With the nominations announced and the Oscar season well and truly upon us, we begin the countdown to the excitement for the biggest awards show of the awards season. Why not get yourself familiar with great films from the list of nominees and previous winners, all available on Netflix.
Netflix has tens of thousands of hours to click and watch instantly – including loads of great Oscar winning and nominated movies and a huge list of great movies, previously starred in by this years Oscar Nominees.
If you enjoyed Clooney’s best actor nominated performance in Descendants, why not checkout Good Night and Good Luck or O Brother Where Art Thou?? Enjoy Meryl Streep’s performance as The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, instantly watch her in the The Hours.
If you were reminded of Woody Allen’s directorial talents in his return to form Midnight in Paris, why not check out his vintage Oscar winning gem, Annie Hall.
And if there is nothing that floats your boat in the current batch of nominees, why not delve into the past and catch up on some of the finest Oscar winning films ever committed to celluloid. Netflix has 45 previous Oscar winners available to watch instantly, all for the one low monthly price of £5.99. Anyone can begin a free, one-month trial of Netflix by simply visiting Netflix.com
Here are 10 must see previous winners that you can watch instantly on Netflix:
Dead Poets Society
Fargo
In the Heat of the Night
Lost in Translation
Midnight Cowboy
Some Like It Hot
There Will Be Blood
The Usual Suspects
The Aviator
Saving Private Ryan
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
DISNEY CINEMAGIC PROUDLY ANNOUNCES THE BRITISH TELEVISION PREMIERE OF CARS 2
- PREMIERES ON SUNDAY, 25TH MARCH AT 4:00PM ON DISNEY CINEMAGIC -
Take your seats as one of Disney’s favourite action-packed automotive animations zooms to screens nationwide this March with the UK premiere of Cars 2 on Friday, 25th March at 4:00pm on Disney Cinemagic. Directed by John Lasseter, and featuring acting legend Sir Michael Caine in his Pixar debut as top British spy Finn McMissile, Disney Pixar Cars 2 is the follow up to the 2006 Golden Globe award winning movie Cars.
In this fast paced adventure, star race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater take their friendship to exciting new places when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. Along the way Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world.
The film features an all-star vocal cast including Owen Wilson, Sir Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Jason Isaacs, Eddie Izzard, and Vanessa Redgrave as well as real-life Formula 1 racing champion Lewis Hamilton and NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon who add a touch of authenticity with their cameos in the film.
Disney also offers fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Cars 2 with the release of its Cars Augmented Reality Book. Augmented Reality is an interactive experience where virtual components are dynamically merged into a live video stream in real time. Fans can control Lightening McQueen as he zooms around the track, help Mater transform into undercover gear complete with high-tech gadgets and then watch both Lightning and Mater fly through the sky!
- Cars 2 premieres on Disney Cinemagic UK on Sunday, 15th March, at 4:00pm -
Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension is available on DVD from March 3rd
Phineas and Ferb are ready to conquer boredom once and for all in Disney’s first ever animated TV movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension which is released on DVD from March 3rd.
In this great new film, Phineas and Ferb discover something their fans have known for a long time – that their beloved pet platypus Perry is really a secret agent, who battles the forces of evil every day. The boys team up with Perry for a grand adventure in a parallel universe, where they must overcome an even more evil version of their arch protagonist Dr Doofenshmirtz.
The voice cast includes many top names, such as British actor Thomas Sangster (Nanny McPhee, Love Actually) as Ferb, Vincent Martella (Everybody Hates Chris) as Phineas, Ashley Tisdale ( star of the High School Musical movies) as the boys’ persecuted sister Candace and Dee Baker (American Dad) as Perry the Platypus.
100% growth in online video views for London Fashion Week AW12
46 British Fashion Designers live stream on over 100 sites in 200 countries
As London takes centre stage globally in 2012, an unprecedented worldwide audience tuned in online to watch the best of Britain’s established and emerging designers showcase their AW12 collections at London Fashion Week. This season's on-schedule shows were live streamed by Rightster (www.rightster.com), the British Fashion Council's official video distribution partner. Rightster's cloud-based software centralised, simplified and automated the distribution of all live and on demand video content from the week for the BFC and its partners. Rightster also facilitated delivery of live streams onto designer and publisher Facebook communities for the first time, including the RoksandaIlincic and Vogue facebook pages, as well as managing the BFC’s official YouTube channel.
Caroline Rush, CEO of The British Fashion Council commented:
“We launched the British Fashion Council's digital strategy in 2009 to harness technology and creativity to promote British designers to a global audience. Each season look for new ways to unite fashion and digital innovation. WithLondon playing such a key role on the world stage this year, we are pleased to meet the demand from a worldwide audience for London Fashion Week content, supported by Rightster’s innovative technology and live video expertise. “
More designer shows than ever before (46) were live streamed by Rightster, as designers ramped up their digital activity to engage a broad consumer and trade audience online, Rightster’s system was used to seamlessly distribute the official content to over 100 broadcast, online and mobile publishers worldwide, with sites such as Elle, Grazia and the Telegraph carrying live and on demand video from the event. This resulted in a 100% increase in the number of viewers year on year, indicating the growing demand from an online audience for live fashion events.
London Fashion Week is a global event and Rightster delivered live streams to viewers in over 200 countries worldwide, including places as far afield as India, Iran and Israel. The most popular countries measured by number of views were the UK, US, Canada and Germany.
This season also saw a marked increase in content delivery across multiple platforms and devices, as fashion publishers and designers look to reach consumers wherever they may be. As well as distribution across publisher sites, Facebook and YouTube, Rightster also delivered LFW video onto tablet devices for the first time, via the Times’siPad app.
In addition to distribution, Rightster’s system enabled revenue generation around LFW content, integrating best in class advertising solutions, media agencies and brands to ensure global monetisation of the live and on demand video content. To accommodate often fashionably late catwalk shows, Rightster has developed an innovative feature to enable editorial control over when ads are triggered in a live stream, ensuring that fashion loving audiences never miss a look.
Following the success of London Fashion Week, Rightster in partnership with InDigital Media, the BFC's official production company, will provide a similar digital solution to other major fashion weeks throughout the year. Charlie Muirhead, Rightster CEO commented:
"The BFC and London Fashion Week are leading the global fashion industry in using digital to give designers an effective way to increase their exposure. We are now in discussions with a number of other cities to install a similar system for their fashion weeks"
This season demonstrated that live video is now firmly established as an integral part of the London Fashion Week event, bringing the very best of British design talent to a mass online audience around the world.
Socket to flaky WiFi with Power Ethernet Sockets
Power Ethernet Sockets, from British technology start-up Power Ethernet, are the first product to create a high-speed, reliable computer network that’s built into the electrical sockets. PE Sockets enable users to effortlessly build a rock-solid network capable of coping with the increased demands of superfast broadband, modern multiplayer games and new streaming services without the significant cost of running network cable between rooms and floors.
Based on the HomePlug AV standard for Powerline networking, the PE Socket provides 4 Ethernet network ports and a filtered power socket in a device that replaces a standard double power socket in a wall. It uses a building’s existing electrical wiring and provides a far more reliable and robust solution than traditional plug-in adaptors, which are easily knocked out and damaged. Its design incorporates over 100 additional electronic components in order to improve both the network quality and the durability of the unit.
Installing two or more PE Sockets creates a discrete yet highly capable network, perfect for networking laptops and desktops to Network Attached Storage and home server devices, movie streamers, games consoles and connected TVs. Connecting any of the PE Sockets to a broadband service enables the sharing of Internet connectivity and digital content among all the devices plugged into them.
Power Ethernet managing director, Daniel Rogoff said: “With the UK’s Internet providers now offering superfast broadband speeds, WiFi has actually become a bottleneck in many homes. With everyone in the home expecting to use one connection for what they want – gaming, browsing, streaming or downloading – wireless just doesn’t cut it.”
“Powerline offers such a simple and cost-effective solution to the demands that users are putting on the home network including streaming services, game playing and accessing cloud and multimedia services such as those offered by Apple and Google. By integrating Powerline directly into electrical sockets, we’re able to offer a simple and permanent approach to creating a high-speed network throughout the building that will look the part in both homes and businesses.”
These sockets offer a number of benefits over WiFi and traditional Powerline plug-in adaptors:
1) Simple, professional, permanent
Ethernet cables may offer the best connection, but running new cables throughout walls and redecorating afterwards is a huge task and costs quickly mount up. Power Ethernet Sockets offer a reliable and simple installation as easy as replacing an existing power socket. There is no need of specialist knowledge of computer networks in order to set up a Power Ethernet network.
2) More robust and reliable than WiFi
Although WiFi provides the freedom and convenience to access the network wherever there is coverage, it degrades too quickly over moderate distances with coverage black spots and makes it unreliable to stream movies and services such as iPlayer effectively. With the built-in managed switch, Power Ethernet Sockets are capable of providing the Quality of Service throughout the home to run a mixture of different bandwidth applications, allowing users to stream video content and play online games at the same time.
3) Multiple sockets, multiple uses
Unlike Powerline adapters, each Power Ethernet socket contains a 4-port Ethernet managed switch, enabling multiple devices to connect to a single socket. Need to extend the network? Purchase another Power Ethernet Socket and it will automatically join the network.
4) Advanced filtering
The built-in filtered socket along with the latest in advanced Powerline design carefully filter out unwanted signal noise from the disruptive devices such as mobile phone charges and transformers means that the PE Sockets can communicate at best possible speeds.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
FOCAL INTERNATIONAL AWARDS 2012 ANNOUNCES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER
- Ninth Annual Awards celebrate the best in the world of footage -
FOCAL International, the international Federation of Commercial Audio-visual Libraries, today announced that the FOCAL International Lifetime Achievement Award 2012 will be presented to Rick Prelinger at the award ceremony on 2 May 2012 at the Lancaster London Hotel in London.
An archivist, teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant and filmmaker, Rick Prelinger’s activities in the archive industry are varied and widespread. He has been an innovator and creative force in the industry since 1982 when he founded the Prelinger Archives. He had begun to collect what he calls “ephemeral films” when he was hired as director of research on a documentary called “Heavy Petting”. He tracked down titles from educational, industrial and advertising films and his lifelong enthusiasm began. His collection of 60,000 ephemeral films and 40,000 cans of unedited footage was passed on to the Library of Congress in 2002.
In 1989, Rick published ‘Footage 89: North American Film & Video Sources’, the first directory of moving image sources in North America, and supplemented it two years later with ‘Footage 91’ which was also published on the pioneering CD-ROM format. In 1994, Rick began a partnership with Getty Images to offer high-resolution versions of his films to media companies worldwide, offering a high degree of commercial visibility previously unavailable.
Since the Prelinger Archives was acquired by the US Library of Congress, Rick has continued to donate material to their archives and to collect with an emphasis on home movies and amateur films. He has furnished archival footage to thousands of productions in all media, including motion pictures, television programmes, interactive programming, educational and documentary productions, and corporate/institutional shows. Rick also lectures widely on American cultural and social history and on issues involving access to archives and culture.
“We are delighted to hear that Rick’s achievements are being marked by this award,” said Josh Rucci, Senior Director, Media and Broadcast, Getty Images. “Rick Prelinger and Getty Images' combined history dates back to 1994. Since then, Getty Images has represented industrial, educational and home movie video from the Prelinger Archives in all media, pushing many thousands of archival shots and clips back into the contemporary media stream.”
“Rick’s interest in archive film has never waned,” commented a previous Lifetime Achievement Award winner Christine Whittaker. “He recognised its importance right from the beginning, and for the past thirty years he has been promoting its use. The historical value of the material, its preservation, new developments in the media, business management – Rick’s expertise has made him a real pioneer in our industry.”
Lord Puttnam, Chair of Patrons FOCAL International, said, “Rick is truly a worthy winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has dedicated his life to the discovery and preservation of a vast amount of precious footage that documents myriad aspects of American history, and has enabled thousands of film-makers to explore that history further.”
The FOCAL International Awards in association with AP Archive, now in their ninth year, celebrate the best use of archive footage material in a variety of genres, and also recognise the researchers, technicians and producers that access, maintain and use this precious resource. The final nominations for the best use of footage and best restorations will be announced in March. Tickets for the gala awards ceremony on 2 May are now on sale at www.focalint.og
Launch of A-Men
True gaming is reborn on the PlayStation Vita with the launch of A-Men, a riddle within a retro game that will satisfy your cravings for tactical play. With more than a hint of the old school style of logic, platforms and creatures, we think our new, highly addictive title is an unexpected launch in a market dominated by pump-action big titles. Created by Bloober Team and honourably inspired by retro-cult classics Lemmings and Lost Vikings, the game gives you control of up to five army characters, each with their own personalities, skills and tools, whose mission is to round up their equally endearing enemies across a series of worlds and puzzles. Highly tactical and completely addictive, the game is immediately easy to play and yet, like many classic games, it is hard to truly master. You’ll definitely need a brain for this one, folks.
Sleeping Beauty
“You will go to sleep: you will wake up. It will be as if those hours never existed.
You won’t even dream. For an hour or two after you wake you will feel – yes, slightly groggy
and then – fi ne. Perfectly fine. Not nearly as bad as a hangover. Such a sleep works wonders.
You will feel-profoundly restored.”
Revolver Entertainment and Oscar-nominee Jane Campion (The Piano, Bright Star) present Julia Leigh’s, SLEEPING BEAUTY, a haunting portrait of young university student, Lucy, drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire, available on DVD and Blu-Ray February 27th.
Official Selection of 2011 Cannes Film Festival, contemporary novelist and fi rst time director,
Leigh, blew audiences away with this original and mesmeric tale, witnessing Emily Browning
(Sucker Punch, The Uninvited) in a breathtaking performance described by Campion as “flawless” and “career breaking” by Time Out.
Death-haunted, quietly reckless, Lucy is a young university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission.
This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to
know what happens to her when she is asleep.
“Sensuous, intriguing, complex and unafraid. The film is extraordinary.”
Jane Campion
You won’t even dream. For an hour or two after you wake you will feel – yes, slightly groggy
and then – fi ne. Perfectly fine. Not nearly as bad as a hangover. Such a sleep works wonders.
You will feel-profoundly restored.”
Revolver Entertainment and Oscar-nominee Jane Campion (The Piano, Bright Star) present Julia Leigh’s, SLEEPING BEAUTY, a haunting portrait of young university student, Lucy, drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire, available on DVD and Blu-Ray February 27th.
Official Selection of 2011 Cannes Film Festival, contemporary novelist and fi rst time director,
Leigh, blew audiences away with this original and mesmeric tale, witnessing Emily Browning
(Sucker Punch, The Uninvited) in a breathtaking performance described by Campion as “flawless” and “career breaking” by Time Out.
Death-haunted, quietly reckless, Lucy is a young university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission.
This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to
know what happens to her when she is asleep.
“Sensuous, intriguing, complex and unafraid. The film is extraordinary.”
Jane Campion
The Comedy Classic Debuts on Blu-ray™ March 26
MONTY PYTHON AND
THE HOLY GRAIL
Loaded with Over 30 Minutes of New Blu-ray Exclusive Special Features
Blu-ray Exclusives:
· The Film re-mastered to high definition standards never before seen
· Outtakes & Extended Scenes with introduction by Terry Jones
· Lost Animations with introduction by Terry Gilliam
· Meanwhile, King Arthur & Sir Bedevere...
· Elephant & Castle
· Run Away!
· The Tale of Sir Robin
· The Tale of Sir Lancelot
· Henry 4th
· Cast Directory Photo Gallery
· Holy Grail Blu-ray Credits
Blu-ray Features:
· Scintillating commentaries by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones and even more revealing commentaries by John Cleese, Eric Idle & Michael Palin
· Quest for the Holy Grail Locations with Michael Palin & Terry Jones
· Lego Knights: The Knights of the Round Table in Lego
· Special Japanese Version
· How To Use Your Coconuts (an educational film)
· BBC Film Night on location
· Three Songs to sing-along
Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a running time of 92 minutesand is rated 15.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
| TITLE | MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL |
| Release Date | March 26, 2012 |
| Format | Blu-ray |
| RRP | £19.99 |
| Certificate | 15 |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Running Time | Blu-ray: 92mins |
LAS ACACIAS
Available On DVD and Blu-Ray for the first time from 9 April
"An absolutely beautiful movie...the kind of film where you think at the end,
yes make them like that!" Mark Kermode, Radio 5 Live
★★★★★ ‘Film of the week’ The Independent
★★★★ ‘absolutely beguiling’ The Guardian
★★★★ “What a lovely surprise” The Evening Standard
★★★★ ‘Lovely’ Time Out
Verve Pictures are pleased to announce that LAS ACACIAS will be available on DVD
and Blu-Ray for the first time from 9 April.
Winner of both the prestigious Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, and of the
Camera D’Or at Cannes last year, Pablo Giorgelli’s critically acclaimed road movie
LAS ACACIAS was a festival favourite, and Giorgelli singled out as ‘one to watch’.
With pitch-perfect performances from character actor German de Silva and newcomer
Hebe Duarte, LAS ACACIAS tells the story of a long distance lorry driver (German de
Silva) who agrees to drive a woman (Hebe Duarte) and her 5 month old child en route
from Paraguay to Buenos Aires.
A subtle and tender road movie exploring loneliness and the pain of loss, LAS ACACIAS
grows into a searingly poignant tale about a passing encounter between two strangers and
the unlikely bond that grows between them.
AWARD-WINNING US INDIE COMEDY TINY FURNITURE
RELEASED 30 MARCH 2012
Unnervingly honest! –VANITY FAIR
It’s witty, memorable and hands-to-your-face cringey! –LITTLE WHITE LIES
Lena Dunham seems like the Woody Allen of Generation Y. –SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
It’s bitingly, excruciatingly, disarmingly hilarious, as if Miranda July met The
Inbetweeners at the slightly hazy post 3am-stage of a frat party. –BIRD’S EYE VIEW FILM FESTIVAL
LONDON INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTION is pleased to announce the release of TINY FURNITURE – a wildly witty exploration of post-university confusion by one of America’s most exciting new voices in
independent cinema, Lena Dunham (HBO series Girls, MILDRED PIERCE, THE INNKEEPERS). 25-year
old Dunham wrote, directed and plays the lead in TINY FURNITURE, which launches in UK
cinemas on 30 March 2012.
TINY FURNITURE tells the story of Aura (played by Dunham) who returns home from
university to her mother’s Tribeca loft with: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her
YouTube page, a boyfriend who’s left her to find himself, a dying hamster and her tail
between her legs. Luckily, her train wreck childhood best friend never left home, the
restaurant down the block is hiring and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around
every corner. Aura quickly careens into her old/new life to try to discover who she really
is.
As authentic as it is endearing, TINY FURNITURE was shot in Dunham’s real-life family home in
New York City, starring her mother (photographer Laurie Simmons) and sister (Grace
Dunham) alongside a brilliant ensemble of young independent talent including Alex
Karpovsky (HARMONY AND ME, BASS ACKWARDS), Merritt Wever (GREENBERG, MICHAEL CLAYTON), Amy Seimetz (YOU’RE NEXT, BITTER FEAST), David Call (BREAKING UPWARDS, TWO GATES OF SLEEP) and artist turned-actress Jemima Kirke (HBO series Girls).
TINY FURNITURE celebrated its world premiere at the 2010 South-by-Southwest Film Festival,
where it won the Jury Award for “Best Narrative Feature” and Dunham took home the
festival’s breakout award for emerging narrative woman director. Dunham also won an
Independent Spirit Award for the TINY FURNITURE screenplay and the LA Film Critics
Association’s “New Generation Award”. The theatrical release marks TINY FURNITURE’S long
awaited debut for UK audiences and will be followed by a DVD and VOD release in May
2012.
