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Amid a fertile alternative music scene in the U.K., spurred on by a flurry of new independent labels, bands like Echo & the Bunnymen had to work harder to stand out from the pack. The austere, post-punk minimalism of the group’s first three albums earned them critical acclaim and a cult following, but by 1984 their sound—Joy Division as fronted by Jim Morrison, if you will—was in need of retooling. Was there space for another scrappy, dour foursome alongside more established acts like Siouxsie and the Banshees, an ascendant U2, and unique sounds from the likes of Cocteau Twins and Depeche Mode?

Echo & the Bunnymen’s fourth album, Ocean Rain, would prove to be their shining moment. The quality of the songwriting ensures its status as a classic, separating it from both the band’s more uneven earlier works and their patchy, self-titled follow-up from 1987.

It’s Ocean Rain’s maximalist sound,...

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Bryan Fogel’s work was cut out for him when he chose to direct a follow-up to Icarus, his 2017 deep dive into sports doping and the elaborate system of cheating among Russian Olympians. That film closed with a cliff-hanger. Having turned whistleblower mid-film, Grigory Rodchenkov, the architect of the state-sanctioned doping program, fled Russia and was in hiding stateside. To continue to tell his story, the challenge for Fogel lay not just in the artistic shadow cast by his vividly told Oscar winner. Complicating the making of a sequel was a crucial constraint: To protect the safety of the documentary’s central figure, Fogel wouldn’t be able to interact with him directly.

The solution was to embed a single cameraperson, producer Jake Swantko, with Rodchenkov and his security team. Tracking his life on the lam for nearly five years, Icarus: The Aftermath...

For the past six days, Doc NYC has screened numerous documentaries that shine a light on untold stories, marginalized figures and crucial history. Tomorrow, the festival comes to an end, but before it closes, the festival will screen Takuji Masuda’s new film “Bunker77,” the true story of Bunker Spreckels, Clark Gable’s stepson and heir to a sugar fortune, who lived fast and died young. A classic American rebel in the vein of James Dean and Andy Warhol, Bunker turned his back on his fortune to live a simple life out of the public eye. He pushed surfing’s boundaries by riding very short boards in Hawaii and the Jeffrey Bay in South Africa. He also mentored skateboard legend Tony Alva and collaborated with filmmaker Kenneth Anger, leaving behind a complicated, nuanced legacy. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: ‘Weiner,’ Yes; ‘The Eagle Huntress,’ No:...

At first glance, there is little about Snowden that would seem to distinguish it from some of this year’s other “I’m not sure there’s a movie in that true story” based-on-a-true-story movies like Sully and Deepwater Horizon, especially in the wake of the Wikileaks film The Fifth Estate or the exceptional documentary Citizenfour. But Snowden has a secret weapon, and it’s one that I wasn’t expecting: a fully-engaged and on-his-game Oliver Stone. And when Oliver Stone is on his game and fully engaged, there are few filmmakers who are more interesting or provocative. I have been a fan of his work for most of the time I have been a film fan, even before I knew fully who he was. I was drawn to films he had written, and when he made the jump to directing full-time with the back-to-back accomplishment of Salvador and Platoon,...

The Oscars are a little over two months away, and with so many fantastic films released throughout this year, the anticipation surrounding the announcement of the nominations next month is running on high.

So far, we’ve had the shortlists for the Best Animated Feature, the Best Visual Effects, and the Best Documentary categories.

Now the Academy has announced the list of 104 films that are eligible in the Best Original Score category, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what makes the final cut come nominations time next month.

I think Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight Rises is, hopefully, a lock, because it is amazing. I also loved James Horner’s score for The Amazing Spider-Man, but can’t decide whether or not I think it will earn a nomination.

Alexandre Desplat has three films in the running this year, with Argo, Rise of the Guardians,...

Indian composer A.R. Rahman is in the Oscar race once again for the original score at the 85thAcademy Awards. His composition for the film “”People Like Us” has found place in the long list of 104 composers vying for the nominations.

Rahman composed for the Alex Kurtzman directed “People Like Us” starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Rahman won two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 for “Slumdog Millionaire”.

104 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category.

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 10, 2013.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on February 24, 2013. The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” Henry Jackman, composer “After the Wizard,...

One hundred four scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 85th Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. As noted by various online Oscar pundits, most noticeably missing is Moonrise Kingdom. A Reminder List of works submitted in the Original Score category will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the Music Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award. Click Here for the complete rules.

In February, Ludovic Bource won the Oscar for Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) for The Artist at the 84th Academy Awards.

The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below...

As far as I'm concerned, the two most memorable scores of the year belong to Cloud Atlas and Beasts of the Southern Wild. That said, I made an egregious and unforgivable mistake when filling out my Critics' Choice nominations and forgot to include not one of them, but Both of them! Shame. I feel it. Now I have to hope my fellow Bfca members came through where I failed. However, we will discuss Critics' Choice nominations more on the upcoming episodes of the RopeofSilicon podcast, for now we're talking Oscar as the Academy has released a complete list of all 104 original scores competing for Best Original Score at the 2013 Oscars. I have not yet posted my predictions for Best Original Score and while I am making a fuss above concerning Cloud Atlas and Beasts of the Southern Wild, I think both of those stand a very strong chance at a nomination this year.

So, it's summer, and what better season is there for lighting one up, throwing on some chill tunes and whiling away a lazy weekend? While we officially don't condone those sorts of activities, unofficially we might, but either way, if you need to re-up your stash you might track down a couple of laid back bros like Ben and Chon in Oliver Stone's "Savages." Though hopefully, you won't get caught in the crossfire. Squaring off against a Mexican cartel looking to take over their turf, their shared girlfriend O is kidnapped, raising the stakes, and needless to say the results are explosive. And, the tunes on the soundtrack are equally fiery.

M. Ward, Bob Dylan, Peter Tosh (guess which song?), Massive Attack, Cut Copy and more promise to keep things moving in this pretty solid collection of tunes, while Bruce Lash offers up a super chilled over of Talking Heads...