Have we ever seen a more chaotic lead up to an awards telecast? A host is announced, then revoked. Categories are added, then rescinded. Awards are to be televised, then not. Then televised again. It’s enough to make you think the Academy doesn’t know what it’s doing. At the least, it shows a collapse in confidence. – The New York Times
Media
What Netflix Has Discovered About International Tastes In An Era Of Nationalism
Netflix’s strategy is fundamentally different. Instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it’s aiming to sell international ideas to a global audience. A list of Netflix’s most watched and most culturally significant recent productions looks like a Model United Nations. – The New York Times
Alaska Governor’s Budget Eliminates All Public Broadcasting Funds
“Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) … proposed no state support for public broadcasting in his budget released last week, and on Wednesday, Dunleavy introduced legislation to eliminate the Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission, which distributes state grants to TV and radio stations across Alaska.” – Anchorage Daily News
Michael Jackson Estate Sues HBO Over ‘Leaving Neverland’ Documentary
“On Thursday, Optimum Productions and the two co-executors of the Jackson estate sued HBO and parent company Time Warner claiming the documentary constitutes a breach of a non-disparagement clause in an old contract.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Social Platforms Want To Cut Down On Spreading Fake Conspiracy Theories. But There’s A Problem…
Part of the problem for platforms like YouTube and Facebook — which has also pledged to clean up misinformation that could lead to real-world harm — is that the definition of “harmful” misinformation is circular. There is no inherent reason that a video questioning the official 9/11 narrative is more dangerous than a video asserting the existence of U.F.O.s or Bigfoot. A conspiracy theory is harmful if it results in harm — at which point it’s often too late for platforms to act. – The New York Times
Film Critic Carrie Rickey Talks About Weinstein, #MeToo And Movies
“Naturally, as a woman and a mother, I am not for sexual predation of women in any industry. That kind of goes without saying. Before Nora Ephron died, she made a list of the things she wouldn’t miss. I think number one or two on that list of things I won’t miss are more panels about why there aren’t enough women in film. That’s kind of how I’m feeling now. We talk about it, and we talk about it, and nothing fucking changes. You can quote me on that.” – The Smart Set
Sofia Coppola Is An Auteur, And It’s Time We Give Her An Auteur’s Respect
J. Hoberman: “Coppola is a true auteur — a filmmaker with a distinct worldview and sensibility and a personal set of quasi-autobiographical interests. … [And] it should be noted that on the basis of six features she’s directed since 1999, she’s also the most celebrated American filmmaker under 50.” – The New York Times
Ai Weiwei’s Segment For Anthology Film About Berlin Suppressed Out Of Fears Of Chinese Gov’t Reaction
“A contribution by the Chinese artist, film-maker and activist Ai Weiwei to a film called Berlin, I Love You, was cut by the producers on concern it could block the movie from getting distribution in China and create difficulties for them with the Chinese authorities.” – The Art Newspaper
CBS Is Using Artificial Intelligence To Measure Viewers’ Emotional Reactions To Shows
With Canvs Surveys, CBS can now field more open-ended surveys and also expand the set of questions it includes on each one. The tool measures and categorizes consumers’ responses to characters, plot lines and other topics (like related shows), using a standard set of emotional tags such as “love,” “excited,” “bored,” “sad” or “anxious.” – Variety
Cinema Has Helped Change Europe, And It Can Do So Again: Agnieszka Holland
The maker of Oscar nominees Angry Harvest, Europa Europa, and In Darkness writes: “We film-makers are faced with the question of whether we can have a real impact on our world and how we go about doing that. If reality looks like bad fiction and if real characters are like caricatures, then our movies have to reinvent reality. In short: we should leave politicians by the wayside and let artists invent the future. Responsibility today means putting our imaginations to work.” – The Guardian
A Survivor Of The Real USSR Looks At The Pseudo-USSR Of ‘DAU’
“Born of infinite resources and expectations and hubris, the project’s formal artistic failure as cinema was as dialectically preordained as was the failed realization of the Soviet Communist utopia. Yet the Soviet-style command economy mobilization of resources needed to forge the institute in Kharkiv and the art installations in Paris succeeded.” – Tablet
After Series Of Flops, Amazon Re-Orients Its Filmmaking Product Line
Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke: “What we struggled with, I think, was putting too much focus on a narrow prestige lane. I don’t think we had diverse-enough points of view in the storytelling.” So, in addition to the “prestige lane,” the company will add “lanes” in erotic thrillers, horror titles, and (later) young-adult movies. – The New York Times
French Court Throws Out Suit To Block Release Of Film About Sexual Abuse By Priest
François Ozon’s By the Grace of God, which just won the jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival, is based on the case of Father Bernard Preynat, who went to court to delay the release of the film until after his trial. A judge has rejected that bid. – The Hollywood Reporter
If Netflix’s Roma Wins Oscars’ Best Picture, It Will Change The Movie Business Forever
If a film primarily distributed online wins, the debate in Hollywood about what constitutes cinema is over. It would strike a blow to the big multiplex chains, which have refused to show “Roma” because Netflix offered them an exclusive play period of only three weeks; three months is the norm. As far as box office figures, Netflix has said the film has appeared in about 250 theaters in the United States since it was released on Nov. 21, but it refuses to disclose ticket sales. A win by “Roma” could embolden old-line studios like Universal and Warner Bros. to shorten their own theatrical “windows.” – The New York Times
Why Is There Such A Misstep-Filled Scramble To Make The Oscars Shorter?
