Category: International

MUMBAI: The American Society of Cinematographers has bestowed upon Roger Deakins the ninth ASC feature film nomination of his career for his work in the Western True Grit. Other nominees are Matthew Labatique for Black Swan, Wally Pfister for Inception, Danny Cohen for The King‘s Speech and Jeff Cronenweth for The Social Network.

Deakins, who last year also served as visual consultant on the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon, has received eight Oscar nominations for his cinematography, including two in 2008 when he was nominated for both the Coen brothers‘ No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. But he has yet to take home the Oscar itself.

In addition to his nomination for the Coens‘ True Grit, he is scheduled to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards, which will be held Feb. 13 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

Highly regarded by both cinematographers and film connoisseurs alike, Deakins won ASC awards for 1994‘s The Shawshank Redemption and 2001‘s The Man Who Wasn‘t There.

Pfister‘s nomination for Inception is his third ASC nom. He also was nominated for two other films from director Christopher Nolan like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Other nominees include Matthew Labatique for Black Swan, Wally Pfister for Inception, Danny Cohen for The King‘s Speech and Jeff Cronenweth for The Social Network.

MUMBAI: Box office earnings of the Chinese film industry have jumped a massive 64 per cent in 2010, said to be a bad year for Bollywood. China ranked third behind Bollywood and Hollywood in terms of annual film output. It put the box office earnings of the local movie industry at $1.5 billion.

In a survey, China‘s media regulators have predicted the local industry, regarded as a backward territory until recently, will surpass India and Japan by 2015.

The year 2010 saw a massive growth in the film industry with China ‘s state administration of Radio, Film and Television reporting that as many as 500 films were made during the period.

On the other hand, the Indian media has quoted film industry sources saying that the earnings last year would be around Rs 10,000 crores ($2.2 billion) after rising 10-12 per cent over the 2009 revenue. The industry has been caught in the 10-12 per cent growth trend since 2008.

At present, the United States is ahead of all other markets as it notched box-office revenue of $11 billion in 2010. Japan came second with $2.5 billion in earnings followed by India. China‘s media regulators expect China to overtake Japan by 2015.

The highest grosser in the Chinese market was a James Cameron‘s Avatar that earned $200 million. Next came the Chinese film Aftershock that earned $100 million followed by another Chinese film Let bullets fly that raked in $75 million since its release in mid-December and its producers believe the total earnings will be much higher.
 

MUMBAI: A group of independent filmmakers in Windsor will team up from 21 to 23 January to showcase their latest films in a mini-festival. The WEx3 2011 Cinema Showcase will be the regional premiere of new dramatic films from Otto Buj, Nick Shields, Cameron Hucker and Chris Pickle.

Shields and Hucker produced Planting Vines, the first feature-length film from Suede, Windsor‘s top film and video production house. The film tells the story of a young architect suffering from a terminal disease who struggles to finish his last project.

The other features are Buj‘s Primordial Ties, a coming-of-age story of a 19-year-old woman and Pickle‘s Saving Grace, a psychological thriller.

With the exception of Planting Vines, the other films were entirely written, filmed and financed in Windsor and Essex County. Parts of the Suede film were filmed in Montreal.
 

MUMBAI: Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures Inception leads the film categories as the Visual Effects Society announced its nominations for its ninth annual VES Awards with four nominations.

But HBO‘s Boardwalk Empire scored one better by dominating with five nominations in the TV categories than Inception.

In the category of outstanding visual effects in a visual-effects driven motion picture, the VFX team behind Inception was nominated alongside the visual effects artistes for Iron Man 2, Tron: Legacy, Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. The feature films nominated for their supporting visual effects are Green Zone, Salt, Hereafter, Black Swan and Robin Hood.

On the TV side, Boardwalk was cited for its supporting effects along with the series The Walking Dead, Human Target, Undercovers and Lost.The effects-driven series that scored nominations are Caprica, No Ordinary Family, V, The Event and Stargate: Universe.

