This week on The Collision, we talk about the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with Film School Rejects Associate Editor and MSN Movies critic and contributor Kate Erbland.  We give our overall appraisal of this year’s festival, our favorite and least favorite films, and how we think these movies will perform when they’re released into theaters.  As always, we close out the show with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“Gangster Movies and Gangster Squad“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival saw the debut of a number of filmmakers, but one of the most anticipated titles was the follow-up film from Sound of My Voice director/co-writer Zal Batmanglij and star/co-writer Brit Marling.  The two made waves with Sound of My Voice at Sundance 2011, and this year they premiered their ambitious new film, the thriller The East.  Marling stars as an undercover corporate operative who infiltrates a domestic terrorist organization but becomes conflicted when she starts falling for the charismatic leader (Alexander Skarsgard).  The impressive ensemble cast also includes Ellen Page, Patricia Clarkson, and Julia Ormond, and you can click here to watch the trailer and here is Matt’s review.

While in Park City, I got the chance to speak with Batmanglij and Marling for an extended interview.  They talked about wanting to craft an effective thriller that also posed some important questions, how the film’s events and ideas could have parallels to the Newtown massacre, the interesting reactions to the film’s subject matter, how their experience on Sound of My Voice influenced their approach to this larger-budgeted film, and more.  In addition, they also briefly touched upon fulfilling the Sound of My Voice trilogy and future projects.  Read on after the jump.

While I stuck to my genre-loving guns in my Top 10 Films of 2012 and Top 10 Trailers of 2012, I’m happy to branch out a bit more with respect to the year’s ten best movie posters.  Here’s where I get pretentious.  Posters have the difficult task of attracting attention, holding it long enough to convey a message and getting that message across without the use of sound or motion (normally).  I prefer posters that are minimalist in nature and leave you with an iconic image that you’ll forever associate with the film.  Bonus points are given to those posters that offer layered meanings tied into the movie in question and which inspire curiosity in the picture.  What follows are the year’s ten best posters from a mix of big budget and lesser known movies.  Hit the jump to check them out.

The nominations for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, and Oscar hopefuls Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom lead the pack.  Both films picked up nominations for Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper landing acting noms for SLP and Bruce Willis garnering a swell Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Moonrise Kingdom.  Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, and Keep the Lights On round out the Best Feature nominees, while The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Safety Not Guaranteed were singled out for the Best First Feature award.  Also, Matthew McConaughey pulled double nominations for his stellar work in this year’s Magic Mike and Killer Joe, landing a Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nod, respectively.  Notably shut out of the race entirely was Leos Carax‘s critically-lauded Holy Motors.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominations.  The winners of the 2013 Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

One of my favorite films from last year’s Sundance was Sound of My Voice (which opens this weekend in limited release). Directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij, the film follows a documentary filmmaking team made up of Christopher Denham and his girlfriend (Nicole Vicius) as they investigate a cult lead by a supposed time-traveler (Brit Marling who also co-wrote the film).  While they start the investigation intent on exposing her and freeing the followers, as they get further inside, they start to question their objectives.  For more on the film, you can watch the first twelve minutes here.

During the recent Los Angeles press day for the film, I sat down withBrit Marling for an extended interview.  We talked about what it’s been like waiting for the film to get released, her writing process, Sci-fi, favorite movies, and a lot more.   In addition, Marling talked about The East (which also stars Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page) and Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep.  Hit the jump for what she had to say and make sure to check out Sound of My Voice this weekend!

One of my favorite films from last year’s Sundance was Sound of My Voice (which opens this weekend in limited release). Directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij, the film follows a documentary filmmaking team made up of Christopher Denham and his girlfriend (Nicole Vicius) as they investigate a cult lead by a supposed time-traveler (Brit Marling who also co-wrote the film).  While they start the investigation intent on exposing her and freeing the followers, as they get further inside, they start to question their objectives.  For more on the film, you can watch the first twelve minutes here.

During the recent Los Angeles press day for the film, I sat down with Zal Batmanglij for an extended interview.  We talked about what it’s been like waiting for the film to get released, financing the project, digital filmmaking, his writing process, if he’ll make a sequel, and more.  In addition, Batmanglij recently finished shooting his next film The East which stars Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page and Brit Marling. He talked about what that film is about, when it might premiere, and more.  Hit the jump to watch and make sure to check out Sound of My Voice this weekend!

Earlier this year, we here at Collider brought you our most anticipated films of the first quarter.  2012 has gotten off to a promising start with more than a few gems, and now it’s time to look to the next three months of the year.  Matt, Adam, Brendan, and Dave have each picked their top five films for the next installment of our Most Anticipated series, providing a brief explanation for why these films are on our radar and what has us excited.  Hit the jump to check out our picks, along with information on the cast and plot for each film.

Does the act of belief (substitute faith if you’re so inclined) outweigh the actual content of reverence?  Such is the question posed in Zal Batmanglij’s great, if somewhat intellectually dubious, Sound of My Voice.  I can’t remember liking a film this much whose ethos I find so suspect.  The sci-fi cult thriller focuses on a cynical couple’s attempt to infiltrate and expose a beautiful cult leader claiming to be a time traveler from 2059.  Of course – the longer the couple spends with the cult and its enigmatic leader, the more inclined they find themselves believing her to be true.  Is she from the future, crazy, a con artist, all-of-the-above?  Does it even matter?  For thoughts on the film, hit the jump.

