14 items from 2013
18 April 2013 3:00 PM, PDT | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
When the global economy collapsed in 2008, Iceland was the first casualty: Its credit-driven banks went bust, and inflation rose 18%. Now the economy is bouncing back, with unemployment levels cut in half, thanks partly to its status as one of the world’s most connected countries. For a small nation, it’s also surprisingly influential, known for trailblazing economic and social policies. For example, Iceland has the world’s first openly gay prime minister, Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir. Iceland also has one of the planet’s highest levels of Internet use, and the government’s next act could be groundbreaking: There is legislation to ban all forms of digital porn, not out of prudishness, but to protect children from violent sexual imagery. On the biz side, potential for satellite or B.O. growth is limited. There are only 315,000 people, two-thirds of them in Reykjavik. But the nation is a breeding ground for talent, »
- Nick Vivarelli
1 April 2013 11:55 AM, PDT | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
While there are certain aspects of film-making they can’t always control, ultimately it is the skill of the director that determines whether a movie is good or bad. To make this list of the greatest modern directors, a director must still be actively making movies and only movies from the last 15 years are considered in the ranking of the directors.
The factors in the rankings obviously include the general quality of the directors films but also takes into account the number of films made in the given time period as well, the impact of the director on the filmmaking scene as a whole, and the potential they have for making more great movies in the future. The sheer number of quality directors ensures that a good number were excluded from the list as many excellent filmmakers such as Ang Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, Nicolas Winding Refn, »
- Paul Sorrells
18 March 2013 11:29 AM, PDT | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
...and just like that, Warner Bros. has announced that production has started today on "Godzilla," with the studio, filmmakers and everyone else keeping a tight lock and seal over details or anything else concerning the production. But the press release did offer up a couple more eyebrow raising bits of casting for a monster movie that seems to be following the "Pacific Rim" playbook to a certain degree. Japanese actor Ken Watanabe ("Inception," "Letters From Iwo Jima") has come aboard, while French actress Juliette Binoche is indeed confirmed, making her first steps in a Hollywood blockbuster. Either this is one helluva script, or Binoche need to pay some bills. With the rest of the cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston and David Strathairn, like Guillermo Del Toro's monster movie, it's taking an ensemble approach without an A-list, bankable star. We'd wager the studio is hoping to sell the movie on spectacle, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
20 February 2013 8:14 PM, PST | Cinelinx | See recent Cinelinx news »
Our Oscar coverage continues. Here we overview the best acting and best directing award nominees.
Best Actor Nominees
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Age: 38
Previously Best Known For: “Phil” from The Hangover
Previous Oscar Nominations: None
Interesting Fact: Was a medalist on the Men's Heavyweight Crew team at Georgetown University.
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Age: 55
Previously Best Known For:
“Bill Cutting” from Gangs of New York
“Daniel Plainview” from There Will Be Blood
Previous Oscar Nominations: 4
Won – Best Actor, Leading Role for There Will Be Blood (2007)
Nominated – Best Actor, Leading Role for Gangs of New York (2002)
Nominated – Best Actor, Leading Role for In The Name of The Father (1993)
Won – Best Actor, Leading Role for My Left Foot (1989)
Interesting Fact: He first became interested in acting when he learned to replicate the accent and mannerisms of people in his neighborhood to avoid standing out to bullies.
Age: 44
Previously »
- feeds@cinelinx.com (G.S. Perno)
11 February 2013 4:45 PM, PST | The Scorecard Review | See recent Scorecard Review news »
Warner Brothers has just dropped word on a two new collections dedicated to the work of American film icon Clint Eastwood. The two collections (one on DVD, the other on Blu-ray) will feature a new documentary by Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel, along with a copy of the new non-directed Eastwood film Trouble with the Curve.
A portion of the news release is below:
Burbank, Calif., February 11, 2013 – Clint Eastwood’s illustrious motion picture career has spanned more than half a century and touched generations of filmgoers. The filmmaker/actor has received five Academy Awards®and his films have grossed more than $2 billion at the domestic box office. This year marks the 38th anniversary of the relationship between Warner Bros., Clint Eastwood and Malpaso Productions, which has culminated in more than 40 films made for the studio. Now, in honor of Warner’s year-long 90th anniversary celebration, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release two new Eastwood Collections, »
- Nick Allen
11 February 2013 7:11 AM, PST | Scott Feinberg | See recent Scott Feinberg news »
By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor
***
Whenever Steven Spielberg decides to take up a new directorial endeavor, he doesn’t do it alone. He gets his stock company of talent on the phone, and once he has the gang together, they go off and make a movie. It’s certainly not the same as when Spielberg was making little films in his backyard as a kid, but in a way the spirit is still the same. One big difference, though, is that when these movies get made, Oscar often takes notice.
Spielberg films almost always receive Academy Awards attention. On his own, he has 15 nominations (one of which came for just producing Letters from Iwo Jima, which he didn’t direct), while his crew has gotten dozens of nods. The last film of his not to get at least a nom was The Terminal, and before that it was Always. Believe it or not, »
- Joey Magidson
1 February 2013 5:28 AM, PST | Scott Feinberg | See recent Scott Feinberg news »
By Joey Magidson
Film Contributor
***
I’ve always had a soft spot for films that are directed by actors. In one of my recent pieces, I spoke about how the Academy looks at actors who direct. Now, I’ll be continuing my interest by focusing in on which of these multi-hyphenates are the best at what they do.
By and large, the films that actors make when they choose directorial projects have some sort of significance for them or at least play to their strengths, so disasters are few and far between. This makes it a lot of fun to celebrate the best of the bunch, since I’m able to draw from a larger pool than you normally can when looking at one particular type of filmmaker.
