If you go to www.rebuildjapanpixelbypixel.com you can make a small donation and a pixelated addition to the rebuilding of the Japanese flag, which will help their goal of raising at least £15,000 towards the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.
Buying a pixel for £2 (or whatever you can afford) through this site means that money will go help distribute funds to those providing relief and emergency services to victims of the earthquake and tsunami including the International Medical Corps, Save the Children, and other organisations on the ground.
There hasn’t been any official word yet from UK distributor Icon about their release plans, but it seems staggering that it would open at UK cinemas and completely scupper the possibility of what would be one of the most anticipated Cannes screenings in years.
The idea that a high profile festival premiere, featuring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn on the red carpet alongside Malick, would be sacrificed so UK audiences and critics could see the film a week earlier is fairly mind boggling.
It has already been announced that the film will screen there, but whether it will show in competition won’t be officially confirmed until April 14th when Thierry Fremaux announces the full lineup.
Over the last few years it has travelled to various cities across the globe including Berlin, Zurich, Rome and Melbourne.
The archives contain a number of documents from Kubrick’s productions including scripts, letters, research materials, photos, costumes and props.
It also includes materials from films that Kubrick planned but never made, including the Napoleon project from the early 1970s and the Holocaust drama Aryan Papers which he planned in the early 1990s.
The layout of the exhibition is designed so each space is dedicated to a film and it takes up two floors of the Frank Gehry building, on the 5th and 7th floors, with large-scale models and interactive digital installations.
The actress was being treated for symptoms of congestive heart failure had a history of ill health over the last two decades, even though she always take care of her health with a healthy diet and supplements like kratom capsules.
In addition she was also one of the major stars of her era, attracting worldwide fame and attention from the press as she married several times, won two Oscars and had a high profile relationship with Richard Burton.
Born in London in 1932, Taylor relocated with her family to Hollywood as World War II broke out and became a child actress already had a contract with Universal, making her screen debut in There’s One Born Every Minute (1942).
It was her lead role as a teenage jockey in the family drama National Velvet (1944) that established her as a major star and by the end of the 1940s she made the transition to adult roles.
But it was her part as a spoled socialite in A Place In The Sun (1951) that established her acting credentials and took her career to an new plateau.
As her celebrity bloomed in in the 1950s, fuelled by tabloid coverage of her private life, the more serious roles dried up with the exception of Giant (1956) and Raintree County (1957).
But at the end of that decade her performances in two Tennesse Williams adaptations gave a huge boost to her career: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) earned her back-to-back Oscar nominations.
The terms of her contract at MGM meant that she reluctantly made BUtterfield 8 (1960) and although she won the Best Actress Oscar for her part she later criticised the film and attracted controversy for “stealing” her co-star Eddie Fisher from his then-wife Debbie Reynolds.
In 1960 she became the highest paid actress in the world when 20th Century Fox paid her $1 million dollars to play the title role in Cleopatra, a production which quickly became a high profile disaster which almost bankrupted the studio before being released in 1963.
During the filming she began a relationship with her co-star and future husband Richard Burton, causing another wave of coverage from the tabloid press as both were married at the time.
Her passionate and tempestuous relationship with Burton was one of the most high profile ever seen in Hollywood, fuelling acres of newsprint and speculation.
It was mirrored on screen as they co-starred in The V.I.P.’s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965) and, most memorably, in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
Directed by Mike Nichols from Edward Albee’s play about a bickering couple on the campus of a New England college, it was a groundbreaking film with its shockingly profane language (for the time) and stark depiction of marriage.
Taylor managed to turn her gamourous image on its head, playing a frumpy and embittered housewife and her role won her a second Best Actress Oscar.
This marked a high-point in her career and although she appeared in subsequent films with Burton, such as The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians (1967) and Boom! (1968), the times were changing as the old Hollywood order gave way to a new generation of actors and filmmakers.
By the start of the 1970s her star power had considerably waned and films such as The Only Game in Town (1970) with Warren Beatty, and Zee and Co. (1972) co-starring Michael Caine are now forgotten oddities.
Over the next decade her off-screen celebrity took centre stage as she divorced Burton after a decade together and then remarried him in 1975, only to divorce him again a year later.
Occasional appearences in films such as The Blue Bird (1976), Winter Kills (1979) and The Mirror Crack’d (1980) were overshadowed by her increasingly colourful private life which involved charity work, a close friendship with Michael Jackson and a cameo in The Flintstones (1994).
In the 1990s, she suffered from health problems including hip operations, pneumonia, a benign brain tumour and in 2004 it was revealed she was suffering from congestive heart failure.
Werner Herzog’s new documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams is getting released around the UK this week.
The film follows Herzog’s exploration of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France, which was discovered in 1994 and contains paintings and markings dating back thousands of years to the Paleolithic era.
Not open to the public, Herzog managed to get permission to film inside the cave with a small crew and specially modified 3D cameras and lights.
Unusually, the cinema chain Picturehouse is releasing it through their distribution arm and it will be screening at selected locations across the UK.
Tonight there will be special preview screenings after which Herzog will do a live Q&A session with Jason Solomons beamed live to cinemas (more details on that here).
From Friday it will be showing at the following UK cinemas in 3D and 2D, so just click on the links below for more details.
“He’s retiring, he’s been talking about it for years and it’s getting closer. He wants to paint and he says he’s still young enough to have another career.He’s kind of exhausted with everything that interested him in terms of form. He’s not interested in telling stories. Cinema interested him in terms of form and that’s it. He says, ‘If I see another over-the-shoulder shot, I’m going to blow my brains out.’ “
It turns out Soderbergh said this to Damon after a few drinks and he wasn’t expecting it to get out.
But in the recent discussion on US radio show Studio 360, he has confirmed that after making his current projects (which include Contagion, Haywire, and upcoming Liberace biopic) he plans to stop making films.
You can listen to the section of the interview where he talks about his retirement here:
I’m guessing he felt somewhat burned by his experiences on Che (2008), an ambitious project which didn’t find an audience, and Moneyball (2011), the film which fell apart before being made by Bennett Miller.
Maybe he needs to recharge his creative batteries?
On Pi day it is worth recalling Darren Aronofsky‘s 1998 debut feature Pi (or π) which established him as a director and remains a compelling US indie.
The atmospheric tale of a reclusive maths genius named Max (Sean Gullette), it explores his obsession with number patterns and how they can explain life as various people take an interest in his experiments including: a former teacher (Mark Margolis), a shady Wall Street firm (how prophetic that seems now) and a Hasidic sect.
As he delves further into the underlying patterns of numbers that may (or may not) explain things he suffers from crippling headaches and paranoia.
Filmed in 16mm black-and-white and made for just $60,000, it was a breath of fresh air when it broke out of the Sundance Film Festival in 1998.
Here was a film a world away from the hardening conventions that surrounded the festival in the late 1990s but it managed to create a buzz, winning the drama directing award and later the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
Although he recently admitted cringing when revisiting the film, it still stands up as a bold and original mix of David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1976) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).
The intriguing ideas, distinctive editing, powerful use of sound, inventive lensing by Matthew Libatique and a bold electronic soundtrack by Clint Mansell all helped paint a powerful picture of a man caught between madness and genius.
It was acquired at Sundance by Live Entertainment (later to become Artisan), the independent studio who a year later would have a massive breakthrough hit with The Blair Witch Project (1999) before being acquired by Lionsgate in 2003.
What struck me on first viewing was how alive and inventive it was for a low-budget film.
