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Kicking off on Jan. 17 with the world premiere of Philippe de Chauveron’s “Serial Bad Weddings 2,” the 21st edition of the UniFrance Rendez-Vous in Paris will showcase a flurry of French comedies, biopics and a raft of documentaries.

The Rendez-Vous in Paris, organized by the promotion org UniFrance, will take place over five days and will bring together 481 buyers from 56 countries, as well as 45 French sales companies.

Besides “Serial Bad Weddings 2,” the sequel of the smash hit film which grossed over $148 million, the anticipated comedy highlights set to have their market premieres at the Rendez-Vous include Hugo Gelin’s “Love at Second Sight,” Philippe Lacheau’s “City Hunter,” Eric Lavaine’s “No Filter,” Lisa Azuelos’s “Sweetheart,” Louis-Julien Petit’s “Invisibles” and Bertrand Blier’s “Heavy Duty.”

Sold by Studiocanal, “Love at Second Sight” is a romantic comedy which marks Gelin’s follow-up to the Omar Sy starrer “Two is a Family.

American actor and voiceover artist who enjoyed a breakthrough role in the 1987 film RoboCop and played the FBI forensic expert Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks

Miguel Ferrer, who has died aged 61 after suffering from throat cancer, was an engaging character actor adept at portraying over-the-top, obsessive villains, often flamboyantly likable, as typified by his breakthrough film role in RoboCop (1987), as Bob Morton, the coke-snorting designer of the automated policeman. He was even better cast as a hero’s abrasive, acerbic and difficult boss or colleague, as in the hit television show Twin Peaks, with Ferrer as the FBI forensic expert Albert Rosenfield.

Although he found success as a jobbing actor and voice talent, Ferrer started his career in music. He was born in Santa Monica, California, into Hollywood royalty. His father, José Ferrer, won the best-actor Oscar in 1951 for Cyrano de Bergerac; his mother was Rosemary Clooney, one of America...

Moments ago, the sad news of actor Miguel Ferrer’s passing has cast a shadow on an already intense afternoon. Famous for lending his unique talents to a wide array of both live-action and animated film projects, the legendary actor passed on after fighting to the end against cancer. He was 61-years-old. As the son of Oscar-winning Cyrano de Bergerac actor Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney... Read More...

Miguel Ferrer has passed away from cancer at 61-years-old. The “NCIS: Los Angeles” star’s rep confirmed the sad news to Et Canada on Thursday. The son of Hollywood star Jose Ferrer (“Cyrano de Bergerac”) and famed singer Rosemary Clooney, Ferrer appeared in numerous films and TV series throughout his acting career that began in the 1980s […]...

The Mad Magician

3-D Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 72 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor, John Emery, Donald Randolph, Lenita Lane, Patrick O’Neal, Jay Novello, Corey Allen, Conrad Brooks, Tom Powers, Lyle Talbot.

Cinematography: Bert Glennon

Editor: Grant Whytock

Original Music: Arthur Lange, Emil Newman

Written by: Crane Wilbur

Produced by: Bryan Foy

Directed by John Brahm

Twilight Time, bless ’em, hands us another treat to go with their 3-D discs of Man in the Dark, Miss Sadie Thompson and Harlock Space Pirate 3-D — and this time it’s a fun bit of 1950s horror — with a hot pair of short subject extras.

There have been plenty of theories as to why horror films became scarce after WW2; it’s as if the U.S. film industry took a ten-year break from the supernatural, and partly...

Viola Davis in ‘Fences’ (Courtesy: Paramount Pictures)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Viola Davis just caused a major shakeup in the best actress and best supporting actress Oscar races by deciding to compete in the latter, rather than the former, for her role as Rose Maxson in Denzel Washington’s directorial debut, Fences. This is mostly surprising because the How to Get Away With Murder star won the lead actress Tony Award in 2010—but has this switcheroo ever happened before?

Over the course of awards show history, there have been a grand total of nine actors and actresses that have won both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role from the same source material—so let’s take a look through these historic wins.

When looking at the actresses who have accomplished this, there have been three. The first was Shirley Booth for the role of Lola in Come Back,...

