LOS ANGELES -- Underscoring that VR has indeed arrived is the most recent high-profile recognition of its value and artistry, coming from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors which voted to present a Special Award--an Oscar statuette--to director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s virtual reality installation, “CARNE y ARENA (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible).” Academy president John Bailey said that the work from Iñárritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki has “opened for us... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Becoming the first woman of color to direct a feature with a budget of $100 million-plus is an historic achievement for Ava DuVernay who’s currently in post on that Disney film, A Wrinkle in Time . A key part of her experience on the tentpole movie--which is slated for release in March 2018--has been gaining an education in visual effects, thanks to a number of giving artists, including VFX supervisor Rich McBride, an Oscar nominee last year for The Revenant . DuVernay talked about the value of... Read More, Comment

BROOKLYN, NY -- Director Brett Morgen’s Jane took home the top honor as Best Documentary at the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards held this evening (11/2) at BRIC in Brooklyn. The National Geographic film sheds light on Jane Goodall and her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees. The documentary awards competition was presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA). “We are so happy to be able to celebrate the supremely... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- One hundred seventy features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 90th Academy Awards®. The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are: “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” “Aida’s Secrets” “Al Di Qua” “All the Rage” “All These Sleepless Nights” “AlphaGo” “The American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy” “And the Winner Isn’t” “Angels Within” “Architects of Denial” “Arthur Miller: Writer” “Atomic Homefront” “The B-... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pinterest often gets lumped in with social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook, but people don’t use it to meet new people or to keep in touch with old classmates. It’s designed more to let you get in touch with your own interests, tastes and hobbies. “There other people also using it, but the goal is not to make friends with them or talk with them,” says Ben Silbermann, the company’s CEO and co-founder. “It’s really just to get ideas for your life.” The online visual discovery... Read More, Comment

LONDON -- The LIA (London International Awards) announced its 2017 winners and finalists. Global of the Year winners include BBDO which earned Network of the Year Distinction; Agency of the Year McCann New York; Health & Pharma Network of the Year McCann Health; and McCann Health, Delhi which earned the mantles of Health & Wellness Agency of the year, as well as Pharmaceutical Agency of the Year. Helping McCann NY land the Agency of the Year honor was its work with State Street Global Advisors on... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- The storied movie studio MGM is getting back into distribution, teaming with Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures in a joint venture that could have ramifications for the next James Bond film. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Annapurna on Tuesday announced a partnership to distribute films in the United States. The move signals growing ambitions for MGM, which was once one of Hollywood's premier brands. After financial struggles, the Beverly Hills, California-based studio, founded in 1924, emerged from... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Director Fenar Ahmad has joined Furlined for commercial representation in the U.S. and U.K., marking his first formal production house roost in those markets. He continues to be handled by Bacon in Denmark where his spotmaking credits include such brands as Reebok and Pepsi. Ahmad wrote and directed the feature film Darkland , which was released earlier this year to critical acclaim and subsequently shortlisted as one of three films to be selected as the potential Danish entry for the Best... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Director Steve Hoover, whose documentary work has scored Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival, has joined Variable, the New York production company headed by EP Tyler Gintner and director Jonathan Bregel. Hoover’s reel reflects his work as a feature documentary director in its mix of premium cinematography and an emphasis on visual storytelling and human connection. It includes spots and branded content films for Gap Kids, Walmart, National Geographic, Google and... Read More, Comment

CULVER CITY, Calif. -- Bicoastal The Famous Group has signed comedy director Oren Kaplan for branded content and spot work. He’s already wrapped his first project under The Famous Group banner, a Wendy’s commercial out of agency VML Kansas City. Kaplan’s other recent endeavors include campaigns for Converse, Swiffer and Nvidia. His overall body of work also spans such clients as Jeep, Fiat, Ford, Microsoft, Mattel, Panasonic, as well as branding for Quiznos. On the long-form front, Kaplan directed the feature film... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Director Brent Jones has joined Yard Dog--the L.A.-based company led by executive producers Joe Piccirillo and Beth Pearson--for work in commercials, branded content and web media. Jones was previously repped in the U.S. ad market by Fancy Content. Bringing a diverse reel and more than 10 years of directing experience to Yard Dog, Jones is perhaps best known for high-energy automotive spots, but his work also extends to performance-driven storytelling and humor, with credits including... Read More, Comment

