Category: media

BBC2 has clustered arts programming on Sunday nights. How is it? “After 150 minutes of Proust mocked and Picasso beatified, I felt like the schoolboy who asks his father where the Pyramids are and is told to ask his mother because she puts the things away.” – New Statesman 03/27/00

• The Andy Warhol-era film “Trash,” which “epitomized what it meant to be hip,” has been resurrected, and with it the career of independent director Paul Morrissey who worked on several of Warhol’s films. – NPR 3/27/00 [Real audio file]

— big winner at Oscars. – New York Times 03/27/00 

• OSCARS: All the winners, all the action. – Oscars.com
  
  
• SO MUCH FOR EXIT POLLING: The Wall Street Journal tried to see if it could predict the Academy Awards outcome by polling voters. How’d they do? – Sydney Morning Herald 03/27/00

Increasingly Hollywood is turning to testing to see how it should market its films. – BBC 03/27/00 

Polish director Andrzej Wajda will become the first Eastern European film director to receive a lifetime achievement award at this Sunday’s Academy Awards. During a five-decade career, with 44 films to his name – including his 1981 film “Man of Iron,” Wajda’s acclaimed personal show of support for the Solidarity movement – he has revitalized his nation’s film industry. “Last year, for the first time since the end of the communist era and the relaxation of import restrictions on American movies, Polish films logged better box office figures than foreign ones.” – Time (Europe) 03/27/00

Everyone talks about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as if it was a group of people in a room somewhere making these big decisions. Just what – and who – is the Academy? – Chicago Tribune 03/26/00

Once the sole obsession of film buffs, collecting vintage film posters has become a big business over the last 10 years. Christie’s is holding its vintage film poster auction Monday, and fans – “who get their kicks from having a slice of cinema history on their living room walls” – are already speculating about record-breaking prices. “The undoubted highlight is the chance to bid for rare original ‘Casablanca’ posters, including Pierre Pigeot’s steamy exotic 1942 design.” – The Guardian 03/24/00

Seems the Oscars have a category for everything – this year there’s even “Best Publicist.” So why no prize for best animated film? As usual, not one animated movie was nominated this year, despite some strong work. Critics object on the grounds that, since the advent of computer-generated imagery, feature films with digital effects and feature-length cartoons basically use the same techniques. “By that rationale, Buzz Lightyear and Woody the cowboy from “Toy Story 2” could be considered cousins to Jar-Jar Binks in “the Phantom Menace” and the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park.” – Times of India (AP) 03/24/00

The 61-year-old man who found the case of stolen Oscar statuettes and returned them to the police was awarded a $50,000 reward for his good deed. In addition to securing an invitation to the Academy Awards ceremony, he hopes to get a book contract or a movie made about his life. – Washington Post (AP) 03/23/00

• OSCARS are said to contribute some $61 million into the Los Angeles economy. – Variety 03/24/00

It took an outsider in the form of Minnesota Public Radio to take over a Los Angeles public radio station and give the city its first local morning public affairs program. Is this public radio of the future? – LA Weekly 03/23/00