Search Results for: “Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President”

Inside AMPAS Board Of Governors’ Meeting: Conflict Of Interest & Latino Damage Control (Joke About Being “Old White Guy Club”)

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday June 19, 2013 @ 12:13pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, AMPAS Board Of Governors, Lupe Ontiveros, Michael Moore

EXCLUSIVE: Few things in Hollywood are more secret than the Board Of Governors meetings of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In fact, an insider tells me that, at one of the most recent conclaves, AMPAS President Hawk Koch ”went around the room asking if ‘anybody is friends with Nikki Finke?’ before beginning.” (Related: Hey, Academy, I Was Hiding Under The Rug) So let me tell you what was discussed at a recent session:

– Governors argued pro and con instituting a so-called ‘conflict of interest’ clause for themselves. At the present time, they do not have one. “This was specifically related to Academy Board Members receiving lucrative contracts from the Academy for things like behind-the-scenes footage, Oscars documentaries, etc. And they’re having first dibs on these contracts,” my insider tells me, clarifying, “The argument for adding a conflict of interest clause was that ‘it looks bad that we don’t have one’ and ’would be bad publicity if it got out’. The argument against a conflict of interest clause was this: that although it may look bad, every member on the board is talented and should be allowed to work for the Academy if the Academy deems them worthy and fit to do so.” The suggested solution was allowing governors to take a leave of absence from the board to work on projects which the Academy directly underwrites. I’m told one Governor in particular is shooting a behind-the-Oscars TV documentary for the Turner Classic Movies cable channel to air during the next awards season “and the board unanimously voted to allow him to be grandfathered in,” according to my source. No final decision was made.

– Governors at the board meeting discussed the failure by the 2013 Academy Awards’ In Memoriam segment to mention prominent Latina actress Lupe Ontiveros and how that snub ”may have damaged their appeal to Latin Americans,” my insider says. The governors decided ”that they need to reach out to minorities more often. And they joked about the Academy being an old white guy club and how that appears to other demographics.” Outrage erupted after the Mexican-American star with a career spanning four decades in movies/TV died in July at age 69 but was omitted from the tribute sequence. Latino viewers took their protests to Twitter and an open letter addressed to the Academy was written by Alex Nogales, CEO/president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. He noted that Ontiveros had applied for AMPAS membership and been denied, despite the support of Miguel Sandoval and Edward James Olmos. In April, members of the National Latino Media Council met with AMPAS bigwigs to discuss the dustup and find ways to increase Latino representation among Academy membership. Ontiveros is best known for Selena, As Good As It Gets, Real Women Have Curves and The Goonies but she made hundreds of films and TV shows.

– The Governors also debated allowing other mediums to be nominated for Academy Awards, not just theatrical releases but also New Media films. Michael Moore, who’s on the AMPAS Board, strenuously objected. He held up his iPhone and said, “If I’m watching Spartacus on this, I’m watching something. But it’s not a movie. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s not a movie.” Moore did suggest the Academy create a fund to financially help small market theaters Read More »

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‘Ellen,’ ‘Sesame Street,’ CBS & PBS Lead 40th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday June 15, 2013 @ 9:46am PDTTags: CBS, Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, PBS, The Ellen Degeneres Show

The Ellen DeGeneres Show and PBS‘s Sesame Street led the 40th Daytime Creative Arts Emmys with six wins apiece at the annual awards presented Friday night by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. CBS tied PBS as the most-awarded network as honors were doled out in over 55 categories, while Leeza Gibbons won in her first Emmy nomination in 15 years. Embattled Sesame Street fixture Kevin Clash won three Emmys for his work on the children’s show as co-exec producer, performer, and director. Here’s the full list of winners: Read More »

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Hey, Academy, I Was Hiding Under The Rug

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 7:34pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Hawk Koch

An insider tells me that, at the most recent and always secret Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences‘ Board Of Governors meeting, president Hawk Koch ”went around the room asking if ‘anybody is friends with Nikki Finke?’ before beginning”. Gotta say, Hawk made my day.

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Ric Robertson Taking Paid Summer Hiatus From Movie Academy In Financial Crunch

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 7:01pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Big Deals Film, Dawn Hudson, Ric Robertson

EXCLUSIVE: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences COO Ric Robertson is  taking what’s being internally Ric Robertson paid leave AMPAScalled a “sabbatical” from June through August. I have learned this is an unusual paid leave even though the Academy is complaining about a financial crunch. Normally, its staff are restricted to 30 days of unpaid leave (and then only with approval). “He has worked here for 31 years. Doesn’t he deserve it?” an insider told me. “He didn’t tell us what he’ll do. Maybe work on his golf game.” Robertson’s upcoming sabbatical has prompted AMPAS staff to wonder whether he will be pushed out and/or look for another job. In April 2011, he was passed over for Bruce Davis’ executive directorship and now reports to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson, who was brought in over him. Insiders tell me that Robertson was primarily responsible for this year’s online voting debacle, which Hudson dumped in his lap when the Academy finally decided to implement Oscar balloting electronically — something Robertson and Davis resisted for prior years. (Grumbles one insider: “Dawn gives him anything messy that she doesn’t want to deal with or anything that means a lot of real work or anything that has a potential for failure, like the electronic voting.”) Read More »

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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros TV Shake-Up – Top Exec Bruce Rosenblum Settled Out And Peter Roth Signed To Big Long-Term Deal; All The Behind-The-Scenes Drama & Detail

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday May 12, 2013 @ 2:06pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Bruce Rosenblum, Jeff Bewkes, Kevin Tsujihara, Peter Roth, Time Warner, Warner Bros Television Group, Warner Brother Television

UPDATE SUNDAY 2 PM: Warner Bros Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara is finally confirming internally my news that Warner Bros Television Group Bruce Rosenblum is exiting. This, after Tsujihara for months and even in recent weeks has told almost everyone there that Rosenblum was staying.

