Best Picture: UN CONTE DE NOEL

Best Director: Fatih Akin, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN

Best Actor: Jean-Claude Van Damme, JCVD:

Best Actress: Asia Argento, UNE VIELLE MAÎTRESSE

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Madsen, BOARDING GATE

Best Supporting Actress: Emily Mortimer, REDBELT

Best Acting Ensemble: HONEYDRIPPER

Best Picture By A Filmmaker Working In A Non-Native Language: FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON

Best Very Short Film: THE ANTHEM, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Best French Thriller: ROMAN DE GARE

…okay, we had the Oscars a little early in DavidRobsonLand. But we’re not living in DavidRobsonLand (which is probably just as well for everybody) so the Oscars, of course, are happening this Sunday night.

Jaman is a great place for Oscar discussion. In fact, we’ve got some conversations going over in our Forums. Pop in and tell us who you think is going to win! Or, if you’re feeling fanciful, how about letting us know who SHOULD have been nominated?

No matter how one feels about the Oscars, they’re always a fun occasion for wagering. Be sure to enter your picks in Jaman’s Oscar poll: whoever guesses the most awards correctly has a chance at winning a whole year of movies here on Jaman!

Jaman’s best wishes go to all entering the poll, and we wish good luck to all this year’s Oscar nominees!

Viewers of the remake are invited to see the start of Jason’s bloody onslaught right here on Jaman! Jason begins his reign of terror over Camp Crystal Lake in Friday the 13th, Part 2:

Friday the 13th Part 2

Those familiar with the series may be startled to see Jason wearing a burlap sack over his head for part 2 (though baghead Jason does have his devotees). Jason acquired his famous hockey mask (and slew a variety of Crystal Lake newcomers, including a trio of gloriously 1980s bikers) in Friday the 13th, Part 3:

Friday The 13th Part 3

We’re delighted to celebrate Mr. Voorhees’ ascent to box office prominence - here’s looking forward to another ten sequels!

Heaven Can Wait

So away I go this weekend… into pink hearts and champagne with teeny tiny bubbles, to petite jars of caviar (yes with new potatoes and creme fraiche), a trip to my favorite spa, and a small, old-school Italian restaurant where the waiters wear bowties. I’m ordering a big serving of sentimental romance, hold the skepticism.

Start off with one of the most romantic movies of all time, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Starring a young Catherine Deneuve, directed by film maestro Jacques Demy and winner of the Palme D’Or at Cannes, this classic love story is a love letter to musicals and romantics everywhere.

The second half of your Valentine’s Film Festival is Harold & Maude. This dark comedy is the perfect romance for your inner cynic who still really wants to believe in true love. Harold is a cynical rich kid with a wickedly dark sense of humor, chafing against the uptight constraints of his family. Maude (brilliantly played by Ruth Gordon) is a fun loving senior who finds as much joy in stealing cars for joyrides as she does in breaking any social rule that is put in front of her. When these two meet at a local funeral, hilarity, chaos and magic ensues…

Harold and Maude

Still looking for more? Click on the banner below for a selection our favorite romantic films.

And I’m not the only one, I noticed that everyone scaling back- to think there are still reservations at Jardinarie and Gary Danko available for the hard-to-come-by 8pm slot. And retailers are taking note- offering special incentives on how to make your day as special and wallet friendly as possible. For example, my neighborhood grocer, Nob Hill Trading Company is providing the novice chef with an easy to assemble meal to close the deal. Here is what it comes with:

Featuring USDA Choice Filet Mignon with Dungeness Crab and Béarnaise Sauce
Half the price of a fine steakhouse dinner!
Also includes:
• Mashed Potatoes
• Asparagus with Garlic Herb Butter
• Fresh Spring Salad
• Parmesan Herb Ciabatta Bread
• Baked Brie with Fig Spread
• 4 Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Save $10 when you buy Veuve Clicquot Champagne.
Order online at raleys.com/order and SAVE $5

All this for the low price of $49.99.

Consider a night in, and put on a movie from our collection of over 1000’s of Independent and International movies available on Jaman. Here are my recommendations- of course with a romantic lens (start with Charade and end up with Ira & Abby).

In ladies categories Kate Winslet was awarded the BAFTA for Leading Actress for The Reader and the Supporting Actress BAFTA went to Penélope Cruz for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

As the Brits were cleaning up at the Grammys stateside so was British talent at the BAFTAs in a great night for British film, In Bruges won the BAFTA for Original Screenplay and The Duchess won the BAFTA for Costume Design. Director/writer Steve McQueen received The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film for Hunger. Jaman caught up with him at the Dinner where he proudly posed for us.
The BAFTA for Outstanding British Film went to the documentary Man on Wire which is a must see and a great achievement for a feature doc to be recognised amongst such strong competition.

I’ve Loved You So Long took away the Film Not in the English Language BAFTA and the award for Animated Film went to Wall•E. Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death won the Short Animation award and the Short Film award was presented to September.

The Academy Fellowship was awarded to Terry Gilliam who as you would expect gave a slightly surreal and zany speech which was very fitting. The award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema was presented to Pinewood and Shepperton Studios.

Once the awards were finished we were all shepherded into coaches and moved en mass to the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in Mayfair. Jaman were joined for diner by ITV and some specially invited guests. Jaman are not sure if it was sour grapes for not picking up any awards, but Brad and Angelina gave dinner the big swerve, we tried to get an extra portion as they were not eating but failed dismally. Midnight was fast approaching and time for the real fun at the after party.

This year all of the after parties were held at the same venue (except Weinstein who held their bash at almost the polar opposite of town) which was maybe a sign of the global economic climate. Not deterred by this Jaman hit the dance floor and enjoyed live music from The Feeling who performed some fantastic covers as well as there own material.

Jaman had time to chat with Noel Clarke, director and star of Adulthood who won The Orange Rising Star Award.
This award recognises an international actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and has begun to be recognised as a film star in the making.
For more pictures from the night click here.
Here is the full list of the nominees and winners.

“What don’t you f***ing understand?”

This time, the confrontational remark didn’t come from Christian Bale. Instead, it was the comical retort of director McG, whose production of Terminator: Salvation played host to the now-infamous freakout of its hot-blooded lead. At the New York Comic Con on Saturday, McG couldn’t dance around the overly publicized documentation of Bale’s June tantrum — when cinematographer Shane Hurlbut accidentally ruined an important take — instead, he had to confront the situation head-on. When an audience member asked the filmmaker to elaborate on the incident, he keenly responded with the aforementioned remark, a direct quote from that overexposed tirade.

McG, however, was only kidding. The way he spun it, Bale just took his performance a little too far. As John Connor, the badass leader of the human resistance in a post-apocalyptic future where the world has been overrun by machines, Bale needed to tap into a certain psychotic range. It’s possible he may have tapped a bit too hard, and even shattered some glass in the process. However, based on the clips McG showed to the crowd, it looks like the fourth Terminator film features a lot of shouting and stuff blowing up, so Bale’s rage actually does appear to fit the picture.

“I wanted that passion to show up in the character,” McG said. According to the director, Bale actually rejected the original version of the screenplay when McG brought it to him on the set of The Dark Knight. “He didn’t want a loud action movie,” McG said. “He wanted to articulate the arc of the character.” Connor, whom audiences watched grow up in T2 and T3, finally reaches his potential as the heroic icon that the mythology predicted he would become. Bale wanted to make that transition seem convincing. So if T4 works, thank his f***ing professionalism. Here’s a refresher on Bale’s intensity as a performer:

The Dark Knight - Trailer

3:10 to Yuma - Trailer

One of the hilarious things about fan conventions is that audience members tend to present immensely confrontational questions (when they’re not lavishing their icons with embarrassing amounts of praise). So it was fairly amusing when somebody asked McG to discuss the way public perception of his work — the highlights of which include two Charlie’s Angels movies — might make a fourth Terminator movie sound a little, you know, crass with him behind the camera.

The director didn’t hesitate.

“I hate McG, too,” he said, to a confusion of scattered applause and giggles. “Look, let’s talk about what it is. I started out making Charlie’s Angels. It’s not in keeping with the Terminator idea, but we all look for a break. All I wanted to do with those movies was make original films, and break down the ceiling of, ‘You can’t have a successful female action franchise.’ In that respect, I stand by those movies completely.”

McG admitted that Terminator creator James Cameron had no interest in another entry in the franchise, but Titanic auteur compared McG’s involvement to his own ultimately satisfying experience directing the second Alien movie in the wake of Ridley Scott’s success with the first one. It’s hard to compare McG to a young James Cameron, but maybe I’m just giving into the pervasive hatred McG himself understands. The Terminator: Salvation clip showed some potential: It’s dark, filled with mechanical gray tones and a lot of atmospheric details, suggesting more of a Mad Max thing than the Terminator world of yore. Franchises tend to get uglier as they go along, but I’m willing to give this one a chance.

***

Then again, look at Pixar, a company that appears to view franchises as the Achilles heel of the industry. With the exception of Toy Story, Pixar has never expressed a major need to expand on its original animated worlds, which allows most of their impressive accomplishments to achieve an almost holy distinctiveness. Years ago, Pixar’s owner, Disney, created a special unit called Circle 7 with the sole intention of creating sequels to popular Pixar movies. The project didn’t last long, since none of the employees were really on board in the first place. (Now, Disney’s creative output is monitored by Toy Story creator John Lasseter, and all is more or less right in the world).

The point is that Pixar thrives on originality. None of its chief animators works on adaptations or remakes, and so their track records remain wholly unique without an iota of redundancy. Pixar’s next release, Up, will almost definitely continue this progress. The movie, which was previewed for a crowd at the Con over the weekend, looks delightfully bittersweet. Centered on the journey of an elderly man named Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Christopher Plummer), the story revolves around his wildly imaginative attempts to go to South America, fulfilling a pact he made with his dearly departed wife. Several absurd plot devices carry him there, including a series of balloons tied to his house that carry the structure right off its foundation and more or less take it in the right direction. Accompanies by a loquacious boy scout, Carl hurtles through a series of misadventures in search of his final destination.

It’s the sort of basic outline that allows animators to work their magic, and director Pete Docter (currently one of three Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominees for writing Wall-E) appears to have done just that. Docter spent four year working on Up, having launched pre-production shortly after completing Monster’s Inc. (a personal favorite of mine). Based on the clips I saw at the Con, he has crafted a nifty brand of adventurous storytelling — simultaneously a throwback to Saturday matinee appeal and an ode the timelessness of the travel narrative.

And then there’s the humor. In one clip, the duo encounter a dog with a mechanical collar that translates his thoughts into a mechanical voice, resulting in a clever twist on the talking animal conceit of innumerable animated films. Of course, Docter and his team could just make the dog talk, but why bother making his lips move when simply projecting them yields a funnier result? As you can see from the informative clip below, computer animated movies have always been able to replicate speech. The real talent comes from people like the folks at Pixar, who know how to say something new.

History of Computer Animation vol1

In honor of Valentines Day, we at Jaman have selected our favorite romances from around the world. The offerings are quite diverse, from Charade to Conversations with Other Women. The inclusion on the list of the high-flying anime feature Macross Plus has already raised a few eyebrows, but the film has a big, big heart beating beneath its shiny metal skin.

Macross Plus is the story of a love triangle between a hot-headed pair of pilots (the human Isamu Dyson and the half-alien Guld Bowman) and their childhood friend, singer Myung Fang Lone. Though Macross Plus is a sequel of sorts to an earlier anime series (Super-Dimensional Fortress Macross, itself the first saga of the Robotech series), it can be enjoyed on its own. A high quotient of high-flying sci-fi action runs throughout the Robotech saga, but its various stories have all been human dramas at heart, and Macross Plus is no exception.

The fireworks between its three characters are sometimes as violent as the interstellar fight scenes, and the emotions they feel are often complex. Fuelling the romantic drama is the music of Yoko Kanno (an early credit in a long and storied career as an anime composer). Macross Plus’ music is integral to the drama, and Kanno’s diverse sonic palette (from the glorious electro-pop songs of AI singer Sharon Apple to the achingly gorgeous ballad “Voices”) serves the story beautifully.

Newcomers to anime may be surprised by the emotions at the film’s heart, but longtime anime fans continue to cherish its themes, characters, and music. Macross Plus remains a visionary, moving tale in which fortress cities turn into giant robots, fighter pilots scream across the sky, and a love song can save the world.

Macross Plus: The Movie

About Nixon: We see the guy during the very first opening minutes of the movie, blabbering on at a press conference about the Soviet threat. When Watchmen first hit stands, it presented a nightmarish alternative reality, but the new Watchmen goes back to the eighties to provide an alternative history, and it’s a little disorienting. Media chatter swirls through the soundtrack in the first scene, while the Comedian (a character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan whose murder will establish the main plot thread of the story), looking weary and middle aged in his secluded high rise apartment, glares at the tube. The creepy familiarity gets creepier moments later, when we see Pat Buchanan on a talk show. But it’s Nixon who really got my goat: The actor (a fellow named Robert Wisden) is no Dan Hedaya or Frank Langella. He plays Nixon as a cartoon-like mockery of the character not too dissimilar from the disembodied head of Nixon often featured in Futurama. It’s hard not to view the performance as a darkly tinted Saturday Night Live skit. While I can’t say I didn’t dig the strangeness of it, I do fear director Zack Snyder has downgraded the cultural references that give Watchmen its distinctive identity from a place of eerie familiarity to a less impressive level of playful satire. I never saw Watchmen as satire, and worry that such an added ingredient might overwhelm the grittier aspects of the story.

But of course I’m going to worry. Millions of Watchmen fans will worry — it means we care about the property. During a Q&A with Gibbons after the preview screening, fans freaked out about a slight change to the ending, which apparently does away with the giant squid element in place of something subtler. Fair enough, but don’t expect Watchmen to be a particularly subtle film. If anything, it seems that Snyder has really ramped up the ultraviolence, punctuating the harsher moments with more graphic revelations. The Comedian has an extraordinarily speedy fist fight with his anonymous murderer in the opening scene, something that remained merely implied in the graphic novel. Later, rogue hero Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) imprisoned for practicing his antics, pours scalding hot oil on a threatening prison mate before dropping his classic line in frightening monotone (”I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me”). In the book, the depth of pain Rorschach brings to the burnt man remains implied, but Snyder gives us a full-on, detailed shot of the damage as it happens. I wonder if this cutaway helps realize the potential of the scene, or merely serves to flaunt the movie’s grimy aura to the nth degree.

Despite these curious additions, I’m also nervous about Watchmen from the other side of the fence. Script-wise and visually, it appears almost obscenely loyal to the source material. When the Comedian goes flying out the glass window of his apartment, Snyder slows down the frame so that you can practically see the panels in photographic terms. This approach suggests Snyder (who took a similar live action comic book approach with his last feature, 300) aimed less for making a new work than for freshening up an old one. Either way, Gibbons, fielding questions after the screening, seemed pleased. (Moore, as he always does, refused to be associated with the project.) “It’s the kind of movie I saw in my head — but crystallized,” Gibbons said. “It’s amazing how faithful Zack has been.”

And it makes me wonder: Does faithfulness always yield a healthy product? The movie’s opening minutes feature a frenetic pace, clearly the result of Snyder’s passionate, well-meaning attempts to include so many details from the book. He has reportedly fought with Warner Brothers to keep his nearly three-hour cut. Great, but the Watchmen book doesn’t move like that. It’s a busy story, but a patient one. It’s quite possible that Watchmen the movie, clearly a beautiful accomplishment in atmospheric storytelling, loses patience in the shuffle.

***

Watchmen wasn’t the only highly anticipated adaptation at the Con. Ridiculously prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (above, wearing his trademark glasses) made the unorthodox decision to have the world premiere of his new feature, Yatterman, at the convention. (It actually screened at the Directors Guild of America on 57th Street.) Based on the utterly confounding Japanese animated series of the late 1970s, Yatterman focuses on a high energy team of superheroes attempting to stop their villainous counterparts from tracking down a mythological object called the Skull Stone. Whatever. I didn’t watch the show, so I can’t bring nostalgia to the table, even though it obviously plays a big role in the appeal of the live action movie. At a panel discussion on Friday, Miike said he really enjoyed the way the show mixed risqué humor with hyperbolic action. From what I saw of the movie, that much is preserved. A jarring, CG-heavy action sequence opens the movie, and Miike carries that sense of forward motion throughout the feature. However, since the action takes on an exaggerated tone, Miike’s ability to combine slapstick with colorful visuals takes on a delightful energy. Check out the trailer here.

