Media

“The China Independent Film Festival has held 14 editions and shown some 1,000 films since it was established in 2003 in Nanjing, the capital of coastal Jiangsu province. Many of the titles it highlighted touched on topics like homosexuality or political history deemed sensitive or inappropriate by the ruling Communist Party. Other films were effectively underground titles as they lacked the government ‘dragon seal’ of censorship approval required for public screening.” A statement by festival organizers said that “it has already become impossible to organize a film festival that truly has a purely independent spirit and is also effective.” – Variety

Netflix has acquired all rights to the untitled Leonard Bernstein film that Bradley Cooper will direct, star in and produce from the script he co-wrote with Oscar-winning Spotlight scribe Josh Singer. The project exits Paramount, which set the film as a priority project in May 2018. – Deadline

Just capitalism and sheer wackiness, or what? (Paltrow’s “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle costs $75 and sold out almost immediately, for one thing.) But there’s more. “The Goop Lab is streaming into a moment in America that finds Medicare for All under discussion and the Affordable Care Act under attack. It presents itself as airy infotainment even as many Americans are unable to access even the most basic forms of medical care. That makes the show deeply uncomfortable to watch.” – The Atlantic

AI-assisted editing won’t make Oscar-­worthy auteurs out of us. But amateur visual storytelling will probably explode in complexity. Even tools for one-to-one video messaging might evolve—AI on our phones could pull together disparate clips into weird, delightful missives. And, of course, AI editing will uncork new forms of digital malfeasance: It’ll be a lot easier to persuasively lie, to make ever-slicker propaganda. – Wired

“[Alice] Guy-Blaché was in the room when the Lumière brothers held the first-ever cinema screening, in Paris in March 1895. By the following year, she was making her own films. And while the Lumières were still hung up on cinema as a technological spectacle – ‘Look! A train!’ – Guy-Blaché immediately saw its potential for telling stories. … As time went on, Guy-Blaché helped write the rules of this brand new medium. She incorporated now-standard techniques such as editing, primitive special effects and hand-tinted colour. She might even have invented the music video.” – The Guardian

The announcement comes as the publicly funded BBC is facing intense political and public pressure amid a fast-changing media landscape and viewing habits. It has been criticized by both sides of the Brexit debate over its coverage of the U.K.’s impending departure from the European Union, and some in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government have suggested changing the BBC’s funding model. – Washington Post (AP)

The Academy’s perceived snubs—of actors such as Us’s Lupita Nyong’o and Hustlers’ Jennifer Lopez, along with directors such as Little Women’s Greta Gerwig and The Farewell’s Lulu Wang—are as unfortunate as they are predictable. And comments like Stephen King’s reveal a major reason why: Diversity is too often discussed as something separate from, or even in conflict with, artistic virtue. – The Atlantic

Concordia Studio was founded two years ago by the multibillionaire widow of Steve Jobs and an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, and this is the year that money and expertise come onto the national (and international) documentary scene. Laurene Powell Jobs: “We are at a moment when cynicism and division are abundant, but we have seen that stories can bring people together. … Concordia is a belief that film has the power to shine a spotlight on the important narratives of life that too often are overlooked.” – The New York Times

If the SAG Awards are any guide – and they can be – Parasite may win best picture; it won best ensemble at the ceremony on Sunday night. “When the Parasite cast, none of whom received individual nominations, earned a warm standing ovation early in the night from the audience of actors at the Shrine Auditorium, while introducing the film, it was clear where the crowd’s affections resided.” – Los Angeles Times

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon created the movie The Big Sick, lightly based on their own lives and romance, and had such success that now they’ve won an Apple TV+ series, Little America, that tells the lightly fictionalized stories of immigrants in unusual situations (or perhaps they’re quite usual – without these stories, how would the public know?). Nanjiani says, “American pop culture is the most widespread in the world, and [pop culture was] selling that second side of America, and we wanted to buy it. You can do what you want to do, be what you want to be. Not everyone in the series believes that, but that’s a key idea.” – The Guardian (UK)

Just a list, with no interpretation (look for that in another post). – Los Angeles Times

Sam Mendes’ movie inspired by his grandfather, a movie starring many men, a movie that’s about war and that showcases technical skill, may now be the frontrunner for the Oscars. (This link includes the entire list of winners.) – The Hollywood Reporter

But will Apu be retired from the show, or will the show get a new voice actor – perhaps an Indian American voice actor? This has been a long time coming. “In 2017, the comedian Hari Kondabolu’s documentary The Problem With Apu forced Mr. Azaria, who is white, to reckon with his portrayal of the Kwik-E-Mart owner who speaks with a pronounced Indian accent. The film attempted to trace the origin story of Apu and put the character in a broader context of Hollywood depictions of Indians.” – The New York Times

These guys just will not accept responsibility. “Diversity is too often discussed as something separate from, or even in conflict with, artistic virtue. It is treated as an abstract concept meant to materialize without industry gatekeepers and Oscar voters, such as King, challenging their own possibly narrow views and instituting different practices. Put more plainly, the lack of representation is regularly talked about as a problem, but one for someone else to solve and for other institutions to address.” – The Atlantic

Streaming was barely a thing back in the day of the last big strike – but it still cost everyone a lot of money and time. “Studios, production companies and guild members are all eager to avoid a sequel to the last major disruption that cost the state an estimated 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output from late 2007 through the end of 2008, according to a 2008 Milken Institute report.” – Los Angeles Times

The Walt Disney Company bought most of Mr. Murdoch’s entertainment assets last year in a $71.3 billion deal. That included the 20th Century Fox studio and its art-house sibling, Fox Searchlight. On Friday, the employees at the main movie studio arrived to a new email format (@20thcenturystudios) without the Fox. A Disney spokesman confirmed that both labels would drop Fox from their logos. Disney had no further comment. – The New York Times

Agencies are under growing pressure “to scale up and adapt to a changing media industry. The rise of streaming and the expected decline of TV packaging — where agencies collect fees for packaging talent on shows — combined with the effects of the longstanding writers boycott, have squeezed talent agencies, some of which have weathered high-level executive turnover, laid off workers and cut back on overtime pay for assistants.” – Los Angeles Times

At the moment, the Oscars reflect the Academy, but the Academy reflects nothing but its august name; plausible deniability and the shunning of responsibility are built into the current system. Paradoxically, counting only votes from members with a stake in the image of the industry put forth by the industry would cast onto the Oscars the sharp light of accountability, would be, in effect, a truth-in-awards program.” – The New Yorker

Elsewhere, we carp, battle and grind one another down for bragging rights and total triumph. Sports culture and champion-making has seeped into nearly every aspect of life. It’s all just a little (or a lot) more elbowy and contentious — primary campaigns, award show nominations, lists of the decade’s best albums. – Washington Post

Pop-star holograms are exploding out of a chemical reaction between three elements that have been influencing human decision-making for thousands of years: supply, demand, and survival instinct. – Artnet

“Unlike Hollywood, where actors and filmmakers have [frequently] spoken out against governments, A-listers in Bollywood — the world’s second-best paying film industry — have largely remained apolitical public personas. … Now, as protests spread across India over a controversial new citizenship law and attacks on students, Bollywood women are breaking with that pattern even as the biggest male actors … stay quiet.” – OZY