News

You’ve watched thousands of movies, but how often have you really noticed the cuts? The way a film moves from a wide shot to a character’s face, or from one person to another in a conversation, feels as natural as breathing. We take this seamless flow for granted.

That magic trick is the central question in Chad Freidrichs’s documentary, The Cinema Within. The film pulls back the curtain on this invisible art to ask a deceptively simple question: Why does film editing even work?

How do our brains take a sequence of completely separate images and assemble them into a coherent story without feeling disoriented? It’s a deep dive into the intersection of filmmaking craft and cognitive science, exploring the hidden grammar that shapes our emotional response to cinema.

The Rhythm of Thought

The film anchors its investigation in the ideas of legendary editor Walter Murch,...

Viola Davis and Walter Murch were awarded honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees by the American Film Institute at the conservatory’s commencement ceremony. The event took place at the Tcl Chinese Theater on Friday morning.

Davis told the graduates that “they already have their ruby slippers.”

“You have to know that you have the power within you to make it, whatever that making it means,” Davis told Variety moments before accepting the honor. “That’s what I want to remind them.”

Davis also talked about the significance of AFI recognizing her contributions to the film and TV industry.

“It’s always especially potent when it’s given by your peers,” she said. “I consider everyone that is in this profession — no matter how long they’ve been in it, known, unknown, faceless — my peers. They know the work. They know the artistry. It makes me feel capable. It makes...

David Lynch passed a little more than six months ago, and the world of cinema is still mourning. Let’s start with a book devoted to two of the most important elements of any Lynch creation—music and sound—followed by works from Walter Murch and Neil Jordan, new books on music, and a stack of novels made for summer reading.

Always Music In the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks by Scott Ryan (Tucker DS Press)

We have Scott Ryan to thank for some of the finest coverage of David Lynch’s career—namely, the Twin Peaks-dedicated Blue Rose Magazine, Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared, and Lost Highway: The Fist of Love. Ryan’s latest, Always Music In the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks, is another deep dive into the works of David Lynch, this time all three seasons of Twin Peaks. Here, Ryan discusses the late,...

At first glance, Jerry Zucker wouldn't seem like the kind of filmmaker to have a ghost of a chance at crafting a Best Picture-nominated film. But that unlikely event came to pass 35 years ago when the codirector of spoof comedies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun made the supernatural romance Ghost. Released on July 13, 1990, the film went on to become the year's biggest domestic box-office hit and a surprise Oscar powerhouse.

Zucker rose to Hollywood fame as a member of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trio that included brother David Zucker and their friend, the late Jim Abrahams. Together, they wrote The Kentucky Fried Movie before helming seminal comedies Airplane! and Top Secret!.

Hot on the heels of their 1986 non-spoof comedy hit Ruthless People, the team locked down a two-year deal with Paramount Pictures. That deal launched with a bang thanks to The Naked Gun, based on their short-lived TV series, Police Squad.

Gold Derby's top news stories for June 17, 2025.

The Pitt scrubs back in

Season 2 of the Max drama has started filming. The Noah Wyle-led show shoots primarily on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., with exterior shots being filmed on location in Pittsburgh. The second season is expected to premiere in January 2026.

American Cinema Editors announce dates for Ace Eddies

The biggest awards in film and television editing have set dates for their annual awards. The eligibility window for TV runs from Nov. 2, 2024 to Dec. 31, 2025. For features, the period goes from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025. Submissions open on October 1, and the awards will take place on Feb. 27, 2026.

I Know What You Did Last Summer has one question for you

The legacy sequel to everyone's favorite nautically themed slasher franchise is headed to theaters on July 18, and the new trailer reveals exactly how they're getting Jennifer Love Hewitt's character, Julie James,...

Viola Davis and Walter Murch will each receive honorary degrees from the American Film Institute in recognition of their work in film.

The actor and film editor/sound designer will each be presented with a Doctorate of Fine Arts degree honoris causa at AFI Conservatory’s Aug. 8 commencement at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

“Viola Davis and Walter Murch – both masters of their craft – symbolize the standard of excellence AFI was founded to celebrate,” Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO, said in a statement. “Their contributions to the art form have inspired audiences around the world – as they will inspire this year’s graduates of the AFI Conservatory.”

Davis is an Egot winner, who won an Oscar for “Fences,” an Emmy for “How to Get Away with Murder,” a Grammy for the memoir “Finding Me” and Tonys for “Fences” and “King Hedley II.” Murch won an Oscar for...

