Author: CWB News Department

LOS ANGELES (August 15, 2016) – The 38th edition of The Reel Thing, a three-day symposium addressing audio/visual restoration and archiving, will explore the constantly evolving ecosystem of film and digital restoration and preservation. This year’s program will examine legacy film restorations and showcase modern technologies being used to futureproof collections and keep them viable for future display and distribution formats. The event will take place August 18-20 at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.In addition to discussions with industry leaders, premiere screenings of several restored films are scheduled, including the original, uncensored version of John Huston’s BEAT THE DEVIL;…

Irvine, Calif. (Aug. 12, 2016)— RED Digital Cinema®, in partnership with Outside Television, has announced Isaac Sokol’s Into Dust as the winning short film in this year’s edition of the REDirect Explore competition. Second place went to Jesse Hoffman for The Process, and Joey Schusler’s Pedal to Peaks won the Fan Favorite category. “On the heels of REDirect Skate and Surf, the Explore series certainly did not disappoint,” said RED Digital Cinema President Jarred Land. “Into Dust really captured the essence of REDirect—combining beautiful cinematography with powerful storytelling. Congratulations to him and every one of the contestants for their submissions.” The third annual REDirect contest celebrated the exploration of the…

Led by Wang Jianlin, Asia’s richest man, the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group continues to expand their global film empire through a recent agreement to acquire Mtime, a Beijing-based film and media company, for $350 million. Mtime’s business also comprises film marketing and a rapidly growing e-commerce platform with an ability to target China’s growing movie merchandising sector This agreement follows a series of momentous moves being made by Wanda over the past year. In January, Wanda group purchased Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion, then also bought Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group, a European movie chain, for $1.2 billion in…

The competition for the Golden Shell at the latest edition of the San Sebastian Festival, running from September 16th to 24th, will have as its protagonists some of the most eye-catching moviemakers on the international panorama. Bertrand Bonello (‘Nocturama’), Fernando Guzzoni (‘Jesus’), Johannes Nyholm (‘Jätten’ ), William Oldroyd (‘Lady Macbeth’), Arnaud des Pallières (‘Orpheline’), Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (‘As You Are’) and Hong Sang-soo (‘Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot’ ) join the list of filmmakers whose works will compete in the Official Selection. Bonello will present ‘Nocturama’, a film which has generated great interest in both its director and its subject matter. The filmmaker from Nice won the…

Out of the 11 titles in competition representing 20 nationalities and including seven female directors, 10 of these films will be world premieres and seven of them will be first works. Long time independent sidebar to the Venice International Film Festival, Venice Days will run from August 31 to September 10. Spanning a great number of genres, the competition includes thrillers, ‘Hounds of Love’ from Ben Young, melodramas, ‘Indivisible’ by Edoardo De Angelis and ‘Pamilya Ordinaryo’ by Eduardo Roy, Jr.; a movie about immigration, ‘The Road to Mandalay’ helmed by Midi Z; a bio pic, ‘Sami Blood’ by Amanda Kernell; a western, ‘Guilty Men’…

First-time writer and director Lee Ju-yeong along with other established South Korean directors like Kim Jee-woon (‘The Good the Bad, and the Weird) are riding a tidal wave of new local production being rolled out by Warner Brothers. The company plans to release two South Korean films in the country this year, both currently in preproduction, all this to be a part of a slate of up to four local productions for 2017. Handling this new slate of projects is Jay Choi, a seasoned Korean producer and former executive at a number of local distribution/investment films. Choi was appointed in…

This past Tuesday, TIFF offered a first glance at the panels to come for its September event. These include discussions on the Brexit as well as Hollywood’s gender bias problem. To top it off, there will also be a conversation with ‘Hoop Dreams’ director Steve James. Each of the panels will have an accompanying material to watch that highlights the topics for attending audiences. To air out the gender gap, TIFF organizers have planned a screening of the docuseries ‘4%: Film’s Gender Problem,’ a more recent production from Jigsaw Productions, Alex Gibney’s company. The series explores the current issues around…

Aspen, CO (July 20, 2016) – Tapping three female industry veterans to lead its slates in the coming year, Aspen Film today announced special guest programmers for its flagship events during the 2016-17 season. Rachel Chanoff has been named Director of Programming for the 38th annual Aspen Filmfest (September 21-25, 2016); Jane Schoettle will serve as Director of Programming for the 25th Aspen Film Academy Screenings (December 21, 2016-January 1, 2017); and Kathleen McInnis will bring her shorts expertise as Director of Programming for the 26th Annual Aspen Shortsfest (April 5-9, 2017). “We’re ecstatic about the stellar quality of our programming directors for the…

Breaking records for the Shangai Stock Exchange, China Film Group Corporation’s $611 million intial public offering will be the largest in the history of Chinese entertainment. The $611 million translates to 4.09 billion yuan. China Film Co. is a state run movie distributor and is reported on by Forbes to be have a monopoly on that region’s industry. If you want to inport films into that audience, you will be dealing with them or their other state-backed distributor Huaxia. On paper, China Film Co. has a commanding 58% share of the entire theatrical movie distribution in China. With the money…

This past weekend Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 2016 awarded some of the best films from across the globe. ZIFF 2016 took place from July 9th to the 17th with more than a week of film screenings and special events enjoyed by thousands of locals, over 60 visiting filmmakers and hundreds of invited guests and international visitors. East African films dominated the awards, with Rwanda’s ‘A Place for Myself ‘winning three awards; The Sembene Ousmane Award, The Signis Prize, and the Golden Dhow for Best Short Film. Kenya’s ‘Watatu’ also was recognised with three awards, including the coveted Golden Dhow for Best Feature Film,…