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Hammond On Cannes: Opening Night ‘Gatsby’ Party Wet But Elaborate

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday May 15, 2013 @ 7:28pm PDTTags: Baz Luhrmann, Brian Grazer, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Robinov, Leonardo Di Caprio, Moulin Rouge, Steven Spielberg, Sue Kroll, The Great Gatsby, Tobey McGuire
Pete Hammond

Baz Luhrmann followed up his biggest opening day in America with his biggest opening day in France as The Great Gatsby took in $78K in partial-day results that still were bigger than his Moulin Rouge and Australia. Understandably in a party mood thanks to the overperformance of his U.S. box office last weekend, the director pronounced himself pleased with one of the most elaborate after-parties which Cannes has seen since Moulin Rouge premiered here in 2001. Warner Bros co-hosted the gala event with Gatsby‘s other key financier, Village Roadshow. “I love it.  I think Jay Gatsby would have loved it too. ‘Screw the rain,’ he would have said,” Luhrmann laughed.

The Cannes celebration of its opening-night film continued into the early morning hours despite a monsoon-like downpour. When I left around 2 AM, though, the party showed no sign of winding down. Luhrmann was frequently out on the dance floor whooping it up with the likes of Warner Bros worldwide marketing czarina Sue Kroll (“When you open the festival, you have to spend a good amount of money on the party,” Kroll told me), his co-star Isla Fisher, and his WME agent Robert Newman. Also there was the festival guru Thierry Fremaux, who told me that the first film he ever programmed when he first snagged the prestigious Cannes gig was Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Luhrmann said he was now really optimistic about the global box office for Gatsby and mentioned that it held strong on Monday and Tuesday in North America. He wasn’t shy admitting that last weekend was a ”nervous time” for the filmmaking team until the results showed audiences weren’t driven away by “mixed” reviews. (Clearly there seems to be a group of pseudo-critics who like to try and take down a movie, and this was their target. But the audience rebelled.) Luhrmann addressed that issue at the film’s press conference earlier. “I made Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet and even Strictly Ballroom and I never got one of those big high critics’ scores,” he said. “I just care that people are going out and seeing it, and I am really moved by that.”

Warner Bros Motion Picture Group President Jeff Robinov told me Wednesday’s numbers in France were very encouraging, only confirming the release strategy that saw Gatsby moved from an awards-season berth in December to a summer opening in May — going up against all the action tentpoles and, so far, succeeding. Get a clue, Hollywood: There is a huge audience of women and others looking for something different in the summer months. Like a romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio, who was holding court with the other VIPs in the roped-off upstairs area and told me he was concerned about “the critics crapping on it” early on in Gatsby‘s run. But the film has rebounded from that, and DiCaprio is very proud of this one since he gives a strong performance that outstrips earlier Hollywood attempts to tackle the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel that was written just 20 miles outside of Cannes. DiCaprio’s Django Unchained co-star Christoph Waltz, a member of this year’s Cannes jury, was embracing Leo at the party and singing the film’s praises. I overheard Sacha Baron Cohen, husband of co-star Fisher, telling her how much jury head Steven Spielberg said he loved the film after Wednesday night’s well-received screening. And mega-producer Brian Grazer, a guest at the Cannes premiere, brought Luhrmann over to meet his daughter, who said she loved Gatsby, as did Grazer.

As for the party, the fireworks display was truly spectacular even seen from inside of the elaborate but sometimes dripping tent Warners erected for the evening. The music provided by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra and singer Florence Wells was perfectly pitched for the evening, though a rumor that Jay-Z, who worked on the Gatsby soundtrack, would perform never panned out. The party reminded Cinedigm topper Chris McGurk of the big $2 million bash MGM threw in 2004 for DeLovely. ”It’s not cheap in Cannes,” he said. Then again Kroll, as a former head of international marketing, assured me that Cannes will be enormously important for Gatsby‘s overseas rollout this weekend and that’s why she has been a big supporter of the festival whether debuting large films or small.