Sound of My Voice, directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij and opening in theaters on April 27^th, is a haunting tale that delves into the underworld of a cult. At the center of the group is an enigmatic young woman named Maggie (co-writer Brit Marling), who never leaves her basement chamber and has her members grow her food, obsessively sanitize the house, and give her their own blood for transfusions. Although a young couple smuggles in hidden cameras, with the intention of exposing her as a charlatan and freeing the members from her spell, they quickly find themselves falling prey to her mind games.

After their panel presentation at WonderCon 2012, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij talked to the press about what makes their film distinctive from past films about time travel, what gave them the initial idea, how they’re trying to keep spoilers from happening, what they’re doing for viral marketing, the challenges of making such a low-budget movie, and what their process was like, when they were writing. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

A new trailer and poster for the drama Sound of My Voice have gone online. The film was one of two breakout hits for star/co-writer Brit Marling at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the first being the sci-fi drama Another Earth. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Sound of My Voice and I was beyond intrigued by the first 12 minutes of the film that were released online. The story involves a pair of investigative journalists who infiltrate a mysterious group led by an enigmatic leader (Marling) with the intent of exposing her as a fraud. This trailer gets into the larger issues explored in the plot, and Dave remarked in his recap of the film’s WonderCon panel that the hint of menace seen in the opening 12 minutes of the film looks to escalate dramatically in this trailer. The clip is sure to draw interest and I’m incredibly eager to see the full film when it hits theaters.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster. Sound of My Voice opens on April 27th.

Outside of the Sundance Film Festival, you may not have heard of Sound of My Voice, the cult drama from writers Brit Marling (Another Earth) and Zal Batmanglij. Directed by Batmanglij and starring Marling, Sound of My Voice follows a journalist (Christopher Denham) and his girlfriend (Nicole Vicius) as they investigate a cult lead by a supposed time-traveler and end up drinking the Kool-Aid. In the lead-off presentation at WonderCon today, the filmmakers screened the first 12 minutes of the movie. Much like the actors on screen themselves, I found myself being pulled into the mystery of it while wanting to take a step back to due the film’s thinly veiled sense of menace. After watching a screening of the new trailer, it’s clear that the menace is not only present throughout Sound of My Voice, it escalates dramatically.

Sound of My Voice, also starring Richard Wharton and Christy Meyers, opens April 27th. Hit the jump to check out our recap of the panel.

WonderCon 2012 has announced its programming schedule and attendees are in for some good stuff.  In addition to the wide variety of panels devoted to comic artists and writers, beloved genre figures, and career tips, there are some exciting movie and TV presentations lined up.  On the film side, there will be presentations for Resident Evil: Retribution (along with other Screen Gems films) Sound of My Voice (very cool that a Sundance indie flick is making an appearance), Battleship, Snow White and the Huntsman, Lockout, plus surprise presentations for upcoming films from 20th Century Fox (if there’s a sneak peek of Prometheus, the price of your WonderCon pass was worth it).

On the TV side, there will be presentations for Community, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, Once Upon a Time, and more.  WonderCon, you had me at “Community”.  Hit the jump for the dates and times of the convention’s major highlights.  WonderCon 2012 will be at the Anaheim Convention Center and runs from March 16 – 18th.

At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, I was told to steer clear of spoilers for Zal Batmanglij‘s Sound of My Voice.  I’ve kept my pledge to do so, and haven’t watched the first 12 minutes of the film, which Fox Searchlight released last week.  The studio has now put six new images online, and I’m willing to look at them since there’s no context for how they figure into the plot.  The vague logline says “a couple and documentary filmmaking team, infiltrate a mysterious group led by an enigmatic young woman named Maggie (Brit Marling). Intent on exposing her as a charlatan and freeing the followers from her grip, Peter and Lorna start to question their objective and each other and they unravel the secrets of Maggie’s underworld.”  I’m content to leave my knowledge of the film at that.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Sound of My Voice opens April 27th.

Just the other day we brought you the first two minutes of Sundance favorite Sound of My Voice, and now Fox Searchlight has released the first 12 minutes of the film online. This chunk makes up the first “chapter” of the movie, which centers on a couple and documentary filmmaking team who infiltrate a mysterious group with the intention of exposing their leader as a fraud. If you thought the first two minutes of the movie were ominous, things get significantly creepier as the sequence moves on. The film takes an intricate look inside cults, not dissimilar from Martha Marcy May Marlene, but Sound of My Voice looks to be taking a POV approach to the issue. I’m incredibly intrigued by the footage, especially by the final 10 seconds, and can’t wait to see more.

Hit the jump to watch the first 12 minutes of the film. The footage is also interspersed with interactive “hotspots” that lead to content hinting at story elements beyond this first chapter. Sound of My Voice stars Brit Marling and opens April 27th.

One of the breakout stars from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival was writer/director/actress Brit Marling. Two of her breakout films from the fest were Sound of My Voice and Another Earth, the latter of which was released in theaters last year. Now it’s time for the release of Sound of My Voice and the first two minutes of the film have gone online as a preview. I’ve heard all the fantastic buzz about the pic but I knew absolutely nothing of the story when I watched this two minute tease. That said, the opening of the film is positively engrossing. The story follows a couple and documentary filmmaking team who infiltrate a mysterious group with the intention of exposing their leader as a fraud. Judging by the ominous opening, I’m gonna go ahead and predict that things don’t go as planned.

Hit the jump to check out the two-minute tease, which is essentially the first trailer for the film, as well as a really nifty poster. Sound of My Voice opens April 27th.