DGA Announces 2019 Feature Film Nominees

By Creative Media Times

Netflix

Directors Guild of America has announced its nominees for 2019 DGA Awards’ Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film. Among those in the running are Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”), Alfonso Cuarón (“Roma”), Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”), Adam McKay (“Vice”) and Peter Farrelly (“Green Book”)

“To be chosen by one’s peers in a year full of such extraordinary films is the true mark of outstanding directorial achievement,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “In bringing all elements of the filmmaking process together, each of these directors has demonstrated an exceptional command of the medium, creating excellence for the screen. Congratulations to all of the nominees.”

The list reinforces the fact that the leading contenders continue to be narrowed down, in fact the list is identical with that of the Golden Globes. That best director trophy sent to Alfonso Cuarón.

Cuarón previously won the DGA for “Gravity” five years ago, while McKay was nominated for “The Big Short” three years ago. Its the first for Lee, Farrelly and Cooper who was also nominated for First-Time Feature Film category for his debut directorial effort on “A Star Is Born.”

Also announced were nominees for categories in TV series, commercials and documentaries.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on Saturday, Feb 2, at the Hollywood & Highland Center’s Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood.

See the list of nominees below:

Best Feature Film Director
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Peter Farrelly, Green Book
Spike Lee, BlackKklansman
Adam McKay, Vice

Best First-Time Feature Film Director
Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Carlos Lopez Estrada, Blindspotting
Matthew Heineman, A Private War
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You

Best Directing For A Dramatic Series
Jason Bateman, Ozark, “Reparations”
Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland, “Paean To The People”
Chris Long, The Americans, “START”
Adam McKay, Succession, “Celebration”
Daina Reid, The Handmaid’s Tale, “Holly”

Best Directing For A Comedy Series
Donald Glover, Atlanta, “FUBU”
Bill Hader, Barry, “Chapter One”
Hiro Murai, Atlanta, “Teddy Perkins”
Daniel Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “We’re Going To The Catskills!”
Amy Sherman-Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “All Alone”

Best Directing For TV Movies And Miniseries
Cary Fukunaga, Maniac
David Leveau and Alex Rudzinski, Jesus Christ Superstar
Barry Levinson, Paterno
Ben Stiller, Escape At Dannemora
Jean-Marc Vallée, Sharp Objects

Best Documentary Directing
Morgan Neville, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Ramell Ross, Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Free Solo
Tim Wardle, Three Identical Strangers
Betsy West and Julie Choen, RBG

Share

Golden Globes 2019 Winners And Surprises

By Creative Media Times

20th Century Fox

The 76th Golden Globe Awards, the year’s first major awards ceremony leading up the to the Oscars has just concluded, and it was “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book” that emerged victorious, winning Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy respectively.

Rhapsody’s win was slightly a surprise: in spite of the fact that the film was a massive boxoffice hit, so far grossing $743 million worldwide, and Rami Malek’s bravura performance earning near universal praise, the film itself was not as beloved by film critics.

It was also a good night for another leading oscar contender, “Roma” which won Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Best Director and Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron.

Netflix is sure to have an increase in subscription after having had a great showing in Sunday night’s awards show: in addition to Roma’s trophies, it also won for Chuck Lorre’s comedy “The Kominsky Method.”

Altogether, there were a total of 14 trophies in film categories and 11 in television that were handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which comprised of voting 93 members.

Here is the full list of winners and nominees.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
“Bohemian Rhapsody”

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
“Green Book”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Glenn Close (“The Wife”)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”)

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”)
Continue reading

Share

“Aquaman” Is Now The Biggest DCEU Film So Far

By Creative Media Times

Warner Bros. Pictures
DC Entertainment

Arthur Curry continue to make waves as it spends its third week at the top of the boxoffice, and crossing a few milestones along the way.

Grossing an estimated $30.7m this weekend for a total of nearly $260 million, the film has now surpassed the domestic total of Justice League’s $229m and is on track to swim past Man Of Steel’s $291m sometime next week.

Domestically, a likely finish above Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330 million) and Suicide Squad ($325 million) is not out of the question.

Globally, the James Wan-directed superhero origin film crossed the $900m mark with Japan yet still to open in early February. In total, the film has now surpassed $940 million after adding $56.2 million from international grosses.

$681M of that came from outside of North America, putting the film above The Dark Knight Rises as the highest grossing DC film overseas ever.

All these numbers perfectly positions the film to cross the $1 billion gross sometime next weekend or a few days after that, making “Aquaman” the first film in the DC cinematic universe to achieve that milestone.

