Indie Roundup: 'Heaven,' 'Open Road,' AFI Fest for Free

The key players from the indie film world will be gathered together in Cannes for the next 10 days. Look for our daily roundups of news each night, titled "Cannes in 60 Seconds." But first, what's been happening during the past week?

Deals. Oliver Hirschbiegel's drama Five Minutes of Heaven, starring Liam Neeson, has been acquired by IFC Films, according to indieWIRE. IFC will release the film, which "explores aspects of Northern Ireland's 'Troubles,'" simultaneously in theaters and VOD in August. Michael Meredith's drama The Open Road has been picked up by Anchor Bay, again per indieWIRE. Justin (Motherlover) Timberlake stars as a man who tries to effect a reconciliation between his dying mother (Mary Steenburgen) and his estranged father (Jeff Bridges). Release plans have not yet been announced. I Love You Phillip Morris, a gay con man prison romance, has secured distribution via the fledgling Consolidated Pictures Group, says Variety. The picture stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. A release is planned for next Valentine's Day.

Box Office. While mainstream audiences trekked into theaters, indie film lovers divided up their love, resulting in less than stellar results for new releases. We've embedded the trailer below for Outrage, Kirby Dick's new doc, which inspired hypocrisy by NPR; it made $6,518 per-screen at five locations. Little Ashes, with gay love scenes by Twilight's Robert Pattinson, averaged $6,116 per-screen at 12 theaters. Julia, featuring Tilda Swinton's extraordinary performance, took in $4,175 per-screen at three cinemas. Jim Jarmusch's excellent, exquisite The Limits of Control expanded into eight more theaters and grossed $4,153 per screen, a drop of just 18.2%. [Box Office Mojo.]

After the jump: Festival heads talk about the future; AFI Fest in Los Angeles will be (almost entirely) free.

Film Festivals. Early last month, I wrote about possible changes at AFI Fest in Los Angeles. Among other things, film critic Robert Koehler was named the new director of programming. The festival has now announced its dates for its upcoming edition, which will be held October 30-November 7, but the press release also noted a more startling change: free tickets will be offered to all regular screenings.

"Presenting the screenings compliments of AFI and [presenting sponsor] Audi is our way of reaching out to film lovers in these challenging times and inviting them to see a movie on us," said AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale in the prepared statement. Revenue from ticket sales is an important component of any festival's budget, but it's generally not where the festival gets the majority of its operating budget. That has to come from sponsors, both big and small. David Poland has an excellent, informed analysis at The Hot Blog.

Eliminating single ticket sales will obviously streamline the operation of the ticket office -- though patron passes, allowing priority access to all regular screenings and guaranteed seats at evening galas and tributes, will still be sold -- without appreciably adding to the work load for festival staff and volunteers at the screenings themselves.

The Arclight Cinemas, headquarters for the fest since 2002, will no longer be used. Instead, most screenings will be held at Mann's Chinese 6, a multiplex a short distance away in Hollywood. I only saw a movie there once (Gangs of New York) and wasn't impressed, but it's been more than six years. It's hard to imagine the Chinese 6 is a better complex than the superb Arclight, but free is free, so most people probably won't be complaining.

The second weekend of festival screenings (November 6-7) will be held in Santa Monica, presented in association with the American Film Market. The two organizations have been teamed up since 2004, but the distance between Santa Monica and Hollywood often discouraged industry players in town for the market from visiting the festival.

I'd imagine that the free screenings will ensure more packed houses, which should gladden the heart of any visiting filmmaker and make for a more festive occasion. And, again, quoting David Poland: "This is the kind of creative answer that is going to be more and more needed in order to overcome this economy."