If there’s one criticism to be lobbed at Jeffrey McHale’s energetic, engrossing, and often quite loving documentary “It’s Dorothy!,” it’s that the documentarian has selected perhaps too good of a subject. The mythology and meaning of Dorothy Gale, the great hero of “The Wizard of Oz,” could easily inspire an entire series of films. While McHale somehow manages to touch on a dozen hot topics in his documentary — what the on-screen role means to the women who have played her, how and why the LGBTQ+ community so love her, how we grapple with the misdeeds of our favorite artists, and that’s literally just a small sample — that can make the actual film on offer feel a bit unfinished.

Still, McHale manages to hold all these very big topics together in an otherwise slim 97-minute running time. Packed with major talking heads, zippy animation, and a bouncing...

A very special Film Stories podcast episode, as Walter Murch talks editing, the Droid Olympics, AI, The Conversation and much more…

Multi-Oscar-winning editor, sound designer, writer and editor Walter Murch joins Simon for a very special episode of Film Stories. Walter’s just released his latest book, Suddenly Something Clicked, and it’s packed full of advice, plus stories from his extensive career.

In this long chat, the pair talk about the Droid Olympics, The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola nearly poisoning him (!), and an unusual project with Mike Leigh. There’s a lot more too…

Image: Beatice Murch, Cc.

The post Podcast | In conversation with Walter Murch appeared first on Film Stories.

This week on the Film Stories Podcast Network: new avengers, weird cults, film festivals and much more. Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Reel Talk

There might be hope for the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet if Thunderbolts* is anything to go by. Sam Stokes and guests Violet Hammond, Baz and Gemma Greenland unpack the latest comic-book blockbuster…

Podcast-616

If you just can’t get enough of Thunderbolts* on the network, are you in luck? Our Marvel-dedicated show sees hosts Hugh McStay and Ashley Thomas joined by guest Dan Owen to unpick the film in detail…

Writers on Film

The Godfather Pts 1 & 2 and Apocalypse Now stand as among the greats in 1970s cinema, no thanks in part to the editing prowess of Walter Murch, who sits down with John Bleasdale to discuss his new book and career, plus don’t miss John reporting exclusively from the Cannes Film Festival with special episodes…...

Jean Marsh, the Emmy award-winning actor who co-created and acted in the ’70s British drama series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” died Sunday in her London home. She was 90.

Marsh’s death was confirmed by The New York Times, with the cause being complications of dementia, according to filmmaker and close friend Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Marsh co-created “Upstairs, Downstairs” with actor Eileen Atkins. Marsh ended up playing Rose Buck, the house parlor maid, throughout 54 episodes of the show from 1971-1975. She also reprised her role in the 2010 continuation of the series.

For her on-screen work, Marsh won a Primetime Emmy in 1975 in the outstanding lead actress in a drama series category. The original run of the show took home seven Emmys and a Peabody Award. In total, Marsh was nominated for four Emmys throughout her career, including for her work in the “Upstairs, Downstairs” reprisal.

Over the years, Marsh starred in numerous films and shows,...

There's always something fascinating about the phenomenon of late-stage sequels. Filmmakers will sometimes wait decades after a film is released to make a follow-up, which only proves that the original has either retained its cultural clout or somehow gained more traction in the mass consciousness over time. It's easy to see why, in 1985, Walter Murch decided to make a sequel to 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" called "Return to Oz." It had been about 46 years since the original had been released, but "The Wizard of Oz" had — and has — remained one of the most famous movies of all time. A sequel would merely tap into the perpetual affection American audiences have for the film.

And, of course, some long-in-the-tooth sequels are merely a matter of timing, interest, and commitment. Why were there over ten years between "Toy Story 2" (1999) and "Toy Story 3" (2010)? No other reason than that the studio was working on other things.

“New Born Life” tells the story of Nafisa (Momun Gulqehra), an Uyghur woman living in Tokyo who finds herself at a crossroads between love, identity, and familial expectations. Nafisa is an assistant director and shares a stable relationship with her boyfriend, Hirosawa (Shohei Matsuzaki), a cinematographer. Though Hirosawa is ready to take their relationship to the next level, Nafisa hesitates and cannot commit. Her life takes a sudden turn when she receives troubling news about her grandfather’s health and her mother’s concerns about her marriage prospects. Nafisa lies to her mother to protect her relationship, setting in motion a chain of events that threatens to unravel everything.

New Born Life is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Clocking in at just 39 minutes, “New Born Life” is a brief yet powerful exploration of a woman grappling with personal sacrifice and cultural expectations. The narrative, simple and linear, revolves around...

On the Mount Rushmore of great American actors — specifically those who emerged in the late 1960s and brought a transformative, bone-deep intensity to their craft over the industry-redefining decade that followed — four faces loom large: Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman.

