Press Releases Archive for February, 2017

Directors Of The Five Nominated Foreign-Language Films Make A Statement

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Statement by all Nominated Directors, 2017 On behalf of all nominees, we would like to express our unanimous and emphatic disapproval of the climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the U.S. and in so many other countries, in parts of the population and, most unfortunately…

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Added Oscar Presenters: Aniston, Bateman, Beatty, Damon, Dunaway, Gosling, Hayek, Henson, Patel, Rogen, Spencer, Streep And Vince Vaughn

[PR] LOS ANGELES, CA – Oscar® producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd announced the final slate of presenters for the 89th Oscars® telecast. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars will air live Sunday, February 26, on the ABC Television Network. The presenters, including past Oscar winners and nominees, are Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Warren…

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Academy Announces $250,000 Gift From Walmart For Outreach

[PR]  LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today a $250,000 gift from Walmart to the Academy Foundation in support of the organization’s educational and outreach initiatives.  Walmart, a Proud Sponsor of the 89th Oscars®, continues its commitment to encourage and support emerging talent in the film community. The…

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“Women In Film, Sundance Institute and 50 Hollywood Leaders Launch ReFrame to Create Sustainable Gender Equity in Film And Television”

Suggested Tweet: 50 Hollywood leaders join @sundanceorg & @womeninfilm to launch ReFrame to create gender equity in film, TV & media (insert link here) Los Angeles, CA — Fifty Hollywood leaders and influencers, including studio heads, agency partners, senior network executives, talent and guild representatives brought together by Women In Film and Sundance Institute today announce the launch…

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Cinema Audio Society Awards For Outstanding Sound Mixing

  Los Angeles, February 18 – The Cinema Audio Society Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing Motion Picture – Live Action was presented to the sound mixing team of Steven Morrow, CAS, Andy Nelson, CAS, Ai Ling Lee, Nicholai Baxter, David Betancourt, and James Ashwill for “La La Land”. Director Damien Chazelle was on hand to…

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True/False Film Fest Awards Claire Simon Its True Vision Award

[PR] The True/False Film Fest is proud to announce that Claire Simon will receive this year’s True Vision Award in honor of her achievement in and contribution to the field of nonfiction filmmaking. True Vision is the only award given out at the fest. Simon is the 14th recipient of this honor. Last year, the…

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Oscar Adds Presenters Amy Adams, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem, John Cho, Dwayne Johnson, Felicity Jones, Dwayne Johnson, Felicity Jones, Leslie Mann, Janelle Monáe, David Oyelowo, Emma Stone, Charlize Theron

[PR] LOS ANGELES, CA – Producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd today announced the third slate of presenters for the 89th Oscars. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars will air live Sunday, February 26, on the ABC Television Network. The presenters, including past Oscar winners and nominees, are Amy Adams, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem, John…

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New Directors/New Films Announces 46th Annual Lineup

[PR] New York, NY (February 15, 2017) – The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announce the complete lineup for the 46th annual New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), March 15-26. Since 1972, the festival has been an annual rite of early spring in New York City, bringing exciting discoveries from around…

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Oscar 89 Names Production Team

89th OSCARS® PRODUCTION TEAM ANNOUNCED Over 75 Years of Combined Oscars Telecast Experience LOS ANGELES, CA — Producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd today announced eight key members of the production team for the 89th Oscars®, which will air live on Sunday, February 26, on ABC. It was previously announced that Glenn Weiss would…

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True/False Film Fest And Kickstarter Will Provide Childcare To Visiting Filmmakers, Artists And Musicians

FEBRUARY 10, 2017 True/False Film Fest TRUE/FALSE and KICKSTARTER ANNOUNCE NEW CHILD CARE INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT FAMILIES IN FILM Visiting artists will have access to free daycare during the four-day festival In 2017, True/False Film Fest is partnering with Kickstarter to expand its staff childcare initiative to include visiting filmmakers, artists, and musicians. True/False will…

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Lin-Manuel Miranda, Auli’i Cravalho, Sting, Justin Timberlake, John Legend To Perform For Oscar

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, AULI’I CRAVALHO, STING, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND JOHN LEGEND TO PERFORM THIS YEAR’S NOMINATED SONGS AT THE OSCARS® LOS ANGELES, CA – Oscar® nominees Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sting, Justin Timberlake and 2014 Oscar winner John Legend will perform at the 89th Oscars® ceremony, show producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd announced today. Hosted by…

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Here’s The 2017 True/False Film Fest Lineup

Columbia, Missouri – The True/False Film Fest is proud to announce the list of 37 feature films included in its 2017 program. Each of these selections meet the traditional notions of nonfiction cinema head on, expanding the boundaries of the form and inviting audiences to be challenged, inspired, and entertained. These films were selected from…

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True/False Film Fest Announces Its 2017 “Provocateurs”

With generous support from the Ford Foundation, True/False presents its second year of Provocations: a curated selection of incendiary thinkers. These whip-smart presenters will appear before feature films, injecting a mini “ideas-fest” into True/False, offering challenging ideas in five-minute blasts. These five individuals stand ready to rearrange worldviews with the power of their words: Destiny…

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ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MEL GIBSON AND VINCE VAUGHN TO STAR IN S. CRAIG ZAHLER’S “DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE”

LOS ANGELES (February 1, 2017) –– Academy Award® Winner Mel Gibson (Braveheart) and Vince Vaughn (Hacksaw Ridge, Wedding Crashers) will star in Dragged Across Concrete, written and to be directed by S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk).  The film will mark another production for Keith Kjarval of Unified Pictures and financed by the recently announced Unified…

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Production Begins On Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson 2017

[PR] Production has begun in the U.K. on writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled new film (under the working title “Phantom Thread”). Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis is joined in the cast by Lesley Manville, who was a BAFTA Award nominee for Best Actress for Another Year, and Vicky Krieps whose films include A Most Wanted…

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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