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Kurtwood Smith is one of the oldest veterans in the entertainment industry, but he might as well be one of the most underrated ones. Besides portraying Red Forman in That ’70s Show and proceeding to do the same in the spin-off sitcom That ’90s Show, he has also managed to score a one-way ticket in the superhero world, including playing Vernon Masters in MCU’s Agent Carter.

Kurtwood Smith. | Credits: That ’70s Show / Fox.

But while those roles have garnered him enough recognition and acclaim from fans worldwide, Kurtwood is also credited for playing a rather ferocious villain in a film that predates even the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This movie in talk was his $53 million action/sci-fi from 1987, RoboCop, which not only marked his debut in the super-verse but also served as his breakthrough role.

Kurtwood Smith Played the Big Bad in 1987’s RoboCop

A critically praised super-flick that came...

The Critics Choice Association has announced that Edward James Olmos, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Ken Jeong are among the honorees for the upcoming Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and Aapi Achievements. The event will be held at the Fairmont Century Plaza on Dec. 4, with Nicco Annan of “P-Valley” set to host.

Olmos will be feted with the Icon Award for his long-running career, including performances in “Zoot Suit” and “Selena.” Ralph will be honored with the Career Achievement Award for her extensive film and television career, including roles in “Abbot Elementary” and “Ray Donovan.” Jeong will be celebrated with the Comedy Trailblazer Award for his comedy roles in titles like “Community,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Hangover” films.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Additional honorees include Jeffrey Wright, who will receive the Visionary Award for his role in “American Fiction...

Two years in, the Academy Film Museum is rolling full steam ahead with a new programming director and a packed slate of upcoming films for the winter season. On Dec. 10, Christopher Nolan will present the classic Western “Shane” on its 70th anniversary and speak about the film for the George Stevens Lecture.

Other spotlight programs include:

A retrospective film series on “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho in-person for four conversations starting Dec. 7 A 10th anniversary screening of “12 Years a Slave” on Feb. 25 with Steve McQueen. “3D-cember” with screenings like “Jaws” and “Frozen” in 3D “Works of Enduring Importance: 35 Years of the National Film Registry” starting Dec. 14 “Beware the Elements! Natural Disasters on Film” starting Jan. 4 A screening of 1972’s “Buck and the Preacher” will pay tribute to Harry Belafonte “Echoes of Africia” presents African stories on film from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9

K.J. Relth-Miller just took over as Director of Film...

Exclusive: The Disney+ film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day has added Paulina Chávez and Rose Portillo to its cast, joining previously announced stars Eva Longoria, George Lopez and Jesse Garcia.

Chávez will play Mia Garcia, the titular Alexander’s 16-year-old sister who is described as an independent-minded, intelligent and eye-rolling teenager. Her parents are Frank (Garcia) and Val (Longoria). Portillo plays Lidia Garcia, the family matriarch, the mother of Frank and grandmother to Alexander, Mia and David.

From writer Matt Lopez and director Marvin Lemus, Alexander tells the story of 11-year-old Alexander Garcia, who thinks he has the worst luck in the world. When his family sets off on a road trip to California, he’s pretty sure disaster awaits at every corner. His anxiety only increases when a family secret is revealed.

More than another close examination of the life and times of United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez, the documentary “Song for Cesar,” from co-directors Andrés Alegria and Abel Sanchez, constitutes a compendium of Chicano artists in the second half of the 20th century. Across a multitude of disciplines, their communal motivator was social-justice advocacy.

Sanchez, a veteran musician turned first-time filmmaker, sets the tone with footage from Fantasy Studios before talking-head interviews and archival footage begin unspooling a thread that extends from his contemporaries to current performers like the band Ozomatli or songstress Lila Downs.

In this roll call of Chicano storytellers, the tunes serve as sonic picket signs and tributes to the power of organizing: Joan Baez’s “No nos moverán,” El Chicano’s “Don’t Put Me Down (If I’m Brown),” Little Joe’s “Viva la Huelga,” or Joel Rafael’s “El Bracero,” about exploited Mexican migrant...

Director Ron Underwood discusses a few of his favorite westerns with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Mighty Joe Young (1998)

Speechless (1994)

Heart and Souls (1993)

Stealing Sinatra (2003)

City Slickers (1991)

Tremors (1990) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Tourist Trap (1979) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary

The Seduction (1982)

Puppet Master (1989)

The Boondock Saints (1999)

Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)

Capricorn One (1977) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Panic In The Streets (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Back When We Were Grownups (2004)

Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Red River (1948) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Johnny Guitar (1954) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Searchers (1956)

Seven Samurai (1954) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Westworld...

Until Pantelion Films unleashed “Instructions Not Included” in the U.S., grossing $44.47 million there in 2013, no other distributor had really cracked the Latino market.

Over the next eight years, Pantelion has produced the biggest U.S.-Mexico double-market comedy movie franchise, “No Manches Frida” and handled the first-run release in the U.S. of six of the 10 biggest Mexican hits of all time.

Now, however, leading Latino studio Pantelion Films is raising the ante.

Partnered by sister company Pantaya, the premium streaming Spanish-language service, from August this year Pantelion has signed talent deals with Maite Perroni (“Dark Desire”) and Mauricio Ochmann (“El Chema”) and co-development and production accords with Elefantec Global and El Estudio, The Lift and Traziende Films.

