DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS PARTNERS WITH HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS

By: Josh Abraham
Dick Clark Productions and Carlos de Abreu announce their partnership on the Hollywood Film Awards®. The event, founded by de Abreu and Janice Pennington honors excellence in filmmaking and traditionally signals the start of the Hollywood awards season. The 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards® will take place on October 23, 2013 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The show will continue to be produced by de Abreu with support from dick clark productions.

“I am very excited that dick clark productions has joined us in our journey of celebrating Hollywood cinema and launching the awards season,” said de Abreu.

“The Hollywood Film Awards has done a great job over the past 16 years honoring the best of the best, creating a stellar star-studded event” said Allen Shapiro, CEO of dick clark productions. “We look forward to taking the Hollywood Film Awards to the next level.”

The Hollywood Film Awards honors cinematic talent in the following categories: Hollywood Career Achievement Award, Hollywood Actor Award, Hollywood Actress Award, Hollywood Supporting Actor Award, Hollywood Supporting Actress Award, Hollywood Ensemble Award, Hollywood Breakthrough Performance Award, Hollywood Director Award, Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award, Hollywood Screenwriter Award, Hollywood Comedy Award, New Hollywood Award, Hollywood Producers Award, Hollywood Cinematographer Award, Hollywood Editor Award, Hollywood Film Composer Award, Hollywood Production Designer Award, Hollywood Animation Award, Hollywood Visual Effects Award, Hollywood Costume Designer Award, Hollywood Makeup and Hair Award, Hollywood Leadership Award, and the Hollywood Humanitarian Award.

2012 honorees included some of Hollywood’s brightest stars such as Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, John Goodman, Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman, Judd Apatow, Amy Adams and more. Over the past two years, approximately 80% of the HFA honorees have received an Oscar nomination.

The first-ever Hollywood Film Awards® gala took place in October 1997 in the historic Blossom Room at theHollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in Hollywood. Kirk Douglas took home the inaugural “Hollywood Lifetime Achievement Award.”

ABOUT DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
Founded in 1957, dick clark productions, inc (DCP) is a leading independent producer of television programming. DCP produces perennial hits such as the “American Music Awards,” “Golden Globe Awards,” “Academy of Country Music Awards,” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” DCP also produces popular weekly television programming, including “So You Think You Can Dance,” and owns and maintains one of the world’s most unique and extensive entertainment libraries, which includes more than 30 years of “American Bandstand” footage. For additional information, visit www.dickclark.com.

ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS
The Hollywood Film Awards were created to honor excellence in the art of filmmaking, both in-front of and behind the camera, and launch the awards season. The recipients are selected to be honored for their body of work and/or a film(s) that is to be released during the calendar year. For additional information, visit: www.hollywoodawards.com.

-dcp-

PR Contacts:

dick clark productions
Liz Morentin
310-255-4602
lmorentin@dickclark.com

Larry Solters
Scoop Marketing
818-761-7185
solters@solters.com

Tags: academy award, Carlos de Abreu, Cinema of the United States, dick clark productions,Entertainment/Culture, golden globe award, Hollywood, HOLLYWOOD INTERMEDIATE INC., Human Interest, Los Angeles County California, Television in the United States, the Hollywood Film Awards

15 Female Directors Who Made Their First Feature After Turning 40

Two weeks ago, this column profiled ten female directors aged 40 or younger. My reasons for imposing an age limit were clearly stated, but it had the unfortunate side effect of excluding an entire demographic from the conversation - one that has a sorry history of receiving such treatment in Hollywood.

However, simply flipping my gaze in their direction did not seem the most illustrative solution. Many of the most prominent female directors in the world are older than 40 - Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola etc - and the success of their careers suggests that turning forty is not the death knell for female directors that it can be for on-screen talent.

It seemed a more interesting approach to look at directors whose feature film career did not even begin until the age of forty or later. In last week’s article, a user wrote in the comments section of being an aspiring director in her fifties and feeling “left out in the cold” by a society that habitually renders middle-aged women invisible in public forums. It is an attitude that we can all recognise - and combined with the film industry’s thirst for young talent, suggests that beginning a feature film career in ones fifth decade is an impossible exercise. And yet, the list of women who have followed such a path is distinguished.

There is no better place to start than with one of the most acclaimed arthouse directors in the world, Claire Denis, whose “Beau Travail” was one of two films directed by women to make it onto Sight and Sound’s latest 100 greatest films of all time poll. Denis premiered her debut feature "Chocolat" at Cannes aged 40, following a career as an assistant director to the likes of Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders.

Claire Denis on set.

