Fifty Pills (also known as 50 Pills ) is a 2006 American crime comedy film directed by Theo Avgerinos (in his feature film directorial debut). The film premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival .
35-401: After being blamed for a party which he didn't throw or have any knowledge of, that resulted in many damages, young Darren ( Lou Taylor Pucci ) loses his scholarship. Being from a lower-middle-class family he will not have enough money to pay for college next semester without his scholarship. His roommate, Coleman ( John Hensley ), who actually threw the party, sympathizes with Darren and gives him
70-676: A Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival . Pucci then starred in The Chumscrubber (2005), Fast Food Nation (2006), The Go-Getter (2007), Explicit Ills (2008), and Carriers (2009). Pucci had starring roles in the 2013 Evil Dead remake, as well as The Story of Luke (2013) and Spring (2014). Pucci
105-755: A group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture , Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role . Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah. It
140-480: A picture of our country that is broadly reflective of the diversity of voices not always seen in our cultural exports." The majority of the film screenings, including the festival's premieres, would be held within the Cineworld cinema at The O2 entertainment district. The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held April 25–28, 2013. Sundance London 2014 took place on April 25–27, 2014, at The O2 Arena ; however
175-448: A stash of fifty ecstasy pills. If he sells the pills he would have enough money to stay in school. Darren sells to many weirdos, including a dominatrix who wants the pills so her "pets" can be numb when she has sex with them. When he visits his girlfriend, her roommate sets Darren up with a connection. The brother of this roommate, a seemingly mentally-challenged and over-zealous white-collar employee named Ralphie ( Eddie Kaye Thomas ),
210-633: Is also responsible for bringing wider attention to such films as Common Bonds , Saw , Garden State , American Psycho , Super Troopers , The Blair Witch Project , Spanking the Monkey , Reservoir Dogs , Primer , In the Bedroom , Better Luck Tomorrow , Little Miss Sunshine , Donnie Darko , El Mariachi , Moon , Clerks , Thank You for Smoking , Sex, Lies, and Videotape , The Brothers McMullen , 500 Days of Summer , Napoleon Dynamite , Whiplash (which topped
245-773: Is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute . It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah ; Salt Lake City, Utah ; and at Sundance Resort (a ski resort near Provo, Utah ), and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and
280-743: Is documented in Professor Emanuel Levy 's book, Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Cinema (NYU Press, 1999, 2001, 2011). UK-based publisher C21 Media first revealed in October 2010 that Robert Redford was planning to bring the Sundance Film Festival to London, and in March the following year, Redford officially announced that Sundance London would be held at The O2 , in London from April 26 to 29, 2012;
315-410: Is obsessed with Diff'rent Strokes . He makes Darren watch four hours of the show, but Darren leaves. Upon leaving he is harassed by a drug dealer known as The Seoul Man ( Ron Yuan ), who almost kills him. Once again his luck turns sour when his girlfriend finds out that he is selling drugs and breaks off with him. Coleman owes money to a drug dealer, so a group of three armed thugs are sent to extract
350-489: The Evil Dead (2013) remake, based on Sam Raimi 's 1981 original and played one of the leading roles in the thriller Spring . In November 2014, Pucci starred as Teddy Courtney in a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Chicago P.D. crossover. He also portrayed Ben in the horror film Ava's Possessions . In 2016, he starred alongside Michael Shannon in the western thriller Poor Boy , which premiered at
385-738: The Tribeca Film Festival in April 2016. In 2018, Pucci guest-starred in the first 3 episodes of Lifetime 's thriller series You as Benji. In 2019 he guest-starred as Nock Nock in the FX comedy series You're the Worst , then went on to play a recurring role in American Horror Story: 1984 . Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival , then US Film and Video Festival )
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#1732797908603420-610: The 2000s, when major stars with multimillion-dollar films (like The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher ) dominated the festival. Kevin Smith doubted that Clerks , if made in the late 2000s, would be accepted to Sundance. Numerous small festivals sprung up around Sundance in the Park City area, including Slamdance , Nodance, Slumdance , It-dance, X-Dance, Lapdance, Tromadance , The Park City Film Music Festival , etc., though all except Slamdance are no longer held. Included in
455-532: The 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on January 16, 2015. Sundance London returned to London from June 2–5, 2016, and again June 1–4, 2017, both at Picturehouse Central in London's West End. The 2018 and 2019 events continued at the same venue. Films shown at the 2019 event included Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling ’s Late Night , the controversial dark tale The Nightingale , US comedy Corporate Animals , Lulu Wang 's The Farewell (which won
