Brush Up On The Spectacular 2013 Oscar Award Short Film Nominees
While we eagerly await the 85th Academy Oscar Awards Show, here’s an oft-overlooked category you can quickly catch up on: the Oscar-nominated Short Films of 2013 have just been announced. And let us tell you, this category may be short in time length, but there’s certainly no shortage of excellent entertainment in the lot.
Shorts are fast becoming one of the most exciting genres of film–and long gone are the days when catching shorts proper meant traveling to a major hub like NYC or LA...
How do you Make a Zombie a Sex Symbol? We Speak With Warm Bodies Writer/Director Jonathan Levine to Find out
It’s no easy to task to make a zombie palatable (let alone credible) as a love interest in a film. Yet, that’s exactly what writer/director Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Wackness) has done with Warm Bodies, which he adapted from the Isaac Marion novel of the same name. The film centers around the budding paranormal romance between a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) and a kick-ass young woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer),...
Mommy Issues: Making Monsters with Mama Visual Effects Supervisor Aaron Weintraub
A father kills his wife and brings his two young daughters to a secluded cabin where his would-be murder/suicide attempt is foiled by one very maternal ghost. Years later, the girls are discovered, their feral upbringing posing the second biggest obstacle to a normal life behind a spirit that, to put it mildly, has become a bit possessive.
Mama may not be the feel-good hit of the new movie year, but it may be its most pleasant surprise,...
We Welcome Back the NHL With an Infographic Showcasing Eleven Fantastic Films on Ice
We've missed you, National Hockey League. And we're happy you're back. So happy, in fact, we put together this infographic celebrating a sport that has translated into some of the most inspired, strange, and downright funny sports films ever made.
Click to enlarge image.
Innovation in the Studio: A Conversation With Warner Bros. Tech Ops President Darcy Antonellis
To the uninitiated, Warner Bros.' innovation-focused Technical Operations department–or 'Tech-Ops,' as it's affectionately dubbed–sounds like a futuristic invention from an upcoming J.J. Abrams flick. But Warner Bros.' flourishing technology department is hardly a work of fiction. The department is devoted to the future of film; whether it's all things digital, content in the cloud, piracy protection, or game-changing industry advancements like 3D, 4K, and 48 frames-per-second. Warner Bros.' Tech-Ops Department is the crux of the studio's forward-looking endeavors,...
A Meditation on Film Festivals: Unraveling Cinema’s Time-Tested Tradition
Sundance is, sadly, drawing to a close. For the last two weeks, the world of film has gone appropriately haywire with around-the-clock coverage of one of the most well recognized film festivals on earth.
One needn’t look farther than a film-trade addled Twitter feed to find first hand dispatches from ultra-exclusive parties, critics weighing in on their favorite new films, and gossip mills aflutter with what ‘it’ stars are wearing whilst gallivanting around Park City, Utah...
A Q&A With Tugg Co-Founder and Terrence Malick Producer & Collaborator, Nicolas Gonda
Nicolas Gonda has had the kind of career that can inspire jealousy if it weren’t for the fact that gumption, hard work, and commitment were the elements he brought to bear to make it all happen.
As a student at NYU, he interned at Focus Features, where he became involved in Academy Award winning films such as The Pianist and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not a bad introduction to the film industry...
A Q&A With one of Iceland’s Premiere Filmmakers, Baltasar Kormákur, Director of The Deep
For anyone living in Iceland in the early 1980s, the 1984 shipwreck of the fishing boat Breki that claimed the lives of five men is the stuff of legend—thanks mostly to it’s lone survivor, a man named Gulli, who spent four hours in forty-degree water until he washed ashore near a jagged cliff of volcanic rock, which he proceeded to scale, and then he hiked for two more hours in 27-degree weather until he found safety.
He went onto become a reluctant national hero and scientific curiosity called “Seal Man”...
In Honor of Obama’s Inauguration, A Look At U.S. Presidents’ Favorite Films
This year, the presidential inauguration will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for the second time in history. The first time was former President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration on January 20th, 1997, and this time it is President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on January 21st, 2013.
The symbolism is both significant and apparent. In 2007, then-Senator Obama quoted a line from King’s 1967 sermon, stating: “I’m running because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now.”...
A Q&A With Girl Rising Director Richard E. Robbins About the Nine Incredible Young Women in his Groundbreaking Documentary
Academy Award nominated director Richard E. Robbins will be screening a portion of his latest project, the crucial documentary Girl Rising, at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 21st. The film focuses on the story of nine girls from nine different countries born into unforgiving circumstances, with each girl’s story framed and written by a renowned author from her native country.
The film includes the story of Ruksana, who lives on the streets of Kolkata,...
A Conversation With Broken City Director Allen Hughes
Allen Hughes has been making films with his twin brother, Albert, since they were 12-year- olds running around their house in Pomona, east of Los Angeles, with a video camera their mom had given them. The Hughes Brothers (as they are often credited) co-wrote and co-directed their first major feature, Menace II Society, when they were 20 years old.
