Film

The second trailer for the action thriller (and comedy?) starring Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum has been released online. It presents a standard premise in an until recently fresh setting – John Cale (Tatum) must rescue the President (Foxx) from …

Oscar 2014: (Flexible) maximum of two winners in Best Animated Feature Film category (photo: 2013 Best Animated Feature winner Brave) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced another rule change for the 2014 Academy Awards. This latest change affects the Animated Feature Film category. According to the Academy’s press release, from now on there will be "a maximum of two award recipients" for Best Animated Feature Film, one of whom must have a producer credit. And that’s where things get a bit confusing. Despite the "maximum of two" Oscar recipients, "the director and/or key creative individual shall continue to be a recipient, and in the circumstance of a two-person team with shared and equal director credit, a third statuette may be awarded." In other words, it’s a flexible two-person maximum. Last year, at most two individuals were listed per nominated film in the Best Animated Feature Film category: Tim Burton for Frankenweenie, Sam Fell and Chris Butler for ParaNorman, Peter Lord for The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Rich Moore for Wreck-It Ralph, and winners Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman for Brave. More Oscar 2014 rules changes: Best Foreign Language Film and Documentary Shorts Announced a few days ago, the most important change in the Oscar 2014 voting process affects the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Short categories. From now on, Academy voters will be able to watch the nominated films either at a theatrical screening or on DVD. In other words, for the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ entire voting membership will automatically be eligible to choose the winners in all 24 Oscar categories. Why the Academy waited until 2013 to come up with this change is unclear. This should have taken place in 1983 — at the latest, as VHS tapes had been available since the late ’70s. Perhaps making thousands of VHS tapes back then would have been too costly? But those people are filthy rich! Anyhow, better in 2013 than in 2033. “This change continues our efforts to expand our members’ participation in all aspects of the Academy’s activities including, of course, voting for the Oscars,” Academy president Hawk Koch was quoted as saying. “Building on this past season’s 90% record voter turnout, we want to give our members as many opportunities as possible to see these great films and vote in these categories next year.” (If that percentage figure is accurate — even if it’s not across the board in the Oscars’ two dozen categories — that’s quite impressive indeed.) So, before the Oscar 2014 winners are selected, the Academy will provide members with DVDs of the nominated films in five categories: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film. Last year’s Best Foreign Language Film winner was Michael Haneke’s Amour, also a Best Picture nominee, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Best Actress nominee Emmanuelle Riva, and Isabelle Huppert. The Best Short Documentary was Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine’s Inocente. The Academy’s press release adds that "rules are reviewed annually by individual branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then evaluates all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval." The 2014 Academy Awards will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. 2013 Best Animated Feature winner Brave movie image: Pixar / Disney Enterprises. This post was originally published at Alt Film Guide (http://www.altfg.com/). Not to be republished without permission.

There were emotional scenes well as much laughter as Michael Douglas, Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh held a press conference for their new film which details the relationship between the flamboyant pianist Liberace and his young lover at the Cannes film festival.

Yep, you read that right. The Academy Award winning writer of Traffic and director of Syriana Stephen Gaghan has lent his pen to the phenomenally successful Call of Duty game franchise, writing the story (and presumably the screenplay) for the next installment in the series, Call of Duty: Ghosts. Apparently Gaghan didn't just drop off a script but worked from an office at developer Infinity Ward throughout the game's production.As a fan of the series and as a massive fan of Syriana which was my favourite film of 2005, this is fantastic news. While playing Black Ops with Sam Worthington's voice was oddly jarring, I think this will be a much more seamless fit while adding more depth to the gameplay experience. Watch the trailer... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

With The Bastards, director and co-writer Claire Denis has muddled up her narrative to the point much of it is almost incoherent and by the end a complete waste.

There will be more food, there will be more bickering, but will there be more Michael Caine?Following the runaway success of The Trip - the Michael Winterbottom directed BBC comedy starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as somewhat fictionalized versions of themselves on a food tour of northern England - word has been circulating for a while about a follow up in which the duo pack up and do it all again in Italy. Yes, it's happening and more to the point it is scheduled to begin principal photography a mere three days from now.Coogan, Brydon and Winterbottom all return in their respective roles, with The Trip To Italy once again existing as both a six part BBC comedy series and a shorter feature film.... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

The Last Days on Mars finds writer/director Ruairi Robinson making his feature directorial debut with a film that's essentially zombies in space. It's well made, but it's hard to get beyond the pedestrian nature of it.

You gotta love the news that comes out of Cannes. In between burglaries (they should check and see if the Bling Ring posse is still in town) you get some wonderful juicy tidbits from artists which cause you to wonder what the fuck are these people thinking.Today's installment of "what the fuck" goes to director Francois Ozon whose main competition film The Young and the Beautiful is about a disaffected teenage girl who turns to prostitution. Ozon said in an interview with a clearly perplexed reporter from The Hollywood Reporter, that most women -- though probably not American women -- have fantasies to "do prostitution" (I am wondering about the translation here.)Here's the exchange and the push back from the reporter Rhonda Richford, who is a Paris based correspondent for the paper (so I'm guessing her French is pretty good.)Ozon: ...But I think women can really be connected with this girl because it’s a fantasy of many women to do prostitution. That doesn’t mean they do it, but the fact to be paid to have sex is something which is very obvious in feminine sexuality. THR: Why do you believe that is a desire? I really don’t think that’s the case.Ozon: I think that’s the case because sexuality is complex. I think to be an object in sexuality is something very obvious you know, to be desired, to be used. There is kind of a passivity that women are looking for. That's why the scene with Charlotte Rampling is very important, because she says [prostitution] was a fantasy she always had but never had the courage to do it. She was too shy. THR: How did you come to the conclusion that is a theme in women’s sexuality?Ozon: It is the reality. You speak with many women, you speak with shrinks, everybody knows that. Well, maybe not Americans!I really don't know what to say about this except the women I know have no desire to be an object nor have any desire for the passivity that he suggests. To be desired does not mean you are passive or an object. Dude. Get a clue.Cannes: Francois Ozon Says 'It's a Fantasy of Many Women to Do Prostitution' (Q&A)- Hollywood Reporter

Logan is sad in the new trailer for James Mangold's The Wolverine. And when Logan gets sad he likes to stab things. That about sums it up, right?... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Hey dudes, I gotta go out and do laundry so I'll keep this short. Here is a new poster I made, a commission from someone I met recently whose favorite movie is Hocus Pocus. Which is awesome. It's now for sale in my etsy shop. I've got a few more commissions I'm working on now that my semester is over so be on the lookout for lots of new art things over the summer! Yay! Also just fyi I'm interning at this gallery and running their blog, where I get to interview awesome artists that we're exhibiting and also generally talk about art things and post pretty pictures. If you're into that please check it out!