Share

“The Rider” Chosen As Best Picture Of 2018 By The National Society of Film Critics

By Creative Media Times

Sony Pictures Classics

The National Society of Film Critics has chosen Chloe Zhao’s contemporary western drama “The Rider,” as best picture of 2018, the film critic organization announced on Saturday.

“The Rider” has received near universal acclaim since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2017, where it won Art Cinema Award. The film had since had a successful run at Telluride and at Sundance last January, and received nominations at Independent Spirit Awards including best feature, director, editing and cinematography.

Drawing inspiration from its actors’ real life experiences, the docu-fiction tells the story of a young, Native-American cowboy and professional horse trainer Brady Blackburn (played by a real-life rider Brady Jandreau), his physical and emotional struggles after a near-fatal rodeo competition accident left him with steel plate in his head.

Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white “Roma” was the best picture runner-up, and also won for best cinematography, best foreign-language film and best director for Cuaron.

Roma’s win is considered a big boost for its path to the Academy Awards where the film is considered to be one of top contenders to win the big prize.

[ Film Spotlight: Chloé Zhao’s “The Rider” >> ]

On the acting front, Olivia Colman won best actress in “The Favourite,” while Ethan Hawke as best actor for “First Reformed.”

See below for the full list of winners:

Best Picture: The Rider, dir. Chloé Zhao
Runners-up: Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón), Burning (dir. Lee Chang-dong)

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Runners-up: Lee Chang-dong (Burning), Chloé Zhao (The Rider)

Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Runners-up: Regina Hall (Support the Girls), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Runners-up: Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Ben Foster (Leave No Trace), John C. Reilly (The Sisters Brothers and Stan & Ollie)

Continue reading

Share

“The Prodigy” Creepy New Trailer Released

By Creative Media Times

Orion Pictures

“What’s wrong with Miles?”

That’s a question which the upcoming horror thriller will try to answer Orion Pictures releases a new trailer.

In the film, Miles (played by Jackson Robert Scott) is a very intelligent child who’s genius might be the work of more sinister, possibly supernatural, forces.

“Mummy, will you always love me? No matter what I do?,” the boy creepily asks his mom.

Directed by Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact, At the Devil’s Door), the film is written by Jeff Buhler, who also wrote the screenplay for Pet Sematary, Grudge, and Jacob’s Ladder, all horror films set to be released this year.

“The Prodigy” also stars Taylor Schilling as Miles’ mom investigating her song’s troubling behavior. Also in the film are Colm Feore, Brittany Allen, Peter Mooney and Oluniké Adeliyi.

“The Prodigy” is set to be released by Orion Pictures on February 8, 2019.

Share

Producers Guild Announces Nominees

By Creative Media Times

producersguild.org

The Producers Guild awards, which honors the year’s best in motion pictures, television and short-form categories, has announced its nominees Friday morning,

Among the nominees for The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures includes a diverse range of films including “A Quiet Place,” “A Star Is Born,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Green Book,” “The Favourite,” “Roma,” and “Vice”.

There’s a few conspicuous snubs that have been part of the awards circuit conversation during the past few weeks, including “Widows”, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and “First Man”.

The PGA is a strong harbinger of the Academy Award Best Picture. In its 29 years, 20 of its winners went on to win the oscar top prize, including last year’s “The Shape of Water”.

The awards is set to be presented at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 19.

See the full list of nominees below.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Black Panther
Producer: Kevin Feige

BlacKkKlansman
Producers: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee

Bohemian Rhapsody
Producer: Graham King

Crazy Rich Asians
Producers: Nina Jacobson & Brad Simpson, John Penotti

The Favourite
Producers: Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Yorgos Lanthimos

Green Book
Producers: Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga

A Quiet Place
Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller

Roma
Producers: Gabriela Rodríguez, Alfonso Cuarón

A Star Is Born
Producers: Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper, Lynette Howell Taylor

Vice
Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Kevin Messick, Adam McKay

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures:

The Dawn Wall
Producers: Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer, Philipp Manderla

Free Solo
Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes, Shannon Dill

Hal
Producers: Christine Beebe, Jonathan Lynch, Brian Morrow

Into the Okavango
Producer: Neil Gelinas

RBG
Producers: Betsy West, Julie Cohen

Three Identical Strangers
Producers: Becky Read, Grace Hughes-Hallett

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Producers: Morgan Neville, Nicholas Ma, Caryn Capotosto
Continue reading

Share

The Museum Of Modern Art Showcases Preserved And Restored Films

By Creative Media Times

Ők Ketten (The Two of Them). 1977. Hungary. Directed by Márta Mészáros.

The Museum of Modern Art’s “To Save and Project” the 16th edition of it’s annual international film festival with a diverse set of cinematic treasures.

