The Global Film Village

82nd Academy Award Winners

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awards

For those who missed the Academy Awards. You missed history being made several times. Here are the plain  list of the Winners.

Best Picture

The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side

Actress in a Supporting Role

Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Animated Feature Film

Up – Pete Docter

Art Direction

Avatar – Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)

Cinematography

Avatar – Mauro Fiore

Costume Design

The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell

Directing

The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary Feature

The Cove – Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens

Documentary Short

Music by Prudence – Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

Film Editing

The Hurt Locker – Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Foreign Language Film

The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)
Argentina – Directed by Juan José Campanella

Makeup

Star Trek – Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow

Music (Original Score)

Up – Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” – Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

Logorama – Nicolas Schmerkin

Short Film (Live Action)

The New Tenants – Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing

The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

Visual Effects

Avatar – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Hurt Locker – Written by Mark Boal

It was a Precious Spirit Awards Gala

// March 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awards

by Marla Lewin

Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey celebrate with Lee Daniels at Spirit Awards

Lee Daniels’ Precious swept the 25th anniversary of the Film Independent Spirit Awards taking home the Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Female awards. Precious won in every category for which it was nominated taking 5 awards. The other winners were lucky that Precious didn’t have any male actors nominated and Lee Daniels wasn’t a first time filmmaker.

Fox Searchlight was the other big winner with three awards, two for Crazy Heart,  Best First Feature, and Best Male Lead for Jeff Bridges; and one for (500) Days of Summer, for Best Screenplay. Continue Reading

Ed Asner in ‘Uranium and Peaches’

// March 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Stage Play

playwright Peter Cook, Ed Asner, David Hunt Stafford, Joe Estevez and Assistant Director

by Marc Halperin

Theatre 40 presented a staged reading of ‘Uranium and Peaches’  by Peter Cook on Tuesday, February 23rd. This is the story of two scientists from the Manhattan Project attempting to meet with President Truman, a little over two months before the bomb was dropped on Japan. After years of research, building secret cities and the expenditure of a king’s ransom their work is nearly complete. This fact based tale deals with an act of conscience to prevent the world from knowing about the nuclear bomb.

Their argument is that without the demonstration of the bomb the possibility of weaponizing the atom is strictly theoretical. For this brief moment in time the successful completion of their research is man’s greatest secret. Germany has already surrendered. The War in Europe is over and although Japan fights on in the Pacific it is only a matter of time until the war there is over as well.

Once the atomic bomb is used the world will change completely. Continue Reading

Oliver Stone on Money and Politics

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Videos

Another video from Oliver Stone’s interview at Santa Barbara Film Festival with David Poland.

Academy Slaps Hurt Locker Producer his invitations have been withdrawn

// March 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Awards

based on a Getty Images photo

by Marla Lewin

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that Nicolas Chartier, has been denied attendance at the 82nd Academy Awards® as a penalty for violating Academy campaigning standards. If “The Hurt Locker” becomes the latest recipient of the Best Picture award at Sunday’s ceremonies, only three of the picture’s producers will be present for the celebration. The fourth of the film’s credited producers credentials have been revoked. The Academy stopped short of recommending that the Academy governors rescind Chartier’s nomination. They had only recently made a ruling to allow four producers for the film rather than three. If “The Hurt Locker” is selected as Best Picture, Chartier would still be allowed receive his Oscar® statuette but at some point in the future after the ceremonies.

Chartier was found guilty of violating  Academy rules because he sent an email to certain Academy voters and other film industry figures in which he solicited votes for his own picture and disparaged one of the other contending films. Academy rules prohibit “casting a negative or derogatory light on a competing film.” The executive committee of the Academy’s Producers Branch, at a special session late Monday, ruled that the ethical lapse merited the revocation of Chartier’s invitation to the Awards.

Digital Downloading Movies an Audience That is Not There

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Industry Trends

(c) 2010 The Global Film Village. All Rights Reserved.

by Marc Halperin -

We have attended numerous panels over the last year in which filmmakers have told their tales of making no money from the digital download business. Meanwhile a cottage industry has grown up professing to tell filmmakers for a fee how they can self-distribute and make more money than going with an experienced distributor just by doing it themselves in a few cities and handling their own digital rights. At least someone is making  money from digital downloading, but it isn’t filmmakers.

From the horror stories told by individual filmmakers to the laments of Eamon Bowles at Magnolia, we know this is an emerging market. A few industry leaders have told the truth about this but these medicine show hucksters dismiss them as old fashioned distributors out of touch with the realities of the new distribution paradigm.

How long is it going to take for the digital download business to emerge to a point where someone can make money or survive based on it?

Far too long for most filmmakers working today.

Now there is evidence that Digital Downloading is not the solution they had touted. The Financial Times reports in a story today about Screen Digest’s latest study which shows that digital movie downloading isn’t catching on as expected. Continue Reading

Broads at El Portal in NoHo

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Stage Play

by Marla Lewin

I spoke with Jules Aaron, the director of Broads! the Musical at the El Portal in NoHo, I had seen his recent productions of LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO and attended the World Premiere in LA of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE MUSICAL, and had been most impressed.

