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“Unspoken,” “Genealogy of Violence,” and “Aferrado” have won a trio of top honors at this year’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, with each title winning a grand prize in the respective international, national and lab competitions.

Best known for his acting work on Australian film and television, “Unspoken” director Damian Walshe-Howling can now burnish his behind-the-camera bona fides with Clermont-Ferrand’s top international trophy. Set in late-70s Sydney, the film follows a young, Croatian born woman whose life spins out into chaos as Croatian independence protests overtake her adopted hometown.

Led by Quebecois star Marc-André Grondin (“C.R.A.Z.Y.”) and directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny, the slaughterhouse-set slow-boil “Mercenary” won a special jury prize, while Maha Haj’s Locarno-winner “Upshot” can now add a Clermont-Ferrand audience prize to a long list of honors.

U.K.-based duo Zhang & Knight claimed two prizes for their film “A Bear Remembers,” taking home...

A downtown Los Angeles building made famous as the setting of an album cover photo for the legendary rock band the Doors was heavily damaged after fire broke out Thursday morning.

The building that was once home to a transient hotel known as the Morrison Hotel was the setting for cover photo for the band’s fifth album, titled “Morrison Hotel,” given the nod to the surname of Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison. The photo, snapped by famed rock photographer Henry Diltz, was taken on the fly in December 1969. The album was released by Elektra in February 1970. Morrison died at age 27 in July 1971.

“On this day, December 17th, 1969, we were out taking photos for the Morrison Hotel album cover,” Diltz wrote on Facebook. “We were at a transient hotel in Downtown LA on Hope Street. The Doors didn’t have permission to take pictures, so when the lobby was empty, they...

Excluding various holy texts like the Bible, the Qur'an, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, and Mao Zedong's Little Red Book, the best-selling book of all time is Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," which has sold over 200 million copies since its publication in 1859. This is according to a 2012 article in Reuters, although getting actual figures on such things is difficult to track down. Other big sellers throughout history include Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince," which, according to Britannica, has sold between 150 million and 200 million copies, Cao Xuequin's 1790 family epic "Dream of the Red Chamber," which sold about 100 million copies, and J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy fable "The Hobbit," which matched those figures. The most recent super-seller, topping 120 million copies, was 1997's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," which was written by an increasingly controversial author.

One might think that Stephen King had a novel in the upper echelons of bestsellers,...

Grateful Dead fans can celebrate the group’s momentous 1978 spring tour with Friend of the Devils, a massive box set out Sept. 20.

Friend of the Devils: April 1978 features eight shows the band played that month, including Pembroke Pines, Florida on April 4 and Atlanta Georgia’s Fox Theatre on April 10 and 11. The shows were originally recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson and restored and mastered by engineer Jeffrey Norman. The deluxe edition includes 19 CDs, a book with liner notes by Steve Silverman, and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and others.

“These eight...

In September 2021, Olivia Colman bagged her first career Emmy for “The Crown” despite having failed on her Oscar bid for “The Father” five months earlier. This made her the 16th performer to triumph at the Emmys after going home empty-handed at the same year’s Oscars and the fourth to do so during the 21st century. The release of the 2024 Emmy nominations ballots confirmed that nine of the 16 actors who lost at the latest Oscars ceremony are capable of joining Colman on said list.

Gold Derby’s current Emmy odds indicate that the man and woman with the best hopes of following in Colman’s footsteps are Ryan Gosling and Jodie Foster, who just earned their respective third and fifth Academy Award notices for their supporting turns in “Barbie” and “Nyad.” They are now generally expected to share in the experience of being first-time acting Emmy nominees thanks to his...

Jerry Herman’s musical “Hello, Dolly!” dominated the 18th Tony Awards which took place at the New York Hilton on May 24, 1964. “Hello, Dolly!” entered the ceremony with 11 nominations and walked out with ten awards including best musical, best actress for Carol Channing, original score for Herman and for Gower Champion’s choreography and direction.

Other musicals in contention for multiple awards that year were “High Spirits,” based on Noel Coward’s classic comedy “Blithe Spirit,” “Funny Girl,” which transformed Barbra Streisand into a Broadway superstar, and “110 in the Shade,” based on the straight play “The Rainmaker.”

Bert Lahr, best known as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” won lead actor in a musical for “Foxy,” based on Ben Jonson’s “Volpone.” The musical was not a hit closed after 72 performances. Also nominated in the category was Bob Fosse for a short-lived revival of Rodgers and Hart’s “Pal Joey.

