Academy Gets More Artsy
Michael Cieply in the New York Times:
"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, once the chummiest club in show business, is becoming more artsy and indie-minded just as much of the Hollywood establishment hoped to make it more commercial."
…
"Actors, who traditionally dominated the rolls, have lost ground, as their branch became especially fussy about admissions. At the same time executive members have picked up strength, as have foreigners — roughly a quarter of the 115 new members invited in 2007, for instance, worked on films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Queen — and those from the independent film world.
"The financial stakes are considerable. The last Oscar telecast, in February, was the least watched on record with about 32 million domestic viewers. But the academy’s awards-related revenue was up, to $73.7 million, from $70.2 million a year earlier, thanks in large part to an escalating license fee from the ABC network, which has committed to broadcast the show in the United States through 2014. To help reverse the ratings slide, producers of the 2009 show have said they expect to highlight crowd pleasers like The Dark Knight or Wall-E, whether these films receive nominations or not."
***
It should be noted that the Academy has been giving big nods to small films for at least a couple of decades — though the trend actually began as early as the mid-1970s (see acting nods in 1975 for Carol Kane in Hester Street, Maximilian Schell for The Man in the Glass Booth, James Whitmore for Give ‘em Hell, Harry!, Glenda Jackson for Hedda, and Isabelle Adjani for The Story of Adele H. [above]).
The Oscar’s shift away from studio fare has taken place chiefly because big studios have all but stopped making movies for "Academy consideration." Additionally, the wide availability of screeners/DVDs makes small-budget productions more accessible and so does cable television.
William Friedkin Remembers THE BOYS IN THE BAND
DOSTANA, THROUGH THE EYES OF PAINTER: Censorship
100 Films for the Ideal Cinematheque
LIFE Magazine Images Available on Google
Buster Keaton’s THE GENERAL - Ultimate 2 Disc Edition
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET at the Academy
A STORY OF HEALING, THE LONG WAY HOME: Oscar’s Docs
RASHOMON: Monday Nights with Oscar
A Century Ago: The Films of 1908
Spirit Awards 2009
2009 Spirit Awards
2009 Spirit Award nominations: Dec. 2, 2008.
2009 Spirit Award winners: Feb. 21, 2009.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Film Independent’s Spirit Awards Site
Spirit Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
National Board of Review Awards 2008
Brasilia Film Festival Awards 2008
Turin Film Festival Awards 2008
Stockholm Film Festival Awards 2008
Marrakech Film Festival Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Official Credits and Music Submission Deadline
Oscar 2009: David Rockwell to Design 81st Academy Awards Show
Satellite Awards 2008
2008 Satellite Awards
2008 International Press Academy’s Satellite Award nominations: November 30, 2008.
2008 Satellite Award winners: December 14, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Motion Picture, Drama
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Revolutionary Road
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Frozen River
Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Happy-Go-Lucky
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Tropic Thunder
In Bruges
Choke
Motion Picture, Foreign Language Film
Let the Right One In, Sweden
The Class, France
Sangre de mi Sangre, Argentina
Reprise, Norway
Gomorrah, Italy
Caramel, Lebanon / France
Motion Picture, Animated Or Mixed Media
The Tale of Despereaux
Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
WALL-E
Bolt
Waltz with Bashir
The Sky Crawlers
Motion Picture, Documentary
Man on Wire
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Encounters at the End of the World
Religulous
Anita O’Day The Life of a Jazz Singer
Waltz with Bashir
Director
Thomas McCarthy, The Visitor
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Actor In A Motion Picture, Drama
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Mark Ruffalo, What Doesn’t Kill You
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Leonardo Dicaprio, Revolutionary Road
Sean Penn, Milk
Actress In A Motion Picture, Comedy Or Musical
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia!
Lisa Kudrow, Kabluey
Kat Dennings, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Catherine Deneuve, A Christmas Tale
Debra Messing, Nothing Like the Holidays
Actor In A Motion Picture, Comedy Or Musical
Ricky Gervais, Ghost Town
Sam Rockwell, Choke
Josh Brolin, W.