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Hammond On Cannes: Jury Takes Center Stage As Oscar Rivals Steven Spielberg And Ang Lee ”Worship” Each Other

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday May 15, 2013 @ 8:49am PDTTags: 66th Cannes Film Festival, Ang Lee, Cannes Wrap-Up, Christoph Waltz, Jury, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Nicole Kidman, Steven Spielberg, The Great Gatsby
Pete Hammond

Once rivals for Oscar in February and now fellow jurors in Cannes, Ang Lee called Steven Spielberg his “hero” as Spielberg praised Lee’s Life Of Pi, which won Best Director over Lincoln. This mutual lovefest took place as the jury for the 66th Cannes Film Festival was introduced to the world’s press this afternoon. Spielberg, who said he hasn’t served on any festival jury since 1974 (the beginning of his feature film career) is President and has been asked many times but said the timing was finally right. “I’ve been so consistently at work, especially in the spring months directing, that every time I’ve been approached to be on the jury I’ve been working so I suddenly found myself with an open year, and so that’s why this all came together this year. I am honored I was invited,” he said. Spielberg has been to Cannes many times before with films like E.T. and most recently, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

Asked about being on the Cannes panel with Spielberg after defeating him for the Oscar almost three months ago Lee said, “Steven and I are good friends. I worship him. I don’t know how he looks at me, but I worship him. I don’t think any result would change how I feel about him or even myself. He’s my hero.” Spielberg responding seemed at a loss for words. “I don’t know how to answer that, except to say Ang and I have been friends for a long time and we’ve never ever been competitors, we’ve always been colleagues and that will just contiinue. And certainly I worship Life Of Pi and therefore I worship Ang Lee as well.” Read More »

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Hammond On Cannes: Festival Kicks Off With Most Anticipated Slate In Years

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday May 14, 2013 @ 9:48am PDTTags: Alexander Payne, Behind The Candelabra, Cannes Wrap-Up, HBO, Inside Llewyn Davis, Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Nebraska, Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, The Coen Brothers, The Great Gatsby, Thierry Fremaux
Pete Hammond

After two years in a row of heavily influencing the Oscar race, the 66th Cannes Film Festival lineup may make it three this year. Certainly I see very long and winding Croisette lines to pick up press or market credentials at the Palais, which is adorned with posters of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in a provocative still shot from their fluffy France-set 1963 comedy A New Kind Of Love. One early clue came when the jury was announced, beginning with President Steven Spielberg and including such Oscar winners as Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz. And if it’s not enough to have those icons prominent at this year’s fest, add The Great Gatsby‘s Baz Lurhmann whose film is the opening night event with a gala after-party, and Martin Scorsese who will also be in town for a yacht party announcement of his longtime gestating directorial effort Silence on May 16th. Certainly many of the Cannes contenders both in and out of competition are from Academy Award winners and Cannes veterans back with intriguing films that make up a high profile and potent selection with advance buzz.  Competing are the Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Roman Polanski and Alexander Payne plus a slew of famous names in front of the cameras both on screen and on the Red Carpet this year.

Related: Fleming: Can Sizzle Reels Make Sizzling Deals This Year?

As for the competition and key sidebars, one perennial Cannes question os whether it’s a good idea to ready or even rush a film designed for year-end release in order to play at the Festival in May. Particularly of that means risking negative reviews which can be a real buzz killer. Take, for instance, Payne’s last minute entry Nebraska from Paramount, which almost didn’t appear here. In the initial forecast Deadline posted on March 13, we thought Payne’s film fit in with the auteurist nature of the fest, it’s in black and white, and its filmmaker is quite a favorite in Cannes. (He has had only one film previously in competition – 2002′s About Schmidt – and won no prize, but he not only headed the jury for Un Certain Regard in 2005 but also was a member of the main competition jury last year.) Yet shortly after this prediction I was told Cannes wasn’t in the cards due to Payne’s fondness for long post-production time. He didn’t want to be rushed. Then the studio saw the film about a week before the Cannes deadline and execs urged Payne to put it into the festival. He took Nebraska to Paris to show to Cannes programming honcho Thierry Fremaux with just two days to go before the press conference announcing the 2013 lineup. Now it is one of the most anticipated screenings even though it ooccurs towards the end of the Festival on May 23. Paramount claims  it recently had a successful research screening in Pasadena and has dated the film for November 22nd, right in the heart of Oscar season (Payne is a two-time Screenwriting Oscar winner for Sideways and The Descendants).

Conversely there was absolutely no doubt Joel and Ethan Coen would be bringing their latest, the 1960′s-set Greenwich Village folk music tale Inside Llewyn Davis screening on May 19. It is their 8th time around this particular block so they are virtually Cannes regulars. CBS Films won’t release the movie stateside until December 6, another prime Oscar date.

Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur screening on May 25 on the last day of competition is the adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway play. It brings Polanski back to Cannes for the first time since winning his only Palme d’Or (for 2003′s The Pianist, which resulted in a Best Director Oscar). It stars  his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Almarac and though audiences and critics weren’t too impressed with the last Polanski Broadway play adaptation God Of Carnage, this dramatic work could be more up his alley. There’s also strong interest in French director  Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian screening May 18 largely due to lead actor Benecio Del Toro’s role as a Blackfoot Indian WWII vet. (But someone’s gotta change that lumbering title.) Cannes watchers also are buzzing about new works from three directors who are no strangers on the Croisette: Nicolas Winding Refn who won Best Director in Cannes for 2011′s Drive and has re-teamed with star Ryan Gosling as a drug smuggler in the May 22nd entry Only God Forgives. (I am told Kristin Scott Thomas steals this one as his mother). And though his films don’t make much noise in theatres, James Gray is a Cannes favorite  and back with his fourth competition entry, The Immigrant (formerly called Lowlife) screening May 24th with a starry cast of Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner. Jim Jarmusch brings his new Vampire story Only Lovers Left Alive which stars the always intriguing Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska . It has the distinction of being the last film to make the list and the last competition film to be screened: in the 10 PM slot on May 25th.

As always with Cannes there is just too damn much to see with many sidebar competitions like Un Certain Regard, Director’s Fortnight, Critics Week, Cannes Classics and so on. Certainly the opener for Un Certain Regard, Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring and Ryan Coogler’s Sundance sensation Fruitvale Station (summer releases stateside) are both screening on the sidebar’s first day of May 16th and are instant must-sees in addition to James Franco’s directorial outing, As I Lay Dying, on May 20th.

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Steven Spielberg’s Next Film Will Be Bradley Cooper’s ‘American Sniper’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 2, 2013 @ 12:32pm PDTTags: American Sniper, Big Deals Film, Bradley Cooper, DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: DreamWorks and Warner Bros will team on Steven Spielberg‘s next film American Sniper, with Bradley Cooper aboard to star in the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Cooper optioned the book himself, along with … Read More »

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Dick Zanuck Documentary Premieres At TCM Fest Closing

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday April 29, 2013 @ 3:42pm PDTTags: Johnny Depp, Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard Zanuck, Steven Spielberg, TCM, TCM Classic Film Festival
Pete Hammond

After four days of pristine presentations of certified vintage (mostly) classic movies, the TCM Classic Film Festival saved its only new film for the last day Sunday with the official world premiere of the documentary Don’t Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story Of Richard D. Zanuck. The 90-minute doc begins airing on TCM next month, and it’s not only a must for anyone interested in the extraordinary career of Zanuck, but as a primer on survival in the dog-eat-dog movie industry.

Even though the  Egyptian Theatre screening was a “world premiere”, the film actually was first seen in early October at Zanuck’s memorial service at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Zanuck died July 13 of a sudden heart attack at age 77). As his widow and co-Oscar-winning producer Lili Fini Zanuck (Driving Miss Daisy, Cocoon) told me before Sunday’s screening, “When it was time to do the memorial I was so grateful to have this footage. There’s just nothing that could come close. There’s no montage I could have come up with or people speaking — you never would have wanted people speaking for some 90-odd minutes. And I felt so fortunate that night at the Academy to have this incredible documentary. It is not that it just follows Dick’s life, it’s that it is incredibly inspiring to people… After the memorial some people came up to me and said ‘Oh I wish I knew Dick this way’, and I said ‘You would never know Dick this way’. He wasn’t that kind of person. He didn’t see himself as a role model of any kind I think. He was just doing his best , and in his youth he was sort of rough and tumble. He would have gotten a big kick out of people finding him inspiring.” Read More »

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Cannes: Jury Members Include Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee, Christoph Waltz

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Tuesday April 23, 2013 @ 10:58pm PDTTags: Ang Lee, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Nicole Kidman, Steven Spielberg

The jury for the 66th Cannes Film Festival is heavy on owners of various little gold statues. Previously announced as president is Oscar winner Steven Spielberg. Joining him will be this year’s Best Director Academy … Read More »

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Battered And Broken Oscar Sells For More Than $100K At Auction

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday April 3, 2013 @ 1:25pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Big Deals Film, Casablanca, Helen Hayes, Oscars, Steven Spielberg
Pete Hammond

They say you can’t “buy” an Oscar, but that would be a lie. As they do every year, the studios just spent millions in pursuit of them, and Hollywood’s elite seem to covet them more than their first-born. But exactly how much is an Oscar worth? If Tuesday’s latest Nate D. Sanders auction is any indication, it’s a lot.

