“A.C.O.D.” Movie Preview & Nick Urata Award at the Big Bear Lake Performing Arts Center
A.C.O.D. follows Carter (Adam Scott), a seemingly well-adjusted Adult Child of Divorce. Having survived the madness of his parents’ (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara) divorce, Carter now has a successful career and supportive girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). But when his younger brother (Clark Duke) gets engaged, Carter is forced to reunite his bitterly divorced parents and their new spouses (Amy Poehler and Ken Howard) for the wedding, causing the chaos of his childhood to return including his wacky therapist (Jane Lynch). Director Stu Zicherman cowrote the screenplay with Ben Karlin.
“As I got to know Stu Zuckerman and Ben Carlin, who wrote the film, I learned they had been struggling for 10 years to bring the story to life. It was such a thrill to see a first-time director gracefully navigate all the pitfalls of an Indie film and end up with a triumphant trip to Sundance. You form very intense relationships on these projects and I now consider Stu like a brother.”
Nick Urata will receive the Film Music Award of Excellence the evening of September 20, 2013 at the Big Bear Lake Performing Arts Center. Presenting the award will be Phil Gallo,a senior correspondent for Billboard magazine, where he writes about the music industry, film and television projects and artists. Gallo is co-author of the book “Record Store Days” and has written about music for more than 25 years for publications such as Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly.
Nick Urata’s first foray into the world of soundtracks came when his band DeVotchKa’s song “How it Ends” was featured in trailer for the Liev Schreiber film “Everything is Illuminated (2005) and in the “Gears of War 2” TV spot. By the next year, he was composing and performing along with Mychael Danna the music for the Academy Award-winning comedy “Little Miss Sunshine;” the compilation album earned them a Grammy nomination and other honors. In 2011, his co-scoring of the hit romantic comedy “Crazy, Stupid, Love” (starring Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling) earned him a BMI Film Music Award.
Nick’s other scores include “Fling,” “I Love You, Phillip Morris,” “The Joneses,” “Waiting for Forever,” “Father of Invention, and Dustin Lance Black’s directorial debut “Virginia” (starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.)
His latest work includes the score for “Little Miss Sunshine” directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s “Ruby Sparks;” “Arthur Newman” starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt for director Dante Ariola; “What Maisie Knew” starring Juliane Moore; Stephen Gyllenhaal’s comedy “Grassroots;” and “A.C.O.D.”* starring Amy Poehler, Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch and Catherine O’Hara.
Upcoming scores include “Premature” for director Dan Beers; the pilot of the ABC comedy “Back in the Game,” starring Maggie Lawson and James Caan; the documentary “Alfred and Jakobine;” and an as-yet-untitled documentary on world population for the Oscar-winning director Jessica Yu.
Even before he started to compose for film, Nick was using music to support live action — whether by performing under aerialists or accompanying Burlesque legend Dita von Teese. Now, DeVotchKa continues to perform and record in between its frontman’s film projects, as a strikingly diverse ensemble. The quartet collectively plays the theremin, guitar, bouzouki, piano, trumpet, violin, accordion, sousaphone, double bass and percussion. Their increasingly orchestral tendencies — influenced by Slavic, Bolero, Romani, punk and other styles — culminated in a 2012 concert with the Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
The Big Bear Lake International Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing the emerging talent of screenwriters and independent filmmakers within the idyllic setting of Big Bear Lake. Our goal is to nurture a festival that is highly creative, filmmaker friendly and which provides an educational experience for those people interested in all aspects of the film industry.
professionals to access up-and-coming independent work in a relaxed setting.
Come experience what MovieMaker Magazine called one of the “Top 25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” in 2010 and “Top 50 Film Festivals “ in 2013 out of nearly 5,000 film festivals.
