Category: media

“Members of the Russian Communist party have called for the new Indiana Jones film to be banned in the country because they say it distorts history.”

Royal Bank of Canada will invest at least CAN$11m over the next decade in the Toronto International Film Festival, under the terms of a new agreement that will see RBC touted as TIFF’s “official bank.” “Previously, TIFF announced that it had raised $137-million in its $196-million capital campaign; yesterday, it noted, without comment, that the total raised now is $147-million.”

“After Steven Soderbergh’s 4-hour-and-28-minute epic film about the grueling guerrilla campaigns of the revolutionary hero and international male model Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara paused for an intermission, bedraggled columns of cinephiles stumbled from their seats into the lobby of Grand Theatre Lumiere, rubbing feeling back into their eyeballs. Ushers, acting as emergency medical corps, quickly administered fresh water and rations of Kit Kat candy bars.”

“The hitherto lawless world of online entertainment has began to adopt the same ratings system that governs British cinemas.”

Big Hollywood studios have been getting more and more interested in arthouse films in recent years. But that doesn’t mean they’re actually interested in making art, says Robert Butler. The studios see only dollar signs, and that means that their interest in the indies is not necessarily good news for filmmakers who care about quality.

Podcasting has been a huge boon for British comics, whose work has lately been dominating the download charts. “Many comedians are using the format to showcase routines, or to try something different from the jokes they would tell again and again at different clubs each week.”

“If we are going to have a national cinema we have got to make stories which arise from our islands. What we do most of the time is make sub-American nonsense. The American template is very often lousy – why do we want to imitate it?”

“As the festival winds down, no U.S. distributor has made a major acquisition. The tepid Cannes market continued what’s been a dismal cycle for the finished-film market that began last year in Toronto.”

“Tax incentives targeted at film and television production have been enacted in 40 states and Washington, D.C. — nearly half of them within the past three years, largely in response to the incentives offered in Canada and overseas.”

“Movie exhibitor Regal Entertainment Group said on Tuesday it reached a deal with privately held RealD 3D to upgrade 1,500 screens with 3-D technology in what analysts hope is a sign that theater operators’ digital conversions are finally gaining momentum.”