Noticias

There are few people in the film industry that have had the type of early career as Benjamin Cleary. You may not know his name yet, but the filmmaker has already earned an Oscar for his 2015 live-action short film, “Stutterer.” And to kick off his feature filmmaking ventures, with the upcoming “Swan Song,” he’s already signed up two of the best actors working today and partnered with one of the richest studios on the planet.

Continue reading ‘Swan Song’: Mahershala Ali & Naomie Harris To Star In Apple’s Upcoming Film at The Playlist.

If our review of this year’s Oscar-nominated live-action shorts is any indication, the Academy got it right when handing their award to Benjamin Cleary‘s Stutterer. We summed up the best of the bunch by saying, “Cleary provides his character a fully realized history in but twelve minutes of real estate by letting these questions sit hidden behind audience assumptions. And [Matthew] Needham dives deep to silently ask them so that we only realize once the answer is known. Many movies fail because they’re defined by their ending. Others excel because their ending reveals how deceivingly complex the rest truly was.”

And now one can see Stutterer for themselves, thanks to The New Yorker. Be sure to pair your viewing with a piece from No Film School, wherein Cleary details his struggles: a tiny budget, a short schedule, inexperience, and numerous festival rejections — none of which typically lead to exposure,...

Twenty-two emerging producers to receive up to £2.2m; almost 500 applicants.Scroll Down For Recipients

The BFI has announced the recipients of its 2016-18 Vision Awards, comprising 22 investments in up-and-coming UK producers.

The awards, generally spread over two years, are designed to enable producers to build and develop their companies, slates and creative relationships.

The BFI had intended to give 20 awards but increased that allocation to 22 in response to the number of strong applications it received. Almost 500 companies applied for the awards, which are backed by a total commitment from the BFI of £2.2m of National Lottery funding.

Fifteen of the awards are to women producers or partnerships, while eight of the companies are based outside of London, located in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and York.

In a bid to foster sustainability, the third iteration of the Vision Awards will include an allowance to cover a producer’s fees and overheads of up to half...

Another awards season came to a close on Sunday night when the annual Academy Awards were held in Hollywood from the Dolby Theatre. With many of the categories and ultimate winners anyone’s guess up until the end, there were many highlights from the big night. From the red carpet to the performances, check out our look at the best moments from the 88th Oscars.

George Miller and Margaret Sixel.

1. Big winner of the 88th Oscars was George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. The film received the most wins with six, including Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. Oh What A Lovely Day!

Mark Rylance poses backstage with the Oscar®

2. The shock of the night was Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar loss for Creed. While all the precursor awards pointed to a win for the Rocky actor,...

The winners of the 88th Annual Academy Awards have been announced, the biggest award Best Picture went to 'Spotlight.' 'The Revenant' took home the Best Director Oscar for Alejandro González Iñárritu, making Iñárritu the third director in history to win back-to-back directing and Leonardo DiCaprio finally got his Oscar for Best Actor (and there was much rejoicing).

Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki also won his third Best Cinematography Oscar in a row for 'The Revenant.' 'Mad Max: Fury Road' was the big winner of the night for most awards, sweeping the technical categories to earn six Oscars, including Best Production Design.

It was a great year for Irish talent picking up nominations but only Stutterer, which was directed by Irishman Benjamin Cleary managed to pick up a award in Best Short Film (Live Action). The short can be viewed on the Rte player here.

With all the talk of Leonardo DiCaprio...

Welcome to the 88th Academy Awards from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, where the film industry’s best and whitest gather for the annual celebration of motion picture achievements. It’s been a tight race this year, with several contests still too close to call.

The Revenant is the favourite to win best picture heading into the ceremony, with 12 nominations, however don’t be surprised if Mad Max: Fury Road, The Big Short, or Spotlight spring a surprise.

The backdrop to this evening’s proceedings – along with the foreground and everything above it, below it, to the left and to the right of it – has been dominated by the #OscarsSoWhite outrage, which erupted back in January when, for the second year in a row, all 20 acting nominees were white.

The ensuing maelstrom triggered jerky knees in the Academy, which has moved to alter its composition and the way it does business going forward.

Time will tell. Meanwhile...

On Tuesday evening, The Academy kicked off Oscar Week. In the final days leading up to Oscar Sunday, movie fans will be offered throughout the week a up-close look with a series of public programs celebrating this year’s nominees in the Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Animated and Live Action Short Film categories.

Hosted by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Oscar Nominated for Kung Fu Panda 2, and director of Kung Fu Panda 3, the evening spotlighted the Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories.