Simultaneously, with The Lift Entertainment, it has gone into production in Mexico on “La Usurpadora, The Musical,” a modern musical movie makeover of Televisa’s 1998 telenovela classic that punched humungous ratings and was exported to 125 countries.

Exclusive: Caleb Foote, who previously was a recurring guest star on the Max Original series Made for Love, will be returning for season 2 as a series regular.

Foote plays Bennett Hobbes, the always cheerful executive assistant and confidante of tech mogul billionaire Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), who implants a ‘Made for Love’ monitoring chip in his wife Hazel Green’s (Cristin Milioti) brain.

Based on the novel by Alissa Nutting, Made for Love is a cynically poignant story of love and divorce. Season one followed Hazel who is on the run after ten years in a suffocating marriage to Byron Gogol. After discovering that her husband implanted the Made for Love chip, Hazel flees to her desert hometown to take refuge with her aging widower father Herbert (Ray Romano) and his synthetic partner, Diane. In addition to Foote, Milioti, Magnussen and Romano, season one of Made for Love starred Dan Bakkedahl,...

Since its inception in 2008, Record Store Day has occurred annually on a single Saturday in April. But due to the ongoing pandemic, things are going to look a little different this year. The event that celebrates independent record shops around the world will be spread out in “drops” over the next few months. The three separate release dates — August 29th, September 26th, and October 24th — are intended to provide revenues to stores that have struggled during the pandemic while allowing the largest number of them to partake. Ahead of the first drop on Saturday,...

Edward James Olmos has been acting, directing and producing film and television for 45 years, establishing himself as an iconic Latino actor when there weren’t many of them. Films from Blade Runner to Zoot Suit, Selena, My Family and American Me, and TV work including his Emmy-winning turn as Lt. Castillo in Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica‘s Commander Adama, and most recently Mayans M.C. patriarch Felipe Reyes. Last time Los Angeles was engulfed in the kind of turmoil we’ve seen this week was the 1992 La Riots, the lifelong Angeleno assisted in the cleanup effort. At 73, he continues to self- quarantine, which he has done since early March. But he has watched this drama unfold like the rest of us. He shares his thoughts on what’s unfolded, and taps his own frustrations and experiences to advise how to turn Hollywood’s receptiveness to get involved in anti-racist causes...

Geno Silva, the character actor perhaps best known for playing The Skull, the hitman who takes out Al Pacino's Tony Montana in the explosive climax of Scarface, has died. He was 72.

Silva died May 9 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia, his family announced.

During his four-decade career, Silva also could be seen in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (1981) — he was in the 1979 Broadway production opposite Edward James Olmos — Robert Towne's Tequila Sunrise (1988); Steven Spielberg's Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both released in 1997; David ...

Geno Silva, the character actor perhaps best known for playing The Skull, the hitman who takes out Al Pacino's Tony Montana in the explosive climax of Scarface, has died. He was 72.

Silva died May 9 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia, his family announced.

During his four-decade career, Silva also could be seen in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (1981) — he was in the 1979 Broadway production opposite Edward James Olmos — Robert Towne's Tequila Sunrise (1988); Steven Spielberg's Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both released in 1997; David ...

Every year, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress adds 25 movies to its selection, honoring them for "their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage." In the 2019 class, announced today, the films ranged widely, from idiosyncratic New England auteur-driven indies, family classics, and stylized music-driven films. Carla Hayden, an official Librarian of Congress, stated the relevance of a National Film Registry honor succinctly. The National Film Registry has become an important record of American history, …...

Purple Rain, The Last Waltz, Platoon, She’s Gotta Have It and Clerks were among the 25 films added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, the organization announced Wednesday.

2019’s list of motion pictures — selected for their “cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage” — include an “unprecedented” seven films by female directors, including Kimberly Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry, Elaine May’s A New Leaf and Patricia Cardoso’s Real Women Have Curves.

In addition to Prince’s 1984 classic and Martin Scorsese’s documentary about the Band’s all-star farewell gig,...

Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2005, they’ve now reached 775 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.

Today they’ve unveiled their 2019 list, which includes Elaine May’s A New Leaf, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, the Prince feature Purple Rain, Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends, Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, George Cukor’s Gaslight, and more.

“The National Film Registry is an essential American enterprise that officially recognizes the rich depth and variety, the eloquence and the real greatness of American cinema and the filmmakers who have created it, film by film,” said Scorsese.

Check out the full list below and you can...

The Library of Congress has unveiled its annual selection of 25 films added to the National Film Registry, with an unprecedented seven titles directed by women, the most in a single year since the inaugural registry in 1989. (Scroll down for the full list.)

Among those making the cut for 2019 are Kimberly Peirce’s 1999 Oscar winner Boys Don’t Cry; Greta Schiller’s 1984 documentary Before Stonewall; Claudia Weill’s 1978 Girlfriends; Gunvor Nelson’s 1969 avant-garde pic My Name Is Oona; Elaine May’s A New Leaf, which in 1971 made her the first woman to write, direct and star in a major American studio feature; the 2002 indie Real Women Have Curves, directed by Patricia Cardoso; and Madeline Anderson’s 1970 I Am Somebody, which is considered the first documentary on civil rights directed by a woman of color.

Also notably added to the Film Registry are such classics as George Cukor’s 1944 Gaslight, which won...

