"The process helps winnow the field of competing films for upcoming awards shows, a kind of hive mind forming around the season's leading contenders. This year, that mind is looking blank." As the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter recently tweeted, "The usual consensus-building is gone, and voters are left to what they actually think." - The Washington...
Governor Andrew Cuomo said "cinemas in the city will be permitted to operate at 25% capacity, with no more than 50 people. Moreover, other safety measures such as masks, social distancing and heightened sanitizing measures will be required." - Variety
The the government may not apply the code to Facebook if the company can demonstrate it has signed enough deals with media outlets to pay them for content. The government has also agreed that Facebook and other platforms which would be subject to the code would be given a month's notice to comply." - The Guardian
The disclaimer, which runs on 18 episodes of the show (re-relased on Disney+ last week): "This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future...
Peter Quinn, VFX artist, has been making homemade special effects movies, and posting them online. "The whole quarantine and lockdown aspect, I find that useful because it means I've got all this spare time and I've got the gear, I've got the lights ... all I need is to think of a little idea I can do without leaving...
Some of the change is due to a worldwide audience. Netflix and other streaming services "have a certain sensibility that they want to see in the kind of narratives that they are promoting on their platform. That has been a great boon for women filmmakers, women writers, women behind the camera and in front of the camera." - The...
You'd think the director of Precious, The Butler, and more could get funding. But ... "'Studios will give you about $10 to make a black movie. I’m exaggerating, but you get the point,' he says." - The Guardian (UK)
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has some issues, with members describing monthly meetings as battle zones. The HFPA includes zero Black members. It's "an embattled organization still struggling to shake its reputation as a group whose awards or nominations can be influenced with expensive junkets and publicity swag." And it may be running afoul of tax law. - Los...
In 1917, Warner Bros. had eight films directed by women. In 2017, it had ... one. What the heck? Well, for one thing: "Female-focused stories that perform well at the box office are repeatedly seen as flukes rather than proof that audiences want films about women. ... Every summer they would write these stories like these films were sleeper...
True? Film has always had marketing, PR, and of course ratings: "It would be a mistake to present the old gatekeepers in romantic colours compared to new technology companies. In both cases, we are talking about powerful institutions that define, control and manage the boundaries of what is art and culture." - BBC
In a research lab at Penn State, "four pigs — Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory — were trained to use an arcade-style joystick to steer an on-screen cursor into walls. … And the pigs even continued playing when the food reward dispenser broke — apparently for the social contact." - BBC
When the idea and the office of the president was regarded with a sort of reverence, presidential representations were more heroic, historian Dean J. Kotlowski writes, pointing to the “schmaltzy, character-themed biographies” of the 1930s through early ’60s. And in a sort of reversal, where a fictional representation led to a very nonfictional one, researchers Michael P. Rogin and...
"The new Netflix series Amend: The Fight for America, produced by Will Smith and Larry Wilmore, seeks to not through song, but extended, sleek, bingeable verve. … Amend, which focuses solely on the importance and liberties granted by the 14th Amendment, stretches across six hour-long episodes, each devoted to a different area of interest: citizenship, love, women's rights,...
The initiative combines entertainment metadata with Nielsen’s audience measurement data. It’s designed to equip content creators, owners, distributors and advertisers with data around onscreen diversity and representation to enable more inclusive content. - Los Angeles Times
"Zhang and his co-authors reported high levels of statistical significance for their finding, but the reported differences in the effects of violent games versus nonviolent games were too small for that high statistical significance to be possible." - Science
