How’s this for a dotting of the “i” and crossing of the “t” with regards to Variety’s official transition into the PMC era? In between the Sunday preparation for and Tuesday arrival of Daily Variety‘s final print edition, the trade has announced the hiring of a new chief film critic.

The credentials of Scott Foundas, a native of Tampa, FL and graduate of USC, are long, diverse and impressive. As a result, Twitter congratulations are quickly pouring in. From this afternoon’s announcement:

The renowned writer was most recently the chief film critic for the Village Voice, where his reviews, essays and interviews appeared regularly in all 11 Voice Media Group publications. Foundas will remain based in Gotham and work closely with senior film critics Justin Chang and Peter Debruge on reviews and other commentary and reporting for all Variety platforms.

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Scott Foundas writes of the coulda, shoulda, woulda world of those filmmakers whose Sundance acclaim didn’t catapult them into the big time. Or even a steady gig. Here’s the stats:

Of the 290 dramatic features that played at Sundance between 1984 and 2002 (the last year it seemed prudent to include in this survey, given the amount of time it can take to set up an indie film), 156 of their directors have gone on to make zero or, at the most, one additional dramatic feature.

In his LA Weekly piece, Foundas recounts the cautionary tale of Gary Walkow, who’ll show his latest work, Crashing, at Slamdance. Walkow, who has more than his fair share of bad luck for one lifetime, had a festival hit, The Trouble With Dick, sold it to a small company who folded before releasing the film. And then he made another film, went to Sundance, and watched the heavy-hitters engage in a bidding war over Shine. And he’s doing this again.

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