“Purple Rain,” “Clerks,” “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Amadeus,” “Sleeping Beauty,””Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Last Waltz” are among this year’s additions to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

The list also includes 1944’s “Gaslight,” starring Ingrid Bergman in an Oscar-winning performance; the 1955 film noir “The Phenix City Story,” based on a real-life murder in Alabama; Disney’s 1959 canine tearjerker “Old Yeller”; Oliver Stone’s 1986 Best Picture winner “Platoon,” based on his own experiences in Vietnam; and Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit,” which tells the story of the 1943 Sleepy Lagoon Murder and the racially charged riots that followed.

A place on the list — always made up of 25 films — guarantees the film will be preserved under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act. The criteria for selection is that the movies are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.

“The National Film Registry has become...

AFI Fest said Friday that I Am Not Alone, Garin Hovannisian’s documentary about the 2018 Armenian revolution, won this year’s feature film Audience Award, topping the list of prizes given for the annual festival that wrapped its run last night in Hollywood.

The festival also said today that it will hold its 2020 edition next October 15-22.

Among the winners unveiled today were Sonia K. Hadad’s Exam, which took the Grand Jury Prize in the Live Action Short category, while Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Something to Remember won the Grand Jury Prize for Animated Short. The wins make both films Oscar-eligible in those categories.

The festival’s documentary competition resulted in a tie, with Grand Jury prizes going to Sophia Nahil Allison’s A Love Song for Latasha and Elivia Shaw’s The Clinic.

Here’s the list of winners:

Audience Award – Feature

I Am Not Alone

(Dir...

Fox continues to add to the cast of Empire, which will send the musical drama go out with a bang. The latest to join the roster of the sixth and final season is actress/singer Diamond White, who will appear in the series as a recurring guest star.

White will play Lala, a soft-spoken SoundCloud singer who sounds great online but is plagued with performance anxiety and cursed by an inability to sing in front of a crowd.

She joins recent additions to the series that include Lethal Weapon alumna Keesha Sharp who will also appear in a recurring role as well as Vivica A. Fox who was upped to series regular for the final season which premieres on September 24.

From Imagine Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television, Empire was created by Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels and Emmy Award winner Danny Strong, and is executive-produced by Daniels,...

Exclusive: Sebastian Chacon has joined the Penny Dreadful spinoff City of Angels at Showtime. He play the character of Fly Rico, the powerful leader of the Pachucos, a Latino “Zoot Suit” gang. Rico exudes an irresistible bravado and is slick, smart and dangerous.

Chacon joins a robust cast that includes Daniel Zovatto, Natalie Dormer, Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza, Rory Kinnear, Jessica Garza, Johnathan Nieves, Michael Gladis and Nathan Lane. Other recurring roles will be filled by Lorenza Izzo, Adam Rodriguez, Thomas Kretschmann, Dominic Sherwood and Ethan Peck.

A spiritual descendant of the story set in Victorian-era London, the next chapter of the Penny Dreadful saga will employ a new vision, new characters and storylines. It opens in 1938 Los Angeles; a time and place deeply infused with social and political tension. When a grisly murder shocks the city, Detective Tiago Vega (Zovatto) is embroiled in an epic story that reflects the...

It’s been years since Edward James Olmos last saw “Stand and Deliver,” the 1988 movie that made him the first Mexican-American actor to secure an Academy Award nomination. But watching a 30th anniversary screening at this month’s Panama International Film Festival, the actor was deeply moved.

“It was very emotional. I openly wept,” the actor said, recalling his feelings about portraying the young East L.A. math teacher Jaime Escalante — and the impact the sleeper hit biopic had on audiences worldwide.

“Ninety-five percent of my life is bringing awareness to the difficulties of people’s plights,” he said during an interview at the chic Central Hotel in Panama City’s colonial-era Casco Viejo the following day. “There is such imbalance. I’ve received so much support from life itself. I live a very privileged life. I mean, I’ve been able to live as an artist my entire life.

In 1978, the late Gordon Davidson presented El Teatro Campesino’s prescient multimedia drama Zoot Suit, first at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum and then at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre, where it landed as Broadway’s first Chicano show. Riffing on a notorious 1942 murder, the play (and subsequent film) launched the career of a charismatic young actor named Edward James Olmos and focused a hard-won spotlight on the writer and director Luis Valdez, and his…...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt realized something about lip-syncing before he went on the Spike TV show "Lip Sync Battle": There is nothing inherently cool about lip-syncing. You have to bring style, commitment, and intensity if you want the act to be memorable, and he did just that. Here he is utterly stunning you -- and perhaps even a few queens on "RuPaul's Drag Race" -- with his version of "Rhythm Nation." Wow. That was some committed choreography. Ciara is jealous of that commitment to Janet choreography. This makes up for what I consider a weak Jgl lip-sync on "The Tonight Show," so good on him for making up the difference. I hope he tackles the Zoot Suit insanity of "Alright" next. ...

Blu-ray Release Date: Sept. 9, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Twilight Time

Lou Diamond Phillips is Ritchie Valens in La Bamba

The 1987 music-filled biographical drama La Bamba tells the brief, ultimately tragic, but uplifting story of pioneering rock star Ritchie Valens, born Ricardo Valenzuela in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley.

Portrayed in the movie by Lou Diamond Phillips, Valens would have three hit songs before dying at the shockingly young age of 17 in the infamous plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson. Valens’ short life—particularly with family and friends in a vibrant Mexican-American community—and obsessive love of music are the focus in La Bamba, directed with warmth by Luis Valdez (Zoot Suit). Valens’ music is performed with crackling energy by the sensational Los Lobos.

Twilight Time’s edition of the film, its Blu-ray debut, contains the following features:

Special Features:

-Isolated Score...

It's prom night on Parks and Recreation and our hearts are a-flutter like we're the pimply-faced kids back in high school getting ready for the big night. In the appropriately titled "Prom," the parks department saves the senior prom and is tasked with throwing the epic dance on a shoestring budget. In the midst of all this Leslie (Amy Poehler) has found her mini-me, Allison. In the clip above, the two geek out over color-coded tabs in a way only Leslie Knope  and her mini-me could. Plus, we learn Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) used to be a DJ with his own college show: Zoot Suit Wyatt. Get it!? You got it. "Tuesdays, 3-5 a.m., I was the king of swing," Ben says. "I thought we as a...

In the late eighties, a month after the release of La Bamba—at the time the biggest Latino box office hit ever—Newsweek magazine proclaimed that it was the era of the “Hispanic Hollywood.” That same summer came the release of the Chicano classic Born in East L.A. written, directed, and starring Cheech Marin. Compared to the box office smash La Bamba which made $54 million, Marin’s comedy was only a modest success making $17 million. But, for Latino films which struggle to make it to millions in ticket sales these two films were blockbusters that made Hollywood studios stand up and take notice of the moneymaking potential that laid in the hands of the Latino moviegoing audience.

The 1980 census had thrown the industry into a tizzy when it brought to light that the Latino population had grown by more than half since the previous decade. Then Variety published a report on the ‘Top 20 Hispanic Markets’ where it revealed that Latinos were a huge part of the total population of large cities like L.A. and New York, that they spent 30% more on entertainment than the average American, and that they held an overall purchasing power of $180 billion (now it’s more than $1 trillion). Movie studio bigwigs suddenly saw dollar signs in the barrios of the U.S.A. For the first time they saw the advantage of distributing films with Latino stories, creating bilingual marketing campaigns, and circulating movie prints that were subtitled or dubbed in Spanish.

In March of 1988, amidst Hollywood’s giddiness over the Latino box office, Warner Bros. released Stand and Deliver theatrically. It was a small, independently made Latino film starring the legendary Edward James Olmos and a young Lou Diamond Phillips. Based on actual events the movie tells the story of Jaime Escalante (Olmos), a Bolivian immigrant, who teaches math at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles to mostly Latino students. The school is facing losing its accreditation and the students are failing miserably. Mr. Escalante, or Kimo as his students call him, decides to teach AP Calculus against the advice of the school administration. The chair of the math department says, “You can’t teach logarithms to illiterates.” Kimo responds, “Students will rise to the level of expectation.” When a record number of students pass the AP Calculus exam they are accused of cheating by the Educational Testing Service.

The film, 25 years later, is now a Latino classic thanks in large part to Edward James Olmos. He not only produced and starred in the film but also participated in an aggressive grassroots marketing campaign. He traveled across the country championing the film, doing interviews, setting up community screenings, and even giving away free tickets to anyone who wanted to see the film. It’s now one of the most watched Latino films, ever.

LatinoBuzz got a chance to chat with Edward James Olmos about the 25th anniversary of the film, the state of Latino filmmaking, and the upcoming release of Filly Brown, a film his son directed and stars himself along with the late Jenny Rivera in her first (and sadly last) movie role.

LatinoBuzz: Stand and Deliver earned close to $14 million dollars at the box office. This is a huge feat for a Latino film, even today. Last year’s most successful Latino movie made a little under $6 million. What do you think contributed to Stand and Deliver’s success?

Ejo: The biggest contributor, the biggest factor of its success is the story, hands down the story. It’s a universal story and we wanted people see it. So, we allowed people to see it. We practically gave the film away to anyone who wanted to see it. And because of that the word of mouth was strong. Now practically everyone has seen this movie. Most students see it at least once before leaving high school. Sometimes they see it two or three times in school. The usage of the film by teachers has been incredible. And it’s because of the story. It’s an inspirational piece, it’s uplifting and it’s not only inspiring for the kids but for the teachers too.

LatinoBuzz: 25 years after the release of Stand and Deliver it is still incredibly difficult to raise funds for a Latino movie. How difficult was it to raise the money back then? Why do you think it still remains a challenge to fund a Latino film?

Ejo: I think the budget for the film was $1.2 million. It was really hard to raise the money. And today it hasn’t changed an inch. It’s still really difficult to make a Latino film, it’s nearly impossible. I think one of the major factors that make it difficult to raise the money is that studios have no need to make Latino films. Because Latinos will go see the Fast and Furious or some other big budget action movie or a horror film. In fact about 37% of the people who are going to theaters during the opening weekend of one of these big budget studio films are Latinos. And it’s even more so for something like the Fast and the Furious. It’s closer to about 50% Latinos. They are spending millions of dollars on movie tickets. The market is very ripe for these fast car action films so there’s no need to put in a Latino lead actor or have a Latino story. They can keep it more universal and then don’t nurture Latino talent.

The little Latino talent that is out there, they get cast in mainstream films and blockbusters—like Selena Gomez the actress in Spring Breakers—and will be whitewashed. The few Latino actors that are in the mainstream—someone like Jennifer Lopez, she’s done Anaconda, The Wedding Planner, mostly mainstream films. She’s done very few Latino-themed pieces, you can count them on one hand.

I did it differently. Had I done the movies that were offered to me in my prime, at the height of my career, I would have been alongside the likes of Denzel Washington. But, I chose not to do those movies. I chose to do Stand and Deliver, American Me, Zoot Suit—Latino movies that ended up being successful but were not blockbusters. I just wanted to do my part and get those stories out there before I pass.

Stand and Deliver has been the most successful thing I have done in my life. So many people have seen it. There was really no need for me to do anything else. And the fact that we were able to do the film, it was a miracle.

LatinoBuzz: Your performance in Stand and Deliver garnered you an Oscar nomination for Best Actor making you the first American-born Latino to receive this honor. Do you remember the day you found out you were nominated? What effect did the nomination have on your acting career?

Ejo: I was in Miami on the set of Miami Vice. It was around 8:30 in the morning. I was walking from my trailer to the set and someone walked up to me, someone I didn’t even know. They said, “You were just nominated for an Oscar.” I asked him, “Excuse me?” And he said, “Yeah, for Stand and Deliver” and then just walked away. Of course I called my family right away and then Jaime (Escalante). I called him and woke him up. It was around 5:30 in the morning over there, in California. I told him, “Congratulations, you just won me an Oscar nomination.” Jaime said, “What do you mean? That wasn’t my performance, it was yours.” And I said, “No, it was all you. I just impersonated you. It was all you.”

It’s really difficult to figure out how to make a performance work, it’s like putting lightning in a bottle. But, it was really just an impersonation of him. From meeting and watching and observing Jaime I realized there is a reason why he was successful at teaching, it’s his personality. And I found that out on set. He was always there on set while we were filming. He was always standing there next to the camera. I would look at him after finishing a scene and he would have his arms crossed on his chest, his head tilted, his eyes a little bit squinted and then he would put his thumb up. That’s it. He wouldn’t say anything, just the thumbs up.

And as far as the nomination it opened up a big opportunity for me with a big studio. I signed a development deal. Tom Pollock, who was head of Universal at the time, asked me what I wanted to make. I got the chance to make a movie that I had been trying to make for 18 years, American Me. And it was as strong a movie and as important as Stand and Deliver.

LatinoBuzz: Stand and Deliver is filled with witty dialogue that people quote even 25 years later. Some of my favorite lines are, “You burros have math in your blood” and “His body is decomposing in my locker.” Any favorite lines of dialogue?

Ejo: Oh yeah, there are so many of them. There’s the one that everyone quotes when he calls the kid, “the finger man.” And that was all Jaime, all those lines were Jaime. There was nothing of that stuff that we made up. I rewrote the script, him and I, we wrote it together. All the dialogue in the shooting script was ours. We were never credited but we wrote it. He told me line by line what he said. He remembered everything. The scene where he comes back from the hospital and surprises the kids. When they yell “Bulldogs, dog-dog-dog-dog” and he says, “Thank you for babysitting my canguros.” When he makes them line up, “Against the wall like a snake.” He told me exactly what he said to each kid while they were standing in line and I put it in there.

The scene where he talks to the guys from Ets (Educational Testing Service) and they accuse him of cheating, the part that Andy Garcia plays, he told me exactly what he said to those guys. Exactly that scene, word for word, was said by Jaime. That scene, the dialogue is meticulously written. If you go back and watch it again—the rhythm, beat by beat, it is incredibly written. It’s because Jaime is a mathematician, he was meticulous with details, you have to be.

I remember lines from a lot the movies I made like Zoot Suit and American Me but most of the ones I remember are from Stand and Deliver.

LatinoBuzz: You are part of some of the most iconic Latino films. We haven’t had a huge hit like that in a few years. What do you think it will take to get there again?

I don’t know but the main issue is distribution. Right now I am focused on April 19th, the release of Filly Brown. That movie is my cause right now. There have been some major mistakes around publicity. Pantelion took over the distribution after Indomina went under. Indomina, they were young and couldn’t handle it, they didn’t know what they were doing. So, we sold it to Lionsgate/Pantelion and they moved up the release date, they made it earlier. And I told them that they made the biggest mistake for a film of this caliber. They aren’t giving people a chance to find out about the film. They need time for word of mouth to spread. Latinos and Spanish speakers, they will show up because of Jenny Rivera, because of their love for her and their love for me. But they are losing out on the chance to attract an audience of non-Latinos that will love this film. The are going to do what is always done with Latino films and independent films—putting the movie out there without giving the audience a chance to find out about it. You need to give it away and then they will tell other people—and then thousands of people will find out about it. It takes time. Unfortunately, with this film, if it works, will probably be attributed to Jenny’s tragic accident.

It’s an issue. Studios want to tell universal stories. We want to do the same thing. But, we want to use Latino stories with Latino faces to tell universal stories. We’re only one group. We are all humans and we all want to tell human stories.

Filly Brown opens in theaters across the country on April 19. The film stars Gina Rodriguez as a rapper who needs to make it big so she can raise money to get her mom (Jenny Rivera) out of jail. In conjunction with the film's release the official soundtrack will be available beginning April 16. Filly Brown on Facebook.

Stand and Deliver is available for viewing on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and Netflix.

Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The suitably named episode brings not just series five to a conclusion but it was also the very last episode as Being Human joins the great TV channel in sky. There’s a lot of story lines to wrap up and the small matter of killing the devil, will our trinity of heroes have a happy ending?

Opening with a Being Human first, Hal gives a delightfully macabre rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ On The Ritz”, his vampire induction is brought to a sudden standstill when Tom bursts in and swiftly kills all the new recruits before setting his sights on Hal. Thankfully Alex utilised her knowledge of the movie Kill Bill and breaks out of the coffin, arriving just in time to prevent Tom from taking his revenge.

Evil Hal isn’t best pleased he’s been duped by Captain Hatch, reluctantly he agrees...

Admiral William “Husker” Adama is an iconic hero in sci-fi history, leading the human race back from the brink of extinction in Battlestar Galactica. The Sci-Fi Expo, presented by Dallas Comic-Con, had the distinct pleasure of hosting actor Edward James Olmos along with co-stars Tricia Helfer and James Callis earlier this month. In the Battlestar Galactica panel, Olmos talked about how he was cast for the role of Adama, what would kill his character (it’s literally written in his contract), and how he knew this was an incredible project.

Edward James Olmos: “I was very fortunate. They offered me the role after Ron Moore and David Eick sat in a room saying, ‘We need to get somebody like Edward James Olmos [for the role.]’

[laughter from the crowd]

And that’s really what happened. Ron says, ‘Well, why don’t we ask him?’ They said, ‘Well, he turned down Star Trek.’ So they asked me...

As the "Django Unchained" controversy continues this week, legendary Civil Right activist and comedian, Dick Gregory, is the latest public figure to open up about Quentin Tarantino’s much talked about film.

While many have rallied behind Spike Lee’s sentiments over Tarantino’s usage of the n-word, Gregory decided to take a different stance during an interview with YouTube channel, W.E. A.L.L. B.E. T.V. During the 15-minute clip the 80-year-old, who’s responsible for penning his 1964 autobiography “Nigger,” questioned Lee’s intentions while a verbal assault.

“That lil thug ain’t even seen the movie, he’s acting like he’s white…so it must be something personal, because when I looked at all those black entertainers, that know Spike Lee, how are you going to attack this man and don’t be attacking them,” he said. “You’re saying, ‘everybody’s a fool but me?...

Since 2003, the Morelia Film Festival has been nurturing filmmakers and audiences, and has rooted its niche as a discovery festival of up and coming Mexican filmmakers. At the same time it’s earned a prestigious reputation for its expertly curated sidebars that would make the most hard core cinephile drool, and for the Festival’s unparalleled attention and hospitality towards their guests, Invitados. The Festival invites renowned international cineastes to participate in showing their films for the first time in Mexico, in turn enticing them to experience the vibrant scene of Mexican Cinema in the most charming historic city of Morelia, Michoacán.

To celebrate its 10th year anniversary the powerhouse boutique festival has put together an epic program consisting of over 200 hand picked films as part of special screenings, tributes and homages to compliment its more solid than ever Mexican Competition made up of 25 documentaries, 45 shorts, 9 narrative features, along with 12 films from the hosting state of Michoacán. Among the special guests this year, English filmmaker Sally Potter, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, and Chicano filmmaker Gregory Nava.

I thank the tirelessly dynamic Director of the Festival, Daniela Michel for talking with me about the Festival’s programming then and now. {redacted and translated}

C: From the return of Regyadas with his highly anticipated Post-Tenebras Lux, who was one of three Mexican directors awarded a prize at Cannes (along with Fogo by documentary and fiction director, Yulene Olaizola, and Después de Lucía by Michel Franco which is Mexico’s foreign language Oscar entry), to Locarno Film Festival’s Carte Blanche spotlight of Mexican works in progress, 2012 has been a stellar year for Mexican films. The Festival is showing nine narrative features in competition, seven of them world premieres by first time filmmakers, reflecting this building breakthrough momentum…

D: Yes, we’re thrilled that Cannes was a big year for Mexican film. We were honored to have Artistic director, Thierry Frémaux as a guest at the Festival last year. He’s truly been supportive of Mexican films and we are profoundly thankful. When we first started the festival there just weren’t enough features films to warrant a solid competition program. Our mission was to build a program made up of the next generation of filmmakers and support them. We weren’t interested in showing already established Mexican filmmakers. In 2007 we had our first narrative feature length competition and we were grateful for having such a prominent jury comprised of Trevor Groth, Director of Programming at Sundance Film Festival, Peter Scarlet, at that time Artistic Director of Tribeca Film Festival and Cecilia Suarez, a talented Mexican actress. They bestowed the Best Film award to Nicolás Pereda’s first film, Where are their Stories. Pereda has gone on to be a prolific and singular talent. We are screening his 7th film out of competition, The Greatest Hits.

C: Documentaries are an integral part of the festival, this year the festival is showing a record breaking 25 documentaries in competition. Typically the Mexican documentary genre has generally fit into the ethnographic study type. How has this changed over the years?

D: We are seeing more intimate and personal journey type of stories that are breaking with that notion that there is only that kind of Mexican documentary. There are looks of forgotten history like Flor en Otomi by Luisa Riley about a young female guerilla fighter who disappeared following a violent raid, or Convict Patient by Alejandro Solar Luna about a man who attempted to assassinate the president in 1970 and is now homeless and mentally unstable. There are more experimental films, more personal portraits like Carriere, 250 Meters by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Natalia Gil about the inspiring writer and Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, Diario a Tres Voces by Otilia Portillo Padua, a compelling multigenerational look of three women in relationship to their age, Miradas Multiples (La Maquina Loca) by Emilio Maille which is about the great cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa. Definitely, Mexican documentary is expanding its horizons.