BREAKING … SATURDAY 10 PM… EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood always fires people in success, or so the saying goes. I’ve learned that Warner Bros TV Bruce Rosenblum Outthe announcement by Warner Bros Entertainment CEO (and soon-to-be-chairman) Kevin Tsujihara is planned for 7 to 14 days after next week’s TV upfront presentations. Despite Tsujihara’s claims for months that he hadn’t made up his mind what to do about the brilliant but sharp-elbowed Bruce Rosenblum, I can tell you Tsujihara declared from Day Bruce Rosenblum Warner Bros TVOne of his new job that “Bruce is an unnecessary layer of management”. This, even though Rosenblum’s Warner Bros Television Group consistently contributes half of Warner Bros Entertainment’s profits year after year. I’m told that Rosenblum won’t be replaced as President of the Warner Bros Television Group now that he’s quietly settled out his contract which expires in August. (Tsujihara never made a move to negotiate a new one for him.) Some already expect Rosenblum not to turn up at next week’s upfronts. Instead Bruce is sitting on a fat severance package in recognition of his more than two outstanding decades at Warner Bros and for keeping his mouth shut during the humiliation of losing the WB CEO job and then getting kicked to the curb on top of that. Many in Hollywood thought Tsujihara might keep Rosenblum in place rather than bust up what is so obviously a winning formula atop the TV group. Instead Tsujihara proved that, just like his Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes, he is more obsessed by politics and personality than profit. (“It would have been pretty awkward, quite frankly,” Tsujihara told the TV community about keeping Rosenblum on.)

Warner Bros Television President Peter Roth has just been signed to a new long-term deal and will report to Tsujihara for the first time. Roth reps the increasing power of content and the executives directly responsible for its creation. ”As I look at the key people that exist, Peter comes at the top of the list. He’s at the top of the game right now creatively,” Tsujihara enthused privately on Day One of his new job. But Rosenblum’s roles will be assumed by a new WBTV leadership mix including Warner Bros TV Group EVP Craig Hunegs, Warner Bros International Distribution President Jeffrey Schlesinger, and Warner Bros Television EVP Brett Paul. (“Peter is the big teddy bear but Brent was sent in to beat you up,” notes one exec.) These guys are some of what Bewkes was referring to back on January 28th when he talked about the “very strong benches of people beneath”. All will become the TV group’s new sharp-elbowed negotiators who won’t rub people the wrong way like Rosenblum did.

It’s been a professional and emotional roller-coaster for Rosenblum ever since he expected the top job and didn’t get it. Read More »

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Did Oscars Punish ’2016 Obama’s America’? Producer Says Yes, Academy Says No

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday May 11, 2013 @ 7:30pm PDTTags: 2016 Obama's America, Michael Moore, The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences recently opened up first-round Oscar voting to the entire documentary branch and abandoned the previous system of allowing a small committee to determine the short list of eligible films. This radically curtails the influence of the documentary branch governors. Interesting, because last month an accusation of political bias in the documentary branch was lodged against the Academy – specifically, in an April 16th letter from Gerald Molen who produced the controversial right-wing documentary 2016: Obama’s America (as well as the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List). Molen’s missive was sent to Academy President Hawk Koch and documentary branch governors Rob Epstein, Michael Apted, and Michael Moore who is also a member of the AMPAS Board Of Governors. Molen questions why 2016: Obama’s America was ignored for an Academy Award nomination even though it was last year’s second highest grossing political documentary (behind only Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.) Molen wrote:

“I find myself wondering if it was excluded for ‘other’ reasons…”

“I have tremendous respect for Michael Apted as a creative and talented filmmaker but putting him with Rob Epstein and Michael Moore as the gatekeepers in charge of which films get nominated in the documentary category seems patently absurd…

“While Mr. Moore is a distinguished filmmaker, he holds a strong partisan view representing what Gallup tells us is only 21 percent of the population. Even if he were able to keep his personal philosophy out of the equation, you can certainly understand why the larger American constituency (pegged at 40%) would question the exclusion of a well-made and popular film that fails to reflect his views. Even if only in perception, this assumed bias will serve (in my opinion) only to injure the Academy…

“All up and coming filmmakers deserve to be recognized for their creative sensibilities and should not be punished because the messages of their films fail to fit the dogma of what some believe is politically correct.”

