Welcome back to A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies - Episode 12.
Thirteen, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and the Locarno International Film Festival.
Thirteen Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2003, and Hardwicke won the Sundance Directing Award for the film.
The Locarno Film Festival is a top tier international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs.
The Early Life
Catherine Hardwicke was born in Harlingen, Texas on October 21, 1955, the daughter of Jamee Elberta and John Benjamin Hardwicke. She has a brother, Jack, and a sister, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, who became an artist. She grew up in McAllen on the U.S.–Mexico border, where her family owned and operated a farm along the Rio Grande. Growing up in McAllen, Hardwicke describes it as "wild": in high school, "her principal was stabbed three times. A friend's father was shot in the back, and another friend was murdered. And yet life could be wonderful at the same time.
Hardwicke has said she didn’t go to movies much.
"I didn’t go to many movies. Let's be honest: It was a cultural wasteland. At the time, you could not go to a significant museum unless you drove three hours to Corpus Christi or four to San Antonio".
However, there were other ways to have fun such as sneaking over to the bars and nightclubs of Mexico before she was even a legal adult. Speaking about her early life Hardwicke says, "It was a wonderful childhood. I'm dying to make a movie about it". With her first movie, she would get her wish.
She graduated from McAllen High School and went to the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a degree in architecture. Among her post-graduation projects was designing the solar townhouse complex built around a man-made lake on the 20-acre site, complete with waterfalls and swimming pools. The property was owned by her father.
After graduating from her hometown high school, McAllen High School, Hardwicke went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin. Studying Architecture, Hardwicke felt that she had far too much creativity for that field, stating:
“I was a little out there for architecture school. I would dress up like my building and people were like, "wow, dude, architecture really doesn’t encourage that type of creativity".
She felt a career in architecture would be too limiting and decided to , moved to Los Angeles, and eventually enrolled in the UCLA film school to expand and explore her creativity. In the 1980s, Hardwicke made an award-winning short, Puppy Does the Gumbo and was recognized with a Nissan Focus Award and was featured in the Landmark Best of UCLA film program.
The Birth of Locarno
The Locarno Film Festival started on 23 August 1946, at the Grand Hotel of Locarno with the screening of the movie O sole mio by Giacomo Gentilomo. The first edition was organized in less than three months with a line-up of fifteen movies, mainly American and Italian, including Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, and Then There Were None directed by René Clair, Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder.
The origins of Piazza Grande date back to medieval times when Locarno was still a small fishing village. Over time, it has evolved into a bustling urban center reflecting various periods in architectural styles from classic Italianate buildings to modern structures. The piazza has always been the focal point around which life in Locarno revolves – from markets and festivals in ancient times to contemporary events and gatherings today.
The Piazza Grande section is held in an open-air venue that seats 8,000 spectators, was built in 1971. With its giant screen, one of the biggest in the world, the Piazza is one of the finest open-air screening site in Europe. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a film there. A truly spectacular experience.
The top prize of the festival is the Golden Leopard, awarded to the best film in the International Competition. Other awards include the Leopard of Honor for career achievement, and the Prix du Public, the public choice award.
After UCLA Film School - Production Design
Hardwicke became a production designer, working with film directors such as Cameron Crowe, Richard Linklater, and David O. Russell. She was influenced by them, gaining experience in their techniques, and learning from their conversations. She talked to some about her desire to be a filmmaker, and received advice and tips.
While working with such big-name directors, she was able to study their techniques: "I always told them I really want to make my own movies, and they were all very generous and gave me tips." Her career as a production designer would prove helpful in her career as a director. "As you’re riding around with the director location scouting, you hear a lot of conversations and you start piecing them together, so I think that helped me."
During her time working alongside directors, Hardwicke continued to work on her own projects such as scripts, short films, and teaching herself Final Cut Pro. Hardwicke even took it upon herself to take acting classes to become a better director.
Through the 1990s and early 2000s, Hardwicke worked as a production designer on films including Tombstone (1993), Freaked (1993), Tank Girl (1995), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), The Newton Boys (1998), Three Kings (1999), and Antitrust (2001). In 2000, she worked as production designer with director/screenwriter Cameron Crowe and actor/producer Tom Cruise on Vanilla Sky (2001).
Locarno Grows
Over the years, Locarno Film Festival has become a welcomed adventure. It is a pilgrimage to a world entirely dedicated to film, art, and imagination. An 11-day celebration of cinema. The festival continued to grow, offering over 450 screenings, talks, events, conferences, concerts, art exhibitions, parties, all located within a walk, a short bike ride or a short bus trip from each other.
