Sundance Online Shorts – Best of the Current Crop

As posted a couple of days ago, selected Sundance 2011 shorts are available to view for free via The Screening Room Youtube Channel.  Part of me wishes that Sundance and YouTube would repeat last year’s experiment in which a small selection of full length movies were made available to rent online for a very reasonable $3.99.  Alas, as reported by the NYTimes, the experiment was a financial failure yielding only $10,709.16 in revenue for YouTube.  Not exactly earth shattering numbers by any measure.  Perhaps making the movies available on devices such as Apple TV or Roku players would have been more successful.  After all, who wants to watch a full length movie hunched over a computer desk on a cramped laptop screen whilst a 50-inch flatscreen lies dormant in the living room?  I digress… back to this year’s shorts.

“Skateistan:To Live and Skate Kabul” is my personal pick of those currently offered, and while it’s nine minute length does not permit a deeper exploration of some of the underlying issues concerning the lives of those featured, the material is nonetheless engaging.  It takes talent to produce a documentary short as effective as this. There is a compelling narrative here as well as some effective camera work and judicious editing. Director Orlando von Einsiedel receives my applause for his efforts.

What do YOU think think?



Oscar Nominations Tomorrow Morning – Am I the Only Excited One?

The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow morning – is anyone as excited as I am?  I am not sure why I am so excited, I mean it’s not like I am waiting to find out if I get nominated or anything but I am really excited.  I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I had a dog in the race?  If I was in any jeopardy of getting a statuette, a gold-plated britannium on a black metal base which is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes, would I be even more excited than I am now; a mere watcher of films?

oscar statue

If I was Colin Firth (c’mon I am British!) what would I be thinking tonight?  Would I be nursing my cup of cocoa reassuring myself that it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow because “I know I did a great job?” or “I don’t need another statue to prove I’m a great actor – I just loved playing a stuttering monarch that no one ever talks about”

What if I was Annette Bening – Surely the fact that I played “same sex marriage” and made it look damn convincing vs. that little whippersnapper who just had to learn to dance is worth a nod?  C’mon guys you’ve looked me over so many times, everyone knows I am a GREAT actress!

And if I’m David Fincher, I mean I have a great body of work behind me already and I made a film about a networking website look like an exciting week in Ibiza – that takes a lot of talent

I am Christian Bale now – marveling at my ability to pull off the great Dicky Eklund.  I had to train just as hard as Natalie Portman and I’ve been around longer, wait, statues make great things to throw at people, no?  By the way, I wonder if Amy Adams or Melissa Leo will be nominated – wouldn’t it be great of we all got one.

Finally, what if I’m Toy Story 3 – I mean I totally deserve best film – just because I am rendered in code and not celluloid, should that be held against me?

Anyway, six hours to go, so I will just have to wait like the rest of them.  My own hopes for nominations in one form or another are – “The Social Network”, “Kings Speech”, “Toy Story 3”, “Blue Valentine”, “127 Hours”, “The Kids are All Right”, “True Grit” and of course, “The Fighter”.  Good luck all my faves of 2010!

Which Dictator’s book inspires Sacha Baron Cohen’s Next Comedy?

Anyone missing Borat yet?  What about Bruno or even Ali G? Well Good news for all you Sacha Baron Cohen fans out there because Paramount Pictures announced today that his new comedy “THE DICTATOR” will be released worldwide on May 11,2012 with Larry Charles director of both “Borat” and “Bruno” directing again

The film tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. It is inspired by the best selling novel “Zabibah and The King” by Saddam Hussein.

Sacha Baron Cohen

Baron Cohen is in impressive company with the production of this film with Scott Rudin, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel joining the project which marks the first collaboration for Rudin (“The Social Network,” “True Grit”) and Baron Cohen, while Berg, Schaffer and Mandel(Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) join him as screenwriters on the movie.

Under Baron Cohen’s Four By Two  Films, the movie marks the third time that Baron Cohen and Charles, who previously worked together on “Borat” as well as “Bruno”. Dan Mazer (“Borat” “Bruno”), Ant Hines (“Borat” “Bruno”) and Peter Baynham (“Borat”) will serve Together as executive producers, reuniting this Academy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe winning “Borat” team. Todd Schulman (“Borat” “Bruno”) is co-producing.

Were The Golden Globes Worth Watching?

