“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” starring Tom Cruise topped the box-office for a second week with estimated $31.25 million in ticket sales, and a per-ticket-average of $9,045, but it was Weinstein Company’s debut of “The Iron Lady” that ruled the box-office. Starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, “The Iron Lady” grossed an estimated $221,752 in ticket sales from just only 4 theaters, for a per-theater average of a whopping $55,438. Other films opening to impressive […]
The new Board of La Biennale di Venezia, the organization behind the Venice International Film Festival, chaired by Paolo Baratta and composed of Giorgio Orsoni (Vice-President), Luca Zaia, Francesca Zaccariotto and Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, met for the first time on 27th December 2011 in the Biennale offices at Ca’ Giustinian and appointed the Directors of the Architecture and Cinema sectors. David Chipperfield was named Director of the Architecture Sector with the specific responsibility of […]
Nomination ballots for the 84th Academy Awards® were mailed today to the 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. PT on Friday, January 13, 2012. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted. Nomination and final Awards ballots are tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers to ensure that all aspects of the balloting process are conducted with fairness and accuracy. Prior to […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the poster for the 84th Academy Awards®. The art features the iconic Oscar statuette alongside memorable images from eight films spanning eight decades: “Gone with the Wind” (1939), “Casablanca” (1943), “Giant” (1956), “The Sound of Music” (1965), “The Godfather” (1972), “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989), “Forrest Gump” (1994) and “Gladiator” (2000). All the films featured on the poster won the Academy Award® for Best Picture, except “Giant,” […]
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington this week released the list of 25 films selected “to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.” Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 575.
Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
In other news about the registry, “These Amazing Shadows,” a documentary about the National Film Registry, will air nationally on the award-winning PBS series “Independent Lens” on Thursday, Dec. 29, at 10 p.m (check local listings). Written and directed by Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton, this critically acclaimed documentary has also been released on DVD and Blu-ray.
Films Selected to the 2011 National Film Registry Allures (1961)
Bambi (1942)
The Big Heat (1953)
A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
Crisis: Behind A Presidential Commitment (1963)
The Cry of the Children (1912)
A Cure for Pokeritis (1912)
El Mariachi (1992)
Faces (1968)
Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Growing Up Female (1971)
Hester Street (1975)
I, an Actress (1977)
The Iron Horse (1924)
The Kid (1921)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Negro Soldier (1944)
Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-40s)
Norma Rae (1979)
Porgy and Bess (1959)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Stand and Deliver (1988)
Twentieth Century (1934)
War of the Worlds (1953) {jathumbnail off}
The Austin Film Critics Association announced its 2011 awards, with Martin Scorsese’s HUGO, winning Best Film. and the hyper-stylized crime thriller DRIVE taking home three awards, including Best Director for Nicolas Winding Refn, Best Adapted Screenplay for writer Hossein Amini, and Best Supporting Actor for Albert Brooks. It was also named the second best film of the year in the AFCA’s overall Top 10 List. Michael Shannon was named Best Actor, while Jessica Chastain received […]
Variety will present actress Charlize Theron with the Indie Impact Award, at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF). The Indie Impact Award celebrates a performer and filmmaker for her outstanding contributions to the art and business of cinema. “Charlize Theron continues to make an impact by committing herself to films that exemplify the best in independent cinema,” stated Variety Executive Editor Steven Gaydos. “She notably won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG […]
The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Jessica Chastain with the Spotlight Award and composer Howard Shore with the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing. Jessica Chastain will receive the Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award honors an actor or actress for their extraordinary performances in the current cinematic year. Chastain will receive the award for her roles in The Help, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Debt and Coriolanus. Her […]
The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will launch on Thursday, January 5 with CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and wraps on Sunday, January 15 with Almanya, Welcome to Germany. The festival, running from January 5-16 in Palm Springs, California announced its Galas, Premieres, Modern Masters and a Special Presentation.
OPENING AND CLOSING GALAS
The Festival will open with the screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (UK. Directed by Oscar©-nominee Lasse Hallström, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is an extraordinary, beguiling tale of fly-fishing and political spinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love and of an attempt to prove the impossible, possible. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt star in the feature film alongside Oscar©-nominee Kristen Scott Based on Paul Torday’s acclaimed novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is written by Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy and produced by Paul Webster and executive produced by Jamie Laurenson, Stephen Garrett, Paula Jalfon, Zygi Kamasa and Guy Avshalom. CBS Films will open the film in US theaters on March 9, 2012.
The nominations for the 17th Lumière Awards, aka the French Golden Globes, were announced, and Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance lead the field with six nominations including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and a surprising three for Best Female Newcomer for actresses Alice Barnole, Adèle Haenel and Céline Sallette. House of Tolerance is described as Bertrand Bonello’s highly stylized look at the final days of a fin-de-siècle brothel in Paris. Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist […]
The Cannes Film Festival board of administrators has extended the terms of Gilles Jacob, the 81-year-old president of the Cannes film festival, along with its 50-year-old director Thierry Fremaux. Although there were reportedly several big-name positions positioning for the job including French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, Jacob told AFP, that the festival’s board of administrators voted to extend his mandate as President until 2014 along with that of Fremaux. The Cannes Film Festival is run […]
In 2012, the Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme at the Berlin International Film Festival will open with Katarina Peters’ documentary Man for a Day. A number of open-minded women attend a workshop given by performance artist and drag king activist Diane Torr. They work on transforming themselves into the man of their choice for a day. Giving up old roles and taking on new ones is hard work, but it is great fun trying to decipher […]