Every evening, 8,000 people gather on the Piazza Grande, Europe’s largest outdoor film venue, to watch film premieres under the stars on a massive screen.
Cinema is complete art capable of influencing a life, shifting a way of thinking. It hits you with intense emotions and truth. It brings to life human complexity, extraordinary or devastating stories, testimonies from another continent that reshape our participation in the world. - Locarno Film Festival
In 1996 Nanette & Boni by Claire Deni won top prizes including: Golden Leopard, Best Film, Actor, Actress and Ecumenical Prize
The festival became known for taking chances on visionaries, and for discovery. In fact the Hollywood reporter published a piece - Locarno Film Festival: Europe’s Sundance?
With the mission to be the world capital of auteur cinema, Locarno focuses on connecting young, unknown talent with global dealmakers.
Dealmaking Without the Headaches
For execs with festival fatigue, Locarno’s relaxed vibe has become one of its biggest draws.
“Given the apparently unresolvable growing pains of Sundance — challenges to get to screenings, seemingly impossible transportation issues, inadequate screening venues — for the most part these are not endemic to Locarno. I’m really looking forward to the selection this year.” - Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber
Thirteen
Hardwicke's first film as a director was developed in collaboration with then-fourteen-year-old Nikki Reed, who wrote a screenplay that reflected some of Reed's teenage experiences. Hardwicke had known Reed since she was five years old, as she had been in a relationship with Reed's father. After the relationship ended, she continued to stay close with Reed. Hardwicke said "I started getting my hair cut by her mother, which is similar to the film, so I saw them every few months" she continues to say, "when she turned thirteen, I started noticing she had completely changed to becoming quite angry with her family, her mother, and herself. I started seeing all these changes and difficulties she was going through, so I thought, along with her parents, that if she could hang out with me, things would get better". Throughout the time they spent together, Reed had shared with Hardwicke that she was interested in acting. This helped to spark Thirteen.
They wrote the script in six days during Christmas break. When asked why there was an urgency to make the film -
"I felt it was almost like a snapshot of a particular time. I really wanted Nikki to be in it, because her energy was so inspiring to it, and I don't like the movies where the person is eighteen years old playing a thirteen-year-old, so I said, 'We're going to shoot it even if it's with a digital camera and me as the whole crew."'
Evan Rachel Wood was contracted to star in the movie alongside Reed. The film tackles the difficulties of contemporary teenagers. A young teen loses her innocence in a rapid spiral of events, with disturbing portrayals of drug, sex, theft, and dropping out of school. Capturing a range in high impact emotions, the film encapsulates the realness and authenticity of teen angst, that includes mood changes and forming identities.
Reed and Hardwicke wrote the script from the point of view of Tracy, a "normal" 13-year-old who begins at a new middle school. There she meets Evie, who she thinks of as more advanced and whom she wants to impress. She hopes Evie will give her entrance to what she thinks is an exciting "crowd." The film actively interacts with the theme of conformity in the teenage years. Eager to become friends with Evie, Tracy loses her "normal" self and enters a world completely opposite of her own. Tracy's single mother Melanie, played by Holly Hunter, has tried to be a friend to her daughter and does not know how to deal with her changes. With divorced parents Tracy does not interact with her father as much, thus this serves as a way for her to feel anger towards both parents, impacting their parent-child relationship.
The film features female friendship and the difficulties of adolescence. These friendships are viewed between Evie and Tracy as well as Tracy and Melanie. These eventually became recurring themes in Hardwicke's work.
Thirteen would have its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003, where Hardwicke would win the Directing Award. The film would go onto the Locarno and earn Hardwicke the Silver Leopard Award, and Holly Hunter won the Leopard Award for Best Actress.
Hardwicke’s Thirteen would continue to receive critical acclaim and praise for its stars. Holly Hunter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Fox Searchlight would acquire the movie and it would go on to generate over 4 million at the domestic box office and over 5 million internationally, for cumulative box office of over 10 million. Not bad for a little movie with a budget of around 2 million.
2003 was a big year for Locarno as their Open Doors program was introduced
Launching 2003, As stated on the Locarno website:
Open Doors has been championing filmmaking from regions where independent cinema is especially challenging, building bridges for collaboration across regions, countries and continents. Through Open Doors' public and professional programs, we aim to provide a space where talents find support in every step of their creative and professional journey and where discussion and reinvention of today’s cinema can happen among free voices.