There was no navel-gazing, no acoustic guitars on the soundtrack, it wasn’t about the relationship problems of white people and the ideas were genuinely interesting without being pretentious.
There are some similarities with Christopher Nolan’s Following (1998): that was also a debut feature shot in black and white on 16mm that screened in Park City, Utah during 1998, although Nolan’s film was at the Sundance off-shoot Slamdance.
Aronofsky went on to make the ambitious-but-flawed The Fountain (2006), the gritty, acclaimed drama The Wrestler (2008) and dark, psychodrama Black Swan (2010) but there is an urgency and energy to his debut that is well worth experiencing if you’ve never seen the film.
Raw first person footage of the Japanese tsunami conveys the utter devastation wrought by the recent earthquake.
This video shows the tsunami hitting the Miyagi Prefecture in the city of Kesennuma last Friday (March 11th) and was first broadcast on the Japanese channel TV Asahi.
It is Japan’s worst disaster since World War II and so far 1,627 people have been confirmed dead, 1,923 injured, and 1,720 missing.
These numbers are expected to increase, with some estimates of casualties in the tens of thousands.
To donate money to relief efforts just click on the following links:
Sean Parker has given a revealing interview where he gives his views on The Social Network and his tensions with the filmmakers.
In the film, which charts the founding of Facebook, Parker (Justin Timberlake) becomes an important adviser to founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) before being let go after an incident at a party.
Zuckerberg has already disputed aspects of the film but in an interview with Slate, Parker not only reveals his feelings but discloses how Sony showed him an early cut of the film.
“Sony screened the film for me and a couple of friends, which was nice of them, given that they knew I’d hate it. My friends were up in arms at the end. They were screaming and one of them got drunk and started yelling at the woman from Sony, ‘He’s going to sue you! He’s going to sue you!’ and I’m like, ‘Shut the f**k up! Be quiet please. Let’s be dignified here.”
He then talks about director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin:
“I’m watching it and thinking this is really interesting. This character is definitely not me. It is a plot device created by Aaron Sorkin to tell the story that Aaron Sorkin wants to tell. At the same time I’m looking at David Fincher’s work [the film’s director] and saying this is brilliant and this guy has an obsessive devotion to accuracy.”
It seems there were tensions with Sorkin:
“My interactions with Sorkin were agonisingly weird. He is by far the weirdest person I have ever met. I had dinner with him and a few hours before I got an e-mail from his assistant saying, ‘Sean, this does not need to be a long conversation. Aaron is only going to use it to win your trust.’ ” He laughs loudly. “I went, ‘What? What is this guy thinking?'”
[The dinner turned out to be] “like the most phony, stilted conversation … It was as if he had scripted our conversation and when I deviated from the script, he came back to it.” I am laughing too much to eat as Parker builds up to his story’s punchline. “He was also twitching through the entire meal. Like uncontrollably twitching. Shaking in fact … I don’t think he won my trust.”
In addition he also gave an interview at the DLD conference in Germany with author Paulo Coelho where he talked about how his character was portrayed in the film:
The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival starts next week and more details have emerged of the full program.
Part of a broader annual event that takes in music and interactive, the festivals and conferences take place every spring in Austin, Texas.
The film festival runs relatively independently from the music and tech events, but in recent years it has become a place to watch for breakout films such as Monsters, Tiny Furniture, various Judd Apatow-produced comedies (Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and for being the spiritual home of the mumblecore movement.
This year, some of the films to look out for include:
Source Code (Dir. Duncan Jones): The new sci-fi film from Duncan Jones (who directed Moon) starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan.
The Beaver (Dir. Jodie Foster): Drama starring Mel Gibson as a depressed toy executive who talks to people via a hand puppet, co-starring Foster, Jennifer Lawrence and Anton Yelchin.
Win Win (Dir. Tom McCarthy): Latest drama from Tom McCarthy (who made The Station Agent and The Visitor) starring Paul Giamatti and Melanie Lynskey.
Attack The Block (Dir. Joe Cornish): The new UK horror-comedy about London teenagers defending their tower block from an alien invasion.
There are also numerous panels at the Austin Convention Center featuring filmmakers, journalists, bloggers – for more details check out the online schedule.
Here are details of the major film strands:
HEADLINERS
13 Assassins (Director: Takashi Miike, Writers: Shoichirou Ikemiya & Daisuke Tengan): Distressed by the Lord’s murderous rampage, top Shogun official Sir Doi secretly calls on esteemed samurai Shinzaemon Shimada to assassinate the evil Naritsugu. Outraged by Lord Naritsugu’s vile acts, Shinzaemon willingly accepts the dangerous mission. Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura
Ain’t It Cool News 15th Anniversary Screening: Harry Knowles will curate a surprise screening in honor of the 15th Anniversary of his popular cult website Ain’t it Cool News.
The Beaver (Director: Jodie Foster, Writer: Kyle Killen): Two-time Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with two-time Academy Award® winner Mel Gibson in an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his family and re- start his life. Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black was once a successful toy executive and family man who now suffers from depression. No matter what he tries, Walter can’t seem to get himself back on track…until a beaver hand puppet enters his life. Cast: Cast: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry Jones (World Premiere)
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (Director: Rodman Flender): Did Conan O’Brien go on tour to connect with his fans or fill a void within himself? Rodman Flender’s documentary captures an artist trained in improvisation at the most improvisational time of his career. (World Premiere)
The King of Luck (Director: Billy Bob Thornton): This is a documentary about Willie Nelson: the man, the songwriter, the friend, the father, legendary performer and champion of the family farmer. (World Premiere)
Paul (Director: Greg Mottola, Writers: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost): Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite as two geeks who meet an alien named Paul (Seth Rogen) on a pilgrimage to America’s UFO heartland. Their road trip will alter our universe forever. Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, John Carroll Lynch, with Sigourney Weaver, and Seth Rogen as Paul (North American Premiere)
Source Code (Director: Duncan Jones, Writer: Ben Ripley): When soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the “Source Code,” a computer program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright (World Premiere)
Super (Director & Writer: James Gunn): In this outlandish dark comedy, James Gunn has created what is perhaps the definitive take on self-reflexive superheroes. Cast: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker (U.S. Premiere)
Win Win (Director: Tom McCarthy, Writers: Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni): Tom McCarthy, acclaimed writer/director of The Visitor and The Station Agent, once again explores the depths and nuances of human relationships in his new film about the allegiances and bonds between unlikely characters. Cast: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Schaffer, Margo Martindale, David Thompson
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
96 Minutes (Director & Writer: Aimée Lagos): Four young lives. One night. One terrifying event. These 96 minutes will change everything. Cast: Brittany Snow, Evan Ross, Christian Serratos, J. Michael Trautmann, and David Oyelowo (World Premiere)
A Year in Mooring (Director: Chris Eyre, Writer: Peter Vanderwall): In his first leading dramatic role, Josh Lucas walks an isolated line between solitude and redemption. This quiet cinematic journey tells a of tale grief, solace and peace. Cast: Josh Lucas, Ayelet Zurer, James Cromwell, Jon Tenney, Taylor Nichols (World Premiere)
American Animal (Director & Writer: Matt D’Elia): Jimmy – eccentric, delusional, dying – feels betrayed when roommate James gets a job. During one night of drinks, drugs and women, a classic battle of wills ensues as James prepares for work and Jimmy goes mad. Cast: Matt D’Elia, Brendan Fletcher, Mircea Monroe, Angela Sarafyan (World Premiere)
Charlie Casanova (Director & Writer: Terry McMahon): A ruling class sociopath knocks down a working class girl in a hit-and-run and uses a deck of playing cards to determine his fate. Cast: Emmett J. Scanlan, Leigh Arnold, Damien Hannaway, Ruth McIntyre, Tony Murphy (World Premiere)
Fly Away (Director & Writer: Janet Grillo): A poignant yet humor filled story about a single mother of a teenager with autism, confronting her child’s future. What will sustain her daughter, and herself? A parent/child love story, when love means letting go. Cast: Beth Broderick, Ashley Rickards, Greg Germann, JR Bourne, Reno (World Premiere)
