Category: media

Video games are not what most parents would consider an art form, no matter how many hours their children might choose to spend in front of them. But according to the Art Gallery of South Australia, many games have reached an artistic level of creative achievement, and a new exhibition, held in conjunction with the Adelaide Film Festival, is highlighting some of the best in the field.

There is no shortage of “message movies” in Hollywood these days, but even films which were designed to be apolitical have been getting the polemical treatment in the highly competitive run-up to Oscar night. In fact, screenings of such highly regarded films as Hotel Rwanda and Vera Drake have been sponsored by activist groups hoping that an Academy Award could bring new attention to their favorite causes.

There is no Academy Award for stuntmen, largely because Hollywood and its stars want to preserve the widely-believed myth that big stars do their own stunts. But this year, the industry’s stunt professionals are demanding that Oscar recognize their considerable contributions. Why not, says Jack Mathews, especially if it means the possibility of getting to watch some of these specialists perform their stunts live on Oscar night?

The Denver International Film Festival is tired of trying to score quality premieres and attract attention just as every other city in North America fires up its own filmfest, so the well-regarded Colorado festival is moving from October to November in an effort to have the spotlight to itself. “Festival organizers also believe they can use the November date to host sales from filmmakers to distributors. Two movies from last fall’s festival won deals during Denver talks, Erickson said, and moving to November, away from more traditional sales markets in other cities, may help increase that number.”

“While cinema ads have been around since the 1980s, in the last few years they have become more widespread — and more sophisticated. The Cinema Advertising Council estimates that cinema advertising revenues have been expanding by more than 30 percent annually. Nationally, about 26,000 of the roughly 30,000 movie screens show commercials.” But why run the ads, when consumers are so clearly annoyed by them? Simply put, advertisers are desperate, and the emergence of TiVo and other digital television manipulators has made it ever harder to get advertising messages across. Movies provide a captive audience that can’t fast-forward the commercials. But there’s backfire potential…

“The head of the Edinburgh International Film Festival today hit out at the proposed redevelopment of one of the city’s most famous cinemas. Only the art deco facade of the former Odeon in Clerk Street will be retained under plans to demolish the historic building to make way for a restaurant and bar and a 240-room student housing complex. The controversial proposal has disappointed film chiefs and heritage watchdogs, who have called for the cinema to be saved from the bulldozer.”

Not much is spoken about the cozy relationship between Hollywood and the American military. “All a producer needs do for assistance, it seems, is submit five copies of his script to the Pentagon for approval, make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests, film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon and preview the finished product for Pentagon officials before it’s shown to its broader audience. And many do this gladly. It is Hollywood’s dirtiest little secret, and the long-term effect on generations of young Americans is an unknown. How many of those killed in Iraq died because they joined up after they saw what was presented in a film?”

“In an episode titled “There’s Something About Marrying,” a longtime character on Fox’s 15-year hit – it was Marge Simpson’s sister Patty Bouvier, a closely held secret until the 8 p.m. broadcast – came out of the closet while Homer Simpson conducted dozens of same-sex weddings after small-town Springfield legalized the unions in a bid to increase tourism. As television’s longest-running situation comedy, “The Simpsons” is no stranger to hot-button social, religious and political issues, mocking wardrobe malfunctions, Hollywood liberals and born-again Christians, among other targets. But when a show as mainstream and popular as this takes on one of the most divisive issues in American society, it is certain to attract attention.”

A South African reworking of the Carmen story has won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival. “U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which moved Georges Bizet’s story to a township and translated the lyrics into Xhosa, was a surprise winner of the Golden Bear.”

French cinema, in decline for more than a decade, is experiencing a resurgence of popularity, thanks in large part to “various practical government initiatives: substantial subsidies for first- and second-time filmmakers; well-funded film schools; an obligation on television stations to show French films; and a complex system of subsidies funded by a levy on all box-office receipts, a measure regarded with fury by the US studios, which believe they are thereby helping to fund their direct competition.”