Daniel Bayer

Sep 14, 2024 | awardswatch.com | Daniel Bayer

The most successful actor-turn-directors tend to be those who have a clearly-defined voice that they are able to transfer from in front of the camera to behind it. A strong knowledge of craft will only get you so far; having something to say and saying it in a way that only you can is the mark of a true auteur.

Sep 10, 2024 | awardswatch.com | Daniel Bayer

Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are doing missionary work for the Mormon Church. Paxton (Chloe East from The Fabelmans) is a sweet, bubbly chatterbox, while Barnes (Sophie Thatcher from Yellowjackets) is a little more reserved, and perhaps a little less sure of her faith. She’s the more experienced of the two, though, with “eight or nine” conversions under her belt.

Sep 8, 2024 | awardswatch.com | Daniel Bayer

While revisionist westerns aren’t exactly popular, they do important work in dispelling the myth of the Great American West. On Swift Horses, Daniel Minahan’s adaptation of Shannon Pufahl’s novel, may not appear to be a Western based on its surface plot, but it takes a lot of the genre’s staple elements – a mysterious lone ranger, a robbery gone awry, a new community just being built, and its seedy underbelly – and looks at them through the lens of the queer America of the 1950-60s.

Sep 7, 2024 | awardswatch.com | Daniel Bayer

In case you don’t remember the story of William Tell from your school days, Nick Hamm’s new film about the Swiss folk hero opens with a helpful reminder: As a whole town watches, Wilhelm Tell (Claes Bang) is forced to shoot an apple placed on his son’s head from a great distance. The scene positively sweats with tension, immediately hooking the audience into the story, liberally adapted from the 1804 play by Friedrich Schiller.

Aug 2, 2024 | awardswatch.com | Daniel Bayer

Theater and cinema have always had a strange symbiotic relationship. While cinema has, over the decades, become more accessible to view than theater, theater is more accessible to make. With its roots in the most basic form of storytelling, all you need to stage a theatrical production is a space and a script. At its heart, theater is about making a connection with the audience as they watch you.