C: Last year you had Luis Valdez and as an honored guest and screened his seminal Chicano film, Zoot Suit. This year you are honoring Gregory Nava with a screening of El Norte and Mi Familia. What prompted this recognition of Chicano filmmakers at the festival?

D: We’ve always had a section called Cine Sin Fronteras (Cinema without Borders) curated by Jesse Lerner an academic expert on border films. While we had not, up until last year, recognized such well known chicano figures like Luis Valdez we’ve shown the work of lesser known, independent filmmakers. We felt it was overdue and important to introduce chicano films to mexico. Not necessarily a border crossing story but the perspective of Mexicans living in the United States. Certainly Luis Valdez deserved a homage here in Mexico. Unfortunately chicano cinema is not well known in Mexico. We are very happy that Gregory Nava who we highly respect, will be joining us this year.

C: The Michoacán section. The festival recognizes the talent of filmmakers from the hosting state with its separate competition section. How do you make sure this section does not fly under the radar or get lost in the shuffle since it competes with high profile national and international films.

D: Well, first of all the caliber has to be there and I think that since the festival’s inception, the filmmaking scene in Michoacán has been greatly stimulated as there’s been more production, filmmaking has become more accessible and over the past ten years we’ve seen the production value and quality getting better and better. Not only indigenous filmmakers which was very important to us like Dante Cerano and Pavel Rodriguez but filmmakers who were born and raised there and may live elsewhere. We make an effort to give these films the highest visibility by giving them the best time slots so that the public can easily find and discover.

C: Given the Festival’s success, there must be a desire and pressure to continue to expand and grow. How do you navigate the appeal of complimenting the festival with an increasing number of programs yet work to keep the mission’s integrity?

D: Interest in participating in the festival has certainly grown but we can’t lose focus that our main goal is to support the young mexican filmmakers so we select only the best work out there, always. Its important not to have any kind of institutional or political ties that might compromise that mission. One of the sections I most love which we created in 2008, based on the invaluable recommendation of Bertrand Tavernier who has an impressive knowledge of film, is called Imaginary Mexico. This section showcases work connected to Mexico imagined by foreign filmmakers abroad, revealing their perception of Mexico. It’s a rich, eye opening trove. For instance Mexico as seen by Hollywood. This year we are showing a number of Sam Peckinpah’s films (The Wild Bunch, among others). Two years ago we had the extraordinary gift of having Quentin Tarantino present Sergio Corbucci’s spaghetti westerns about the Mexican Revolution. These films had been previously banned in Mexico for its scathing portrayal of the revolution….

It’s a rich diaspora. The Festival supports the future of Mexican Cinema with the best work by the next generation of filmmakers just starting out. It celebrates Mexico of the past, through classics and retrospectives like this year’s homage to cinematographer Jose Ortiz Ramos born in the state of Michoacan, and the other, films about Mexico from outside of Mexico. We attack it on all fronts. This intersection of borders, indigenous films made by indigenous filmmakers who have a permanent space in our festival, film students and history.

C: About the Morelia audience

D: There is a big population of university students which combined with the city’s strong tradition of historical culture, we felt there was potential there. It wasn’t easy at first. I remember programming a Woody Allen film against a block of unknown shorts. We realized that once the tickets for the Woody Allen movie sold out, people who weren’t able to get in, naturally found their way into the shorts program. We are indeed grateful for that audience. Obviously showing Bela Tarr’s epic eight hour Satantango last year would not have worked had we programmed it the first year. We owe a lot of this audience development to our extraordinary colleague and dear friend Joaquin Rodriguez (founding programmer who passed away earlier this year). He worked year round developing that audience. His film appreciation classes there would have space for twenty, and five times the amount of people would show up. This edition is dedicated to him for his consummate professionalism, passion and brilliance.

C: We are a few days away from the 10th edition. How are you feeling now and do you remember how you felt ten years ago at this point?

D: It was one of the most stressful moments in my life because I had no idea how it was going to work. It was terrifying. Today I feel very blessed to have this incredible team because the work is put in by all of us and it would be impossible without the dedicated group assembled who I admire and respect very much. …Every year there is stress. But like they say “If you stop feeling the nerves then quit”. I’m a huge cinephile so I love sharing this gift of film with new audiences. Its endless, there is an endless vault of films to be re-discovered and that’s what I love best that these films return to life. You learn a lot about life seeing film.

Follow the Festival @Ficm. To see the competition lineup click here, and to download this year’s catalogue click here.

Not one but two all-stars were sent packing from Dancing with the Stars on Monday. To read their parting words — and to find out who took it hard, and who took it in stride — head to the jump:

While Monday night’s lowest scoring celebrity Bristol Palin was giving giddy interviews about performing a rock n’ roll number next Monday, Drew Lachey and Helio Castroneves were saying their goodbyes to the press after Tuesday’s elimination episode. Lachey, in particular, was irked after performing a cha cha that he thinks should have kept him and Anna Trebunskaya in the competition.