While Christopher Nolan will be honoured at the event with the inaugural VES Visionary Award, Ray Harryhausen will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The awards, which cover 24 categories in film, animation, TV, commercials and videogames, will be presented on 1 February.
 

MUMBAI: Rock star Eminem is all set to return to acting. The rapper is set to star in a crime thriller entitled Random Acts of Violence.

Confirming the same Eminem‘s publicist, Dennis Dennehy said that the Oscar-winning performer could end up in the movie but that “nothing is set in stone.”

In a statement, Dennehy said that Eminem‘s producing team has been developing the project “for some time” and “everyone involved hoped that it would bear fruit and the film would get rolling soon.

Earlier Eminem starred in 2002‘s 8 Mile.
 

MUMBAI: Denny Clairmont, co-founder of Clairmont Camera, will be honoured with the John A. Bonner medal at next month‘s scientific and technical award ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The medallion is named in honour of the late director of special projects at Warner Hollywood Studios and is awarded for “outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards” of the Academy.

Clairmont Cameram, that rents cameras and other gear to filmmakers, has fostered the exchange of ideas between camera users and manufacturers.

Among the 22 other scientific and technical award recipients announced were Mark Noel and John Frazier for developing a winch system that allows cars and other heavy props to be flown on wires and Eric Tabellion and Arnauld Lamorlette for the creation of a computer-generated illumination technique that was first used in Shrek 2.

Clairmont and the other winners will be toasted at the Feb. 12 ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire hotel. Portions of the show will be incorporated into the 83rd annual Oscar ceremony at the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 27.

MUMBAI: Johnny Depp has won the best actor award for Alice in Wonderland at the People`s Choice Awards. The actor won the top honour by beating Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

Eclipse, the latest instalment of Twilight series, was the big winner picking up four awards – favourite movie, favourite drama movie, favourite on-screen team and best actress award for Kristen Stewart.

In the favourite movie star under 25 category, Zac Efron won the top honour. Adam Sandler won favourite comedic star trophy while his film Grown Ups was named favourite comedic movie.

MUMBAI: Actor, producer and director, Robert DeNiro will head the Jury of the 64th Festival de Cannes. The 2011 edition of the festival will take place from 11 to 22 May.

The organizers will also pay a tribute to the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2011. DeNiro, co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002.

Accepting the invitation, DeNiro said, “The Cannes Film Festival is a rare opportunity for me as it is one of the oldest and one of the best in the world.”

DeNiro rose to recognition with Martin Scorsese‘s Mean Streets (1973) and Coppola‘s The Godfather Part II for which he won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1974. In 1980, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese.

To his credit are films like Bernardo Bertoulucci‘s Novecento (1976), Elia Kazan‘s Last Tycoon (1976), Michael Cimino‘s The Deer Hunter (1978), Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brian de Palma‘s The Untouchables (1987), Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), Terry Gilliam‘s Brazil (1985) and Michael Mann‘s Heat (1995) among others.

The actor also wore the director‘s cap in A Bronx Tale, The Good Shepherd, Analyze This, Meet the Parents and Little Fockers.
 

MUMBAI: Showing his deep concern for the middle-class, Alec Baldwin has shown his interest in contesting for a post in the US government.

His interest of coming into politics comes as he thinks ‘many politicians are failing to deal with the problems the country faces. Yes, it‘s something I‘m very interested in. I do think that people want to believe that someone who deeply cares about the middle class … would like to seek public office, ” Baldwin has been stated as quoting.

“We‘ve had men who are Ivy League-groomed running this country since 1988. We‘ve had men, regardless of their background, 22 years of Yale and Harvard and the problems aren‘t getting solved,” he added.
 

MUMBAI: Alice in Wonderland and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will be among the seven remaining films in consideration for a visual effects Oscar nomination. Earlier, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter, Inception, Iron Man 2, and Tron: Legacy also made the shortlist.

The next procedure is that members of the Academy‘s visual effects branch will screen 15-minute excerpts from the films on 20 January before the final five nominees will be announced on 25 January.