The “Oscar Week: Shorts” event, held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, featured a screening of all 10 nominated shorts in their entirety, as well as discussions with all of the nominated filmmakers.

On the heels of breaking box office records for this year’s Oscar nominated short films in theaters across the country,...

Set against the backdrop of war or the rigor of religious parameters, several of the Academy Award-nominated shorts this year aim to dissect larger ideas within their limited scope. Yet, one of the five selected works, Benjamin Cleary’s “Stutterer,” is a character study that centers its attention on a regular individual and how his idiosyncratic struggles shape his interpersonal interactions. Cleary’s film is a intimate portrait of a young man eager to express a myriad of ideas and complex emotions, but who is unable to do so by a speech impediment that traps him in his own thoughts. Through evocative voiceover, expertly executed sound design, and a delightful musical score that’s hard to ignore, Greenwood (Matthew Needham), the protagonist, comes alive on the screen, insecurities an all, in a way that goes beyond mere words.

“Stutterer” is Cleary’s first short film and it proudly represents the independent filmmaking spirit. Its production was a true labor of love that had only a couple thousand dollars to bring it all together and relied on the filmmaker and his team’s willingness to go to great lengths to bring it to fruition. An Oscar nomination for a film like this exemplifies that sometimes passion for the craft and an intimate, character-driven premise are the right weapons to stand out and reach unimaginable recognition.

We had the pleasure to chat with Cleary about his fascination with communication, renting out his apartment to finish the film, and what the Oscar nomination changes in his career.

Carlos Aguilar: The film is centered around Greenwood, this peculiar young man who finds it challenging to communicate verbally, how was this character born and why did you find his situation so captivating?

Benjamin Cleary: One day I was online and I came across this guy who was talking about his own stutter. He’d kind of gotten to the point where he was able to speak to people face to face relatively fine, but when he got the phone he just found it very difficult to communicate. I think he was talking about how hard it was because it was just his voice and he didn’t have anyone there to make eye contact with. It was a real barrier for him. That image just really struck a chord with me. It stayed with me and I started thinking about what it would be like for someone in this world dealing with that sort of disadvantage in terms of communication. That was really were the character was born from. A friend of mind growing up had a bad stutter when we were younger and I also started thinking about that. I remember that was very difficult for him. It’s hard enough growing up and navigate life as a boy and then into your teens without having this additional thing, so I supposed it was something that was personally close to me as well. These two things combined.

CA: Tell me about the idea of Greenwood's internal voice. We hear his thoughts and get to know him that way, but he can translate them into spoken words and that alienates from mainstream society.

Benjamin Cleary: I can’t remember exactly at what point that came into play but I think that was one of the things that really interested me as I started developing the idea because in reality I think that’s exactly how it can be. Someone who has this stutter finds it hard to get the words out, but the words are there. They are completely there. I just really wanted to try, in someone way, to represent that on film and the voiceover seemed like the best way to show the disparity between his inner and outer existences. On the inside he is this quite wonderful, charismatic, witty, and intelligent person. On the outside he is shies away from actually speaking to anyone. For me that was one of the things that really hooked me into the idea and kept me really interested going for it. Hopefully it represents what it actually would be like in someway. I can’t speak from personal experience, but in a lot of the research I did that was something people talked about.

CA: He also has an online voice, which is humorous and sarcastic. Online he can be truly himself without fear.

Benjamin Cleary: Totally, and I’m fascinated with how we communicate online. It’s something that’s relatively new to us, and it's still very much developing and it really interests me. Early on in the development of the character it occurred to me that maybe he would have an online relationship whereby he was completely fluent. Both the way he talks and the way Ellie responds to him are very quick. They don't take much time to respond. There is a real fluency and a real quick conversational nature to them online, that was something that I was keen to get across. This is were Greenwood feels comfortable to express himself with her. Tying this in with social media or online communication was an interesting thing to explore.

CA: The ending caught by surprise. Greenwood has trouble communicating, yet he is putting so much effort into learning a new skill that will allow him not to feel lonely. Where did the idea for this subtle twist come from? It definitely emphasizes the theme of communication.

Benjamin Cleary: When you set up a twist I guess you want it to feel organic and not to feel contrived. That’s hard to do and a lot of it comes down to the writing of it first and then the editing of it. You got to make sure that in the edit you put in these little clues or these little things that are going to feed into the end. You have to do it as subtly as you can, but it’s a fine line. I think some people have definitely said, “Oh I saw that coming,” but hopefully most people don’t see it coming. It’s hard to say where that came from but it just felt right and it was something I got in my head very early on. I think that, in general, the scripts that I really stay with are ones where the ending has come quite early on in the writing process. It’s like, “Ok, I know how I can end this. How do I get there?” rather than writing it and seeing where it goes. That ending was something I had quite early on in the process.