Miike makes a lot of movies, something like three or four per year. But even if he aims for quantity over quality, there’s no denying his skill at elevating low culture to a place of complex film language. In particular, his horror films are typically smart, dense creative endeavors. Yatterman looks like it does something remarkably clever with a relatively simplistic property. So it was especially enticing to hear Miike tell the Con audience that he would love to make a live action version of the animated series Afro Samurai. My colleague John Lichman tells me that Samuel L. Jackson, the hilariously appropriate source of the samurai’s funky delivery, has a contractual agreement where only he can star in a live action Afro Samurai movie. Bring it on, guys. Maybe the world at large doesn’t need it, but the Con audience showed oodles enthusiasm, so what more incentive do you need? As I said before, this is a universe with its own set of rules.

Check back soon for notes on the next Terminator movie and Pixar’s upcoming Up.

I’ve attended film festivals as far reaching as Cannes and Sundance, but nothing comes close to the surreal aura of the Con, where storytelling’s greatest extremes literally come to life within a gigantic bubble of zany imagination and personal expression. Comics are only one part of the equation, albeit a crucial one: It’s here that witches and warlocks, not to mention battlecruisers and savage beasts, discover common ground with literary counterparts such as the graphic novels. Many have blurred the line between those two vastly different categories — remember The Odyssey? — but when it comes to the art of the narrative, few contemporary environments remain as non-discriminatory as the Con. The comic book world has become voraciously accepted by the mainstream, and the popularity of gatherings such as this one now serve as a celebration of its ongoing vitality.

I’m mainly a movies guy, hence my dispatch here, but I never hesitate to check out examples of cinema invading other turf. On the massive ground floor of the Con, I spotted a sneak peak at Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and couldn’t look away. This goofy, nostalgia-inducing title, a 2009 release, suggests a counterpoint to subpar movie-to-videogame translations, if only because original Ghostbusters writers Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd supplied new content. The game allows you to play through the same storyline as any of the original characters, although each of them goes through a different experience. I can now attest that the game itself, with its colorful graphics (which even look solid on the generally middlebrow Nintendo Wii) appears to capture the spirit of the franchise. Ghostbusters has taken on the appeal of a mini-Star Wars, as demonstrated by a fellow at the booth wearing in a remarkably believable proton back.

Actually, much of the Con experience revolves around franchises, which would mainly provide a dispiriting reminder of the corporate agenda behind the affair if said franchises weren’t meritorious in the first place, which they are. Fans won’t accept the product if it doesn’t suit their own needs, and as a Watchmen buff, I must admit the trailer for the game left me worrying that exploitation was afoot. (I mean, you can only play as Rorschach and Nite Owl? Come on, people, everyone wants to be Doctor Manhattan!) The movie is a different story, of course. If you’re one of the few unfamiliar with it, just look at that sensational trailer:

Watchmen - Trailer

Meanwhile, another franchise on display at the Con played well enough. Futurama: Into the Wild Blue Yonder screened in the early evening to an appreciative crowd. The final direct-to-DVD movie to resurrect Matt Groening’s Simpsons-esque sci-fi series (a favorite of ten devout Jaman users), it features the show’s usual hit-or-miss appeal, although the hits are pretty frequent in this one. The plot has the usual absurd slant: Fry, our bumbling hero from 1999, now pretty darn comfortable 1000 years in the future, finds himself suddenly able to read people’s minds (”What’s with the obnoxious voices?” he wonders. “Am I on The View?”) Naturally, this leads to his unreliable role in saving the human race, and pretty much every other race in the universe, from complete extinction. As usual, Groening’s green politics creep into the frame, but not without a palpable sense of fun. Still, let it not be forgotten that Futurama, which ends its life on a bittersweet note for real this time, harbored some legitimate science fiction ideas, and successfully married them to its comedy: The movie begins with a DNA molecule transforming into the shape of rollercoaster as the scene changes from the depths of outer space to…Mars Vegas. With one broad stroke, Futurama mocks the way human progress leads to greater commercial exploitation — just like the Con, come to think of it.

Check back soon for news about Takashi Miike’s trippy Yatterman movie, plus more nuggets excitement on Watchmen, Terminator, and other pop cultural treats.

Here are some highlights from the recent New York Times article:
Acrassicauda had been through hell as a rock band in wartime Baghdad. Its practice space was bombed. Its members were branded Satan worshipers and received death threats for making Western-style music. Then they suffered through two purgatorial years as refugees in Syria and Turkey, killing time and dreaming of rocking out in the land of the free.

And on Sunday night, two days after the last of the band’s four members was resettled in the United States, they enjoyed what any metal fan would have to call heaven: bearhugs and “Wow, dude” heart-to-hearts backstage with Metallica at the Prudential Center in Newark. It probably wasn’t necessary for James Hetfield, Metallica’s lead singer, to surprise them after the show by handing over one of his guitars, a black ESP, and signing it “Welcome to America”; their minds were already blown.

“That’s for keeping the faith,” Mr. Hetfield said, adding as he disappeared with his entourage down a corridor, “Write some good riffs.”

Acrassicauda’s rock ’n’ roll faith was traced in a documentary, “Heavy Metal in Baghdad,” released in 2007. That film portrayed the members as ordinary if tenacious rock Joes amid the most extraordinary circumstances, and they continue to embody those roles in their new lives. (click here for full article)

Heavy Metal In Baghdad

But not every commercial was expensive- whoever flipped the switch on Club Jenna to actually interrupt the Superbowl in the fourth quarter- now that’s priceless.

Here are some of my favorites- there was a lot of misses.

Career Builder.com

Pedigree

Doritos

Audi “The Chase”

Pepsi “Refresh”

E*Trade

15th Annual SAG Awards® Recipients Announced!

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 25, 2009) - Screen Actors Guild presented its coveted Actor® statuette for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2008 at the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® in ceremonies attended by film and television’s leading actors, held Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.

The honorees were selected by the approximately 100,000 active members of the Screen Actors Guild nationwide.
Forest Whitaker presented James Earl Jones with Screen Actors Guild’s highest honor, the 45th Annual Life Achievement Award, following a filmed tribute.

Honored with individual awards were Sean Penn, Meryl Streep, Heath Ledger and Kate Winslet for performances in motion pictures and Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Hugh Laurie, Sally Field, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey for performances in television. Screen Actors Guild originated awards for the outstanding performances by a motion picture cast and by television comedy and drama ensembles. The Actor® for a motion picture cast performance went this year to “Slumdog Millionaire”, while the Actors® for television comedy and drama ensemble performances went this year to “30 Rock” and “Mad Men”. Screen Actors Guild’s honors for outstanding performances by a stunt ensemble in film and television were awarded to “The Dark Knight” and “Heroes”.

The complete list of recipients of the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®:

15th ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS® RECIPIENTS

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

SEAN PENN Harvey Milk “MILK” Focus Features

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

MERYL STREEP Sister Aloysius Beauvier “DOUBT” Miramax Films

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

HEATH LEDGER Joker “THE DARK KNIGHT” Warner Bros. Pictures

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

KATE WINSLET Hanna Schmitz “THE READER” The Weinstein Company

Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture

“SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE” Fox Searchlight Pictures

RUBINA ALI Youngest Latika
TANAY HEMANT CHHEDA Middle Jamal
ASHUTOSH LOBO GAJIWALA Middle Salim
AZHARUDDIN MOHAMMED ISMAIL Youngest Salim
ANIL KAPOOR Prem
IRRFAN KHAN Police Inspector
AYUSH MAHESH KHEDEKAR Youngest Jamal
TANVI GANESH LONKAR Middle Latika
MADHUR MITTAL Oldest Salim
DEV PATEL Older Jamal
FREIDA PINTO Older Latika

PRIMETIME TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

PAUL GIAMATTI John Adams “JOHN ADAMS” HBO

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

LAURA LINNEY Abigail Adams “JOHN ADAMS” HBO

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

HUGH LAURIE Gregory House “HOUSE” FOX

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

SALLY FIELD Nora Walker “BROTHERS & SISTERS” ABC

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

ALEC BALDWIN Jack Donaghy “30 ROCK” NBC

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

TINA FEY Liz Lemon “30 ROCK” NBC

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

“30 ROCK” NBC

SCOTT ADSIT Pete Hornberger
ALEC BALDWIN Jack Donaghy
KATRINA BOWDEN Cerie
TINA FEY Liz Lemon
JUDAH FRIEDLANDER Frank Rossitano
JANE KRAKOWSKI Jenna Maroney
JACK McBRAYER Kenneth Parcell
TRACY MORGAN Tracy Jordan
MAULIK PANCHOLY Jonathan
KEITH POWELL Toofer

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

“MAD MEN” AMC

BRYAN BATT Salvatore Romano
ALISON BRIE Trudy Campbell
MICHAEL GLADIS Paul Kinsey
JON HAMM Don Draper
AARON HART Bobby Draper
CHRISTINA HENDRICKS Joan Holloway
JANUARY JONES Betty Draper
VINCENT KARTHEISER Pete Campbell
ROBERT MORSE Bertram Cooper
MARK MOSES Herman “Duck” Phillips
ELISABETH MOSS Peggy Olson
KIERNAN SHIPKA Sally Draper
JOHN SLATTERY Roger Sterling
RICH SOMMER Harry Crane
AARON STATON Ken Cosgrove

SAG HONORS FOR STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

“THE DARK KNIGHT” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
WADE ALLEN
RICK AVERY
DEAN BAILEY
RICHARD BURDEN
FRANK CALZAVARA
MARK CHADWICK
BRIAN CHRISTENSEN
GEORGE COTTLE
TOBIASZ DASKIEWICZ
JUSTO DIEGUEZ
MARIE FINK
JEAN-PIERRE GOY
MARK HARPER
ADAM HART
JAMES HEISNER
SY HOLLANDS TERRY JACKSON
PAUL JENNINGS
LUKE KEARNEY
MATT LeFEVOUR
RICK LeFEVOUR
TOM LOWELL
TONY LUCKEN
DANIEL MALDONADO
JON MALDONADO
JAMES MAMMOSER
KEVIN MATHEWS
TOM McCOMAS
TIM McHENRY
NATALIE M. MEYER
RICK MILLER
MARK MOTTRAM CHRIS NOLTE
ANDY NORMAN
CARL PAOLI
LINDA PERLIN
BRIAN PETERS
SCOTT PHILYAW
BUSTER REEVES
KEN REMER
RICHARD RYAN
JEFF SHANNON
KEVIN SORENSEN
JODI STARNES
TOM STRUTHERS
TODD ROGERS TERRY
JIM WILKEY
RICH WILKIE

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series

“HEROES” (NBC)
ROBERT ALONZO
HEATHER ARTHUR
ALLISON CAETANO
CHRIS CARNEL
DANE FARWELL
TIM GILBERT
TROY GILBERT
RYAN JAMES HAPPY CHRIS HOWELL
HORACE KNIGHT
WILL LEONG
JIM LEWIS
RICK MARCUS
AUSTIN PRIESTER
SIMON RHEE
MARK RICCARDI

PAT ROMANO
SPIKE SILVER
LEE SMITH
ERIK STABENAU
NANCY THURSTON
XUYEN “SAMMY” VALDIVIA
MARK WAGNER
MARCUS YOUNG

Screen Actors Guild Awards 45th Annual Life Achievement Award

James Earl Jones

Why is your resident film nerd thinking so much about reality TV today? On the ride into work I heard about a new show. Michael Irvin, the colorful Wide Receiver from the Dallas Cowboys is bringing a new show to Spike TV. Like the American Idol of football, men can tryout for a slot on the Dallas Cowboys official training camp, where if they do well they could be recruited to play on the Cowboys team, or even be traded to another professional NFL team. Seems like a cool idea for football fans and a chance for athletes from small towns with big talent to get noticed by the big leagues.

As I was listening though - it all started to sound a bit familiar. And then I remembered Invincible - the film from Walt Disney starring Mark Wahlberg which tells the true story of Vince Papale.

Papale was a working class guy in Philadephia when the NFL team the Eagles opened up their team tryouts to the public. Papale’s story is one of those true heartwarming stories about not giving up on your dreams or your talent. Will Irvin’s new show bring the next Papale to the world? Only time can tell.

Let’s all join in a round of football love and inspiration by enjoying this action packed Eagles documentary on Jaman.

E-A-G-L-E-S: The Movie

From festival.sundance.org
The jury and audience award-winners of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by actor Jane Lynch in Park City, Utah. Films receiving jury awards were selected from the four categories: U.S. Dramatic and Documentary Competition and World Dramatic and Documentary Competition. Films in these categories were also eligible for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Honda were announced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Benjamin Bratt.

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners:

The Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary was presented to We Live in Public, directed by Ondi Timoner. The film portrays the story of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick web pioneer, Josh Harris, and his transgressive art project that shocked New York.

The Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels and written by Damien Paul. The film tells the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous obstacles and discover her own voice.

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Rough Aunties, directed by Kim Longinotto. Fearless, feisty and unwavering, the ‘Rough Aunties’ protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. United Kingdom

The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to The Maid (La Nana), directed by Sebastián Silva. When her mistress brings on another servant to help with the chores, a bitter and introverted maid wreaks havoc on the household. Chile

The Audience Awards are presented to both a dramatic and documentary film in four Competition categories as voted by Sundance Film Festival audiences. The 2009 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards are presented by Honda.

The Audience Award presented by Honda: U.S. Documentary was presented to The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos. The horrors of a secret cove nestled off a small, coastal village in Japan are revealed by a group of activists.

The Audience Award presented by Honda: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels and written by Damien Paul. The film tells the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous obstacles and discover her own voice.

The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary was presented to Afghan Star, directed by Havana Marking. After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. Marking’s film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. Afghanistan/United Kingdom

The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby. In the early 60s, a sharp 16-year-old with sights set on Oxford meets a handsome older man whose sophistication enraptures and sidetracks both her and her parents. United Kingdom

The Directing Award: U.S. Documentary was presented to El General and director Natalia Almada. As great-granddaughter of President Plutarco Eliás Calles, one of Mexico’s most controversial revolutionary figures, the filmmaker paints an intimate portrait of Mexico.

The Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Sin Nombre, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Filmmaker Fukunaga’s first-hand experiences with Mexican immigrants seeking the promise of the U.S. form the basis of this epic Spanish-language dramatic thriller.

The World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary was presented to Afghan Star, directed by Havana Marking. After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. Marking’s film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. Afghanistan/United Kingdom

The World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic was presented to Five Minutes of Heaven, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a screenplay by Guy Hibbert. Two men from the same town but from different sides of the Irish political divide discover that the past is never dead. United Kingdom/Ireland

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award was presented to Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi for Paper Heart. Even though performer Charlyne Yi doesn’t believe in love, she bravely embarks on a quest to discover its true nature - a journey that takes on surprising urgency when she meets unlikely fellow traveler, actor Michael Cera.

The World Cinema Screenwriting Award was presented to Five Minutes of Heaven, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a screenplay by Guy Hibbert. Two men from the same town but from different sides of the Irish political divide discover that the past is never dead. United Kingdom/Ireland

The U.S. Documentary Editing Award was presented to Sergio. Directed by Greg Barker and edited by Karen Schmeer, the film examines the role of the United Nations and the international community through the life and experiences of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The World Cinema Documentary Editing Award was presented to Burma VJ. Directed by Anders Østergaard and edited by Janus Billeskov Jansen and Thomas Papapetros. The film takes place in September 2007 as Burmese journalists risk life imprisonment to report from inside their sealed-off country. Denmark

The Excellence in Cinematography Awards honor exceptional cinematography in both dramatic and documentary categories.

The Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary was presented to The September Issue. With unprecedented access, director R.J. Cutler, cinematographer Bob Richman and their crew shot for nine months to capture editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her team preparing the 2007 Vogue September issue, widely accepted as the “fashion bible” for the year’s trends.

The Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Sin Nombre, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Cinematographer: Adriano Goldman. Filmmaker Fukunaga’s first-hand experiences with Mexican immigrants seeking the promise of the U.S. form the basis of this epic Spanish-language dramatic thriller.