Happy New Year (Director & Writer: K. Lorrel Manning): A war torn marine returns home to face his fiercest battle yet — the one against himself. Cast: Michael Cuomo, JD Williams, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Tina Sloan, Alan Dale (World Premiere)
Natural Selection (Director and Screenwriter: Robbie Pickering): When a dutiful, albeit barren, housewife discovers that her ailing husband has an illegitimate son, she sets out to find the young man and reunite him with her husband before he dies. Cast: Rachael Harris, Matt O’Leary, Jon Gries, John Diehl (World Premiere)
Small, Beautifully Moving Parts (Directors & Writers: Annie J. Howell & Lisa Robinson): Technology-obsessed Sarah Sparks is pregnant and ambivalent, afraid she relates better to machines than to people. Looking for answers, she hits the road in search of her estranged mother, now living off the grid. Cast: Anna Margaret Hollyman, André Holland, Sarah Rafferty, Susan Kelechi Watson, Mary Beth Peil (World Premiere)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Better This World (Directors: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega): Two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense hinging on a controversial FBI informant. (World Premiere)
The City Dark (Director: Ian Cheney): The film chronicles the disappearance of darkness, following astronomers, cancer researchers, ecologists and philosophers in a quest to understand what is lost in the glare of city lights. (World Premiere)
Dragonslayer (Director: Tristan Patterson): Killer Films presents the transmissions of a lost kid, falling in love, in the suburbs of Fullerton, California. Featuring skateboarding, the usual drugs, and stray glimpses of unusual beauty. (World Premiere)
Fightville (Directors: Michael Tucker & Petra Epperlein): A documentary about the art and sport of fighting: a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of that other brutal contest called the American Dream. (World Premiere)
Kumaré (Director: Vikram Gandhi): A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona. (World Premiere)
Last Days Here (Directors: Don Argott & Demian Fenton): The film follows middle-aged rocker Bobby Liebling, lead singer of the cult hard rock/heavy metal band Pentagram, as he leaves his parents’ basement in search of the life he never lived. (World Premiere)
A Matter of Taste (Director: Sally Rowe): Considered a rising star of haute cuisine, Paul Liebrandt found his career stalled in New York’s austere environment post 9/11. Paul struggles over the next decade as he tries to make his way back to the top. (World Premiere)
Where Soldiers Come From (Director: Heather Courtney): From a snowy small town in Northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan and back, the film follows the four-year journey of childhood friends and their town, forever changed by a faraway war. (World Premiere)
MIDNIGHTERS
Attack The Block (Director: Joe Cornish): A funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of alien monsters. It turns a tower block into a sci-fi playground. It’s inner city versus outer space. (World Premiere)
The Divide (Director: Xavier Gens, Writers: Karl Mueller & Eron Sheean): To survive the end of the world…you must first survive each other. Cast: Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Lauren German, Rosanna Arquette, Courtney B. Vance (World Premiere)
Hobo With a Shotgun (Director: Jason Eisner, Writer: John Davies): A Hobo finds himself in an urban hell. When he witnesses a brutal robbery, he realizes the only way to deliver justice is with a shotgun. Cast: Rutger Hauer, Gregory Smith, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Nick Bateman.
Insidious (Director: James Wan, Writer: Leigh Whannell): Dark spirits have possessed the home of a family whose son has fallen into a coma. Trying to save him, the family moves only to realize that it was not their house that was haunted. Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey (U.S. Premiere)
Phase 7 / Fase 7 (Director & Writer: Nicolas Goldbart): Coco just moved to his new apartment with 7-month pregnant wife. When the building is in quarantined for a deadly flue. The neighbors became unexpected enemies. Cast: Daniel Hendler, Federico Luppi, Jazmin Stuart, Jose “Yayo” Guridi (North American Premiere)
BEST PICTURE
THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co)
A See-Saw Films and Bedlam Production Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
BEST ACTOR
COLIN FIRTH – THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Company)
BEST ACTRESS
NATALIE PORTMAN – BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight)
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
CHRISTIAN BALE – THE FIGHTER (Paramount)
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MELISSA LEO – THE FIGHTER (Paramount)
BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
TOY STORY 3 (Walt Disney)
BEST DIRECTOR
TOM HOOPER – THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co.)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE KING’S SPEECH, David Seidler (The Weinstein Co)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Aaron Sorkin (Sony Pictures)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Denmark, In a Better World (Sony Pictures Classics) – A Zentropa Production
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Inception (Warner Bros.) – Wally Pfister
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Inside Job (Sony Pictures Classics) – A Representational Pictures Production Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Strangers No More – A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Inception (Warner Bros) – Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) – Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) – Colleen Atwood
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
The Wolfman (Universal) Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE) The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) – Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment) – A Passion Pictures Australia Production Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
God Of Love – A Luke Matheny Production – Luke Matheny
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Inception (Warner Bros) – Richard King
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Inception (Warner Bros) – Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
Black Swan was the big winner at this year’s Indie Spirit Awards, claiming Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead and Best Cinematography beating out the hotly tipped Winter’s Bone.
The show highlights independent films produced for under $20 million, and the list of full winners are below.
BEST FEATURE
Black Swan
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronfosky, “Black Swan”
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Get Low
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Daddy Longlegs
BEST SCREENPLAY
“The Kids Are All Right”
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
“Tiny Furniture”
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
BEST MALE LEAD
James Franco, “127 Hours”
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dale Dickey, “Winter’s Bone”
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
John Hawkes, “Winter’s Bone”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Black Swan
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through The Gift Shop
BEST FOREIGN FILM
The King’s Speech
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
“Please Give”
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Anish Savjani (“Meek’s Cutoff”)
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Mike Ott (“Little Rock”)
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Jeff Malmberg (“Marwencol”)
Apocalypse Now appears to be getting a UK Blu-ray release on June 13th.
New artwork and details have surfaced over at Blu-ray.com and it would appear that Optimum are basically releasing the same 3-disc set that came out in the US last October.
If that is the case then the extras will be:
Apocalypse Now – 1979 Cut
Apocalypse Now Redux
“A Conversation with Martin Sheen” interview by Francis Ford Coppola
“An Interview with John Milius” interview by Francis Ford Coppola
Complete Francis Ford Coppola interview with Roger Ebert at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
Monkey Sampan “lost scene”
Additional Scenes
“Destruction of the Kurtz Compound” end credits with audio commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
“The Hollow Men,” video of Marlon Brando reading T.S. Eliot’s poem
A Million Feet of Film: The Editing of Apocalypse Now
The Music of Apocalypse Now
Heard Any Good Movies Lately? The Sound Design of Apocalypse Now
The Final Mix
Apocalypse Then and Now
The Color Palette of Apocalypse Now
PBR Streetgang
The Color Palette of Apocalypse Now
The Synthesizer Soundtrack” article by music synthesizer inventor Bob Moog
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
Optional audio commentary with Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola
48-page collectible printed booklet with special note from Francis Ford Coppola, never-before-seen archives from the set, behind the scenes photos and more
John Milius Script Excerpt with Francis Ford Coppola Notes
Storyboard Gallery
Photo Gallery, including images from photographer Mary Ellen Mark
If you have seen the film, it paints a bleak depiction of a dystopian Detroit where crime is so out of control (ring any bells?) the privatised police force have to ressurect a barely alive police officer and transform him into a super-human cyborg.
