In advance of tonight’s Golden Globes, the National Society of Film Critics has given Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite a Best Picture nod, but they also gave Best Director to Little Women‘s Greta Gerwig. – Los Angeles Times
Category: media
The Making Of ‘Maiden’
The Oscar-shortlisted documentary Maiden wasn’t easy to make – in some ways, it was almost as hard to make as the incredible, history-making voyage it depicts. For one thing, all of the filming the crew did on the ship was on VHS tapes that had been literally cut and spliced by various news crews on different continents. – Los Angeles Times
Streaming Has Gotten So Crowded In The UK, But Netflix Reigns Supreme, For Now
Despite the threat of Disney+, BritBox, Apple TV, and so (very) much more, Netflix is killing it in Britain. And Netflix’s “2020 film slate is positively mouthwatering.” – The Guardian (UK)
Time’s Up Releases New Guidelines For Casting And For Nude Scenes
Time’s Up is trying to prepare actors and would-be actors for situations that have been rather iffy in the past (by “iffy,” we mean “containing lots of possibilities for assault and rape”): “Some of the ‘specific circumstances’ addressed in the guide range from preparing for chemistry reads (sometimes-intimate audition scenes between two actors) and casting directors who say, ‘Come back sexier,’ to ‘experiencing sexual assault mid-shoot’ and ‘being asked ‘to have actual sex’ instead of simulated sex’ during production.” Just … argh, Hollywood. – Los Angeles Times
How Apple Plans To Make It Big In Streaming
Unlike some of its streaming competitors, Apple TV+ is being built almost exclusively for original content. Its smaller, more focused catalog is starting to look attractive to Hollywood A-listers, who worry about their work getting lost in the shuffle of mega-libraries at Netflix, Amazon, or HBO Max. – Axios
Super Bowl Broadcast Has Generated $3.6 Billion In Ad Revenue In The Past Decade
Over the past decade, the Super Bowl accounted for $3.66 billion in advertising revenue, according to data from research firm Kantar Media. In that same time, the average cost for a 30-second spot grew 63%, from $2.77 million in 2010 to $4.51 million in 2019 (it peaked in 2017 at $4.7 million). – The Wrap
Progress In Hollywood: Number Of Female Directors Hits All-Time High, But Women Remain Rare In Other Behind-The-Scenes Jobs
“Examining the 1,300 top films from 2007 through to 2019, the Annenberg researchers found that on average just 4.8 percent of directors were women, yet that spiked to 10.6 percent in 2019 … [and] 15 percent of the directors of all films released by major companies last year were women, another record. … [But] the latest Celluloid Ceiling report … found that women in key behind-the-scenes jobs were outnumbered four to one by men. That figure remained unchanged from 2018.” – The New York Times
Russia Relaunches Its First (Post-Soviet) International Film Festival
“Titled Kinotavr. Special Edition as a reference to the Russian national festival Kinotavr, … the festival will run for the first time in Moscow from late January through early February. … In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kinotavr had an international competition that featured films by celebrated international directors. The new festival is viewed as a continuation of that effort focused on bringing the best global films to Russian viewers.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Epic Bomb: “Cats” Could Lose $100 Million
Tom Hooper’s big-screen adaptation has clawed its way to $38 million globally after two weeks in theaters, a dismal figure that could result in $100 million in theatrical losses, according to rival studio executives. – Variety
Asia Gets Its First-Ever LGBTQ-Focused Streaming Service
“GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series, and documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional attitudes mean there has been little in the way of gay content in the mainstream media. After launching in 2017 in Taiwan, a beacon for gay rights since becoming the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, it has expanded to 21 territories including several that still criminalise homosexuality.” – Yahoo! (AFP)