BERLIN -- BBDO New York won agency of the year honors while Smuggler earned the production company of the year mantle, and Henry-Alex Rubin was named the year’s best director at the recently wrapped CICLOPE Festival 2017 in Berlin. All three wins were tied in large part to Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan,” one of three pieces to earn a CICLOPE Grand Prix--directed by Rubin of Smuggler for BBDO NY. The short film is the story of Evan, a teen counting down the days to summer break, who demonstrates his boredom... Read More, Comment

SKOKIE, Ill. (AP) -- Fritzie Fritzshall knows she is running out of time. She knows the day will come when she won't be here to describe being herded onto a boxcar, hearing the cries that turned to whimpers that turned to the silence that signaled another death. And she won't be able to tell of the doors opening to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where an old prisoner, as he unloaded the dead, whispered to her in Yiddish to lie to the guards about her age. That lie kept her out of a line to the gas chambers... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Whether it was re-tooling Zoolander in a tight thriller or transforming The Music Man into a classic heist film, AICE assistants at post houses around the country rallied to the task and clearly nailed it. At least that’s the takeaway from the 2017 Camp Kuleshov trailer competition, which announced its winners at chapters across the US and in Canada over the past two weeks. Cam Kuleshov is AICE’s annual contest in which assistants accept the challenge of creating compelling and persuasive film... Read More, Comment

Lady Bird is obsessed with place. Her place in the world, in her Catholic high school, in her school play, in her own family and in her unglamorous hometown of Sacramento ("the Midwest of California") and the even more unglamorous part she lives in. She craves sophistication in a way that she can't quite put into words or actions, beyond a vague desire to go to an East Coast college, but is certain that whatever she has in her middle-class existence in 2002 isn't it. Part Angela Chase, Lindsay... Read More, Comment

In this era of rampant sequelizing, has any filmmaker more playfully inverted the standard more-of-the-same monotony than Richard Linklater? His Oscar-nominated "Boyhood" was, if nothing else, a compendium of life's chapters, filmed — and lived — year after year. His "Before" trilogy reteamed Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, every nine years, for strolling encounters that compressed and marveled at the passage of time. His last film, "Everybody Wants Some!!" was billed as a "spiritual sequel" to... Read More, Comment

In the stand-alone films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor always seemed to get the short end of the stick. The Thor films were never as popular as Iron Man, and didn't gain steam like Captain America. They were perhaps a little too serious and a little too dull — none of which was the fault of star Chris Hemsworth, whose performances in the role have been so seamless and charming that he almost doesn't get enough credit. But "Thor: Ragnarok" has been touted as a different take on the God... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hollywood's widening sexual harassment crisis has ensnared a prominent film director after six women — including actress Olivia Munn — accused Brett Ratner of sexual misconduct in a Los Angeles Times report on Wednesday. Playboy Enterprises quickly distanced itself from Ratner as his attorney denied the allegations and late Wednesday Warner Bros. severed ties with the director, whose expired first-look deal with the studio will not be renewed, according to a person with knowledge of the... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harvey Weinstein has been banned for life from the producers guild. The Producers Guild of America announced Monday that Weinstein had resigned his membership, and the group opted to impose a lifetime ban on him. The guild called it an unprecedented step. The guild's board of directors had previously voted unanimously earlier this month to initiate termination proceedings against Weinstein. Dozens of women, including actresses Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have accused Weinstein of sexual... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The suspension of filming on "House of Cards" Tuesday in response to allegations that star Kevin Spacey made sexual advances on a teen boy is a rare move in an industry that puts commerce first. Shows are infrequently derailed by concerns other than their ratings performance, said TV historian and former network executive Tim Brooks. "It usually depends on how popular the show is, not to put too fine a point on it," Brooks said Tuesday. In recent days, Hollywood has reacted swiftly to... Read More, Comment