The campaign began last week when someone suggested on Twitter to the city’s mayor (the wonderfully named Dave Bing) that a statue of the character from Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film was needed.
When Mayor Bing, or someone working for him, tweeted back an internet campaign gathered steam via a Facebook group and Kickstarter (a site used to raise small donations online) was used to realise the dream of casting a big metal Robocop in the city.
The financial goal? $50,000, which was reached today. It took just a week to raise that money, thanks in part to a big donation from Pete Hottelet at Omni Consumer Products Corporation (yeah, that’s right) and more than 1700 other people who pledged cash.
And here is the latest update on Kickstarter:
We’ve reached the $50,000 goal with the help of many many supporters and a very generous contribution from Pete Hottelet at www.omniconsumerproductscorporation.com, but you can still contribute, so please keep backing the project. All the reward levels still stand, and we’re currently discussing how to branch this project and fundraising into bigger and bigger things with a better and better impact on Detroit. Thank you, everybody! Wow.
Now all they have to do is build the statue, which might not be as easy as they initally thought:
None of us have ever made a giant solid metal permanent sculpture before. It turns out to be a pretty expensive process (who would have thought?), but not too much for the world to fund. After talking to numerous sculptors and metal workers, the current game plan is this: We can take a relatively small figure of RoboCop (conceivably even an action figure), have it 3D scanned by lasers (cool!) and scale its form to create a light-weight model of any size we’d like, which can then be used to pour and cast liquid metal. Casey V. Westbrook and crew are currently leading the charge to create a weatherized 7 foot tall iron statue.
Warner Home Video have announced details of 9-film Stanley Kubrick Blu-ray box-set and a new anniversary edition of A Clockwork Orange (1971) to come out in May.
The collection includes Blu-ray debuts for Lolita (1962) and Barry Lyndon (1975), premium packaging, new bonus features and a special hard cover book.
The 9-film DVD collection features the films and includes 40-page book.
A Clockwork Orange: 40th Anniversary Edition will be a 2-disc affair featuring a new 25 minute documentary.
The good news for Kubrick fans is that Lolita (1962) and Barry Lyndon (1975) will be available for the first time on Blu-ray, whilst the bad news is that you’ll have to shell out for the full set as Warner Bros don’t initially appear to be releasing them as single editions (although I’m sure that will happen at some point).
At the moment these details are for the US only release but it is highly likely it will be the same set for the UK.
Amazon UK has a release date of May 23rd on their site with artwork to be confirmed.
Below are the details in full.
BLU-RAY & DVD COLLECTIONS
Bonus features are included in the Stanley Kubrick: Limited Edition Blu-ray Collection whilst the Stanley Kubrick: The Essential Collection on DVD includes the films only.
Spartacus (1960): This genre-defining epic is the legendary tale of a bold gladiator (Kirk Douglas) who led a triumphant Roman slave revolt. Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the action-packed spectacle won four Academy Awards® including Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Cinematography Costume Design and Art Direction. This is the first time the film has been included in a Warner Bros. Kubrick Collection.
Lolita (1962) *NEW ON BLU-RAY*: Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman’s 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): The cold war satire is a chilling dark comedy about a psychotic Air Force General unleashing an ingenious, foolproof and irrevocable scheme sending bombers to attack Russia, as the U.S. President works with the Soviet premier in a desperate effort to save the world. The film stars Peter Sellers, in multiple roles, George C. Scott, and Sterling Hayden.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Stanley Kubrick’s dazzling, Academy Award®-winning achievement (Special Visual Effects) is an allegorical puzzle on the evolution of man and a compelling drama of man vs. machine. Featuring a stunning meld of music and motion, the film was also Oscar®-nominated for Best Director, Art Direction and Writing. Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) first visits the prehistoric age-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted space, perhaps even into immortality.
Special Features
Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood
Documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth
Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey – A Look Behind the Future and What Is Out There?
2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork
Look: Stanley Kubrick!
Audio-Only Bonus: 1966 Kubrick Interview Conducted by Jeremy Bernstein
Barry Lyndon (1975) *NEW ON BLU-RAY*: Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) is a young, roguish Irishman who’s determined, in any way, to make a life for himself as a wealthy nobleman. Enlisting in the British Army and fighting in Europe’s Seven Years War, Barry deserts, then joins the Prussian army, gets promoted to the rank of a spy, and becomes a pupil to a Chevalier and con artist/gambler. Barry then lies, dupes, duels and seduces his way up the social ladder, entering into a lustful but loveless marriage to a wealthy countess named Lady Lyndon. He takes the name of Barry Lyndon, settles in England with wealth and power beyond his wildest dreams, before eventually falling into ruin.
The Shining (1980): From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel, Kubrick melds vivid performances, menacing settings, dreamlike tracking shots and shock after shock into a milestone of the macabre. The Shining is the director’s epic tale of a man in a snowbound hotel descending into murderous delusions. In a signature role, Jack Nicholson (“Heeeere’s Johnny!”) stars as Jack Torrance, who’s come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd).
Special Features:
Commentary by Steadicam inventor/operator Garrett Brown and historian John Baxter
Vivian Kubrick’s Documentary The Making of the Shining with Optional Commentary
View from the Overlook: Crafting The Shining
The Visions of Stanley Kubrick and Wendy Carlos, Composer
Full Metal Jacket (1987): A superb ensemble falls in for Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanizing process that turns people into trained killers. The scathing indictment of a film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Joker (Matthew Modine), Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), Gomer (Vincent D’Onofrio), Eightball (Dorian Harewood) and Cowboy (Arliss Howard) are some of the Marine recruits experiencing boot-camp hell under the punishing command of the foul-mouthed Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermy). The action is savage, the story unsparing, and the dialogue is spiked with scathing humor.
Special Features:
Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and critic/screenwriter Jay Cocks
Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil
Eyes Wide Shut (1999): Kubrick’s daring and controversial last film is a bracing psychosexual journey through a haunting dreamscape, a riveting suspense tale and a career milestone for stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Cruise plays a doctor who plunges into an erotic foray that threatens his marriage – and may ensnare him in a murder mystery – after his wife’s (Kidman) admission of sexual longings. As the story sweeps from doubt and fear to self-discovery and reconciliation, Kubrick orchestrates it with masterful flourishes. His graceful tracking shots, rich colors and startling images are some of the bravura traits that show Kubrick as a filmmaker for the ages.
Special Features:
Three-Part Documentary: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
The Haven/Mission Control,
Artificial Intelligence or The Writer as Robot
EWS: A Film by Stanley Kubrick
Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick
Interview Gallery Featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg
Kubrick’s 1998 Directors Guild of America D.W. Griffith Award Acceptance Speech
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The 40th Anniversary Blu-ray features the following:
Disc 1
Feature Film
New Bonus Features
Malcolm McDowell Looks Back: Malcolm McDowell reflects on his experience working with legendary director Stanley Kubrick on one of the seminal films of the 1970s
Turning like Clockwork Considers the Film’s Ultra-violence and its Cultural Impact
Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and historian Nick Redman
Documentary Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange
Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making A Clockwork Orange
Theatrical Trailer
Disc 2
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (Produced and directed by Jan Harlan the brother of Christiane Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick’s widow). Kubrick’s career comes into sharp focus in this compelling documentary narrated by Tom Cruise. Fascinating footage glimpses Kubrick in his early years, at work on film sets and at home, augmented by candid commentary from collaborators, colleagues and family.
