Just 3.6% of 2018's top films were directed by women. FOUR women.

According to a new @Inclusionists report, between 2007-2018 — across 1,200 films + 1,335 directors — men outnumbered women in the director’s chair by a ratio of 22:1 https://t.co/N5VxGbZ9SN https://t.co/N5VxGbZ9SN pic.twitter.com/HPDkm6o2C7

— jen yamato (@jenyamato) January 4, 2019

bing liu's minding the gap and the mountain goats' "this year" are spiritual soulmates and when they married during the end credits I lost my shit

— meredith (@merestam) January 3, 2019

Happy 79th Birthday to triple Oscar-winner Thelma Schoonmaker, the nimble, artful editor of every Martin Scorsese movie since 1980's Raging Bull. "Editing is a lot about patience and discipline and just banging away at something until you get it to work." pic.twitter.com/DUAwA0QKLA

— Marshall Julius (@MarshallJulius) January 3, 2019

Brazil, Bolsonaro, Day 1:

– The Ministry of Culture has been dissolved;
– The Ministry of Agriculture is now responsible for indigenous land demarcation;
– The minimum wage has been lowered;
– The quota for Brazilian films in theaters has not been renewed;
(Continues)

— Fábio Andrade (@fabcandrade) January 2, 2019

“Do not forget that it is your job to highlight what is important and memorable and unique, whether good or bad, and to dash the rest to the rocks”: Here’s the advice that I’ve sent to new writers during my years editing film pieces at the Village Voice https://t.co/iw6QTR8G1m

— Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap) January 2, 2019

Thirty-Seven 2018 FYC Screenplay PDFs

“Serious movie buffs are more visible and engaged with the medium than ever before. From Twitter to Letterboxd, discourse on movies percolates in broader, deeper ways unthinkable 15 years ago. While the death of FilmStruck devastated engaged subscribers, committed viewers know how to seek out unique viewing experiences online, in their hometowns, or on the road. The metrics for audience engagement have become too fragmented to assess as a singular entity; cinephilia exists in multitudes. The phone or theater debate is a red herring: Theaters will survive the next decade, even as they become a more rarified option. Whether or not they remain the ideal outlet runs secondary to what moviegoers choose to watch at all.”

“We started with a lot of details—what would be on the table where they eat, or what the children would be playing with in free time. From that, we would  build everything up. It was a delicious process. What was beautiful was that from the moment we started to talk, Alfonso had made an exercise of memory for a long time, so he had a lot of strength in that muscle. But then after the conversations that he had with his family, those memories got stronger, and changed and evolved.”

Christoph Huber On Burt Reynolds, “Neglected Filmmaker”

Vanity Fair Cover-Stories Laura Dern

“Guardians Of Chicago’s Uptown Theatre Fended Off Fires, Rainwater, Rodents, Vandals, Thieves and Squatters”

Richard Lorber on Building a Sustainable Home for Classics of the Past and Future at Kino Lorber

R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever.

— Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) January 2, 2019

Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes.

— Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019

Oh no no no no no no no no no. Bob Einstein dead? No. Some people need to never die. He was one of them. Truly one of the funniest people to ever exist. Sorry for you loss @AlbertBrooks . RIP Bob.

— Bob Saenz (@BobSnz) January 2, 2019

Looking forward to beginning a healthy 2019. Health and prosperity to everyone. pic.twitter.com/cNLbgTrarP

— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) January 1, 2019

“Watching a film with motion blur is heartbreaking because it looks like moving plastic sludge. Digital has plasticity even at the top end [that] we’re all working to break it down or to add texture. So we shoot with old lenses. But the worst thing of all is just intuitively, if you aren’t a tech person, and you just happen to watch something, experientially and emotionally there is an alienating effect. It’s diminished in its power to reach you. To me, that’s the biggest heartbreak of all—audiences are being duped. Other forces have taken over and are not addressing the fundamental issue of maintaining quality.”
Directors Tackle Motion Smoothing

On New Year’s, Long Day’s Journey Into Night grossed $38.81 million in China.

So here’s the insanely awesome Chinese trailer for Long Day’s Journey Into Night aka 地球最后的夜晚 a movie I feel is a masterpiece, the trailer that made it some kind of miraculous sensation on New Year’s Eve. pic.twitter.com/yI08qfFzzJ

— Aaron Stewart-Ahn (@somebadideas) December 31, 2018

“Nearly all superhero movies glorify wealth, aristocracy and/or monarchy, militarism, unilateralism and rightwing fantasies about criminality. You might object to this harsh critique of America’s most beloved (and profitable) film genre. After all, aren’t these films little more than harmless summer popcorn movies? Not really. Superhero films are billion-dollar spectacles and marketing bonanzas, with spin-offs, product tie-ins, video games and toy lines. Impressionable children come to identify with the archetype of the ultra-unique, mercenary hero, unilaterally deciding what is right and wrong. Just as worryingly, some children and adults are only exposed to global politics by what happens within the confines of action films.”

James Quandt on “China’s Lower Depths”: Wang Bing’s Dead Souls