Three of the most critically acclaimed British directors of recent times all turned to features after forty. Andrea Arnold had a successful career as an actress and television presenter before studying at AFI and seeing “Red Road” premiere at Cannes aged 45. Joanna Hoggestablished a career as a television director, before releasing at the age of 48 her award-winning debut “Unrelated”, in which she aspired to “do everything I was told not to in TV”. Clio Barnard, previously a video artist, made her feature debut with “The Arbor” aged 45.

Outside the UK, Australian Julia Leigh completed two novels and a PhD before turning to filmmaking and seeing her debut “Sleeping Beauty” compete for the Palme d’or aged 40.  Both Lynn Shelton and Debra Granik debuted at the same age with "We Go Way Back" “Down to the Bone," respectively. The latter went on to nab four Oscar nominations for her follow-up “Winter’s Bone”, while Shelton has released a string of recent critical hits including "Humpday," "Your Sister's Sister" and "Touchy Feely."  And then there's Deepa Mehta, who was Oscar-nominated for “Water” after turning to features at 41 following a career writing for children’s films and documentaries.

Several directors have seen a late-blossoming feature film career lead to high profile assignments, though to be fair, these tend to be women well-established in other fields. Video artist Sam Taylor-Johnson made her debut with “Nowhere Boy” aged 41, and has since been granted the dubious but high-profile task of directing the “Fifty Shades of Grey” adaptation. Catherine Hardwicke followed a successful career as a production designer by writing and directing “Thirteen” aged 47, before being hired to direct the first “Twilight” film. Meanwhile Phyllida Lloyd was a hugely acclaimed theatre director before directing the film adaptation of “Mamma Mia” aged 51, while another very successful stage director, Julie Taymor, made her debut with “Titus” aged 46, before directing “Frida” to six Oscar nominations.

The most extreme example of this trajectory is Maya Angelou, the first black woman to have a feature length screenplay produced with 1972’s “Georgia Georgia”. She was famously excluded from further input in that production, but finally got to direct a feature at the age of 70 with 1996’s “Down in the Delta”.

The above examples offer two interpretations. It may be encouraging to know that women who turn to feature filmmaking relatively late are not excluded from the party. But it could also be said, in some cases at least, that they were required to prove themselves in another discipline before being granted the reins to a feature. The truth is that each example has its own circumstances. And while the names listed above may provide inspiration, the real question is whether a female director is able and happy to dictate the terms and trajectory of her feature film career, or whether it is subject to discriminatory forces pertaining to her age and gender.

For some insight, I turned to Brenda Davis, a woman who could not be more in the firing line, as her debut feature documentary “Sister” is released today, in the year she turns fifty. “I’ve wanted to make films for as long as I can remember, but it seems right that it happened now. I wouldn’t change it for the world”, she tells me. A self-confessed film geek, Brenda initially worked as a script supervisor and researcher, completing her last script supervising job when she was seven months pregnant. Following the birth of her daughter, she worked mostly in research roles, before starting to take camera and editing workshops to gain practical skills.

The idea to make "Sister" - a harrowing documentary that lays painfully bare the state of childbirth in three developing nations - did not come about until her daughter was in high school. “I’m a single mother, so before that I wanted her to feel the stability of having a parent around. By making my film, what she got to see was her mother’s desire to create and accomplish that epic task”.

In Davis’s estimation “there is no way I could have made this film twenty years ago. This film, this story, my skills, took this long to brew. It’s a very personal film. There were so many things I had to learn before making it”. It is a refreshingly philosophical attitude in industry full of twentysomethings wracked with with career anxiety (I am one of such fools). But she is right - her documentary contains painfully intimate scenes that one cannot imagine having the trust and ability to capture without considerable patience and experience.

Davis does concede that stepping up to the director role presented some very new challenges. “I used to find it very difficult to ask for help or to vent, I was very head down – you wanted to do this, so do it and don’t complain. I’d be a Defcon 1 before I’d reach out to someone. I think it’s a single mother thing. Now, if I don’t know how to do something or I’m over my head, I find someone to show me or talk me through it”. She credits a wide group of women in the industry with filling this role, from her DP and co-producer Swati Guild to “Yelling to the Sky” director Victoria Mahoney, Alison Palmer, Lemore Syvan, Caroline Kaplan, Meg McLagan, Tigist Selam, Kirsten Johnson and Tanya Ager Meiller.

The names are specific to her experience, but what matters is that these people existed, and believed in Davis’s ability and right to tell her story - one so fully informed by her age and gender. Let us also bear in mind that she succeeded in the independent documentary sector, traditionally more welcoming to female filmmakers than the studio system. The problem comes when so much of the industry is predisposed to expect the “next big thing” to be young, white and male. The examples listed above are ample proof that this is a foolish preconception.

SISTER is released today (August 8th) through Journeyman Pictures UK on DVD/VOD. Seewww.sisterdocumentary.com for more details.