The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented to Big River Man, John Maringouin’s documentary about at an overweight, wine-swilling Slovenian world-record-holding endurance swimmer who resolves to brave the mighty Amazon in nothing but a Speedo. U.S.A./United Kingdom

The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented to An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby. Cinematographer: John De Borman. In the early 1960s, a sharp 16-year-old girl with sights set on Oxford meets a handsome older man whose sophistication enraptures and sidetracks both her and her parents. United Kingdom

A World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Originality was presented to Louise-Michel, directed by Benoit Delépine and Gustave de Kervern, about a group of disgruntled female French factory workers who, after the factory abruptly closes, pool their paltry compensation money to hire a hit man to knock off the corrupt executive behind the closure. France

A World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Tibet in Song directed by Ngawang Choephel. Through the story of Tibetan music, this film depicts the determined efforts of Tibetan people, both in Tibet and in exile, to preserve their unique cultural identity. Choephel served six years of an 18-year prison sentence for filming in Tibet. Tibet

The 2009 Jury Prize in U.S. Short Filmmaking was awarded to: Short Term 12, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The jury also presented the International Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking to Lies, directed by Jonas Odell.

As announced on Friday, Adam, directed by Max Mayer, is the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) on Thursday announced the winners of the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards honoring and supporting emerging filmmakers–one each from the United States, Japan, Europe and Latin America. The winning filmmakers and projects for 2009 are Diego Lerman, Ciencias Morales (Moral Sciences) from Argentina; David Riker, The Girl, from the United States; Qurata Kenji, Speed Girl from Japan; and Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Evolution from France.

The three-character play will be directed by Mark Brokaw. Other casting, the performance schedule and theater will be announced later.

In “After Miss Julie,” Marber has updated Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” to 1945 on the eve of the Labour Party’s election victory in England. The 27-year-old Miller will portray the title character, a wealthy young woman involved with a family manservant.

I love her on the big screen and she has the wit and the training to make a live performance to be spectacular. Can’t wait to travel to NY to see her. But until then I think GI Joe will allow me to get my Sienna fix.

Short films have risen in popularity recently and filmmakers are successfully marketing these mini-movies to new audiences, as well as using them as ‘calling cards’ to raise money for feature film projects.

Directors like Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) who created the short film ‘Migration’ as part of the AIDS Jaago project are also using their craft as a springboard for grassroots movements and are partnering with activists.

Tiffany Shlain, a panelist and director of the short “The Tribe,” said it well: “attention span is decreasing and bandwidth is rising.” This dynamic combined with talented directors and makes for some tasty, snack-size films online.

My favorite short films on Jaman are the 5-minute tale of young Gloria in “La Chiva” and the 3-minute doc about the personals column in the London Review of Books, “Haikus of the Heart.”

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Trailer

Slumdog Millionaire

Milk- Trailer

Full List of Nominations
BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger -The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Roth and Robin Swicord - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button;
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
David Hare - The Reader
Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter - WALL-E

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button - Alexandre Desplat
Defiance - James Newton Howard
Milk - Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire - AR Rahman
WALL-E - Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Down To Earth from WALL-E - Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire - AR Rahman and Gulzar
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire - AR Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

BEST COSTUME
Australia
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters At The End Of The World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT):
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From The Balcony Of Room 306

BEST FILM EDITING
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST MAKE-UP
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon On The Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Jaman recently brought in a whole host of animated films that take on everyone in pop culture, from celebrities to politicians to scientists. Of course there were a few takes on Bush, here’s a couple of our favorites that you can watch for free, just click the image and enjoy!

The God & Devil Show: Ep. 41: George Bush

Like, News: Ep. 12: George Bush 2

Change is something that we all need. Even with films its great to see an evolution, but even ones that may promise hope- may be a let down. We checked out Nollywood Babylon by filmmaker Ben Addelman. We all now that Bollywood has surpassed Hollywood in gross earnings, but third is Nigeria, which the filmmakers describe as an unstoppable force and will soon become number one. Unfazed by low budgets, enterprising filmmakers create a brash, inventive and wildly popular form of B-Movie that has Nigerians Nollywood-obsessed.

In these films, voodoo and magic infuse urban stories, reflecting the collision of traditional mysticism and modern culture that Nigerians experience every day. The film does a good job at setting up the hunger for the film industry- but derails several times offering the spectator a very dull movie watching experience. I hope that when this film is final- they take note from Lancelot and add some energy.

But Bollywood fans- not to worry, even though Nollywood poses a threat- it will be years before they can touch the high production value, writing and energy behind Indian cinema.

Nollywood Bollywood Clip

Photo credit: MTV

Last night we added a pretty cool new feature to Jaman. After you’ve seen a movie you love on Jaman, you can give the movie to up to 5 of your friends. They get to watch the movie for free. In addition to sharing your reviews and conversation about the movies you find here — now you can actually share the movie too!

Here’s how it works:
After you rent a movie (for download to your Mac/PC or TiVo), you are given the opportunity to give the movie to 5 of your friends. This feature can be found right underneath the message that the movie has started downloading. If you want to wait until after you’ve seen the movie, just go to your movie download history, find the movie, and click the button labeled “Gift This Movie.” You can invite your friends via Facebook, your webmail address book, or just by typing in their email addresses. Once you give the movie to your friends, they each get an email with a link to watch the movie free on Jaman.

We don’t use their email addresses for anything except the gift email, so you can be assured that your friends’ email addresses are safe.

After you and your friends have all seen the movie, come back and share your opinions on Jaman, either by writing a review or discussing the movie in our community forums.

And, since you were so nice to share a movie with your friends, when one of them finds a great movie on Jaman, maybe they’ll share it with you!

You have 45 days from the time you rent the movie to give it as a gift, and your friends have 30 days to accept the gift and download the movie. Also, not every movie on Jaman is available for giving as a gift. If you give a movie to a friend in another country, they may not be able to see that particular movie, in that case, we’ll let them pick from movies available to them.

Our first film is I Love You Phillip Morris by directors Glenn Ficarra (Bad Santa) and John Requa starring Jim Carey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann and Rodrigo Santoro and in case you were wondering- we actually bought tickets to the film. The house was packed for a film with a subject line of- two men meet in jail and embark on an adventure together. It had the star power of both McGregor and Carey and delivered on every point.

The story itself starts off in Texas, where a local policeman, Steve Russell (Carey) goes from making small modest personal investments to make a living. Oh did I forget to leave out that these small investments are illegal and that he comes out of the closet. While in Jail Steve meets Phillip Morris (McGregor), a blonde hair, blued eye pretty face who trusts everyone, who only committed the crime of not returning a rental car. They manage to get out of jail and start a new life- with trust and without lies- well thats what Phillip thinks.

The cast is incredible and even though Rodrigo Santoro was in it for a hot minute- he also held his weight among these big wigs.

Jim Carey and Ewan McGregor at the Premiere of “I Love You Phillip Morris”

We stayed for the Q&A- “Have you thought of casting a gay male to play the lead” Carey answered “How do you know one of us aren’t.”

First let me explain our situation. At every festival they have passes, which allow you into every film, tickets that are for sale and the hard to come by waitlist ticket- which if you can’t afford a pass or don’t have tickets you try to do. Festivals let pass holders in first then ticket holders then whatever is left they sell “waitlist” tickets to. We actually didn’t have tickets to September Issue- so we tried the waitlist. I arrived at the theater at 1pm (for a 5:30pm show- now you are suppose to show up 2 hours prior- but I really wanted a ticket). I met Gerri there, a fellow Jaman employee that thought I was insane- but was mildy amused at the possibility of getting a ticket. So there we were #1 and #2 in line. After we received our waitlist numbers we had to come back 45 minutes before the movie started. Now keep in mind that the previous show was sold out and people with tickets- didn’t even get in. It wasn’t until an angel appeared and went to the front of the line and sold us tickets. We immediatley jumped to the ticket line and proceeded into the theater. Gerri and I got comfortable and sat down in our 6th row seats. The lights started to dim and not a single person in the waitlist got in. Karma is an amazing thing.

Now to the movie. So if you haven’t heard about September Issue, its by acclaimed director R.J. Cutler and follows Vogue’s Editor- In- Chief, Anna Wintour and Creative Director, Grace Covington around as they blend sensibilities and create the fashion bible- Vogue’s September Issue, which promises to be the biggest ever.

Hard vs soft, Matte vs Glossy and Creator vs Curator are the best ways to describe their chemistry. For over 20 years they have made magic happen. The documentary didn’t just feature Anna- but helped humanize the magazine by featuring Covington’s creativity- which shows that even the toughest of skins- have an emotional core. During the 90 minutes you follow the magazine’s creation- from shot to reshoot, from argument and killing of pages- it truly was an astonishment to watch.

If you aren’t into fashion you will agree after seeing this film- that Wintour’s the most powerful force in this $300 Billion industry. This isn’t the Devil Wears Prada- but I do leave you with a final quote “Am I the only one coming to this run-through”. I hope this film gets on Jaman- Adam and Vanessa work your magic!

Nicky falls in love with his equal, Heather who dates and the same- falls in love with the rich and wealthy. This movie takes gold-digging to new heights, but might of stayed true to it’s Indie roots it it didn’t feature Kutcher. One thing had me wondering- with the countless minutes of gratuitous sex (with Anne Heche)- what was Demi Moore thinking during the premiere?

NOTE: Keep an eye out for the talented and beautiful Margarita Levieva- sure to give Jessica Alba a run for her money.

We are there at the 8:30 am screenings hob-nobbing with fur-boot clad movie goers. By evening, we nibble on turnovers and talk to documentarists about online movie distribution. In between, well, we’ve been making friends.

Then it was off to join out TiVo partners to plaster the streets of Sundance with Independent Films. We handed out tons of hot chocolate and movie tickets. Which reminds me, check this out and get in on an exclusive offer. Okay enough shameless plugging.

It was off to see two more movies- because that what we do best. First it was a screening of Helen by director/screenwriter Sandra Nettelbeck. The German filmmaker used her life events to craft a truly realistic and haunting depiction of depression. Ashely Judds portrayal of Helen, who seemed to have the perfect life until she suffers a breakdown not only scratches the surface of a disease, but go into detail with family struggles and the power to fight.

Then it was off to see the highly anticipated Spring Breakdown by director Ryan Shiraki and screenwriter Rachel Dratch. I couldn’t of been more excited about this film. You have the perfect formula which include the comic genius of SNL’s Dratch, on screen candy with Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, Jane Lynch and Missi Pyle and the cheap thrill of a story line that captures a young audience- triple check. The story follows three friends and they go from highschool to their mid-thirties- sound familiar- the same plot was used for Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion- but without the advent of post-its. Becky, played by the indie-dream Parker Posey works for a state senator who is next in line for VP of the US- but is worried that her daughter may be exposing too much of the family jewels over Spring Break in South Padre. Becky heads out to watch over her, while dragging Judi, played by Rachel Dratch and her husband, who turns out to be gay and Gayle, played by Amy Poehler who discovers her inner slut. The film itself was funny at times with the one liners and was saved by Missi Pyle’s performance. I had such high expectations of the film- and I think that what the problem was- I should of gone lower. The movie ended at 2:30am with a short QA by the actors. If you enjoy these women and their work- then you may be let down, but if you go in with low expectations you might actually enjoy it.

Spring Breakdown Trailer

Here is how we spent Day 1
6:15 Boarded a flight with Film festival guides in hand- it was good that we sat next to each other- movies were being carefully selected for the next 6 days.
9:10 Arrived Salt Lake City and came down the main escalators to a heard of photographers snapping our photos (actually they were taking shots of the folks behind us- but let us live for a bit).
10:00 Arrived in Park City - driving through snow covered mountains

12:00 Picked up the TiVo folks and began to outfit our ride for the festival- A Living Room on wheels- no seriously its an RV that has been transformed to a living room- complete with a TiVo DVR.

2:30 Took our ride for a spin through Main Street (the one thing missing was the people- yeah its the first day of the fest, but the streets weren’t as crowded as festivals past).
6:00 Dined at 350 Main Street- where everyone and anyone had a festival pass. So the rule in Utah is you can not drink unless you order food to accompany it (in case you were wondering).
8:30 We get a call from some friends who invite us to the Festival’s Opening Night Party at the Legacy Lodge in Park City. We couldn’t pass this up so it was one more quiet stroll down Main Street then we were off.
10:00 After circling with a massive RV (our Limo driver had the evening off) we finally made our grand entrance. Everyone came back from screening the highly anticipated Mary and Max (which opened the festival- we have tickets to tomorrow’s screening). The party was fantastic- complete with Absinthe, Park City Elite and film buffs. We even ran into Samantha Brown as she was taping a new episode of her Travel Channel series.

12:40 Made it back home, with not a moment to spare (4 hours till the start of the next day)

It’s been a busy week for us with all the last minute preparations to get our site up and running, but we managed to find time to go the Gala of CLUBBED in Leicester Square, which followed the Premiere in Geoff Thompson’s home town Birmingham. We’re big fans of the movie and it was great to see all the cast’s families and some of the investors there.

Clubbed - Trailer

This has been a real passion project for everyone involved and it shows. The Leicester Square power cut was a less welcome guest, even though the sell-out 300 seater was upgraded to the Empires 1500 seater theatre, which then looked pretty empty! The after-party had to be moved too but the producers took it all in their stride. No sweat!

It’s a particularly exciting time to be launching our UK site, with all the press surrounding success for British films - especially Slumdog Millionaire - in the run-up to awards season there’s a real buzz in the air. And speaking of press we’ve been doing press interviews today for the UK launch, so look out in the papers tomorrow for coverage of the launch.

This year Jaman is teaming up with TiVo to bring a film festival into your living room. We have an exclusive offer for folks to get a a new TiVo DVR at a great price, not to mention access to all of our incredible films available to download.

Check back for reviews, news and all the happenings around Park City on Thursday. In the meantime- check out all the films from past Sundance Film Festivals available on Jaman.

Tom Cruise presented the final award of the night for Best Picture - Drama which the film also won. Cast members Anil Kapoor, Dev Patel, and Freida Pinto were also present during the awards show which was seen live in dozens of countries around the world. Pinto even presented a clip from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE on stage with Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan. Truly a remarkable win and a good look into the future for an amazing film.

I personally think that Tiny fey should win another award for her role on SNL as Sarah Palin, but I don’t give out awards.

Jennifer Lopez- you are the worst dressed of the evening (or at least for the first 2 minutes), I saw America Ferrera walking the red carpet and I can’t wait for the stage lights to beam on what might be the worst fitting dress of the evening.

Now back to The Golden Globes.

“For any of us to enjoy his performance he will be eternally missed, but he’ll never be forgotten,” Nolan told guests at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

This win is sure to be mirrored at the Oscars this year.

Looks like the Brits may be victorious.

Image Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Buster Keaton
(click here to see all of his films on Jaman)

Audrey Hepburn
( click here to see all of her films on Jaman)

and just my personal favorite
Louise Brooks

So imagine my complete excitement when perusing the entertainment blogosphere and defamer.com pops up with this gem. The politically charged action film The Expendables, spearheaded and starring no less than the grandaddy of testosterone and guns, Mr. Sylvester Stallone has just signed Mickey Rourke onto the project. Focusing on a gang of mercenaries who go to South America to take down a ruthless dictator, it will be starring this machismo-rific gang of stars, Jet Li, Sylvester, Mickey, and… wait for it… Dolph Lundgren. Yes for the first time since the Rocky franchise Dolph and Sylvester will share the screen again. The cast is anchored by the impeccable Forest Whitaker who has raised the bar with films like Ghost Dog and Last King of Scotland.

I was lucky enough to catch Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on the View talking about their recent collaboration, Doubt. First, I didn’t realize that the role of Sister James was originally given to Natalie Portman- only to have it stolen from her warm hands by Amy Adams. Apparently this stuff happens all the time- but it took the genius Sheri Shepherd to actually bring a topic this intelligent (even for her) to light. Then Meryl talked briefly about the Oscar campaigning and how she didn’t like it. But then immediately following the segment I saw an ad for Doubt- mentioned that it was nominated five times for a golden globe. Made you wonder why Sheri mentioned this- was it another movie producer putting her up for it?

