Category: media

Who are the best movie directors in the world? The Guardian makes a list of the top 40. Let’s see… there’s David Lynch, and…

The Motion Picture Academy’s decision not to send DVD copies of movies to critics juding awards has provoked movie critics like no other issue in recent years. “Movie critics are flooding colleagues’ computers with e-mails carrying subject lines like “United we stand” and “On strikes and self-immolation,” not to mention “Shame!” Some critics’ associations have canceled their year-end awards in protest. I know these people, and I assure you they’re nice, civilized folks. But we critics can sting when we feel wronged, and passions are running high.”

The president of Mexico proposes slashing arts funding. “President Vicente Fox’s proposal to get rid of everything from government-owned movie studios to the national news agency has sparked fears that Mexico will be overwhelmed by an American cultural invasion. We will be left to the mercy and whims of distributors of Hollywood’s worst productions.”

“Hollywood studios are threatening to pull all of their film productions from Quebec if they can’t resolve their conflict with the Quebec producers association. Local industry players are taking the threat very seriously, given that Hollywood producers spent a record $368 million in Montreal last year. The studios are seeing red because the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec wants to force them to be represented by the Quebec group when the Americans film there.”

Why is it that all those “fix-up” shows (Queer Eye… et al) make the apartments they redo look more or less the same? “Almost anywhere can be improved with a bit of judicious gardening, a slap of paint and some maintenance. No argument there. But the overarching pretension of some of these programs makes them vastly amusing. They aren’t just fixing up a place, they act as though they are saving the world.”

A Greek TV network has been heavily fined after showing a program in which two men kissed. “The National Radio and Television Council which imposed the fine called the scene ‘vulgar and unacceptable’. But TV critic Popi Diamandakou called the decision ‘hypocritical’ after shots of Britney Spears kissing Madonna at the MTV Awards were repeatedly shown.”

No one can copyright a concept, which is why so many American TV shows can legally be nothing but mock-ups of already successful foreign programs. But a Canadian television network appears to think that CBS crossed the line this fall when it released Cold Case, a new cop show which bears several striking resemblances to a 6-year-old CTV program called Cold Squad. Both shows center around similar-looking female detectives who fight criminals and their own sexist co-workers in roughly equal measures as they attempt to uncover new leads in stalled cases. Oh, and the writer who came up with Cold Case did so right after attending a writing seminar in Canada.

Film festival organizers may be as enthusiastic about film as a person can be, but they still have only 24 hours in their day, and that’s just not enough time to watch every minute of every movie that comes across their desks. So how do the honchos decide which films make the cut? It’s all about those first few minutes, says one festival organizer, and “if any video from the teetering stack in her living room begins with images of a gun, a bong, a pimp or a whore, she hits the eject button.”

“The music industry announced a ‘one-stop’ international license for online radio broadcasters Tuesday, hoping the removal of red tape will encourage the rise of legitimate Web music services. Previously, online radio broadcasters, or webcasters, had to secure approval from an alphabet soup of national collection agencies… Webcasters have argued that until the number of licensing fees is reduced, the nascent broadcasting sector will never gain the critical commercial mass of its over-the-air cousins.”

Universal Music has announced plans to acquire Dreamworks Records, in yet another music industry consolidation seen to represent the desperation of many companies in the struggling recording business. “The music business is currently going through major changes as it struggles to counter falling sales and the impact of unofficial online music sales. Last week, Sony Music – the second-largest music company – said it was planning to merge with Bertelsmann. EMI and Warner Music have also been in talks about a possible merger.”