The eldest of that contingent, Hackman is less familiar to younger audiences than the others, having withdrawn from acting more than 20 years ago, to write and paint in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Over a four-decade screen career, the stage-trained star gravitated to complex movies for grown-up audiences (the only significant exception being his iconic turn as Lex Luthor in the “Superman” franchise), and might have been entirely forgotten by Gen Z if not for his performance as the gruff patriarch in Wes Anderson’s cult favorite “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

Hackman’s unexpected and unusual death (he was discovered alongside his wife and dog) offers a chance...

Producer Paul Maslansky, who came up with the premise for the first Police Academy movie and got help from three world-class directors to push the troubled cult classic Return to Oz past the finish line, has died. He was 91.

Maslansky died Monday of natural causes at a hospital in Los Robles, California, his partner of 16 years, Sally Emr, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The New Yorker made his producing debut in Italy on The Castle of the Living Dead (1964), starring Christopher Lee, and he filmed George Cukor’s penultimate feature, the Elizabeth Taylor-starring The Blue Bird (1976), and Fred Schepisi’s The Russia House (1990), starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, in the Soviet Union.

Maslansky, who collaborated often with Oscar winner Alan Ladd Jr., also produced Larry Peerce’s Love Child (1982), starring Amy Madigan in the true story of a woman who is impregnated by a guard in prison and has...

Disney's Return to Oz has become an infamous production, but the story behind it is even wilder!

As noted, Disney had long held the rights to the Oz books but didn't do anything with them. As the property moved into the public domain, there were a few attempts at a sequel. That included 1979's Journey Back to Oz animated movie, which did have the clever casting of Judy Garland's daughter, Liza Minnelli, as Dorothy. But it suffered from a bad production to be a flop.

The property maintained its popularity as the TV airing of the 1939 movie became an annual mainstay that always garnered high ratings. By 1980, with Disney Productions in a serious downturn after some expensive flops, someone decided giving the Oz books another try was worth it.

And so the road to Return to Oz began but no one dreamed of the nightmare it would become.

Why...

Wicked transports audiences to the world of The Wizard of Oz, with Universal’s adaptation of the Broadway smash starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo hitting theaters Nov. 22. It’s certainly had a smoother road than 1985’s Return to Oz.

After winning a sound Oscar for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, editor and sound designer Walter Murch was approached by Disney to discuss projects to direct. Murch expressed interest in an Oz story, and the studio was intrigued, as it owned the rights to author L. Frank Baum’s later novels The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, on which Return to Oz would be based.

A darker and non-musical follow-up to MGM’s 1939 classic, Return to Oz stars young Fairuza Balk as Dorothy, who is called back to the titular land that has been destroyed by the diabolical Nome King (Nicol Williamson) and Mombi (Jean Marsh). Here,...

R2-D2 is one of the most famous droids in Star Wars, but his name has a much less famous origin story. R2-D2, or as he's affectionately known, Artoo Detoo, was a droid who proved himself extremely helpful throughout the entire Skywalker saga of Star Wars movies. He served some of the most powerful Jedi in Star Wars, and he witnessed some of the most important events in the entire Star Wars timeline. Artoo is an extremely high-profile droid, but there are still some parts of his character that remain much less known.

Though Artoo has appeared in most of the Star Wars movies, there are still quite a few pieces of trivia and facts about R2-D2 that aren't immediately apparent. One of those facts is the origin of his name, which is a seemingly random combination of letters and numbers. While it would be easy to assume that George Lucas,...

Directed by film historian Howard Berry and penned by legendary editor Walter Murch, Her Name Was Moviola pulls back the curtain on a seminal slice of cinema history. For decades, the hulking Moviola reigned supreme as the tool of choice for editors shaping movies into coherent works of art. Berry and Murch aim to resurrect this bygone era of analogue editing through an act of loving restoration.

Transporting viewers past the gloss of modern post-production suites and placing them at the elbow of masters plying their craft, this documentary delivers unique insight into the feel and flow of the editing process.

Academy Award winner Murch has cut together some of the most admired films in recent memory, from Apocalypse Now to The Godfather Part II. Here, he returns to his roots, editing scenes from Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner by hand using a painstakingly sourced Moviola. Berry’s camera hovers close,...

Ben Burtt created the sound of my childhood. He gets that a lot.

“Yeah, I hear that often,” says the legendary sound designer, creator of the lightsabre swish and Darth Vader’s electronic wheezing, the voice of R2-D2, Chewbacca and, for a younger generation, that of Pixar’s Wall-e. “I guess I altered the DNA of a lot of young people.”

Burtt, a 12-time Oscar nominee, and four-time winner — he earned Special Achievement Awards for his work on Star Wars and Raiders of the Los Ark, and Oscars for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival at its 2024 edition with the Vision Award Ticinomoda, a prize dedicated to creatives whose work has extended the horizons of cinema.

“It might seem odd, giving the Vision Award to someone who is a sound designer and sound editor,” admits Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro,...

Fifty years on, the conversation over The Conversation is far from over. To mark Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 paranoiac thriller — released the same year as The Godfather Part II, which is still hard to fathom — the film is getting a full 4K restoration, with Coppola himself having supervised the process.

As James Mockowski — who also worked extensively on Apocalypse Now Redux — told IndieWire, Coppola has always been satisfied with how The Conversation turned out so wouldn’t go back to the drawing board for an entirely new version. And since The Conversation never seems to get the love that most of Coppola’s other works from the decade — the film still feels like an “if you know, you know” masterpiece — they had no issues with the original negative, giving them an ideal starting point for the restoration. As Mockowski put it, “It hadn’t been used, so it was different from The Godfather,...

Ever since he re-edited the first two “Godfather” movies into a “novel for television” in 1977, Francis Ford Coppola has obsessively returned to his past works, creating alternate versions of “Apocalypse Now,” “One From the Heart,” “The Outsiders,” “The Cotton Club,” and “The Godfather Part III.” For the 50th anniversary of his thriller “The Conversation,” Coppola has supervised a beautiful new 4K restoration that Rialto Pictures is releasing in theaters. This time, however, there was no tinkering with the original cut — this is the same “Conversation” that audiences saw in 1974, just looking and sounding the best that it ever has.

“Francis always felt this film was perfect as it is,” film archivist and restoration supervisor James Mockoski told IndieWire. “He’s very comfortable with the work he and [editor and sound designer] Walter Murch did in 1974.” To that end, restoring “The Conversation” was a simpler process than the work Mockoski undertook on “Apocalypse Now,” where...

It's Doomsday on the Empire Podcast, folks. Following the bombshell Hall H announcement at San Diego Comic-Con that Robert Downey Jr. is going to return to the MCU, crucially not as Tony Stark but as legendary Latvian supervillain Doctor Doom, many of you asked that we record a special podcast dedicated to the news. Unfortunately we were unable to do that. Fortunately however, we do make up for it on this week's episode as Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and Amon Warmann lock themselves in the pod booth and spend much of the movie news section scratching their heads and speculating wildly about the news and what it means. It's a long section, so if you're an McU-sceptic, here's a helpful timecode so you can skip ahead [42:38 - 1:02:20 approx]. If you're in the tank for Marvel's multiversal madness however, the team do also talk about the new Fantastic Four movie title, Thunderbolts* and...

To mark the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s, The Conversation, Studiocanal is thrilled to announce a brand-new 4K restoration of the film is available to own via a special 2-disc 4K Uhd Collector’s edition and on digital now. To celebrate we are giving away a The Conversation bundle including a Uhd signed by Walter Murch!

Included in this awesome bundle is the 2-disc 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition signed by Walter Murch, a 64-page booklet with new essays, Exclusive tape cassette soundtrack, 2x posters of original artwork and a t-shirt, phone charger and key ring.

Of the new restoration, Francis Ford Coppola says: “As you will notice, I have never offered a new version of The Conversation, which is a film I have always been proud of, I’ve never felt the need to improve. It also features my wonderful collaboration with its editor (along with Richard Chew) and sound designer,...

Francis Ford Coppola's gripping thriller is back out in a special edition for its 50th anniversary.

You can read about most of the extras - legacy additions, carried over from the excellent 2011 DVD/Blu-ray release here.

This latest release offers a 4K restoration, which brings a lot of detail to the film's intense close-up moments. It is a noticeable improvement in terms of sharpness and contrast on the 2011 release, offering an intensity that matches the character study at its heart. The sound is the 5.1 remix that was overseen in 2011 by the original sound designer Walter Murch. He is also present in a new extra here - a 43-minute Q&a with him from 2017 - that's crammed with juicy personal insight into the making of the film. It may be the only true new addition to this set, but it is excellent, in keeping with all the others that...

One for the historians and tech specialists maybe, but this documentary about the Moviola, used from the 1920s until the 21st century, is a fascinating watch

Howard Berry is a British film historian and chronicler of Elstree studios; now he has directed this unique documentary, written and conceived by the legendary film and sound editor Walter Murch, who edited among other movies Apocalypse Now, The Godfather and The English Patient. Together, Murch and Berry have provided what can only described as a full-on geekgasm for connoisseurs of movie production in the pre-digital age.

Their subject is the Moviola, an analogue editing machine the size of a fridge with two pedals, one for advancing, the other for rewinding film, a little screen and speaker for sound. However cumbersome it may look to people used to editing TikTok videos on their phones, the Moviola was an engineering miracle of efficiency and portability.

George Lucas received the Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes, showing appreciation for mentor Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas redefined Hollywood films with his approach focusing on self-expression, even through fan conflict. Despite retirement, Lucas' legacy lives on as modern Star Wars movies continue without him.

George Lucas received the Honorary Palme dOr on Saturday, May 25, on the 47th anniversary of Star Wars. This year will be a memorable one for George Lucas, who headed to Cannes to receive the Honrary Palme d'Or (and delight the internet with a speech and a series of public statements). Lucas was visibly thrilled, especially when his friend Francis Ford Coppola showed up to present the award.

Lucas' response was truly touching:

What an honor it is for Francis to appear out of nowhere. I didnt expect this. Hes a great friend, and a big brother, and a mentor, and I thank him for everything hes ever done for me.

“I’m a stubborn guy and I didn’t want people to tell me how to make my movies,” is how Star Wars creator George Lucas summed up the secret to his success, speaking to a crowd of fans at a packed Debussy theater in Cannes on Friday afternoon.

The 80-year-old filmmaker was being honored at the 77th Cannes festival with a Palme d’Or for his contribution to cinema, and the crowd, a much younger cohort than is usually seen at these events, whooped and hollered as Lucas walked on the stage. They were rapt as he sat down for a wide-ranging discussion of his life in the movie business.

Lucas said he felt “nostalgic” to be back in Cannes, where he presented his first feature, Thx-1138, at the Directors’ Fortnight back in 1971. His Thx-1138 co-writer and sound designer Walter Murch was in the audience as Lucas recalled how...

“We weren’t really that interested in making money, we were interested in making movies,” said Star Wars franchise architect George Lucas about the early days of his career with mentor Francis Ford Coppola in a Cannes sit down discussion today.

In a wide-ranging chat before a packed Salle Debussy Theatre crowd, Lucas, who is here to receive an honorary Palme d’or at the 77th edition shared how his Thx-1138 was accepted into a new section at Cannes, the Director’s Fortnight, back in 1971, but Warner Bros didn’t want to send the filmmaker or his co-scribe Walter Murch to France for the premiere. The duo scraped their money together, went to their own premiere in a side street venue, but snuck in because they didn’t have tickets. Years later he was asked by the French media why he didn’t go to the press conference of Thx 1138,...

Quick Links Frank Baums Oz Novels Were Much Darker Than Most Believe Return to Oz Is Hugely Faithful in Tone to Baums Vision Return to Oz Is Much Better Than You Remember Return to Oz, the dark sequel to The Wizard of Oz, is actually closer in tone to L. Frank Baum's original novels. Director Walter Murch drew inspiration from Baum's darker sequel novels to create a faithful and creepy adaptation. Despite initial criticism and box office disappointment, Return to Oz now stands as a delightfully creepy and creative cult classic.

Everyones seen The Wizard of Oz, and if you say you havent, odds are youre lying. Its been rightfully hailed as a classic, marking a perfect transition point in Hollywoods switch from black-and-white to color. It perfectly captures the idealism and imagination of childhood and is frequently one of the first movies parents show to their children.

Updated with amended description of documentary My Sweet Land. Sheffield DocFest, the U.K.’s premiere nonfiction film festival, today revealed the full lineup for its 31st edition running June 12-17. Among the highlights: the world premiere of Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, co-directed by Bartek Dziadosz.

In the film, premiering in International Competition, Swinton and Dziadosz “travel the world to understand what it means to learn, and along the way uncover playful food for thought – for adults and young people alike.” Swinton previously directed segments in the documentaries The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger (2016) and The New Ten Commandments (2008).

‘Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color’

Sheffield 2024 will not lack for star power. In addition to Oscar winner Swinton, Idris Elba and the team behind the upcoming National Geographic Documentary series Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color...

Tilda Swinton‘s feature directorial debut is up for an award at Sheffield DocFest where it will get its world premiere as part of a lineup of 48 world premieres from 56 different countries.

The U.K. documentary festival, taking place June 12-17, revealed its full program on Wednesday. Its theme for the 31st edition this year will be “Reflections on Realities.”

Swinton’s debut alongside filmmaker Bartek Dziadosz, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, will have its world premiere at the event in England, following them as “they travel the world to understand what it means to learn, and along the way uncover playful food for thought.”

Stand-out music documentaries at Sheffield DocFest 2024 include the world premiere of the documentary on English rock band Blur, titled blur: To the End, and the European premiere of Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound.

The event’s film program totals...

Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Maze, co-directed with Bartek Dziadosz, will world premiere in competition at Sheffield DocFest (June 12-17) as the full programme is unveiled.