Albums from 1974 are turning 50 this year, and that includes the Grateful Dead’s From the Mars Hotel. To celebrate, Rhino is reissuing the record, out June 21.

Originally released on June 27, 1974 — just a few short months after the band debuted their massive Wall of Sound at their live shows — From the Mars Hotel contains now-classics like “U.S. Blues,” “Scarlet Begonias,” and “Ship of Fools.”

Helmed by the Dead’s legendary archivist David Lemieux, the 3-cd From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) will feature all eight tracks, as well...

Karl Wallinger, the frontman of World Party who earlier played with The Waterboys, died March 10 at 66. No cause or location was given by his publicist in the confirmation.

The Welsh-born songwriter wrote World Party’s “Ship of Fools,” “Put the Message in the Box,” “Is It Like Today?” and “She’s the One,” which later was a hit cover for Robbie Williams.

Born Karl Edmond de Vere Wallinger on October 19 1957, he began his musical career in various bands as a keyboard player, then took a job in music publishing, which was followed by a brief stint as the musical director of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Wallinger joined the Waterboys in 1983 and played on their first three albums as a multi-instrumentalist, including on its biggest hit, “The Whole of the Moon.” That track reached the Top 30 in the UK before its 1991 re-release hit No. 3.

He formed World Party in 1986 after leaving the Waterboys,...

Karl Wallinger, the creative force behind the neo-psych project World Party and one-time member of The Waterboys, has died at the age of 66.

According to a statement from his publicist, Wallinger died on Sunday (March 10th). No cause of death has been revealed.

The Welsh-born musician and mind behind such tracks as “Ship of Fools,” “She’s the One,” “Whole of the Moon,” and more first joined The Waterboys in 1983 as a keyboard player after being recruited by Mike Scott. Wallinger’s quickly became an instrumental member of the group, introducing synth bass and orchestrations to their sound — as heard on 1984’s A Pagan Place and 1985’s This Is the Sea.

Wallinger’s tenure in The Waterboys was short-lived, however, as in 1985 he began work on a new solo venture called World Party. His first album under the moniker, 1986’s Private Revolution, housed the hit single “Ship of Fools” and further...

To celebrate the release of Room at the Top, on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from 11th March, we are giving away Blu-Rays to 2 lucky winners!

Based on the best-selling novel by John Braine, Room At The Top is Jack Clayton’s debut feature and is one of the earliest examples of the ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ that helped pave the way for the incoming ‘British New Wave’ of film-makers. Featuring the first open reference to sex as well as the earliest depiction of adultery in a British film, it was a controversial film for the era and was initially refused a certificate by the censors before eventually securing an “X” certificate.

Starring Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears and Donald Wolfit, the film went on to become a major box-office success and opened the floodgates for more adult orientated movies.

The film also gained widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards,...

Casey Kramer, the longtime actress and daughter of legendary director Stanley Kramer died on December 24, according to her sister Kat Kramer. She was 67.

Casey Kramer’s film and TV career spanned four decades, consisting of mostly smaller parts on shows like Falcon Crest, McBride, Criminal Minds, Dexter, Southland, The Young and the Restless, Transparent, Behind the Candelabra, Lethal Weapon and Baskets.

Her filmography begins with her father’s final film, The Runner Stumbles in 1979, which starred Dick Van Dyke and Kathleen Quinlan and featured sister Kat, as well. Her more recent films include Mississippi Requiem in 2018 and 2020’s Darkness in Tenement 45.

Her mother, Anne P. Kramer, was her father’s second wife. They were married from 1950 until their 1963, when they divorced.

During that time Stanley Kramer directed The Defiant Ones, On the Beach, Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World. His other films include Ship Of Fools,...

In the fall of 2021, Olivia Colman scored her first career Emmy for “The Crown” despite not having succeeded on her Oscar bid for “The Father” that spring. This made her the 16th performer to prevail at the Emmys directly after going home empty-handed at the Oscars and the fourth to do so during the 21st century. Now that the 2023 Emmy nominations ballots have been released, eight of the 16 actors who lost Oscars at the most recent ceremony officially have shots at joining Colman on this list.

Gold Derby’s Emmy odds currently indicate that the man and woman with the best hopes of following in Colman’s footsteps are Brian Tyree Henry and Hong Chau, who just received their first career Academy Award nominations for their respective supporting turns in “Causeway” and “The Whale.” Henry is seeking his second comedy supporting Emmy notice for “Atlanta,” while Chau could pull double...

