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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Variety Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis has a great gig coming up on Mar. 11 with Variety Deputy Awards and Features Editor Jenelle Riley. They will co-host the Writer’s Guild of America’s open-to-the-public virtual special BEYOND WORDS 2021. This comes as part of an insider tradition whereby the WGA presents award-nominated screenwriters who open up about the intricate facets of writing scripts for screen. These informal and en...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
When filmmaker Céline Sciamma made PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, there was a use of silence or negative space, in the picture not seen since the French New Wave. That's just my critical opinion. That said, Sciamma’s work can also frighten and shake up audiences, critical viewers, and some would say, even voting members. You want to read that with a wink, because who knows what lurks in the hearts of Member Voters, to ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Okay, so Elon Musk had a point about Fear of AI, but luckily there’s a tell to these new “MetaHumans” from Unreal Engine dropping by your eyeballs in 2021. That tell? Well, their teeth for example, kind of cookie cutter, as well as the mouth cavity. Where’s the tongue movement, geniuses?
Kidding aside, you may want to check for these subtle tells on your mobile screen, tablet, or even ye old Desktop PC in the comin...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
With talent galore, and a range from MOONSTRUCK to DOUBT and more, writer/screenwriter John Patrick Shanley is primarily a playwright but probably one of the most admired screenwriters among screenwriters. That said, he has some news. He has just signed on to write a comedy called THE TWINKLE BROTHERS. Read on...
LOS ANGELES, CA: Rivulet Media announced today that Academy Award® and Pulitzer Prize winning writer John Pa...
By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
The International Press Academy's 25th Annual Satellite Awards wins are out, and NOMADLAND pulled into the drive-in's with a Motion Picture, Drama topper, plus Best Director for Chloé Zhao, and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. Sacha Baron Cohen won for Motion Picture, Comedy, Best Actor for BORAT: SUBEQUENT MOVIEFILM, as did his controversial co-star Maria Bakalova.
Amanda Seyfried won Best Supporting for MANK, and Chad...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you don't feel ready for Valentine's Day, or have to brush off the passion in your relationship, just remember it took 50 years for LOVE STORY stars Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw to get their stars aligned. In honor of that half-century-long wait? Read on...
HOLLYWOOD, CA: In celebration of the 50th anniversary of LOVE STORY, actors Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw will be honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
There are so many takes on the Arts & Crafts movement, and the striking furniture of Gustav Stickley (1858-1942), the self-taught innovator of wooden designs. He manufactured furniture, metal fasteners, and nature-inspired textiles from 1900 to 1916. While Stickley dubbed his style “Craftsman," and published a magazine of the same name, collectors often refer to his work as Mission or Mission Oak.
But the work of Stickley, explo...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What we know of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and times has been incomplete up until now. Newly declassified documents from the FBI form the spine of Sam Pollard's documentary MLK/FBI. For Black History Month, the film will receive a nationwide screening cycle with some very prestigious organizations and partners. Finally the complete MKL portrait has emerged.
LOS ANGELES, CA: MLK/FBI is an essential expose of the surveillance and ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Multi-hyphenate Hollywood legend Edward James Olmos just announced some dates for an upcoming LALIFF event, but also the opening date of today through March 12 for submissions, read on...
LOS ANGELES, CA: Academy Award®-nominated actor Edward James Olmos, founder of the Latino Film Institute, announced today that the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) will host a virtual festival for the 2021 edition that will run Wedne...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Gotta love Jack Black, because when he picks a project to produce? It goes HAPPILY never after. In this anti-rom-com Joel McHale and Kerry Bishé star as a married couple who are in trouble and in a trouple with surveillance. BenDavid Grabinski wrote and directed this timely chic fright-fest of technological doings, and that’s just the teaser. Oh, and Stephen Root is in it, which is also awesome. Thanks five eyes.
Watch Out, Th...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
The buzz about MINARI is deafening lately, and AFI Movie Club had some announcements today that show just what a contender this film really is for Award Season 2021. Read on...
LOS ANGELES, CA: AFI AWARDS celebrates MINARI with brand new content featuring one of the stars and the writer/director of the film. Alan S. Kim, who made his film debut in MINARI, accepts the AFI AWARDS honor on behalf of the creative ensemble and introdu...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Leslie Zemeckis is a filmmaker known for bringing lost voices of burlesque into the world with her film BEHIND THE BURLY Q, but she is also a champion of women who tell stories not just with their bodies in dance. Based in Santa Barbara, she’s a multi-hyphenate actor, writer, mentor, and more who has created "Stories Matter" as a way to tap under-heard voices.