It got me thinking- if movies have such limited marketing dollars seems like spending the bulk of it around the Oscar ballots is a smart way to go.

But studio marketing aside- there is the personal mud slinging that is my personal favorite. Most notably was Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. The Daily Beast has reported that Rourke allegedly
sent a text message to a friend that not only called Penn’s performance in Milk “average” “pretend acting” but also said that he was “one of the most homophobic people” he knows. I hope he had a smart phone because those were some long texts. Either way rumors like this- get people talking and people who talk often times vote.

The Oscars will be handed out on January 29th and by 10pm PST there will be numerous messages of congratulations, remorse and offers in actors voicemails. We will be there to cover it all.

Recommending movies to people is hard. Everyone has different ideas about what constitutes a good movie. As the New York Times wrote about back in November, it’s a problem that some companies are willing to spend a million dollars to solve. Even with the world’s brightest minds churning away at it, the goal still remains elusive.

Even if we don’t attain perfection, can we still do better than the status quo though? I think so. Our recommendation engine (which is powered by a plethora of PhD-wielding primates) looks at a myriad of information such as your past viewing records and your movie ratings to determine which movies to recommend to you. It starts off when you sign up for Jaman and take our Movie Tastes test. You rate how much you like each movie genre, and this helps us narrow down the choices that are presented to you.

Your recommendations are presented to you throughout the website. On your Dashboard, you’ll see a section called Personalized Recommendations. If you don’t like our recommendation, click the Not Interested button below the movie and we’ll remember that (and inform our over-educated band of tree-dwelling workers) so that we’ll never recommend that movie to you again.

Clicking through on the More link, or clicking on the Recommendations sub-menu item under My Jaman takes you to your movie recommendations page.

Last but not least, on a movie detail page and movie genre page, we present your recommendations on the right column in the section titled Recommended For You. These recommendations take into account the movie (or genre) whose page you’re currently viewing.

In order to make sure that we present the movies that you like the most, here are 5 steps you can take:

• Take the Movie Taste test
• Make sure to rate your movies
• Become a Fan of movies you like
• Set your Movie Mood on your Dashboard
• Watch more movies!

If you signed up for Jaman before November, you can take the Movie Tastes test by going to your Dashboard and clicking on the button that says Start the Test. Can it be any easier? (Our diligent, mud-flinging, leaf-chewing employees thank you for helping them accomplish their job. Also, they would like you to send them some peanuts.)

Happy movie watching! And have a Happy New Year!

Aryan: Unbreakable
Sports dramas often showcase stories with the highest highs and the lowest lows becoming an easy vehicle for melodrama and intensity. This gritty Bollywood film about a boxer forced to give up his dreams of stardom for the responsibilities of fatherhood doesn’t disappoint.

Forbidden Kingdom
This fantasy actioner is the first pairing of kung fu slapstick legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li. For this alone my little Hong Kong Action film fan had it in the top for the year. Add in a good plot and a dose of goofiness that reminds me of the Fong Sai Yuk franchise and I am hooked.

Gods and Monsters
This film is the closest I have found to being absolutely perfect. A powerful drama with a engaging storyline about the life of Frankenstein director James Whale, Sir Ian McKellan and Brandon Fraser are both unexpectedly powerful in their roles.

The Pied Piper of Hutznovia
2008 will mark the year that Eugene Hutz started to truly take over the world. With the lead in Madonna’s Filth and Wisdom and sold out shows around the world with Gogol Bordello it started to feel like it was a gypsy punk revolution. But before I noticed any of that I watched this engaging documentary about Hutz and the filmmaker that was obviously overly enamored of her subject, creating a fascinating subplot of attraction and desire.

Huge
This short about models, music and desire blew the Jaman staff away with its sexy storylines and slick production values. A total hit and one of our exclusives this year, this best of list wouldn’t be complete without it!

This is just a sampling of the Jaman staff’s favorite films for the year. Check out Best of Jaman 2008 for our complete list or join the conversation over in our Best of 2008 forum and let us know your favorites!

Last year we braved seven inches of show and brought you all the best from the parties, the films and events, and this year will be no exception. A full list of off the films that made this years cut can be found here: 2009 Sundance Films.

Here are some of the films that I’m most looking to see this year.

I’m usually a sucker for the overly produced, comedic/romantic performances and you would think that Mama Mia, which has grossed over $570 Million Worldwide, would be a perfect way to pass time- but not the case. But it also wasn’t a shock that Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for both her performance in Mama Mia and Doubt.

Doubt, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley and stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. It was the most fantastic formation of acting, writing most importantly casting- no one else could of played the role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier. To date, she has been nominated for fourteen Oscars and has won two. This year could be sixteen nods. Nonetheless, I am sure you will agree that in both roles, which runs two extremes- she is incredibly versatile and everything she touches (even ‘Death Becomes Her‘) will sure to be the talk of the box office and award acceptance speeches to come.

Doubt- Trailer

Meryl Streep will be sure to give Kate Winslet a run for the statue in both the Golden Globes, which debut on January 11 and the Oscars.

Santa Baby

Eartha Kitt died from a battle with Colon Cancer at 81.

Facebook Connect is our most exciting feature for this launch. FB Connect allows you to link your Facebook account with your Jaman account, giving you the ability to easily show your friends the movie reviews you’ve written, the movies you’ve fanned, and the discussions you’ve participated in. If you don’t have a Jaman account already, you can still log in with you Facebook account to take advantage of the features I’ve mentioned. How awesome is that?

At the top of the Jaman site you will see the FB Connect button next to the regular Jaman sign in button. Clicking on it will open another window which will prompt you to log in using your Facebook username and password. Don’t worry! This is totally safe.

When you write a review while you’re logged in through FB Connect, you will be prompted to post your review to your Facebook Wall.

Voila! Your review will appear on your Facebook Wall allowing your Facebook friends to comment on it or clicking on the movie link to check it out for themselves.

Many other websites have leveraged FB Connect to connect their users with their users’ friends on Facebook. Give it a whirl and tell us what you think.

Phew! I’m almost out of breath just talking about FB Connect, but there’s still more features yet. We added a wicked cool map visualization to our Community page to show where in the world our users are contributing to the discussions in our forums. Speaking of forums, we moved forums onto the Community page to make it easier for you to see them.

Our Dashboard and Public Profile pages have been redesigned to make it easier to see all the information that’s important to you. The section “What Your Friends Have Been Up To” has been replaced with a new section called Friend Feed.

Clicking the More link in the Friend Feed section or in the left navigation menu will take you to the Friend Feed page which displays all the activites your friends have been up to recently.

Other changes to My Jaman include a reworked sub-navigation menu. We expanded the number of menu items to make it easier for you to access your recommendations, download history, messages, and account settings.

Your fanned movies have been added to your Public Profile page. Movie lists have also been enchanced on both the Dashboard and Public Profile pages to make it easier to view your lists.

*Gasp*! I’m almost out of breath here. Last but not least, we’ve added a Free banner to movies that are free and streamable. Who says nothing in life is free? Now it’s even easier to view free movies on Jaman.

That’s a wrap! I can’t wait to tell you all about the new features we have next year. Take care and happy holidays!

Starting today, Jaman will feature “Movies that Matter” – extraordinary films with a powerful message of social change. Through January 16, when you watch one of these amazing documentaries, Jaman will donate proceeds to the WITNESS organization. WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations and empowers people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.

“Jaman was founded to offer films that engage and inspire, so WITNESS was a natural fit for us as we share socially-conscious films with our global audience,” says Gaurav Dhillon, our founder, CEO and fearless leader. “Through this collaboration, not only will people be able to view great films from around the world, they will also be helping an incredible organization continue to promote change.”

Because art and film can transform personal stories into powerful tools for change, “Movies that Matter” features films that highlight a variety of political, environmental and social issues.

“WITNESS believes in the power of storytelling and video to change the world,” said WITNESS co-founder Peter Gabriel. “Through ‘Movies that Matter“, Jaman is offering viewers an opportunity to not only learn more about issues that matter, but at the same time make a positive impact on the world, by supporting our cause.”

Here’s a little info about the movies that are a part of the promotion - watch today and join us in changing the world, one movie at a time.
• Boxers and Ballerinas — This moving film documents the struggles of four characters in Miami and Havana and their resolve to meet the physical challenges posed by their sports. A moving portrait that offers considerable insight into US-Cuban relations. “Boxers and Ballerinas weaves controversial political theory, traumatic historical signposts, and urgent human drama into a stylish and provocative whole.” - The Washington Post
• Dying To Get In: Undocumented Immigration at the U.S. Mexican Border - Award-winning director Brett Tolley travels deep into the Arizona desert, interviewing under-funded border guards and the immigrants desperate for a better future across the border. As Tolley follows his subjects on their harrowing journeys northward, he sheds new and revelatory light on the sensitive issue of Mexican immigration.
• From Dust - This sharp-eyed and vigilant documentary focuses on the plight of survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami, residing along Sri Lanka’s coast and rendered homeless. Absurd government restrictions and stonewalled relief efforts point to the sometimes profit-obsessed and perverted side of globalization.
• Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories – Citizen journalist Mike Shiley traveled to Iraq for two months armed only with a camera and a local guide to interview Iraqi citizens. The results are stories that would never air on network news, and offers a startlingly human, non-politicized picture of Iraq.
• Oil On Ice – This documentary explores the many angles involved in the U.S. government’s push to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – the impact on the area’s wildlife and people, global warming and America’s energy and transportation politics.
• Vanishing Cultures: Bushmen of the Kalahari — A rare glimpse of the fascinating history, brutal struggles, and challenges of the Bushmen of the Kalahari who now face extinction as modern society encroaches upon them.

PARK CITY ‘09 | 86 Shorts Set For Slamdance’s 15th Anniversary

by Peter Knegt (December 15, 2008)

The Slamdance Film Festival will celebrate its 15th Anniversary in 2009 with 86 short films in four different competition categories - documentary, narrative/experimental, animation and music video, which is new this year - will be showcased and be eligible for a Grand Jury Award. All accepted entries have been selected to screen by the Shorts Programming Committee, which is comprised primarily of Slamdance alumni filmmakers. “As my first year heading up Slamdance’s film competitions, I’m certainly more invested than ever in presenting an amazing collection of short films that we believe truly reflects the diversity of independent voices and content, and shows the best work from emerging and first time filmmakers,” said Sam Roberts, the Festival’s Director of Film Competitions / Co-Chair of Shorts Programming, in a statement.

“The films range from quiet dramas rich with beautiful cinematography to the bombastic animation with mind blowing effects,” continued Roberts, “a perfect snapshot of short films in general. Short Films, more than any other type of filmmaking, really allow artists to experiment, to find their voice, and to tackle topics that are taboo and untouchable, and are proud to include that powerful creative energy to our festival.”
A scene from Susan Hippen’s “I Think It’s Love.” Image courtesy of the Slamdance Film Festival.

In addition to the four jury competitions, Slamdance also has two out-of-competition shorts categories, the “Anarchy Online Film Competition” and “$99 Specials.” Slamdance developed its Anarchy Online Film Competition in 2000. Each month, from March through November, three short films (10 minutes or under) are selected to play online. Anarchy is open to all types of films and the winner are decided by online voting. Each month’s winner screens at Slamdance, competing for a prizes and a “Slamdance Sparky Award.”

$99 Specials are produced by Slamdance and directed by Slamdance alumni. Slamdance gives $99 to these alums, and sets them loose with the latest in filmmaking technology. 99 days later they return with a five-minutes-or-under short film experiment. $99 Specials are shown at the festival in January and online.

As always, Slamdance will run concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival. Slamdance and the box office will be headquartered and films will screen at the Treasure Mountain Inn , 255 Main Street, the Festival’s Park City, Utah, headquarters since 1998.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT COMPETITION

Circles of Confusion Pheobe Tooke, Writer/Director Regional Premiere / 2008 / USA / 11 Minutes A meditative, experimental musing about loss after Hurricane Katrina.

The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico Peter Jordan, Writer/Director International Premiere / 2008 / USA / 20 Minutes Nine-year-old Pedro’s reluctant journey through elementary school in pursuit of the American Dream, which he describes as a “nightmare”.

Grand Teton Julia Kim Smith, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes A video portrait of a first generation Korean-American family in transition.

King Surfer (Sanza Hanza) Nadia Hallgren, Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 7 Minutes Follows V.I.R.U.S., a gang of young train surfers on their journey through Soweto, South Africa.

Rare Chicken Rescue Randall Wood, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / Australia / 26 Minutes After a long battle with depression, Queensland rare chicken breeder Mark Tully is now on a mission to protect the endangered chickens to which he owes his life.

Theo Georgi Banks-Davies, Director World Premiere / 2008 / United Kingdom/Netherlands / 3 Minutes An intimate look at the artist Theo Jansen.

NARRATIVE/EXPERIMENTAL SHORT COMPETITION

City Girls Jon Rafman, Writer/Director/Producer World Premiere / 2008 / Canada / 10 Minutes An anonymous narrator is tortured by the thought that he has encountered the different women he passes on the street earlier in his life.

The Covenant of Mr. Kasch Joshua Beahan and Ruwan De Silver, Writers/Directors World Premiere / 2008 / Australia / 11 Minutes Lured from his hovel by his desire for a panda girl, Mr. Kasch discovers a cruel solace in the scars of love.

Cute Couple Courtney Moorhead Balaker, Writer/Director/Producer Utah Premiere / 2008 / USA / 14 Minutes Zach and Kendra were the cutest… until Tim and Tammy came into town.

Dish Brian H. Krinksy, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 15 Minutes High school buddies dish about their sex lives, classmates, and hair.

Diversions Peggy Bruen, Writer/Director/Producer 2008 / USA / 10 Minutes Avant garde exploration of sexual deviance with food.

El Ladroncito Yamin Segal, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / Nicaragua / 16 Minutes Oscar, a poor child from the Nicaraguan barrios, struggles on the street to earn himself an unattainable video game system.

An Evening With Emery Long Brad DeMarea, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 14 Minutes Industrial carpet salesman, Emery Long, prepares for his first date with receptionist and ‘office hottie’, Della. Emery has planned the perfect evening, but he soon realizes things might not turn out as he had imagined.

Feelings and Stuff Samuli Valkama, Writer/Director Utah Premiere / 2008 / Germany / 13 Minutes The first step toward a new relationship can be like a jump into cold water.

Funny Guy Frank Rinaldi, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / Singapore / 15 Minutes All Jamie wants is a friend who will laugh at his jokes, but grabbing the attention of a willing ear proves far more difficult than he expects.

Happy Rabbit Patrick Jackson and Francois Gamaury, Directors; Patrick Jackson, Writer. World Premiere / 2008 / UK / 5 Minutes The story of a dedicated, but misunderstood, performer.

Hatemail Frazer Churchill, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / UK / 12 Minutes The story of Danny, a young boy whose life is abruptly changed one day by two drunken men and a crossbow.

Hold Your Fire Wes Benscoter, Writer/Director/Producer World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 8 Minutes A ghostly soldier comes face to face with the grim reality of his war-torn existence, on the battlefield and beyond.

Horsefingers 3: Starfucker Kirsten Kearse, Writer/Director Utah Premiere / 2008 / USA / 13 Minutes A questionable tale of animal attraction.

I Don’t Sleep I Dream J.P. Chan, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 15 Minutes A woman refuses a ride to a dangerous looking hitchhiker, but soon finds herself in need of help after causing a horrific accident.

I Think It’s Love Susan Hippen, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes Jemma goes on a date to escape her caustic mother.

Immersion Richard Levien, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 14 Minutes Moises, a ten-year-old immigrant who speaks no English, struggles to fit in at his new school in the US.

Imminent Randall Good, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 9 Minutes Two friends shop. One stares at the other. They go places.

It Shines and Shakes and Laughs Matthew Wade, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 7 Minutes An experimental piece wherein a young man searches a desolate landscape in an attempt to make himself whole.

let[s] go Maxim Kuphal, Writer/Director US Premiere / 2008 / Germany / 14 Minutes Roman and his friends follow his ex-girlfriend from party to party.

A Little Mouth to Feed Jack Daniel Stanley, Writer/Director Regional Premiere / 2008 / USA / 9 Minutes A simple and devoutly Christian Appalachian woman makes a deal with the devil in hopes of having her own little child to love.

