One of the main reasons movies resonate with us is that they make us think: about our own lives, our history or our appreciation for past pieces of art. So many of this year’s awards contenders do one or all of the above, be it a flashy musical that yanks at memories from our childhood
Month: December 2018
Hollywood has long excelled at telling stories that are cut from reality, featuring topical ingredients that tie escapism to the world we inhabit. Whether it’s true stories from the past or present that help to inform our current social landscape, or wholly creative pieces of fiction that oftentimes touch upon progressive collective change, filmmakers continue
Although it is expensive and time-consuming to enter the Oscar race, the value of a foreign-language film nomination proves tangible to the director and, by extension, to the country’s entire cinematic output. Here are some case studies of procedure and strategy from countries that have been included in previous shortlists, and have a strong chance
Former Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol reflects on special-needs sports and “Champions,” Spain’s Oscar entry, a blockbuster hit on home turf and sold almost worldwide. “Champions” turns on an off-the-rails Spanish coach sentenced to train a basketball team of special-needs players. Are such teams common in Spain? Fortunately, there are more and more initiatives.
Iflix, a streaming service for emerging markets, and Next 10 Ventures have launched a Creators Hub to fund the development of new online video creation in Southeast Asia. Announced at the ongoing Asian TV Market & Forum, as part of a 12-month program, Iflix will invest up to $5 million with selected content creators in
No matter how much you loved “Crazy Rich Asians” — that glittering Singapore-set spin on the princess movie, which charmed audiences to the tune of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars earlier this year — don’t be surprised when the Academy fails to give it a single above-the-line Oscar nomination. When that happens, it
December 6, 2018 6:30AM PT The Hollywood Foreign Press Association embraced politics on Thursday morning, giving Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney drama “Vice,” starring Christian Bale, a leading six nominations. Yorgos Lanthimos’ historical comedy-drama “The Favourite,” Peter Farrelly’s historical film “Green Book,” and Bradley Cooper’s musical romantic drama “A Star Is Born” were close behind with
However you slice the foreign-language film Oscar, it remains bound by rules and regulations that ensure it can never be fully representative of world cinema: in 2018, as global film production grows ever more complex and multinational, the one-film-per-country submission system looks a little quaint, excluding numerous outstanding titles that fall both within and beyond
Comcast’s Xfinity Digital Store has joined digital movie-collection service Movies Anywhere, with the cable giant becoming its seventh digital retail partner — and first pay-television partner. For its October 2017 launch, Movies Anywhere partnered with four initial retailers: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes and Walmart’s Vudu. FandangoNow, Fandango’s FandangoNow on-demand video service came aboard this
Amazon Music today announced the rollout of new voice features that enables listeners to personalize their streaming music experience. Essentially, listeners can have a conversation with the service’s Alexa to find playlists and music for specific moods or occasions, “liking” or rejecting songs, identifying songs by lyrics and more, all through voice. The goal is for
Two veterans of immersive storytelling have banded together for a new Los Angeles-based augmented reality (AR) startup: Former Felix & Paul chief content officer Ryan Horrigan and former Milk VR and VRSE.works producer Armando Kirwin unveiled their new startup Artie Thursday, laying out a vision to bring intelligent avatars everywhere. “VR and AR are the
Golden Globes voters were in a political frame of mind on Thursday morning, as the awards organization handed “Vice,” a scathing look at former Vice President Dick Cheney’s career in government, a leading six nominations. On the TV front, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group behind the Globes, embraced “The Assassination of
Nominations for the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced on Thursday morning show live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “Vice,” Adam McKay’s scathing Dick Cheney biopic, walked away with a leading six nominations. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Globes, also awarded “A Star Is Born,” “The Favourite,” and “Green Book”
Lone Scherfig’s “The Kindness of Strangers” will open the 69th edition of the Berlin Film Festival. The Danish director’s ensemble drama, starring Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough and Bill Nighy among others, follows a group of people trying to survive a New York winter. It will open the Berlinale on Feb. 7, 2019. Scherfig is a regular
December 6, 2018 4:00AM PT The Golden Globes Awards honor the best of both worlds every year, with statuettes handed out to the cream of the crop in television and film. Will “A Star Is Born” and “Black Panther” rack up the most film nominations? Can streaming hits like “Homecoming” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
