Press Releases

Academy Shortlists Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Visual Effects

[pr] LOS ANGELES, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced shortlists in consideration for the 91st Oscars in nine categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film and Visual Effects. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Fifteen films…

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Post-Les Moonves, CBS Grants Producers Guild $2 Million To “Combat Sexual Harassment in the Entertainment Industry”

[pr]  LOS ANGELES (December 14, 2018) — The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today that its charitable arm, the Producers Guild of America Foundation 501(c)(3), has received a grant of $2 million from CBS in support of its landmark new program, the “Independent Production Safety Initiative,” which will provide free anti-sexual harassment training and legal consultation for independent…

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Sundance Institute Announces 2019 January Screenwriters Lab Fellows

Los Angeles, CA — Fifteen screenwriters from countries including the U.S., Lebanon, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom will bring twelve projects to the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, taking place January 18-23, 2019 at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. The Lab provides an immersive environment that encourages all participants to embrace a spirit of…

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Academy Awards Go To Nine Scientific and Technical Achievements

9 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS TO BE HONORED WITH ACADEMY AWARDS® Curtis Clark to receive John A. Bonner Award LOS ANGELES, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that nine scientific and technical achievements represented by 27 individual award recipients will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation…

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African American Film Critics Association Announces Awards And Top Ten Films

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (AAFCA) ANNOUNCES ITS AWARD WINNERS AND  TOP TEN FILMS OF THE YEAR BLACK PANTHER wins three awards including Best Film, Best Director (Ryan Coogler) and Best Song John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman”), Regina Hall (“Support the Girls”), Russell Hornsby (“The Hate U Give”), Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”)…

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Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Nod Roma as Best Film, Cinematography and Foreign Film

December 8, 2018 PHILADELPHIA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE NAMES ROMA THE BEST FILM OF 2018  Philadelphia, PA- The Philadelphia Film Critics Circle today voted on its second annual year-end awards, and the choice for Best Movie was Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma.  Roma also won awards for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Film. Tying Roma for the most awards, with three,…

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ALFONSO CUARÓN’S ROMA TO BE RELEASED THEATRICALLY IN OVER 600 THEATERS WORLDWIDE

Hollywood, Calif. – (December 7, 2018) – Netflix confirmed today that Academy Award® winning director and writer Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA, produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant Media, will be released in over 100 theaters in the United States and more than 500 theaters internationally in over 40 countries, curated by Netflix by territory around the…

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Cohen Media Press Release On Landmark Theatres Acquisition

COHEN MEDIA GROUP BUYS LANDMARK THEATRES FROM WAGNER/CUBAN COMPANIES   Nation’s Largest Independent Theater Chain Sold to Indie Film Distributor and One of the Country’s Most Influential Patrons of Culture and the Arts- (December 4, 2018) — Landmark Theatres, the nation’s largest specialized theater chain dedicated to independent cinema with 252 screens in 27 markets, has…

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SLAMDANCE ANNOUNCES 2019 FEATURE FILM COMPETITION LINEUP 

  11 Narrative and 9 Documentary Features To Be Showcased in Competition During 25th Annual Festival, Including 18 World, North American, and U.S. Premieres Festival Also Announces Inaugural Breakouts Section Lineup NOVEMBER 26, 2018 (Los Angeles)– The Slamdance Film Festival  today announced the Narrative and Documentary Feature Film Competition programs, as well as the lineup for its…

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Sundance 2019

[PR] Park City, UT — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the showcase of new independent feature films selected across all categories for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, from January 24 – February 3, 2019. The Festival is the Institute’s…

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BLACK PANTHER COMES TO ART HOUSE THEATERS NATIONWIDE WITH FREE SCREENINGS AND A LIVE Q&A WITH DIRECTOR RYAN COOGLER,  NOVEMBER 27

  PRESENTED BY FILM COMMENT MAGAZINE WITH SUPPORT FROM THE ART HOUSE CONVERGENCE NEW YORK, NY (November 16, 2018) – Black Panther returns to the big screen with free screenings at nonprofit art house theaters nationwide on Tuesday, November 27 at 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET. Presented by Film Comment, a publication of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and supported by the Art…

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ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 7 November 2018 ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL STATEMENT For 32 years, the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles has presented more than 1,000 feature films, documentaries, television dramas and short films to close to one million filmgoers and brought hundreds of Israeli filmmakers to the U.S. to share their art. Last night, at…

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SUNDANCE AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY ‘MINDING THE GAP’ ACQUIRED BY HULU

 Santa Monica, CA (June 5, 2018) – Hulu today announced that the company has acquired the rights to MINDING THE GAP, a moving documentary from director Bing Liu about three young men who bond across racial lines to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown. Ten years later, while facing adult responsibilities, unsettling revelations force them…

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KROLL & CO. ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES JONATHAN LETHEM’S THE FERAL DETECTIVE

Los Angeles, CA (May 30, 2018) – Kroll & Co. Entertainment, the recently launched production company of producer Sue Kroll, has acquired the rights to Jonathan Lethem’s new novel, The Feral Detective, through her exclusive deal at Warner Bros. Pictures. The highly anticipated novel—Lethem’s first detective story since hisNew York Times bestseller Motherless Brooklyn—sold to Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, and will be…

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RICHARD SUCKLE NAMED PRESIDENT OF ATLAS ENTERTAINMENT

  The Academy Award®-Nominated Producer Proves Instrumental In Building Atlas’ Business Across TV & Film   (LOS ANGELES, CA) May 30, 2018 – Today, Atlas Entertainment’s Founder/CEO Charles Roven announced that the company has elevated longtime executive and veteran producer, Richard Suckle, to the position of President, effective immediately.  In his new role, Suckle will work closely with Roven to…

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True/False Receives Academy Funding For Its 2019 Neither/Nor Series

[pr] Columbia, MO –  The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has awarded True/False $10,000 for the continuation of its Neither/Nor Series. Now entering its sixth year, Neither/Nor is True/False’s ongoing survey of groundbreaking film movements that—through their imaginative approaches to sound, image, and reality—altered the course of nonfiction cinema. In keeping with its…

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City of Los Angeles Officially June 16 Buster Keaton Day

Events include dedication of plaque commemorating Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin Studio, plus location tours and screenings Los Angeles (May 23, 2018)—A bronze plaque commemorating the location of a movie studio where both Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin created their timeless comedies in the early part of the 20th century will be dedicated at 4 p.m. June…

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Creative and Technological Case Studies

AMIA’s Digital Asset Symposium Presents A Powerful Lineup of  Two Keynotes, Netflix’s “Bobby Kennedy for President” and Crowdsourcing for Data Collection, Join Archive, Data Science, and Object Storage Discussions NEW YORK (May 16, 2018) – The Association of Moving Image Archivists’ Digital Asset Symposium (DAS) returns to New York on June 6, presenting a full day of…

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SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES DENYS ARCAND’S THE FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

NEW YORK (May 16, 2018) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all rights in the US, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand to Academy Award® winner Denys Arcand’s THE FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE.  The film, a follow up to his critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE, is written and…

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Gary Oldman to Direct, Star In Longtime Passion Project, Bio Of Motion Pioneer Eadward Muybridge

Gary Oldman to Direct, Star In Longtime Passion Project, Bio Of Motion Pioneer Eadward Muybridge

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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