The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that producer and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has been elected Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. Kennedy will lead the AFI Trustees to set the Institute’s priorities and guide its national education programs. Kennedy succeeds Sir Howard Stringer, who served as chair of the AFI Board of Trustees since 1999.
Robert A. Daly remains chair of the AFI Board of Directors, a position he has held since 2009.
“More than 50 years ago, the AFI was created to advance and elevate the art of film, and it has been my privilege to uphold that mission for two decades,” said Stringer. “I pass the torch to Kathleen Kennedy with great confidence, for she is a visionary who has not only long served as an AFI Trustee, but will also lead the Institute into the future with her signature taste, talent and intellect.”
“It is a distinct honor to be elected as chair of the AFI Board of Trustees,” said Kennedy. “AFI’s commitment to the power of storytelling — coupled with its profound respect for the past — is an inspiration in our modern day, and I look forward to working with the Trustees and the incomparable Bob Daly with the goal to shine an even greater light upon the impact these stories have in our nation and around the world.”
Eight-time Academy Award® nominee Kennedy is one of the most successful and respected producers and executives in the film industry today. Most recently, she received the Academy’s Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2018 for her contributions to the art form. She joined Lucasfilm in 2012, personally selected by George Lucas to lead the company. Kennedy has produced or executive-produced nearly 100 films. Among her credits are many of the highest-grossing films in motion picture history, such as the recent Star Wars entries, Jurassic Park, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Sixth Sense.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More