The Maid Heidi Saman, Writer/Director 2008 / Egypt/USA / 19 Minutes When a housemaid’s suspicions of her employer are strangely confirmed, she is forced to come to terms with her own insecurities and her place within the family household.

Milbe Karl Tebbe, Writer/Director US Premiere / 2008 / Germany / 6 Minutes A short animation about a grandmother, Oma Grete, and the gigantic dust mites that threaten to destroy the world.

Moon Lady Sulyn Zan, Writer/Director/Producer 2008 / USA / 14 Minutes A little boy must find a way to bring his schizophrenic mother back to life.

One-Half World Daniel Berube, Writer/Director/Producer World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 13 Minutes A young man cannot stop playing a virtual game that haunts his dreams and continues to challenge him, even after he has died.

The Pond Sonja Phillips, Writer/Director 2008 / UK / 16 Minutes For Maisie, the pond is a place to escape her troubled home life and explore her strengthening allure to the boys; it is the place where she holds all the power over them. What she doesn’t know is that it also holds a deep dark secret.

Princess Margaret Blvd. Kazik Radwanski, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / Canada / 14 Minutes Subtly exploring the mindset of senior citizen Isabelle Rodarte, as she defiantly confronts the frustration, confusion, and loneliness that are the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Rapture of the Athlete Assumed into Heaven Keith Bogart, Director; Don DeLillo, Writer Utah Premiere / 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes A reporter interviews a tennis player who achieves his greatest thrill as an athlete on the last day of his life.

River Guinness Rider, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / Japan / 17 Minutes A man in crisis sets out on a journey of penance, and on the way encounters his past, his present, and his future.

Sapsucker Christopher Holmes, Writer/Director/Producer West Coast Premiere / 2008 / USA / 12 Minutes One man is set on the warpath by his determination to track down and dispatch with a rare woodpecker wreaking havoc on his house.

Shor Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, Writers/Directors World Premiere / 2008 / India / 14 Minutes A noisy, fast-paced satire and visual metaphor for the noise, breakneck pace and grit of the city, highlighting the apathy of the urban youth and their deep cynicism for the system with a unique sense of humor.

A Short Ride (Scurta Plimbare Na Masina) Paul Negoescu, Writer/Director; Simona Ghita. Writer North American Premiere / 2008 / Romania / 9 Minutes Two young people go to a restaurant, but their meeting ends unexpectedly.

Six and a Half Ana Lily Amirpour, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes A little girl tries to catch a frog, offering us a look at “innocence” and the sometimes brutally capricious nature of children.

The Skooks Norwood Cheek, Writer/Director US Premiere / 2008 / USA / 6 Minutes Lill Skooks and her brother are stuck in a strange, backwards world.

Tony Zoreil Valentin Potier, Writer/Director 2008 / France / 20 Minutes Tony is a single 28-year-old who has inherited a remarkable physical deformity. Like the rest of his family, he has very big ears and suffers from extreme sensitivity to the slightest noise.

Una y Otra Vez Antonio Mendez, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / USA / 27 Minutes Ballad of the everyday.

Vapid Lovelies Frank Feldman, Writer/Director; David Luna and Chris Lemon, Writers World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 22 Minutes Two Middle-American gay fashionistas set out to create the perfect outfit.

Vodka & Women Xavier Tatarkiewicz, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / Poland / 18 Minutes When Stefan, a depressed accountant, suspects his girlfriend is cheating on him he decides to visit his neighbor, a retired prostitute, for advice.

ANIMATION

5 Graeme Hawkins, Writer/Director/Producer North American Premiere / 2008 / UK / 3 Minutes The five senses through the eyes and imagination of a young boy.

The Adventures of Ledo and Ix Emily Carmichael, Writer/Director World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes Two 8-bit video game characters confront the void.

Alice’s Attic Robyn Yannoukos, Writer/Director; Brian LoSchiavo, Writer. World Premiere / 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes A fragile Alice tries to overcome the fears that overwhelm her.

Dear Fatty Hsin-I Tseng, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 7 Minutes A little girl writes a letter to her pet hamster Fatty.

ELA, In Love At First Byte Fernando Sarmiento, Director/Producer; Alejandro Sarmiento and J.F. Mackeprang, Writers / North American Premiere / 2008 / Argentina / 11 Minutes In an action packed adventure of epic proportions, we follow the final adventure of E.L.A. Young Warrior Princess, forced to finally face her darkest nemesis and save Earth from total destruction.

Flute Babies Gretta Johnson, Writer/Director/Producer Utah Premiere / 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes A lonely alligator and an imaginative cat are introduced.

Forestry Woodpecker, Writer/Director/Producer World Premiere / 2008 / Japan / 4 Minutes The story of the mischief of the forest.

Kanizsa Hill Evelyn Lee, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / USA / 8 Minutes A forgetful body desperately searches for his head as the two find themselves lost in an oasis of illusions.

Seeking You Jean-Julien Pous, Writer/Director North American Premiere / 2008 / Canada / 3 Minutes A man wanders through the night in Hong Kong.

Swimming Moon Nahomi Maki, Writer/Director/Producer Utah Premiere / 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes A being is driven to madness by the full moon, discovering a sensitive, beautiful, and deep dream world.

Suncrow Martin Falconer, Writer/Director/Producer International Premiere / 2008 / UK / 4 Minutes A young fledgling makes an extraordinary first flight.

Trepan Hole Andy Cahill, Writer/Director/Producer 2008 / USA / 6 Minutes A film about spastic movement and concentric circles.

Undone Hayley Morris, Writer/Director/Producer Regional Premiere / 2008 / USA / 7 Minutes An old man floats in the sea of his diminishing mind.

An Unquiet Mind Chihwen Lo, Writer/Director/Producer 2008 / USA/Taiwan / 6 Minutes A mercurial journey of mood swings and deep restlessness.

MUSIC VIDEOS

Adele “Chasing Pavement” Matthew Cullen, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes A surreal dance links an accident and a broken relationship.

Blonde Redhead “Top Ranking” Mike Mills, Director 2007 / USA / 4 Minutes Miranda July performs one pose per second.

Darker My Love ” Two Ways Out” Toben Seymor, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 3 Minutes A performance within a black void of distorted perceptions and shadows.

Don McCloskey “Mister Novocaine” Peter Rhoads, Writer/Director/Producer 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes In a fever dream where hands are people, one hand fights the pleasure of the bottle by telling his story through song.

Feist “My Moon, My Man” Patrick Daughters, Director 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes Transforming the bustle of the staid, humdrum world of the airport terminal into a fantastic, synchronized spectacle.

Gnarls Barkley “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” Chris Milk, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 3 Minutes This is the story of a girl who dumps a boy who tears out his heart for her… literally.

Kaiser Cartel “Okay” Grizlet, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 3 Minutes A hand-drawn world where missing someone seems to lead the way back home.

Omodaka “Kokiriko Bushi” Teppei Maki, Writer/Director 2008 / Japan / 4 Minutes A mutational fusion of music and motion graphics, where a dancing skeleton is mastered by a disembodied hand.

Meghan Smith “A Little Love” Roboshobo, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes Performance and animation blend in the cutest kind of way.

My Morning Jacket “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt.2″ Mixtape Club, Director; My Morning Jacket, Writers 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes Set deep in a verdant jungle on a dark night, starring a furry, timid creature with gigantic eyes.

The Myriad “A Clean Shot” Josh Forbes, Director 2008 / USA / 5 Minutes The band take on puppets, crossbows and woodsy sojourns.

Sia “Buttons” Kris Moyes, Director 2008 / USA / 3 Minutes Sia pushes buttons and makes faces.

Thunderheist “Jerk It” Noel Paul and Stefan Moore, Directors/Writers 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes Skin jiggling in slow motion, strobing animal prints, a rooster and a girl.

Woodhands “I Wasn’t Made for Fighting” Asif Mian, Writer/Director 2008 / USA / 4 Minutes People frozen in time become inspiration for the band to manipulate.

ANARCHY ONLINE FILM COMPETITION

Alexa Todd Tinkham, Director USA / 5 Minutes / Color When 12-year-old Alexa goes for a forbidden swim, she unlocks a world of intrigue and surprise.

An Artist Dan O’Malley, Director USA / 7 Minutes / Color An artist who’s pretentiously unclear.

DJ:LA Jerry Chan, Director USA / 4 Minutes / Color A short film that remixes the frenzied sights and sounds of the LA landscape to uncover the rhythm and melody of the city, by using turntablism - the record manipulation techniques of a DJ - and translating it to film.

Eulogy Lisa Arianna, Director USA / 7 Minutes / Color Two sisters bury their recently deceased dog and discuss the death of their mother. A twisted reveal turns this innocent ritual into an odd, humorous and horrific event.

Frog Jesus Ben Peters, Director USA / 1 Minute / Color A nostalgic voyage takes a darker turn, exploring the naivete of mankind through the eyes of a young boy.

Frozen Dreams Xochitl Dorsey, Director USA / 6 Minutes / Color From sun up to sun down, Gabriel Martinez pushes his cart through the Mexican barrios of Los Angeles selling colorful popsicles and ice cream to the young and old. His unique insight into the world of paleteros presents an unexpected testimonial about the immigrant experience in East Los Angeles.

The Passion of Enid Grubman Jessica Guerra, Director USA / 6 Minutes / Black & White Enid Grubman seems to be cursed to a lifetime of loneliness, until one day an infomercial for an “Inflatable Companion” changes her destiny.

Rock Pockets Trevor Anderson, Director USA / 5 Minutes / Color A sugar rush of sex, politics, and rock ‘n’ roll, as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old-boy at the fair.

The Tides Eva Flodstrom, Director USA / 9 Minutes / Color During an attempt to find solace by leaving the house, Emi’s chance encounter with a BMX sparks up a journey to the ocean’s edge.

$99 SPECIALS

Catus Interruptus Gudrun Cram-Drach, Director World Premiere / USA / 2 Minutes / Color An unexpectedly sexy, animated take on male-female relations.

Dahlia Michael Langan, Director World Premiere / USA / 3 Minutes / Color A moving portrait of the bustle and permanence of a city, “Dahlia” juxtaposes the stable forms and patterns of life with the frenetic behavior of humanity, set to a driving score of vocal percussion.

Franz Kafka’s The Vulture Darren Way, Director World Premiere / USA / 2 Minutes / Color This story contains the logic of a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, uniquely realized in stop motion animation with custom designed, carved wooden puppets.

My Dog Doesn’t Have a Job Karl Tebbe, Writer/Director World Premiere / Germany / 5 Minutes / Color A man comes to the realization that if he is not a hunter but his dog is a pointer, then his dog really doesn’t have a job when they’re together.

Pony Boy:The Musical Ryan Piotorwicz, Director World Premiere / USA / 10 Minutes / Color An operatic saga of a kindly stable boy who finds freedom from tyranny, but must seek vengeance for the ponies he loves.

Sky Drops Burke Roberts, Director World Premiere / USA / 9 Minutes / Color In a future primitive war, we find paratroopers confined to the ultimate Russian roulette: descending into an all out fire-storm. Trapped in the heads and harnesses of this abstract limbo, Sky Drops examines propaganda versus the individual.

It surrounds the film Slumdog Millionaire and the recent award nominations that Danny Boyle has earned for his directing. The issue being that the film technically is listed as having two co-directors. When looking at the IMDB.com listing, the co-director, Loveleen Tandan is credited as co-director with a parenthetical of India. Does this mean she was only in charge of directing the India street scenes? Does this mean that the award nominations should be for both of them or one of them? In most situations with co-directors, both are nominated, why the difference here? If she wasn’t a full co-director worthy of nominations then why was she given the co-director credit? For the record, Loveleen Tandan has worked with director Mira Nair on films like Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair and Migration. The omission of her nomination appears not to stem from her co-director Danny Boyle who has enthusiastically described her work in interviews, and so we’re left to wonder, why does the Golden Globes omit her, the credited co-director from the nomination?

I share the email with you and let you form your own opinions.

The Golden Globe Award nominations have been announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and once again, no women have been nominated in the category of “Best Director.”

Martha Richards, Executive Director
The Fund for Women Arists

Some would say she is biting the style and trends that Madonna was working out about two years ago during the Reinvention tour. Some would say she’s appropriating the gypsy punk and dark cabaret movements that have been moving towards the mainstream for the past five years.

However I think her influence is really a bit older. I think it’s all about the cinematic classic Big Top Pee Wee, starring the iconic uber nerd persona of comedian Paul Rubens and featuring a small slice of perfection from Susan Tyrell as a three inch woman. We recently all gathered around the hearth of our monitors and watched the trailer together. It got us all laughing, and hey, got that Britney song out of our heads for a moment. Enjoy!

Big Top Pee Wee

From the LA Times:
Los Angeles, December 11, 2008 – Bettie Page, sweet-smiling legendary 1950s pin-up queen with the killer curves and coal-black bangs, died today of pneumonia at a Los Angeles area hospital. She was 85 years old. She suffered a heart attack one week ago and never regained consciousness. Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Page disappeared almost a half century ago, leading many to believe that one of the most photographed individuals of the 20th century was already dead.

As the model who many have argued raised cheesecake to an art, Page combined exuberant, wide-eyed innocence with confident, sometimes aggressive sexuality. VANITY FAIR praised the playfully seductive Page as “our Uber-pin-up.” The NEW YORK TIMES has declared that today “her star shines more brightly than it did in her brief heyday from 1950 to 1957.” PLAYBOY immortalized Page as one of its inaugural centerfolds and recently named her “the model of the century, yet she remains one of its best kept secrets.” In a recent TVGuide.com poll, Bettie Page was voted the “ultimate sex goddess,” outscoring others such as Marilyn Monroe.

Born on April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee, Bettie (spelled “Betty” on her birth certificate) Mae Page was the second child of six born to Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. The family was poor, moved often, and as a child, Page frequently found it necessary to take charge of her siblings. On several occasions they were dispatched to an orphanage. Life was hard. They were raised in the Church. Page owed her extraordinary looks and high intelligence to her parents, but it was a mixed blessing. Her mother did not want her. Her father molested her.

Page and her two sisters grew up movie fans who enjoyed acting out memorable scenes from whatever “picture show” they had just been to see. “I’ve been a movie hound my whole life,” Page said. “That’s how I started learning to pose, when my little sisters asked me to mimic photos of movie stars we’d seen in the magazines and newspapers.” They would experiment with different hairdos and makeup styles. At an early age Page learned to sew at the local community center; it was a skill with a practical application years later when she designed and made her own costumes, lingerie and bikinis to wear while modeling. She was the salutatorian of her high school graduating class. She was also program director of the dramatics club, secretary-treasurer of the student council, co-editor of the school’s newspaper and yearbook, and voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by her classmates.

Her own mother’s jealousy cost Page a scholarship to Vanderbilt University. Instead she earned a 1944 Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Peabody College in Tennessee. It was an uncommon achievement for a woman at that time. She tried teaching school, but her heart-breaking good looks made it impossible for the kids in class to focus on anything else but their pretty teacher. “I couldn’t control my students,” she would say with an irresistible wink, “especially the boys!” Two decades later Page returned to Peabody to work on her master’s degree.

There wasn’t anyone anywhere quite like Bettie Page. She thought for herself. She chartered her own course. She was independent. Page was completely self made, bore no prejudice of any kind, and recognized no barrier to personal fulfillment. Always a free spirit, she moved from Tennessee to San Francisco, took her first of several secretarial jobs, but dreamed of movie stardom (her favorites were Bette Davis and Gregory Peck). Plus she hoped for a chance at modeling. In her first work before still cameras, Bettie Page was more than fully clothed; she wore fur coats.

Everywhere she went, whatever she did, people were distracted and dumbstruck by her looks — the beguiling smile, the raven hair, the flawless figure. Finally in 1945 one of these people arranged for the acting hopeful to visit Hollywood, where, unfortunately, 20th Century-Fox mishandled her screen test. “They did my hair and makeup so that I looked like a caricature of Joan Crawford,” Page recalled in the Southern drawl she never lost, and which Hollywood frowned on. “It was awful. They ran the test for me; I hardly even recognized myself.” She fled the lot when a producer promised a lucrative movie career in exchange for sexual favors. “I didn’t like his looks,” Page said. “I wouldn’t have gone to bed with him anyway. He was a creeeeeeep. He drove off in his big car and scolded me, ‘You’ll be sorry.’ I wasn’t.”

