Press Releases Archive for December, 2011

Academy “Celebrates the Movies” as Poster Art Kicks Off Oscar® Campaign

“Whether it’s a first date or a holiday gathering with friends or family, movies are a big part of our memory,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. “The Academy Awards not only honor the excellence of these movies, but also celebrate what they mean to us as a culture and to each of us individually.”

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A Special Constellation Screening: “99%- The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film”

Event hosted by filmmakers to preview selections of submitted documentary footage New York, (Dec. 28, 2011) – Constellation and the producers of “99%- The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film,” a documentary made by more than 75 independent filmmakers across America about the Occupy Wall Street movement, are pleased to announce a special online preview screening…

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TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY STAR GARY OLDMAN RECEIVING 6-FILM RETROSPECTIVE IN HOLLYWOOD

THE CONTENDER, DRACULA, JFK, PRICK UP YOUR EARS, SID AND NANCY ALSO SCREEN IN FREE 3-NIGHT SERIES CO-HOSTED BY KCRW; GARY OLDMAN TO PARTICIPATE IN LIVE Q&A ON JANUARY 11th FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LOS ANGELES, December 27, 2011 – Celebrating 25 years of one actor’s unforgettable screen performances, the ArcLight Hollywood (www.arclightcinemas.com) will host a 6-film retrospective of movies…

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OSCAR NOMINATION BALLOTS MAILED TO 5,783 ACADEMY VOTERS

December 27, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Beverly Hills, CA – Nomination ballots for the 84th Academy Awards® were mailed today to the 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. PT on Friday, January 13, 2012. Ballots received after the deadline…

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97 ORIGINAL SCORES IN 2011 OSCAR RACE

December 22, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Beverly Hills, CA – Ninety-seven scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 84th Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. The eligible scores along with the composer are listed below in alphabetical order…

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Nominees for Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2011 AWFJ EDA Awards

AWFJ BEST OF AWARDS Best Film: The Artist The Descendants Hugo Melancholia Midnight in Paris Best Director: Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist Terrence Malick – Tree of Life Alexander Payne – The Descendants Martin Scorsese – Hugo Best Screenplay, Original The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius Beginners – Mike Mills…

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HYDE PARK ENTERTAINMENT, IMAGE NATION AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FILMS TO FORM JOINT VENTURE

Los Angeles, CA (December 22, 2011) — National Geographic and Image Nation are consolidating their partnership with Hyde Park/Image Nation to finance and produce a wide array of National Geographic themed entertainment projects designed for global distribution. Hyde Park will be the managing partner, and the venture will develop feature films, documentaries, and television series…

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KINO LORBER ACQUIRES KUMARÉ (2011), A DOCUMENTARY BY VIKRAM GANDHI

New York, NY – December 22, 2011 – Kino Lorber, Inc. (www.kinolorber.com) is proud to announce the acquisition of all US rights to the acclaimed and controversial doc Kumaré (2011), by director Vikram Gandhi and producers Brendan Colthurst and Bryan Carmel (all three of  Disposable Television), and executive producer Stephen Feder. After its world premiere…

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SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES WOODY ALLEN’S NERO FIDDLED

Film marks fifth collaboration with the filmmaker and Sony Classics NEW YORK (December 21, 2011) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American and UK rights to Woody Allen’s next film, NERO FIDDLED. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Produced…

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The Most Prolific Female Filmmaker You’ve Never Heard Of: NINA MENKES NY & LA FILM RETROSPECTIVES

Los Angeles: February 18 – March 7, 2011; New York: March 9-16, 2012 Anthology & UCLA Film Archives partner to celebrate the work of Nina Menkes Menkes’s latest film “Dissolution” to receive one-week theatrical run in NYC concurrent with retrospective A filmmaker who has broken cinematic ground on multiple levels and has completed six feature films…

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TRIBECA FILM AND CABLE OPERATORS CREATE UNIQUE COLLABORATION TO MARKET MOVIES-ON-DEMAND RELEASE OF EDWARD BURNS’ NEWLYWEDS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Major Cable Operators Take Pioneering, Unified Approach To Maximizing Social Media Platforms Ahead of Film’s Dec. 26 Debut Filmmaker/Actor Edward Burns to Appear in Interactive LiveStream Interview on Jan. 3 (New York, December 20, 2011) – Tribeca Film announced today in conjunction with the major cable providers a first of its kind,…

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IMAX® POSTS RECORD DECEMBER OPENING BOX OFFICE RESULTS WITH MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL

Film Breaks Record Global and Domestic Results for December Grossing $14 Million Globally and $10.5 Million Domestically Over Opening Weekend in IMAX Early Release Window Los Angeles – Dec. 20, 2011 – IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and Paramount Pictures today announced that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The IMAX Experience, earned approximately $14 million at…

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39 ORIGINAL SONGS VIE FOR OSCAR’S 2011 PLAYLIST

December 19, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Beverly Hills, CA – Thirty-nine songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 84th Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is…

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Four Additional Films Selected for the Sundance Film Festival

For Immediate Release December 19, 2011Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the selection of four additional films for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival will be January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at www.sundance.org/festival. John Cooper, Director…

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12 Feature Film Projects Selected For Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab

For Immediate Release December 16, 2011 Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute has selected 12 projects for its annual January Screenwriters Lab, an immersive, five-day (January 13-18) writers’ workshop at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Participating independent screenwriters – drawn from around the world, including the United States, China, South Africa, and Europe – will…

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FOCUS FEATURES ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATES FOR FIRST HALF OF 2012

BEING FLYNN, SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, MOONRISE KINGDOM OPENINGS SET FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW YORK, December 16, 2011 – Three previously announced Focus Features movies for 2012 release have been assigned confirmed domestic opening dates for the first half of the year. The company made the announcement today. Being Flynn…

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2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists EDA Awards Categories

With sincerest appreciation of all the great work that’s been done in film this year, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists is pleased to announce the awards categories for the 2011 EDA Awards. AWFJ BEST OF AWARDS These awards are presented to females and/or males, so please nominate accordingly. Best Film Best Director (Female or…

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THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER TO HOST A COMPLETE BÉLA TARR RETROSPECTIVE

PRESS RELEASE TARR’S FINAL FILM, THE TURIN HORSE, TO OPEN THEATRICALLY AT THE FILM SOCIETY New York, NY (December 15, 2011) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host a complete Béla Tarr retrospective titled The Last Modernist: The Complete Works of Béla Tarr from February 3-8, 2012. In advance of the U.S. Theatrical…

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IFC MIDNIGHT TAKES U.S. RIGHTS TO PADRAIG REYNOLDS’ RITES OF SPRING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY (December 15, 2011) – IFC Midnight announced today that the company is acquiring U.S. rights to director Padraig Reynolds’ thriller RITES OF SPRING. The film, with a screenplay also by Reynolds, stars A.J. Bowen, Anessa Ramsey, Sonny Marinelli, Katherine Randolf, Marco St. John, Hannah Bryan, Sarah Pachelli, James Bartz,…

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2012 Sundance Film Festival Selects Daughters of the Dust and Reality Bites for ‘From the Collection’ Screenings

For Immediate Release Park City, UT — December 14, 2011 – Sundance Institute announced today that Daughters of the Dust (1991) and Reality Bites (1994) have been selected for the From the Collection screenings at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Both titles are part of The Sundance Collection at UCLA (The Collection), a film preservation…

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Press Releases

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon