Thompson on Hollywood

Why Golden Globes--and DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Butler--Give Away $1.5 Million to Charities, Film Schools

The purpose of the annual Golden Globes lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel is for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to use their clout with would-be Globes nominees to mount a starry red carpet event, and invite press and other friends of the organization, so that they will broadcast the HFPA's generosity and charity.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 5, 2011 1:32 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Weekly Wrap: SFIFF, Cannes, Must See Summer Box Office, Casting Updates, Celebs Sell, Brad Pitt

BOX OFFICE & UPCOMING

By Sophia Savage and Anne Thompson
|
April 29, 2011 8:15 AM
|
0 Comments

Hollywood Foreign Press Association Picks Date for Golden Globes 69: January 15, 2012

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has chosen the date for the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards, to be held Sunday, January 15, 2012. Full schedule and timetable are below:

By Sophia Savage and Anne Thompson
|
April 28, 2011 7:49 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Things I Learned On the Awards Party Circuit

On Oscar night I started on the red carpet --taking pictures, grabbing video interviews and tweeting madly--and then repaired to the interview room to listen to the show and backstage Q and As (transcripts here). After the best picture winners for The King's Speech had wrapped up, I walked over to the Governor's Ball just as Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban were leaving, heading down the escalator; the trio of winning producers, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, posed for me with their Oscars.

By Anne Thompson
|
March 1, 2011 2:10 AM
|
3 Comments

Oscar Video: Susanne Bier Talks In a Better World

After her foray into Hollywood filmmaking with DreamWorks' Things We Lost in the Fire, which boasted impeccable performances from Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro but was too dark to yield much box office, Denmark's star director Susanne Bier returned home to build yet another organic, thoughtful movie with her long-time collaborator, Anders Thomas Jensen. Bier, who had the first of her two children a year after she graduated from film school, feels supported in Denmark. She and Jensen go off to a retreat where she paces and acts out scenes, and he writes them up. "We are both obsessed with moral issues," she says. "We usually have one or two characters we are passionate about. How would we react in each case? Are we morally sound?"

By Anne Thompson
|
February 19, 2011 2:09 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Awards Update: King's Speech's Hooper Wins DGA , Sundance Prizes, Santa Barbara Fest Tributes

There's a lot going on this weekend on the awards front.

By Anne Thompson
|
January 30, 2011 7:34 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weekly Wrap: Sundance Kicks-Off, Awards Impact, More Remakes In The Works

SUNDANCE

By Sophia Savage
|
January 21, 2011 7:17 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Oscar Watch Exclusive: Tom Hooper Talks Directing Style in The King's Speech

In a wide-ranging discussion about his directing approach on The King's Speech, Tom Hooper talks (in the video below) about framing star Colin Firth in wide-lens close-ups so that there was "nothing between him and the character." He mentions one of the visual themes in the film was finding "a visual analogue to stammering which became about framing Colin in relationship to negative space."

By Anne Thompson
|
January 20, 2011 4:17 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Golden Globe-Winning Actors: What's Next for Portman, Firth, Leo, Bale, Bening, Giamatti

Heat rises when an actor enters the awards fray. Look at how Helen Mirren (The Queen), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River), particularly, parlayed Oscar attention into serious careers. Take a look at the slates (including soon-to-be-released, rumored, in-production and in-development projects) lined up for this year's Golden Globe-winning actors Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale, Annette Bening and Paul Giamatti. We start off with Portman, who has so much lined up that she risks overexposure:

By Sophia Savage
|
January 19, 2011 6:35 AM
|
0 Comments

Golden Globe Wins Impact Box Office and DVDs

While the Golden Globes don't have an impact on Academy Award nominations--ballots were due last Friday--they can give winners a serious box office boost, reports Anthony D'Alessandro. See the chart of this year's Golden Globes box office bumps below. In contrast to last year, which saw a number of contenders on DVD by Golden Globes night, distributors took the old-fashioned route this year and unspooled their kudo crop during the late fall/early winter frame known in the trade as Oscar Alley. They also returned to the tried-and-true platform release. That's due to the Academy’s expansion of the best picture category, which makes it easier for off-season fare to get recognized. Distributors don’t have to stress out about opening a high-brow title in the fall; they can comfortably choose the best release date which will maximize B.O. and still gain exposure on DVD at awards time.