So what did you think of last night’s “Globes” telecast? I was mildly entertained at best and much as I was excited to see if moviewallas had got it right throughout the year with respect to what we thought were good performances and films, I feel like most of the day and the day following was/is being taken up not by the show victors themselves but rather by the before and aftermath.

picture of globes

It seems like the effort of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to recognize excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign has turned into the rather marginal part of the day vs. a plethora of shows that have sprung up around it, “Live from the red carpet” “Live form the red carpet pre-show” “After show party” and today the day following is even worse; “Fashion Police” “E! News” “ Access Hollywood”, “The Today Show” amongst others. Don’t get me wrong, I am as celebrity obsessed as the next guy but really, do we need this much coverage? Good job it’s MLK day today and I get to sit on the couch all day with the remote controlled taped to my hand but how many more times can I watch Ricky Gervais give another cringe worthy introduction or Angelina Jolie reapply her lip gloss whilst draping herself over Mr. Pitt? Of course I could get up and switch the TV off but I find myself paralyzed and mesmerized by images of women in beautiful gowns and handsome actors in well-pressed tuxedos and I feel like the world will end if I can’t figure out where to buy the knock off version of the Marchesa gown worn by Amy Adams already available online – I mean have knock off factories on the other side of the world been working all through the night?

Well, on to the actual show now (given I have just learned that the proximity of your breasts in your cleavage can make you look older or younger – thanks “Access Hollywood”). For the most part, the show was adequate apart from Ricky Gervais (and I usually LOVE Ricky and sarcasm); why do we even need a host HFPA – although I have a strong feeling that there will be no host next year especially not Mr. Gervais. I was so pleased to see that some moviewalla faves were honored (unanimous loves for the gang were “The Kids are All Right”, “The Social Network” “The King’s Speech”, “Toy Story 3”, Natalie Portman in “The Black Swan” and my own fave “The Fighter” (sorry Joe no love for “Inception”) and no love for “True Grit”, “127 Hours” or even “Fair Game” which didn’t even get a fair nomination! Loved that the Cecile B Deville award went to Bobby DeNiro and loved Matt Damon’s intro speech (maybe he could host next year?) however, I was surprised that there weren’t more musical acts in between the awards.  For a full list of winners and nominees, go to www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

So award season is truly underway and if you’re like me and can’t wait for the next set of who’s going to wear what, the complete timetable is below.

Award

Date

The 36th annual People’s Choice Awards

January 5, 2011

The 68th annual Golden Globe

January 16, 2011

The 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

January 30, 2011

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards

February 13, 2011

The 83rd annual Academy Awards (Oscars)

Feb. 27, 2011

The 62nd annual Emmy Awards

August 29, 2010

Finally, you may be asking about the correlation between the Globes and the Oscars; not much actually given none of the 88 voting members of the HFPA overlap with the nearly 6,000 Academy members who vote for the Oscars. In addition, the deadline for the first round of Academy Award voting was Jan. 14, so whatever transpires at the Globes can’t really sway how the Academy votes for it’s nominees, who are due to be announced on Jan. 25 – well that’s the theory anyway. However, when it comes to the winners, that’s another story since many nominees often get nods for both awards and given the Globes have such high visibility, it’s hard for Oscar voters not to be influenced by the Globes’ outcome when choosing their prizewinners weeks later.

Listen shortly for a moviewallas Oscars prediction show

Welcome to the New Moviewallas.com!

We are very pleased to introduce the new Moviewallas.com.  The old site is still available here and, for now, is still the home of the original Podcast RSS feed, although we strongly recommend that you use the feedburner link or go through iTunes to ensure uninterrupted service.

So why the change?  Well, firstly the old site was produced using Apple’s iWeb which is a great way to start a Podcast, but it permits very little in the way of user interaction.  In today’s world of Web 2.0 and social media we were getting feedback that users wanted to get more interactive with us, so switching to the new format allows for comments and discussion as well as being able to ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’ stuff on the site.  Secondly, we wanted to be able to expand our content offerings beyond the weekly Podcast to include movie news, gossip and even the occasional opinion piece.  Watch this space and let us know what you want to see on the site!

Other changes that you may note, include the new pop-up audio player so that you can listen to the show while surfing other sites and a sortable list of past review scores so that you can find out if a movie you love has been reviewed on Moviewallas as well as how your favorite Moviewalla scored it.

Keep posted for more updates!

Techwalla.