I take some comfort in knowing that most films directed by actors tend to be at least decent, if not better. I »
- Joey Magidson
18 January 2013 8:26 AM, PST | Cinelinx | See recent Cinelinx news »
Our daily countdown continues, with part 17 out of 30 in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 140-131.
140) The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928) Carl Theodore French Silent
139) Walkabout (1971) Nicholas Roeg Australia
138) Dreams (1990) Akira Kurasawa Japan
137) Grave Of The Fireflies (1988) Isao Takahata Japan Animated
136) Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) Clint Eastwood USA
135) The Quiet Man (1952) John Ford USA
134) The Wolfman (1941) George Waggoner USA
133) The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) Robert Wise USA
132) The Man Who Shot Libery Valance (1962) John Ford USA
131) The Hustler (1961) Robert Rosen USA
Numbers 130-121 coming next...
film cultureClassicslist300 »
- feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
12 January 2013 4:11 PM, PST | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »
Easy online access to foreign films of all eras has broadened the horizons of British cinema fans
It was no shock to see Michael Haneke's Amour on the best foreign film list for this year's Oscars. What did surprise pundits was Hollywood's recognition of this unflinching Austrian film about ageing as a candidate for best picture, among such expected contenders as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Ben Affleck's Argo and Tom Hooper's Les Misérables.
Academy voters appear to be hinting at a new openness to other cultures and the growing acceptability of subtitled entertainment. "It really is unusual for a foreign language film to do this well and to be nominated in two other main categories too, for best adapted screenplay and best director," said Charles Gant, film editor of Heat magazine.
Not since Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, shot almost entirely in Japanese, was nominated »
- Vanessa Thorpe
12 January 2013 4:11 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Easy online access to foreign films of all eras has broadened the horizons of British cinema fans
It was no shock to see Michael Haneke's Amour on the best foreign film list for this year's Oscars. What did surprise pundits was Hollywood's recognition of this unflinching Austrian film about ageing as a candidate for best picture, among such expected contenders as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Ben Affleck's Argo and Tom Hooper's Les Misérables.
Academy voters appear to be hinting at a new openness to other cultures and the growing acceptability of subtitled entertainment. "It really is unusual for a foreign language film to do this well and to be nominated in two other main categories too, for best adapted screenplay and best director," said Charles Gant, film editor of Heat magazine.
Not since Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, shot almost entirely in Japanese, was nominated »
- Vanessa Thorpe
11 January 2013 10:30 PM, PST | Hitfix | See recent Hitfix news »
As well as being gratifying in and of itself, Thursday's Best Picture Oscar nomination for Michael Haneke's "Amour" is immensely pleasing to Oscar stat geeks, who can count up the many ways in which it breaks form in the top category: the first foreign-language nominee since 2006's "Letters from Iwo Jima," the first non-us foreign-language nominee since 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the first French-language nominee since 1969's "Z," only the ninth foreign-language nominee overall, etc, etc. But the stat we've picked up on today relates back to the start of its awards journey, where it won arguably the loftiest film »
- Guy Lodge
10 January 2013 4:58 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Lincoln biopic leads the way with 12 nominations as Us films reassert their Academy Award dominance
After last year's domination by The Artist, and the triumph for The King's Speech in 2011, Us cinema reasserted itself with a vengeance in the 2013 Oscar race, as the nominations for this year's Academy awards were announced.
The Steven Spielberg-directed biopic Lincoln led the nominations count, with 12, including nods for best picture, best director, and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, while the 20th Century Fox-produced Life of Pi ran second with 11, and the David O Russell romcom Silver Linings Playbook upset the formbook by scoring a surprise eight.
British hopes, largely invested in Les Misérables, received solid if not spectacular encouragement, as the Tom Hooper-directed musical received eight nominations, including best picture and best actor for Hugh Jackman.
The much-talked-up surge for the record-breaking James Bond film Skyfall failed to materialise, as no major »
- Andrew Pulver
10 January 2013 1:31 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
• Lincoln leads race with 12 nominations
• Life of Pi trails with 11
• Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables each take eight, with Argo on seven
• Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty disappoint with five apiece; but joy for Amour which gets the same number
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Steven Spielberg's biopic of the 16th president of the United States continues its apparently unstoppable progress towards Oscars glory. But a surprisingly eclectic selection of Oscar nominations threw some stones in its path today.
Life of Pi, Ang Lee's adaptation of the Yann Martel Booker winner came in second with 11 nominations, four of them in major categories, while David O Russell's screwball rom-com Silver Linings Playbook won nominations in eight categories, seven of them major – with surprise nods for supporting actors Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro. Les Miserables, Tom Hooper's epic adaptation of the musical smash, also won eight, »
- Catherine Shoard, Andrew Pulver
4 January 2013 2:00 PM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »
The Oscar nominations will be announced next Thursday, January 10th. Who’s excited? Perhaps more tellingly, who’s geared up enough to wake up early to watch the press conference live? It’s at 5:30Am Pt! I’m planning on it, but I’ll probably just add another year to my tradition of sleeping through my alarm and missing all of the fun. That’s a shame, because surprises are always best in the moment. And there are always surprises. The trick is trying to predict them. Last year people were somewhat taken aback by Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close grabbing a Best Picture nomination, intrigued when Demián Bachir pulled off the nod for Best Actor, and impressed when little distributor Gkids managed to get both A Cat in Paris and Chico and Rita in for Best Animated Feature. There are also always a few omissions that upset the common wisdom. Remember »
- Daniel Walber
14 items from 2013
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