announced, but what we now know includes world premieres from such heavyweights as Evan Katz (his film Small Crimes is pictured above), Edgar Wright, Terrence Malick, Joe Swanberg, Frank Oz, Jeff Malmberg, Josh Greenbaum, Mark Webber, Mike Ott, Bob Byington, Noël Wells, Jonathan Levine, and Judd Apatow. Whoosh. Color us excited. Here's the full lineup and ther eis much more on the SXSW site. Narrative Feature Competition Ten world premieres; ten unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,407 narrative feature submissions in 2017. A Bad Idea...

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From The Sixth Sense (1999) onward, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has been popularly and critically typecast as the champion of “plot twists.” This label probably plays into the unusually intensive scrutiny undergone by his films. Specifically, the scrutiny likely stems from Shyamalan’s tendency to design narratives around the selective doling out of information, which lends itself to unusually plot-focused viewing. There is something to be said for the fact that a plot twist, on some level, deceives its viewers, leading them to believe something before abruptly unfurling that belief. Reviewing his latest film Split, I would like to mostly dispense with this emphasis on “twists.” By stressing one specific element of his storytelling process, one runs the risk of neglecting to address his commitment to storytelling itself. That is, it’s worth noting that Shyamalan sees cathartic possibilities (often profoundly affirming ones) embedded in the very notion of story. Take,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. rights to the drama thriller “All I See Is You,” directed by Marc Forster and starring Blake Lively and Jason Clarke. They will release the film nationwide August 4, 2017. It world-premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

The film “is the story of a blind woman (Blake Lively) and her husband (Jason Clarke). When her sight unexpectedly returns, she begins to discover the previously unseen and disturbing details about themselves, their marriage and their lives.”

– A24 has acquired North American rights to Josh and Benny Safdie’s Robert Pattinson-starring “Good Time.” The “film follows a bank robber’s race to evade the police dragnet that threatens to send him behind bars.

Chris Petrikin, chief communications officer for 20th Century Fox, will leave the studio at the end of the year.

Petrikin plans to form a strategic communications and crisis management consultancy and will retain Fox as a client.

The executive joined Fox in February 2007 from the William Morris Agency. Prior to that he was an entertainment reporter.

Fox chairman and CEO Stacey Snider said, “Chris’s impact at Fox over so many years is almost impossible to measure.”

Bron genre label The Realm will produce sci-fi thriller Parallel in association with Creative Wealth Media. Production is set to commence in Vancouver in mid-November on the story of friends who discover a mirror that serves as a portal to a multiverse. Wme Global represents the project, which marks the English-language directorial debut of Isaac Ezban. Bron’s Garrick Dion and Matthias Mellinghaus will produce while Bron CEO Aaron L. Gilbert and Creative Wealth’s Jason Cloth, Andy Pollack and Paul...

Exclusive: Breaking Glass Pictures has secured North American distribution rights to the indie pic Actor Martinez from writers/director duo Mike Ott and Nathan Silver. The film, which premiered at Tribeca, will have a limited theatrical release in December before expanding in first quarter of 2017 along with a DVD and digital platform release. Starring Arthur Martinez, Lindsay Burdge, as well as Ott and Silver, the story follows a local Denver computer repairman and…...

AFI Fest has announced the selections for its New Auteurs, American Independents, Midnights and Shorts sections. Already announced as part of the weeklong festival, which runs in Hollywood from November 10 – 17, are “Elle,” “20th Century Women” and the world premieres of both “The Comedian” and “Rules Don’t Apply.” Read the full announcement here, and see the New Auteurs, American Independents and Midnight selections below.

Read More: Warren Beatty’s ‘Rules Don’t Apply’ Will Open AFI Fest 2016

New Auteurs

“Always Shine” (dir. Sophia Takal)

“Buster’s Mal Heart” (dir. Sarah Adina Smith)

“Divines” (dir. Houda Benyamina)

“The Future Perfect” (dir. Nele Wohlatz)

“Godless” (dir. Ralitza Petrova)

“Kati Kati” (dir. Mbithi Masya)

“Kill Me Please” (dir. Anita Rocha da Silveira)

“One Week and a Day” (dir. Asaph Polonsky)

“Oscuro Animal” (dir. Felipe Guerrero)

“Still Life” (dir. Maud Alpi)

Read More: Watch: Lola Kirke Takes Us Inside the Mind of an Epileptic...

A Sunday in the Country 2016For the 5th time, “A Sunday in the Country,” one of the most inventive and out of the box workshops for young European film critics and journalists, was organized within the framework of the 16th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival in an old guest house by the Bystrzyckie lake during the first weekend of the cinematic event (21–24 July, 2016).