Matthew Hammett Knott is a London-based filmmaker and writer. Follow him on Twitter.

Hollywood Blues: ‘Smurfs 2′ Bombs Here And Blah Overseas; Denzel-Mark’s ’2 Guns’ Wins Weekend, ‘Wolverine’ Holds For #2

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday August 4, 2013 @ 5:45am PDT

SUNDAY AM, 7TH UPDATE: This is yet another weekend that confounded and confused Hollywood as domestic numbers are coming in lower than projected and only international grosses are saving Summer 2013. Interesting that the Top Three films are all based on comic books. (Maybe that’s the reason?) Total moviegoing looks about $125M or about +8% from last year because of the glut of 3D films in the crowded marketplace. 

I’m shocked how badly the #3 film Sony Pictures Animation‘s The Smurfs 2(3,866 theaters) bombed in the U.S. and Canada where even the most wretched family fare can catch a break at the summer box office. This 3D hybrid live-action/CG  animated sequel couldn’t even make in its first five days ($27.8M) what the 2011 original grossed in its first three-day weekend ($35.6M). Ouch!Guess little blue people creep me out and North Americans, too. The domestic total fell way short of the $35M first projected by the studio which blames too many PG films at the multiplex. But even the foreign cume was blah: $52.5M from 43 territories was “not enough to make up for U.S. underperformance,” a Sony exec tells me. That’s a worldwide total of $80.3M, far less than the $100M which Sony projected this weekend. Russia and Latin America beat Smurfs 1 while shockingly Europe (where the Smurfs began) did not. Let’s remember that the 2011 original made 75% of its coin overseas ($420M foreign vs $142M domestic) so Sony is was counting on a big worldwide weekend to save pic’s bottom-line. The negative cost for Smurfs 2was $125M ($146M less production benefits of $21M). Sony also lined up for the sequel one of the studio’s largest global promotion campaigns with $150M from 100 corporations, licensees, and retail partners. (Including McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, blueberries). That’s a big deal for family fare not branded Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks. As expected Smurfs 2 opened Wednesday #1 atop the North American box office but with only a lame $5.2M and then a lifeless $18.2M three-day weekend. Its Rotten Tomatoes score was a poor 12% but the ‘A-’ CinemaScore from audiences didn’t help domestic word of mouth. I hear the Sony brass was concerned from the outset because their sequel was out-tracked by Disney’s Planes (which opens August 9th). Smurfs 2‘s disappointment will only put more pressure on the studio from cantankerous investor Daniel Loeb who’s currently destabilizing the studio. The first film was taken out of turnaround from Paramount by then Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman/CEO Michael Lynton, now the Sony America bigwig. And that original Smurfs movie caught lightning in a bottle and grossed $563M worldwide. Because of that, Smurfs 3 already is scheduled for 2015.

Better news for Emmett/Furla Films which financed 2 Guns that’s being distributed in America by Universal with EOne releasing in Canada. Playing in 3,025 domestic theaters, it was the #1 film this weekend – 7th time Universal has claimed top spot at the North American box office in 2013 – with a so-so $27.4M. Audiences liked it much more than critics who gave it only a middling 58% Rotten Tomatoes score vs its ‘B+’ CinemaScore. The studio had trouble building awareness in the crowded marketplace so low-balled its projection of only a $22M weekend. But two marquee stars paired for the first time like Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg should open any film to at least $25M. Good thing the ‘R’-rated comedy actioner cost only $61M. I think what helped box office is that Denzel rarely appears in a bad pic so audiences trust that. And Wahlberg is a consistent draw. Their starpower clearly was pushing gross for this film based on the Boom! Studios comic book by Steven Grant and directed by Baltasar Kormakur (who reteamed with Wahlberg after Contraband) and screenwriter Blake Masters (TV’s Brotherhood). 2 Guns was tracking strongest with its target audience of young males and African Americans after significant multicultural outreach. To that end, Universal developed an 82-second English-language spot specifically for the bilingual Hispanic audience. Washington and Wahlberg made appearances on NBCU-owned Telemundo’s morning show Un Nuevo Dia which created a first ever interview paired with the Today Show. 2 Guns villain Edward James Olmos did Hispanic media and developed 10 spots with Mexican-themes. Other promotions were aimed at African-Amercans including BeET’s top rated 106 & Park and the 2nd largest black network TV One. Exit polling showed moviegoers were 14% Hispanic and 28% African-American.

In #2 is Twentieth Century Fox’s holdover, Marvel’s Wolverine (with the highest theater count of 3,924). Marvel character played by Hugh Jackman yet again dropped 59% drop from last weekend for $21.7M and a new domestic cume through Sunday of $95M. Worldwide total is $255.2M.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros/New Line’s low-cost $19M horror genre The Conjuring (3,155 theaters) crossed $100M after three weeks Saturday on its way to $135M all in. Studio says it’s now the 6th biggest horror film of all time and easily will end up as #4 or even #3.