O Lucky Malcolm! Documentary about the life and career of actor Malcolm McDowell produced and directed by Jan Harlan.
The King’s Speech was the big winner at the BAFTAs last night, winning Best Picture (twice!), acting awards for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, Best Score and Best Original Screenplay.
Tom Hooper missed out on as Best Director, which went instead to David Fincher for The Social Network and Natalie Portman won Best Actress for Black Swan.
Here are the results in full:
BEST FILM
The King’s Speech
BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher – The Social Network
BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
The King’s Speech
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Four Lions – Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Sweden
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Toy Story 3
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The King’s Speech – David Seidler
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
True Grit – Roger Deakins
BEST EDITING
The Social Network
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Inception
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland
BEST SOUND
Inception
BEST SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Inception
BEST MAKE UP AND HAIR
Alice in Wonderland
BEST SHORT ANIMATION
The Eagleman Stag
BEST SHORT FILM
Until The River Runs Red
RISING STAR AWARD (Voted for by the public)
Tom Hardy
Black Swan is set to become the top domestic film in 2010 for parent studio 20th Century Fox.
It has currently made $97m in the US and already has a combined worldwide gross of $145m.
This is fairly staggering when you consider that Darren Aronofsky’s film is a product of their specialty division Fox Searchlight and not the major studio.
In addition the film was not an easy sell, as executives feel safer green-lighting sequels and remakes rather than psychological thrillers set in the world of ballet.
Fox struggled in 2010 with a series of underperforming films, only offset by the phenomenon of Avatar which grossed 408m in the US.
In addition the Christmas releases for the studio were the relative disappointments of Gulliver’s Travels ($181m gross on a budget of $112m) and Love and Other Drugs ($90m gross on a $30m budget).
Black Swan was made for a mere $13 million, with Cross Creek Pictures and Fox Searchlight splitting the costs after a previous round of financing fell apart. (To put the budgets into perspective, Black Swan cost just one eighth of what the Narnia sequel did).
After its world premiere at the Venice film festival, it played to acclaim and buzz on the festival circuit and a canny platform release in December has seen it rewarded with big audiences and five Oscar nominations.
But what accounts for the remarkable success of the film?
“I think the largest factor in the film’s success is originality. People love to go to the movies and see something they can’t put in a little box”.
One of the film’s producers Brian Oliver offers his take:
“I think the whole year of independent film in the best picture category is showing that you can make commercial artsy films at a budget that can perform at studio levels. I’m more surprised that it’s going to hit the $100 million domestic mark than by what it’s doing overseas.”
According to surveys the film has been especially popular with young women under-25, an audience usually starved on bad romantic comedies starring Katherine Heigl or Kate Hudson.
But does the daring and trippy nature of the film suggest that studios will be willing to take chances on more unusual projects?
At the end of his most recent column, he writes about a recent conversation with his media mogul boss who asked him what he should see:
“With ‘The King’s Speech’ gaining the Oscar traction it deserves—the latest boost being an expression of approval from Queen Elizabeth—I can’t resist going public with a story that I’ve relished telling to friends, and to the people who made the movie. Several weeks before it opened, I had a conversation with Rupert Murdoch, who popped a question familiar to movie critics: What should he see?
I suggested “The King’s Speech,” and, not wanting to spoil it with too many details, gave a shorthand description: Colin Firth as King George VI, who has a terrible stutter, and Geoffrey Rush as a raffish Australian speech therapist.
Yes, he replied, Lionel Logue.
“So you know the story.”
Not the story of the movie, he said. “Lionel Logue saved my father’s life.”
When I responded with speechlessness, he explained that his father, as a young man, wanted passionately to be a newspaper reporter, but couldn’t interview people because he stuttered. Then he met Lionel Logue, who cured him in less than a year”
This is not the first time Keith Murdoch has been directly connected with a film.
After beginning his career in journalism with The Age in Melbourne he made a name for himself covering the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, a military fiasco which was brought to the screen as Peter Weir’s Gallipoli (1981).
His son Rupert was by then a powerful newspaper owner and helped produce the film before going on to buy Twentieth Century Fox in 1985.
Her production company Adventure Pictures is looking for two teenage girls, aged 14 to 18, for the leading roles in her upcoming period film set in London during the 1960s.
They want aspiring actors to upload a video audition via YouTube before selecting the best ones to come to London to audition in person (you don’t necessarily have to be studying drama or have any prior acting experience).
Potter has previously worked with Johnny Depp, Tilda Swinton, Judi Dench and Jude Law and her previous films include Orlando (1992), The Man Who Cried (2000), Yes (2004) and Rage (2009).
Streep is currently in London filming and it sees her reteam with director Phyllida Lloyd for the first time since Mamma Mia (2008).
The actress has said:
“I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses – I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own”
Written by playwright Abi Morgan, the film reportedly explores her political life through flashbacks, opening with the octagenarian Lady Thatcher reflecting on her 11 years as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.
Some reports have suggested that the film portrays Thatcher as an elderly dementia-sufferer looking back on her career with sadness and regret, fueling speculation in conservative newspapers that it will be a less-than-flattering look at the former Tory leader.
But Cameron McCracken, managing director of Pathé, has said that it will look at both the highs and lows of her career:
“It is true that the film is set in the recent past and that Baroness Thatcher does look back on both the triumphs and the lows of her extraordinary career. It is a film about power and the price that is paid for power. In that sense, it is the story of every person who has ever had to balance their private life with their public career.”
Jim Broadbent is playing Thatcher’s husband Dennis, whilst their young selves are played by Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd.
Voted for by 150 film experts including critics, filmmakers, actors and ‘industry players‘, it is a very solid selection overall, with the top ten featuring a healthy mix of established greats alongside some interesting choices.
However, if we are talking about British films (that is films produced by British companies) the team that put this together have made a major blunder by including Stanley Kubrick films which were American films that just happened to be shot in the UK.
Brazil (1985) was also US financed (by Embassy International Pictures, whilst Universal released it) and Nil By Mouth (1997) – whilst seemingly very British – was actually co-financed with French money.
This might seem like nitpicking but it is worth highlighting where the money comes from, especially in the current era where it prospects look fairly bleak for homegrown UK production.
Lucrezia Borgia follows the complex relationship between a mother and her illegitimate son, exploring the brutal nature of Machiavellian politics and the struggle for power.
Paul Daniel conducts a cast including Claire Rutter as Lucrezia Borgia, Elizabeth DeShong as Maffio Orsini, Michael Fabiano as Gennaro and British bass Alastair Miles in the role of Alfonso d’Este.
In a world first it will be brought live and in g3D to digital cinemas nationwide including Odeon, Vue, Apollo and Ormonde on Wednesday 23rd February at 7.30pm.
Mike Figgis is best-known for films such as Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and is making his operatic debut with this new production, which is in partnership with ENO, Sky 3D, Sky Arts and More2Screen.
She was a teenage model when Bernardo Bertolucci cast her alongside Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris (1972), a film which broke sexual taboos and became an international sensation.