There, in Zagórze Śląslie in Lower Silesia, during three days, the group watched and discussed films, networked, exchanged thoughts and practices and shared their professional experiences. Under the tutelage of Pascal Edelmann of the European Film Academy, Ula Śniegowska of the New Horizons Association and the Dutch film critic of de Filmkrant, Dana Linssen, the critics and journalists spent the weekend cooking, networking, watching films, meeting with filmmakers and discussing cinephilia as well as issues such as the critic’s responsibility — if there is one — towards...

Movie ghosts usually represent something more than just specters from the beyond. You don’t have to look too far into the recent past to find examples of spooky phantoms that represent some kind of real-world anxiety: grief (“The Babadook”), burgeoning sexuality (“It Follows”) and franchises built on justice meted out by revenge-seeking spirits. In that context, Harrison Atkins’ “Lace Crater” is out of sync with its times, since it takes the existence of an undead corporeal entity at face value.

Here, that ambiguous entity visits Ruth (Lindsay Burdge), a recently single woman on a Hamptons vacation with a cadre of supportive friends. On a drug-laced evening in upstate New York, Ruth retreats to her room in the guest cottage, which a member of the group jokes is haunted. When a creaking door yields a mysterious, soft-spoken figure clad in burlap sacks, Ruth’s initial fright gives way to an eerie sense of understanding.

Prize is worth $45,000 (€40,000) in post-production services and distribution support.

Colombian, New York-based director Margarita Jimeno’s hybrid fiction feature Otto – My Life is a Soundtrack, about a renowned artist who undergoes a spiritual awakening after a failed show, has won the fifth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.

The prize includes a post-production and distribution package worth $45,000 (€40,000).

The Us in Progress event showcased six independent Us works looking for final post-production services and a sales agent.

It took place June 7-10 as part of the Industry Days programme of the French-us focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, running June 7-14 and...

Industry Days 2016 includes the fifth edition of Us in Progress and the third edition of Paris Coproduction Village. Industry Days aims at becoming a reference in professional meetings for French and European producers, with a strong positioning towards the enhancement of emerging cinematography.

Paris Co-Production Village Unveils Its Project Selections

Organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival within the frame of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival Industry Days, Paris Co-production Village is a development and financing platform for feature projects selected worldwide.

For its third edition, which will take place June 8-10, 2016 in Paris, the 12 following projects have been selected:

-"Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo (2015 - short film « Afronauts » Sundance Ff, Berlinale, AFI Fest, Chicago Iff ; 2014 - short film "Boneshaker" Sundance Ff, SXSW Ff, Chicago Iff, Edinburgh Iff) produced by Nomadic Independence (USA).

-"Blood-Drenched Beard" by Aly Muritiba (2015 - "To My Beloved" San Sebastian Ff Horizontes Latinos, Official Competition Montreal World Film Festival; 2015 - "Tarantula" Venice Ff Orizonti) produced by Rt Features (Brazil).

-"The Bus to Amerika" by Derya Durmaz (2015 - short film "Mother Virgin No More" Berlinale Generations 14plus Short Film Competition) produced by Mars Production (Turkey).

-"Dark Lies the Island" by Ian Fitzgibbon (2011 - "Death of a Superhero" Toronto Iff, Jury and Audience Awards Les Arcs European Film Festival ; 2010 - "Perrier's Bountru" Toronto Iff, Seattle Iff) produced by Grand Pictures (Ireland).

-"God Exists, her Name is Petrunija" by Teona Strugar Mitevska (2012 - "The Woman Who Brushed Her Tears" Berlinale Panaroma Special; 2008 - "I am from Tito Veles" Berlinale Panorama Section, Special Jury Award Sarajevo Ff, Toronto Iff, Cannes Ff Acid selection) produced by Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production (Macedonia).

-"Golden Voices" by Evgeny Ruman (2015 - "The Man in the Wall" Rotterdam Iff, Best acting Award Odessa Iff; 2012 - "Igor & the Cranes' Journey" Toronto Iff, Special Mention Haifa Iff) produced by United Channel Movies (Israel).

-"Prince" by Sebastian Muñoz produced by Niña Niño Films (Chile) and Le Tiro Films (Argentina).

-"Remarkable Things During a Killing" by Joko Anwar (2015 - "A Copy of my Mind" Venice Iff, Toronto Iff, Busan Iff, Rotterdam Iff; 2012 - "Ritual" SXSW, Gerardmer Fantasy Ff) produced by Lo-Fi Flicks (Indonesia).

-"When the Waves are Gone" by Lav Diaz (2016 - "A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery"Alfred Bauer Award Berlinale Official Competition; 2014 - "From What is Before" Golden Leopard Locarno Iff, Audience Award Sao paulo Iff) produced by Epicmedia (The Philippines).

