In 1992, television wasn't all about the latest competition or race or humiliation reported to the camera. So when The Real World started, it was a shock. Perhaps not as much of a shock - but a choice that has echoed for nearly three decades - is the way the show framed Black cast members. "The show often sacrificed...
The 1991 project was believed to be lost. "But after Tolkien fan clubs urged the broadcaster to scour the archives of its Soviet predecessor, Leningrad Television, workers for Channel Five managed to find the footage last year" - and to put it online for all of us to enjoy in late March. - The New York Times
Chloé Zhao won another directing award for Nomadland, which also won best film on the second night of the mostly online awards. Anthony Hopkins was a surprising win for The Father; at 83, he's the oldest male actor to win a BAFTA. Promising Young Woman and Emerald Fennell also came in for surprising wins, and Youn Yuh-jung's win for...
Zhao, director of Nomadland, is the first woman of color and only the second woman ever to win the DGA award. Though director David Fincher didn't win for Mank, he had a great line: "Directing ... is a bit like trying to paint a watercolor from four blocks away through a telescope, over a walkie-talkie, and 85 people are...
To keep actors safe - and, of course, to cover their own liability - some productions are now employing intimacy coordinators. But contracts can go farther, and the #TimesUp group has suggested that "a so-called 'nudity rider' or 'simulated sex waiver' should be in place before filming begins." - BBC
The easiest part of being an extra, ahem, a background artist, is that you just have to be there. "Being an extra requires no experience, no acting talent and no talking." - Los Angeles Times
The rush of documentaries - they are cheaper to make, and especially if they're true crime, there's a willing and eager audience - has some aesthetic issues. "Cornball fuzzy re-creations lack credibility. ... It doesn’t have to be like this. Plenty of recent shows and movies have made compelling artistic choices that enliven the storytelling." - The New York...
In 2016, 25 queer women characters on TV died on scripted TV and streaming shows. But Wynonna Earp promised to be different. With the choices the writers' room and showrunner made, viewers saw "an acknowledgement of — and a direct rebuke to — a hurtful trope." They rewarded the producer with trust and increased interest. - Los Angeles Times
Ma Rainey, Mank, and others win on the first night of the British Academy Film and Television Arts awards, when mostly the crafts are recognized. - Variety
"After seeing yet another situation where a longstanding Yahoo-owned website is shutting down, I'm left to wonder if the problem is that the motivations for maintaining sites built around user-generated content simply do not favor preservation, and never will without outside influence. How can we change that motivation? Today's Tedium, in a follow-up to the post we wrote...
Sony and Netflix also inked a first-look deal for movies made exclusively for streaming, boosting the slate of Netflix originals. Sony said those films will represent increased output on top of its theatrical slate, which was about 25 films in 2019. The deal also gives Netflix first look at licensing movies from Sony’s library. - Indiewire
"It will now no longer be possible to block the release of a new film or demand edits for moral or religious reasons. Filmmakers will instead classify their own movies based on the age of the audience. Their decisions will be verified by a new commission made up of 49 members chosen from the film industry, but will be...
"In some countries, such as Hungary and Poland, illiberal governments are turning them into mouthpieces for the ruling party. In others, such as Germany and Sweden, populist movements accuse them of bias in favour of the establishment and the left. Modelled on Britain's BBC (now facing political pressures of its own), Europe’s public media were set up to anchor...
"The Indian federal government has passed an order that scraps the Information and Broadcasting ministry's Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, the first avenue of appeal if a filmmaker disagrees with a certification decision. Instead, filmmakers will have to go to court." - Variety
It’s the kind of hybrid release that would have seemed impossible to pull off prior to the pandemic. Today, it’s the clearest indication yet that COVID-19 has forever changed how movies will be distributed. And the results have left Hollywood questioning what the film’s success means for the future of moviegoing. - Baltimore Sun