Although she later starred alongside Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (1975), it was her debut role which sadly came to define her career.
Depicting the relationship between a young Parisian woman and a depressed American hotel manager, it swifty became notorious for its explicit sex scenes.
Schneider later claimed that one infamous scene left her feeling exploited:
“I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me or apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take.”
“It is true that Maria was very young when we shot the film and maybe she couldn’t articulate what happened. So what remains is a confused moment where I am the killer or the bad guy.”
The worldwide attention from the film, was followed by numerous personal problems, although her last role of note was in Jane Eyre (1996).
In recent years helped run an organisation dedicated to supporting ageing actors and performers who find work drying up.
She lamented the ways actresses over a certain age are treated in a 2007 interview:
“It is not so easy for actresses over 50, and the irony is that when a woman gets old enough to have something interesting to say, people don’t want to hear her speak.”
Tindersticks have announced the release of their collection of film scores for director Claire Denis.
Titled Claire Denis Film Scores 1995–2010, the boxed set includes the six soundtracks the band have done for the French filmmaker over the last fifteen years.
To accompany the release, the band will be performing a series of concerts in cinematic seetings, bringing together the music with the evocative images that inspired it.
After performing at the San Francisco Film Festival in May 2011, the project has gathered interest and momentum and further performances are being scheduled across Europe in 2011.
The first of these to be announced is at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 26th April (19:30) in conjunction with the British Film Institute, with a special screening of Nenette et Boni at the BFI Southbank on the 27th April (18:30, NFT1), followed by an onstage Q&A with Claire Denis and lead singer Stuart Staples, discussing their work together and artistic affinity.
* UPDATE 29/03/11: You can now listen to some of the tracks on Soundcloud.
“Sometime in Paris ‘95, I thought it was La Cigalle, she says it was the Bataclan, I’m not sure. That is where we met anyway, one of those places, after a concert. She was writing the screenplay for Nenette et Boni and something in our song ‘My Sister’ had clicked with her, she asked us if we would like to make the music for the film. We had film scoring pretensions, soundtrack music had always been a thing of David’s from when we met way back (though we could barely play, we had dreams).
It seemed the right next move for us, it fitted with the energy and flow of our band. We had this thing about Miles Davis’ Lift to the Scaffold. Passing through Paris he stopped off at the studio with his band and recorded the score right there and then, in a day, watching the film for the first time and reacting musically. Seemed like a good place to start. I suppose the essence was there, that’s how we began, and after a few fumbling months we delivered the music for Nenette et Boni, nervously. That’s how it all started, maybe we just got on, had some kind of understanding; we have never really talked about it. I was told she said in an interview that we understand her films before she does; maybe that’s true in some way, but I think she was just being gracious.
Approaching each film has always asked us to step into an unknown, stretch ourselves and do things we did not think we were able. At the end we always feel changed in some way. This has fed into all our other music and is a contributing factor to why we’re still struggling to catch our ideas after all these years, still frustrated and fascinated in equal measure. Other people have asked us to score their films, but we always reached a point where we realised that the freedom and conversation Claire affords (and expects from) us is not there, and then it becomes something different, making music for a purpose (money?) – something we’re well aware we have never been very good at.”
The soundtracks will be available for the first time together on CD, vinyl and download on Constellation Records and are released worldwide on April 26th 2011.
After being nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar last week, Banksy issued the following statement:
“This is a big surprise. I don’t agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I’m prepared to make an exception for the ones I’m nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.”
It seemed only a matter of time before some relevant street art appeared, but unlike the major studios it seems the people behind the low-budget film are relying on a more grass roots approach.
The 2012 film will be directed by Zack Snyder, who has said:
“In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield.”
It will be produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder, with a screenplay by David S. Goyer based on a story by Goyer and Nolan.
But the big question on many people’s lips right now is: ‘who is Henry Cavill’?
Here he is as Albert Modego in The Count of Monte Cristo:
However, it was the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, in the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10) which got him serious attention.
Previously he was considered for what eventually became Superman Returns (2004) but Bryan Singer replaced McG as director and cast Brandon Routh as the lead instead.
In 2005, he was also up for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), even performing a screentest, but the producers decided he was too young for the part, which they gave to Daniel Craig.
Because of these setbacks, December 2005 Empire him dubbed “the most unlucky man in Hollywood”.
Aside from the trend of casting relative unknowns in the role (Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh), it also bears the hallmarks of Batman Begins (2005) as Warner Bros and the same producers have gone with a younger British actor.
Superman: Man of Steel is scheduled for release in December 2012.
Although David Fincher was favoured by many Oscar pundits after The Social Network dominated the season so far, Hooper won the union’s prize for outstanding achievement in feature film at last night’s ceremony in Hollywood.
The nominees were David Fincher (The Social Network), Christopher Nolan (Inception), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) and David O. Russell (The Fighter), a line-up which was mirrored in the Oscar nominations, aside from Nolan who missed out there as the Coen Brothers (True Girt) were favoured by the Academy.
The DGA is a key award as only six times in 62 years has the winner not gone on to claim Best Director at the Oscars, with the most recent exception being 2003, when DGA winner Rob Marshall (Chicago) lost out to Roman Polanski (The Pianist).
With a just a month until the Oscars on February 27th, some are now predicting that The King’s Speech is now the favourite to beat The Social Network.
After the film about King George and his speech therapist won at the Producers Guild of America last weekend, it looked like the tide could be turning against Fincher’s film which had dominated the awards season so far.
But it looks like The King’s Speech will now be entering the final stretch as the favourite, although why does a gut feeling tell me that it’s not totally over for The Social Network?
Whilst Hollywood and Oscar pundits digested the Oscar nominations yesterday, in the documentary category a small bombshell went off when Banksy’s debut film made it on to the final list.
It purports to be the story of Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman who films street artist in Los Angeles, who comes across the reclusive Banksy and also starts making his own art under the name ‘Mr. Brainwash’.
An intriguingly constructed film-within-a-film, it is also a gleefully anarchic film with plenty of intelligence underneath the frequently hilarious exterior.
At Sundance Banksy opted not to introduce the film but got festival director John Cooper to read a statement at the premiere:
“Ladies and gentlemen, and publicists.Trying to make a movie which truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So we haven’t bothered.
Instead, this is simply an everyday tale of life, longing, and mindless vandalism. Everything you are about to see is true, especially the bit where we all lie.
Thanks for coming, please don’t give away the ending on Twitter. And please, don’t try copying any of this stuff at home, wait until you get to work.”
The relatively low budget nature of the film, plus its unlikely subject matter, meant that the films backers (Cinetic Media) opted to bypass the traditional indie route of trying to attract a distributor.
John Sloss – who represented rights to the film at Sundance (and then Berlin) – co-founded a distribution entity called the Producers Distribution Agency with his Cinetic partner Bart Walker.
With a team including Richard Abramowitz, Donna Daniels and Marc Schiller, the company decided that despite offers coming in the wake of “Exit”‘s acclaimed screenings in Sundance and Berlin, it was a highly unlikely project for a traditional distributor.
Sloss explained last week that this was due to the fact that not only is Banksy very controlling, but you can’t talk to him (Sloss himself never expects to meet the elusive man).
With this in mind Sloss raised a ‘sizeable chunk’ of money and created a specific distributor called the Producers Distribution Agency in order to give it a platform release.
