“I had nothing to do with this, I am only reading the nominations,” New York Times film critic A.O. Scott advised today, before reading the Gotham Award nominations live for about 200 people who logged online to hear the news live. “Chances are I probably hate most of the movies that are nominated,” he quipped curiously, stirring surprised laughter from my colleagues and I who were watching here at the indieWIRE office. That quote hit Twitter almost immediately.
“But, seriously,” he continued, before announcing the nominees.
The most surprising omission: “Precious.”
It’s been nine months since our massive overhaul of the indieWIRE website. iW is on a whole new publishing platform that allows us tremendous flexibility and numerous opportunities.
Over the summer we started to explore how we might enhance the new site and developed a few ideas based on feedback we’ve been hearing from our readers and the community. We concluded the process last week and today unveiled the enhanced look.
The new streamlined home page offers a few key changes:
ABOVE THE FOLD: A cleaner module for navigating new stories. It will change frequently to offer highlights of the latest from indieWIRE.
TOH: A new front page “home” for Anne Thompson’s Thompson On Hollywood blog, with links to the latest coverage.
QUICKLINKS: A more prominent section for a one click link to popular, active sections of indieWIRE.
AWARDS: As we enter into the busy awards season, we’ve launched a whole new section for our coverage that will continue through Oscar night in March ‘10. The new area also includes a feed for awards blogs and a separate poll for awards season.
SPOTLIGHT: A quick link to a popular recent article from indieWIRE or from anywhere on the Internet.
RELEASE CALENDAR: indieWIRE’s growing weekly calendar features new films on DVD and in theaters. We invite readers to visit film pages for more info and to grade individual movies.
BLOGS: Linked from the front page, below a section for our more popular blogs, our active feed featuring the latest links to hosted and favorite blogs and websites is featured on the indieWIRE Blogs page, with a headline and highlight from the various sites.
Thanks for checking it out and, as always, we appreciate your input and feedback!
I’m currently reading Toby Talbot’s “The New Yorker Theater and Other Scenes from a Life at the Movies,” which is giving me a great window into the Manhattan Repertory scene back in the 60s…
Am so excited for “The Red Shoes” and “M. Hulot’s Holiday,” among others. More at indieWIRE.
Two studios were shaken up yesterday in Hollywood. Disney promoted Rich Ross (head of its Disney Channels Worldwide) to the chairman slot, while Universal brought in marketing head Adam Fogelson and production head Donna Langley to share the chair.
Universal president and COO offered a rather surprising quote to my colleague Anne Thompson, “Shit happens,” Ron Meyer said. “We needed to get back on the horse riding in the same direction.”
How will this affect their specialty divisions: Miramax at Disney and Focus at Universal? Before announcing the new studio head, Disney laid its cards on the table on Friday, cutting off Miramax at the knees and barely keeping it alive with just three films per year and a much smaller staff of about 20. On the other hand, Universal is supporting Focus.
Outgoing co-chair David Linde was James Schamus and Ted Hope’s business partner back at Good Machine before the company was acquired by Universal in 2002 and he later oversaw the specialty division when he became studio chief. Some worried that the departure of Linde might be bad news for Focus. But, Langley spoke up in support of the unit yesterday.
“In comparison with the other specialty divisions,” Langley told Anne Thompson, “They are profitable, and have been for eight years. James Schamus runs an excellent business, one I’m happy to be working with.”
As I tried to explore in yesterday’s column, the specialty studio model exploded in the 90s and then died in this decade. Universal’s Focus, which funds and produces specialized films, is singular among studios in its vision for creating interesting cinema. Meanwhile, Sony’s SPC makes some movies but importantly remains the last studio division buying acclaimed foreign films from film festivals. The majority of other such releases are coming primarily from IFC Films, Magnolia and others.
The landscape has certainly changed. How will it evolve in the next few years?
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