From “Show Boat” through “Ship of Fools” to “Titanic,” if a certain strain of Hollywood melodrama has taught us anything, it’s that all of human life is to be found on a passenger boat — our dreams and desires and social differences somehow made clearer at some distance from dry land. Bangladeshi filmmaker Kamar Ahmad Simon applies much the same philosophy to his delightful documentary “Day After …,” albeit with the accompanying glamour removed. Boarding a creaky, century-old paddle steamer for a two-day river commute from the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka to the country’s Khulna region, .

The loose, entertaining result is equal parts leisurely travelogue, observational social study and droll real-life comedy of errors, and premiered in competition at IDFA to an enthusiastic audience reception. Arriving nine years after Simon’s last theatrical documentary, “Are You Listening!” — a study of a community recovering from ruinous flooding that won top honors...

The original soundtrack by J • A • Seazer to the Terayama Shūji theatrical play Nuhikun – Directions to Servants is now available to stream in its entirety as part of the InlanDimensions International Arts Festival online programme until 19 October 2021. The stream can be accessed here with a festival ticket or as an individual rental for the price of $5.00.

The stream consists of almost 80 minutes of music accompanied by the image of the cover artwork of the vinyl version of Nuhikun – Directions to Servants released by Devoted Art Propaganda. The album marks the first official release of music for Tenjō Sajiki’s plays outside of Japan.

Recorded in late 1977 and originally available only as cassettes in theaters, Nuhikun – Directions to Servants exposes the audience to a sadomasochistic universe combining elements of surrealism, dream work and Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt. Accompanied by fantastic machines, rock music and operatic echoes, the production has amazed audiences with the...

The soundtrack to the Terayama Shūji theatrical play Nuhikun – Directions to Servants, by the legendary Tenjō Sajiki troupe, will be released for the first time on vinyl via Devoted Art Propaganda. The album marks the first official release of music for Tenjō Sajiki’s plays outside of Japan. The premiere is set for 19 October 2021 following a debut stream during InlanDimensions International Arts Festival 2021. The album will be released in 2×12” gatefold vinyl format and limited to 300 copies.

J.A. Seazer is a critically renowned film and theatre music composer, as well as co-director of Terayama Shūji plays and leader of the theatre troupe Laboratory of Theatre Play Ban’yū Inryoku. Seazer combines experimental rock with avant-garde theatre. His major music compositions include Heretics (1971), Ship of Fools (1976), Shintokumaru (1978). He also composed music for Terayama’s feature films such as Boxer (1977), Death in the Country (1974) and Farewell to the Ark (1984). It’s his rock...

Now that’s it’s Oscar weekend, it’s a good time to catch up with Turner Classic Movies’ annual salute to “31 Days of Oscars,” its monthlong celebration of Oscar-winning and -nominated contenders that are presented in an extremely simplified fashion this year. Alphabetically.

“We started with movies that begin with ‘A’ and then we’ll end with ‘Z’ on May 1st. So it’s just simple,” notes series host and famed Oscarologist Dave Karger. “The scheduling creates some weird transitions, but at the same time it’s also fun to see this kind of grab bag like ‘Pillow Talk’ and ‘Places in the Heart’ and ‘Poltergeist'” aired alongside each other.

This current Oscar weekend lands on the letter “S,” featuring “Sounder”, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “Ship of Fools” (Oscars for art direction and cinematography in 1965). The same letter “s” carries into next month when Tmc will...

Berlin-based Flare Film is ramping up series production with two new high-concept projects in development while currently producing the eight-part “Paradiso” for Sky Deutschland, the first project from the company’s recently launched Flare Entertainment division.

Flare Entertainment is partnering with Beta Film and Deutsche Telekom streaming platform MagentaTV on “The Daughter,” created by Pola Beck and the writing trio known locally as the HaRiBos, Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf and Bob Konrad, with Beck and Kropf serving as showrunners.

The series tells the fact-based story of Tinka, a directionless teenager forced to grow up overnight when her wealthy parents are arrested for running the biggest cocaine ring in Berlin. As she works to free them from jail, she uncovers their secret lives and delves ever deeper into the family business.

Described as “Breaking Bad” meets French cinema, the eight-part family drama examines the shifting power dynamics between a daughter and...

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is a series on Production Design.

