"Lovely, Still" TORONTO '08 DISPATCH (I'm an extra in this film stars Ellen Burstyn and M Landau)

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/09/toronto_08_disp_1.html

by Brian Brooks, Eugene Hernandez, and James Israel (September 7, 2008)

Sunday capped a typically busy first weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. While audiences and industry anticipated the North American premiere of Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," other films in the spotlight included Nik Fackler's "Lovely, Still", Deepa Mehta's "Heaven on Earth," Larry Charles and Bill Maher's "Religulous," and Steve McQueen's "The Hunger."

Fackler, Knudsen, and Van Hoy Celebrate "Lovely, Still"

Producers Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy are clearly on a roll. Named to Variety's 10 Producers to Watch list last week, the duo (producers of "Wild Tigers I Have Known" and "Old Joy") are expected to imminently announce an overhead deal with mentor Scott Rudin early this week. In the meantime, they've been quite busy working the scene here at the Toronto International Film Festival. On Sunday, Knudsen and Van Hoy shuttled from a noon-time press & industry screening of Nik Fackler's "Lovely, Still," popped over to a showing of So Yung Kim's "Treeless Mountain" and then back to an afternoon tea reception for "Lovely, Still."

Outside Sunday's "Lovely, Still" showing, reps Cassian Elwes (from William Morris) and Cynthia Swartz (from 42 West) worked an end of hallway after the screening, while Knudsen and Van Hoy greeted well-wishers. Fackler's first feature had just stirred an emotional response among a number of those who connected with his story of an aging romance, starring Martin Laundau and Ellen Burstyn. The small town story walks a tightrope and then takes a dramatic turn at its climax, leaving viewers both heartbroken and uplifted.


Nik Fackler, center, talks with his stars, Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau, during filming last November in Omaha.


"If the actors were my age, it wouldn't be a big deal," Fackler told indieWIRE, when asked whether people are focusing too much on the fact that, at age 17, he wrote the story of these two older lovers. Now 24, he seems to take the questions in stride. William Morris's Craig Kestel, rep to such filmmakers as Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Ryan Eslinger and The Duplass Brothers, found then music video director and artist Fackler's website. He later packaged the film, concealing the would-be filmmaker's age until after the connected with the script. They would eventually work with Jack Turner and White Buffalo Entertainment to get the movie made and on the fest circuit within a year.

Ellen Burstyn reiterated a particular fondness for filmmakers at an early stage of their careers. She worked with Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich and Darren Aronofsky early on. Explaining to indieWIRE that she relishes the chance to work with a director before they've been through the "meat-grinder" she noted that emerging filmmakers are less likely to second guess themselves when they have less to prove and have not yet faced too much failure (or success).

Buzz is growing for Fackler's feature, but those involved are still mapping out the best release strategy for the picture. The team is taking the temperature of buyers, while balancing a hope to get the movie -- set during the Christmas holiday -- out at the end of the year to make the most of post-fest (and awards) buzz. If they decide not to sell the movie, don't be surprised if they take a high-profile DIY approach. In last week's biz assessment ahead of TIFF, indieWIRE's Anthony Kaufman noted that marketing consultant Matthew Cohen is already on board to help with distribution.

"We have plans in place," producer Lars Knudsen told indieWIRE last week. "If we don't get the offers we want or anticipate, it doesn't end there. There's been the sense: If you don't get your film acquired at a festival, what do you do? Now people are waking up and saying: We, as producers and filmmakers, need to do that research and understand the marketplace better."

Friday's Omaha World Herald: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2620&u_sid=10424151

Published Friday September 5, 2008
Omahan is among film-fest hopefuls
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Omaha screenwriter-director Nik Fackler is on a roll that any long-shot gambler would envy.

The 24-year-old Fackler and his producers submitted his first feature-length film, "Lovely, Still," to the prestigious Toronto Film Festival "really last minute," before it was completed, he said.

"I think it was past their deadline, but we somehow talked them into giving us a shot."

Four days later, he learned that the festival had accepted the movie, which was shot in and around Omaha last fall. Better yet, "Lovely, Still" will have a prime-time screening at 9 tonight during the festival's opening weekend.

"Toronto, Cannes and Sundance are the top three festivals in the world," Fackler said by phone Tuesday from New York City, where he had just put the final touches on the film. "It's an honor they understood the film I was trying to make."

His primary goal at the festival is to snag a buyer so the movie can get national distribution. This year Toronto accepted just 249 films of the more than 4,200 submitted.

"Lovely, Still" is the holiday-season story of an older man who falls in love for the first time. Fackler flew Thursday to Toronto, where he will rub elbows today with the stars of his movie, past Oscar winners Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau. Adam Scott and Elizabeth Banks co-star, and many local actors appear in the film, too.

Just getting the film financed, at slightly over $1 million, beat incredibly long odds. Signing his first choices as leads — Landau and Burstyn — put Fackler in fantasy territory for a first-time filmmaker.

Fackler hasn't been to film school. After graduating from Millard West High School in 2002, he gained experience directing music videos for area bands such as Bright Eyes, Tilly and the Wall and the Faint.

FULL story at link.