The 109-strong line-up includes 48 world premieres, 14 international and 17 European.

Swinton and her co-director travel the world in The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Mouse to explore the concept of learning. The documentary was first introduced at Sheffield’s MeetMarket in 2018.

All the competition titles are world premieres including the latest from Croatian filmmaker Goran Devic, Pavillon 6 which surrounds Croatia’s fight for the Covid-19 vaccination.

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 classic The Conversation is 50 years old – and is coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray…

It’s a terrific movie trivia question: at the 1975 Academy Awards, Francis Ford Coppola had two films nominated for Best Picture. The one that people tend to know is The Godfather Part II, which took home the Oscar. The one that might even be better than that is the paranoid thriller The Conversation, that’s very much a candidate for being Coppola’s best film.

It stars Gene Hackman, and the Cannes Palme D’Or winner is now celebrating its 50th birthday. As part of that celebration, it’s coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for the very first time.

Set for release on 15th July, you can find more information on the release, and order a copy, right here.

Initially, the movie will be available in an impressive-looking collectors’ set, with two discs in the box,...

The USC School of Cinematic Arts has announced that Miky Lee will deliver the 20024 Commencement address.

James Gray, director, writer, and Sca alumnus, will receive the Mary Pickford Alumni Award at the graduation ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium on Friday, May 10, 2024.

“Miky Lee is a true pioneer and ambassador of collaborative global filmmaking, and we are so happy to have her share her insight and expertise with our graduating students,” Elizabeth M. Daley, Dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, said in a statement. “Miky works across borders, cultures, and genres, and champions the kinds of projects our students aspire to creating. We are so pleased she agreed to be this year’s graduation speaker.”

Sca alumnus Jon M. Chu, who graduated in 2003 with a Bfa in film & television production, will speak at this year’s main, university-wide commencement ceremony at 8:30 a.m. at Alumni Park.

As Commencement Speaker,...

Stars: Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Michael Sundin, Tim Rose, Mak Wilson, Stephen Norrington, Justin Case, John Alexander, Deep Roy, Emma Ridley | Written by Walter Murch, Gill Dennis, L. Frank Baum | Directed by Walter Murch

According to Roger Ebert, Walter Murch is “the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema.” Across a career spanning over 50-years, including multiple Academy Award wins from nine nominations, he has only two directorial credits to his name. The second is a fourth-season episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was preceded over 25 years before by the only feature he directed; Return to Oz.

After her adventures in the Land of Oz, Dorothy Gale (Fairuza Balk) remains obsessed with the locale that she previously visited. Out of a fear that their niece is experiencing delusions, Dorothy’s aunt and uncle take her away to a sanitorium.

There was perhaps no movie director more in demand in the 1970s than Francis Ford Coppola, who was leading the New Hollywood film movement with epics like “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979). But fewer viewers remember his quiet neo-noir drama “The Conversation,” a complete turnaround in production scale and arguably his only intimate, simple dramatic film. While it was not as financially successful as the previously aforementioned grander classics, the mystery thriller was just as acclaimed and lauded, earning three Oscar nominations and winning the Palme d’Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Now on its 50th anniversary, let’s look back at one of Coppola’s overlooked films, “The Conversation,” which was released on April 7, 1974.

The picture stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a top surveillance expert who stumbles upon an ambiguous comment – that may lead to a potential murder – while recording for one of...

Until recently, if one were asked to name some of the best films of preeminent 1970s filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, it would be easy to pick the big hits. “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979) are definitely his most iconic and respected films. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a person aged 25-50 who isn’t keenly aware of his adaption of S.E. Hinton’s mandatory high school assigned “The Outsiders” (1983) or his classics “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and maybe even “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988). Yet lately, Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) has entered the chat as a somewhat under the radar, low-key masterpiece from the filmmaker, and this year the film celebrates its 50th birthday.

After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...

Return to Oz, Disney’s 1985 dark take on Dorothy Gale (played by a then-9-year-old Fairuza Balk), shares its creative DNA with Star Wars. Not only that, George Lucas saved writer-director Walter Murch’s job after Disney fired Murch from the Oz shoot.

Lucas and Murch were old friends and collaborators, having met in the film department of the University of Southern California in the mid-1960s.

“My first memory of him was a shadowy figure behind me in the photograph developing room,” says Murch about Lucas on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast It Happened in Hollywood. “I was trying unsuccessfully to develop one of the photographs that I had taken for an exercise, and there was this voice behind me that said, ‘You’re doing it wrong.’ And I turned around and I said, ‘Who is this guy?’ Of course, it turns out he was right. I was doing it wrong.

Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" is his masterpiece in between masterpieces. The legendary filmmaker wrapped principal photography in late February 1973, just one month before he would win the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for "The Godfather" (Albert Ruddy took home the Best Picture Oscar as the mafia classic's producer). Had Paramount released the film that year, it almost certainly would've received nominations for Best Picture and Director (over the wholly forgotten "A Touch of Class"), giving Coppola three consecutive nods in the latter category, a feat only accomplished once in Academy Awards history (by William Wyler). Instead, he wound up competing against himself a year later, when he added three more Oscars to his trophy case with "The Godfather Part II."

While "The Godfather" movies placed him atop Hollywood's director A-list for the rest of the decade, some cinephiles believe "The Conversation" is the superior film. The...

Indie streamer Mubi has acquired worldwide streaming rights to South African artist William Kentridge’s prestige series “Self-Portrait As a Coffee Pot” which explores how art is made in the digital age.

The nine-episode series by Kentridge – who is celebrated around the world for his influential works comprising animation, installations, theater, opera and films – first previewed as a rough cut at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.

Kentridge lays bare his creative process in the nine 30-minute videos produced in the artist’s Johannesburg studio during the pandemic and its aftermath, between 2020 and 2023. In “Self-Portrait As a Coffee Pot,” Kentridge also invites audiences to reflect on the same philosophical questions that he poses to himself across the episodes, including how do our memories work, what makes us ourselves, and why does history always go wrong.

“Playfully deconstructing and assembling the pressing concerns of our time as works of art,” Kentridge uses “hand-drawn animations,...

Cillian Murphy and writer, director, and producer Christopher Nolan on the set of ‘Oppenheimer’ (Photo © Universal Pictures)

Oppenheimer continues its winning ways, adding the Ace Eddie Awards’ Best Edited Feature Film award to its lengthy list of honors. The 74th Annual Ace Eddie Awards, held on March 3, 2024, named The Holdovers as the Best Edited Feature Film winner, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took home the Best Edited Animated Feature Film prize.

Presented by American Cinema Editors, this year’s Ace Eddie Awards was held at UCLA’s Royce Hall and hosted by Nina West. In addition to announcing winners in the competitive categories, the 2024 Ace Eddie Awards presented John Waters with the Ace Golden Eddie Award. Kate Amend and Walter Murch were recognized with Career Achievement Awards, and Stephen Lovejoy was honored with the Ace Heritage Award.

74th Annual Ace Eddie Awards Winners:

Best Edited Feature Film:

Oppenheimer

Jennifer Lame,...

Best Picture favorite “Oppenheimer” and “The Holdovers” were the drama and comedy editing winners at the 74th Ace Eddie Awards, March 3 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. “Oppenheimer” editor Jennifer Lame is now a step closer to winning the Oscar for deftly balancing Christopher Nolan’s interlocking, subjective POVs of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Best Actor nominee Cillian Murphy) in color and adversary Admiral Lewis Strauss (Best Supporting Actor nominee Robert Downey Jr.) in black-and-white.

The other Oscar nominees are “The Holdovers” (edited by Ace president Kevin Tent), Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Anatomy of Fall,” and “Poor Things.”

“Spider-Man: Across the Universe” won the animation award, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” earned theatrical documentary honors, and “Escaping Twin Flames” took the non-theatrical prize.

TV editing winners included “The Last of Us” for drama series, “Beef” for limited series, “How I Met Your Father” for multi-camera comedy series, “The Bear” for single-camera comedy series,...

Universal’s Oppenheimer and Focus Features’ The Holdovers won the top theatrical prizes Sunday at the 74th Annual Ace Eddie Awards, presented by the American Cinema Editors at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Ace president Kevin Tent, who presided over the event, won best edited feature film, comedy, for The Holdovers, while the drama feature award went to Oppenheimer editor Jennifer Lame.

Other theatrical winners include animated feature winner Michael Andrews for Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and documentary winner Michael Harte for Apple’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Television winners include The Bear‘s Joanna Naugle, who won for the acclaimed episode “Fishes” that featured a star-studded lineup of guest actors led by Jamie Lee Curtis; The Last of Us‘ Timothy A. Good, for the episode “Long, Long Time;” Beef‘s Harry Yoon and Laura Zempel; and How I Met Your Father‘s Russell Griffin.

The team...

Oppenheimer took the marquee Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) honor and The Holdovers landed the top Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) award at the 74th Ace Eddie Awards Sunday. Hosted by Nina West, the winners were announced live in a ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Jennifer Lame Ace, edited Oppenheimer, a film that has so far swept awards season with recent SAG Awards, PGA, DGA, for director Christopher Nolan, BAFTA, and more. The honor puts Oppenheimer and The Holdovers in frontrunner status in the Best Film Editing Oscar race, for which both are nominated, along with Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Eddie winner for theatrical drama has gone on to score the Academy Award for Best Editing 13 of 23 times — but none of the past four years. In a twist, it was the Eddies’ 2023 comedy winner,...