To call this unconventional is an understatement (or is it all part of the ingenious marketing?), but the grass roots campaign worked with strong showings in April at cinemas in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
The enigma of Banksy helped build buzz and once people saw the film as it rolled out to other cities, it ended up grossing a highly respectable $3.3m in the US and $4.9m worldwide.
“We very little P&A to work with in buying traditional awareness,” he said. “We did not have a ‘money’ New York Times review. So I think this is close to unprecedented to make this kind of film work with very limited resources.”
Some didn’t expect it to make the final nominations, but yesterday it did and Banksy issued this statement:
“This is a big surprise, I don’t agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I’m prepared to make an exception for the ones I’m nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.”
But will he show up at the Kodak Theatre on February 27th?
I’m expecting that another Banksy mural might be seen outside the morning after.
The King’s Speech leads the field for this year’s Oscars with 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth, whilst True Grit has 10 and The Social Network has 8.
Earlier today Mo’Nique and Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, revealed the nominations in Beverly Hills.
On first glance, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of surprises, but here are a few things worth noting.
The King’s Speech is firmly back in contention for Best Picture: Even though The Social Network has swept the critics awards so far, the sheer amount of nominations for The King’s Speech (especially in the technical categories) indicates that it could now be the front runner. The Social Network is still a strong candidate but the feel-good, across the board appeal of Tom Hooper’s film may now be starting to show with Academy voters.
The Social Network team will be concerned: Despite all the critical love and awards season buzz for this film, the big question always was whether the 6,000 Academy members would embrace a contemporary film like this over the traditional Oscar bait of The King’s Speech. Whilst Fincher’s drama has been on a roll in recent weeks, the amount of nominations for The King’s Speech indicates Academy voters may be backing the more traditional candidate. It’s tempting to see comparisons with 1981 when plucky Brit drama Chariots of Fire won Best Picture whilst the more cerebral Reds nabbed Best Director, or even 2000 when Traffic won Best Director and Gladiator won Best Picture.
Christopher Nolan misses out for Best Director: Despite enormous critical and commercial success with Inception, he’s missed out again for Academy recognition, which after The Dark Knight snub in 2008 will raise a few eyebrows.
Javier Bardem gets in for Best Actor: Despite the mixed reaction at Cannes for Alejandro Gonzalez Innarritu’s drama, the central performance has deservedly got raves and made it on to the final list.
True Grit proves the Globes aren’t all that: For anyone who thinks that the Golden Globes isn’t just celebrity-obsessed foreign journalists second-guessing the Oscar race, look at the nominations for The Coen Brothers’ western, which they snubbed outright. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is one to watch in the Best Supporting Actress race.
Winter’s Bone keeps the indie flame alive: The nominations for Best Picture, Jennifer Lawrence (Best Actress) and Debra Granik (Adapted Screenplay) prove that serious indie dramas can still get recognition in a harsh environment for independent film. Roadside Attractions will be thrilled.
Blue Valentine is (sort of) snubbed: Although Michelle Williams got a Best Actress nomination, The Weinstein Company will be disappointed that the acclaimed indie drama missed out on Best Picture and Best Actor for Ryan Gosling.
Technical Snubs: The major technical shocker is the omission for Inception’s Lee Smith in Best Film Editing (arguably one of the best edit jobs in recent cinema history) and Tron: Legacy for Best Visual Effects.
The Banksy dream is still alive: Ingenious indie documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop made it through to the final nominees, which means that we could conceivably see Banksy at the Oscars (or at least some kind of mural outside). However, Inside Job remains the favourite for Best Documentary, especially with the shock omission of Waiting for Superman.
The Oscars take place on Sunday 27th February and here they are in full:
BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
Winter’s Bone
True Grit
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David O Russell – The Fighter
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David Fincher – The Social Network
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
James Franco – 127 Hours
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Biutiful – Mexico
Dogtooth – Greece
In a Better World – Denmark
Incendies – Canada
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) – Algeria
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mike Leigh – Another Year
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (screenplay), Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson (story) – The Fighter
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler – The King’s Speech
BEST ANIMATION
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy – 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
Michael Arndt – Toy Story 3
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone
BEST ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
BEST SOUND MIXING
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Salt
True Grit
BEST SOUND EDITING
Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Coming Home (from Country Strong) by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light (from Tangled) by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
If I Rise (from 127 Hours) by AR Rahman, Dido and Rollo Armstrong
We Belong Together (from Toy Story 3) by Randy Newman
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours – AR Rahman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus
BEST COSTUMES
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang
BEST FILM EDITING
Black Swan
The Fighter P
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)
The build up to the premiere was cleverly stoked by Smith himself who has an army of fans online who follow him on Twitter and listen to his podcast.
The festival guide described the plot of Red State:
“Three horny high school boys come across an online personal ad from an older woman looking for a gang bang, and boys being boys, they hit the road to satisfy their libidinal urges. What begins as a fantasy, however, takes a dark turn as they come face-to-face with a terrifying fundamentalist “holy” force with a fatal agenda”
Shot last summer, Smith announced that it would screen out of competition at Sundance and over the last couple of months he has released teaser posters and built up buzz for the film via his Twitter account (@thatkevinsmith).
This was the offical trailer, released just before Christmas along with two “teaser” websites, coopersdell.com and goddamnsusa.com:
The build up was marked by protests against the film as one of the villians is loosely based on a stern, religious figure along the lines of Fred Phelps.
Then Smith and other festival-goers protested against the protests, although was this hype staged?
Smith denied rumours that the film had already been pre-sold to a distributor by tweeting the following:
Via @CAmcKy “the media says ur full of s— and have sold RedState already and ur just being a showman” Who you gonna believe: me or them? The “full of s—” part is opinion, so it doesn’t matter. But the “already sold” part? 100% untrue. For those of you not just tuning in to the story, you guys can vouch that I’ve done everything I said I was gonna do thus far, correct? So why lie now? Folks can tell themselves whatever they want if it makes ’em feel better about watching the Jets. Honestly: I understand team passion. If you’re on the fence about seeing RedState or watching the game, I understand completely. No worries, no offense. But I promise you: though we’ve heard a few sight-unseen preemptive bids, THIS MOVIE HAS NOT ALREADY BEEN SOLD. After the screening, THEN we’ll pick the distributor.
Buzz was further fuelled by a mostly sceptical batch of film writers who seemed both repelled and excited by the P.T. Barnum-style event the screening had become.
Dave Chen of /Film posted this AudioBoo as he headed into the screening:
The situation was a win-win for Smith: whatever people thought of the film, he had got awareness, publicity and created one of the hot tickets at Sundance.
After the screening was over the director revealed to a packed Eccles Theatre that the expected ‘auction’ was little more than a gag, as he brought up the film’s producer, Jonathan Gordon, to the stage to open the bidding and after Smith offered $20, it was proclaimed ‘sold’.
The stunt was there to highlight his actual plans to bypass the traditional model of distribution, with its traditional costs of marketing and prints.
Smith will essentially distribute the film himself, taking it on a nationwide tour that begins on March 5th, before self releasing it in cinemas on October 19th
He clearly feels that he can at least break even with his loyal nationwide fan base:
“It’s indie film 2.0 and in indie film 2.0 we sell our films ourselves”
Reactions so far from critics have been mixed, with some praising Smith for doing something different whilst others were not so hot on the film.
