Category: media

“Thousands of people in more than 30 cities around Turkey took to the streets on Sunday to protest a new system of filtering the Internet that opponents consider censorship.”

“This year, for the first time, four films by women directors, worlds apart in approach and theme, are in competition for the Palme d’Or.”

“A study published Tuesday by Sandvine Inc. shows that Netflix movies and TV shows account for nearly 30 percent of traffic into homes during peak evening hours, compared with less than 17 percent for Web browsing.”

“Critics hoped [that his] new film” – Habemus Papam, about the election of a very reluctant Pope – “would be a fierce attack on the Catholic church – instead, it’s an amiable farce. Has the scourge of the Italian establishment gone soft?”

“Do you know what the business model is in the entertainment industry? Make 10 shows and hope that one of them works. We produce more failed pilots than the French air force!”

“The top 12 films took in about $125.2 million at the domestic box office, down 5 percent from $131.4 million for the top 12 films for the same weekend last year, according to Hollywood.com’s box-office reporting service. For the year, domestic box-office revenue is about $3.4 billion, down about 13 percent from $3.9 billion last year, while attendance is down about 14 percent.”

“Yes, Cannes might be a bit tasteless. But for the French, the whole affair still preserves the ultimate in filmic fiction: that it’s our opinion that matters. Sure, we might not have been able to sell any of our television series between Inspector Gadget and Spiral. Sure, our last Oscar-winner may have been March of the Penguins. But by Guillaume, we’re going to be the arbiters of cool in all things cinema.”

“Critics gird themselves to watch what could either prove the film that sets the competition ablaze or leave us with very ashen faces indeed – possibly both.”

“Vancouver, in fact, has become the third-largest production centre in North America, behind Los Angeles and New York. Provincial tax credits and the once-low Canadian dollar were important factors in luring productions here, but local infrastructure and expertise have kept them coming back.”

A Spanish prosecutor charges a filmmaker over scenes of simulated child porn.