Since then, the twins have made a number of gritty, wholly original films—many of them period pieces...
Amour’s Michael Haneke and International Directors Spotlighted at 10th Annual Golden Globes Foreign Film Symposium
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The much-anticipated 2013 awards season has finally arrived. As the world celebrates one of the most exciting years for film in recent memory, it’s clear 2012 gifted us some truly wondrous works of cinema. Among the standouts: Ben Affleck’s heralded Argo, the dreamy indie smash hit Beasts of the Southern Wild, the heart-warming Silver Linings Playbook, Spielberg’s historical biopic Lincoln with a predictably astounding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis,...
Golden Globes Co-Hosts Tina Fey & Amy Poehler’s Best Live TV Moments
Even though the show hasn’t happened yet (and all due respect to the "most feared man in Hollywood," Ricky Gervais), we’re gonna go out on a limb and say that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the best Golden Globes hosts in the show’s 70-year history (airing Sunday, 8ET/5PT on NBC). Not only did the dynamic duo display the hilarity, inventiveness, and chemistry of longtime friends who also happen to be comedic geniuses, they also created a drinking game in anticipation of the big show...
A Q&A With Greig Fraser, Cinematographer on Zero Dark Thirty
With Kathryn Bigelow’s extraordinary action thriller Zero Dark Thirty opening wide tomorrow across the country, viewers will have a chance to see this picture’s tale of the CIA’s decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden. One of the most talked about scenes of the year (arguably, of the new decade) is the spectacular, harrowing final raid on Bin Laden’s compound, all shot using night vision technology. Bigelow spoke about her “tremendous” cinematographer’s handling of that crucial set piece in a recent New York Times interview...
Sony’s Movie Touch iPad App Revolutionizes the Viewing Experience With Integrated Trivia and Digital Extras
In November, two of Sony Pictures' tent-pole home video releases were Men In Black III (2012) and Total Recall (2012). For tablet users, the home release of these blockbusters were enhanced with an innovative new iPad app called Movie Touch. It’s available as a free download from The App Store and once installed, iPad owners get a score of options to optimize their personal viewing experience. The app offers a free 10 minute preview of MIB III or Total Recall;...
The Human Insurance Policies: Sit in for a Master Class With Veteran Stunt Professional Hugh O’Brien
Imagine getting punched, stabbed, crushed, drowned, set on fire, thrown out of buildings, run over, blown up, and electrocuted—and imagine getting paid for it. Meet Hugh O’Brien, a man who makes his living dying (while making sure no one on set actually does). “We’re human insurance policies,” O'Brien says. O'Brien is our second professional stuntman in our two-part series on the subject of men and women who make their living putting their bodies on the line for the films we love...
Greening Up The Film Industry: Dutch Filmmakers Clean Up On Set
Environmentally, the Netherlands has a lot going for it. The country excels at climate change mitigation and an extensive recycling system keeps all but 10 percent of Holland’s waste out of landfills. Yet until recently, the Dutch movie industry seemed oblivious to the green movement. Now, a group of innovative Dutch filmmakers have set out to shift their country’s productions to a deeper shade of green.
“There’s been a whole wave of environmental entrepreneurs in Holland over the last four or five years who really developed their business model by thinking in sustainable,...
Nine Films, Two Documentaries and Two Websites to Enliven Your Weekend
The first weekend in January is often a good time to recuperate after the Thanksgiving-to-New Year's Eve carnival of consumption. So, while you’re starting your new workout regimen (yup, pushups and sit-ups are still as agonizing as last January), finally cracking open Moby Dick (Call you Ishmael? Call me intimidated), and deciding if you can really eat a heaping helping of quinoa every day (you probably can’t), we’ve got you covered for when you want a break from your resolutions...
This Is Your Brain On Movies: Neuroscientists Weigh In On The Brain Science of Cinema
In movies, we explore landscapes far removed from our day-to-day lives. Whether experiencing the fantastical adventures of Star Wars or the dramatic throes of The English Patient, movies demand that our brains engage in a complex firing of neurons and cognitive processes. We enter into manipulated worlds where musical scores enhance feeling; where cinematography clues us into details we’d normally gloss over; where, like omniscient beings, we voyeuristically peek into others’ lives and minds; and where we can travel from Marrakech to Mars without ever having left our seat...
A New Year’s Movie Resolution From The Credits: 50 Films to Watch in 2013
New Year's resolutions, we all make them only to find—come next December—we haven’t followed through on a single one of them. We here at The Credits propose you make 2013 the year you finally get around to watching all those movies you’ve been passing up at the rental store, and now online for decades. With thousands of titles (both classics and current critical darlings) available on Netflix and OnDemand, this is one personal goal you can accomplish much easier and cheaper than,...
