By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Responding To The John Horn Piece In The LA Times Today
Besides the factual inaccuracy about Paramount and Universal "declining" to participate, here is what I have to say:
Kinsey
Sideways
The Incredibles
Born Into Brothels
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
The Sea Inside
Beyond The Sea
Phantom of the Opera
Alexander
Closer
House of Flying Daggers
The Aviator
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Love Song For Bobby Long
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
No one could ask for a finer list of films to have shown.
Thanks to Fox Searchlight, Disney, IFC, ThinkFilm, New Line/Fine Line, Lions Gate, Warner Bros, Columbia, Sony Classics, Miramax and Paramount for their participation in the screening series… and for paying the cost of renting the theater.
Also, thanks to the studios that did not have films in the series this year, but that made the effort to try to make dates work, even when they ultimately could not.
And to the volunteer staff, who came out week after week to mkae sure things ran smoothly with no promise of anything but a hand shake and a thank you.
And of course, to Bill Condon, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, John Walker, Craig T. Nelson, Xan Cassavetes, Kevin Spacey, Joel Schumacher, Jared Leto, Colin Farrell, Rosario Dawson, John Logan, Graham King, Brad Silberling, Billy Connolly, Bill Corso, Colleen Atwood, Cheryl Carasik, John Travolta, Scarlet Johannson, Gabriel Macht and Deborah Kira Unger for coming out and sharing their time, their humor and their insights with fellow members of the industry.
It was, indeed, one of the most fun events on the awards season calendar, week in, week out.
That is a monster list of good films. What films did you want that you couldn’t get, Dave?
The LA Times, as all of us that live in Southern California are well aware has the worst industry reporting of any newspaper so it’s no surprise when something like this happens. Isn’t Horn one of the reporters Tribune brought in from one of their other properties?
As an awards-related event, one would clearly like to get all the serious contenders. But we were very specific about our dates going in and it didn’t always work out.
The great get would have been Million Dollar Baby on Nov 29. So much of the experience of that film is seeing it fresh and without any expectations. To offer that would have been one of the many highlights of this year.
I have to say, last night, seeing the pride of John Travolta and Scarlett Johnasson, who really drove the film into existance with her mom, was fantastic.
Next year, one of my key interests is in making more slots for docs and foreign language films. They desevre it and audiences love them. To do this, we will need a presenting sponsor who is willing to lay out a decent amount of cash, but that is always possible. I would far prefer that studios pay nothing, whether for big movies or small.
I heard about Born into Brothels on NPR last week and it sounds fantastic.
For non-Angelenos, I guess it’s good they hide Horn’s pissiness behind a (subscription) wall.
really top notch selections
Somewhere lost in this discussion is the main thrust of Horn’s piece: That the BFCA is attempting to become the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is fine. Who cares? But Horn examines the membership of the group and find their credentials to be even more suspect and compromised than those of the much vilified HFPA.
seeking film i watched on z channel but cant remember the name…are monthly program guides available…thanks