Michael Cera, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
Mark Ruffalo, The Brothers Bloom
Actress In A Supporting Role
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Penelope Cruz, Elegy
Anjelica Huston, Choke
Sophie Okonedo, The Secret Life of Bees
Emma Thompson, Brideshead Revisited
Beyoncé Knowles, Cadillac Records
Actor In A Supporting Role
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder
Rade Sherbedgia, Fugitive Pieces
James Franco, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Actress In A Motion Picture, Drama
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Screenplay, Original
Philip Roth, Elegy
Thomas McCarthy, The Visitor
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood, Richard Flanagan, Australia
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Screenplay, Adapted
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
David Hare, The Reader
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
Cinematography
Jess Hall, Brideshead Revisited
Gyula Pados, The Duchess
Mandy Walker, Australia
Tim Orr, Snow Angels
Tom Stern, Changeling
Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Film Editing
Matt Chessé, Richard Pearson, Quantum of Solace
Dan Lebental, Iron Man
Lee Smith, The Dark Knight
Dody Dorn, Michael McCusker, Australia
Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill, Frost/Nixon
Original Score
David Arnold, Quantum of Solace
Thomas Newman, WALL-E
John Powell, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
David Hirschfelder, Australia
Danny Elfman, Milk
Original Song
"Another Way to Die" — Jack White, Quantum of Solace
"If the World" — Guns N’ Roses, Body of Lies
"Down to Earth" — Peter Gabriel, WALL-E
"By the Boab Tree" — Angela Little, Felix Meagher Baz Luhrmann, Anton Monsted, and Schuyler Weiss, Australia
"Jaiho" — A.R. Rahman and Gulzar, Slumdog Millionaire
"The Wrestler" — Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler
Art Direction & Production Design
Karen Murphy, Catherine Martin, Australia
Alice Normington, Brideshead Revisited
Ken Wakefield, Michael Carlin, The Duchess
Donald Graham Burt, Tom Reta, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Jon Billington, Martin Laing, City of Ember
Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt, Revolutionary Road
Costume Design
Michael O’Connor, The Duchess
Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, Brideshead Revisited
Catherine Martin, Australia
Patricia Field, Sex and the City
Ruth Myers, City of Ember
Jacqueline West, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Visual Effects
Chris Corbould, Kevin Tod Haug, Quantum of Solace
John Nelson, Shane Mahan, Dan Sudek, Ben Snow, Iron Man
Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber, Paul Franklin, The Dark Knight
Jeffrey A. Okun, The Day the Earth Stood Still
Chris Godfrey, Australia
Sound (Mixing & Editing)
Eddy Joseph, Mike Prestwood Smith, Mark Taylor, Jimmy Boyle, Martin Cantwell, Quantum of Solace
Christopher Boyes, Iron Man
Richard King, The Dark Knight
Jenny Ward, Australia
WALL-E
William R. Dean, David Husby, The Day the Earth Stood Still
TELEVISION
Miniseries
John Adams
Cranford
The Last Enemy
Motion Picture Made For Television
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Bernard and Doris
God on Trial
Recount
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
"24" Redemption
Actress In A Miniseries Or A Motion Picture Made For Television
Judi Dench, Cranford
Laura Linney, John Adams
Susan Sarandon, Bernard and Doris
Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun
Julie Walters, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Jacqueline Bisset, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving
Actor In A Miniseries Or A Motion Picture Made For Television
Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Kevin Spacey, Recount
Tom Wilkinson, Recount
Ralph Fiennes, Bernard and Doris
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Last Enemy
Stellan Skarsgard, God on Trial
Actress in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
Laura Dern, Recount
Sarah Polley, John Adams
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy
Fionnula Flanagan, Brotherhood
Actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
Jimmy Smits, Dexter
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
John Slattery, Mad Men
John Noble, Fringe
Nelsan Ellis, True Blood
Harvey Keitel, Life on Mars
Television Series, Drama
Brotherhood
In Treatment
Mad Men
Primeval
Life on Mars
Dexter
Actress in a Series, Drama
Anna Paquin, True Blood
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Glenn Close, Damages
Kathryn Erbe, Law and Order: Criminal Intent
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Actor in a Series, Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
David Tennant, Doctor Who
Jason Isaacs, Brotherhood
Television Series, Comedy or Musical
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
30 Rock
Pushing Daisies
State of the Union
The Colbert Report
Skins
Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical
Tracey Ullman, State of the Union
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures Of Old Christine
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
Mary Louise Parker, Weeds
Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
David Duchovny, Californication
Danny Devito, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Justin Kirk, Weeds
Jonny Lee Miller, Eli Stone
Mary Pickford Award For Outstanding Artistic Contribution To The Entertainment Industry
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Tesla Award In Recognition Of Visionary Achievement In Filmmaking Technology
Rick Baker
Auteur Award
Baz Luhrmann
BEST ENSEMBLE, MOTION PICTURE
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
BEST ENSEMBLE, TELEVISION
Brotherhood
OUTSTANDING NEW TALENT
Brandon Walters
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2008
BALLAST
CHANGELING
DOUBT
THE DARK KNIGHT
FROST / NIXON
FROZEN RIVER
MILK
THE READER
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
International Press Academy Site
Satellite Awards: 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
National Board of Review Awards 2008
Brasilia Film Festival Awards 2008
Turin Film Festival Awards 2008
Stockholm Film Festival Awards 2008
Marrakech Film Festival Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Official Credits and Music Submission Deadline