Hawk replied on behalf of the Academy: Read More »

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Motion Picture Academy Email To Members: ‘We Want You To Be Advocates And Evangelists’

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday May 8, 2013 @ 12:07am PDTTags: Academy membership meeting, Dawn Hudson, Foreign Film Rules, Hawk Koch, Mark Johnson, Oscars
Pete Hammond

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is still basking in the glow of its successful Academy general membership meeting on Saturday in LA and NY. So Academy President Hawk Koch and CEO Dawn Hudson sent out a letter summarizing the event to the Acad’s nearly 6,000-person membership Tuesday night. They noted it was a ”first” in the Academy’s 85 years and indicated the “positive response” may indeed make this an “annual event”. The email recounted some of the “highlights” of the meeting  for ”those of you unable to attend”. This included the decision to send DVDs of nominated Foreign Films and Doc Shorts  to all members, an unprecedented move enabling everyone in the Academy to vote on all 24 categories for the first time ever. It also detailed  lifting numerical quotas for bringing in new members  while not relaxing critieria for membership. And it recounted numerous activities at the Academy including (in just ”the last two weeks”)  film festival grants, fresh collections for its archives, and seminars on new technology and educational programs “to inspire our next generation of filmmakers”. Oddly, the email made no mention of the Academy’s most ambitious activity: the building of a museum, which was a major point of discussion (by Governor Kathleen Kennedy) at the weekend meeting.

Also not mentioned at all in the letter – which came on the eve of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival – was the contentious exchange about the way the Foreign Language film … Read More »

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Academy Announces New Rule Changes At Membership Meeting; All Members Can Now Vote On Foreign Language Films

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday May 4, 2013 @ 11:18am PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Dawn Hudson, Foreign Language Film Rules, Hawk Koch, Tom Bernard
Pete Hammond

The Academy announced rule changes that will allow  all  members for the first time to vote in all 24 categories including Foreign Language and Documentary Shorts, either via theatrical screenings or DVD.  Previously members had to attend special screenings for those two categories. The Academy used the occasion of their membership meeting today to announce the changes. In years past Academy members had to prove attendance to vote in Live Action and Animated shorts as well as Documentary Feature but that was changed last year. Now, as President Hawk Koch just announced at the meeting, all members will have an opportunity to participate in the final vote in Foreign Language and Doc Shorts as well and will be sent DVDs in order to facilitate that. Nomination processes will not change though.

The big news is for Foreign Language films and it could be controversial.  When I proposed this as a possible rule change to one of the major distributors of Foreign Films in February, Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Tom Bernard told me he was adamantly opposed and told me the Foreign Language voting process should only be open to those members who are really passionately involved, arguing that it is a true specialty area that shouldn’t be tampered with.  “I still think it’s important that the process not be frivolous. I still think you need to make sure the people who are going to do this are people that are acclimated to … Read More »

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CBS, ‘The Young And The Restless’ Top Daytime Emmy Nominations

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 1, 2013 @ 7:09am PDTTags: CBS, Daytime Emmy Awards, The Ellen Degeneres Show, The Young and the Restless
Nellie Andreeva

CBS was the most nominated network at the 40th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards announced this morning with 50 nominations, almost half of them for soap The Young And The Restless, which was the most nominated program with 23. All surviving soaps on the broadcast networks received a best drama series nomination, plus One Life To Live for its final episodes on ABC. (The Daytime Emmy Awards cover the previous calendar year. OLTL and All My Children‘s reboots by Prospect Park will be eligible next year.) Among talk shows, stalwart The Ellen DeGeneres Show again leads the way with 10 noms and will square off for best talk show with Live!, The View and The Talk. Katie Couric’s freshman syndicated talk show was the only newcomer in the top talk show categories, nominated for best talk show/informative alongside The Doctors and Dr. Oz. However, fellow rookie talk show host Steve Harvey snagged a nomination for his game show host duties on Family Feud.

The National Academy Of TV Arts & Sciences kept with tradition in the morning show category, nominating the three broadcast network morning programs including the embattled Today. Speaking of embattled, Kevin Clash, subject of multiple sexual abuse lawsuits, landed his last nomination as Elmo puppeteer. This year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award for lifetime achievement will be presented to game show veterans Monty Hall and Bob Stewart. The 40th Daytime Emmys will he held June 16 at the Beverly Hilton and air on HLN. Here is a full list of the nominees and tallies by network and by program: Read More »

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Mike Myers & Dana Carvey Use Academy To Bury ‘Wayne’s World’ Hatchet

By JEN YAMATO | Tuesday April 23, 2013 @ 10:17pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Dana Carvey, Hawk Koch, Mike Myers, Wayne's World

AMPAS President Hawk Koch tonight used the Academy as a promo tool for the 1992 comedy which he exec produced 21 years ago. Wayne’s World has zero to do with prestigious Academy functions, but a rep told me similar screenings are in the works to attract a new audience to AMPAS. Tonight’s event sold out in 90 seconds at $5 a pop.

With Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels (who produced the pic) Koch wrangled stars Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, and director Penelope Spheeris to the event following years of tensions between the trio. In a pre-film panel at the Academy’s Wilshire theater, moderator Koch skirted the infamous squabbles surrounding the Wayne’s World shoot. Those include Myers’ reputed difficult on-set demands. And reports that he Myers and Carvey had fallen out after Myers lifted his Dr. Evil voice from Carvey. Spheeris meanwhile has accused Myers of vetoing her as the sequel’s director because she didn’t listen to his edit requests. (“‘I hated that bastard for years”, she said in a 2008 interview.) No questions were allowed from the at-capacity audience. And the panelists were explicitly instructed not to talk to press at the event. Read More »

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UPDATE: Seth MacFarlane Gets Oscar Call; Plus Why Academy Asked Back Zadan And Meron

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday April 22, 2013 @ 12:12pm PDTTags: Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Oscars, Seth MacFarlane
Pete Hammond

UPDATE, 12:12 PM: After an initial denial, Deadline can now confirm that Seth MacFarlane did indeed get a call about returning as host of next year’s 86th Annual Academy Awards but has not given an answer yet. The big problem for MacFarlane, we are told by highly reliable sources, is his already full plate with a new Western comedy, A Million Ways To Die In The West, going into production soon as well as initial work on Universal’s sequel to Ted, which has amassed a worldwide gross of over half a billion dollars and is obviously a priority for the studio.

Despite saying after this year’s Oscars that he wouldn’t consider coming back, MacFarlane is mulling the offer but at this point isn’t sure he has the time to do it. For the 85th Oscar show, he was closely involved for four months, and that is a big-time commitment. The Academy, returning producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and MacFarlane’s PR reps aren’t commenting so far, and neither is Academy president Hawk Koch.

MacFarlane’s comic Western film is being produced by the Ted team of Media Rights Capital and producers Scott Stuber and Jason Clark. MacFarlane, who directs, co-writes with Ted and Family Guy colleagues Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, also stars as a bumbling sheep farmer in the comedy said to be in the vein of Blazing Saddles. Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried and Giovanni Ribisi co-star.

PREVIOUSLY, SATURDAY PM: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron aren’t talking yet (an Academy spokesperson said they are too busy at the moment producing their History Channel production of Bonnie And Clyde). But after the surprise announcement this week that they would be returning to produce the 2014 Oscar show, gossip blogs like HuffPo and others started spreading the obvious rumor that their handpicked — and controversial — 2013 Oscar host Seth MacFarlane already has been asked to do the gig again next year. Not true at all, Deadline has learned from MacFarlane’s reps. And shortly after the 85th Oscar show was over MacFarlane himself swore off any ambition to do the show again next year – or ever (of course never say ever). So with the false rumors out of the way let’s discuss what is true about the Academy’s Zadan/Meron play this week.

Even as much of the industry was in Las Vegas at CinemaCon for the past few days (including myself) seeing snippets of films still in production that could possibly turn up as Oscar contenders, the normally rigid Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences surprised us all by announcing 2013 show producers Zadan and Meron would be returning to produce the 2014 show as well, 11 months from now. Normally this is the first duty of an Academy President to choose after elections are held in August, and since current one-term President Hawk Koch will not be that person, it was quite unexpected to see him delivering this news in April, just a month and a half after the last show and before a new President would have any say in the matter, something Nikki specifically expressed shock at in her story on Tuesday.

After talking to numerous Academy insiders and board members this week who were directly involved in the process that led to this early bird choice, the word that comes up over and over is “continuity”. Other awards shows such as the Tonys, Grammys and even Emmys tend to go back to the same producers year after year, but as one former Academy President told me the Oscar show producing chores have lately been done “trial by fire”. Since the late Gil Cates produced his 14th and final Oscarcast in 2008, there has been a new team of producers every single year. The Board, which I am told was very much behind this decision, agreed that “continuity”, the kind they had in the Cates era, is important. That’s another reason the Academy has already announced show dates for both 2014 and even 2015 quelling any speculation the Oscars would move any earlier than the last Sunday in February (due to the Winter Olympics the 2014 show will be a week later on March 2).
Read More »

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Oscars Producers: Hawk Koch’s Chutzpah Tops Even Tom Sherak’s

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday April 16, 2013 @ 6:25pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Hawk Koch, Oscars, Tom Sherak

Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences president Hawk Koch broke today’s news naming its 86th Academy Awards producers — a rerun of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron – because I’d received a tip this morning and was about to scoop the news. This is either the worst or best publicity timing: just as the major Hollywood movie studios are presenting their slates at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. But I, you, and everybody should appreciate the hilarity of what just happened here. Because first it was Tom Sherak in 2012 and now it’s Hawk KochHawk Koch in 2013 who will go down in Oscars history as giving new definition to the word chutzpah. Hawk is the outgoing president of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences who just pulled a fast one on whomever is elected the incoming president this summer. That’s after Tom tried to pull a fast one on Koch the year before. C’mon, choosing the producers of the Oscars is probably the single most important job of the AMPAS president. Yet Hawk, serving for only one year and knowing he was a lame duck, broke protocol and today announced the re-hiring of Zadan/Meron for the March 2, 2014 telecast. That should have been his successor’s privilege and responsibility. Sherak tried to do the same for the February 24th, 2013, telecast by soliciting Lorne Michaels as Oscars producer and NBC Late Night host Jimmy Fallon as Oscars … Read More »

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Oscars: What Is The Academy’s Unprecedented Membership Meeting Really All About?

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday March 31, 2013 @ 12:40pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Dawn Hudson, Hawk Koch, membership, Seth MacFarlane
Pete Hammond

Speculation has been swirling this Easter holiday weekend in the media and among Academy types just exactly what the Save The Date for the “special event”  the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences just sent out to their members (in an email from President Hawk Koch and CEO Dawn Hudson) actually means. In a highly unusual move for the Acad the organization is holding a general membership meeting for its approximately 6000 members on May 4. The bi-coastal event taking place simultaneously in L.A., NY and San Francisco at 10AM (PT) and 1PM (ET) is titled “The Future Of Our Academy” and will include questions and conversation among those attending  either in L.A. or likely via satellite hookups in the other two cities from what I understand. The actual specifics are being worked out and will be detailed later but clearly the Academy wanted to get this on the out there now for planning purposes. Officially the Acad is mum on any of this except to acknowledge it is happening.

Since the Academy is prominently using the word “future” in promoting this fairly unprecedented event to its elite membership we can probably assume it will not be a post-mortem on the recent – and controversial - Oscar show hosted by Seth MacFarlane which drew strong ratings but a highly mixed response inside and out of the Academy. One member who showed me his “save the date” on his iphone yesterday described … Read More »

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R.I.P. Fay Kanin

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday March 27, 2013 @ 6:12pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Fay Kanin, R.I.P.

Fay Kanin, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning screenwriter and former President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, died today at the age of 95. A New York native, Kanin began her showbiz career in the early 1940s. One of her earliest works was the MGM film Sunday Punch, about boxers living in a boarding house, which she co-wrote with her husband Michael Kanin. The duo went on to become one of the most successful husband and wife writing teams in Hollywood history. The couple also penned 1952′s My Pal Gus, 1954′s Rhapsody and 1956′s The Opposite Sex and they shared an Oscar nomination for the 1958 Clark Gable-starrer Teacher’s Pet. Fay Kanin also went to Broadway with Goodbye My Fancy (1949), about a female congressional representative renewing past loves, which her husband produced. When her husband’s interest in writing waned in the late 1960s, Fay Kanin went solo mainly writing TV movies, including Heat Of Anger for CBS in 1972. She went on to write Tell Me Where It Hurts, a 1974 CBS movie starring Maureen Stapleton which won Kanin an Emmy. Her other TV credits include Hustling, starring Jill Clayburgh as a prostitute recounting her life to a reporter played by Lee Remick. She also co-wrote and produced the Emmy-winning Friendly Fire on ABC. She made a brief return to Broadway in 1985 with the Tony-nominated musical Grind, adapted from an unproduced screenplay. Her husband Michael … Read More »

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TV Industry Turns Out In Force Monday Night To Honor Broadcast Legends

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday March 12, 2013 @ 10:33am PDTTags: Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, Dick Wolf, Leslie Moonves, Ron Howard
Pete Hammond

Six more names were formally inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences‘ distinguished Hall Of Fame on Monday night in front of a packed audience at the Beverly Hilton. Joining the 140-plus TV legends who are already members were Les Moonves, Ron Howard, Al Michaels, Bob Schieffer, Dick Wolf and, at long last, a posthumous recognition of TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth. Among those on the selection committee this year were Marcy Carsey, Bonnie Hammer, Rick Rosen, Fred Silverman and Nina Tassler.

Easily the highest honor the Academy can bestow (Full disclosure: I am a member of the Board Of Governors repping the Writers Branch), these new inductees can count on seeing their busts enshrined in front of the Academy’s North Hollywood headquarters, immortalized forever. But last night’s (ironically) non-televised event was a loose and lively affair that had a warm feeling and might be called the TV Acad’s version of the Motion Picture Academy’s Governors Awards. It was a heartfelt shout-out to some of TV’s most accomplished names, and the move to the larger Beverly Hilton International Ballroom this year confirmed its growning importance to the community. Tickets were higher priced and more industryites showed than in recent years. For instance, even though they weren’t there as part of the show, Mark Harmon, James Burrows, Chuck Lorre, Michael Eisner and George Lucas in addition to many others were among the audience members cheering on the new inductees. Read More »

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Nikki Finke’s Oscar Live-Snark: Four Hours Of Unfunny Seth MacFarlane; Unnecessary Michelle Obama; ‘Argo’ Wins Best Picture

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday February 24, 2013 @ 5:34pm PSTTags: Nikki Finke, Oscars

Oscars 2013 CoverageI’m live-snarking the 85th Oscars for the outstanding film achievements of 2012 starting at 5:30 PM PT tonight. Comments will open when the show starts inside the Dolby Theatre. Come for the cynicism. Stay for the subversion. Add your opinion. WARNING: Not for the easily offended or ridiculously naive.

To understand the Academy Awards is to understand that Tinseltown is fueled by the green-eyed monster. Envy and spite will determine the winners. Because best productions or performances have nothing to do with the 24 categories awarded tonight. The negatives, not positives, will decide this year’s Oscars. That’s par for the course in Hollywood, where nastiness rules and niceness gets rolled. How else to explain why the horrible Harvey Weinstein is trying for his 3rd straight Best Picture?

