Press Releases Archive for December, 2016

Alamo Drafthouse Sets Nationwide “Lightsaber Vigils” For Carrie Fisher

[PR] Fearless princess. Wry, quick-witted scribe. Hollywood icon. Yesterday we lost our beloved Carrie Fisher, and to honor her immense legacy, Alamo Drafthouse is inviting Jedis to join us for some special lightsaber vigils.   Here’s a list of Drafthouse locations where you can pay respects to the dearly-departed Ms. Fisher: — Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar (Austin,…

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Indiana Film Journalists Vote

Indiana Film Journalists Association names “Moonlight” Best Film of 2016   “Moonlight” has been named the Best Film of 2016 by the Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA). The sensitive portrait of an African-American boy struggling as he grows to manhood in Miami and comes to grips with his sexuality, the drama won a total of…

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2016 StLFCA Award Winners

[Winners Announced December 18, 2016.] Best Film: La La Land Best Director: Damien Chazelle – La La Land Best Actor: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert – Elle Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali – Moonlight Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis – Fences Best Original Screenplay: Hell or High Water –…

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28th PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FESTIVAL LINE-UP

[PR] The festival’s opening night will be the World Premiere screening of The Sense of an Ending, directed by Ritesh Batra on Thursday, January 5.  The festival will close with The Comedian, directed by Taylor Hackford on Sunday, January 15. The Festival will screen 190 films from 72 countries, including 58 premieres (9 World, 5…

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9 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS ADVANCE IN OSCAR RACE

60th anniversary of the Foreign Language Film Category     LOS ANGELES, CA – Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 89th Academy Awards®.  Eighty-five films had originally been considered in the category. The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are: Australia, “Tanna,”…

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With 25 New Titles, National Film Registry Reaches 700

“Thelma & Louise,” “The Birds,” “Blackboard Jungle” Among Film Titles.

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Field of Vision and Firelight Media Producing Doc Shorts Series “Our 100 Days”

Initiative Will Commission and Distribute Short Films Series Reacting to  Trump’s Election December 14, 2016 – NEW YORK, NY – Today, Firelight Media and Field of Vision announce “Our 100 Days” a new initiative that will produce and distribute 10 short films to be released in 2017. “Our 100 Days” will explore threats to U.S….

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91 Original Songs Tune Up For Oscar

91 ORIGINAL SONGS VIE FOR 2016 OSCAR® LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 91 songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2016 are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 89th Academy Awards®. The original songs, along with the motion picture…

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New York Online Film Critics Bask In Moonlight

  PICTURE Moonlight DIRECTOR Barry Jenkins for Moonlight ACTOR Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea ACTRESS Isabelle Huppert for Elle   SUPPORTING ACTOR Mahershala Ali for Moonlight   SUPPORTING ACTRESS Viola Davis for Fences   SCREENPLAY Barry Jenkins for Moonlight   BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER Ruth Negga for Loving DEBUT DIRECTOR Robert Eggers for The Witch…

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Writers Guild West President Howard Rodman On Trump Attack On “Working Men And Women”

    December 8, 2016 Chuck Jones is President of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents the workers of the Carrier plants in Indiana. This week he spoke out about the much-publicized deal to keep over a thousand jobs from moving to Mexico, calling it a promise “half-way delivered.” He pointed out a truer set of numbers:…

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Sundance Sets 68 Shorts

Sixty-eight short films, announced today, will complement the lineup of longer fare at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The short film slate aligns thematically with other Festival categories, including Midnight and The New Climate, the Festival’s new programming strand highlighting climate change and the environment. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City…

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15 DOCUMENTARY FEATURES ADVANCE IN 2016 OSCAR® RACE

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 89th Academy Awards®.  One hundred forty-five films were originally submitted in the category. The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their…

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Sundance 2017 Sets Premieres, Doc Premieres, Midnight

Sundance Institute announces the lineup for Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Midnight, Spotlight, Kids and Special Events. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 19-29. Three projects announced today are part of The New Climate, the Festival’s new environmental program: Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman(Documentary Premieres), Look & See: A…

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Los Angeles Film Critics List 2016 Winners

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British Independent Film Awards 2016 Announced

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Oscar Advances 20 VFX Contenders

20 films are in the running.

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Sundance Announces New Frontier, Including Work By Jem Cohen, Travis Wilkerson, Terence Nance And Nonny de la Peña

Now in its second decade of breaking new ground at the forefront of art and technology, Sundance Institute has curated an in-depth vision of storytelling’s future for the 2017 edition of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival, January 19-29 in Park City. The full slate — including storyworlds in Augmented Reality headsets, projection-mapped acrobatics,…

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NOMINATIONS FOR THE 22ND ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS

FILM NOMINATIONS FOR THE 22ND ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS   BEST PICTURE Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water La La Land Lion Loving Manchester by the Sea Moonlight Sully   BEST ACTOR Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea Joel Edgerton – Loving Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge Ryan Gosling – La La…

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Annapurna Interactive Launches

[PR] Annapurna Pictures, the production company behind ZERO DARK THIRTY, HER, and SAUSAGE PARTY, has expanded its operations with the creation of Annapurna Interactive, a division entirely dedicated to producing and publishing video games. Annapurna Interactive will focus on developing personal, emotional, and original games that push the boundaries of interactive content and encourage artists to bring…

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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