Kill Your Darlings Table - P 2013
MOSCOW — One of America’s most prolific and well-known producers of films outside the Hollywood studio system, Christine Vachon, is to receive a top European award.
The Indie Star Award, given annually by the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, celebrates stars of indie cinema. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz and Jerry Schatzberg.
Vachon has produced more than 80 films in a career spanning nearly 30 years, including Todd Haynes pair Boys Don’t Cry (1999), which won Hilary Swank an Oscar for her portrayal as transgender teen Brandon Teena, and Velvet Goldmine, the director’s tribute to British glam rock; and the recent Beat Generation tale Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas and starring Daniel Radcliffe as radical poet Allen Ginsberg.
Darlings will receive a gala screening at the BFI London Festival, which kicks off Wednesday night in the British capital.
Vachon, 50, the founder of Killer Films, is known as “the godmother of politically committed film.”
Renowned for producing unusual, cutting-edge movies — often with actors and directors new to the screen — Vachon is the author of Shooting to Kill, a guide to making low-budget films.
Some of her early features were considered controversial at the time of their release: Larry Clark’s Kids, released in 1995, for example, was about an HIV-positive amoral skateboarder determined to deflower as many virgins as possible.
Vachon will speak about her career during a master class at the festival on Oct. 26 and meet audiences at the event’s American Corner the previous night.
The festival is screening a small retrospective of Vachon’s work, including Velvet Goldmine and Kill Your Darlings, John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price and Lance Edmands’ Bluebird.
The American Film Festival runs Oct. 22-27.