Everything in Hollywood is agenda driven. That’s why I always say, when it comes to its biggest awards, what’s important are the scars, not the Oscars. Here’s how to handicap them: just look for whomever is envied most by members of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and bet those names probably won’t get called onstage tonight. That’s why few think Steven Spielberg has any real shot at Best Director or his Lincoln at Best Picture. Of course he thinks he deserves both. But when you’ve been moviedom’s legend for seemingly forever, the Academy voters can’t wait to knock you off your pedestal. OK, I’ll say it; Hollywood actually hates … Read More »

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Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker And Tom Bernard On Why Oscars Matter

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday February 19, 2013 @ 10:26am PSTTags: Amour, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Emmanuelle Riva, Michael Barker, No, Searching For Sugar Man, Sony Pictures Classics, The Gatekeepers, Tom Bernard
Pete Hammond

When it comes to Oscar savvy we often hear Harvey Weinstein talked about as the kingpin of the game, but when you look at the success of Sony Pictures Classics you realize it rivals Weinstein, Searchlight, Focus and other comers in consistently, and annually, releasing and nurturing one contender after another in the quest for the elusive statuette of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Since the company was founded in December 1991, key to its success has been its co-Presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard who first worked together in similar specialty divisions at United Artists and Orion and now continue to run one of the most stable indie shops in the industry. But with a total of 25 Oscar wins  and 109 nominations just at SPC they clearly have the Midas touch, and that includes a slew of Best Picture nominations for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (their biggest hit to date), Howard’s End, Capote, An Education, Midnight In Paris and this year’s Amour which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and has amassed five Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, only the fifth film in Academy history to be named in both categories. With writing and directing nods for Michael Haneke as well as a realistic Best Actress bid for star Emmanuelle Riva the film looks to be another strong contender for the pair who continue to be one of the few high profile companies that still champions foreign language films. SPC serves up a wide variety of specialty fare of all types and always seems to find a footing in the Oscar race which has become an important part of their business plan. With two contenders for Best Documentary and two for Best Foreign Language Film in addition to the Best Picture bid, the pair are fixtures at every major film festival and are once again making lots of noise in their high season. I spoke to both late last week about the upcoming Oscars and what it means to their bottom line.

Deadline: How important is this Oscar business to the actual business of Sony Pictures Classics?
Bernard: It’s part of the  business for Sony Pictures Classics because we can get movies, or have movies, that won’t get the recognition that they deserve any other way. And if they get that recognition what we have found is that the boxoffice and ancillary and profits of these movies get much better. We can go all the way back to Camille Claudel when we had Isabelle Adjani and somebody close to her suggested that you should run a campaign for her for Best Actress and we said ‘it will never happen, no one will watch the movie. We can’t get them to the theatre. And the person said ‘well why don’t you send out VHS cassettes to the Academy’ so we did and sent them to the actors branch and lo and behold we got a nomination. And it took that movie to a level it would have never gotten if it didn’t happen. Read More »

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OSCARS: Academy’s Hawk Koch On Video

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 3:56am PSTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Hawk Koch, Oscars

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has released portions of an interview with president Hawk Koch about Seth MacFarlane as Oscars host, on Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and their show, on the competition among this year’s motion pictures, and on taking charge of the Academy Awards. Deadline put all four sound bites together:

rtmp://streaming.deadline.com/ondemand/video/ACA_85thEPK_Koch_HQALL.flv
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DGA Awards 2013: Ben Affleck Wins Best Feature Film Director For ‘Argo’; TV Winners Include Rian Johnson ‘Breaking Bad’, Lena Dunham ‘Girls’, Jay Roach ‘Game Change’, Glenn Weiss ‘Tony Awards’, Jill Mitwell ‘One Life To Live’, Brian Smith ‘Master Chef’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday February 2, 2013 @ 10:23pm PSTTags: DGA Awards, Directors Guild Of America

UPDATED WITH ALL WINNERS AND SPEECHES: The 65th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards dinner was held tonight at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles. The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film was won by Ben Affleck for Argo. “I don’t think this makes me a real director. But I think it means I’m on my way,” he said. This DGA category has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers of who will win the Best Director Academy Award – but Affleck was not nominated by the Oscar’s Directors Branch. When asked backstage by Deadline if he thinks the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences wishes it had nominated him for a directing Oscar, Affleck stayed classy: “I have DGA Awardsnothing but respect for the Film Academy. I’m also very grateful to the DGA. I mean, you’re not entitled to anything in life. I’m thrilled and honored that the academy nominated me as a producer for the movie. Maybe taking me out of [the director race] helps give us purpose, because it’s just about that movie as a picture.”

Only six times* since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. Also nominated by the DGA but not by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences were Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables). Affleck was the only one of tonight’s DGA nominees who had not won here before. Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) has won three times, for The Color Purple in 1985, Schindler’s List in 1993 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998. Ang Lee won for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 and Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Bigelow won her DGA in 2009 for The Hurt Locker, and Hooper in 2010 for The King’s Speech.