Nor was she interested in the attentions of flamboyant filmmaker, aviator and inventor Howard Hughes, who pursued Page as well. Hughes phoned and had his staff phone her many times, summoning Page regularly on the pretext of wanting to photograph the delicious looking model. She declined every entreaty. “I never returned any of his calls,” said the celebrated pin-up, who surprisingly few could pin down. “I guess people will say I made a mistake. But sex is part of love, and you shouldn’t go around doing it unless you are in love. I certainly didn’t.”

More than once in recent years she did concede that failing to answer a telegram from studio boss Jack Warner about doing a second screen-test at Warner Bros. was the one mistake she most regretted in her life. But her first husband, Billy Neal, was returning home from war in the South Pacific, and Page was focused on trying to save a collapsing marriage.

Living in New York during 1947 after divorcing Neal, one day at the beach Page chanced to meet a police officer named Jerry Tibbs. He had a side interest in photography. It was Tibbs who recommended she should adopt the trademark black bangs. He also aided in compiling her first pin-up portfolio. Of course Page was from the South; Tibbs happened to be black. Page happened to be color blind.

With her tantalizing face and figure, she innocently and perhaps inevitably drifted into cheesecake modeling as a lark, where Page was prolific. Almost immediately she was the ubiquitous face and figure adorning such publications as WINK, EYEFUL, SIR!, HE, SHE, JEST, BARE, STARE, GAZE, VUE, TITTER, SUNBATHING, BEAUTY PARADE, CHICKS AND CHUCKLES and scores more. Her saucy pictures ripped from these magazines decorated offices, lockers, garages and all manner of rooms around the world as if they constituted a new Bettie Page brand of wallpaper. Her image was everywhere, and attracted international attention and notoriety.

In posing for such photos (some by acclaimed fashion photographer Bunny Yeager), many who were witnesses recall that Page seemed to command these sessions the way a movie director would. Without intending to (and without realizing it either), because of her ingenuity and dominant personality, Page was effectively the creative force controlling much of her own work.

“I was generally happy posing, and that seemed to shine through in the pictures,” Page explained. “Nobody knew this, but I used to imagine the camera was my boyfriend, and I was making love to him. I had fun teasing the guy with the camera until he was in sync with whatever mood I was in.”

At a time when Marilyn Monroe was studying at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, Page was doing the same at the renowned Herbert Berghof Studios only blocks away. “I wasn’t trying to be an actress at that time, but I wanted to see if I could really act or not.”

The answer was pretty much, no. Actor Robert Culp taught some of Page’s classes, and did a dramatic one-act play with her. The title was DARK LADY OF THE SONNETS. “She was in way over her head,” Culp remembered. “She was nice, but she was not an actress, and had she continued, her thick Southern accent would have been a problem for her.”

Berghof and his wife, Uta Hagen (both famous exponents of the Stanislavsky method of acting) were impressed by one scene, however, and asked Page what she was drawing upon from her own experience to create the sense of remorse and tragic reality which she was projecting so effectively on stage. Page told them, “I was thinking of all the wicked things I had done, and how God was going to punish me for all my sins.”

On television, the biggest thing Page did was a performance in a skit with the star of THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW. She disliked him. “Oh, Jackie Gleason was a tyrant,” Page declared. “That man was inconsiderate of everyone around him, including Art Carney, Joyce Meadows, the director, I do mean everyone. I never saw such screaming and yelling. Some people think I’m crazy! You should have seen this cad in action…although he was sweet to me!”

The pin-up extraordinaire never exploited her incredible figure to work as a dancer or stripper in clubs, but she did appear in three burlesque films that suggested as much: STRIP-O-RAMA (1953), VARIETEASE (1954), and TEASERAMA (1955). “I was terrible,” Page laughed in recalling these low budget grind-house efforts. She also performed for the camera in countless 8 and 16mm so-called “film loops” exhibited in peep shows and sold through the mail. Running only minutes long, many of these were staged and issued by the brother-and-sister team of Irving and Paula Klaw of Movie Star News in New York.

It was for the Klaws that Page gained infamy posing in bondage. “It was all pretend,” Page explained. “According to my arrangement with the Klaws, you had to do an hour of bondage poses in order to get paid for the other modeling work.” Seeing such photos in recent years (now they seem almost tame), she would laugh and comment, “Oh, I look like a meanie here….But honestly, who could take any of this seriously? I never understood how anyone believed those poses were sexy. To be tied up? I don’t get it.”

Enough did, however, so that Bettie Page quickly became the most photographed woman in the world. There could be no doubt, she was a sensation. THE PAGE CRAZE WAS ON.

“You couldn’t walk by a newsstand without seeing a picture of this gal on one magazine or another,” said Hillard Elkins, who for a time represented the aspiring actress on behalf of the William Morris Agency. Without imagining the consequences on any conscious level, Page eventually found that her provocative images violated all manner of sexual taboos during that more Puritanical time, finally invoking a United States Senate Committee investigation into pornography. She was subpoenaed to appear in a Capitol Hill courtroom presided over by Senator (and presidential hopeful) Estes Kefauver, yet was never called upon to actually testify.

Then by 1958 this young and beautiful pin-ultimate pin-up queen was gone – suddenly vanished from view in the prime of her life. Just like Greta Garbo, like James Dean, like Jean Harlow. Gone. Except that the departure of Bettie Page was a mystery. Where and why did she go? Had she died? Was she hiding? Was she incapacitated? No one knew. Page’s disappearance only served to power her notoriety. Fantastic rumors abounded. For decades, fans searched. Even the hard-hitting investigative television program 60 MINUTES tried doing a story.

It took until the mid-1990s before the truth was finally revealed. While battling some fierce inner demons, Page had secretly fled New York for Florida. In 1958 she underwent a religious epiphany. She totally retreated from the public eye, tried marriage again, and gave her life to Jesus Christ as a born-again Christian, working for Billy Graham’s ministry, among others. Incredibly, as yet another riddle in her complicated stranger-than-fiction life, during this time Page remained completely oblivious of her own profound impact upon America’s fast-changing sexuality and pop culture, not to mention the thriving cottage industry that had arisen around her celebrated image – the issuance of commercial products including Bettie Page action figures, calendars, comic books, lighters, incense, towels, DVDs, T-shirts, key chains, playing cards, lunch boxes, websites, and all manner of memorabilia. IT WAS BETTIEMANIA.

The failure of Page’s third marriage in 1978 precipitated some mental instability, violent mood swings, and serious trouble with the law. The sordid details of these travails are no secret and have now been disclosed in books and the tabloid press. At last in 1992 she left San Bernardino’s Patton State Hospital to emerge from this dark period during which she had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Page was living quietly in seclusion in Los Angeles when she discovered her enormous niche market popularity. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner introduced Page to a Midwest lawyer who is credited with establishing the merchandising and licensing business opportunities for many of the famous icons of the 20th Century. Roesler’s company, CMG Worldwide, was representing several hundred famous personalities, most of whom were deceased, such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Babe Ruth, Malcolm X and others. Roesler quickly turned the reclusive beauty into a “brand” recognized around the world. Clothing lines that featured the “Bettie Page” brand sprung up, as did a store called “Bettie Page” on the Las Vegas Strip. Page became increasingly popular not only here in the United States, but throughout the world. Her website www.BettiePage.com became one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the internet, getting almost ¾ million hits each day.

“She was a remarkable woman,” Roesler reflected, “truly someone that changed the social norms, not only here in this country, but also around the world. While Jackie Robinson was changing the racial attitudes, Bettie Page was changing our attitudes on sex. She became a James Dean type of ‘rebel’ figure as she allowed people to be less inhibited and look at sex in a different way. “

Roesler said her influence will be on the same level as a Marilyn Monroe. “Her undeniable influence will forever remain in fashion, films and merchandising,” Roesler declared. “She was reclusive and private, so without intending to be, without quite understanding how, her modeling work made her a pivotal figure in the sexual revolution that began in the 1950s. I was always flattered by Bettie’s continued trust, and happy to play a role in helping her overcome some financial and personal problems in her later years. To her adoring she will always be remembered as the ‘Queen of Pin-up.’ “

Roesler was at Page’s bedside when she peacefully died on Thursday, failing to regain consciousness following her heart attack eight days earlier.

Wearing a Santa hat and nothing else as Miss January of 1955, Bettie Page, like Marilyn Monroe, had been one of PLAYBOY magazine’s initial Playmate centerfolds during its first year of publication. Monroe fit the magazine’s business model, offering readers the (apparently) wholesome “girl next door.” Despite her sunny smile, Page became instead a puzzling “bad girl next door” cult figure, now representing a sort of collective guilty pleasure for admirers, who are not just men.

Images of Bettie Page continue to inspire imitation by curious young girls who somehow – probably through the internet – discover this “Dark Angel” whose personality reflected the lethal combination of sweet apple pie, as well as dangerous forbidden fruit. Judging by the hundreds of millions of hits registered at her authorized website, the magnetic appeal of Bettie Page to young men, and women, appears to be timeless.

“Young women write me untold numbers of letters,” Page explained in 2005. “They look up to me. They thank me for helping them see how they can be themselves, or how they can reinvent themselves, assert themselves, lose their inhibitions, and come out of their shells. Of course just posing for pictures I never intended to do any part of that, but I am gratified to see that what I did so long ago has meant something to so many.”

Apparently what resonates with young women is how Page owned her own sexuality. Whether projecting innocence, or being completely wild and uninhibited, it seemed to be her choice, and either choice, wholesome or edgy, was fine with her, and she embraced them both. She was confident her audience did as well.

Hugh Hefner says the appearance of Bettie Page in PLAYBOY was a milestone, and that “she became, in time, an American icon, her winning smile and effervescent personality apparent in every pose. A kinky connection was added by Irving Klaw’s spanking, fetish and bondage photos, which became part of the Bettie Page mystique; they were playful parodies that are now perceived as the early inspiration for Madonna’s excursions into the realm of sexual perversion.”

The fashion designers, Madonna, and others can copy the fetish behavior, the bangs and the bullets bras, but only the spontaneous and unpredictable Bettie Page herself was able to project the unique and volatile combination of the playful nice girl — along with the perilous one. Wholesome innocence one moment, dangerous dominance the next. That quality defined the Bettie Page persona, as well the flesh and blood person few people were fortunate enough to know. Quietly, steadily, old black and white photos of Bettie Page have continued to stimulate tributes in the form of books, websites, fan clubs, documentary films, and countless licensed products.

Two examples of how Bettie Page has been re-introduced to new generations of eager young fans: First, Dave Stevens created a comic book hero called “The Rocketeer,” with a love interest clearly inspired by Bettie Page; Disney adapted it as a big budget, same-named motion picture vehicle for Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly. Stevens, recently deceased, became one of Page’s most devoted friends, one of the few she could trust. It was Stevens who escorted Bettie Page to the Playboy Mansion for a private 35mm screening of THE ROCKETEER in 1994. She had never seen the film before. She loved it.

Second example: the noted erotic pin-up artist Olivia, who has been painting Bettie Page for a quarter century (in art books, for PLAYBOY, on limited edition posters, etc.), was the first to successfully integrate her fetish imagery for a high fashion licensee, Fiorucci Jeans. Olivia offered this assessment of the Bettie Page phenomenon on the occasion of her passing: “From Mona Lisa to Marilyn Monroe, pinup icons fascinate, because no one can explain the ethereal nature of their beauty. It comes down to creating magic. Bettie was the action hero of pin-up. Although the fantasy world of fetish/bondage existed in some form since the beginning of time, Bettie reigns as the iconic figurehead, for no star existed in this realm before her. Marilyn had her predecessors, Bettie did not. It was a privilege to know and love her.”

Celebrities and supermodels who have attempted to leverage the “magic” and pose as the naughty and nice Bettie Page include Madonna, Shalom Harlow, Uma Thurman, Janice Dickinson, Dasha Astafieva, Jenna Jameson, Dita von Teese, Farrah Fawcett, Eva Herzigova, Demi Moore, Laetitia Costa, Christy Turlington, even Renee Zellweger, to name a few.

Pop culture critic and author Mikal Gilmore has characterized the appeal of Bettie Page in this way: “No matter how much you stare or dream or pray, you could never get enough of what it is that her face and body seem to promise.”

Despite having worked with but a single competent photographer, despite having thousands of her photographs destroyed on purpose following the congressional hearings, and despite so many extant photos surviving only as inferior copies of the originals, the transcendent beauty and playful yet dangerous personality of Bettie Page trumps all else and continues to inspire documentary films, designers’ fashions, artists’ fetishes, and fans’ fantasies.

For those who understood who Bettie Page was, no explanation for any of this is necessary. For those who did not know, probably no explanation was, or is, possible.

Late in life she shunned the public, and guarded her privacy. But that was always true of the way Page lived, even during her modeling days.

Near the end, she hoped people would remember her as she looked when she was young, and for being someone who, in her words, “changed people’s perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form. Being nude was something I enjoyed, it felt so natural. There is nothing disgraceful concerning nudity unless one is being promiscuous about it. Don’t forget the Bible says when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. Who can argue with that?”

Bettie Page was married and divorced three times, bore no children, and of her five brothers and sisters, is survived by Jack Page of Nashville, Tennessee, and Joyce Page of Atlanta, Georgia.

When Bettie Page left the modeling scene, she sought privacy, read widely, enjoyed classic movies, mastered fields which interested her (including homeopathic medicine and nutrition), and lived out her life as a devoted Christian. Many times she told friends, “My long term goal is to live a healthy hundred years.”

She made occasional visits to the Playboy Mansion to watch old movies and attend private parties with her friend Hugh Hefner and her agent, Roesler. She was humbled at all the attention she got five years ago, when she attended Playboy’s 50th Anniversary party at the Playboy Mansion with Anna Nicole Smith. Both Smith and Page made a grand entrance and enjoyed the special attention they received. That evening they were photographed together in what was said to be the only time in the past 50 years that Page allowed her photograph to be taken.

Her story is an impossible incursion of near misses, bad luck, contradictions and lost opportunities. Page was strong-willed, and fiercely independent. She battled long and hard against both physical and mental illnesses. From the 1950s and beyond, when strangers would recognize her, she would deny her identity. “Bettie Page?” she would respond, “Who is that?” And yet to friends, she always told the truth, and would candidly (and sometimes endlessly!) discuss any aspect of her long life, including any conceivable question one might pose with respect to sexual activity. And under the spell of those sparkling blue-gray Bettie Page eyes (at any age), sometimes one was too distracted to even process what she was saying.

Always a master of the historical film with his classics Fong Sai Yuk and the Once Upon a Time in China series, it’s easy to see how Jet would help make The Warlords an award winning film. While waiting for The Warlords to hit the local theater - get your Jet fix by checking out Forbidden Kingdom on Jaman. A great pairing of historical fantasy and modern intrigue, it’s also got Jackie Chan, what more could you want? And for the die hard Jet fans - did you know he has a blog, enjoy!

Forbidden Kingdom

All of the usual suspects received nominations, with a few surprises that included Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino“, Heath Leader in “The Dark Knight,” and Robert Downy Jr in “Tropic Thunder.” The Critics Choice Awards also have a category that salutes the best actors under the age of 21, which included Dakota Fanning “The Secret Life of Bees,” David Kross “The Reader,” Dev Petal “Slumdog Millionaire” and Brandon Walters “Australia.”

The live telecast will be on Thursday January 8 on VH1 from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Here is a list of the all the nominations.

The Sundance Festival Celebrates 25 Years of Independent Filmmaking and Cinematic Storytelling
December 03, 2008

Park City, UT—Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 25th Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition categories, the Festival presents films in five out-of-competition sections to be announced tomorrow. The 2009 Sundance Film Festival runs January 15-25 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah.

“This year’s films are not narrowly defined. Instead we have a blurring of genres, a crossing of boundaries: geographic, generational, socio-economic and the like,” said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. “The result is both an exhilarating and emotive Festival in which traditional mythologies are suspended, discoveries are made, and creative storytelling is embraced.”