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exasperated U.S. senators harshly criticized representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Google at a hearing Tuesday for not doing more to prevent Russian agents interfering with the American political process as early as 2015. At one point, Sen. Al Franken shook his head after he couldn't get all the companies to commit to not accepting political ads bought with North Korean currency. The hearing by a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary panel was moved last week into a cavernous hearing room... Read More, Comment

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under pressure in advance of hearings on Russian election interference, Facebook is moving to increase transparency for everyone who sees and buys political advertising on its site. Executives for the social media company said Friday they will verify political ad buyers in federal elections, requiring them to reveal correct names and locations. The site will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who's behind them. More broadly, Rob Goldman, Facebook's... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- George Clooney's "Suburbicon" notched one of the most dismal wide-release debuts in recent years on a sluggish pre-Halloween weekend where the horror sequel "Jigsaw" topped all releases despite an underperforming debut. The eighth "Saw" film landed at No. 1 with $16.3 million in North American ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That came in below industry expectations and suggested the revived "Saw" franchise isn't connecting with audiences the way other recent horror entries... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- After the summer of Rachel Maddow, Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity ascended to the top of the cable news mountain. Hannity’s move to the 9 p.m. timeslot paid immediate dividends for the network. President Donald Trump’s biggest cable news backer averaged 3.2 million viewers in October, topping Maddow’s 2.5 million, the Nielsen company said. Fox’s Tucker Carlson, in an earlier time slot, had 2.8 million viewers. When Bill O’Reilly was working at Fox, there was no question for years who was the... Read More, Comment

Lexus Europe has unveiled its latest campaign, “The Art of Standing Out,” bringing to life classic and modern works of art to celebrate the expressive design of its new NX automobile. The campaign launches with this :60 in which a couple’s trip through the city in their Lexus NX transforms into an incredibly artistic sojourn. Everyday scenes reveal themselves as remarkable real-life recreations of masterpieces such as Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” Jeff... Read More, Comment

Titled “Say Something,” this public service piece for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) from Leo Burnett London features the thoughts of a little girl and her netball coach, both ultimately breaking the silence with a simple “hi” which is the first step towards communication, so that the girl can bring the abuse she’s enduring out in the open. Oliver Farrington, creative director at Leo Burnett, noted: “There’s a real silence around child sexual abuse... Read More, Comment

A new global report on violence against children released by UNICEF reveals 1 in 4 young children across the world are exposed to domestic violence at home--taking such forms as violent discipline, sexual abuse and homicide. Grey New York created an internet film to support the launch of this landmark report. Titled “Cursing Parrots,” the video features un-doctored, found-footage of real cursing parrots and the derogatory phrases they learn from their households. A series of supered messages... Read More, Comment

A neighborhood game night gets a little tense as people become a bit exasperated as they try to guess what a sloth is drawing (at a painfully slow pace). At the end of the ad, a spokesperson relates: “As long as sloths are slow, you can count on GEICO saving folks money.” This offbeat comedic :30, titled “Game Night,” was directed by Randy Krallman of Smuggler for The Martin Agency. Read More, Comment

In this spot for Verizon FIOS directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of Smuggler for McCann NY, Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things) is camping with friends in a backyard on Halloween night--with all the conveniences of the Internet as they are streaming shows. A neighbor approaches and asks them about their streaming devices. Matarazzo explains the benefits of running all of their tech on FIOS. This prompts the neighbor to spin a scary, hearkening back to the pre-fiber optics dark age when bandwidth was... Read More, Comment

What if the Axis Powers won World War II? Like Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle , Bethesda’s just introduced Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus video game presents an alternate history--in this case one in which the victorious Nazi regime, now controlling the U.S., faces opposition headed by war vet William “B.J.” Blazkowicz. Markus Walter of production house RESET directed a series of films for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, presenting a vision of post-WWII America that oozes nostalgia and... Read More, Comment

In this spot which takes us to a film shoot, a car crash doesn’t materialize due to Toyota’s automatic safety braking system. A stunt man puts all his efforts into slamming the car into an armored truck full of money but the heist doesn’t come off as the brakes automatically go on. The director yells “cut” as the stunt man tries to explain that he can’t override the Toyota safety feature. The director concludes that he and his crew will have to resort to special effects. Traktor directed “Stunt... Read More, Comment