Press Releases Archive for December, 2014

Sony’s Statement On VOD Release Of The Interview On Google, YouTube And Xbox

Sony Pictures To Distribute “The Interview” Online Beginning Christmas Eve Through Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and Dedicated Website Film To Be Widely Available On Demand Throughout The United States [Culver City, CA – December 24, 2014] Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that The Interview will be available online across the United States starting…

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Tim League’s Statement About Alamo Drafthouse And That Now-Arthouse Sony Picture

STATEMENT FROM ALAMO: Alamo Drafthouse will be playing THE INTERVIEW at multiple locations. Specific theaters and showtimes are currently being determined. Follow @Drafthouse for further announcements. “We cannot imagine the pressures that have been affecting Sony, at all levels of the organization they have been under attack. Amidst this unwarranted chaos, they have regrouped and…

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9 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS ADVANCE IN OSCAR® RACE

LOS ANGELES, CA – Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Eighty-three films had originally been considered in the category. The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are: Argentina, “Wild Tales,” Damián Szifrón, director; Estonia, “Tangerines,” Zaza Urushadze, director; Georgia,…

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Sundance Institute Announces Jury Members For 2015 Sundance Film Festival

Tig Notaro to Host Closing Night Awards Ceremony, Live Streamed January 31 at sundance.org Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The Festival is the centerpiece of the year-round public programs…

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Sundance Sets Shorts

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES SHORT FILM PROGRAM FOR 2015 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the program of short films selected to screen at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The 2015 Short Film program is comprised…

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Sundance 2015 Adds Events

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ADDS FILMS, EVENTS AND NEW FRONTIER INSTALLATIONS FOR 2015 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today announced the addition of 10 films, events and New Frontier installations to the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The Festival is is the centerpiece of…

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The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Nominations

“BIRDMAN” LEADS WITH THIRTEEN NOMINATIONS FOR THE BROADCAST FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION’S 20TH ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS   “THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” AND “BOYHOOD” ALSO TOP CONTENDERS WITH ELEVEN AND EIGHT NOMINATIONS RESPECTIVELY   KEVIN COSTNER, RON HOWARD AND JESSICA CHASTAIN WILL EACH RECEIVE SPECIAL AWARDS DURING THE CEREMONY   SHOW WILL BROADCAST LIVE ON…

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114 ORIGINAL SCORES IN 2014 OSCAR® RACE

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 114 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2014 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 87th Oscars®. The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in alphabetical order by film title: “American Revolutionary: The Evolution…

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79 ORIGINAL SONGS VIE FOR 2014 OSCAR

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 79 songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2014 are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 87th Oscars®. The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order…

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IN CASE OF NO EMERGENCY: RETROSPECTIVE OF THE FILMS OF RUBEN ÖSTLUND

FIRST MAJOR TOURING RETROSPECTIVE OF FILMMAKER’S CAREER TRAVELING TO 15 CITIES  RETROSPECTIVE FEATURES 2 U.S. PREMIERES, AND WEEKLONG RUNS IN NY OF CRITICALLY  ACCLAIMED MOVIES “PLAY”AND”INVOLUNTARY” AND SPECIAL SCREENING OF THE GOLDEN GLOBE-NOMINATED, ACADEMY AWARDS CONTENDER “FORCE MAJEURE”   New York, NY (December 12, 2014) – Comeback Company announced today “In Case of No Emergency:  The Films of…

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323 FEATURE FILMS IN CONTENTION FOR 2014 BEST PICTURE OSCAR

323 feature films are eligible for the 2014 Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. To be eligible for 87th Academy Awards consideration, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by midnight, December 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days. Under…

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Golden Globes Nominations 2015

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA BOYHOOD IFC Productions and Detour Filmproduction; IFC Films FOXCATCHER Annapurna Pictures; Sony Pictures Classic THE IMITATION GAME Black Bear Pictures; The Weinstein Company SELMA Paramount Pictures and Pathé; Paramount Pictures THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Working Title Films; Focus Features BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA…

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Neil Patrick Harris’ Oscar Writing Team Named

> Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron today announced the special material writing team for the 87th Oscars, which will air live on Oscar Sunday, February 22, 2015, on ABC. Host Neil Patrick Harris will lead the special material writing team alongside head writer Dave Boone.  Boone, a veteran of eight Oscar telecasts, won two Emmys® for his work on…

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21st ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS NOMINATIONS

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role STEVE CARELL / John du Pont – “FOXCATCHER” (Sony Pictures Classics) BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing – “THE IMITATION GAME” (The Weinstein Company) JAKE GYLLENHAAL / Louis Bloom – “NIGHTCRAWLER” (Open Road Films) MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan – “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)…

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Bahamas International Film Festival Hosts Tribute To Chaz Ebert

Together, she and husband Roger Ebert have opened doors to diverse critics, filmmakers HARBOUR ISLAND, Bahamas, December 9, 2014 – Chaz Ebert, president and CEO of The Ebert Companies and publisher of movie review siteRogerebert.com, will be honored Saturday for her contributions to the cinematic world at the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF). A tribute to Chaz Ebert will…

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Cinema Eye Honors Announces 2015 Heterodox Award Nominees

Honoring Fiction Films that Blur the Line December 8, 2014, New York City, NY – The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking today announced the five nominees for its annual Cinema Eye Heterodox Award, sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine, a publication of IFP. The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award honors a narrative fiction film that imaginatively incorporates…

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2015 Sundance Premieres And Doc Premieres Announced

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FILMS IN PREMIERES AND DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES FOR 2015 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEW ‘SPECIAL EVENTS’ SECTION AND TWO ‘POWER OF STORY’ PANELS ANNOUNCED Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the films selected to screen in the out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres sections, as well as the selections for a new Special…

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Sundance Announces Premieres And Doc Premieres

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FILMS IN PREMIERES AND DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES FOR 2015 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEW ‘SPECIAL EVENTS’ SECTION AND TWO ‘POWER OF STORY’ PANELS ANNOUNCED Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the films selected to screen in the out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres sections, as well as the selections for a new Special…

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CITIZENFOUR Takes Best Feature At IDA Documentary Awards

 Winners in the International Documentary Association’s 2014 IDA Documentary Awards were announced during tonight’s program at the Paramount Theatre, giving Laura Poitras’s CITIZENFOUR top honors with the Best Feature Award. The third in a trilogy about post 9/11 America, CITIZENFOUR reveals the disturbing level of surveillance of civilians through whistleblower Edward Snowden and others. Also…

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Oscar Reduces VFX Candidates To Ten With No Surprises

10 CONTENDERS REMAIN IN VFX OSCAR® RACE   LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 87th Oscars®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” “Dawn of the Planet…

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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