Category: media

Meryl Streep wins best actress for “Doubt” and Sean Penn wins best actor for “Milk”.

“By 2011, French public TV is supposed to go entirely commercial-free. Still, at a time when more media are scrambling for ever fewer advertising dollars, the ad-free revolution is not one anyone else, including the CBC, seems in a hurry to join.”

“In 2008, 111 feature films were made in Britain, down from 126 the previous year. Their overall cost, £578.2m, represented a drop of 23 per cent from the previous year. Overseas investment in the UK industry fell by more than a third – from £523m to £338m. Britain faces a situation where, even as its actors, directors and screenwriters are among the most sought-after in Hollywood, the lion’s share of the revenue, jobs and taxes they generate stay in the US.”

“As the third-largest film industry in the world — trailing only Hollywood and Bollywood — Nollywood’s numbers are staggering: it produces 2,500 movies a year. But we’re not talking James Cameron-type budgets here — most of the films cost less than $15,000 to produce.”

“Today, the star system is ubiquitous but far from simple for critics who must fit an Oscar hopeful and a low-ambition horror movie on the same scale. Even those critics who don’t assign stars or grades find their carefully wrought opinions converted into numbers — or a thumbs up or thumbs down — and mashed together with other critics’ opinions.”

“Canada’s major television networks are considering the drastic step of shutting smaller stations across the country, fearing that some local markets may never again be profitable in a TV industry where dollars are increasingly migrating to cable.”

Bollywood is delirious (the cast and crew even danced down the red carpet at the opening) over Slumdog Millionaire‘s 10 Oscar nominations, including three for hometown composer A.R. Rahman. But some critics accuse the film of being “poverty porn,” and a few activists say the title’s canine reference is an insult to slum dwellers.

The network is even promising to spend one-fourth of that budget (£1.25B) on programming made outside of greater London. “However the broadcaster says the money will only be spent if it can secure fresh investment to support its public service activities. The announcement [is] regarded as a last ditch attempt to lobby the government for public funds.”

“‘Button’ nosed out its rivals Thursday morning by scoring 13 nominations for the 81st Academy Awards. Paramount-Warner Bros.’ ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ got the most noms, including best pic. Other best pic contenders are Universal’s ‘Frost/Nixon,’ Focus Features’ ‘Milk,’ the Weinstein Co.’s ‘The Reader,’ and Fox Searchlight’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire.'”

“More than four million people watched the opening event of the inauguration on HBO on Sunday. And almost 30 percent of households in major markets watched the coverage across 14 channels on Tuesday, making Mr. Obama’s swearing-in the most-watched one in a generation.” And that’s only counting the people who watched at home, on TV.