In 2020, Leslie was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
There’s a scene in MANK from Netflix where the reading of a love letter turns into a rollover accident for Herman J. Mankiewicz, so with the Hollywood Foreign Press putting this movie in the lead of Golden Globes Nominees with six possible wins? Let’s hope that scenario in the gorgeous black and white film doesn’t turn out to be prophetic as this love letter to Old Hollywood as frontrunner but a red herring.
Over all, the 78...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
AOC, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is the US Congressional representative from the 14th district in New York who just revealed she is a "survivor of sexual assault," and this is where we are in the zeitgeist right now. Disclosures like this are no longer career-wrecking shamers, but a kind of re-purposed empowerment for many women. In context, her description of the situation is analogous to working with the opposing party in Congress. ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
With Award Season 2021 quashed by the Pandemic and forced to go virtual for the first time in Hollywood's long history, the 25th Annual Satellite Award kicked off the season with a promising field of nominees this year.
After the insider buzz about Carey Mulligan’s rough ride through trade reviews, the International Press Academy (IPA) member voters picked Mulligan and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN out of the line-up for ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
‘Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina’ is actually a line from the 1947 Al Jolson song, but it’s also applicable to the uncanny Award Season picks of Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall, co-founders of Film Fest 919 in North Carolina.
Their running joke is: “FF919 is founded and run by two old broads,” and oddly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The wealth of movie history and exper...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you're looking for a virtual event this weekend in the rush of Award Season, here's a deep dive into some contenders...
From Screenmancer:
VIRTUAL EVENT: With Award Season is in full swing though virtual in many cases this year, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) non-fiction filmmakers represent a record number of 17 features and five short films now recognized as in contention for industry awards. This...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Delroy Lindo is so convincing in Spike Lee's DA 5 BLOODS, it feels like a documentary. But this latest outing is only a fraction of the deeply gifted Lindo's oeuvre. When he receives the American Riviera Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) this Spring, the full measure of a storied career will be celebrated. Read on...
SANTA BARBARA, CA: Delroy Lindo is set to receive the illustrious American Riviera Aw...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
It surprises many to realize Cicely Tyson (1924-2021) was once married to Miles Davis, and when she passed away on Jan. 28 at 96 years of age, younger audiences may have only remembered her from THE HELP. But her life was a wild ride of unexpected connections. Tyson modeled for Vogue, after being "discovered" on the pages of Ebony. The eloquent and preternaturally graceful actress received her first EMMY for "The Autobiography of ...
by Quendrith Johnosn, Los Angeles Correspondent
BORAT and its subsesquent "Movefilm" made quite a splash with the Rudy Giuliani moment. Ironically Mr. Giuliani's "hair dye" press conference was even more impactful on the controversial President's attorney. That being said, The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor Cohen with an Outstanding Performer Award this April. It's an acknowledgement of his stunning career, which began as parody and l...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Zeitgeist moments happen with movies, and Pablo Larrain’s upcoming Netflix release SPENCER starring Kristen Stewart may just be that spark that brings back the power of Lady Diana into the world.
Forgive the hyperbole. With the House of Windsor fractured, meaning Prince Harry in California and HRH Prince William as the King-in-the-making back home in the UK?
There couldn’t be a better time to reintroduce the woman who set a t...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What can’t Tom Hanks do? He can MC a Presidential inaugural celebration, and apparently write a top-flight screenplay for recent release GREYHOUND, where he stars as a Navy veteran facing Nazi U-boats.
You have to assume he used one of the vintage typewriters from his collection, right? Maybe not.
But now they’re showing the behind-the-scenes green scene skeleton of this Summer release from Apple Original Films. Sum...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
On Jan. 25, AFI announced the recipients of the 2020 AFI Awards, and stated that “AFI’s global Movie Club program will showcase the official selections beginning in February.” During the rise of COVID-19 last year, these moments of movie exploration by AFI Movie Club gave viewers insight and a brief respite from the Pandemic.
“For 20 years, AFI AWARDS has been a moment to gather artists in one room with a singular goal &...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Here’s a completely gratuitous Tommy Lee Jones moment, brought to you courtesy of coffee company Suntory in Japan.
Never had their “Boss” Rainbow Mountain canned caffeine, but for the free price of watching the Hollywood fugitive from MEN IN BLACK go all-in alien?
Yes, please.
Tommy Lee Jones will make your Sunday “Suntory” ;)
Men in Black... Coffee ;) https://t.co/nyRijGyRPc
— Quendrith Johnson (@Qu...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
On a typical day, the Screenmancer Staff inbox receives most of the usual Hollywood notices. But after midnight of the Inauguration, we received an official White House item from newly seated US President Joseph R. Biden.
Something like this hasn't crossed our desk before, so we are running it.
We left off the address and phone number, but the press release is as we received it.
Rejoining the Paris Agreement is...
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Johnson Quendrith 