Martin Short introduced Spielberg’s nomination and killed with the audience. “I guess Bill Clinton was booked. Tonight, we honor Steven for his magnificent film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.” Spielberg loved it and gave Short a big hug. He received the only standing ovation so far – and quipped back at Short: ”When you tell your assistant to contact Marty about presenting you with your DGA medallion, you’ve got to assume she’s understanding that you’re talking about Scorsese. But we can’t get Clinton, and Marty’s busy, so this is a great third choice. Thank you Marty for presenting me with this.” Noting the intense competition this year, Spielberg said, “This has been an incredible year for movies. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there have been moments when I wished it was a somewhat less incredible year for movies. But those moments pass.” When presenting him with the DGA nomination medallion for Argo, Bryan Cranston recalled how Affleck was different “from every other director I’ve ever worked with. He was mouthing my dialogue while reciting his. Of course actors love that.” Affleck then deadpanned, “I should have gotten Marty Short.”

Also being recognized tonight are directors of documentaries and television and special award winners Milos Forman (Lifetime Achievement Award in Motion Picture Direction) who was ill and could not attend, Michael Apted (Robert B. Aldrich Award for extraordinary service to the Directors Guild of America and to its membership), Eric Shapiro (Lifetime Achievement Award in News Direction) whose 92-year-old father was in attendance, Susan Zwerman (Frank Capra Achievement Award given to an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager), and Dency Nelson (Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award given to an Associate Director or Stage Manager). DGA president Taylor Hackford read from a letter of thanks supplied by Forman who recalled several DGA directors including Mike Nichols, Sidney Lumet, Franklin Schaffner, and Buck Henry helping him on an immigration issue many years ago. In perhaps the evening’s most moving and powerful moment, Hackford then led everyone gathered in the audience to stand, turn to the back of the room, face the camera of the closed feed, raise their wine glasses, and toast Forman. As music swelled, Hackford continued, “With this recognition, you now walk with the giants. With the directors who have helped forge this guild — Vidor, Capra, Wyler and the others, all who make us who we are today. To Milos! To Milos! To Milos!”

The DGA Awards tonight were hosted by director/actor/producer Kelsey Grammer who entertained with the usual mix of semi-amusing targeted zingers from inside showbiz. “This evening is not just an awards show. It’s a celebration of the art and craft of directing — hence, the open bar.” Addressing Kathryn Bigelow in the audience, Grammer quipped that the suspense “must be torture for you”. He went on: “Congrats to Ang Lee. In Life Of Pi, Lee had the challenge of directing a real live tiger. A wild animal who eats humans and licks himself. This prepared him for any future work with Mel Gibson.” Regarding the recent cancellation of his own Starz series Boss, he said, “The most curious part was when I received a call from someone and they’d say, ‘Kelsey, I’m so sorry about Who’s The Boss.”

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond, Awardsline’s Anthony D’Alessandro, and Deadline contributor Ray Richmond were on the scene tonight:

65th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film

Ben Affleck
Argo (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Mr. Affleck’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Amy Herman
First Assistant Director: David Webb
Second Assistant Director: Ian Calip
Second Second Assistant Directors: Clark Credle, Gavin Kleintop
First Assistant Director (Turkey Unit): Belkis Turan

This is Mr. Affleck’s first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.

Ben Affleck called for the rest of his team to join him onstage. He humbly said: “The four folks here who are nominated I consider my betters. There’s no other way of saying it. I work really hard at this… You know, I got to a point in my life where I was really down, really confused, really felt beset on all sides by life, didn’t know what was gonna happen. And I thought, I should be a director.” He admitted, “I don’t think this makes me a real director. But I think it means I’m on my way.”

Backstage, Affleck reflected on what would make him a ‘real’ director: “Gosh, I don’t know… William Wyler’s a real director, Capra’s a real director, Scorsese’s a real director, Spielberg’s a real director… I think of this whole list of greats and I think, that’s the short of grown-ups who I think of as directors. I think of myself as a work in progress. I want to keep growing and pushing and I’m OK with that.”

Affleck was asked if the hard times he’d alluded to in his acceptance speech were finally over. “I hope so,” he replied. “This is certainly a very good time. You know, there are ebbs and flows. There are natural difficulties… I had this very early success as a very young man, which is difficult to manage at any age but particularly when you’re young. And I had some stuff work and some didn’t, and I ran afoul of the press a little bit and became overexposed… Maybe I was being a bit hyperbolic in the speech for effect, but it caused me to wonder, ‘What do I want to do in this industry? Do I have anything to offer? What should I be doing? How can I best express myself?’ And that was around the time I took up directing, and I really view this as connected to that decision because that was fraught with, ‘Can I do it? Can I make it? Can I really direct movies and be at the DGA and to be honored with an award by the DGA?’ It’s definitely more than I could have ever imagined on the first day of shooting on Gone Baby Gone.”

Onstage during his earlier nomination speech, Affleck gave props to all his fellow nominees, including praising Bigelow for “Looking at this male-dominated world and saying ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna go out, I’m gonna make the 9/11 movie, I’m gonna win the fucking Oscar…” and said she was an “example” for his daughters. He also quipped, “I’d also like to thank [fellow Argo producers] Grant Heslov and George Clooney. But I won’t go on at great length because this isn’t televised and they’re not here.”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

MALIK BENDJELLOUL
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics)
Passion Pictures Production
Canfield Pictures & The Documentary Company
Red Box Films

This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.

