Tag Archives: Human Interest

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced Audience Award-winners today from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter.
The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2013 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 for Narrative Feature, and Ben Nabors’ WILLIAM AND THE WINDMILL for Documentary Feature. For the complete list of 2013 Award Winners, visit sxsw.com/film.
The 2013 SXSW Film Festival hosted a total of 133 features, consisting of 78 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres and 9 U.S. Premieres, with 76 first-time directors. 110 shorts will screen as part of 10 overall shorts programs. The nearly 250 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, over 5,700, comprised of approximately 2,100 features and 3,600 shorts, with an overall increase of 7% over 2012.
2013 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION Winner: Short Term 12 Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION Winner: The Short Game Director: Josh Greenbaum
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT Winner: An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story Director: Al Reinert
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT Winner: Zero Charisma Directors: Katie Graham & Andrew Matthews
VISIONS Winner: Maidentrip Director: Jillian Schlesinger
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2013 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
MIDNIGHTERS Winner: Cheap Thrills Director: E.L. Katz
24 BEATS PER SECOND Winner: A Band Called Death Directors: Mark Christopher Covino & Jeff Howlett
SXGLOBAL Winner: The Punk Syndrome Directors: Jukka Kärkkäinen & J-P Passi
FESTIVAL FAVORITES Winner: The Crash Reel Director: Lucy Walker
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN Audience Award Winner: Kiss of the Damned Designer: Akiko Stehrenberger, Gravillis Inc
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN Audience Award Winner: Chasing Shakespeare Designer: Lucky Post
As today is the final day of SXSW Film, additional screenings have been scheduled as follows for all Audience Award-winners:
Audience Award: Narrative Feature Competition
Short Term 12
03/16/2013, Topfer Theatre at ZACH, 9:30 PM
Audience Award: Documentary Feature Competition
The Short Game
03/16/2013, Stateside Theatre, 6:45 PM
Audience Award: 24 Beats Per Second
A Band Called Death
03/16/2013, Vimeo Theater, 7:15 PM
Audience Award: Visions
Maidentrip
03/16/2013, Alamo Ritz 1, 9:30 PM
Audience Award: Narrative Spotlight
Zero Charisma
03/16/2013, Stateside Theatre, 9:30 PM
2 of 3
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2013 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
Audience Award: Documentary Spotlight
An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story
03/16/2013, Vimeo Theater, 9:45 PM
Audience Award: Midnighters
Cheap Thrills
03/16/2013, Alamo Ritz 1, 11:59 PM
Audience Award: SXGlobal
The Punk Syndrome
03/16/2013, Alamo Ritz 2, [...]

Our selected star to be included in our “Hollywood Movie Star of the Week Photo Gallery” is Gerard Butler. Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.

A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in the American miniseries Attila (2001). In 2003, he played André Marek in the adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Timeline.
He garnered critical acclaim for his work as the lead in Joel Schumacher’s 2004 film adaptation of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. In 2007, Butler gained recognition through his portrayal of King Leonidas in the film 300. Since then, he has appeared in projects including P.S. I Love You (2007), Nim’s Island (2008), RocknRolla (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009), Gamer (2009), Law Abiding Citizen (2009), The Bounty Hunter (2010), and as a voice actor in How to Train Your Dragon (2010).His new movie Olympus Has Fallen will open March 22, 2013.
To read more go to GERARD BUTLER
Photos BY PRPhotos.com
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Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Rick Yune, and director Antoine Fuqua visited with men and women of service at the Naval Station in San Diego and Camp Pendleton on Saturday, March 16, 2013, prior to screening OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN at both facilities.
ABOUT OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (In Theatres March 22, 2013
When the White House (Secret Service Code: “Olympus”) is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning?s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger crisis. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune.

