During its Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony on Saturday evening (1/18) at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, the Society of Camera Operators (SOC) announced and honored Geoff Haley, SOC and Jim McConkey, SOC as Camera Operator of the Year in Film and Television, respectively.
Haley won in film for his work on Joker, topping fellow nominees Sam Ellison (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Craig Haagensen, SOC (Motherless Brooklyn), David Luckenbach, SOC (Ford v. Ferrari), and Dale Myrand, SOC (Knives Out).
McConkey won the TV honor on the strength of his work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He beat out nominees Chris Cuevas (Watchmen), Mitch Dubin, SOC (Legion), Jeff Muhlstock, SOC (Mr. Robot), and Sean Savage, ACO, SOC (Game of Thrones).
Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman was given the SOC’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Governor’s Award, and actress and philanthropist Jamie Lee Curtis was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement President’s Award.
The star-studded awards night was streamed live to thousands internationally while over 500 industry professionals and celebs celebrated the achievements of exceptional filmmakers and crews.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More