Thursday marks 100 years since the birth of iconic French actress Simone Signoret. But how to celebrate? By my count, she was in three films nominated for Best Production Design. One of them, Is Paris Burning?, I covered way back in 2016. Another, Ship of Fools, also nabbed Signoret her second nomination for Best Actress. Unfortunately, it’s something of a bloated and maudlin mess.

That leaves us with La Ronde, a film made shortly before Signoret really burst into international stardom. She’s barely in it, playing a Viennese sex worker who bookends the meandering narrative. Even so, it’s her movie star quality that makes the whole thing work - that and the magic of Jean d’Eaubonne’s Oscar-nominated production design, of course. The film is Max Ophüls’s adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler play, a circular jaunt that slips from paramour to paramour.

George Segal with Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn during the filming of "The Bridge at Remagen" in 1968.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor George Segal has passed away at age 87. Segal became a rising young star in the 1960s and went on to enjoy success in both feature films and television. He made his big screen debut in "The Young Doctors" in 1961 and within a few years had appeared in "Ship of Fools" and his first starring role in "King Rat". The 1965 adaptation of James Clavell's novel found Segal as an American prisoner in a Japanese P.O.W. camp in WWII. He uses his guile and survival skills to not only stay alive but to thrive, much to disgust of British P.O.W.s who think his actions border on collaboration with the enemy. Segal's biggest break came the following year when he was cast in Mike Nichols' screen...

Veteran actor and career funnyman George Segal, known for starring on The Goldbergs and appearing in dozens of movie roles over the past several decades, has sadly passed away. According to his wife, Sonia, Segal died of complications from bypass surgery in Santa Rosa, California. He was 87 years old.

Born on Feb. 13, 1934, George Segal took a very early interest in acting. After graduating from George School boarding school, Segal would go on to graduate from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in performing arts and drama. He would then serve in the U.S. Army, but continued to perform as a banjo player in a band called Corporal Bruno's Sad Sack Six.

Once his military days were behind him, Segal further studied acting at the Actors Studio, signing with Columbia Pictures by 1961. A natural talent, some of his more acclaimed roles from the early years of...

George Segal, whose decades-spanning acting career included earning an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to portraying Albert “Pops” Solomon on The Goldbergs, died on Tuesday, Variety reports. He was 87.

His wife, Sonia, confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement.

Since 2013, Segal had portrayed family patriarch Albert “Pops” Solomon on ABC’s sitcom The Goldbergs. While he is known for his later-career TV roles...

Beloved actor George Segal died today, his wife, Sonia Segal, revealed.

“The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement, according to Deadline.

Segal was a cast member on ABC's The Goldbergs in a role he's held since the series debuted in 2013. He played Albert "Pops" Solomon.

The actor filmed up to episode 16 of the eighth season before his passing, with the network set to air the episode on April 7.

It is also expected to pay tribute to the star on-air.

While Segal has been a firm fixture on the 1980s-set comedy series, he is also well known for playing Jack Gallo on NBC's hit series, Just Shoot Me.

Segal's popularity soared in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some of his most acclaimed roles are in films such as Ship of Fools (1965), King Rat (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...

George Segal, whose long career included playing Albert “Pops” Solomon on “The Goldbergs,” and garnering an Oscar nom for supporting actor for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” died Tuesday. He was 87.

His wife Sonia announced his death, saying, “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery.”

Segal’s longtime manager Abe Hoch said, “I am saddened by the fact that my close friend and client of many years has passed away. I will miss his warmth, humor, camaraderie and friendship. He was a wonderful human.”

Some of the top directors of the 1960s and ’70s, including Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Paul Mazursky and Sidney Lumet cast Segal for his gently humorous everyman quality, and he often played an unlucky-in-love professional or a writer who gets in over his head.

In Nichols’ 1967 Edward Albee adaptation “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,...

“No. 7 Cherry Lane” is the sort of animated film that can completely knock you for a loop if you don’t know what’s coming, and director Yonfan is totally fine with that. The film sports a pair of erotic fantasy sequences that got walkouts at some press screenings at the Venice Film Festival, but Yonfan told TheWrap that he had a blast making those scenes because…it was just fun!

“Art should not be so serious. You should have fun and have a wild imagination and sometimes let it run away a little bit to get yourself loose,” Yonfan said in an interview for TheWrap’s Awards Screening Series. “A lot of people have called my movie ‘kitsch’ and I don’t mind it because ‘kitsch’ is only a word.”

Yonfan has directed 14 films over his decades-long career, but “No. 7 Cherry Lane” is his first venture into animation. The...

