ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

MEDIA

The Era Of Sweeping Television Sagas Is Making A Bold Return

“Gorgeous production values, but with a particular court intrigue kind of momentum, punctuated by violence and driven by ambition. Very tangible, exciting stakes that are a perfect tasty mix of very serious, but also distant enough that they don’t feel like a bummer.” - Vulture (MSN)

Why Attending A Film Festival Is Worth All The Fuss, Celebrity Sighting Brouhaha, And Stinkers

True, "film festivals have become a crucial part of the industry’s infrastructure, which may work against what makes them valuable in the first place,” but still, there are perfect, brilliant surprises, even some of those movies never get a distributor. - Washington Post

US State Department Turns To Streaming As Global Influencer

“Film and television not only entertain, but they also provide a way to highlight issues, start conversations about difficult topics, and give voice to those whose stories we may not have heard.”  - Los Angeles Times

“Saturday Night Live” Turns 50, And Lorne Michaels Decides He Won’t Retire After All

Four years ago, Michaels, the series's founding producer, said that by the end of the 50th season, "I think I really deserve to wander off." Now that that landmark has arrived, he says that "as long as (the show is) important and I can be useful, I’ll stay." - The Hollywood Reporter

A Decade On, “The Babadook” Holds Up, And It’s Still A Gold Mine For Memes

"Fans were soon drawing (the) hokey monster against rainbow backdrops. They were bending his rhyming schemes to echo contemporary gay lingo (“BABAYAAAAAAAAASS!!!” one illustration read). They were photoshopping his face onto vintage photos of 1970s muscled men in short shorts." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

New UK Culture Minister Says New Regulations For Streaming Are Necessary

“There’s a choice ahead of us, whether we choose to be the last guardians of this chapter, or whether we choose to be the first pioneers of the next.” - The Hollywood Reporter

“The West Wing” At 25: The Politics Were Beside The Point, Says Aaron Sorkin

“I thought, ‘What if there were a show about our leaders where these people are as competent and committed as the doctors and nurses on a hospital show, the police officers on a cop show, the lawyers on a David Kelley show?’” - The New York Times

Hollywood’s Film And TV Business Is In Sharp Decline. What To Do?

Despite differences over solutions, there is a consensus on the problem: California is simply not competitive with many other states and countries that offer more generous incentives to entice film crews. - Los Angeles Times

Hundreds Of Violent Threats: Why Toronto Int’l Film Festival Canceled Documentary “Russians At War”

"In emails and phone calls, TIFF staff received hundreds of instances of verbal abuse," said festival CEO Cameron Bailey. "Our staff also received threats of violence, including threats of sexual violence. We were horrified, and our staff members were understandably frightened." - The Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood Animation Workers Say Their Jobs Are Under Threat

AI poses an obvious threat to both animators and writers who tell Deadline they are already suffering from a lack of jobs due to the massive production contraction that has impacted nearly all Hollywood workers, as well as the elimination of staff positions, which has made getting (and keeping) a steady gig nearly impossible. - Deadline

Meta Makes Big Changes In How Instagram Will Work For Kids

“We decided to focus on what parents think because they know better what’s appropriate for their children than any tech company, any private company, any senator or policymaker or staffer or regulator." - The New York Times

Even More Cuts At New York Public Radio

Out of 302 staffers, 14 were laid off and 12 left voluntarily; programming cuts are being made on WNYC, classical station WQXR (including the elimination of all WQXR podcasts), and programming at the performing/broadcast venue the Greene Space. - Gothamist

Why “Shogun” Became Such An Emmy-Winning Hit

The 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell inspired a similarly lauded mini-series in 1980. But the current telling is different in crucial ways — and its popularity demonstrates how sharply America’s attitudes toward Japan have changed over the past 50 years. - The New York Times

The Movie Business Is Feeling – Perhaps Understandably – Apocalyptic These Days

"Apocalypse is not always world-historical. Our lives are full of personal apocalypses; our nations experience them repeatedly, often in times of great distress. We learn who we are, what we stand for and what really matters in apocalyptic times.” - The New York Times

Documentary Filmmakers Are Ready To Have The AI Discussion

Hm: “Rather than rejecting the use of generative AI outright, the group encourages consideration based in four overarching principles: the value of primary sources, transparency, legal considerations and ethical considerations of creating human simulations.” - The Guardian (UK)

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');