Oscar 2009: David Rockwell to Design 81st Academy Awards Show
British Independent Film Awards 2008
National Board of Review Awards 2008
National Board of Review Awards 2008
2008 National Board of Review Award winners: December 4, 2008.
National Board of Review Site
National Board of Review Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Brasilia Film Festival Awards 2008
Turin Film Festival Awards 2008
Stockholm Film Festival Awards 2008
Marrakech Film Festival Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Official Credits and Music Submission Deadline
European Film Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: David Rockwell to Design 81st Academy Awards Show
Golden Horse Awards 2008
British Independent Film Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Roger Goodman to Direct Telecast
FOUR CHRISTMASES Tops Box Office
Seth Gordon’s holiday comedy Four Christmases topped the North American box office this Thanksgiving weekend with US$31.6 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a couple paying a visit to all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day, the film lifted its domestic total to $46.7 million after only five days in release.
Jumping to No. 2 this weekend was Walt Disney’s Bolt, which collected another $26.5 million and brought its cumulative gross to $66.8 million. Featuring the voices of John [...] Continue Reading…
Gotham Awards 2008
2008 Gotham Awards
2008 Gotham Award nominations: October 20, 2008
2008 Gotham Award winners: December 2, 2008, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Best Feature
Ballast
Lance Hammer, director; Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh, producers (Alluvial Film Company)
Frozen River
Courtney Hunt, director; Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman, director; Anthony Bregman, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze, Sidney Kimmel, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Visitor
Tom McCarthy, director; Mary Jane Skalski, Michael London, producers (Overture Films)
The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky, director; Scott Franklin, Darren Aronofsky, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Best [...] Continue Reading…
Brasilia Film Festival Awards 2008
2008 Brasilia Film Festival Awards
2008 Brasilia Film Festival: November 18–25, 2008
Kiko Goifman’s FilmeFobia / FilmPhobia, a mockumentary about all sorts of phobias — from fear of spiders and snakes to fear of penetration and buttons — received five Candango Awards at the 41st Brasilia Film Festival, including best film and best actor for Jean-Claude Bernardet, a real-life Brazilian cinema expert who in FilmPhobia plays the director of a documentary whose goal is to present "the truth" by placing phobia sufferers in some very difficult situations. Goifman — who was booed by the Cine Brasilia audience while accepting the [...] Continue Reading…
Turin Film Festival Awards 2008
2008 Turin Film Festival Awards
2008 Turin Film Festival: November 21-29, 2008
The 26th Turin Film Festival’s best film winner, Pablo Larraín’s Tony Manero — set in Santiago in the repressive late 1970s — follows Raúl Peralta, a man obsessed with John Travolta’s tush-shaking character from Saturday Night Fever. Raúl is so obsessed, in fact, that after a Tony Manero TV contest is announced he decides to bump off the competition. Tony Manero also won the FIPRESCI prize, while star Alfredo Castro (who co-wrote the screenplay with Larraín and Mateo Iribarren) took the best actor award.
Best [...] Continue Reading…
British Independent Film Awards 2008
2008 British Independent Film Awards
2008 British Independent Film Award nominations: October 28, 2008
2008 British Independent Film Award winners: Old Billingsgate Market in London on November 30, 2008
The romantic fantasy Slumdog Millionaire (above, top photo), about a poor young man (best newcomer winner Dev Patel) who gets a chance to become a millionaire on an Indian TV game show, was the top winner at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards, bagging trophies for best British independent film and best director (Danny Boyle).
The Douglas Hickox award for debut director went to Steve McQueen for the Anglo-Irish [...] Continue Reading…
Stockholm Film Festival Awards 2008
2008 Stockholm Film Festival Awards
2008 Stockholm Film Festival: November 20-30, 2008
Writer-director Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River takes place in the days before Christmas near a border crossing on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec, where two single mothers — one white, one Mohawk — in dire straits dive into the border-smuggling underworld. Melissa Leo (above, with Michael O’Keefe), who has recently won best actress honors at the Marrakech Film Festival, stars.
