Month: November 2020

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, operating for the first time this year as part of TIFFCOM, has given hope to some filmmakers who are struggling to fund their projects. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many normal financing channels. The TGFM enables producers to meet potential investors, sales agents and post-production outfits over a three-day period (Nov.
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Elvis Costello has released a Spanish-language version of his 1979 song “Crawling to the USA,” seemingly timed as an implicit commentary on current American politics, days before the U.S. presidential election. It’s the first song to be released from “Spanish Model,” an album to be released this year that has prominent singers from the Latin
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Media, entertainment and communications activities have been unwitting collateral damage from the mounting tensions between the U.S. and China that many these days characterize as a cold war. Journalists working for American media have been expelled from China. In retaliation, the U.S. has recategorized certain Chinese media and personnel as state agents, only one rung
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Joining Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival‘s online audience on Friday from his hotel room in Spain, Hubert Sauper – behind Oscar-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare” – discussed his career and latest film “Epicentro,” also shown at the Czech event following its Sundance premiere. Born in the Austrian Tyrol in 1966, he also addressed his past. “I was
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Audiences did not heed the title of “Come Play,” a terrifying thriller from Focus Features and Amblin that debuted in U.S. theaters this weekend. The PG-13 horror film generated just $3.15 million from 2,183 screens, enough to lead sleepy box office charts in pandemic times. Moviegoing has been incredibly slow in North America because theaters
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“American Idol” alum Nikki McKibbin, who reached the final three on the show’s inaugural season in 2002, has died at the age of 42. Season one runner-up Justin Guarini broke the news on his Instagram on Oct. 31. The Grand Prairie, Texas native famously finished third in the competition behind Guarini and winner Kelly Clarkson
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With just days to go before Election Day in the U.S., the Biden-Harris campaign kicked off a new get-out-the-vote effort in “Fortnite,” Epic Games’ popular battle royale game. The former Democratic VP’s presidential campaign late Friday launched “Build Back Better With Biden,” a custom map in “Fortnite” located in “Reboot City” that encourages players to
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The wondrous, sometimes bizarre work of the celebrated Czech animator and surrealist Jan Svankmajer has inspired admirers far and wide for two generations, from Terry Gilliam to the Brothers Quay. A new doc, “Alchemical Furnace,” about the maestro’s processes and inspirations played at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, made by two close colleagues of
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