Asked about his new show, he said,”We need to have fun!”  Jules has directed Julianne Moore, Allison Eastwood, Mercedes Ruehi, and one of his stars from the two shows mentioned above, Ellen Crawford, (ER) attended last night along with other actor friends of the company and crew. Ellen will be in Jules next production of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE MUSICAL at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this summer.

I spoke with Dick Van Patten, and his son James, who really enjoyed the show, as well as Lee Merriweather and Stephanie Zimbalist.

Joe Symon who is the composer/ lyricist dedicates the show to his grandmothers, and told me the show is almost sold out.  He expects it to go to Broadway next.  We spoke about The Palm Springs Follies, and he likened his current show to the Golden Girls, with some stand up and songs thrown in to the mix.

Continue Reading

Alice in Wonderland and a Shortage of 3D Screens

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Industry Trends

(c) 2010 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

by Marc Halperin

After all of the maneuvering of the past couple of weeks between Disney and exhibitors, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was revealed to the public in a Royal Charity Premiere. Early reviews attest that it is a gorgeous rendition of the classic story. Todd McCarthy of Variety however is less than pleased and Emmanuel Levy has reservations. The Hollywood Reporter is extremely positive. Anyone who has seen the trailer and viewed Burton’s previous work knows that it will be visually stunning even if the characters lack the depth that some of the critics have noted. This is probably one of the most highly anticipated films of the period within its target demographic. The trailers shown at Christmas were extremely enticing.

All of the distributors are in for a struggle over the next month as the 3D movies they have spent lavishly producing enter a market that should have had far more screens than have been installed. Can you say screen crunch? Maybe if some of those TARP funds had been spent on installing 3D it would have injected more cash into the economy than most of the other projects that haven’t yet been built. Avatar is currently on 2581 screens of which 2169 are in 3D but there are less than 4000 screens altogether. On top of that it is playing on 179 IMAX screens but according to Marketwatch there are only 400 of these screens in the world as of December 2009. There just aren’t enough 3D screens to handle the product in the pipeline now. Fox will keep Avatar in theatres but in many locations they  will have to move into 2D screens. We are about to see a collision and it only gets worse as the year goes on with more 3D films reaching theatres every month.

Several years ago I predicted at a conference moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s then Editor Robert J. Dowling at the UK Financing Forum in Hollywood that we would reach a point where the original financing of this 3D conversion would become critical. What was done in those early years was that several of the studios stepped forward and financed the conversion. Many may have forgotten this. Not having seen the contracts but understanding how distribution works I am sure there were clauses inserted that gave these companies first right of refusal on the screens they financed. The original companies that stepped forward were Fox and Paramount. Fox has Avatar occupying the majority of 3D screens now and Paramount has How To Train Your Dragon coming on March 26. Disney, Universal and Lionsgate announced at the ShowEast convention in 2008 that they were also going to help finance. However with the economic meltdown of 2008 it will be interesting to see how much of this money was actually advanced after ShowEast. Warners and Sony  announced earlier this month that they would join in to hasten the conversion.

Distributors will be very busy on Monday March 1, checking their hold-overs, new openings and  auditorium assignments. Fox could be sitting there with copies of their finance contracts at the ready to ensure that they keep every 3D screen that they are entitled to by these deals.

The next few weeks should be very interesting.

ICT salutes Ginger Rogers with “Backwards in High Heels” at Long Beach Performing Arts Center

// February 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Stage Play

by Marla Lewin

“My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months.” – Ginger Rogers

The Los Angeles premiere of The Ginger Rogers Musical kicks off Long Beach’s International City Theatre’s 25th Season.

If you are a fan of Turner Classic Movies then you are familiar with the magnificent dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. What you don’t probably know is that Rogers walked away from her partnership with Astaire in 1939 at the peak of its success after 9 films. She had tired of doing musicals and Astaire was committed to doing two a year. It being the studio era when actor’s had contracts with individual studios which determined which roles they could perform, Ginger was afraid of being typecast as just a dancer. She walked away from her deal when it expired. She than was free to choose her own roles and became an acclaimed actress winning the Academy Award for the film Kitty Foyle for Best Actress in 1940. She and Astaire later reunited for one more movie, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).  Backwards in High Heels follows Rogers from the time she arrived in Hollywood at age 14 through winning the Academy Award at age 37. Continue Reading

Bangles are Back in a one-night-only event for charity

// February 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Live Music

Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson, Vicki Peterson. photo by Casey Rodgers

by Marla Lewin

“Walk Like An Egyptian,” “Eternal Flame,” “Manic Monday,” “In Your Room,” all of these songs dominated the airwaves in the 1980’s and brought a smile to your face. If the iPod had existed a Special Edition would have been pink and this is what women would have been listening to as they went about their lives.

The Bangles, were rock superstars.  Susanna Hoffs (guitar/vocals), Vicki Peterson (guitar/vocals) and Debbi Peterson (drums/vocals) are one of the greatest all-female rock bands of all time. The original four bandmembers reunited and returned to the studio in 1999, to cut their newly written song “Get the Girl” for the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. In 2003, they released a  new album, titled Doll Revolution to positive reviews, and the Bangles spent much of the next year touring. After that the fourth member Michael Steele decided to retire from the band. The others have gone on to solo work since then, but they are now working together again. Continue Reading