January 18, 2013
Winfrey, Frank Ocean among GLAAD award nominees
NEW YORK (AP) — GLAAD has named the film “Cloud Atlas,” AMC’s reality show “Small Town Security,” and the New Yorker magazine among its nominees for the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced on Wednesday 120 nominees in English-language categories and 33 nominees in Spanish-language categories.
Other nominees include the NBC shows “Smash” and “The New Normal,” Frank Ocean for his “Channel Orange” album, the magazine People en Espanol, and Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Neil Patrick Harris and partner David Burtka.
The awards are meant to recognize and honor media for outstanding images of the gay and lesbian community. The winners will be announced March 16 in New York and at ceremonies in April and May in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
‘Burt Wonderstone’ to open SXSW film festivalNEW YORK (AP) — The Steve Carell magician comedy “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” will kick off the annual South by Southwest film festival.
The Austin, Texas, festival announced Tuesday the film will premiere as the opening night film March 8.
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” stars Carell and Steve Buscemi as a washed-up Las Vegas magician duo, with Jim Carrey a rival street performer. It also stars Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin and James Gandolfini. It was directed by Don Scardino.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in theaters March 13.
The SXSW film festival runs March 8-16.
NY public relations pioneer Edelman dies at 92By Verena Dobnik
NEW YORK (AP) — Daniel J. Edelman, who built one of the world’s top public relations companies and pioneered celebrity endorsements and media tours, has died at age 92.
Edelman is credited with developing many of the methods now standard in the field, after transforming the firm he started more than 60 years ago with two people into a global marketing force with more than 4,500 employees in 66 offices worldwide.
His son Richard Edelman said he died of heart failure on Tuesday at a Chicago hospital.
Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the Edelman firm, said his father was “a marketing and public relations genius, because he really understood that PR could sell brands.”
The firm’s clients include Microsoft, Pfizer, Wal-Mart and Royal Dutch Shell.
Daniel Edelman, a New York City native and Columbia University journalism school graduate, worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Poughkeepsie, about 75 miles north. He was drafted into the Army during World War II and first honed his public relations skills analyzing German propaganda as a member of a psychological warfare unit.
“I provided information about what they were claiming, so we could answer it with our own broadcasts,” he later recalled.
After the war, he worked as a news writer for CBS radio in New York.
His career in public relations began as a publicist for Musicraft Records, whose musical stars included Mel Torme, sponsored on radio by the Toni hair care products manufacturer.
Edelman credited that pairing with launching his marketing creativity: He packaged Torme’s records in an album designed to look like a Toni product, gaining attention from disc jockeys and earning him a job as Toni’s public relations director in Chicago.
By the 1960s, Edelman’s own company was promoting California’s wine industry. Edelman retained movie star Vincent Price as a spokesman and booked him on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. California wines that day won a tasting test that included entertainer Zsa Zsa Gabor.
“It was a great coup, and a turning point for the California wine industry,” Edelman said later.
Edelman also hired baseball great Nolan Ryan for Advil and activist Gloria Steinem to promote birth control pills.
Then, his son said, he would “put people on the road” — pushing the concept of media tours using radio and television.
And Daniel Edelman had a sense of humor.
Promoting a crabmeat company, he persuaded Carson to invite the owner on his show — along with a crab that promptly bit the TV host’s hand.
When former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis announced he was running for president, Edelman proved that Morris the Cat, representing the 9Lives cat food brand, had higher name recognition.
Kentucky Fried Chicken took center stage on TV during Elizabeth Taylor’s lavish 1991 wedding to construction worker Larry Fortensky. Reporters were barred from the ceremony, so Edelman arranged for a KFC executive to show up outside dressed as the late Colonel Sanders, serving reporters chicken they jokingly mentioned during broadcasts.
“You can’t make these stories up,” Richard Edelman said. “My father had these kinds of ideas.”
Even after Daniel Edelman stopped running the firm more than a dozen years ago, he still called his son daily to find out what was happening and give advice.
A private funeral is planned for Wednesday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan, followed by burial at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens.
Utah group objects to ‘obscene’ Sundance lineupBy Brady McCombs
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A conservative Utah group believes the Sundance Film Festival’s lineup featuring ‘obscene’ movies is at odds with Utah’s culture of family values, and wants the state to pull its financial backing.
The Sutherland Institute says the state shouldn’t back a festival that features films about porn stars and women having affairs with one another’s adult sons. He’s referring to a pair of movies featuring well-known Hollywood actresses: “Lovelace” starring Amanda Seyfried, and “Two Mothers” starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright. “Lovelace” is rated R. “Two Mothers” is not yet rated.
The festival kicks off Thursday in Park City, Utah.
The Salt Lake City-based institute isn’t saying Sundance should leave Utah — but rather that the state should pull its financial backing, said Derek Monson, Sutherland Institute’s director of public policy.
“There are a lot of people here that find that kind of thing objectionable,” Monson said. “We are a family friendly state and we endeavor to be so because we value the benefits that strong families bring to society.”