CA: He also makes quick observations, or "snap judgements" as he calls them, about people he sees on the street, would you say that the fact that he can’t communicate verbally as easily as most people makes this observations sharper?

Benjamin Cleary: Totally and I think it ties in with how quick he is online with his communication. I think he is on a “snap judgment” 1200 and something and this point. He’s become a seasoned pro at it. For me it’s showing that quickness of mind, but there is a sadness to it as well. He sees these people and he makes these, either funny or touching, observations, but in reality he's never going to go up to them to say these to them. That was something quite emotional for me. I think it’s something a lot of us can in some way empathize with.

CA: Sound, particularly near ending, is a key element in the film and how we learn about Greenwood's internal state. Was sound and the the atmosphere is creates something that was part of the story early on?

Benjamin Cleary: Definitely. That was all in the script. I come from a sound background. I did sound engineering and music technology for a few years prior to getting into film. I really think about the audio very much so in the script. The idea of that rising cacophony towards the end was something that I was really excited about, but also nervous about how we were going to pull it off. Luckily we had a really good guy, Gustaf Jackson, who did our sound mix for us. He and I just got it all together. Matthew Needham, the actor, was amazing when we brought him into the studio. I got him to read a huge page of stuff I’ve written, I stitched it all together in the edit, then Gustaf help me make it all feel slightly seamless. Audio was a massive consideration from very early on. I’m really please with how it worked for the film.

CA: Tell me about working with Matthew Needham, there are two parts to his performance, the one we see on screen and the one hear as voiceover. He definitely carries the film single-handedly.

Benjamin Cleary: Yes that was an interesting one because he is playing two parts in a sense. Within a couple of minutes of meeting Matthew Needham I just thought, “Yes, this guy’s got it.” He was talking about the script with real insight and passion. He really liked it and he really got it. He was a pleasure to work with. For me, he is the film and I think he gives a really touching performance. Then going into the post and having to do the voiceover, I think it was incredible how he was able to represent a completely different side to the character, I personally think, very effectively. That was a lot of fun actually, having the stuff we did on set and then in post having to come with this other feeling for the performance. I think he did a great job.

CA: Tell me the trials and tribulations of making "Stutterer." I've read that you really sacrifice comfort and financial stability in order to make it a reality.

Benjamin Cleary: Obviously the budget was really low and it was self-funded. When it got to the point that we just needed a little bit more money to finish I subletted my room in my flat for a couple of months. I was able to do that thanks to the great generosity of a big group of friend who would let me couch surf in different houses. When a bed would come up they’d me on the phone, “Hey we are going to be away for a few days, come over and stay.” It was great and we used that money that I would have used to pay rent for the film instead. All the people that helped out were just amazing. It was a really nice team effort in that way.

CA: You really have to believe in the idea and its potential in order to be willing to sleep on a different couch every night in order to finish the project.

Benjamin Cleary: [Laughs] Yes, but let me tell you, there were some days at 6 in the morning sitting in the studio that I just thought, “What am I doing? Should I just stop and not go any further?” But something kept us going and the people around me were amazing, my producers Serena Armitage and Shan Christopher Ogilvie, Michael Paleodimos our Dp, and Nico Casal the musical composer. Those people kept me going and kept me believing in the film in those dark moments. Luckily it all worked out in the end.

CA: Do you have any plans to turn "Stutterer" into a feature-length project? It seems that's a common occurrence now, for a filmmaker to adapt his short into a larger version of the story.

Benjamin Cleary: Yes that seems to be quite a common thing happening these days, but “Stutterer” was always its own story. I got a feature in development that’s linked to it thematically. I’m fascinated by the theme of communication and I’ve got a film that’s linked in that sense but not specifically to any of the elements in the short film. I think “Stutterer” is just going to stay as is it, but thematically I’ll be exploring similar things.

CA: The Oscar nomination is already a major achievement in your career. How does this change things for you as a filmmaker going forward?

Benjamin Cleary: We are all still in mild shock. We never thought the film was going to get anywhere near here. It’s quite lovely and quite amazing, and a great tribute to all of the people who worked on it and did such a good job. In terms of what it changes, hopefully it’s going to open some doors. It’s my first film, so I’m really starting out my career and I hope that this is going to be a good springboard. I’m already meeting some really great people and hopefully it’s going to be great for everyone who was involved in the film.

