Press Releases Archive for August, 2016

Oscar Stays At ABC Until At Least 2028

ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that they have expanded their agreement for eight more years, in which the Network will remain home to the Oscars®, Hollywood’s biggest entertainment ceremony of the year, through 2028. The new agreement for the domestic network of the Academy Awards® adds eight years…

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Academy Announces 2016 Student Academy Award Winners

The Academy has voted 17 students as winners of the 43rd Student Academy Awardscompetition. The Academy received a record number of entries this year – 1,749 films from 286 domestic and 95 international colleges and universities – which were voted by a record number of Academy members.  The 2016 winners join the ranks of such past…

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52nd Chicago Int’l Film Fest Announces First Round Of Attractions, Including Bogdanovich And McQueen Salutes

Peter Bogdanovich, Steve McQueen to be honored at 52nd Chicago International Film Festival First round of selected films, events announced in advance of October festival Chicago (August 25, 2016) – The Chicago International Film Festival today announces the first film selections to be featured at the 52nd edition, October 13-27. Additionally announced is Peter Bogdanovich…

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Mann, Pacino And De Niro Present HEAT at the Academy with Chris Nolan

ONLY AT THE ACADEMY:  MICHAEL MANN, AL PACINO AND ROBERT DE NIRO TOGETHER FOR “HEAT” Director Christopher Nolan to Moderate Q&A LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy celebrates Michael Mann’s 1995 classic, “Heat,” on the big screen onWednesday, September 7, at 7:00 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills with a new 4K…

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Ang Lee’s Immersive New Feature To Be Centerpiece Of NYFF

“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk “astonished me, and it moved me deeply—in the grandest way”

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BFCA Moves “Critics Choice” Awards To Dec 11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE ‘22ND ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS’ WILL KICK OFF AWARD SEASON HONORING THE BEST IN FILM AND TELEVISION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11TH AT 8PM ET/5PM PT ON A&E T.J. MILLER TO RETURN AS HOST OF THREE-HOUR SHOW New York, NY—August 18, 2016 –A&E Network, home of the Critics’ Choice Awards for the past two…

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STATEMENT REGARDING THE PASSING OF FORMER ACADEMY PRESIDENT ARTHUR HILLER

STATEMENT REGARDING THE PASSING OF FORMER ACADEMY PRESIDENT ARTHUR HILLER   LOS ANGELES, CA – Oscar®-nominated director and former Academy president Arthur Hiller died today in Los Angeles of natural causes.  He was 92. “We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved friend Arthur Hiller,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.  “I was a…

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Sony Pictures Classics Consummates Entire Almodóvar Film Library

Almodóvar’s 20th film, JULIETA, will be released in theaters on December 21.

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Nate Parker & Co. Set Fellowship For Young Filmmakers

The Sundance Institute | The Birth of a Nation Fellowship

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THE ACADEMY ANNOUNCES 2016 FILM SCHOLARS  GRANT RECIPIENTS

Dr. Donna Kornhaber and Dr. Ellen Christine Scott have been named 2016 Academy Film Scholars

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New York Film Fest Announces Main Slate

25 features include new films from Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Alain Guiraudie, Eugène Green, Mia Hansen-Løve, Hong Sangsoo, Jim Jarmusch, Barry Jenkins, Pablo Larraín, Ken Loach, Kenneth Lonergan, Alison Maclean, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Cristian Mungiu, Matías Piñeiro, Cristi Puiu, Kelly Reichardt, Gianfranco Rosi, Dash Shaw, and Paul Verhoeven New…

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TIFF ’16 Doc Titles Announced

For a full pdf of the release, click here NEWS RELEASE. TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL DOCUMENTARY LINEUP HIGHLIGHTS VIBRANT REAL-LIFE CHARACTERS Slate includes films on Leonardo DiCaprio, Amanda Knox, Jane Jacobs, James Baldwin, John Coltrane and the “6th Beatle” TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival’s 2016 documentary programme presents a diverse collection of works…

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Cheryl Boone Isaacs Elected To Fourth Academy Term

LOS ANGELES, CA – Cheryl Boone Isaacs was re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (August 2) by the organization’s Board of Governors. Also elected to officer positions by the Board: Jeffrey Kurland, First Vice President (chair, Awards and Events Committee) John Bailey, Vice President (chair, Preservation and History…

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Critics Choice Documentary Awards Debut In November

Critics’ Choice is announcing its first ever award ceremony solely dedicated to giving recognition to those in the documentary world

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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