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” topped the dramatic feature editing category at the American Cinema Editors’ 74th Ace Eddie Awards, while “The Holdovers” won the category for best edited comedic feature during Sunday’s ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Jennifer Lame edited “Oppenheimer,” which also took top honors at last week’s SAG Awards and Producers Guild Awards. The recent honor further cements the film’s position to take top prize at the Oscars next weekend. But she faces competition from Kevin Tent, who won here for “The Holdovers.”

Should Lame go on to win the Oscar, it will mark nine years since a woman has won. Margaret Sixel won in 2015 for “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Tent, also president of Ace, kicked off the ceremony addressing last year’s labor strikes, saying, “It’s great to look out and see so many rock star editors…Last year was an extraordinarily...

Hollywood union leaders warned of the possibility of another strike this summer if the studios cannot reach a deal before crew contracts expire on July 31.

Speaking to a rally of more than 2,000 crew members on Sunday at Woodley Park in Encino, Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters, said the unions should commit to withhold their labor — and not grant an extension — if a deal is not agreed by the deadline.

“We are not afraid to strike,” O’Brien said. “If these greedy corporations — whether it’s Amazon, Netflix, Sony… Disney — if they choose not to reward our members, they are putting themselves on strike. We will put them on their back, on their knees, begging for mercy.”

Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are set to begin on Monday. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Teamsters and the Hollywood Basic...

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is one of the few films in Oscars history to win Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing plus prizes for acting and writing. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won Best Director and Best Original Screenplay while they shared in the Best Picture win with Jonathan Wang. Paul Rogers took home Best Film Editing while the film claimed three acting victories: Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, and Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan.

“Forrest Gump” was the last movie to win these top awards. it won Best Picture in 1995 for Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, and Steve Tisch while Robert Zemeckis won Best Director, Tom Hanks won Best Actor, Eric Roth won Best Adapted Screenplay, and Arthur Schmidt won Best Editing.

Several other movies have come close to achieving this feat, with “American Beauty” (2000), “A Beautiful Mind” (2002), ” “No Country For Old Men...

Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1974 masterpiece “The Conversation” will be remade as a TV series, with “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” filmmaker J.C. Chandor attached to both write and direct the series, IndieWire has confirmed.

Chandor will direct via his CounterNarrative Films banner alongside Temple Hill, producer Adam Fishbach, and executive produced by Coppola’s American Zoetrope. Erin Levy, known for her work on “Mad Men” and “Mindhunter,” will be the showrunner on “The Conversation” remake.

MRC is the studio behind the series, and the company optioned the TV remake rights directly from the Coppola estate.

Despite a rumor that Aubrey Plaza was attached to star, no cast is involved at this stage, as a source close to the project tells IndieWire. Other media reports suggested it would be a limited series and that it was set up at a network, but it is being envisioned as an ongoing series,...

Laurent Sénéchal for Anatomy Of A Fall and Keith Fraase for Past Lives are among the American Cinema Editors’ best edited dramatic feature film nominees heading into the Ace Eddie Awards on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Thelma Schoonmaker for Killers Of The Flower Moon, Jennifer Lame for Oppenheimer, and Michelle Tesoro for Maestro round out the category nominations.

Comedy feature nominees are William Goldenberg for Air, Hilda Rasula for American Fiction, Nick Houy for Barbie, Kevin Tent for The Holdovers, and Yorgos Mavropsaridis for Poor Things.

The animated feature category pits Stephen Schaffer for Elemental against Randy Trager and Erin Crackel for Nimona,...

Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in ‘Barbie’ ((Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Oppenheimer, The Bear, and Barbie are among the nominees for the 74th Annual Ace Eddie Awards, recognizing outstanding editing in film, television, and documentaries. In addition to the 14 competitive categories, the American Cinema Editors (Ace) will honor filmmaker John Waters and editors Kate Amend, Stephen Lovejoy, and Walter Murch with special awards during this year’s ceremony.

Winners will be announced at the Ace Eddie Awards to be held on Sunday, March 3, 2024 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Drag queen, performer, and queer activist Nina West (Hairspray) will handle hosting duties.

2024 Ace Eddie Awards Nominees:

Best Edited Feature Film:

Anatomy of a Fall, Laurent Sénéchal

Killers of the Flower Moon, Thelma Schoonmaker, Ace

Maestro, Michelle Tesoro, Ace

Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lame, Ace

Past Lives, Keith Fraase

Best Edited Feature Film:

Air,...