Press Releases Archive for December, 2015

BRYAN CRANSTON TO RECEIVE SPOTLIGHT AWARD, ACTOR AT 27th ANNUAL PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS GALA

[PR] Palm Springs, CA (December 29, 2015) – The 27th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present Bryan Cranston with the Spotlight Award, Actor at its annual Awards Gala.  The Gala will also present awards to previously announced honorees Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Michael Fassbender, Brie Larson, Rooney Mara, Tom McCarthy, Saoirse Ronan…

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10 VFX Oscar Contenders Remain

[PR] The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Ant-Man” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” “Ex Machina” “Jurassic World” “Mad Max: Fury Road” “The Martian” “The Revenant” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” “Tomorrowland” “The Walk” The Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist.  All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited…

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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 88th Academy Awards®.  Eighty films had originally been considered in the category. The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are: Belgium, “The Brand New Testament,” Jaco Van Dormael, director; Colombia, “Embrace of…

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112 Original Scores Qualify For Oscar; Morricone Makes The Cut; Revenant Renounced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 112 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2015 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 88th Academy Awards®. The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in alphabetical order by film title: “Adult Beginners,” Marcelo…

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7 FEATURES ADVANCE IN RACE FOR MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING OSCAR

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in competition in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 88th Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Black Mass” “Concussion” “Legend” “Mad Max: Fury Road” “Mr. Holmes” “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared”…

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305 Features Qualify For Oscar

Three hundred five feature films are eligible for the 2015 Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. To be eligible for 88th 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…

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Indiana Film Journalists Ass’n Points Spotlight

  “Spotlight,” a drama exploring the Boston Globe’s investigation of widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests, was named Best Film of 2015 by the Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA).   “Room,” an adaption of the best-selling novel about a woman raising her young son inside a solitary room, won runner-up in the best film race….

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Critics Choice Awards Nominations 2015

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD LEADS WITH 13 NOMINATIONS FOR THE 21ST ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS CAROL, THE MARTIAN, AND THE REVENANT ALSO TOP CONTENDERS WITH NINE NOMINATIONS EACH ABC AND HBO LEAD WITH 14 TELEVISION NOMINATIONS EACH FARGO LEADS ALL SERIES WITH EIGHT TELEVISION NOMINATIONS   AWARDS GALA WILL BROADCAST LIVE ON A&E, LIFETIME AND…

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74 Original Songs Submitted For Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 74 songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2015 are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 88th Academy Awards®. The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical…

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THE LOOK OF SILENCE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING IN INDONESIA

DRAFTHOUSE FILMS, PARTICIPANT MEDIA, VHX & FILMMAKERS COLLABORATE TO MAKETHE LOOK OF SILENCE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING IN INDONESIA To Encourage Truth, Justice And Reconciliation, The Year’s Most Critically Acclaimed Documentary Will Be Made Available In Indonesia For Free December 9, 2015 – To commemorate International Human Rights Day on December 10, the…

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Alamo Drafthouse And Annapurna Pictures To Preserve Archive Of SF’s Shuttered Le Video

San Francisco, CA – December 9, 2015 – Following the closing of San Francisco neighborhood video store and archive Le Video in November, it was announced today that Alamo Drafthouse founder and CEO Tim League along with Academy Award-nominated producer Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Pictures have arranged for the preservation of the Le Video…

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SAG Nominates…

Nominations Announced for the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ————————————————————————————————————– Ceremony will be Simulcast Live on Saturday, January 30, 2016 on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT) LOS ANGELES (Dec. 9, 2015) – Nominees for the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding individual, cast and ensemble performances in film…

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Slamdance 2016 Rounds Out Its Slate

“daring new filmmaking from four continents”

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20 Contenders Advance Toward Oscar Visual Effects

20 CONTENDERS ADVANCE IN VFX OSCAR® RACE LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 20 films are in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 88th Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Ant-Man” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” “Bridge of Spies” “Chappie”…

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SUNDANCE INSTITUTE COMPLETES FEATURE FILM LINEUP FOR 2016 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance Kids and Special Events: Bright Stars, New Stories and Fest Favorites Round Out Robust Festival Program Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today completed its feature film lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival with the highly anticipated narratives, documentaries, episodic work and events in the Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance…

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New York Online Film Critics Also Shine SPOTLIGHT

New York Film Critics Online members held their annual awards meeting onDecember 6, 2015, at the Furman Gallery inside Lincoln Center. The following awards were voted for films that opened in 2015: PICTURE: Spotlight (Open Road) DIRECTOR: Tom McCarthy, Spotlight (Open Road) SCREENPLAY: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight (Open Road) ACTRESS: Brie Larson, Room (A24)…

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LAFCA Chromes Up For Fury Road With Director, Cinematography And Design, But Best Pic And Screenplay Shine On Spotlight

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCE 2015 AWARD WINNERS LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 6, 2015 – “Spotlight” won for Best Picture of the Year, it was announced today by Stephen Farber, President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA). “I am very pleased that our group selected a wide range of films, from big studio blockbusters…

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THE BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES FOURTH ANNUAL AWARDS

THE BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES FOURTH ANNUAL AWARDS December 5, 2015 (Boston, MA) -The Boston Online Film Critics Association have chosen their winners for 2015. Awards were selected via a system of online voting and announced on their website at www.bofca.com. After spirited and competitive voting, the recipients of the Fourth Annual BOFCA…

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Sundance 2016 Announces New Frontier Attractions

Sundance Institute Celebrates New Frontier 10th Anniversary with Exhibition of New Work at 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Mobile Virtual Reality Experiences, Events at MoMA and Walker Art Center 30 Virtual Reality Experiences, 11 Installations, Three Feature Films and One Live Performance Selected for New Frontier at 2016 Festival Slithering Screens Exhibition to Premiere at MoMA in April; Walker Art…

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Ira Deutchman Donates Personal Archive On Indie Film To U Mich

(press release) The University of Michigan Library will welcome the papers of another maverick to their growing collection of material that highlights visionaries in the genre of independent film. Ira Deutchman announced Dec. 2 at the Lincoln Center in New York that he will donate his entire archive to U-M’s Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers collection….

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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