Utah state officials stand by the backing, saying the money is an investment in a festival that brings major economic impact and international exposure to the state.
Utah expects to spend $300,000 supporting the festival again this year, said Michael Sullivan, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The money comes from the economic opportunity section of the state’s incentive program. It’s used to support and sponsor the event and take advantage of the marketing and branding opportunities for the state of Utah.
Last year, for instance, the lanyards given out to the stars featured the state’s tourism slogan, “Utah: Life Elevated.”
The festival is one of the state’s largest annual money-makers. The University of Utah estimated that last year’s festival brought $80.3 million in economic impact for the state.
“If we lost the film festival, we would be giving up $80 million,” Sullivan said.
Sundance officials declined an interview but said in a statement that they are committed to showing films that are well crafted and thoughtful. “Audiences should find the films that are right for them,” the festival said.
The Sutherland Institute’s concerns shine a light on the contrast between Utah’s ultra-conservative culture and the Sundance Film Festival’s reputation of being an avant-garde, boundary-pushing film festival. What many view as artistic is viewed as extreme by some in Utah.
“What would you call a film festival airing movies that explore the lives of porn stars, adulterous relationships between mothers and their friends’ children, and teenagers competing to lose their virginity?” Monson wrote in a blog post that brought the institute’s concerns to the forefront. “Many Utahns’ values would lead them to call this ‘obscenity’ or ‘pornography,’ but to the state of Utah, evidently it is simply ‘economic activity.'”
Sullivan acknowledges that not all films are suited for wide audiences, but points out that viewers are not forced to view R-rated films and have ample opportunity to choose which films they buy tickets to see.
The Sutherland Institute, a public policy think tank that advocates for conservative values, says Sundance doesn’t need the financial assistance and that the taxpayer funds could be better used for other programs.
“If Sundance wants to put it in the private film festival, fine. But it’s government-endorsed,” Monson said. “But now you’re asking for taxpayers to help pay for those kind of movies to be shown. That doesn’t reflect the values of state of Utah.”
Japanese film director Oshima dies at 80
TOKYO (AP) — Nagisa Oshima, a Japanese director known for internationally acclaimed films “Empire of Passion” and “In the Realm of the Senses,” has died of pneumonia. He was 80.
His office says Oshima died Tuesday afternoon at a hospital near Tokyo.
A former student activist from Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, Oshima debuted in 1959, often depicting social issues. Oshima quickly rose to fame as a leading Japanese “new wave” director.
Oshima stirred public indecency debate in Japan when he released “In the Realm of the Senses” in 1976. Two years later, Oshima won best director award at the Cannes International Film Festival with “Empire of Passion.”
Despite suffering a stroke in 1996, Oshima briefly returned to filmmaking in 1999 with “Taboo,” which became his last work.
Full Frame Documentary Fest Sets Thematic Program & Tribute
DURHAM, N.C.–The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced its Thematic Program and Tribute. The annual Full Frame Tribute celebrates the work of Academy Award๏ฟฝ winning filmmaker Jessica Yu. The 2013 Thematic Program examines the intersections of truth and storytelling with a series of films curated by esteemed filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev.
“Attending Full Frame, what always inspires me most is the infinite variety of approaches to storytelling,” said Bar-Lev. “Every documentary is a unique, thorny relationship – between filmmaker and ‘character,’ fact and representation, reality and story. As guest curator, I’ve selected a handful of films that wrestle, each in their own way, with the medium of documentary filmmaking itself.”
“With this year’s Thematic Program, I wanted to address the tension between truth and perspective,” said director of programming Sadie Tillery. “What happens when one person’s impression of events is at odds with the facts on the ground? I am particularly interested in films that give equal weight to, or even attempt to reconcile, different notions of truth. Amir Bar-Lev brings distinct experience and insight to this exploration.”
Bar-Lev directed the documentary films “Fighter” (2001), “My Kid Could Paint That” (2007), and “The Tillman Story” (2010). He co-produced the documentary “Trouble The Water” (2008), which won the 2008 Full Frame Grand Jury Award and was a 2009 Academy Award๏ฟฝ Nominee. Bar-Lev is currently directing “Happy Valley”, about the Penn State scandal.
The festival will honor Jessica Yu with the Full Frame Tribute and will feature a retrospective of her work. Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted films. She won an Oscar๏ฟฝ for Best Documentary Short for “Breathing Lessons” (1996), a film about Mark O’Brien, a poet confined to an iron lung. Her latest film for Participant Media, “Last Call at the Oasis” (2011), is a chronicle of the water crisis. Her documentaries include the award-winning features “Protagonist” (2007), “In the Realms of the Unreal” (2004), and HBO’s “The Living Museum” (1998), and the shorts “Meet Mr. Toilet” (2012) and “The Kinda Sutra” (2009).
“In addition to capturing profound stories, Jessica Yu has made bold choices in her films, implementing exceptional animation, even puppetry, to embrace the experiences of the individuals she has documented,” said Tillery. “I am proud to celebrate her unique vision, and to give audiences the opportunity to screen this work again theatrically.”
