The Academy Awards grew up at the 16th annual ceremony March 2, 1944. Since the first Oscar ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Blossom Room in 1929, the Academy Awards were small banquet ceremonies for La La Land movers and shakers. But that all changed 80 years ago. World War II was in its third year and movies meant more than ever to war-weary audiences.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.
- 1/23/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Stars: Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, Juliene Joyner, Nicoye Banks, Jaren Mitchell, E.K. Spila, Lucky Johnson | Written by William Kaufman, Paul Reichelt | Directed by William Kaufman
Somewhere in New Orleans’ Irish Channel, “The Channel” to its residents, Jamie wakes up from nightmares about his time in Afghanistan and gives his baby girl to her grandmother before hopping into a van like any other man heading off to work. And he is on his way to work, but the job site is a bank that he, his brother Mic, and several other ex-Marine buddies are about to rob.
It should be easy for a well-disciplined and heavily armed group of men. Get in, beat the vault code out of the manager, grab the cash and get out before anyone can react. Instead, the cops are waiting for them when they leave the building. The ensuing shootout leaves cops and robbers dead and...
Somewhere in New Orleans’ Irish Channel, “The Channel” to its residents, Jamie wakes up from nightmares about his time in Afghanistan and gives his baby girl to her grandmother before hopping into a van like any other man heading off to work. And he is on his way to work, but the job site is a bank that he, his brother Mic, and several other ex-Marine buddies are about to rob.
It should be easy for a well-disciplined and heavily armed group of men. Get in, beat the vault code out of the manager, grab the cash and get out before anyone can react. Instead, the cops are waiting for them when they leave the building. The ensuing shootout leaves cops and robbers dead and...
- 8/4/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
There are many action thrillers out there where the makers pay a lot of attention to making the film more gritty and hard-hitting than the competition and hence there is a noticeable shortage of attention when it comes to the pacing and the performances. William Kaufman doesn’t make that mistake in The Channel, which he co-wrote with Paul Reichelt. With realistic action sequences and decent performances, The Channel stands out as a well-executed action thriller. It has elements of the heist sub-genre, but the sincere attempt to make the story work is what actually kept me hooked.
The Channel‘s plot revolves around two brothers, Jamie and Mic, who plan a heist with their ex-marine crew. The brothers are polar opposites of each other. Jamie has a girlfriend and a young baby, Joan, while Mic is a hard-boiled criminal with only chaos and mayhem on his mind. Their brotherly...
The Channel‘s plot revolves around two brothers, Jamie and Mic, who plan a heist with their ex-marine crew. The brothers are polar opposites of each other. Jamie has a girlfriend and a young baby, Joan, while Mic is a hard-boiled criminal with only chaos and mayhem on his mind. Their brotherly...
- 7/21/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
Nine years before he completed production on the multi-million dollar Disney remake of “Pete’s Dragon,” David Lowery was living out of the back of his car, editing corporate videos. The Dallas native directed his first feature, the little-seen “Lullaby,” at age 19. The ensuing years found him collaborating with a close-knit group of local film-savvy friends, but little in the way of upward mobility. “I never put a premium on making a living,” he told me in a recent phone conversation. “It was never one of those things that was important to me.”
Lowery’s work at the time suggests as much — it’s anything but commercial — and yet it provided him with an ideal platform for a massive career move as one of Disney’s newest secret weapons. “Pete’s Dragon,” a $60 million re-imagining of the 1977 live-action-animated musical film, has all the hallmarks of Lowery’s earlier work: a serene,...
Lowery’s work at the time suggests as much — it’s anything but commercial — and yet it provided him with an ideal platform for a massive career move as one of Disney’s newest secret weapons. “Pete’s Dragon,” a $60 million re-imagining of the 1977 live-action-animated musical film, has all the hallmarks of Lowery’s earlier work: a serene,...
- 8/9/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Features to shoot in the region include Steven Spielberg’s The Bfg and Tommy’s Honour.
Film Edinburgh has reported a record breaking year for film productions in the region.
In the last 12 months, the local film commission for Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders has reported an economic impact of more than £6.6m ($9.7m) generated from filming in the city region - a 27% rise on 2014.
It marks the highest economic impact return in the organisation’s 25-year history and was a direct result of two major TV dramas - BBC Productions’ One Of Us and The Secret Agent - and feature film Tommy’s Honour, each basing their entire production schedules in Edinburgh.
A total of 353 productions completed in 2015, marginally down (3%) on last year’s figures. But conversion rates from filming enquires to completed productions increased by 3% year-on-year.
Other major film and TV productions to shoot on location in the region this year included [link=tt...
Film Edinburgh has reported a record breaking year for film productions in the region.