TELEVISION

DGA Awards 2013Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series

RIAN JOHNSON
Breaking Bad, “Fifty-One” (AMC)

Mr. Johnson’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Stewart A. Lyons
Assistant Unit Production Manager: James Paul Hapsas
First Assistant Director: Ben Scissors
Second Assistant Director: Louis Lanni
Second Second Assistant Director: Anna Ramey
Additional Second Assistant Director: Joann Connolly

This is Mr. Johnson’s first DGA Award nomination.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies For Television and Mini-Series

JAY ROACH
Game Change (HBO)

Mr. Roach’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Mary Kane
First Assistant Director: Josh King
Second Assistant Director: Emily McGovern
Second Second Assistant Director: Brian F. Relyea

This is Mr. Roach’s second DGA Award nomination. He previously won the DGA Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series for Recount in 2008.

Jay Roach won the Emmy for the same film about sarah Palin. “This is unbelievable to win this award… in a room filled with my heroes,” he said onstage. Roach noted that he grew up in a very conservative New Mexican family where his mother made a rule to never talk about politics at the dinner table. “And I stuck to that for most of my life – at least at home,” he said. “But when I watched John McCain in 2008 rush to propose Sarah Palin be the next in line for the President of the United States, I said, ‘We’ve got to talk about this’.” The remark drew a mixture of laughter and applause.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series

LENA DUNHAM
Girls, “Pilot” (HBO)

Ms. Dunham’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Regina Heyman, Ilene S. Landress
First Assistant Director: Mark McGann
Second Assistant Director: Jason Ivey
Second Second Assistant Director: Marcos Gonzalez Palma

This is Ms. Dunham’s first DGA Award nomination.

An ebullient Lena Dunham said during her acceptance, “It is such an unbelievable honor… I appreciate it endlessly to even call any of these people my peers. Surreal is, I know, an overused Los Angeles word, but it’s how I feel.” Then she launched into thank yous: “There’s no way I would be here without my crew. I showed up and there were 55 people waiting for me with open arms who shared with me everything that they knew. They gave me everything that they had… Thank you to my father Carroll Dunham who directed the shit out of our family…” And before she stepped off the podium, she noted: “Steven Spielberg, I’m coming for you. Ben Affleck, I already came for you.”

Backstage, Dunham explained what that last comment meant. “I just love them. I already talked to Ben. I said to Ben, ‘I love you,’ and he said, ‘Thank you’. Now I’m going to talk to Steven.” as for her show, Dunham said: “I hope the male characters don’t feel like trophies but feel like fully realized humans. And that maybe gives men a little bit of insight into female behavior.”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs

BRIAN SMITH
Master Chef, “Episode #305” (FOX)

Mr. Smith’s Directorial Team:
Associate Director: Anna Moulaison-Moore
Stage Manager: Drew Lewandowski

This is Mr. Smith’s third DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in this category in 2010 and 2011 for episodes “103” and “201” of Master Chef.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety

GLENN WEISS
66th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)

Mr. Weiss’ Directorial Team:
Associate Directors: Ken Diego, Robin Abrams, Stefani Cohen, Ricky Kirshner
Stage Managers: Garry Hood, Phyllis Digilio-Kent, Peter Epstein, Andrew Feigin, Lynn Finkel, Doug Fogel, Jeffry Gitter, Dean Gordon, Arthur Lewis, Jeffrey M. Markowitz, Joey Meade, Tony Mirante, Cyndi Owgang, Jeff Pearl, Elise Reaves, Lauren Class Schneider

This is Mr. Weiss’ ninth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety in 2007, 2010 and 2011 for the 61st, 64th and 65th Annual Tony Awards. He was previously nominated in this category in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008, all for the 55th, 56th, 59th, 60th, and 62nd Annual Tony Awards.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials

JILL MITWELL
One Life To Live, “Between Heaven and Hell” (ABC)

Ms. Mitwell’s Directorial Team:
Associate Directors: Tracy Casper Lang, Teresa Cicala, Michael Sweeney, Paul S. Glass
Stage Managers: Alan Needleman, Keith Greer, Tracy Casper Lang, Leah M. Weber
Production Associates: Nathalie Rodriguez, Kevin Brush

This is Ms. Mitwell’s ninth DGA Award nomination and all for her direction of One Life to Live. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials three times for One Life to Live, “Episode #9779” in 2006, “Episode #8295” in 2000 and “Episode #6356” in 1993. She was nominated five additional times for One Life to Live episodes “Starr X’d Lovers, The Musical, Part Three” in 2010, “Episode #8691” in 2002, “Episode #8012” in 1999, “Episode #7761” in 1998, and “Episode #7285” in 1996.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs

PAUL HOEN
Let it Shine (Disney Channel)

Mr. Hoen’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Katie Willard Troebs
First Assistant Director: Daniel Coffie
Second Assistant Director: Todd Turner
Second Second Assistant Director: D. Scott Kirkley

This is Mr. Hoen’s sixth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Program in 2007 for Jump In and was previously nominated in this category in 2000 for the Even Stevens episode “Take My Sister… Please,” in 2004 for Searching for David’s Heart, in 2008 for Cheetah Girls: One World and in 2010 for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.

Special Awardees

Milos Foreman‘s DGA Lifetime Achievement Award was selected by Read More »

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