December 6, 2018 2:59AM PT “Das Boot” will hit the high seas for a second season after Sky Deutschland renewed the big-budget wartime drama series, which was inspired by the 1981 Oscar-nominated movie of the same name. The freshman season of the show premiered Nov. 23 on the Sky pay-TV platform in Germany. It has
December 6, 2018 2:12AM PT ‘Sweet Country,” the tale of an Aboriginal man who shoots a white man in self defense, swept the major awards at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards. The film collected the best film award, and the best director award for Warwick Thornton. In other major categories,
Chinese production and distribution company, HY Media has picked up mainland China distribution rights to blockbuster Indian film “2.0.” Starring South Indian superstar, Rajinikanth, the film was by some measures the highest grossing movie in the world last weekend. “2.0” is understood to be the first Rajinikanth-starring film released in China in recent times. Indian
Wattpad, which hosts a platform with more than 400 million user-generated stories, has appointed Devashish Sharma as its first country head for India. Toronto-based Wattpad is home to a community of more than 70 million people who spend over 22 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Earlier this year it raised $51 million
December 6, 2018 1:25AM PT NBCUniversal and ProSiebenSat.1 have cooked up the first-ever deal for a local version of the popular “Top Chef” format in Germany. In the show, chefs face off in a battle of culinary skills and take on cooking challenges that test their expertise in the kitchen. The format sees one chef
In their quest for global domination, Netflix and Amazon view Europe as a key battleground. Both companies have dramatically ramped up operations on the continent in recent years to woo subscribers, creatives and talent. But tensions over content, costs and consequences for the region’s legacy players have been building, and in some cases have boiled
‘L&HH’ Star Tommie Lee Oops, I’m Going Back to Jail!!! One Month & Counting 12/6/2018 12:40 AM PST EXCLUSIVE Just when Tommie Lee thought she was about to be released from custody, she was hauled right back into the pokey … TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Tommie was set to be released
December 6, 2018 12:01AM PT The most popular YouTube music videos this year once again had a distinct español flavor. Eight of the top 10 most-viewed music videos on YouTube worldwide in 2018 were in Spanish — with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna (pictured above) appearing in three of them. The No. 1 music video with 1.45
Two of this year’s top-trending YouTube videos were emotionally resonant celebrity events: The birth of Kylie Jenner’s baby girl and the breakup of YouTube power couple Liza Koshy and David Dobrik. YouTube’s 2018 top-trending videos are “really a portrait of the modern celebrity – it’s dominated by YouTube creators who’ve built huge audiences and are
December 5, 2018 11:17PM PT Los Angeles-based content aggregator and distributor, Cinedigm will partner with China International TV Corporation (CITVC) to bring 500 hours of Chinese content to American viewers on Bambu, its digital channel specifically for Chinese-language material set to launch early next year. CITVC is a subsidiary of state broadcaster China Central Television
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority announced a battery of initiatives on Wednesday. They are intended to continue the growth of the industry. IMDA chief executive Tan Kiat How explains their background. Variety: What are the new initiatives? What is the IMDA planning to launch now and in the future?Tan Kiat How: IMDA is committed to
The Ally Coalition, founded by Bleachers frontman/producer-to-the-stars Jack Antonoff and his sister Rachel, is a not-for-profit organization that, according to its mission statement, aims to “end discrimination against LGBTQ people by highlighting systemic inequality and LGBTQ-serving organizations and creating opportunities for fans and entertainers to advocate for equality.” Its annual benefit concert, held at New York’s historic
MoviePass has read your enraged tweets. It has fielded your angry calls. And, yes, it’s seen those memes that showed images of its offices engulfed in flames. Despite becoming a trending topic for all the wrong reasons, the company that once planned to be the Netflix of moviegoing believes it can win back the trust of
December 5, 2018 8:20PM PT Just hours after he postponed the latest in a string of concerts since late October, Justin Timberlake announced that he is pushing back all of his remaining December dates as his bruised vocal cords continue to mend. “Hey guys, I’m sure you have heard that I’ve had to postpone several
Singapore firms, Aurora Media and Darpan Global have teamed to set up best-selling Indian novel “Pilgrims in the Dark” (“Timirpanthi”) as a feature film. The companies previously optioned film rights to the Gujurati-language novel by Dhruv Bhatt. Award-winning playwright and director Dakxin Bajrange is now attached to direct the thriller from a screenplay written by
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