“Full Frame has become an oasis for documentary filmmakers and audiences,” said Yu. “Having been fortunate enough to bring several films to the festival, I have found it to be a source of inspiration and camaraderie. Connecting with the excellent filmmakers and enthusiastic audiences of Full Frame pushes you to dare a little more, to keep at it a little longer, and to thank your lucky stars that you’re a part of something for which you feel such passion. To be recognized by a festival that has done so much to celebrate the form and to bring the community together is deeply meaningful to me.”
Both Yu and Bar-Lev will attend the festival. Specific titles for the Thematic Program and Full Frame Tribute, along with additional attending guests, will be announced in March.
The 16th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7, 2013, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. The complete schedule of films will be announced March 14th. Festival Passes are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.fullframefest.org. Tickets go on sale March 25th.
‘Downton Abbey’ gets early iTunes showingBy Lynn Elber, Television Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Select “Downton Abbey” fans are in for an early viewing treat and bragging rights.
Apple said Monday that people in North America who hold iTunes season passes will be able to see this season’s last three episodes of “Downton” before they air.
The period drama’s second season was the best-selling TV series on iTunes last year, Apple said, without disclosing the numbers. The exclusive preview of a TV series is the first for iTunes, the company said.
The third season of “Downton Abbey” began Jan. 6 with an episode that drew nearly 8 million viewers, quadrupling PBS’ average prime-time audience. The drama about British landed gentry and their household servants stars Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery.
Episodes are available beginning Jan. 29 on iTunes. The season finale airs Feb. 17 on PBS’ “Masterpiece” showcase.
Whether iTunes viewers can hold their tongues, spoilers about major plot twists already are out because the series has aired in Britain. That’s raised questions about whether PBS should have aired “Downtown” concurrently with its ITV fall debut in the U.K.
Speaking to the Television Critics Association on Monday, PBS chief Paula Kerger said putting “Downton” in the teeth of the competitive U.S. fall TV season may not serve the show or its audience.
But PBS is keeping an eye on the situation and talking to stations and viewers about the issue, she said.
Asked if the strong initial viewership vindicated PBS’ scheduling decision, Kerger called the ratings “a beautiful thing,” but added it will be interesting to see how viewership continues through the show’s run.
“Downton Abbey” is beginning production on its fourth season. Kerger refused to disclose any tidbits when asked if Shirley MacLaine would return as a newly introduced American relative to the Crawley family.
“I’m not telling you anything about season four. Don’t trick me,” Kerger said, smiling.
ArnoldNYC adds Creative Director Tristan KincaidNEW YORK–Tristan Kincaid has come aboard ArnoldNYC as creative director where he will be responsible for leading projects across several clients, including Hershey and Fab.com.
Kincaid brings a decade of integrated global marketing success–most recently as creative director at Ogilvy & Mather–to his new leadership role. He will report to Aaron Griffiths and John Staffen, ArnoldNYC’s co-chief creative officers.
Kincaid spent a decade serving several key creative roles at Ogilvy in NY. He is best known for his leadership role in the reinvention of Fanta brand as a purveyor of play throughout the world. What began as a single assignment has grown into Coca-Cola’s first truly integrated, global campaign.
Kincaid has been involved with many commercially successful initiatives for a broad range of clients throughout his career, including IBM, Coca-Cola, IKEA, Lenovo, American Express, Miller Lite, Unilever, Maxwell House and UPS.
Alex Lemke joins Gravity as Sr. VFX Supervisor/Compositing Supervisor
NEW YORK–Gravity has appointed VFX Alex Lemke as its new sr. VFX supervisor/compositing supervisor for films and commercials. Gravity’s CEO/CCO Zviah Eldar made the announcement.
Previously at Weta Digital, Lemke worked on all three installments of “The Lord of the Rings” franchise, and won a Visual Effects Society Award for Best Compositing on “The Two Towers.” More recently, Lemka contributed to the visual effects on Peter Jackson’s latest epic film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”
In 2012, Lemke served as the VFX supervisor on the Coen Brothers’ upcoming feature film “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and worked as the compositing supervisor on David Chase’s feature directing debut, “Not Fade Away.” In his new position at Gravity, Lemke will work in tandem with Karin Levinson, exec VP of features and television, and with Bob Samuel, Gravity’s CMO/executive producer for commercials.
Rating increase for Golden Globes awards this yearNEW YORK (AP) — The Nielsen Co. says Sunday’s Golden Globes awards ceremony got a nice ratings bump over last year.
With Tina Fey and Amy Poehler handling host duties, the NBC telecast was seen by 19.7 million viewers. That’s an audience growth of 2.8 million viewers (or 17 percent) over last year’s show, which was hosted by Ricky Gervais.
It was the top-rated Globes in six years, according to national figures released Monday.
For the fourth year, the Globes were televised live to all time zones, and some western markets also carried an encore telecast following the live coverage, which began at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
NBC said the telecast is currently the season’s most-watched awards program, topping the CMA Awards, Emmy Awards, American Music Awards and People’s Choice Awards.
The Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 10. The Academy Awards are Feb. 24.
