awards weekend | spirit

From the Spirit Awards nominees party last night in Santa Monica. The nominees are...



awards weekend | milkshakes

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At STK in West Hollywood last night, Paramount Vantage celebrates the Oscars... My own favorite film of the year, "There Will Be Blood" was the hot topic of course, with Paul Thomas Anderson enthusiastically greeting guests and well-wishers. Sissy Spacek and John C. Reilly were among the bold-faced names, along with Miramax's Daniel Battsek, Tom Bernard and Michael Barker from Sony Classics, and other fans and friends. My favorite moment of the night... the assortment of milkshakes (with straws), served to party-goers.

iPhone photo by eugene hernandez



awards weekend | gurus

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The final edition of Movie City News' Gurus o' Gold takes a final look at the nominees for this weekend's Academy Awards. The big winners, according to the prognosticators (including myself): "No Country For Old Men", Julie Christie, Daniel Day Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Javier Bardem...

Pictured: The lobby of the AMPAS building on Wilshire earlier this week.
[photo by eugene hernandez]



buzzing about... hollywood's blogger battles
A blog is a pretty powerful weapon in the hands of a reporter with lots of opinions. -- Jacob Bernstein, Women's Wear Daily

The constant battles and bickering between must-read Hollywood industry bloggers David Poland (The Hot Blog), Nikki Finke (Deadline Hollywood Daily) and Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) often deliver engaging insider tales from L.A.

This morning, Wells teased a new profile of Finke from WWD by offering some of her apparent choice quotes and then tonight Poland weighed in with the full text, charging that her reaction to the story spiked it from WWD's website.

During a recent bloggers panel at the L.A. Film Fest, participants recalled a time years ago when the blogging trio of Poland, Finke and Wells had met to discuss working together. These days they declined to appear on the same dais together, but just imagine if they had... worked together.



"rise of the indies"

indieSM.jpgSaying that the Sundance Film Festival changed the way stars, directors, Hollywood and moviegoers thought about movies, CNN cited the "rise of the indies" as the top pop culture moment of the past 25 years on its "hit list" show with Entertainment Weekly (a major fest sponsor). Filmmaker Kevin Smith recognized "Pulp Fiction and the Weinsteins (who have also embraced Smith throughout his career) as "kicking the door open for people like myself."

Posing but never answering the question "has independent film gone Hollywood," the message sent by the program was in fact a clear yes. No shock there, the program pushed the idea that "independent spirit is alive and well," paying lip service to filmmakers who make low-budget movies on video today, but never exploring the new generation of such directors, instead asking Kevin about the importance of "indie" films for actors today. He added that its "great for emerging actors" and for those who "want to recharge their batteries." Smith concluded:

Indie film isnt going anywhere, as long as there is somebody looking at Hollywood going 'ugh, i dont want to watch any of this anymore', there will be somebody out there who wants to make their own movie that speaks to a smaller, but distinct audience.


Alive & Kicking

The other night, I ran into someone who recently left a small distribution company nd was surprised to discover that he thought indieWIRE wasn't around any more. He asked where I was working and when I said indieWIRE, both he and his friend said essentially, "Wow, I thought indieWIRE ended last year."

I clarified that we are still alive & kicking. As further proof, here's a recent bit of praise from our new best friends at Vanity Fair (since the month of March is almost over, I guess I only have a few more days to tout this):

» Continue reading "Alive & Kicking"


IDLE CHATTER: Ax Falling At Miramax?

Word is that Miramax will cut more than one-third of its workforce this week. News reports over the past day, including a Reuters story that quotes "a person familiar with the situation" says that cuts could affect 120 jobs at the company. I asked for a comment earlier today and was told that Miramax does not comment on speculation.

Cuts have been expected within the company for some time, as has a move by Harvey Weinstein to set up his own new company, while Bob Weinstein would remain at Miramax. Online tonight, Matt Drudge wrote that Disney will meet with Miramax this week to discuss that scenario.

UPDATE: No doubt Drudge's "source" for his speculation about Miramax is a fresh, lengthy New York Times story from tomorrow's paper that will certainly have people buzzing:

Representatives for the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary, Miramax Films, are expected to meet this week to discuss an agreement that would allow Miramax's co-founder, Harvey Weinstein, to start a production company, while his brother Bob remains at Disney to make movies, according to people involved in the talks.