Lords of Dogtown
She went on to direct this fictionalized account of skateboarding culture. The film is based on the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys by Stacy Peralta, whom Hardwicke had worked with. As she lived in Venice Beach, and knew most of the Z- Boys well from surfing, Hardwicke drew on personal experience in directing the film. "I surf at the same break they surf at, and I know that world, explains the filmmaker."
Based on a true story, Lords of Dogtown follows the young Peralta, Tony Alva, and Jay Adams as they revolutionize the world of skateboarding. As California encounters a drought the 70s, residents began to empty out their pools. This led to a group of surfers in the Dogtown Area of Santa Monica to create a new sport, skateboarding. Board designer Skip Englblom, soon decides to add a skate team known as the Z-boys to his already well-known surf team.
Taking advantage of the drought, the boys began to practice this new sport in the empty swimming pools. After the team begins to reach success like winning major contests, fame follows and soon the Z-boys start to appear in many magazines. Through this fame, the Z-boys (Stacy, Jay, and Tony) start to get noticed by well-known skateboarding companies in hopes to take the boys away from Skip. As the boys accept major career offers, one by one they leave the team, Stacy being the last to leave. Stacy, Jay and Tony become celebrities and rivals as they compete against each other in various competitions. Ultimately they skateboard for profit, abandoning the passion which they began with. After the pier that the boys used to surf around burns down, it negatively affects all three.
The film explores Hardwicke's theme of teenage angst. Not only do the Z-boys find their passions with a newly created sport, but also they use this experience to form an identity amidst their teenage years. The film details teenage rebellion."As the boys fight one another and carve out their own identities by types, they collapse under their own mythology...Afraid and confused they make kid mistakes, use each other's trusts and don't image long term consequences." Hardwicke has said that the drama film was not intended to compete with the documentary, but to express the perspective of people as they lived the events, rather than later recounting them.
The technical work was acclaimed, from the skate tricks to the complex camera work. Lance Mountain, legendary skater, cameraman and long-time friend of Peralta, shot the action while riding along behind the skateboarders.
PROMOTION - American Film Convention
Coming to Los Angeles this fall, the American Film Convention will be hosting the world's first feature film auction! This groundbreaking event is designed to revolutionize film acquisition, offering filmmakers a unique opportunity to gain better value and streamline transactions with buyers. Just like a conventional auction, buyers will be attending live to bid on acquiring feature films for distribution. While there's no limit to how many films can be submitted, AFC will be selecting only 100 feature films to participate in this exclusive auction by September 1st. These chosen films will be privately available for buyers to view online starting in September, giving them a month to preview your work before the auction.
For more information and to submit a film, visit www.AmericanFilmConvention.com
For LA based filmmakers, join us for the Meet up this Friday. Click here to register.
The Nativity Story
In 2006, Hardwicke directed this biblical film for New Line Cinema. She was initially reluctant to take on the project as she was concerned about finding a fresh approach to the story, but changed her mind after conducting some research:
"... I found out that Mary was 13 or 14 years old, by all accounts. And I thought, what about all the girls, the kids that I know? What if this happened to them? That's kind of mind-blowing, amazing. I thought it would be fun to go back and do something completely different."
She also incorporated a psychological approach to Joseph and the difficulties he faced. Hardwicke wanted to cast a young actress as Mary, traditionally held to be about 14 or 15 at the time of Jesus' birth, given the marriage age of girls in that culture. She also wanted an actress who at least appeared to be Middle Eastern. She cast as her lead Keisha Castle-Hughes, the Oscar-nominated New Zealand actress who starred in Whale Rider, unfortunately, the film would not do very well with critics or audiences.
Box Office Gold with Twilight (2008)
Her direction of the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel, Twilight, was an international commercial success. The film is the first in the series produced by Summit Entertainment based on Meyer's four books.
Twilight is the story of a teenage girl named Bella Swan dealing with her parents' separation, and living with her father after years of having little to do with him. They live in a small town in Washington where she tries to adjust to a new school. Her typical teenage trials change character when she develops a crush on an attractive young vampire. The film and its leads attracted fans all over the world. In Korea specifically, the success of the Twilight film produced many fan sites, art, marketing products, and even themed cafes. These cafes allowed fans to share their love for the film franchise as well as the novels.