Here are the Top Ten films based on weekend estimates:

1. 2 Guns (Emmett-Furla/Universal) NEW [Runs 3,025] R
Friday $10.0M, Saturday $9.8M, Weekend $27.4M

2. The Wolverine 3D (20th Century Fox) Week 2 [Runs 3,924] PG13
Friday $6.4M, Saturday $8.6M, Weekend $21.7M (-59%), Cume $95.0M
International Cume $160.2M, Worldwide Total $255.2M

3. The Smurfs 2 3D (Sony Animation) Week 1 [Runs 3,866] PG
Friday $5.5M, Saturday $7.1M, Weekend $18.2M, Cume $27.8M
International Cume $52.5M, Worldwide Total $80.3M

4. The Conjuring (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 3 [Runs 3,115] R
Friday $4.3M, Saturday $5.1M, Weekend $13.6M, Cume $108.4M

5. Despicable Me 2 3D (Illumination/Universal) Week 5 [Runs 3,207] PG
Friday $3.0M, Saturday $4.0M, Weekend $10.3M, Cume $326.7M
International Cume $387.0M, Worldwide Total $713.7M

6. Grown Ups 2 (Columbia/Sony) Week 4 [Runs 3,075] PG13
Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.2M, Weekend $8.2M, Cume $116.4M

7. Turbo 3D (DreamWorks Animation/Fox) Week 3 [Runs 2,985] PG
Friday $1.8M, Saturday $2.6M, Weekend $6.5M, Cume $69.4M

8. Red 2 (Summit/Lionsgate) Week 3 [Runs 2,755] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $5.8M, Cume $45.3M

9. The Heat (20th Century Fox) Week 6, [Runs 2,074] R
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.0M, Weekend $4.9M, Cume $149.7M

10. Pacific Rim 3D (Legendary/Warner Bros) Week 4 [Runs 1,803] PG13
Friday $1.2M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.5M, Cume $92.9M

Nikki Finke is currently on vacation.

Glendora Officer Nearly Fires On Student Crew Filming Robbery Scene

GLENDORA (CBSLA.com) — A student film crew shooting a robbery scene at a Glendora coffee shop were almost fired on by police who believed an actual crime was taking place.

The incident happened at Classic Coffee on North Glendora Avenue around 7:20 a.m. Thursday.
Passerby Linda Bergslien told CBS2’s Cristy Fajardo that she thought she was witnessing a robbery and feared for her life. She immediately called 911.

“They had masks on, and the one had a gun in his hand, and it was clear they were ready to enter the building,” she said.

Eight officers responded to the scene.

A sergeant and two officers stormed into the coffee shop and saw what appeared to be two armed men. Police said one suspect froze and didn’t drop his weapon.

One officer got ready to shoot when another intervened.

“When he didn’t drop the gun, one of the officers reached out and pulled the gun out of his hand,” said Capt. Tim Staab of the Glendora Police Department.

Seconds later, the sergeant saw a camera, and the actors explained they were shooting a short film.
Police said the crew didn’t pull any permits and didn’t notify cops of the filming. Because it was a small production, there were no signs of a movie shoot.

The actors also removed or blackened the orange tips on their toy guns.

“It was extremely reckless and thank goodness our officers responded in the right way,” said Staab.

Photographers Turned to Drones to Get Pics of Tina Turner’s Wedding

By Kelly Faircloth

Bad news, famous people: Wedding mania shows no signs of abating, and with the rise of drones, there’s yet another tool for tech-savvy paparazzi looking to get their money shot. Take, for example, the recent wedding of 73-year-old musical legend Tina Turner.

Spiegel reports that Ms. Turner and her fiance, a German music producer, held the celeb-heavy ceremony at the singer’s Swiss estate and even hung up a big curtain to shield the gathering. Photogs got creative:

“In the race for an exclusive wedding picture, Marti’s colleague Claudio Meier came up cold. The freelance photographer equipped himself with the latest technology and launched a remote-controlled drone from in front of Tina Turner’s estate. Meier wanted to fly the aircraft, a so-called quadrocopter, over Turner’s extravagant garden in order to get a good shot of the event.”

He claims at least one fellow photographer gave it a try. No luck, though: The cops made him land the drone and took his memory card. Their reason: “The drones could have collided with the helicopters that dropped rose petals over the bride and groom, thereby representing ‘a threat to air safety.’”

Ultimately, victory went to someone who flew over the ceremony in a small plane. If you want something done right…

Follow Kelly Faircloth on Twitter or via RSS. kfaircloth@observer.com