Yonfan, the LGBT pioneer of Hong Kong art cinema, embraces animation for the first time with “No. 7 Cherry Lane” (currently streaming on Moma’s Virtual Cinema through February 4). It’s a love letter to a bygone Hong Kong from 1967, when he was a 20-year-old photographer and aspiring director caught up in the political turbulence and cinematic excitement of the era.

“‘No. 7 Cherry Lane’ is very different from all the other animations that I know of,” said Yonfan, who is not a fan of animation but was intrigued with the imaginative possibilities of the medium for his adult drama. The film represents his remembrance of the Hong Kong riots against the background of the Cultural Revolution in China.

“This is when people started denouncing the Vietnam War and there were many movies like ‘The Graduate’ and ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ that came out and they were very revolutionary. It seems timely with the [recent] protests in Hong Kong,...

While performances that win the Oscar for Best Actor are usually longer than those that win Best Actress, a solid amount of lengthy roles have won in the lead female category. The average screen time among Best Actress winners is one hour, four minutes, and 41 seconds, and plenty of much longer ones have triumphed. Here is a look at the 10 longest winners of all time. (And here’s the list of the 10 shortest winning performances for Best Actress.)

10. Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”)

1 hour, 29 minutes, 18 seconds (82.67% of the film)

Portman received her first Best Actress nomination and win in 2011 for her role as ballerina Nina Sayers. While nine performances with higher amounts of screen time had already won in the category, Portman’s became the one with the second-highest percentage. Hers is also one of only 25 performances ever nominated for the award with a screen time total of over 80%.

9. Julie Christie (“Darling”)

1 hour,...

Even though the Best Actress Oscar has been given out since the first Academy Awards ceremony, there is no clear way of determining whether shorter or longer performances are more likely to win. An even mix of both have prevailed over the past 92 years, performances that have won Best Actress hold more overall lead acting records than those that have won Best Actor. Here is a look at the 10 shortest winners in the category. (And here is the equivalent list for Best Actor.)

10. Katharine Hepburn (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”)

43 minutes, 26 seconds (40.20% of the film)

Over three decades after her first nomination resulted in a win, Hepburn finally won a second Best Actress Oscar for her role as Christina Drayton, a mother whose liberal views are challenged when her daughter announces her intention to marry a Black man. She would go on to finish her career with four wins in...

by Cláudio Alves

To be nominated in both Leading and Supporting categories at the same Oscar ceremony is a rare feat some actors have been lucky enough to achieve. Most often, though, AMPAS will pick a role to celebrate and only bless the performer with one nomination. Actors that came close to the elusive double nomination include people like Meryl Streep in 2002, Al Pacino in 1990, Jane Fonda in 1978, and today's Almost There case study, Oskar Werner in 1965.

This Austrian performer, famous for films like Truffaut's Jules and Jim, was nominated in the Best Actor category for his work in Ship of Fools. That same year, he was probably close to a Supporting Actor nod for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold…...

by Nathaniel R

Year of the Julies: Andrews and Christie dominated both the Oscars and the box office

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1965 Episode arrives on October 9th, so you have until October 8th to watch the four movies and vote on them. Let's talk context...

Great Big Box Office Hits: 1)The Sound of Music 2) Doctor Zhivago 3) Thunderball 4) Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines 5) The Great Race 6) That Darn Cat 7) Cat Ballou 8) What's New Pussycat? 9) Shenandoah 10) Von Ryan's Express

Oscar's Best Pictures: The Sound of Music  and Doctor Zhivago (10 noms / 5 wins each) led by the two Julies, battled it out at the Oscars The other Best Picture nominees were Ship of Fools (8 noms / 2 wins), Darling (5 noms / 3 wins) another Julie Christie vehicle, and A Thousand Clowns (4 noms / 1 win). But what would have been nominated if the Best Picture race were 10 wide...

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)

Ten movies were nominated for Best Production Design at the 1965 Oscars, one of the last years before the Academy retired separate categories for color and black & white. There are some striking examples on the list, from the bloated to the bizarre (Inside Daisy Clover). But when you come down to it, there’s really no looking past Doctor Zhivago.

This was David Lean’s second consecutive film to win the category, after Lawrence of Arabia three years earlier. While their visual scope is similar, the two films actually have very different preoccupations. Lawrence of Arabia is about a man determined to shape history. Doctor Zhivago is about a man trying to escape it. Understanding the difference helps us understand the design.