You can watch "Stutterer" as part of Shorts HD's theatrical release of the 2016 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action playing in theaters across the country now.

The 88th Annual Academy Awards are just around the corner on Sunday evening, so once again, it’s time to lay down my predictions for who has the best chance of winning in each of the 24 categories, along with a bit of analysis as to why they appear to be the frontrunners. As usual, I’ll start from the smallest categories and work my way up, so let’s get started:

Best Animated Short Film

“Bear Story” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala

“Prologue” Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton

“Sanjay’s Super Team” Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle

“We Can’t Live without Cosmos” Konstantin Bronzit

“World of Tomorrow” Don Hertzfeldt

Best Live Action Short Film

“Ave Maria” Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont

“Day One” Henry Hughes

“Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)” Patrick Vollrath

“Shok” Jamie Donoughue

“Stutterer” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage

Best Documentary Short Subject

“Body Team 12...

Oscar is only 9 days away! So it's time for 9 lists with the magic number 9. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine.

According to this website there are 9 Irish nominees this year? Kiss them!

I can only find six though. Maybe they meant all Room & Brooklyn noms (6) plus actors (2) plus short film (1)? 

Best Picture Ed Guiney, Room 

Best Actress Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Best Director Lenny Abrahamson, Room  

Best Adapted Screenplay Emma Donoghue, Room

Best Live Action Short Benjamin Cleary, Stutterer 

The 9 best movies of all time that received exactly 9 nominations (in chronological order, *indicates Best Picture winner)

1941 Citizen Kane

1951 A Place in the Sun

1969 They Shoot Horses Don't They?

1979 All That Jazz

1979 Kramer vs Kramer *

1992 Howards End

2002 The Hours

2009 The Hurt Locker*

2013 12 Years a Slave*

more after the jump...

“Day One” is a wartime drama the likes of which we have not seen before, with a marvelous Layla Alizada as an interpreter with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

It’s really tough for me to pick a single best film among the excellent crop of Oscar nominees for Best Live Action Short. They are all very personal, even when the backdrops of some are huge conflicts. That’s probably necessary when telling a story in a small space, but it helps to make all of them feel very intimate; even the ones most remote from my own experience instantly felt recognizable. If these five films — the longest of which is only 30 minutes, and most are much shorter — can be said to have a unifying theme, it’s this: We’re not alone.

Ahead of the Academy Awards, we’re reviewing each short category. See the Live Action section below and the other shorts sections here.

Ave Maria – Palestine/France/Germany – 15 minutes

Director Basil Khalil and co-writer Daniel Yáñez have come up with a cutely comic conceit for their short film Ave Maria. It’s the West Bank—miles from civilization—and a car carrying a Jewish man, his wife, and his mother crashes into a Catholic church run by five Arab nuns who have taken a vow of silence. If everyone follows the rites of their religion, the women able to help the family mustn’t talk and the family, who realize that it’s now the Shabbat, can’t operate any machinery necessary to move along. It’s quite the conundrum for the devout and a perfect recipe for discovering a common ground as human beings with enough laughs to keep us entertained for the duration.

Stutterer, which stars Mattehw Needham and Chloe Pirrie, tells the story of a lonely typographer with a cruel speech impediment but an eloquent inner voice, who must face his greatest fear…

In this podcast/interview Nerdly writer and host of the Britflicks podcast, Stuart Wright, speaks to Stutterer director – nominated for Best Short, Live Action at the 88th Academy Awards – Benjamin Cleary.

ShortsHD, the Only Short Film Channel (www.shorts.tv), working with Magnolia Pictures, will open “The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016” on over 400 screens across the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America on Friday January 29, 2016. “The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016” will showcase the Live Action, Animation and Documentary short film nominees compilation as three separate theatrical events.

This marks the 11th year of the Oscar nominated short films theatrical experience and is the only opportunity for audiences to watch the nominated short films prior to the 88th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, February 28, 2016.

In 2015, the Oscar Nominated Short Films earned over $2.4 million worldwide, nearly doubling from just a few years prior. One of the most diverse categories in Academy consideration, this year’s Oscar® Nominated Short Films feature with projects originating from United States, France, Germany, Palestine, United Kingdom, Kosovo, Austria, Chile, Russia, Liberia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Canada.

“Films...

The London Film Critics Circle Awards were held last night across the Atlantic as something of a calmer arthouse alternative to the multiplex-lusting Critics Choice Awards here in the States, though they did share one winner: George Miller took Best Director for Mad Max Fury Road. We're trying not to think of him as the frontrunner here at Tfe because it would be the most anomalous Best Director win of our lifetimes and too satisfying. Could it actually happen?