Bronze Horse for Best Film: Frozen River by Courtney Hunt (above)
Best Directing Debut: Steve McQueen for Hunger
Honorable Mention [...] Continue Reading…
THE INTERNATIONAL to Open the 2009 Berlin Film Festival
Tom Tykwer’s big-budget conspiracy thriller The International, written by Eric Singer and starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, will open the 59th Berlin International Film Festival on February 5, 2009.
Tykwer, best known for the small-scale Lola rennt / Run, Lola, Run (1998), has built his career around "little" films such as Winterschläfer / Winter Sleeps (1997), Der Krieger und die Kaiserin / The Princess and the Warrior (2000), and Heaven, which opened the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. All that changed a couple of years ago with the release [...] Continue Reading…
Sundance 2009 Boycott: Park City to Suffer?
Jay Hamburger reports in The Park Record:
"Mayor Dana Williams acknowledges he is ‘certainly concerned’ with the prospects of a boycott of Utah by gays and their allies, saying Park City could suffer even though the city had little to do with the gay-marriage ballot measure in California.
"Park City has a tradition of acceptance of gays, he says, but the city could be swept up in a movement by gays against Utah based on Proposition 8. Williams says gays are welcome in Park City."
…
"’It’s too bad that we could potentially take the [...] Continue Reading…
William Friedkin Remembers THE BOYS IN THE BAND
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Thomas Conner interviews William Friedkin upon the DVD release of the 1970 drama The Boys in the Band, which was adapted by Mart Crowley from his own 1968 off-Broadway play about a group of some very sad and very bitter gay men — and one token (self-proclaimed) straight guy — who get together for a birthday celebration. "I knew a lot of people like those people," Crowley later said of his whiny characters. "The self-deprecating humor was born out of a low self-esteem, from a sense of what [...] Continue Reading…
BEFORE THE FALL: Q&A with F. Javier Gutiérrez
F. Javier Gutiérrez’s 3 Días / Before the Fall, the filmmaker’s feature-film debut (co-produced by Antonio Banderas), has an unlikely premise: as a giant meteorite is about to destroy the planet and all its denizens in three days — hence the original Spanish-language title — a young man (Victor Clavijo) living in a remote village in the south of Spain readies himself to protect his mother (Mariana Cordero, in a role akin to that of Lillian Gish in The Night of the Hunter) and his absent brother’s four children from a psycho (Eduard Fernández) on the loose. [...] Continue Reading…
Cairo Film Festival 2008: What’s the Use?
The effectiveness of the first Cairo Human Rights Film Festival, a sidebar of the 32nd Cairo International Film Festival, which comes to a close on Nov. 28, is questioned in the Middle East Times:
"’We are looking to reach people who are not used to receiving information through art and this will hopefully educate about human rights,’ [American Islamic Congress' Dalia] Zaida said. ‘First and foremost, the festival aims at education and getting people aware of human rights.’
"’The goal is to highlight international human rights issues and build understanding between cultures,’ Zaida added. ‘Most [...] Continue Reading…
Roger Ebert’s “Death to Film Critics!”
Roger Ebert’s "Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult!" at the Chicago Sun-Times:
"A newspaper film critic is like a canary in a coal mine. When one croaks, get the hell out. The lengthening toll of former film critics acts as a poster child for the self-destruction of American newspapers, which once hoped to be more like the New York Times and now yearn to become more like the National Enquirer. We used to be the town crier. Now we are the neighborhood gossip.
"The crowning blow came this week when the once-magisterial Associated [...] Continue Reading…
MILK at Truthdig
Sheerly Avni’s "Get Milk" at Truthdig:
"First things first. Gus Van Sant’s Milk is a movie to be thankful for. Go see it, tonight if you can, and in a crowded theater. See it because as a grass-roots activist and California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk led and won the fight to defeat Proposition 6, an anti-gay measure as bigoted in its own time as Proposition 8 is today. Or because it features one of our best actors at his least actorly—in his most winning performance since Fast Times at Ridgemont [...] Continue Reading…
DOSTANA, THROUGH THE EYES OF PAINTER: Censorship
Agence France-Presse reports that the radical nationalist Hindu groups Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Jananagruti have succeeded in getting the International Film Festival of India, held in the old Portuguese territory of Goa, to withdraw Maqbool Fida Husain’s 1967 documentary short Through the Eyes of Painter.