Unnervingly honest! –VANITY FAIR
It’s witty, memorable and hands-to-your-face cringey! –LITTLE WHITE LIES
Lena Dunham seems like the Woody Allen of Generation Y. –SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
It’s bitingly, excruciatingly, disarmingly hilarious, as if Miranda July met The
Inbetweeners at the slightly hazy post 3am-stage of a frat party. –BIRD’S EYE VIEW FILM FESTIVAL
LONDON INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTION is pleased to announce the release of TINY FURNITURE – a wildly witty exploration of post-university confusion by one of America’s most exciting new voices in
independent cinema, Lena Dunham (HBO series Girls, MILDRED PIERCE, THE INNKEEPERS). 25-year
old Dunham wrote, directed and plays the lead in TINY FURNITURE, which launches in UK
cinemas on 30 March 2012.
TINY FURNITURE tells the story of Aura (played by Dunham) who returns home from
university to her mother’s Tribeca loft with: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her
YouTube page, a boyfriend who’s left her to find himself, a dying hamster and her tail
between her legs. Luckily, her train wreck childhood best friend never left home, the
restaurant down the block is hiring and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around
every corner. Aura quickly careens into her old/new life to try to discover who she really
is.
As authentic as it is endearing, TINY FURNITURE was shot in Dunham’s real-life family home in
New York City, starring her mother (photographer Laurie Simmons) and sister (Grace
Dunham) alongside a brilliant ensemble of young independent talent including Alex
Karpovsky (HARMONY AND ME, BASS ACKWARDS), Merritt Wever (GREENBERG, MICHAEL CLAYTON), Amy Seimetz (YOU’RE NEXT, BITTER FEAST), David Call (BREAKING UPWARDS, TWO GATES OF SLEEP) and artist turned-actress Jemima Kirke (HBO series Girls).
TINY FURNITURE celebrated its world premiere at the 2010 South-by-Southwest Film Festival,
where it won the Jury Award for “Best Narrative Feature” and Dunham took home the
festival’s breakout award for emerging narrative woman director. Dunham also won an
Independent Spirit Award for the TINY FURNITURE screenplay and the LA Film Critics
Association’s “New Generation Award”. The theatrical release marks TINY FURNITURE’S long
awaited debut for UK audiences and will be followed by a DVD and VOD release in May
2012.
Unveiled: the Oscar-winning formula to strike gold
Study by blinkbox and the National Film and Television School reveals the Oscar-winning formula
It’s becoming a familiar formula: add one starlet, aged 32, plus a 43 year-old leading man, mix together in a 140 minute drama and unleash it to the world in October – and voila! There you have the perfect recipe for an Oscar-winning film, according to a study commissioned by blinkbox – the UK's leading online movie service.
The research from blinkbox, undertaken by the National Film and Television School led by renowned British producer Nik Powell and NFTS graduate Duncan Bruce, provides us with a glimpse of what the next Oscar winner might look like ahead of next week’s star-studded Hollywood ceremony.
After examining trends of previous cinematic successes, the study has also found:
· The average age of a Best Actress winner currently stands at 32, while the average age of a Best Actor winner is 43
· The average length of a winning Best Picture is two hours 20 minutes, with a preference for dramatic ‘intimate portraits’, such as The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech.
· Best Actress and Actor nominees are more likely to be victorious on their second or third Oscar attempt. Since 2000, only four stars have managed to win the Best Actor trophy from their first nomination
· The average age of a Best Director recipient in the last 12 years is 53 (up from 44 during the 1990s)
· If a film is awarded Best Picture it will almost always secure the Best Director statue too – in the last 50 years, Best Picture and Director have only differed seven times
The insight will come in handy for entrants to blinkbox’s Win A Million competition where film fans have until midnight on 21st February to strike it rich and win £1 million by correctly predicting all 24 winners at this year’s Oscar ceremony.
The results bode well for Michelle Williams who, at 32 years old, is nominated for Best Actress for her role in My Week With Marilyn. However, with Meryl Streep holding the record for the most Oscar nominations received by an actor, The Iron Lady is not to be underestimated.