Projets selected within the frame of the Focus Colombia :

"Almost Never Too Late" by Alfonso Acosta (2012 - "The Crack" Busan Iff, Sao Paulo Iff, Gerardmer Fantasy Ff, Neuchatel International Fantastic Ff) produced by Cabecitanegra Producciones.

-"The Stone" by Rafael Martinez Moreno (2015 - short film "Round Numbers" Zinebi Bilbao Official Selection; 2012 - short film "120 Minutes of Freedom", Bogota International Film Festival) produced by Miramar Entertainment.

-"The Tailor" by Cesar Heredia (2015 - short film "Elefante" Official Competition Cartagena Iff) produced by Corte Film, Tree House Film (Panama) and Diafragma (Colombia).

This selection aims at showing the diversity of world cinema, in terms of geography as well as a balance between newcomers and experienced directors. It includes:

- 1 American project, 1 Israeli project, 3 European projects, 2 Asian projects and 5 projects from Latin America including 3 projects part of the Colombian Focus

- 5 first feature films projects (marked with *)

Colombia is the guest country of this third edition

In partnership with Proimágenes Colombia, Paris Coproduction Village will present this year a « Colombian Focus », inviting 3 Colombian projects in development. A conference, organized with the support of the Cnc, will take place during the event and will discuss the improvement of the French-Colombian coproduction framework.

In addition, the 6 residents of Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation will join the selection:

-"Feathers of a Father" by Omar El Zohairy (Egypt)

-"Fronteira" by Nuno Baltazar (Portugal)

-"Letters from the Land of the Tarahumara" by Federico Cecchetti (Mexico/France)

-"Tinnitus" by Gregorio Grazios (Brazil)

-"The Users" by Ivan Ikic (Serbia)

-"Disappearance" by Ali Asgari (Iran)

All these projects will benefit from one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings with producers, sales agents, distributors, from networking events, as well as seminars taught by leading film industry professionals.

Paris Coproduction Village is supported by the Cnc, Procirep and Cofiloisirs. It is organized in collaboration with our partners Cannes Cinéfondation, Ace, Cinando, Haf (Hong-Kong Asian Film Financing Forum), Variety, LatAm, Producers Network, Screen, Eave, Europa International, Cineuropa and Ecran Total.

The team behind Paris Coproduction Village is the team of Les Arcs European Film Festival, that is to say:

Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, CEO

Jérémy Zelnik, Head of Industry

Alice Guilbaud, Coproduction Village Manager

Guillaume Calop, General Manager

Claire-Marine Piétriga, General Coordinator

Clémentine Larroudé, Head of Partnerships

Fabienne Silvestre-Bertoncini, Public and Institutional Relations

Us in Progress Unveils Its Project Selection

Us in Progress will take place in the scope of the 5th edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris on June 8-10. The Program is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris and Black Rabbit Film in New York. It is the first and only industry event devoted to Us indies in Europe. The aim of the program is to present Us indie films in post-production to European buyers in order to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe.

For the 5th edition of Us in Progress within the scope of the Industry Days, 4 feature-length narrative films have been selected to compete for the Us in Progress Prize :

-"California Dreams" Directed by Mike Ott / Produced by Alex Gioulakis

-"Easy Living" Directed by Adam Keleman / Produced by Laura Wagner

-"Everything Beautiful is Far Away" Directed by Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson / Produced by Andrea Sisson and Saul Germaine

-"Otto : My Life is a Soundtrack" Directed by Margarita Jimeno / Andrew Corkin and Sol Bondy

This year, we are also introducing documentaries at the Us in Progress Paris with the selection of 2 films:

-"Academy" Directed by Brent Chesanek / Produced by Andrew Renzi and Andrew Corkin

-"Whirlybird" Directed by Matt Yoka / Produced by Steve Holmgren, Erin Lee Carr, Greg Lanesey and Matt Radecki

For two days, the project holders will present their rough cuts to 40 top European sales agents, distributors, festivals programmers and producers. On the third day, they will get advices and feedbacks from the screenings through one-to-one meetings with the buyers.

The awarded film will get post-production, acquisition and promotion services offered by our partners : TitraFilm, Europa Distribution, Producers Network, Ciné +, Eaux Vives Productions, Indiewire-SydneysBuzz, Centre Phi, Kickstarter and a newcomer the Studios d’Arenberg (Arenberg Creative Mine).

Us in Progress involves two yearly get-togethers and the next edition will take place in Wroclaw in October 2016 in the scope of the American Film Festival. Us in Progress Wroclaw’s submissions starts from April 6th to August 31st.