IDLE CHATTER: Amenabar Screening Guest List Angers Some

Sogepaq's buyers screening of the new Alejandro Amenabar film, "Mar Adentro" (Out to Sea) has some New York based buyers fuming. The film, expected to screen at the Venice fest before debuting theatrically in Spain in early September, was apparently shown only to a select roster of execs this morning at the MGM screening room; many other buyers were excluded.

"I've been doing this for quite some time and I can't recall ever being asked not to come to a screening," one buyer told me today. Why Sogepaq would limit access to the film is unclear, as one film seller told me, they only stand to lose out if or when they don't get the desired offer from the select group of invitees and then take the film to a wider list of would-be buyers.

The movie, which stars Javier Bardem, was screened for Lions Gate, Fine Line, Warner Independent, Fine Line, IFC, Sony Classics, Miramax and Newmarket, according to a buyer who was not invited. Among those left out, according to the buyer, were UA, THINKFilm, Magnolia, Zeitgeist, Wellspring, Samuel Goldwyn and Roadside.



IDLE CHATTER: The Future of Miramax?

People in an around New York's film community continue to buzz about the future of Miramax: will Harvey leave, are layoffs imminent? The LA Times and Variety weighed in with the latest rumors this weekend. Meahwhile, I've been told by more than one Miramax staffer that execs are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Officially, the company will not comment on the latest rumors but the persistent scenario is that Harvey will leave and his brother Bob will remain on board. Someone told me last week that such a plan was about to be announced, but an insider closer to the situation vowed that it was only one of the many potential outcomes, adding that more details could come this week.

Whatever the case may be, trying to piece together the story from the various threads of buzz and insight remains an intriguing challenge for people inside and outside the company.



Tribeca Film Fest, Take 3

four.jpgA friend told me today that the Tribeca Film Festival has done a good job of creating an event that welcomes people from outside the film industry, she noted that unlike other film fests in the city, this is one that doesn't seem like its aimed at the movie industry elite or a select group of film insiders. By those standards, the Tribeca Film Festival is truly a success.

Rebecca Traister's lengthy article about the festival in today's NY Times calls the TFF "one of the fastest-growing cultural institutions in New York," citing its $15 million budget. "We are committed to overcoming the sense that a film festival is a wholesale experience, where you have to be a member of that trade to get in," festival chief Peter Scarlet told the Times, "This is retail. You can walk in off the street.

Yet if that's the case, then why is it so important to festival organizers that this be a "premiere festival", with new films that have not been seen by film buyers? In the NY Times piece, Traister concludes with a charge that will no doubt ruffle a few feathers over at the Tribeca Film Center:

For all of the festival's glitzy pageantry, civic impact and expansion plans, there is one arena in which it has yet to make an impact: in the industry that spawned it. Unlike the Sundance Film Festival, which has become a major shopping expedition for Hollywood distributors, the TriBeCa festival has not yet been host to the sale of a single film, or launched a formerly unknown independent title into widespread consciousness. For some observers, that remains an elusive form of validation, a coming-of-age ritual that the festival will have to undergo before it truly arrives.

Whether this year's installment will see the fest move closer to becoming a must-attend industry event remains to be seen, but if early buzz is any indication, organizers might find it easier to draw film buyers if they moved TFF away from the week before Cannes.

Pictured above (left to right): Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Jane Rosenthal and NY Governor George Pataki unveiling the Tribeca Film Festival in Dec. 2001. © indieWIRE



A Secret MPAA/Indies Deal?

The fact that the coalition of independent film producers (and the LA & NY IFPs) have reached a confidential out of court settlement to end their legal dispute regarding screeners feels a bit strange. Its not just a question of wanting to know who won but given all of the rallying of the community that happened, the issue just does not really feel resolved when the community is not privy to the details of the settlement. Jeff Levy-Hinte assured me that the coalition remains in a position to strike again should the MPAA or the studios ever try to restrain trade again. He also said that he was one of the plaintiffs that wanted the details of the settlement made public. Apparently, the MPAA was against that. An indieWIRE reader posted a reaction to the confidential agreement, saying "How can the IFP publicly rally the indie film community to its side, and then enter into a secret deal with the MPAA?"