Lupe Ontiveros—a founding member of the Latino Theater Company and character actress with numerous film roles—died Thursday at the age of 69. Ontiveros began working in Los Angeles theatre in the late ’70s, landing a role in Luis Valdez’s 1978 play Zoot Suit and recreating that performance in both its Broadway production and 1982 movie version. And in her movie and TV career, she found it difficult to break out of the all-too-familiar ghetto of roles available to Latina performers, such as domestic help, hookers, and the occasional grandmother. (Ontiveros once told an interviewer that she'd ...

Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actor Edward James Olmos joins recently announced special guest stars, Colin Hanks and Mos (formerly Mos Def) in the cast of the Emmy nominated Showtime drama series Dexter for Season 6. Olmos will play a brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies. Olmos joins a distinguished list of seasonal guest cast that has included Jimmy Smits, John Lithgow and Julia Stiles. Production on Dexter begins May 25 in Los Angeles and will premiere on Showtime this fall.

Edward James Olmos is an acclaimed actor, director and activist. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand And Deliver, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Detective Gaff in Blade Runner, and narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit. His first big break was a starring role in Luis Valdez's play,...

Happy Cinco de Mayo! As it turns out, the holiday isn’t all that celebrated in Mexico. Not that this should stop any Americans from going out and getting their margarita on, but it’s kind of funny to think about. In light of the oddly Us-centric form this celebration of Mexican victory has taken in recent years, I thought I’d take a look at some of the brilliant contributions the Mexican-American community has made to cinema. Here are 5 close-ups of particularly noteworthy films and filmmakers, from the earliest days of Hollywood to just last year. 1981’s “Zoot Suit” Director Luis…...

Unspeakable things happened on Celebrity Apprentice last night, and I’m not talking about Gary Busey’s sentences. I’m referring to a challenge about stupid commercials, Jose Canseco’s “risque humor,” (which must be Trump code for “homophobia”), and the firing of a first-rate buzzard. Tragedy all around. Plus, Busey told us his johnson is nicknamed “Big Wednesday,” and he meant it. Because this show? Is kind of hell, for sure. But a fresh hell! Let’s relive and re-love it.

The Challenge: Since last week when Trump fired Niki Taylor and presumably fed her to a timberwolf (Mark McGrath), the ladies’ team (A.

Jedi, goofy flight attendants, a possessed young girl, and two journalists on the brink of discovery are among the characters to be honored for film preservation. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has named 25 motion pictures to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Among the films to be preserved are George Lucas' "Return of the Jedi," "Airplane," William Friedkin's "The Exorcist," and Alan J. Pakula's "All The President's Men." This year.s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550.

Each year, the Librarian of Congress, under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, to be preserved for all time. In other words, these films are certainly not the "best" (but we can argue that each movie truly represented high quality) but they are works of art...

Studies have shown that Hidden Gems of the Week, EW.com’s collection of reader-submitted ridiculata, is the best way to enjoy Dancing With the Stars without ever having to turn it on. It’s a visual feast of sparkles, fringe, and flesh. Ready to go down the rabbit hole? Behold this bountiful smattering of Visible Gems!

Mvg (Most Valuable Gem): Fresh-baked And Born To Ride

Maks’ buns ***and possible thong*** –avab, silentj, yummy, dzzld, Mindy, duranmom, omg.., Becky, maximum maks, kai, Karikata, Stephanie M., Addison, Raychel, Kelli

Enthusiastic Bongo Gentleman in a baseball cap?! –EW.com’s Fringe...

Studies have shown that Hidden Gems of the Week, EW.com’s collection of reader-submitted ridiculata, is the best way to enjoy Dancing With the Stars without ever having to turn it on. It’s a visual feast of sparkles, fringe, and flesh. Ready to go down the rabbit hole? Behold this bountiful smattering of Visible Gems!

Mvg (Most Valuable Gem): Get. Out!

“Right after Team Apolo’s dance, there was a camera man behind Apolo. He fled as soon as he realized he was in the shot!” –Unenthusiastic Bongo Man, endorsed by avab, CoolWhipLite, Fresh, Tay, AlJavabooknut, Alise,...

This is a recap for the tenth episode of Season 4 of Mad Men starring Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, January Jones, John Slattery and a slew of other talented actors, on an episode called “Hands and Knees.” And now, here is your long-awaited For Your Consideration Recap: She’S Pregnant… With Twins By the looks of it, about 14 months pregnant. Oh wait, those aren’t baby bumps… that’s her award-winning rack! Oh, Joan, you have fooled us once again you minx. Can you imagine Joan breastfeeding? It would probably look something like this. i.e. Sexxxy! Oh Sew Natural Betty, without makeup, early in the morning, sewing? Were times so tough they had to fire Carla? Unless Betty is finally sewing a long rope out of flat sheets with which to climb out of the second floor window and escape her painfully oppressed existence… yeah, like she would ruin a flat sheet.

So the show opens with my favorite line of the whole episode, a hysterical Mercedes flinching away from a passing slushie while yelping, "My weave!" For you see...the Slushie War has commenced. Mercedes is not the target of its icy slap, however. Nor is Rachel. It's meant for...Finn. He and Quinn have lost their cool quotient thank to glee club and the news that Quinn is preggers.

Okay, it makes sense for Quinn to maybe lose some cool points, but when has getting a girl knocked up ever hurt a jock's status? Wouldn't that make him more of man in his teammate's eyes? Or maybe times have just changed since I was in school. I mean it has been...well, let's not discuss that. Whatever. This is Glee. Nothing ever makes sense. And that's why I love it. If we made a drinking game out of this show,...