490-696: The Audience Award ) and Sophie Hyde 's film based on Emma Jane Unsworth 's novel about female friendship, Animals . The 2020 event in London was postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic . It was not rescheduled until July 2021. Inaugurated in 2014, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong has taken place in 2016, 2017, 2018 and from September 19 to October 1, 2019. It is held at The Metroplex in Kowloon Bay each year. The 2020 events in London and Hong Kong were postponed due to impact of
525-897: The COVID-19 pandemic and as of late 2021 has not been rescheduled. From 2006 through 2008, Sundance Institute collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on a special series of film screenings, performances, panel discussions, and special events bringing the institute's activities and the festival's programming to New York City. Many notable independent filmmakers received their big break at Sundance, including Kevin Smith , Robert Rodriguez , Quentin Tarantino , Todd Field , David O. Russell , Steve James , Paul Thomas Anderson , Steven Soderbergh , Darren Aronofsky , James Wan , Edward Burns , Damien Chazelle , Lee Isaac Chung , Jane Schoenbrun , Molly Gordon , Nick Lieberman , A. V. Rockwell and Jim Jarmusch . The festival
560-650: The Dying Girl in 2015, The Birth of a Nation in 2016, Minari in 2020, and CODA in 2021. At the 2016 Sundance Film Festival , three films went on to garner eight Oscar nominations. Manchester by the Sea took the lead in Sundance-supported films with six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The next year, about 40 films were acquired by distributors, among them including Amazon , Netflix , Lionsgate , and Universal . CODA became
595-692: The Silver Bear Award for Best Actor at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival . He also played "St. Jimmy" in Green Day 's " Jesus of Suburbia " music video (with Thumbsucker co-star Kelli Garner ). In 2009, Pucci had three films that screened at the Sundance Film Festival : Brief Interviews with Hideous Men , directed by John Krasinski ; The Informers , with Billy Bob Thornton , Winona Ryder , Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke , based on Bret Easton Ellis ' collection of short stories of
630-522: The Sundance Film Festival, after Redford's character the Sundance Kid from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . The Sundance Film Festival experienced its extraordinary growth in the 1990s, under the leadership of Geoffrey Gilmore and John Cooper, who transformed the venue into the premier festival in the United States, on par of Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto International Film Festival (also known as The Big Five). That crucial era
665-553: The Sundance changes made in 2010, a new programming category titled "NEXT" (often denoted simply by the characters "<=>", which mean "less is more") was introduced to showcase innovative films that are able to transcend the confines of an independent budget. Another recent addition was the Sundance Film Festival USA program, in which eight of the festival's films are shown in eight different theaters around
700-463: The United States. The festival went virtual in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic . The festival returned for in-person showings in 2023. The total economic benefits Sundance brought to Utah were estimated to be $ 167 million in 2020. The Sundance Institute's contract to host the festival in Park City will expire following the 2026 festival. The Sundance Institute is considering moving
735-704: The age of ten in a hometown production of Oliver! . Two years later he acted as an understudy on Broadway playing Freidrich in The Sound of Music . He can be seen in Arie Posin 's The Chumscrubber , the HBO miniseries Empire Falls , and starring as the lead in Mike Mills ' film Thumbsucker , for which he received the Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and
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#1732797908603770-445: The experience of small filmmakers trying to get into various festivals in the late 2000s, including Sundance. The film contained several arguments that Sundance had become dominated by large studios and sponsoring corporations. A contrast was made between the 1990s, in which non-famous filmmakers with tiny budget films could get distribution deals from studios like Miramax Films or New Line Cinema , (like Kevin Smith 's Clerks ), and
805-402: The festival continued. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, and panels featured many well-known Hollywood filmmakers. Also that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to Jimmy Stewart . The festival also made a profit for the first time. In 1981, the festival moved to Park City, Utah, and changed the dates from September to January. The move from late summer to midwinter