In the last 12 months, the local film commission for Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders has reported an economic impact of more than £6.6m ($9.7m) generated from filming in the city region - a 27% rise on 2014.
It marks the highest economic impact return in the organisation’s 25-year history and was a direct result of two major TV dramas - BBC Productions’ One Of Us and The Secret Agent - and feature film Tommy’s Honour, each basing their entire production schedules in Edinburgh.
A total of 353 productions completed in 2015, marginally down (3%) on last year’s figures. But conversion rates from filming enquires to completed productions increased by 3% year-on-year.
Other major film and TV productions to shoot on location in the region this year included [link=tt...
- 1/5/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Jean Arthur films on TCM include three Frank Capra classics Five Jean Arthur films will be shown this evening, Monday, January 5, 2015, on Turner Classic Movies, including three directed by Frank Capra, the man who helped to turn Arthur into a major Hollywood star. They are the following: Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; George Stevens' The More the Merrier; and Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night. One the most effective performers of the studio era, Jean Arthur -- whose film career began inauspiciously in 1923 -- was Columbia Pictures' biggest female star from the mid-'30s to the mid-'40s, when Rita Hayworth came to prominence and, coincidentally, Arthur's Columbia contract expired. Today, she's best known for her trio of films directed by Frank Capra, Columbia's top director of the 1930s. Jean Arthur-Frank Capra...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Scottish capital takes new steps in a bid to boost production.
The City of Edinburgh Council has approved a new film charter that aims to increase clarity with a more simplified process for filmmakers considering the Scottish capital as a potential location for future projects.
Edinburgh was one of the first UK cities to introduce a film charter in 1999 and the latest version has been further enhanced with a discount being offered for key city unit bases for major film productions.
The new charter also outlines in detail the key responsibilities for the capital’s regional film commission, Film Edinburgh, including facilitating requests and offering advice and support to all productions of every scale in the city, East Lothian and Scottish Borders.
Rosie Ellison, film manager for Film Edinburgh explained: “The Film Charter gives clarity to crucial structures within the city that will ensure all filming enquires are dealt with as efficiently as possible. For example...
The City of Edinburgh Council has approved a new film charter that aims to increase clarity with a more simplified process for filmmakers considering the Scottish capital as a potential location for future projects.
Edinburgh was one of the first UK cities to introduce a film charter in 1999 and the latest version has been further enhanced with a discount being offered for key city unit bases for major film productions.
The new charter also outlines in detail the key responsibilities for the capital’s regional film commission, Film Edinburgh, including facilitating requests and offering advice and support to all productions of every scale in the city, East Lothian and Scottish Borders.
Rosie Ellison, film manager for Film Edinburgh explained: “The Film Charter gives clarity to crucial structures within the city that will ensure all filming enquires are dealt with as efficiently as possible. For example...
- 4/8/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Austin Film Society will begin a series this weekend spotlighting the best in New Romanian Cinema with Child's Pose, which won the Golden Bear for best film at last year's Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Luminita Gheorghiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and plays tonight and again Sunday afternoon at the Marchesa.
Meanwhile, Richard Linklater's incredible Jewels In The Wasteland series continues this week with Godard's Every Man For Himself on Wednesday night. Linklater will introduce the film and lead an audience discussion after the screening.
On Monday night, Tiger Tail In Blue is screening at the Marchesa thanks to Afs. Local filmmaker Andrew Bujalski will moderate a post-film Skype Q&A with director and lead actor Frank Ross. The indie film was nominated for a Gotham Award for "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" and we're lucky to have a theater to bring movies like this to town.
- 3/28/2014
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
Title: Autoerotic Directors: Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Amy Seimetz, Lane Hughes, Kris Swanberg, Ti West, Frank Ross, Megan Mercier A darkly comedic anthology look at the sexual confusion, appetite, insecurity and frustration of a group of modern-day Chicago couples, Autoerotic is an at once breezy and deadpan little indie film that doesn’t overstay its welcome but instead delivers a few pin-prick precision assaults on both masculine and feminine foibles and preoccupations, and then skitters away, pleased and laughing quietly to itself. It’s a subversive, mumblecore-type exploration of the boundaries of self-pleasure, and a nice little cinematic aperitif that could slot nicely with any number of tonier Hollywood explorations of lust...
- 7/24/2011
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
There was a time when Joel and Ethan Coen, so rightfully highly regarded for their original screenplays and films, found their impeccable track record muddied by a brief rash of remakes and story adaptations. While this one-two punch of “Intolerable Cruelty” and “The Ladykillers” did them no favors roughly a decade ago, the triumph of their 2006 Cormac McCarthy adaptation and Oscar winner “No Country for Old Men” seemed to clarify that the primary fault of the former films may’ve been that they aren’t Westerns. (Yes, I’m one of those who consider “No Country…” a Western, if only perhaps a fringe one. Let’s go with “neo-western/noir”.) Taking any such lesson as that to heart, the Coen brothers are back, this time with an even higher-profile Western adaptation, “True Grit”…read more [TwichFilm]
Jeff Bridges as Marshal Reuben J. Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in Paramount Pictures...