Here are some reactions:
“I would say this is the best film he’s made since Chasing Amy. In this film, Smith has become something more than a comedy director — he shows real skill presenting action sequences which are both thrilling and well shot” – Peter Sciretta of /Film
“Messy, overwritten, visually stylish, but kind of a bore. More like Kevin Smith than it looks because nobody ever stops talking” – Katey Rich of Cinema Blend
“Red State: Bloody, violent, random, preachy. I dug it, but didn’t love it”. – Erik Davis of Cinematical
“Nasty fundamentalist caricatures vs nasty law enforcement ones. Literally and figuratively preachy”. Alison Willmore of IFC
“It’s nice to contemplate how Kevin Smith wants to make films that aren’t comedies. Too bad he tried to make all of them at once”. – James Rocchi
My guess is that Smith is going to find it tough making a financial success out of this but many people in the indie film world, regardless of their opinion on the film, will be curious to see how it works out.
Although this isn’t the first time self-distribution has been tried, its rare to see a filmmaker with profile of Smith try something like this.
When the director of Old Boy (2004) and Thirst (2009) announced the project last week, it sounded like some kind of gimmick, but a new trailer and behind the scenes featurette seem to suggest something more substantial.
The Korean title is ‘Paranmanjang’ and it is a 30-minute fantasy with the following synopsis:
“A fantastical tale that begins with a middle-aged man fishing one afternoon and then, hours later at night, catches the body of a woman.The panicked man tries to undo the intertwined fishing line, but he gets more and more entangled.
He faints, then wakes up to find himself in the white clothes that the woman was wearing. The movie’s point of view then shifts to the woman and it becomes a tale of life and death from a traditional Korean point of view.”
This is the trailer:
Funded by the South Korean mobile carrier KT, it cost $130,000, features mostly black-and-white video and was shot on up to eight iPhone 4 devices.
This behind the scenes film shows the full range of filmmaking equipment that was used to augment the cameras on each phone.
Despite the cost of the project, Park is a champion of smartphones as a relatively inexpensive tool to make films, telling the LA Times:
“Find a location. You don’t even need sophisticated lighting. Just go out and make movies. These days, if you can afford to feed yourself, you can afford to make a film.”
Quentin Tarantino is an admirer of Park and as well as chairing the Cannes jury which awarded Old Boy the Grand Jury Prize in 2004, he also regards Joint Security Area (2000) to be one of best films made since 1992.
The studio also revealed which that Tom Hardy will play Bane, the chemically created villain who first appeared in the DC comics in the early 1990s.
Director Christopher Nolan said in a statement:
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway, who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story. I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies”
Apparently Nolan and his writing partners Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer have been loosely inspired by the storyline from Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, asking “What if the story continued?”.
Filming reportedly starts in May and – like The Dark Knight – will feature sequences shot on IMAX cameras and won’t be done in 3D.
The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to open on July 20th 2012
Earlier this morning the BAFTA nominations were announced and The King’s Speech leads the way with 14 nominations.
It seems highly likely that Tom Hooper’s film is going to sweep the board this year, partly due to the built-in British bias of the awards and the fact that it is a special film that appeals to critics and audiences alike.
BAFTA loves the opportunity to vote for its own, but before parts of the British media start gushing too loudly we should remember that both the BBC and Film 4 turned the project down.
The full list actually feels like what the Oscar nominations will be with The Social Network, Black Swan, True Grit and Inception getting nominations in key categories.
As to what this means for the Oscars, it is worth noting that Hailee Steinfeld has been nominated in the Lead Actress category for True Grit (technically correct, but will Academy voters do likewise for someone so young?) and Annette Benning and Julianne Moore have both been nominated for lead in The Kids Are Alright.
As for some glaring omissions, check out the absence of Winter’s Bone from Best Actress and Adapted Screenplay, The Social Network from Original Music, Tron: Legacy from Visual Effects and The Illusionist from Animated Film.
BEST FILM
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 Hours
Another Year
Four Lions
The King’s Speech
Made In Dagenham
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
The Arbor: Clio Barnard (director), Tracy O’Riordan (producer)
Exit Through The Gift Shop: Banksy (director), Jaimie D’Cruz (producer)
Four Lions: Chris Morris (director/writer)
Monsters: Gareth Edwards (director/writer)
Skeletons: Nick Whitfield (director/writer)
DIRECTOR
127 Hours, Danny Boyle
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper
The Social Network, David Fincher
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Biutiful
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
I Am Love
Of Gods And Men
The Secret In Their Eyes
ANIMATED FILM
Despicable Me
How To Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
LEADING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
LEADING ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Noomi Rapace, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Pete Postlethwaite, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Miranda Richardson, Made in Dagenham
ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 Hours
Alice In Wonderland
How To Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King’s Speech
CINEMATOGRAPHY 127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit
EDITING
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Alice In Wonderland
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit
COSTUME DESIGN
Alice In Wonderland
Black Swan
The King’s Speech
Made In Dagenham
True Grit
SOUND
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice In Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
Toy Story 3
MAKE UP AND HAIR
Alice In Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1
The King’s Speech
Made In Dagenham
SHORT ANIMATION
The Eagleman Stag
Matter Fisher
Thursday
SHORT FILM
Connect
Lin
Rite
Turning
Until The River Runs Red
THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD
(voted for by the public)
Gemma Arterton
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Aaron Johnson
Emma Stone
The Social Network, David Fincher, Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo were among the winners at the 68th Golden Globes last night.
Though the Globes might be something of an industry joke (a relatively small group of celebrity obsessed journalists second guess what might win at the Oscars) this year they appear to be an accurate forecaster of what might win at the Oscars.
The momentum of The Social Network to win Best Picture has now gathered even more steam, whilst Fincher, Firth and Portman now appear to be locks for their respective categories at the Academy Awards.
Here are the film and TV winners in full:
FILM
MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
The Social Network
ACTRESS , DRAMA
Natalie Portman – “Black Swan”
ACTOR , DRAMA
Colin Firth – “The King’s Speech”
MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
“The Kids Are All Right”
ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Annette Bening – “The Kids Are All Right”
ACTOR , COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Paul Giamatti – “Barney’s Version”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Toy Story 3”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“In A Better World” (Denmark)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE
Melissa Leo – “The Fighter”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE
Christian Bale – “The Fighter”
BEST DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE
David Fincher – “The Social Network”
BEST SCREENPLAY, MOTION PICTURE
Aaron Sorkin – “The Social Network”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, MOTION PICTURE
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – “The Social Network”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, MOTION PICTURE
“You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me” – Burlesque
TELEVISION
DRAMA
“Boardwalk Empire” (HBO)
ACTRESS, DRAMA
Katey Sagal – “Sons Of Anarchy”
ACTOR, DRAMA
Steve Buscemi – “Boardwalk Empire”
BEST COMEDY OR MUSICAL
“Glee” (FOX)
ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Laura Linney – “The Big C”
ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jim Parsons – “The Big Bang Theory”
BEST MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE
“Carlos” (Sundance Channel)
ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE
Claire Danes – “Temple Grandin”
ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE
Al Pacino – “You Don’t Know Jack”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE
Jane Lynch – “Glee”
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE
Chris Colfer – “Glee”
The nominees for this year’s BAFTA Rising Star Award have been announced and the list features Gemma Arterton, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, Aaron Johnson and Emma Stone.
It is the only accolade at the Orange British Academy Film Awards that is voted for by the public and was created in honour of the late casting director Mary Selway, who passed away in 2004.
Officially renamed the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award, voting takes place both at www.orange.co.uk/bafta, on the mobile portal Orange World and via text.
To see them in action and cast your vote just click on the relevant links below:
Gemma Arterton (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Tamara Drewe)
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