Judging on photos of the event, Kate Winslet was the main attraction of the night.

The Winners 

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road British/Irish Film: 45 Years Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road Actress: Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years Actor: Tom Courtenay, 45 Years British/Irish Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies Young British/Irish Performer: Maisie Williams, The Falling (supposedly this girls...

British actors, directors and films won most of the main awards.Scroll down for full list of winners

Mad Max: Fury Road took film of the year and best director for George Miller at the 36th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards ceremony at the May Fair Hotel on Sunday night.

45 Years took the Attenborough Award for best British/Irish film. Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay were also honoured as actress and actor of the year for their performances in Andrew Haigh’s film.

While Mad Max won in the top two categories, British actors, directors and films won nearly all of the other main awards. Alongside Rampling and Courtenay’s awards, Tom Hardy was named British/Irish actor of the year for his roles in several films, including Fury Road, The Revenant and Legend, while Saoirse Ronan took the British/Irish actress award for Brooklyn.

Kate Winslet won supporting actress for Steve Jobs, Mark Rylance supporting...

Tom Hardy received three nods for his roles in Legend, The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road.Scroll down for full list

Toddy Haynes’ Carol leads this year’s London Critics’ Circle awards with seven nominations, with Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years receiving six.

Tom Hardy has received three acting nominations: best actor for Legend, supporting actor for The Revenant and British actor of the year for his roles in the aforementioned two as well as Mad Max: Fury Road.

Fury Road, along with Steve Jobs and The Revenant, received five nominations.

Brooklyn, Room and Bifa-winner Ex Machina garnered four apiece.

The winners will be revealed at a ceremony on January 17 at London’s May Fair Hotel.

At last year’s awards, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood won both best film and director.

Full list of nominees

Film Of The Year

45 Years

Amy

Carol

Inside Out

The Look of Silence

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

[link...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 live action short films will advance in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards. One hundred forty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“Ave Maria,” Basil Khalil, director, and Eric Dupont, producer (Incognito Films)

“Bad Hunter,” Sahim Omar Kalifa, director, and Dries Phlypo, producer (A Private View)

“Bis Gleich (Till Then),” Philippe Brenninkmeyer, producer, and Tara Lynn Orr, writer (avenueROAD Films)

“Contrapelo (Against the Grain),” Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, director, and Pin-Chun Liu, producer (Ochenta y Cinco Films)

“Day One,” Henry Hughes, director (American Film Institute)

“Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut),” Patrick Vollrath, director (Filmakademie Wien)

“The Free Man (Zi You Ren),” Quah Boon-Lip, director (Taipei National University of the Arts)

“Shok,” Jamie Donoughue, director (Eagle Eye Films)

“Stutterer,” Benjamin Cleary, director (Bare Golly Films)

“Winter Light,...

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences announced on Thursday the shortlists for both categories.

The live-action selections were culled from 144 eligible submissions while there were 60 for animation.

Members of the short films and feature animation branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting and will next select five nominees.

Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 10 live-action films appear below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

Ave Maria, Basil Khalil, director, and Eric Dupont, producer (Incognito Films);

Bad Hunter, Sahim Omar Kalifa, director, and Dries Phlypo, producer (A Private View);

Bis Gleich (Till Then), Philippe Brenninkmeyer, producer, and Tara Lynn Orr, writer (avenueROAD Films);

Contrapelo (Against the Grain), Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, director, and Pin-Chun Liu, producer (Ochenta y Cinco Films);

Day One, Henry Hughes, director (American Film Institute);

Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut), Patrick Vollrath, director (Filmakademie...

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences announced on Thursday its shortlist from 144 submissions.

Members of the short films and feature animation branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting and will next select five nominees.

Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 10 films appear below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies: 

Ave Maria, Basil Khalil, director, and Eric Dupont, producer (Incognito Films);

Bad Hunter, Sahim Omar Kalifa, director, and Dries Phlypo, producer (A Private View);

Bis Gleich (Till Then), Philippe Brenninkmeyer, producer, and Tara Lynn Orr, writer (avenueROAD Films);

Contrapelo (Against the Grain), Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, director, and Pin-Chun Liu, producer (Ochenta y Cinco Films);

Day One, Henry Hughes, director (American Film Institute);

Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut), Patrick Vollrath, director (Filmakademie Wien);

The Free Man (Zi You Ren), Quah Boon-Lip, director (Taipei...