Hardwicke shot the film in 44 days on a budget of $37 million, which was reduced because of rights issues to do with the book. As her main actress, Kristen Stewart, was a minor, she could work only five and a half hours per day. This significantly slowed down shooting for the project. Hardwicke was willing to deal with that difficulty, as she believed that Stewart was perfect for the role as Bella. Casting for the character of Edward Cullen was more difficult. The character had to look like a high school student but portray a cultured persona and the learning of a long life. Hardwicke found Robert Pattinson unique, with his own wide range of interests in art, literature and music; she thought him deep enough for the part.
Here is a terrific video, part of the Sundance Co Lab, where Catherine breaks down how to direct an action sequence.
Amid rumors of a rocky relationship with Hardwicke, in 2008 Summit Entertainment announced that she would not direct the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Hardwicke said it was her decision, although a blog reported she had been fired by Summit. She said, "I couldn't even be fired, that's what's so funny. In my contract, I had the first right of refusal." She turned down the second film, she says, because the studio wanted to rush it out. "I do not regret it at all, thank the Lord. The truth is I liked the first book the best." Hardwicke went on to direct Red Riding Hood for Summit.
Its $400 million global success made her the most commercially successful woman film director. Contrary to the success of the film, in the professional world Hardwicke found herself in a situation of unfairness. She states, "I definitely wasn't treated like men who had directed a blockbuster that launched a franchise." Although Twilight reached a $400 million worldwide gross with a budget of $37 million, Hardwicke did not become a household name filmmaker.
See the video below, where she speaks to the crazy bias in Hollywood, during an interview at the Toronto Film festival.
Locarno 2008
That same year, at Locarno in 2008, another filmmakers was making his mark. Sean Baker’s Prince of Broadway would earn him Special Mention, Filmmakers of the Present Competition
Sean would build on that success, making Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, The Florida Project, and most recently Anora, which won the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's top honor. The movie will be released later in 2024 and likely be part of the Oscar conversation.
Locarno 2024
The 2024 Locarno Film Festival returns in a few weeks, With 11 sections, 3 competitions and 20 awards categories.
The official poster for this 77th edition was designed by Annie Leibovitz, the great American photographer who has shaped the imagination of our time.
In Leibovitz's design, a leopard stands gracefully at the edge of Lago Maggiore as it surveys the majesty of the Alpine landscape. These are icons of the region that have, since 1946, been the home of the Locarno Film Festival.
For the past fifty years, Annie Leibovitz has been one of the most sought-after international photographers, best known for her portraits of prominent figures, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Queen Elizabeth II, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Jackson, Barack Obama, Meryl Streep, and Susan Sontag.
Catherine would do a number of features after Twilight including, Plush, Miss You Already and Miss Bala. She would also venture into TV, doing episodes for Hell on Wheels, Low Winter Sun, Reckless, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, and the hot 2024 show Under the Bridge, starring Riley Keogh and Lily Gladstone.
Cut To 2024
Catherine has at least two active projects in 2024. Heathen centers on Aydis, a young female viking, a warrior, an outcast, and a self-proclaimed "heathen". Born into a time of warfare, suffering, and subjugation of women, she is on a mission to end the oppressive reign of the god-king Odin.
The acclaimed series by Natasha Alterici weaves feminism and queer themes into the familiar tapestry of Norse mythology, a mix that promises to deliver a Viking film unlike any previous done in Hollywood. Created, written, and drawn by Alterici, the Heathen comics debuted in 2017 with the help of an impassioned Kickstarter investor community.
A French Pursuit could be first. A re-imagining of France’s box office hit Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes, and starring Toni Colette. Collette will Star and Produce the film via her Vocab films banner.
As the synopsis goes, Zoe thus embarks on a daring pursuit of Jean-Louis in the picturesque Cévennes deep in the South of France. Accompanied by the determined donkey Napoleon, Zoe grapples with the absurdities and challenges of their journey. Along the way, they encounter new friends and perils that draw them closer, prompting Zoe to reevaluate her priorities, confront her life choices, and rediscover her joy of life.
Here’s to hoping Catherine Hardwicke continues to enjoy her filmmaking career, and brings us another project soon.
And that’s a wrap on this edition of A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies, Episode 12. Where we featured Thirteen, by Catherine Hardwicke, and the Locarno Film Festival.
Resources
Hardwicke Details Her First Film Thirteen and Getting it Made
Episode 12: Thirteen - Catherine Hardwicke