We begin on the eve of the Russian Revolution, a moment of great social contrasts...

The Doors are set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their 1970 LP Morrison Hotel with a reissue packed with unreleased takes from the album’s studio sessions.

The two-cd/LP deluxe edition of the Morrison Hotel: 50th Anniversary reissue, due out October 9th, will feature the original album newly remastered by the Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick on both CD and vinyl, plus a bonus disc containing 19 studio outtakes.

Botnick said in a statement: “There are many takes, different arrangements, false starts and insightful studio conversations between the...

Robert Plant has announced that he will be releasing a career-spanning anthology set titled Digging Deep to accompany the third season of his podcast Digging Deep With Robert Plant.

The two-disk CD set — also available for digital streaming and download — will include 30 songs from Plant’s four-decade, 11-album career as a solo artist, including a number of songs that premiered on his podcast. Highlights include the chart-topping rock hit “Hurting Kind” and the Grammy-nominated song “Shine All Around.”

A few previously released songs will also be included: “Nothing Takes the...

(Updated with New York Times statement) “We’re off last week, it’s good to be back,” declared a plucky Tucker Carlson at the outset tonight of his Fox News Channel show.

And if viewers or critics were expecting the top-rated host to dive into controversies like a new lawsuit that alleges sexual harassment and retaliation by Carlson, they were barking up the wrong cable news tree. Neither that just filed complaint from former Fox Business Network associate producer Jennifer Eckhart and former Fnc guest Cathy Areu nor one of Tucker Carlson Tonight’s top and now ex-writers being exposed on July 11 for frequently posting racist, sexist and homophobic comments on a legal message board made the polemic cut on Fnc on Monday.

What did make the cut was a sharp bombardment of a major media rival that has never had many fans in Rupert Murdoch’s empire.

Proclaiming modestly...

The Grateful Dead announced a massive box set titled June 1976 on Thursday. They’ve also shared a nine-minute version of “Friend of the Devil,” recorded live at New York’s Beacon Theatre.

Produced by Dead archivist David Lemieux, the 15-cd set contains complete performances from June 1976: Boston Music Hall (June 10th and 11th), the Beacon Theatre (June 14th and 15th) and an evening at New Jersey’s Capitol Theatre (June 19th). Author Jesse Jarnow wrote the liner notes.

June of 1976 marks a pivotal time in Dead history — the band...

Not satisfied with the pace of natural selection in driving evolution, a deranged biologist decides to create his own genetically engineered mutations. With the promise of using his experiments to “cure” them, Dr. Nolter (Pleasence) enlists members of the local Freakshow to help him kidnap students from a nearby college to use as human guinea pigs.

Using the same techniques that he developed mixing the DNA of plants and animals, he begins crossbreeding plants and humans with unpredictable results. One by one his failed experiments are cast off to the circus until the freaks have had enough and seek their bloody revenge.

Starring Donald Pleasence, Tom Baker (Golden Voyage Of Sinbad and Dr Who’s popular 4th doctor), exploitation great Brad Harris (Kommissar X) and Michael Dunn (Best Supporting Actor nominee for Ship Of Fools).

For this release, writer / producer Robert D Weinbach restored his archival 35mm print for a vivid new master!

Documentary filmmaker Emma Sullivan was already there when inventor Peter Madsen’s submarine, the UC3 Nautilus, went missing off the coast of Copenhagen in August 2017, with journalist Kim Wall on board. Sullivan had been filming Madsen, a hobbit-y egotist with electric blue eyes, for 18 months, and until that day, she believed she was making a film about his attempt to blast into space on a scrappy, self-made rocket, with the help of a dozen unpaid volunteers who believed in his charismatic Diy hustle. Madsen is found and flashes a thumbs up to Sullivan’s camera. But Wall isn’t — and the documentary turns into a rare opportunity to study a murderer before his first kill.

“Into the Deep” is structured into two timelines. The first kicks off with Madsen’s team frantically hoping to find its hero alive, and from there sloshes through the drip of information as the killer...

Robert Plant will reissue a series of hit songs and album deep cuts as a new box set, Digging Deep, out December 13th via Plant’s own EsParanza label. The Digging Deep box set gets its title from the ex-Led Zeppelin frontman’s podcast by the same name, in which he recounts the stories behind various songs from his vast catalogue.

The Digging Deep box set will comprise eight seven-inch vinyl singles, featuring two tracks from each of Plant’s eight solo albums. The discs will boast hit songs like “Little by Little,...

Projects include new work from Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Barbara Wong Chun-chun.

The 17th Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum has unveiled the 23 projects in search of financing, co-production partners and sales to the local and international industry in Hong Kong from March 18-20.

They include new projects from Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi whose Asako I & II screened in main competition at Cannes last year, a $10m romantic drama from Hong Kong’s Barbara Wong Chun-chun called The Wedding Celebrant, and three projects from Filippino filmmakers who have all participated previouslyl in Haf. (See full list below.)

“The number of first-time directors,...

New film pitches by Jun Robles Lana, Barbara Wong, Ryuskue Hamaguchi and Tom Lin are among a line-up of 23 projects selected to appear at the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf). The event also sees an expanded roster of prizes and partnerships.

Haf will be held March 18-20, 2019 in Hong Kong. It runs alongside the FilMart rights market, Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Asian Film Awards.

Organizers report that they received some 350 project submissions from 10 countries and territories. The retained projects, which are seeking co-production, finance and sales partners, have target production budgets ranging from $200,000 to $10 million.

Wong will present “The Wedding Celebrant,” a story of a wedding official who questions her own relationship. Philippines-based “Bwakaw,” and “Die Beautiful” director, Jun Robles Lana presents survival drama “Between Sea and Sky,” a fact-based story of a Filipino fisherman who was rescued in Papua New Guinea after drifting at sea for 56 days.

Secure one major book with a serious subject, sign up a wagonload of stars (including a legend or two) and make sure every cookie-cutter character repeatedly explains themselves to the camera in close-up. That formula worked well for Stanley Kramer in 1965; his film hasn’t much of a reputation but the cast is gold. A bright new transfer makes the picture look very good.

Ship of Fools

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1965 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 149 min. / Street Date March 9, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, José Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, Heinz Rühmann, Lilia Skala, Barbara Luna, Alf Kjellin, Werner Klemperer,

Gila Golan, Kaaren Verne.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Film Editor: Robert C. Jones

Special visual effects: John Burke, Farciot Edouart, Albert Whitlock

Original Music: Ernest Gold

Written by Abby Mann from the novel by Katherine Anne Porter

Produced and directed by Stanley...

'Boom!' movie with Elizabeth Taylor: Critically panned box office disaster featuring memorable headwear. 'Boom!' movie: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton critical & box office bomb reappraised as 'cult classic' fare If you've never seen Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's 1968 vanity production Boom!, don't feel singled out. Boom! bombed at the box office almost as soon as it blasted on the screen. Since then, however, it has been rediscovered. Directed by Joseph Losey from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams (based on his play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore), Boom! is a good example of a movie depicting art imitating life imitating art; one that deserves to be described in detail. Sexually repressed temper tantrums and bronchial attacks By then a two-time Academy Award winner, Elizabeth Taylor (Butterfield 8, 1960; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966) plays Flora “Sissy” Goforth, a middle-aged, sexually repressed American (inspired by and written...

This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Greig Fraser for his contribution to Lion as last year’s greatest accomplishment in the field. Of course, his achievement was just a small sampling of the fantastic work from directors of photography, but it did give us a stronger hint at what may be the winner on Oscar night. Ahead of the ceremony, we have a new video compilation that honors all the past winners in the category at the Academy Awards

Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

– Exclusive: The 24th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival has unveiled its exclusive poster from artist John Alexander. Alexander is a local Hamptons resident and the official 2016 Hiff poster will be based off of his “Ship of Fools” work.

This year’s festival will run from October 6-10. Film titles will be announced at a later date. You can find out more about the festival at its official website. Check out the official poster below.

– USA-based Stage 32, the world’s largest online platform connecting and educating film, TV and theater professionals, will be presenting its short film program at the 2016 Hollyshorts Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, August 19 at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood. The winning filmmakers were chosen by executives from The Weinstein Company,...

Director, Robert Connolly, will executive produce, Hive Fund winner, Guilty.

Guilty, Remembering Agatha and Bunghole have won funding in the third and final round of the Adelaide Film Festival Hive Fund initiative.

Australian artists Matthew Sleeth, Emma Magenta and Bruce Gladwin are set to collaborate with screen creatives Maggie Miles, Robert Connolly, Andrew Bovell, Julie Eckersley and Ester Harding on three new projects as part of the initiative.

Hive is an Adelaide Film Festival initiative in collaboration with the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia and ABC Arts.