“Audiences may be surprised by how much emotion this year’s films evoke,” said John Cooper, Director of Programming, Sundance Film Festival. “We are seeing the next evolution of the independent film movement where films focus on storytelling with a sense of connection and purpose.”

For the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected including 87 world premieres, 19 North American premieres, and 4 U.S. premieres representing 21 countries with 42 first-time filmmakers, including 28 in competition. These films were selected from 3,661 feature- length film submissions composed of 1,905 U.S. and 1,756 international feature-length films.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
This year’s 16 films were selected from 879 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

The films screening in Documentary Competition are:

Art & Copy (Director: Doug Pray; Screenwriter: Timothy J. Sexton) - Rare interviews with the most influential advertising creative minds of our age illustrate the wide-reaching effect advertising and creativity have on modern culture. World Premiere

Boy Interrupted (Director: Dana Perry) - An intimate look at the life, mental illness and death of a young man told from the point of view of the filmmaker: his mother. World Premiere

The Cove (Director: Louie Psihoyos; Screenwriter: Mark Monroe) - Dolphins are dying, whales are disappearing, and the oceans are growing sick. The horrors of a secret cove nestled off a small, coastal village in Japan are revealed by a group of activists led by Ric O’Barry, the man behind Flipper. World Premiere

Crude (Director: Joe Berlinger) - The inside story of the “Amazon Chernobyl” case in the rainforest of Ecuador, the largest oil-related environmental lawsuit in the world. World Premiere

Dirt! The Movie (Directors: Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow) - The story of the relationship between humans and dirt, Dirt! The Movie humorously details how humans are rapidly destroying the last natural resource on earth. World Premiere

El General (Director: Natalia Almada) - As great-granddaughter of Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles, one of Mexico’s most controversial revolutionary figures, filmmaker Natalia Almada paints an intimate portrait of Mexico. World Premiere

Good Hair (Director: Jeff Stilson) - Comedian Chris Rock turns documentary filmmaker when he sets out to examine the culture of African-American hair and hairstyles. World Premiere

Over the Hills and Far Away (Director: Michel Orion Scott) - Over the Hills and Far Away chronicles the journey of the Isaacson family as they travel through Mongolia in search of a mysterious shaman they believe can heal their autistic son. World Premiere

The Reckoning (Director: Pamela Yates; Screenwriters: Peter Kinoy, Paco de Onis, Pamela Yates) - A battle of monumental proportions unfolds as International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo faces down warlords, genocidal dictators and world superpowers in bringing perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice. World Premiere

Reporter (Director: Eric Daniel Metzgar) - Set in Africa, this documentary chronicles, in verité fashion, the haunting, physically grueling and shocking voyage of Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Nicholas D. Kristof. World Premiere.

The September Issue (Director: R.J. Cutler) - With unprecedented access, director R.J. Cutler and his crew shot for nine months as they captured Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and her team preparing the 2007 Vogue September issue, widely accepted as the “fashion bible” for the year’s trends. World Premiere

Sergio (Director: Greg Barker) - Sergio examines the role of the United Nations and the international community through the life and experiences of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, including interviews with those who knew and worked with him over the course of his extraordinary career. World Premiere

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech (Director: Liz Garbus) - An exploration of the history and current state of free speech in America narrated by the filmmaker’s father, First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus. World Premiere

We Live in Public (Director and Screenwriter: Ondi Timoner) - We Live in Public is the story of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick web pioneer, Josh Harris and his transgressive art project that shocked New York. World Premiere

When You’re Strange (Director and Screenwriter: Tom DiCillo) - The first feature documentary about The Doors, When You’re Strange enters the dark and dangerous world of one of America’s most influential bands using only footage shot between 1966 and 1971. World Premiere

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (Directors: Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler) - With clients including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Chicago 10, the late civil rights attorney William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father’s life from movement hero to “the most hated lawyer in America.” World Premiere

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,026 submissions.

The films screening in Dramatic Competition are:

Adam (Director and Screenwriter: Max Mayer) - A strange and lyrical love story between a somewhat socially dysfunctional young man and the woman of his dreams. Cast: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison, Mark Linn-Baker. World Premiere

Amreeka (Director and Screenwriter: Cherien Dabis) - When a divorced Palestinian woman and her teenage son move to rural Illinois at the outset of the Iraq war, they find their new lives replete with challenges. Cast: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Alia Shawkat, Joseph Ziegler. World Premiere

Arlen Faber (Director and Screenwriter: John Hindman) - A reclusive author of a groundbreaking spiritual book awakens to new truths when two strangers enter his life. Cast: Kat Dennings, Lauren Graham, Olivia Thirlby, Jeff Daniels, Tony Hale. World Premiere

Big Fan (Director and Screenwriter: Robert Siegel) - The world of a parking garage attendant who happens to be the New York Giants’ biggest fan is turned upside down after an altercation with his favorite player. Cast: Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Kevin Corrigan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Matt Servitto. World Premiere

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Director and Screenwriter: John Krasinski) - When her boyfriend leaves with little explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology tries to remedy her heartache by interviewing men about their behavior. Cast: Julianne Nicholson, John Krasinski, Timothy Hutton, Dominic Cooper, Christopher Meloni, Bobby Cannavale. World Premiere

Cold Souls (Director and Screenwrtier: Sophie Barthes) - In the midst of an existential crisis, a famous American actor explores soul extraction as a relief from the burdens of daily life. Cast: Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson, Lauren Ambrose, Katheryn Winnick. World Premiere

Dare (Director: Adam Salky; Screenwriter: David Brind) - Three very different teenagers discover that, even in the safe world of a suburban prep school, no one is who she or he appears to be. Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer, Ana Gasteyer, Alan Cumming, Sandra Bernhard, Rooney Mara. World Premiere

Don’t Let Me Drown (Director: Cruz Angeles; Screenwriters: Maria Topete and Cruz Angeles) - Two Latino teens whose lives are affected by the attack on the World Trade Center discover that love is the only thing that keeps them from drowning. Cast: E.J. Bonilla, Gleendilys Inoa, Damián Alcázar, Ricardo Chavira, Gina Torres. World Premiere

The Greatest (Director and Screenwriter: Shana Feste) - After the tragic loss of their teenage son, a family is again thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a young woman. Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons, Aaron Johnson, Mike Shannon. World Premiere

Humpday (Director and Screenwriter: Lynn Shelton) - A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far. Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard. World Premiere

Paper Heart (Director: Nicholas Jasenovec; Screenwriters: Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi) - Even though performer Charlyne Yi doesn’t believe in love, she bravely embarks on a quest to discover its true nature - a journey that takes on surprising urgency when she meets unlikely fellow traveler, actor Michael Cera. Cast: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake Johnson. World Premiere

Peter and Vandy (Director and Screenwriter: Jay DiPietro) - Juxtaposing a couple’s romantic beginnings with the twisted-manipulative-regular couple they have become, Peter and Vandy is a contemporary Manhattan love story with no beginning and no end. Cast: Jess Weixler, Jason Ritter, Jesse L. Martin, Tracie Thoms. World Premiere

Push (Director and Screenwriter: Lee Daniels) - Based on the acclaimed, best-selling novel by Sapphire, Push is the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous obstacles and discover her own voice. Cast: Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique Imes, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey. World Premiere

Sin Nombre (Director and Screenwriter: Cary Joji Fukunaga) - A teenaged Mexican gang member maneuvers to outrun his violent past and elude unforgiving former associates in this thriller set among Central American migrants seeking to cross over to the United States. Cast: Edgar Flores, Paulina Gaitan, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Luis Fernando Peña, Diana García. World Premiere

Taking Chance (Director: Ross Katz; Screenwriters: LtCol Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.) and Ross Katz) - Based on real-life events, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort officer, accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps back to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming. Cast: Kevin Bacon. World Premiere

Toe to Toe (Director and Screenwriter: Emily Abt) - The story of an inter-racial friendship put to the test by the intense pressures of a competitive Washington, D.C. prep school. Cast: Sonequa Martin, Louisa Krause, Silvestre Rasuk, Leslie Uggams, Gaius Charles, Ally Walker. World Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
This year’s 16 films were selected from 744 submissions.

Films screening in World Cinema Documentary Competition are:

211:Anna/ Italy (Directors:Paolo Serbandini & Giovanna Massimetti) - The story of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist who risked her life to report the truth about the Chechen conflict and President Vladimir Putin. World Premiere

Afghan Star/Afghanistan/UK (Director: Havana Marking) - After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. This film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. North American Premiere

Big River Man/ USA (Director: John Maringouin) - An overweight, wine-swilling Slovenian world-record-holding endurance swimmer resolves to brave the mighty Amazon - in nothing but a Speedo®. World Premiere

Burma VJ/Denmark (Director: Anders Ostergaard) - In September 2007, Burmese journalists risking life imprisonment to report from inside their sealed-off country are suddenly thrown onto the global stage as their pocket camera images of the Saffron Revolution make headlines everywhere. U.S. Premiere

The End of the Line/ UK (Director: Rupert Murray) - Based on the book by journalist Charles Clover, The End of the Line reveals the devastating effect that global overfishing is having on fish stocks and the health of our oceans. World Premiere

The Glass House/USA (Director: Hamid Rahmanian) - The Glass House follows four teenage girls striving to overcome drug addiction, abandonment and abuse by attending a rehabilitation center in Tehran. North American Premiere

Kimjongilia/France/USA (Director: N.C. Heikin) - Defectors from North Korea finally speak out about the terrifying reality of their lives–and escapes. World Premiere

Let’s Make Money/Austria/China/South Africa/Spain/Switzerland/U.S.A. (Director: Erwin Wagenhofer) - From the factories of India, to financial markets in Singapore, to massive housing developments in Spain and offshore banks in Jersey, Let’s Make Money reveals complex and shocking workings of global money flow. World Premiere

Nollywood Babylon/Canada (Directors: Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal) - Welcome to the wacky world of Nollywood, Nigeria’s bustling home-grown movie industry. U.S. Premiere

Old Partner/South Korea (Director: Chung-ryoul Lee) - A humble octogenarian farmer lives out his final days with his spitfire wife and his loyal old ox in the Korean countryside. North American Premiere

Prom Night in Mississippi/ Canada (Director: Paul Saltzman) - When a small-town Mississippi high school resolves to hold its first integrated senior prom, strong emotions fly and traditions are challenged to their core. World Premiere

The Queen and I (Drottningen och jag) / Sweden (Director: Nahid Persson Sarvestani - Swedish filmmaker Sarvestani, an Iranian exile who helped overthrow the Shah’s regime in 1979, confronts her own assumptions and complex truths about Iran when she enters the life of the Shah’s widow. World Premiere

Quest for Honor/ Kurdistan / USA (Director: Mary Ann Bruni) - A former teacher and tireless activist works with local lawmen, Kurdish government agencies and her colleagues to investigate and eradicate honor killings in the tribal regions of Kurdistan. World Premiere

Rough Aunties/ UK (Director: Kim Longinotto) - Fearless, feisty and unwavering, the ‘Rough Aunties’ protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. North American Premiere

Thriller in Manila/ UK (Director: John Dower) - A tale of betrayal stoked by the racial politics of 1970s America, Thriller in Manila chronicles the most intense and bitter sporting rivalry ever: the 1975 final match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. North American Premiere

Tibet in Song / USA (Director: Ngawang Choephel) - Through the story of Tibetan music, this film depicts the determined efforts of Tibetan people, both in Tibet and in exile, to preserve their unique cultural identity. Choephel served six years of an 18-year prison sentence for filming in Tibet. World Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
This year’s 16 films were selected from a record 1,012 submissions.

Films screening in World Cinema Dramatic Competition are:

Before Tomorrow (Le Jour Avant Lendemain) / Canada (Directors: Madeline Piujuq & Marie-Helene Cousineau)—A wise old woman fights to survive impossible circumstances with her young grandson in the Canadian arctic. Cast: Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Paul-Dylan Ivalu, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Mary Qulitalik, Tumasie Sivuarapik.

Bronson / UK (Director: Nicolas Winding Refn; Screenwriter: Brock Norman Brock) - Bronson traces the transformation of Mickey Peterson into Britain’s most notorious, dangerous, and charismatic prisoner, Charles Bronson. Cast: Tom Hardy. North American Premiere

Carmo, Hit the Road / Spain (Director and Screenwriter: Murilo Pasta)— A lonely, handicapped smuggler and a beautiful girl embark on a reckless ride through a South American border landscape. Cast: Mariana Loureiro, Fele Martínez, Seu Jorge. North American Premiere

The Clone Returns (Kuron Wa Kokyo-Wo Mezasu)/ Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Kanji Nakajima) - A Japanese astronaut who dies during a mission is subsequently resurrected as a clone and returns to his childhood home. Cast: Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Eri Ishida, Hiromi Nagasaku. North American Premiere

Dada’s Dance / China (Director: Zhang Yuan; Screenwriter: Li Xiaofeng) - Dada is a flirtatious young woman who lives with her mother in a small town. Having to fend off the constant advances of her mother’s boyfriend who tells her she is adopted, she undertakes a journey in search of her birth mother. Cast: Li Xinyun, Li Xiaofeng, Gai Ge, Chen Jun. North American Premiere.

An Education/UK (Director: Lone Scherfig; Screenwriter: Nick Hornby) - In the early 60s, a sharp 16-year-old with sights set on Oxford meets a handsome older man whose sophistication enraptures and sidetracks both her and her parents. Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson. World Premiere

Five Minutes of Heaven /UK / (Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel; Screenwriter: Guy Hibbert) - Two men from the same town but from different sides of the Irish political divide discover that the past is never dead - in fact it isn’t even past. Cast: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca. World Premiere

A French Gigolo (Cliente) / France (Director and Screenwriter: Josiane Balasko) - An attractive, successful 50-something woman regularly treats herself to the sexual services of young men selected on Internet sites. When one particular escort becomes a habit, the relationship gets a bit more complicated. Cast: Nathalie Baye, Eric Caravaca, Isabelle Carré, Josiane Balasko. North American Premiere

Heart of Time (Corazon Del Tiempo)/ Mexico (Director and Screenwriter: Alberto Cortes) - In La Esperanza de San Pedro, Chiapas, in the midst of the Zapatista struggle, a young woman makes serious waves when she falls in love with a revolutionary fighter from the mountains. Cast: Rocío Barrios. North American Premiere

Louise-Michel/France (Directors: Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern) - When a French factory is abruptly closed by its corrupt management, a group of disgruntled female workers pool their paltry compensation money and hire a hit man to knock off the corrupt executive behind the closure. Cast: Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners. North American Premiere

Lulu and Jim (Lulu und Jimi)/ Germany (Director: Oskar Roehler) - Bright garish colors, rock and roll and wild dance numbers mark this road movie about lovers fleeing from the evil powers of a 1950s deeply bigoted German society.Cast: Jennifer Decker, Ray Fearon, Katrin Saß, Rolf Zacher, Udo Kier. World Premiere

The Maid (La Nana)/Chile (Director and Screenwriter: Sebastian Silva) - When her mistress brings on another servant to help with the chores, a bitter and introverted maid wreaks havoc on the household. Cast: Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Mariana Loyola, Alejandro Goic, Andrea García-Huidobro. North American Premiere

One Day in a Life (Un Altro Pianeta)/Italy (Director and Screenwriter: Stefano Tummolini) - One languid summer day, a man heads to the beach in search of sunshine and bit of peace, but finds himself tangled up in the dramas of an eclectic group of nearby sunbathers.Cast: Antonio Merone, Lucia Mascino. World Premiere

Unmade Beds/ UK (Director and Screenwriter: Alexis Dos Santos) - Two young foreigners find romance in the vibrant, artistic underground of London’s East End.Cast: Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve. World Premiere

Victoria Day/Canada (Director and Screenwriter: David Bezmozgis)—Over the course of one week in 1988, the search for a missing teammate, parental expectations, a burgeoning sexual awakening and the rock concert of the century all threaten to jolt a sixteen year old into adulthood. Cast: Mark Rendall, Sergiy Kotelenets, Nataliya Alyexeyenko, Holly Deveaux, John Mavrogiannis. World Premiere

Zion and His Brother (Zion Ve-Achiv)/ France / Israel (Director and Screenwriter: Eran Merav) - The disappearance of a young boy sends a wedge between two teenage brothers whose loyalty had been unshakeable, in this gritty story of a working class Tel Aviv single-parent family. Cast: Reuven Badalov, Ronit Elkabetz, Tzahi Grad. World Premiere

Jaman was out in force on Sunday night at Old Billingsgate Market in London for the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). Jaman entered the building to flash bulbs and shouts of a familiar name only to realise we had timed our entrance with that of Ben Kingsley and were not the hot ticket we thought we were. This years BIFAs flew in the face of the credit crunch with this event being the biggest in its 11 year history. The great and the good were out to show their support Danny Boyle, Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, David Thewlis and Steve McQueen, UK Director of Hunger rather than the 1960 & 70’s Icon.