The film festival, which runs from Friday January 4 until the end of the month, “celebrates newly preserved and restored films from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers”

Barbet Schroeder is set to kick things off with a retrospective of all his documentary films which he described as the “trilogy of evil”. This includes “General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait” (1974), “Terror’s Advocate” (2007), and the weeklong New York theatrical run of “The Venerable W.”

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for 1990’s “Reversal of Fortune”, a film which won Jeremy Irons an Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role, Schroeder is known for directing boxoffice hit thrillers “Single White Female” and the Sandra Bullock starrer “Murder by Numbers.”

There’s plenty of surprise highlights in this year’s lineup, which features 50 features and shorts from around the globe, some receiving their first US screening since their original release. To get a full list of events, go to moma.org.

The 16th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation is organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Share

“Happy Death Day 2U” Trailer Loops Back Around Again

By Creative Media Times

Blumhouse Productions

Blumhouse and Universal has dropped a brand new trailer for “Happy Death Day 2U,” the sequel to the surprise 2017 slasher film “Happy Death Day.”

The anonymous killer in a hoodie and babyface mask is back, once again tormenting college student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) who ends up reliving the circumstances around her death over and over.

The trailer picks up where the original ended, which means it basically spoils part of the ending of the first film where Tree supposedly defeated the killer.

“Happy Death Day” was a commercial hit back in 2017, earning $122.6 million on a $4.8 million budget, and also earned praise from critics for its clever spin on comedy slasher genre.

Christopher Landon is writing and directing once again and Jason Blum producing. Returning cast include Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken and Laura Clifton.

“Happy Death Day 2U” is set to open on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2019.

Share

Top 10 Films Of 2018 Worldwide

By Creative Media Times

Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures

With the massive success of “Avengers: Infinity Wars” and “Black Panther,” its really not a surprise that Disney has emerged as the top studio at the global boxoffice.

According to Variety, Disney raked in $7.33 billion at the global boxoffice in 2018, nearly matching the $7.61 billion record it achieved in 2016.

“Thanks to the support of fans of Disney, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm around the world, it’s been a monumental year for The Walt Disney Studios. I want to especially acknowledge Marvel Studios’ pivotal year during which Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War sparked conversation and broke records and expectations to cap an unprecedented first decade for this exceptional studio,” studio chairman Alan Horn said in a statement.

Coming in second is Universal with $1.96 billion, driven mostly by its dinosaur adventure “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” This narrowly beats the $1.93 billion earned by Warner Bros as the studio’s own film “Aquaman” is ringing in the New Year as the top film worldwide.

Overall, global boxoffice achieved another record-breaking performance with $41 billion. Here are the top 10 films at the global boxoffice in 2018.

  1 Avengers: Infinity Wars $2,048 Buena Vista
  2 Black Panther $1,346 Buena Vista
  3 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom $1,304 Universal
  4 Incredibles 2 $1,242 Buena Vista
  5 Venom $855 Sony
  6 Aquaman $822 WB
  7 Mission: Impossible – Fallout $791 Paramount
  8 Deadpool 2 $735 Fox
  9 Bohemian Rhapsody $703 Fox
  10 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald $629 WB
Share

Netflix Releases “The Punisher” Season 2 Teaser And Info

By Creative Media Times

Marvel Television

Frank Castle is back to work, as Marvel Entertainment has now released the official trailer for “The Punisher” season 2.

Fans should recall that season 1 was mostly about Frank Castle’s background and the origin of his identity which led him to killing criminals. Season 2 will see Castle fully embody that character as a vigilante hero.

The teaser below does not specify the release date, although The Punisher is part of the January “New to Netflix US” slate recently released by Netflix.

The Punisher season 2 is brings back Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, who after receiving a pardon for his crimes in season 1 is back in action. Though the trailer didn’t reveal a lot, he is most likely doing a rematch with villain Billy Russo, known as Jigsaw in the comics.

Also in the series are Ben Barnes as Billy Russo, Jason R. Moore as Curtis Hoyle, Amber Rose Revah as Dinah Madani, Josh Stewart as John Pilgrim. Floriana Lima as Krista Dumont, Annette O’Toole as Eliza Schultz, Giogia Whigham as Amy Bendix, and Corbin Bernsen as Anderson Schultz.

Although Netflix has cancelled some of Marvel’s series, including Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil, the action packed series of The Punisher has been generally received positively by critics. Along with Jessica Jones, they are the last of the remaining Marvel series in the streaming platform.

It should be noted of course that Disney, which owns Marvel Entertainment, is set to launch its own streaming service.

Share
Page 98 of 175
1 97 98 99 175