Joseph Pomp

Spring break is awesome.  Most students use it to go home, relax, catch up on sleep, watch all the TV shows they've been too busy to keep up with, or maybe even go on a beach or ski vacation. I've been spending it (as I tend to spend my free time) watching movies.  There's no place I'd rather do that than at SXSW, a film/music/interactive media festival and conference held in Austin, TX. Boasting nonstop screenings of everything from microbudget indies to foreign horror films to blockbusters coming-soon-to-a-multiplex-near-you (not to mention the wall-to-wall panels with major industry players), SXSW runs from March 9 to March 18 this year.  Here's a roundup of what I've been up to so far:more DAY 1: Friday, March 9 Austin was unrecognizable when I landed a little before noon Friday morning.  Part of that may have been due to post-midterm fatigue and a 6 a.m. departure.  But the real culprit was the weather--cold and rainy--which led me to believe I'd mistakenly landed in the other hipster capital of America west of the Mississippi. The hoards of New Yorkers and Londoners at this year's festival have clearly made their mark on the Texan skies.  After a long wait to pick up my press credentials at the Convention Center, I was on my way to my first film. Fat Kid Rules the World -- The directorial debut by Matthew Lillard, recognizable from his performances in the Scream series and Scooby Doo, this is a fairly generic high-school comedy, along the lines of Youth in Revolt.  What sets it apart, though, is not its punk rock pretensions, but rather the fantastic lead performance by Jacob Wysocki (Terri).  Lillard understandably got emotional in the post-screening Q&A; after nine years of struggling to get this film (based on a novel by K.L. Going) brought to the big screen, this was its world premiere. After this, I fought through the rain to get to Just Like Being There, an awesome documentary about gig posters.  It particularly focused on the artists Steve Walters (of Screwball Press), Jay Ryan, and Daniel Danger, but also included interviews with The Thermals, Tokyo Police Club, and other bands about the continuing importance and interest of concert-specific poster art.  It gets a little geeky, but I'd still recommend it highly for anyone into underground pop culture and contemporary art. Day 2: Saturday, March 10 I started the day off with a program of Narrative Short films, none of which were particularly worth writing home about except for The Black Balloon, which, like basically all of the great work by Benny and Josh Safdie, is a slightly anachronistic paean to the city we're lucky enough to call home. The rest of the day was spent camped out at the glorious Paramount Theatre for a string of red carpet premieres.  First up was Nature Calls, a mindless comedy about a group of infantile-seeming dads who take their kids on a horribly planned camping trip.  It features a lot of funny people (Johnny Knoxville, Patton Oswalt, Rob Riggle and more) but its misogyny and directionlessness were anything but funny.

Live from Beverly Hills, it's... another predictable batch of Oscar nominations! To be fair, though, there is always a batch of minor surprises, and this year does that inherited Oscar junkie wisdom justice. more Pleasant surprises:

The film division of the Columbia School of the Arts had reason enough to be proud of its students, alumni, and faculty when 16 Columbia filmmakers were selected to show at this year's Sundance Film Festival.  Now we have even more cause for celebration. Last night, four of the 13 films at the festival that Columbia filmmakers worked on won awards.  Smashed, directed and co-written by James Ponsoldt ('05), took home the Special Jury Prize (Dramatic) for independent film producing.   Young & Wild, a Chilean film edited by Andrea Chignoli ('07), won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award (Dramatic).  Violeta Went to Heaven, another film from Chile that Chignoli edited, won the World Cinema Grand Prize (Dramatic). Last but not least, Sleepwalk With Me, produced by Jacob Jaffke ('10), won the Best NEXT Audience Award.  Director Mike Birbiglia began his acceptance speech by saying that Compliance, the latest from Adjunct Directing Professor Craig Zobel and another very well-received film in the NEXT section of the festival, was his favorite film at Sundance this year.  Not bad, Columbia!

Last semester, cracks began to form in the SEAS foundations and Cornell was awarded a grant to build a campus on Roosevelt Island. Madina Toure examines the future of the engineering school in uncertain times. [The Lead] Lana Del Rey has been blowing up lately, especially after her questionable performance on Saturday Night Live. In the inaugural installment of 20/20, Margaret Boykin looks at Del Rey's mysterious origins and the questions her SNL appearance raised.[20/20] It takes a lot more to win the presidency than catchy slogans and dignified grey temples— it also takes some design know-how. Shira Laucharoen takes a look at what it takes to design a successful campaign. [Ideas] Cenk Oygur is a Columbia Law School alumnus who hosts a show on Current TV. Monica Carty sits down and talks turkey with the host of The Young Turks. [The Interview]

The second annual Athena Film Festival, organized by a star-studded committee and co-sponsored by Women in Hollywood and the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, concluded last night after a weekend full of screenings, workshops, and talks. Below is a slideshow of the special guests, including Julie Taymor and Katie Couric, who came to the opening night awards celebration Thursday evening in the Event Oval of The Diana Center. Click on the image below to begin the slideshow! All photos by Hannah Montoya.