Category: media

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it will “postpone” introducing the new category, which was met with widespread scorn when it was announced last month. Said the AMPAS president, “There has been a wide range of reactions to the introduction of a new award, and we recognize the need for further discussion with our members.”

“KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, KERA in Dallas and Houston Public Media have been in talks for about a year with conference calls on a near-weekly basis. … The journalism hubs are intended to increase regional coverage for both NPR and the stations participating in each collaboration.”

“The horse-ridin’, pistol-packin’, Donald Trump-backed conservative had signed a release before meeting for the show with Baron Cohen, who was posing as an Israeli anti-terrorism expert. But the suit filed today in D.C. District Court (read it here) claims that the release Moore signed ‘was obtained through fraud’ and therefore is ‘void and inoperative.'”

The vaunted “special relationship” between the U.S. and Britain is thriving in the media and entertainment space. But with Brexit clouds overhead and other countries emerging as international content hubs, the question is whether the feverish trans-Atlantic dealmaking will cool down — or whether it might actually heat up further as the FAANGs (digital players Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) enter the game.

“This year sees the release of two films which centre on the 2011 attack in Norway by rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, which left 77 people dead. … Questions arise around the ethics of this particular docudrama style of film-making – what can a film based on real events tell us that documentary footage or eyewitness testimony cannot?”

“The slippers were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in the late actress’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were taken in 2005 by someone who climbed through a window and broke into a small display case. … The FBI said a man approached the insurer in summer 2017 and said he could help get them back. … After a nearly year-long investigation, the slippers were recovered in July during a sting operation in Minneapolis.”

TIFF was conceived as North America’s audience-friendly answer to the black-tie formality and Olympian competition of the Cannes film festival. By now, it has upstaged Cannes as the launching pad for sending movies into Oscar orbit. North American producers have become wary of risking their fortunes on the French Riviera.

“In more than three dozen interviews, writers, producers, and studio and network executives said heightened scrutiny in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite and other controversies has led to the concerted push, particularly for women of color in senior positions. … [But relatively few are in the supply chain. It is a problem of Hollywood’s own making.”

“It still matters to my colleagues and me that we experience a film in aesthetically optimal conditions — projected on a big screen in a dark room with no distractions — even if many of our readers will end up watching at home.”