The extensive research has also discovered...
Best Picture
In the past, it was rarely guaranteed that a Best Picture winner would automatically win one of the screenplay Oscars – for example, films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Rocky, Titanic, The English Patient, The Deer Hunter andPlatoon all won Best Picture without winning one of the screenplay categories. However, in recent years, there has been a trend towards linking the two awards – in the last 12 years only three Best Picture winners have failed to win a screenplay Oscar (Million Dollar Baby, Chicago and Gladiator).
Best Actress and Best Actor – the perfect pair
The study has identified a trend for the Best Actress accolade to be awarded to younger actresses, and as a result, only four leading ladies since 1990 (Bullock, Mirren, Sarandon and Bates) have been awarded Best Actress while being over the age of 40.
In contrast, the Best Actor award is much more unpredictable. Jeff Bridges won the award for Crazy Heart aged 60, while Adrien Brody became the youngest person ever to scoop the title for The Pianist at just 29.
Best Director – age is just a number
The oldest recipient of the Best Director Oscar is Clint Eastwood for his work on Million Dollar Baby, aged 74, and the youngest in the modern era is Sam Mendes who won at the tender age of 34 for his work on American Beauty.
Time is ticking...
Based on recent results, the average length of a Best Picture winner is two hours 20 minutes, which is lucky for film lovers with short attention spans – during the 80s and 90s, winning blockbusters edged over the three hour mark, with titles such as Amadeus, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, Dances With Wolves, Schindler’s List, Braveheart, The English Patient and Titanic all hitting the top spot.
blinkbox co-founder and CEO, Michael Comish, said: “There are always shocks and surprises on the night of the Oscars, but we hope this insight points movie-lovers in the right direction.” Comish added: “So with Win A Million, you don’t have to be a Hollywood A-lister to be a winner!”
To enter Win A Million, visit www.facebook.com/blinkbox and submit your predictions. For more information on blinkbox, visit www.blinkbox.com.
Connect your wired entertainment devices!
Now it’s even easier for people to make more of their home entertainments devices thanks to Cisco. With the new Linksys entertainment bridge users can connect wired gadgetry like internet enabled HD-tvs, Blu-ray players and games consoles to the Internet .
By plugging the devices into the bridge, that connects to the wireless network, all of the devices can communicate with each other seamlessly making it simple to stream video, or music and play games online through the game console and share any media stored on any of the devices. With the entertainment bridge consumers can unlock the full potential of their smart devices in the home – just by creating a reliable connection to the Internet.
The Linksys entertainment bridge supports wireless speeds up to 300Mbps, and is equipped with multiple antennas and four Ethernet ports to connect devices to. It also is Dual-Band capable to avoid interference from competing networks and devices. In addition, the bridge is ideal for video streaming with Wifi Multimedia (WMM®) and Quality of Service (QoS) traffic prioritization built-in..
Custody deaths highlighted as Coventry University’s Ken Fero has ‘Injustice’ screened at film festival
As the IPCC announces its intention to review the way it deals with police contact deaths, the film that’s been asking questions about deaths in custody for over 10 years is set to be screened at the Bristol Radical Film Festival (27 February – 4 March 2012).
Coventry University Senior Lecturer in Media Production, Ken Fero directed and produced ‘Injustice’ (98mins/2001), a provocatively powerful documentary about the extraordinary, continuing phenomenon of black and Asian people dying mysteriously in police custody, without any prosecution being brought.
The film looks at the period from 1969 to 1999, when more than 1,000 people died in police custody in the UK. Fero concentrates on a number of cases including Brian Douglas, Shiji Lapite,Joy Gardner and Ibrahim Sey; following families and friends as they try to get justice for the deaths of their loved ones.
‘Injustice’ has never been on general release, being pulled from cinemas almost immediately, following legal threats from the Police Federation. Despite this, Fero and Co-director Tariq Mehmood have continued to put on private screenings, and the film has gained international acclaim and a clutch of awards including Best Documentary, BFM London Film Festival 2002; National Social Justice Award 2003; Best Documentary (Human Rights) One World Film Festival 2003; and New Nation Campaign Group of the Year Award 2004.