The producer: “There are so many things to balance. Some viewers want to see glamour. You have to pay attention to where there is humor and where there is music. When do we guess that people at home might get up to make popcorn in the kitchen, and what can we have on right after that to bring them back?” – The New York Times
Bollywood Gets Its First Major LGBTQ Film [VIDEO]
The film, with major Bollywood stars in it, centers on the love story between two women, but they’re under pressure to be in opposite-sex marriages. The film’s director, Shelly Chopra Dhar: “The intent for this film was to reach a wider audience, to have everybody understand that love is love, and does not need to be qualified.” – BBC
What The Academy Should Drop From The Live Broadcast: The Shorts
The NYT‘s Carpetbagger: “These categories are an island unto themselves, whereas a nominee from any other race — be it an animated feature or a foreign-language film — can conceivably vie for best picture or at least be eligible for other Oscars. If there are categories that have to go, these three provide the cleanest cut.” – The New York Times
Oops: The Live Oscars Broadcast Will Include Cinematography After All
For the second time, the Academy reversed itself about something it planned to cut from this year’s Oscars broadcast. “The announcement came after an outcry by some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, including BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee and Roma director Alfonso Cuarón.” – NPR
Behind The Scenes Of ‘The Great British Baking Show,’ They Really Are Friends
Imagine all of the contestants on Top Chef being buddies, or baking cakes for each other’s weddings. (Alert: This story spoils the season that had Selasi and Val on it.) – The Atlantic
This Map Of The Bezos Story Looks Like It Came From An Amazon Original Police Story
Seriously, connecting the dots is a little bit intense. Bezos’ affair and associated selfies, and his post to Medium last week, “has revealed more than just a series of leaked texts and naked selfies. It has also laid bare a tangled web of overlapping relationships and interests across Hollywood, politics, national security and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” (And if you were wondering why Amazon has Jack Ryan as an original series, well, read on.) – Los Angeles Times
Minnesota Public Radio Opens New Online Portal For Immigrants
“Sahan Journal is the brainchild of Mukhtar Ibrahim, who began his career as MPR’s first Somali-American reporter before joining the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He … said he wants Sahan to be ‘a one-stop shop for all things immigrant in Minnesota.'” – Current
The Viral Influencer Market – How Organizing Attention Works
Sociologists Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport have studied the ways that protest tactics and schemes have spread out of political culture and into other spaces, especially entertainment. They coined the phrase “ubiquitous movement practices” to describe how petitions, boycotts, and the like—once tactics used solely for political goals—are now deployed across all kinds of social and cultural concerns from trying to ensure Family Guy remains on the air to trying to get the Postal Service “to issue a Marx Brothers stamp.” – The Atlantic
Steven Soderbergh On How The Movies Have (Are) Changing
“What I don’t understand is why everyone in this business thinks there is one template that is gonna be the unified field theory of “windowing” [or how long a movie screens in theaters]. The minute that I knew, which is usually around Friday at noon, that Logan Lucky wasn’t going to work and that Unsane was definitely not gonna work—as soon as that happens, the studio should let me drop the movie on a platform the next week.” – The Atlantic
For Black Talent Agents, It’s Hard Out There In Hollywood
“Pushes for greater diversity onscreen have been mirrored in some Hollywood corridors of power with varying degrees of effort and success. But the number of partners and department heads of color at talent agencies, those hypercompetitive firms where careers traditionally start in mailrooms or assistants’ pools, remains vanishingly low. … Here, seven black agents — six with major agencies, one who runs her own boutique company — speak candidly about the barriers they have faced, the isolation they have felt, and the changes they are beginning to see.” – The New York Times
Fox News Rejects Ad For Oscar-Nominated Anti-Nazi Documentary, Calling It “Inappropriate”
The documentary focuses on a 1939 pro-Nazi rally in New York and warns that fascism could happen here. The movie – A Night At The Garden – is competing in the documentary category and the ad for it – a 30-second spot was called “It Can Happen Here.” Producers had wanted to buy a spot on the Sean Hannity Show. – The Hollywood Reporter
This Writer Asked New York Film Academy To Pay Her What Men Were Getting Paid. They Kicked Her Off The Project.
Last summer, Krista Knight signed on to write the script for a 20-minute movie musical for NYFA. At the time, she agreed that she’d be paid only with in-kind services. Then she found out that the composer and lyricist were each receiving a $150 honorarium … – Hyperallergic
Movie Industry Weighs In On Oscars’ Decision To X Televising Cinematography Awards
Russell Crowe, not nominated for anything this year, chimed. “The Academy is removing cinematography, editing and make up from the televised show? This is just such a fundamentally stupid decision, I’m not even going to be bothered trying to be a smart arse about it,” the actor, who won an Oscar for Gladiator, said. “It’s just too fucking dumb for words.” – New York Magazine
Russia Is Cutting Itself Off From The Rest Of The Internet (Temporarily). But Is This Prelude To Something Bigger?
Ostensibly the goal of the legislation is to protect the Russian internet from the US, which has an offensive cybersecurity strategy and lists Russia as one of the major sources of hacking attacks. However, many observers think the creation of a Russian intranet is a further step towards a goal of duplicating the Great Firewall of China to restrict the access of the country’s internet users to content deemed harmful by the authorities. – The Guardian
Oscars Cut Televising Some Categories In Pursuit Of Ratings. What’s Next?
Michael Philips: “If ABC and the Oscars keep this up, by 2028 we may be watching a 90-minute infomercial with no host, no technical or design awards, no sense of craft or history, and a whole helluva lot of ‘Avengers’ cast members, whoever they are by then.” – Chicago Tribune
Why Was Zhang Yimou’s Latest Film Pulled From The Berlin Film Festival?
“The phrase ‘technical reasons’ is both a euphemism and a reality for Chinese filmmakers, none of whom can ever be said to have completed their movie until regulators sign off on every detail. … In the case of One Second, it is possible that the subject matter, rooted in Mao Zedong’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, was the problem.” – Variety