Jeff Bridges as Marshal Reuben J. Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in Paramount Pictures...
- 12/26/2010
- by Allan Ford
- Filmofilia
What happens when the Coen Brothers make a western? Ron finds out, as he checks out True Grit...
Leave it to the Coen Brothers to surprise the world with what they don't do, rather than what they do. When you think of the Coens, you have a sense of what to expect. True Grit contains none of that: no real snappy dialogue exchanges, no exceptionally quirky side characters, no elements of film noir, and no peculiar set pieces with strange camera angles and general weirdness. Instead, True Grit is a western, nothing else.
Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a 14-year-old girl, is sent to town to collect the dead body of her father, Frank Ross. Frank was a good man who was double-crossed by a hired hand by the name of Tom Chaney. Chaney, deep in the drink, lost his money at cards and robbed and killed Frank Ross in the middle of town.
Leave it to the Coen Brothers to surprise the world with what they don't do, rather than what they do. When you think of the Coens, you have a sense of what to expect. True Grit contains none of that: no real snappy dialogue exchanges, no exceptionally quirky side characters, no elements of film noir, and no peculiar set pieces with strange camera angles and general weirdness. Instead, True Grit is a western, nothing else.
Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a 14-year-old girl, is sent to town to collect the dead body of her father, Frank Ross. Frank was a good man who was double-crossed by a hired hand by the name of Tom Chaney. Chaney, deep in the drink, lost his money at cards and robbed and killed Frank Ross in the middle of town.
- 12/26/2010
- Den of Geek
The Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit may be getting two more stars for its posse. As reported by Variety, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are currently in negotiations to join Jeff Bridges, who will be playing U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn.
The story of True Grit, based on a novel by Charles Portis, revolves around a spunky 14-year-old named Mattie Ross, who hires the larger-than-life Cogburn to track down the man who killed her father. Brolin, who starred in the Coens’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, is said to be in line to play Tom Chaney, the hired-hand who murders Frank Ross, Mattie’s father.
Damon is in talks to play a lawman who joins the mis-matched Mattie and Cogburn as their hunt takes them into hostile Indian territory. Mattie, who is the main character in the book, has yet to be cast.
The hard-drinking, one-eyed, fast-shooting Rooster Cogburn...
The story of True Grit, based on a novel by Charles Portis, revolves around a spunky 14-year-old named Mattie Ross, who hires the larger-than-life Cogburn to track down the man who killed her father. Brolin, who starred in the Coens’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, is said to be in line to play Tom Chaney, the hired-hand who murders Frank Ross, Mattie’s father.
Damon is in talks to play a lawman who joins the mis-matched Mattie and Cogburn as their hunt takes them into hostile Indian territory. Mattie, who is the main character in the book, has yet to be cast.
The hard-drinking, one-eyed, fast-shooting Rooster Cogburn...
- 10/27/2009
- CinemaSpy
Actors Matt "The Departed" Damon and Josh "Jonah Hex" Brolin are in talks to join actor Jeff "Wild Bill" Bridges in the upcoming re-imagining of Paramount Pictures' True Grit, prepping for a March 2010 start, directed by the Coen Brothers. Producers are Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg. The Coens' screenplay is reportedly more faithful to author Charles Portis' 1968 novel than the 1978 feature starring Oscar-winning John Wayne as 'Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn'. "True Grit" by Portis, first appeared as a 1968 serial in The Saturday Evening Post magazine, subsequently re-issued in book form, narrated in the first person by 'Mattie Ross', a churchgoing spinster distinguished by her rare independence and 'strength of mind'. As an elderly woman in 1928, Mattie tells the story of her adventures from 1873, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father.s death at the hands of a drifter named 'Tom Chaney'.
- 10/26/2009
- HollywoodNorthReport.com
Variety is reporting Martin Scorsese has agreed to direct the biopic Sinatra for Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures with Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) writing the script based on the life of the iconic entertainer. Universal and Mandalay have acquired the Frank Sinatra life rights and music rights from Frank Sinatra Enterprises, but there is no word on what exactly will serve as material for the screenplay. Sinatra was an American singer and actor who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his part in From Here to Eternity and was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1945 The House I Live In, which he shared with Frank Ross, Mervyn LeRoy, Albert Maltz and Earl Robinson. For more on his career check out his Wikipedia entry.
- 5/13/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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