Coventry University’s Ken Fero said:
“I have always taken a robust attitude when investigating the alleged wrong doings of police officers. Documentary in its radical form can be a force for change, and ‘Injustice’ aimed to give a voice to those whose concerns were being ignored by the very people who were supposed to defend them.
“After the film was pulled from cinemas, following its UK release in 2001, I decided to organise screenings across the country and internationally, as part of film festivals and at private showings in small independent venues. As a filmmaker, having your work seen and appreciated is essential, and the response from audiences and the media across the globe has been very positive and encouraging for those it sought to help.”
The Bristol Radical Film Festival screens some of the most socially and politically engaged documentaries from around the world. Taking place over a week, screenings are hosted in a variety of community-based venues, culminating in a weekend of screenings, talks, workshops and debates at the not-for-profit cinema, The Cube.
Ken Fero added:
“I am currently working on a 25 minute documentary called ‘Who Polices the Police’, a critique about the Independent Police Complaints Commission, made with the assistance of Coventry University media production students. The death of Mark Duggan after being shot by police in Tottenham, and the subsequent rioting that spread across Britain, has put the issue of investigating police actions onto the international agenda. There have been a number of unexplained deaths in recent months, and the IPCC has been tasked to investigate the facts. This film asks how effective the IPCC is in bringing corrupt officers to justice. I am also working on the follow-up to ‘Injustice’.”
‘Injustice’ will be screened as part of the ‘Riots and Racism’ film day, on Thursday 1 March at the Malcolm X Centre in Bristol, with a talk by Ken Fero. For more information, including the fullprogramme for the Bristol Radical Film Festival, visit: www.bristolradicalfilm.org.uk
If you wish to view Injustice it is now available online.
The Cinematic Race to the South Pole At BFI Southbank in March 2012
2012 marks the centenary of the death of famed Antarctic explorer Captain Scott. In commemoration, BFI Southbank presents three specially curated programmes of archive material that presents the cinematic record of the race for the South Pole. Audiences will be offered another opportunity to see the BFI National Archive’s critically acclaimed major restoration of The Great White Silence (1924) that charts Captain Robert Scott’s fateful last expedition that will be packaged with a selection of rarely seen news footage of the expedition from 1912-13.
The programme also focuses on two other of the important figures in Antarctic exploration of the era, Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundesen. Frank Hurley’s extraordinary South (1919) documents Shakleton’s final expedition that will be screened alongside rare footage of the expedition and the huge crowds that gathered for his lying in state in Uruguay, whilst the National Library of Norway’s restoration of the almost unknown expedition footage of the man who first reached the Pole, Roald Amundsen, will be presented alongside a further selection of archive material from the less-well-known expeditions of the Scots, the Australians and the Japanese that will offer an unrivalled insight into many of the trials and triumphs of Antarctic exploration in the early 20th Century.
The ‘heroic era’ of Antarctic exploration – from the 1890s to the death of Shackleton in 1922 – coincided with the development of filmmaking practice and the rise of commercial cinema. Many polar explorers saw potential in using this new technology and their sponsors saw the huge entertainment value of such a record. The story of these films has as much to tell us about the development of the film business as it does about the extraordinary achievements of the first polar explorers and their pioneering cameramen.
On the release of The Great White Silence in 1924 The Times wrote: ‘One of the greatest achievements of the Kinematograph to-date has been to make Captain Scott’s expedition imperishable. The story of Scott’s death will, of course, be told as long as the English language is spoken, but it is wonderful to think also that 100 or 500 years hence future generations will be able to see this pictorial record and gaze upon Scott and his comrades trudging over the ice to glorious death. It is to be hoped that Mr Ponting’s own share in obtaining this record for posterity will not be overlooked’. The restoration of Ponting’s silent film goes a long way to achieving that wish; appropriately, just as his original camera negatives head back to sub-zero temperatures in the BFI’s new vaults.
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