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/OlympusHasFallenMovie
TWITTER: #OlympusHasFallen @OlympusMovie
Photo Credit: Robert Benson/Wire Image
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Academy Award®-winning actress Meryl Streep encourages people to get screened for colon cancer in new broadcast public service announcements (PSAs) that launch in March, in conjunction with National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
The PSAs, which will premiere today on Katie!, are the latest collaboration between the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (EIF’s NCCRA), co-founded by Katie Couric, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the CDC’s Screen for Life: National Colorectal Cancer Action Campaign. This initiative is a multi-year effort to educate Americans about the importance of regular colorectal cancer screening for men and women aged 50 years and over.
Streep is one of the world’s most renowned actors, having won three Academy Awards as well as multiple Golden Globe, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and Screen Actors Guild awards, in addition to Primetime Emmys and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. She is the third Oscar-winning actor to appear in the Screen for Life campaign, along with Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton.
Of cancers that affect both men and women, colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, taking the lives of more than 50,000 Americans every year. Yet the disease is highly preventable through screening. Screening can detect pre-cancerous growths called polyps that can be removed before they develop into colorectal cancer. Screening can also detect colorectal cancer at an early stage, when treatment is most effective.
Streep explains these benefits of screening in the PSA, titled Control, adding that, “For me, screening was simple and quick. It was no big deal, except for the huge sense of relief you feel afterwards.”
The colorectal cancer death rate has declined steadily for several years. According to the CDC, half of this decrease can be attributed to more people getting screened. Despite that progress, one third of U.S. adults age 50 and over are still not up to date with recommended screening.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends colorectal cancer screening for men and women aged 50–75. (The decision to be screened after age 75 should be made on an individual basis. People older than 75 are advised to ask their doctors if they should be screened.)
The CDC considers Screen for Life one of the most effective campaigns it has undertaken to encourage screening.
Streep said she was motivated to get screened after seeing Katie Couric’s [...]

For the first time ever a Quentin Tarantino movie will debut in China.
“Django Unchained,” which has already grossed more than $400 million worldwide ($241 million overseas) will open in China on April 11.
Sony Pictures has handled the international rollout of the hit film, which is a co-production between The Weinstein Company and Sony Pictures.
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‘My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize’ is a great memoir that Nobel Peace Prize winner and our friend Jody Williams just completed. What Mia Farrow says about Jody’s book… “An Activist’s activist.” Get Jody’s book today!
As Eve Ensler says in her inspired foreword to this book, “Jody Williams is many things—a simple girl from Vermont, a sister of a disabled brother, a loving wife, an intense character full of fury and mischief, a great strategist, an excellent organizer, a brave and relentless advocate, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But to me Jody Williams is, first and foremost, an activist.”
From her modest beginnings to becoming the tenth woman—and third American woman—to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Jody Williams takes the reader through the ups and downs of her tumultuous and remarkable life. In a voice that is at once candid, straightforward, and intimate, Williams describes her Catholic roots, her first step on a long road to standing up to bullies with the defense of her deaf brother Stephen, her transformation from good girl to college hippie at the University of Vermont, and her protest of the war in Vietnam. She relates how, in 1981, she began her lifelong dedication to global activism as she battled to stop the U.S.-backed war in El Salvador.
Throughout the memoir, Williams underlines her belief that an “average woman”—through perseverance, courage and imagination—can make something extraordinary happen. She tells how, when asked if she’d start a campaign to ban and clear anti-personnel mines, she took up the challenge, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) was born. Her engrossing account of the genesis and evolution of the campaign, culminating in 1997 with the Nobel Peace Prize, vividly demonstrates how one woman’s commitment to freedom, self-determination, and human rights can have a profound impact on people all over the globe. By University of California Press
Get Jody’s book today!

“Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the Peace Prize with her that year. At that time, she became the 10th woman – and third American woman – in its almost 100-year history to receive the Prize. Since her protests of the Vietnam War, she has been a life-long advocate of freedom, self-determination and human and civil rights.”
Get [...]