The Oscars' history of recognizing - and overlooking - minorities and women has led to milestone wins and headline-making controversies. For the second year in a row, only white actors were nominated in the acting categories, spurring a revival of last year's #OscarsSoWhite hashtag on social media, and prompting stars including Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith to vow to skip the show. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences itself acknowledged the problem following last Thursday's nominations announcement. Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement Monday saying she is "both heartbroken and frustrated" about the lack of diversity among...

The Oscars' history of recognizing - and overlooking - minorities and women has led to milestone wins and headline-making controversies. For the second year in a row, only white actors were nominated in the acting categories, spurring a revival of last year's #OscarsSoWhite hashtag on social media, and prompting stars including Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith to vow to skip the show. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences itself acknowledged the problem following last Thursday's nominations announcement. Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement Monday saying she is "both heartbroken and frustrated" about the lack of diversity among...

Steve Carell has received critical acclaim for his role as John du Pont in Foxcatcher, which has just premiered at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.

The Bennett Miller-directed drama is based on the true story of Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz, who seeks justice for his fellow champion brother Dave Schultz after he is killed by his paranoid schizophrenic coach du Pont.

Carell's performance has been described as "the definition of a career-redefining performance", and director Miller recently revealed that he was barely recognised after his first test screening due to his fake nose and aged appearance.

Does a fake nose equal critical acclaim and an Academy Award? Not always (Steve Martin in Roxanne was robbed!), but we've found 5 actors and actresses who've worn a prosthetic schnoz and gone on to win an Oscar below:

1. Robert De Niro for Raging Bull

Robert De Niro put on a reported 60lbs and quite sizable,...

By Mark Pinkert

Contributor

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This is the first article in a three-part series

In his 2006 Oscar acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor, George Clooney said the following about Hollywood as a forum for social change:

We’re the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. (About.com; “The Politics of George Clooney; Actor and Liberal Activist”)

Hollywood is often more progressive than other parts of the country, sure, and great films often lends pathos to social issues. They may even galvanize movements or rally support from previous non-believers. But there are other, extenuating facts we ought to consider before labeling Hollywood and the Academy the vanguard of social progress.

George Clooney is the kind of actor who can sneak into your casino and walk out with millions, save lives in surgery, and voice a sly, stealing fox.

This week we get to see Clooney up in space, acting his usual charming, slightly cocky self. In "Gravity" Clooney plays Matt Kowalski, a loquacious astronaut who blasts country music to feel close to home and rambles on about youthful memories.

While we've seen the Oscar winning actor for years on the big screen, there are probably a ton of things you didn't know about Clooney. From an aliment in his youth to his famous pet pig, check out these interesting facts about the star below.

1. In his youth Clooney worked in tobacco fields and took up smoking into his late 20s. He finally quit after one of his uncles died from lung cancer and has expressed his regret over it in many interviews.

A celebration of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kramer will kick off Friday, Aug. 9 with a newly restored print of “Death of a Salesman" at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, Calif. It is the first of 15 of Kramer’s films that will be presented over the coming weeks as part of the series "Champion: The Stanley Kramer Centennial,” running through Sept. 29—Kramer’s 100th birthday. The celebration is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program and will include guest appearances by Louis Gossett Jr., Tippi Hedren, and Fred Willard, among many others. Some of the fims screening include the Oscar-winners “High Noon,” “The Defiant Ones,” and “Cyrano de Bergerac.” A full schedule is available here. As a director and producer, Kramer was responsible for 35 films, many of which made stars of unknowns and were often viewed as...

If you’ve hunted around for movie bargains, you’ve probably seen some of Mill Creek Entertainment’s 50-Movie Packs on DVD. Apart from other great releases by Mill Creek, these packs are phenomenal boons to cinephiles looking to collect older titles.

There are three new packs available, and I want to not only let you in on a discount code, but I have one of the packs available for you to win.

I know a lot of people may be quick to overlook these packs, and not every movie included stands out as a major value, but there are some great titles in each of them, and fans of the genres will be pleasantly surprised by what they get out of the deal. I have to admit that there is something about seeing a 50-movie pack, especially when it doesn’t cost a couple of hundred dollars, or more,...

Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Jeanne Crain, A Letter to Three Wives DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards Pt.2: Foreign, Small, Controversial Movies Have Better Luck at the Oscars Since pre-1970 Directors Guild Award finalists often consisted of more than five directors, it was impossible to get an exact match for the DGA's and the Academy's lists of nominees. In the list below, the years before 1970 include DGA finalists (DGA) who didn't receive an Academy Award nod and, if applicable, those Academy Award-nominated directors (AMPAS) not found in the — usually much lengthier — DGA list. The label "DGA/AMPAS" means the directors in question received nominations for both the DGA Award and the Academy Award. The DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards list below goes from 1948 (the DGA Awards' first year) to 1952. Follow-up posts will cover the ensuing decades. The number in parentheses next to "DGA" indicates that year's number of DGA finalists if other than five.

My conversations with industry insiders and Academy members lead me to believe that Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) remains the favorite to win the best supporting actress Academy Award, despite — or perhaps even because of — the recent brouhaha over her “Consider” advertisements. In terms of statistical analysis, though, one can find cause for both confidence and concern about her Oscar prospects…

Cause for Concern: The BAFTA-ampas Disconnect

British voters are believed to make up a sizable portion of the Academy, and BAFTA Award winners — which were announced after the Oscars prior to 2000, and have been announced before them since then — usually correspond with Oscar winners. Therefore, it is certainly noteworthy that BAFTA didn’t like Leo’s performance enough to even nominate her for its best supporting actress award, but did like the one given by Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit“), her primary rival at the Oscars, enough to nominate her in its best actress category.

Oscar winners Christoph Waltz (above), Mo’Nique, Geoffrey Fletcher, Bob Murawski, Mark Boal, and Davis Guggenheim (right), and Oscar nominees Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Neill Blomkamp, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, Saoirse Ronan, Lee Daniels, Nick Hornby, and Jeremy Renner are some of the 135 film industryites invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2010 to the Academy’s roster of voting members. [Full list of Academy invitees.] Other invitees include Avatar‘s Zoe Saldana (but not Sam Worthington), James Gandolfini (his Welcome to the Rileys co-star Kristen Stewart will likely be invited in the very near future), Ryan Reynolds, and Adam Sandler, whose Grown Ups opened Friday to surprisingly good business. Both Miguel Ferrer and Sam Robards are children of Academy Award winners. The former is the son of Best Actor winner Jose Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac, 1950) and Rosemary Clooney; [...]...

So the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards took place last night... did you tune in? I hear it was a good show even though a lot of the winners were pretty much a given. 30 Rock and Mad Men both took home the big awards, but the hardware was spread out a bit more among other shows than in previous years. At any rate, just in case you missed it, we've got the full list of major award winners right here for you to review. Do you agree with the majority of the choices? For those who did watch the show, what were some of your favourite moments? What did you think of Neil Patrick Harris as the host? Check out the list of winners after the jump. Comedy Series "Entourage" "Family Guy "Flight of the Conchords" "How I Met Your Mother" "The Office" Winner: "30 Rock" "Weeds" Drama Series "Big Love" "Breaking Bad...

So another year has passed and its time for another round of awards for the people who make the television shows we like to watch.

Television is interesting these days. Never before have we seen such great, creative output. Never before have we been subjected to such drivel. It all gets paraded before us tonight, as we watch the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (handed out, it should be noted, by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) on CBS, CTV in Canada.

8:00

Interesting that the Emmys chose to introduce the 2009 edition of the Primetime awards by harkening back to the early days of television. Especially as the business of television has never been closer to a complete collapse. Oh, announcer who is trying so hard to sound like a TV host from the '50s. You don't sound at all like you're a three pack-a-day smoker.

8:01

Okay, here comes Neil Patrick Harris,...

Steven Spielberg's next film will be a remake of the 1950 classic "Harvey" starring James Stewart as a mild-mannered man who happens to have an invisible friend in the form of a 6-foot rabbit.

The original won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Josephine Hull. Stewart was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Jose Ferrer in "Cyrano De Bergerac."

The Spielberg film will focus more on the Mary Chase 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning play than an all-out remake of the 1950 movie. It will be a co-production between 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks.

The director will be working from the screenplay by bestselling novelist Jonathan Tropper ("How to Talk to a Widower," "Everything Changes"). This will be the author's first script.

"Harvey" is a perfect film for Spielberg to do. It's about the incredible power of the imagination, and why it's better to be nice than smart. Both themes evident in the director's oeuvre.