The quality of the work nominated was outstanding with films such as Man on Wire, In Bruges, Hunger, and Slumdog Millionaire to name a few. After being entertained during dinner by the waitress’ ability to spill anything that she held we got down to the main event and the awards. Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner of the night taking Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Danny Boyle and Most Promising Newcomer for Dev Patel. Jaman got to catch up with Dev who was really pleased with his Best Newcomer Award. After starring in UK TV series Skins this was Dev’s first feature and he found working with Danny Boyle really insightful and loved the way he honed his acting skills. Jaman thinks Dev looks set for a bright future on the big screen after this early recognition. Jaman also caught up with another up and coming British star Thomas Turgoose, who was enjoying the night being the youngest ever Best Actor nominee for his second Shane Meadows film Somers Town. Thomas lost out to Michael Fassbender for Hunger who gives an amazing performance. Jaman later took to the dance floor to show of their moves with Keira Knightley and the cast of new British thriller Clubbed which is one to look out for 2009. Dancing was the winner and Jaman had a sore head to show for their efforts on Monday morning.

Here is a list of all of the winners.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR
Sponsored by The Creative Partnership

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]

Steve McQueen - Hunger

BEST SCREENPLAY
Sponsored by BBC Films

Martin McDonagh - In Bruges

BEST ACTRESS
Sponsored by M.A.C

Vera Farmiga - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

BEST ACTOR

Michael Fassbender - Hunger

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Alexis Zegerman - Happy-Go-Lucky

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sponsored by Tiscali

Eddie Marsan - Happy-Go-Lucky

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER

Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
Sponsored by Recorded Picture Company

The Escapist

RAINDANCE AWARD

Zebra Crossings

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Sponsored by Skillset

Cinematography - Sean Bobbitt - Hunger

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Sponsored by Chapter Media

Man on Wire

BEST BRITISH SHO

New Frontierwill feature the following works:

AGENCY OF TIME, PART 1B (Artist: Leighton Pierce)
Mesmerizing and transporting, Leighton Pierce’s installation work employs film, video, photography, and sound to create experiences in transformative time. In his multichannel installation, Agency of Time, painterly animations are created from long exposure photography. The animations are then projected onto various surfaces that engage with the architecture of the space to create a moving image environment that evokes the awareness of perception, point of view, time, desire, and memory.

THE CASTING (Artist: Omer Fast)
In Israeli born artist Omer Fast’s emotionally moving four channel installation,The Casting, a U.S. Army sergeant recounts two incidents: a romantic liaison with a young German woman who mutilates herself and the accidental shooting of an Iraqi. The two tales are seamlessly woven together into a script which was given to actors to perform in silent tableaux. The Casting, which won the 2008 Whitney Biennial prize, artfully reveals how both memory and cinema arbitrarily remix emotions, images, and words to create our connection to a moment and how the remix might serve to orient, or disorient us in our lives.

“endless pot of gold cd-rs” (Artist: Nasty Nets)
Nasty Nets is an international ensemble representing 25 of the most active artists working online today. Their work both celebrates and critiques the Internet by employing original and appropriated imagery and audio, animated gifs, YouTube hacks, html cheat codes, and other found/edited material. Each of these elements offers a humorous and poignant take on contemporary, digital visual culture. The public is invited to this event to create visual mischief on the internet at Nasty Nets: Night of a Thousand Megabytes, a Saturday late night digital art making jam at New Frontier on Main (RSVP by 8 pm Friday, Jan. 16 to NewFrontierRSVP@sundance.org).

Nasty Nets includes artists John Michael Boling, Joel Holmberg, Guthrie Lonergan, and Marisa Olson, members include: Peter Baldes, Michael Bell-Smith, Camille Paloque Bergés, Kevin Bewersdorf, Brian Blomerth, Charles Broskoski, Petra Cortright, Chris Coy, Paul B. Davis, Michael Guidetti, Britta Gustafson, Travis Hallenbeck, Chance Jackson, Lektrogirl, Tom Moody, Javier Morales, Paul Slocum, James Whipple, Robert Wodzinski, and Damon Zucconi.

EVOLUTION OF FEARLESSNESS (Artist: Lynette Wallworth)
In this profoundly evocative work, the viewer enters a dark room to learn about the stories of women who have survived war zones. The viewer can walk up to a threshold in the room where a moment of video meeting is made possible. In creating Evolution of Fearlessness, Australian artist Lynette Wallworth filmed portraits of several women residing in Australia but originating from countries such as Afghanistan‚ Sudan‚ Iraq, and El Salvador. They are women who have lived through wars‚ survived concentration camps, or extreme acts of violence. Built around the importance of gesture‚ Evolution of Fearlessness enlists its interactive structure to link us to the living women contained in the piece.

EXILES OF THE SHATTERED STAR; TWILIGHT AVENGER; WAGONS ROLL (Artist: Kelly Richardson)
UK based artist Kelly Richardson uses cinematic language to create part real/part imagined landscapes which offers a wavering hybrid of fact and fiction that are visual metaphors for our modern reality. A daily rotation of three single channel works encourages the viewer to fill in the blanks of each story. In Twilight Avenger, a stag radiates in the dark and in Wagon’s Roll the viewer is presented with a suspended car mid flight off of a cliff’s edge. In Exiles of the Shattered Star, a bucolic countryside is disrupted by other worldly elements showering down from a distant place.

IJ CENTRAL; ADOPT LINKS; DIGITAL DIASPORA (Artists: The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) Producers Institute Fellows, Paco De Onis, Deane Liam, and Thomas Allen Harris)
The Producers Institute for New Media Technologies at BAVC is a residency program for independent producers to develop and prototype a multiplatform, interactive project informed by a social justice documentary. The participants adapt their content for video game applications, media rich maps, interactive timelines, mobile streaming, virtual communities, and social media networks. This special presentation will spotlight three works: IJ Central, by Paco De Onis, producer of The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court; AdoptLinks, by filmmaker Deanne Liam, which is based on her upcoming feature, Precious Objects of Desire; and Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, by Thomas Allen Harris which is based on his upcoming feature documentary, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.

LUNCHFILM: FILM BEFORE FOOD (Filmmakers: Various independent filmmakers)
Truly independent films are made from the gut. Mike Plante’s Lunchfilm concept is basic: a filmmaker is taken out to lunch and in exchange, the filmmaker agrees to make a short film. The budget– the same cost as the lunch. A contract is drawn up on a napkin and includes both rules and ideas for inspiration. At times poetically real or languidly artistic, the resulting Lunchfilms offer a variety of stunning tastes.

The participating filmmakers are Tom Barndt, Martha Colburn, Sean Conway, David Fenster and David, Nordstrom, Jim Finn, Mike Gibisser, Bobcat Goldthwait, Brent Green, Sam Green, Braden King, George Kuchar, Lee Lynch and Naomi Uman, Jake Mahaffy, Nicolas McCarthy, Sarah Soquel Morhaim, Ricardo Rivera, Kelly Sears, Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker, and Anonymous.

THE WORKS OF MARIA MARSHALL (Artist: Maria Marshall)
London based artist, Maria Marshall’s disturbing and gorgeously composed video projections provoke the psychological dimensions of cinema. Often violent and always visually charming, Marshall has made more than 35 installations and frequently uses her two sons in the main roles. Marshall’s work tackles the fundamental subjects of motherhood, socialization, and life experience and takes us back to the world of childhood as a pretext in order to evoke the anxiety of adults. Hypnotic in effect, Marshall’s films employ digital technology to create disturbing images such as a video portrait of her young son smoking, or a piece in which Marshall’s skin literally crawls.

THE COMPOSERS LAB EXPERIMENTS: METAMORPHOSES (Artists: Gingger Shankar and //a73)
The Composer’s Lab Experiments at New Frontier feature collaboration between musician, Gingger Shankar and filmmakers A.J. Lara and Arthur Hyde. In their multimedia performance, Metamorphoses, Gingger Shankar and special guest musicians will elegantly score the walls of time and space. The musicians will test the boundaries of organic versus electronic music, in search of where the two meet.

MICHAEL PORTNOY:PROVOCATEUR (Artists:Michael Portnoy )
Performance artist Michael Portnoy’s long standing investigation of social exchange, along with the rules of communication and play, has led him to create the television show Provocateur for Ovation TV. It is there that art, performance, and conversation collide. Guests will be chosen from the Festival community for their capacity to challenge status quo– pushing work and perception to the edge. Episodes of Provocateur will be filmed daily at 4:30 pm January 16-21, in front of a live audience at New Frontier on Main.

MOON THEATER (Artists: Nova Jiang and Michael Kontopoulos)
Nova Jiang and Michael Kontopoulos have created a playful interactive work that allows audiences to get their hands on the moon! Moon Theater uses interactive shadow-play and high tech magic to transform hand shadow puppets which are then projected onto a large floating moon. Moon Theater is designed to address issues of scale and social performance in a public setting.

MOTHER + FATHER (Artist: Candice Breitz)
Candice Breitz’s media installation, Mother + Father, appropriates a cast of iconic actors from Hollywood blockbusters in the service of examining our popular notions of parenthood. In an energetic and insightful orchestration of gestures, tears, laughter, and guffaws, twelve actors passionately perform the rites of motherhood and fatherhood across a twelve channel plasma installation. Breitz offers us parenthood as a metaphor for the relationship between star and fan, and invites us to reflect on the formative role that cinema increasingly plays in our lives.

STINGRAY SAM (Filmmaker: Cory McAbee)
Cory McAbee is a well known Sundance alumnus having written and directed The American Astronaut, which screened in the Dramatic Competition of the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. This year’s film Stingray Sam presented at New Frontier on Main reunites Stingray Sam (McAbee’s alter ego) on a dangerous mission with his long lost accomplice, The Quasar Kid. Follow these two space-convicts as they earn their freedom in exchange for the rescue of a young girl who is being held captive by the genetically designed figurehead of a very wealthy planet. Featuring music by American Astronaut and narrated by David Hyde Pierce, this musical space-western is a 6 part mini series designed for screens of all sizes.

TAMPER (Scientists: John Underkoffler and Oblong Industries)
In the film Minority Report Tom Cruise wears gloves that grab and move computer images in space. The consulting scientist who invented the technology for the production has now developed it into a full fledged operating system. New Frontier is proud to unveil this new media technology that may very well revolutionize the way we edit film. TAMPER provides an editing room of mild derangement where visitors become cinema collage artists, using their hands directly to grab and recompose film elements such as characters, props, architecture, captured from different movies.

WE FEEL FINE and UNIVERSE (Artist/Computer Scientists: Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar)
Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar’s work combines elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art, and storytelling. Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe presents an immersive environment for navigating the world’s contemporary mythology as found online in global news and information. Each person’s path through Universe is different, allowing each of us to find our own constellations, based on our own interests and curiosities. We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale. Every few minutes, We Feel Fine takes sentences that include the words “I feel” or “I am feeling” from all blogs that have been published in the last few minutes, and visualizes them in six different movements that allows viewers to see what any part of the world is feeling at any given moment.

Other best-picture nominees for the awards, which honor independent film, were Michelle Williams’ down-on-her-luck drama “Wendy and Lucy” and Mickey Rourke’s broken-down athlete tale “The Wrestler.”
Hathaway and Williams have lead-actress nominations, along with Melissa Leo for “Frozen River,” Summer Bishil for “Towelhead” and Tarra Riggs for “Ballast.”

Rourke has a lead-actor nomination, along with Javier Bardem for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” Richard Jenkins for “The Visitor,” Sean Penn for “Milk” and Jeremy Renner for “The Hurt Locker.”

Eligible films must have cost less than $20 million to produce, with significant financing from independent sources outside the Hollywood studio system.

The Spirit Awards will be presented Feb. 21, a day before the Academy Awards.

Nominees

Best Feature
Rachel Getting Married
Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt
The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin
Wendy and Lucy
Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani
Ballast
Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
Frozen River
Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae

Best Director
Tom McCarthy
The Visitor
Jonathan Demme
Rachel Getting Married
Courtney Hunt
Frozen River
Ramin Bahrani
Chop Shop
Lance Hammer
Ballast

Best Screenplay
Woody Allen
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Sugar
Charlie Kaufman
Synecdoche, New York
Howard A. Rodman
Savage Grace
Christopher Zalla
Sangre De Mi Sangre

Best Female Lead
Summer Bishil
Towelhead
Anne Hathaway
Rachel Getting Married
Melissa Leo
Frozen River
Tarra Riggs
Ballast
Michelle Williams
Wendy and Lucy

Best Male Lead
Javier Bardem
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Richard Jenkins
The Visitor
Sean Penn
Milk
Jeremy Renner
The Hurt Locker
Mickey Rourke
The Wrestler

Best Documentary
The Order of Myths
Margaret Brown
Up the Yangtze
Yung Chang
Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog
The Betrayal
Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath
Man on Wire
James Marsh

Source

What’s Cooking?

Meanwhile for a moment of complete silliness -enjoy this youtube clip of Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog making mashed potatoes. It’s genius.

They’re Coming to Get You

So a look at our figures reveals that They’re Coming To Get You is very popular among our users. Just because you asked, we decided to give this gem another look.

Released in the States as They’re Coming To Get You, it turns out the film is actually called All The Colors Of The Dark (Tutti i colori del buio, in the original Italian). The film falls firmly in the giallo category, giallo being a lurid and sensationalistic sub-genre of Italian horror. The hallucinogenic and thrilling story of a woman beset by both a mysterious cult and a homicidal madman, it’s directed by Sergio Martino, an Italian filmmaker whose giallo bona fides are second only to those of horrormeisters Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Sleazy and insane, the other 87 minutes of the film are just as weird and spectacular as the two minutes in the clip above.

While we’re talking about hidden gems, I’d like to bring your attention to Jeff Burr’s Straight Into Darkness.

Straight into Darkness

My favorite movie on Jaman, Straight Into Darkness is the tale of a pair of American soldiers who desert their duty at the end of WWII. Crossing a war-torn landscape as fractured as their souls, they wind up in a run-down castle occupied by a group of orphaned children and their adult caretakers.

Burr cut his teeth on a number of low-budget horror films, and Straight Into Darkness treats the ravages of war with a horror master’s eye for gore, crisis, and catharsis. But look a little closer: Burr’s balancing a bunch of genres in this film, making a war movie, a horror movie, an action movie, even a documentary, switching gears so efficiently from one mode to another that the movie feels like no other. His most bizarre choice, perhaps, is to make his younger characters (all played by Romanian war orphans that Burr befriended on the shoot of a previous film) a tightly-knit pack of kick-ass action heroes. But though Burr plows through his action sequences with bravado and punch, it’s always clear how much he cares about his characters, and it’s amazing how much he makes us care about them, too. I can’t think of another movie that dramatizes the action of war so thrillingly, but at the same time delivers the sadness and pain that war leaves in its wake.

That such a film was too weird for mainstream distribution is hardly surprising. It’s exactly the kind of exciting, unclassifiable, and finally unique film that Jaman is proud to bring to you. Please do explore these films, and take moment to dig around the far corners of the site. Your new favorite movie could be just a click away!

True Blood- Trailer

It was last year that I heard that they were in production with a movie based on the bestselling series of novels by Stephenie Meyer, about a girl, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), who moves to the Northwest only to fall for the dashingly handsome and mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). The catch is, Edward is a Vampire. The obviously isn’t your typical love story. I can’t remember the last time that I fell in love with someone that actually craved my blood- then again, I live a pretty normal life.

The movie opens tonight with midnight shows at several theaters, most of which have been sold out for weeks, a #1 soundtrack and screaming fans all around the globe with tattoos of characters names on their body. Take a look and see what all the fuss is about.
Twilight - Trailer