It is a disruptive initiative designed to bring together Australian artists and filmmakers to cross-pollinate their creative ideas, develop screen-based projects and support bright talent to take the next step.

The three newly commissioned projects will have their world premieres at the next edition of the biennial Adelaide Film Festival in 2017 and will all air on ABC TV.

The first project,...

Director, Robert Connolly, will executive produce, Hive Fund winner, Guilty.

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Guilty, Remembering Agatha and Bunghole have won funding in the third and final round of the Adelaide Film Festival Hive Fund initiative.

Australian artists Matthew Sleeth, Emma Magenta and Bruce Gladwin are set to collaborate with screen creatives Maggie Miles, Robert Connolly, Andrew Bovell, Julie Eckersley and Ester Harding on three new projects as part of the initiative.

Hive is an Adelaide Film Festival initiative in collaboration with the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia and ABC Arts.

It is a disruptive initiative designed to bring together Australian artists and filmmakers to cross-pollinate their creative ideas, develop screen-based projects and support bright talent to take the next step.

The three newly commissioned projects will have their world premieres at the next edition of the biennial Adelaide Film Festival in 2017 and will all air on ABC TV.

The first project,...

By Todd Garbarini

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 50th anniversary screening of Mike Nichols’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? based upon Edward Albee’s play. The 131-minute film, which stars Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, will be screened on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actor George Segal, who appears in the film as Nick (Honey’s Husband), is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss his role and career.

From the press release:

Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 50th Anniversary Screening

Tribute to Oscar-winning Cinematographer Haskell Wexler

Oscar Nominee George Segal In Person for post-screening Q&A with Lafca President Stephen Farber

Tuesday, February 23, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Skeptics said Edward Albee’s scathing dissection of marriage could never be turned into a movie. But when the Production...

Estonia is marching on as one of Europe’s leading creative forces within the industry, Tiffany Pritchard reports.

Estonia’s long history of animation dates back to the early 1930s with a more experimental approach that is still practiced today.

With current studios including A Film Estonia, Joonisfilm, and Nukufilm as well as the Black Nights Film Festival’s sub strand Animation Dreams - Estonia is marching on as one of Europe’s leading creative forces within the industry.

Animation Dreams

The independently run festival operates as a sub-strand under the Black Nights Film Festival from Nov 18-22.

International works are presented in the Main competition, Student competition and the Panorama section which will feature the World Premiere of Jurgis Krason’s The Face (Latvia).

Estonian artists are highlighted in the New Estonian section that features nine shorts including Chintis Lundgren’s award-winning Life with Herman H Rott and Ulo Pikkov’s Zebra and All The Curtains...

By Patrick Shanley

Managing Editor

Room, the winner of the audience award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, tells the story of a young mother (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son (Jacob Tremblay) who are held captive in a single room in which the boy has spent his entire life. The film’s set (the room, itself) is one of the major characters in the film, creating a “claustrophobic and upsetting nature,” as film critic Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter noted in his review.

The set is currently on display just outside of the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles.

The set will very likely produce a nomination for the production design Oscar, which may seem like an unusual accomplishment for a film that is so narrow in its scope and focus. However, given the track record of similarly “self-contained” films with the Academy, the possibility of Room...

Like many of Stanley Kramer’s once incredibly topical titles, the iconic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? seems incredibly dated by today’s standards, even if the subject matter and representation of ‘interracial’ relationships and everything that antiseptic terminology implies hasn’t quite progressed as much as one would hope since this film thundered into cinemas in 1967. Sandwiched between two lesser beloved titles in his filmography, Ship of Fools (1965) and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), this was Kramer’s third Oscar nod as Best Director and the last great hurrah (he’d direct a handful of other features throughout the next decade, and a 1975 television pilot version of this film).

Successful San Francisco newspaper owner Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his liberal minded wife (Katharine Hepburn) are about to have their progressive viewpoints challenged when their white daughter Christina (Katharine Houghton) brings home her fiancé of one week, a black,...

In part one of Rolling Stone‘s exclusive interview with Robert Hunter, the legendary (and fairly reclusive) Grateful Dead lyricist looked back on his early years with the band: meeting Jerry Garcia, signing on as the primary in-house poet and writing epic Dead songs from “Dark Star” through “Truckin’.” In this second and last part, Hunter, speaking at his home in Marin County, talks candidly about the rougher waters that followed. As becomes clear in the conversation, few in the Dead world were as affected by Garcia’s addiction issues as Hunter.