It is on The Great Gatsby by Australian director Baz Luhrmann, that the curtain will rise at the inauguration of the 66th Festival de Cannes, on Wednesday 15th May, in the Grand Théâtre Lumière du Palais des Festivals, out of Competition in the Official Selection.
Adapted from the famous novel by American author Francis Scott Fitzgerald and set against the roaring twenties on the East Coast of the United States, the film depicts the romantic and tragic figure of Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), as narrated by his friend Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire). Carey Mulligan is Daisy Buchanan, whose husband is played by Joel Edgerton.
This prestigious occasion will also be graced with the presence of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, as well as the American pop star, rapper Jay-Z
To read more go to Festival de Cannes
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Our selected celebrity to be included in our “Hollywood TV Star of the Week Photo Gallery” is Tina Fey.

Elizabeth Stamatina “Tina” Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedienne, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL) (1997–2006), the critically acclaimed NBC comedy series 30 Rock (2006–2013), and such films as Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008) and Date Night (2010).
Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the Chicago-based improvisational comedy group The Second City. She then joined SNL as a writer, later becoming head writer and a performer, known for her position as co-anchor in the Weekend Update segment. In 2004 she adapted the screenplay Mean Girls in which she also co-starred. After leaving SNL in 2006, she created the television series 30 Rock, a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at SNL. In the series, Fey portrays the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series. In 2008, she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama, alongside former SNL co-star Amy Poehler. Fey next appeared alongside Steve Carell in the 2010 comedy film Date Night and with Will Ferrell in the animated film Megamind.
Fey has received seven Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, four Writers Guild of America Awards and has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her autobiographical book Bossypants, which topped the The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks. In 2008, the Associated Press (AP) gave Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL.
In 2010, Fey was the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the youngest-ever winner of the award. On January 13, 2013, Fey hosted the Golden Globe Awards, along with her long-time friend and fellow comedian, Amy Poehler. This was the first time the awards ceremony was hosted by a woman. Their performance was critically acclaimed, with ABC News describing it as “spectacular.”
To read more go to TINA FEY
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The only spoiler bit is at around 1:02, where Captain Pike has some facial scars that I don’t recall him having at the end of the first Star Trek (he was of course seriously injured, but I don’t recall scarring).
Perhaps Pike gets those scars when Cumberbatch escapes from his glass prison at the halfway mark, because “He planned to get caught the whole time!”. Otherwise, this is a quick (78 seconds) and breezy action-packed trailer.
It’s nice that they aren’t focusing as much on Benedict Cumberbatch’s mystery villain (I have a theory on that, broached by a friend of mine and backed up by what we’ve seen thus far, but I’m not sharing in case I’m right) and also showing off that the film isn’t all gloom and misery this time around. The initial trailers tried to sell the film as a generic ‘dark sequel’ or The Dark Knight meets Skyfall meets Revenge of the Sith.
This new trailer plays in the Return of the Jedi/Tron sandbox with phasers set for swashbuckling adventure.

To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures jointly announced today that writer/director Christopher Nolan’s “INTERSTELLAR” will be co-produced and distributed by the two studios, with Paramount Pictures handling Domestic distribution and Warner Bros. Pictures distributing the film Internationally. “INTERSTELLAR” will be released beginning November 7, 2014, in theaters and IMAX®.
Directed and written by Academy Award-nominee Nolan (“INCEPTION,” “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES”), “INTERSTELLAR” is based on a script by Jonathan Nolan. The film will be produced by Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan of Syncopy Films and Obst of Lynda Obst Productions. Kip Thorne will executive produce. The film will depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding.
Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures said, “As a filmmaker and storyteller, Chris has continuously entertained the world with his extraordinary and unparalleled talents. I am pleased beyond measure to welcome him to the Paramount Pictures family. Partnering with Chris, Emma, Lynda and Warner Bros. to release this original idea next November is the perfect way to start the Thanksgiving and holiday movie season for audiences around the world.”
Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said, “Christopher Nolan is truly one of the great auteurs working in film today, and we’re extremely proud of our successful and ongoing collaboration with him and Emma Thomas. We are excited to be teaming with Paramount, and look forward to working with the Nolans, and producer Lynda Obst, on this extraordinary new project.”
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