Husain, 93, who has been called India’s Picasso, became enmeshed in the mid-1990s in an ugly uproar over his paintings of nude Hindu goddesses, for which he was sued and received death threats from Hindu fanatics. He currently divides his time between London and Dubai.
The 39th Goa Film Festival [...] Continue Reading…
Oscar 2009: Official Credits and Music Submission Deadline
Monday, December 1, is the deadline for official screen credits (OSC) and music submission forms to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 81st Academy Awards consideration.
As per the Academy’s press release, "for a feature film to be considered for the 2008 Awards, the film’s distributor or producer must file an OSC form with the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on December 1. If a feature film is released in 2008 and the completed OSC form is not submitted by the deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards [...] Continue Reading…
100 Films for the Ideal Cinematheque
Via Cahiers du Cinéma:
Seventy-eight film critics and historians — mostly from France or the Francophone world, apparently — among them screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, screenwriter-director Claude Miller, and author-documentarian, poll organizer, and editor of the book 100 Films pour une Cinemathèque Idéale Claude-Jean Philippe — have selected their top 100 films for the "ideal cinematheque." That is followed by a list featuring their picks for the top 50 filmmakers.
There are only two Best Picture Oscar winners in the list: The Godfather (1972) and, gasp, The Deer Hunter (1978). Not surprisingly, the list is dominated [...] Continue Reading…
TWILIGHT Shines Bright at the Box Office
Summit Entertainment’s Twilight stormed to the top of the North American box office this weekend with a whopping $70 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of the popular Stephenie Meyer novel started its path to box office glory early this weekend when it collected $7 million from midnight screenings. The vampire romance ended up beating studio expectations, prompting Summit to quickly green-light a sequel.
At No. 2, Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace delivered another strong result, collecting $27.4 million to reach a total haul of [...] Continue Reading…
Marrakech Film Festival Awards 2008
2008 Marrakech Film Festival Awards
2008 Marrakech Film Festival: November 14–22, 2008
In Mikhail Kalatozishvili’s Wild Field, a young doctor decides to work in the desolate steppe, where the local population turn to him both for medical and personal advice. Wild Field was written by Pyotr Lutsik and Alexei Samoryadov, and it stars Oleg Dolin as the doctor, Roman Madyanov, and Daniela Stoyanovich. Official site.
Golden Star / Grand Prize
WILD FIELD by Mikhail Kalatozishvili - Russia
Jury Prize
THE SHAFT by Zhang Chi - China
Best Actress
MELISSA LEO for FROZEN RIVER by Courtney Hunt - USA
Best [...] Continue Reading…
Tyrone Power
If Clark Gable was the King of Hollywood, then Tyrone Power was its — more handsome, more charming, more pleasant — Crown Prince.
Allan Ellenberger has reported on and posted photos of the memorial service marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Tyrone Power, 20th Century Fox’s top male star from the mid-1930s to early 1950s. The service was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Chapel of the Psalms, where Power’s funeral was held on November 15, 1958. Among those in attendance were Power’s children Taryn Power, Tyrone Power, Jr. , and Romina Power, in addition to [...] Continue Reading…
Amazonas Film Festival and the Environment in THE GUARDIAN
Demetrios Matheou in The Guardian:
"The Amazonas film festival, whose flagship venue is that same opera house in crestfallen Manaus, is a much gentler affair [than Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo], of course, whose guests could not be more mollycoddled. In its way, though, the festival is just as bizarre as Herzog’s mythic-mad films. Here we are, 150 film-makers and journalists from all over the world, congregated in a luxurious hotel, fed succulent fruits with impossibly beautiful names – the cupuacu, caju, abacaxi, the pupunha and the jambo – and connected to intravenous drips [...] Continue Reading…
Penélope Cruz, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clint Eastwood at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009
Awards and honorees at the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, to be held in the Southern California coastal town between January 22-February 1, 2009, include the Modern Master Award for Clint Eastwood (on Thursday, January 29, at the historic Arlington Theatre); the American Riviera Award for Mickey Rourke (on Friday, January 30); the Cinema Vanguard Award for Kristin Scott Thomas (on Tuesday, January 27, at the Lobero Theater); and the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award for Penélope Cruz (on Saturday, January 31, at the Arlington Theatre). This year’s Kirk Douglas Award, handed out a few [...] Continue Reading…