840-784: The festival's Top 10 Films of All Time in 2024, as the result of a survey conducted with over 500 filmmakers and critics in honor of the festival's 40th anniversary ), CODA , Boyhood , We're All Going to the World's Fair , Theater Camp and A Thousand and One . Three Seasons was the first in festival history to ever receive both the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award, in 1999. Later films that won both awards are: God Grew Tired of Us in 2006 (documentary category), Quinceañera in 2006 (dramatic category), Precious in 2009, Fruitvale (later retitled Fruitvale Station ) in 2013, Whiplash in 2014, Me and Earl and
875-609: The first Sundance film to win an Oscar for Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards . The festival has changed over the decades from a low-profile venue for small-budget, independent creators from outside the Hollywood system to a media extravaganza for Hollywood celebrity actors, paparazzi, and luxury lounges set up by companies not affiliated with Sundance. Festival organizers have tried curbing these activities in recent years, beginning in 2007 with their ongoing Focus On Film campaign. The 2009 film Official Rejection documented
910-540: The first time it has traveled outside the US . In a press statement, Redford said, "We are excited to partner with AEG Europe to bring a particular slice of American culture to life in the inspired setting of The O2, and in this city of such rich cultural history. [...] It is our mutual goal to bring to the UK, the very best in current American independent cinema, to introduce the artists responsible for it, and in essence, help build
945-410: The first-year pilot program of what became the Sundance Institute , and James W. Ure took over briefly as executive director, followed by Cirina Hampton Catania, who was asked by Governor Matheson to help bring the festival into profitability as the governing board was preparing to disband it due to debts incurred in 1978. Catania generated sponsorships, in-kind contributions, and advertising revenue, and
980-475: The inaugural US Film Festival presented by Sundance Institute (1985), which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby. The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc., by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991, the festival was officially renamed
1015-401: The money from him at his dorm. Not having the money, he says he will call Darren and they can take whatever pills he has left as collateral. Darren comes back to the dorm, and gives the pills to the thugs, who leave. The next day, Darren feels defeated, but discovers that Coleman paid his tuition in full and is leaving the college. Reinvigorated, Darren begins dating Gracie and the movie ends with
1050-611: The potential of independent film, and increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah. The main focus of the event was to conduct a competition for independent American films, present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions, and celebrate the Frank Capra Award. The festival also highlighted the work of regional filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system. In 1979, Sterling Van Wagenen left to head up
1085-511: The same name ; and The Answer Man (formerly Arlen Faber and The Dream of the Romans ) with Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham . Pucci was also a juror for the short film competition. Pucci had roles in multiple indie films for the latter part of the decade, and had a leading role playing an autistic man in The Story of Luke (2013), alongside Seth Green . He also had a starring role in
Fifty Pills - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-604: The two sitting on a bench with Darren taking a picture on his phone, saying that Gracie is about to make his parents very happy. Fifty Pills premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2006. Lou Taylor Pucci Lou Taylor Pucci (born July 27, 1985) is an American actor who first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller 's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002. Pucci had his breakthrough leading role in Thumbsucker (2005), for which he won
1155-538: Was born in Seaside Heights , New Jersey . His mother, Linda Farver, is a former model and beauty queen (Miss Union County), and his father, Louis Pucci, worked as a guitarist for the bands The Watch and Leap of Faith. He has two brothers and one sister Penelope. At the age of two, he moved to Keansburg , New Jersey. He is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey . He first acted at
1190-512: Was done by the executive director Susan Barrell with the cooperation of Hollywood director Sydney Pollack , who suggested that running a film festival in a ski resort during winter would draw more attention from Hollywood. It was called the US Film and Video Festival. In 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. Gary Beer and Van Wagenen spearheaded production of
1225-480: Was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen , head of Robert Redford 's company Wildwood Enterprises, Inc , John Earle and Cirina Hampton-Catania of the Utah Film Commission . The 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance , A Streetcar Named Desire , Midnight Cowboy , Mean Streets , and Sweet Smell of Success . The goal of the festival was to showcase American-made films, highlight
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