Screenwriter Charles MacArthur’s 1935 “Academy First Award”, won at the 8th Annual Academy Awards for Best Story for The Scoundrel, sold today for $106,231 While not anywhere near a record for an Oscar statuette, it’s pretty remarkable considering this one was tarnished and had a cracked head and base as well as visible repair done to a break at the ankles. This ‘ol Oscar clearly had weathered a few storms since being presented to MacArthur (he shared the credit with Ben Hecht) on March 5, 1936. The fact it did not come for a major classic film or wildly famous recipient makes the sale even more impressive.

In case any more recent winners are looking to make a fast buck for their Oscar, be warned that a sale like this for any Oscar post-1950 is completely illegal. That is when the Academy started making winners sign an agreement that they or their heirs could not sell their Oscar without first offering it back to the Academy for the paltry sum of $1. Of course, this hasn’t stopped the practice even for those statuettes, and it has been estimated that at least 200 Oscars have been sold in the past and I would guess that a great number of them are post-1950. With this kind of black market in Oscar statuettes, it is obvious that not everyone with the coveted gold man on their mantel actually won it — or was at least related to a winner. But while the Academy may frown, the business of buying and selling Oscars, even as damaged as MacArthur’s, is still a very big one. Read More »

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Hollywood Power Players Hosting April Fundraiser For Newark Mayor’s Undeclared Senate Race

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 6:08pm PDTTags: Bob Iger, Corey Booker, Hollywood fundraisers, J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Weintraub, Steven Spielberg

Cory Booker hasn’t officially said he’s running to become New Jersey’s next Senator but Hollywood is planning to shovel money into his campaign treasure chest. Anointing Booker as Hollywood’s new favorite politician, invites went out this week for a “Special Evening In LA” April 25 fundraiser for the Newark Mayor at the Beverly Hills home of producer Jerry Weintraub and girlfriend, producer Susan Ekins. The event has a marquee host list that cuts across party lines and into deep wallets. It costs $5,000 a ticket to attend the fundraiser with the money going to Cory Booker For Senate. The event is one of eight the telegenic Democrat has lined up in the next two months in anticipation of a 2014 run to replace departing fellow Democrat Frank Lautenberg in the heavily Blue state. The Beverly Hills fundraiser certainly shows that backing a potential winner cuts across party lines. Republicans like Bush family confidante Weintraub and Bruce Willis are listed on the invite but so are avowed Democrats like Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was one of the largest single contributors to Barack Obama’s reelection, Steven Spielberg and new Star Wars director J.J. Abrams and their wives Kate Capshaw and Katie McGrath.

Related: President Obama Thanks Katzenbergs For “Tireless” Support
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Tom Hooper, Ang Lee, David Fincher And Steven Spielberg Eye Intriguing Movies

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 5:22pm PDTTags: Ang Lee, Big Deals Film, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hooper
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline scooped the news today that Safety Not Guaranteed helmer Colin Trevorrow landed the plum gig of Jurassic Park 4, a move which could catapult him to the director A-list. There is a lot of movement going on among directors that will reverberate depending on who takes what job.

First up, Steven Spielberg has ended his long flirtation with directing Gods And Kings, the epic-sized Warner Bros film about life of Moses based on the script by Michael Green and Stuart Hazeldine. That puts Warner Bros in a bind because of the rival Moses project, the Adam Cooper/Bill Collage-scripted Exodus, which is gathering steam at Fox, with Ridley Scott looking to mobilize that as soon as he completes The Counselor. But Warner Bros is now out to Ang Lee, who just won the Best Director Oscar for Life Of Pi. I’m told he’s intrigued with the project but hasn’t had a formal meeting on the script. Imagine what either director can do with that subject matter, and with the ratings on History Channel’s The Bible miniseries, the audience is certainly there. Spielberg hasn’t dropped the project for another; while he postponed his next film Robopocalypse, he hasn’t replaced it with anything as he continues to develop that robot pic. Spielberg also recently told French TV he’s developing a Napoleon miniseries for TV based on Stanley Kubrick’s screenplay and research. for Read More »

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Colin Trevorrow To Helm ‘Jurassic Park 4′ For Universal And Steven Spielberg

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 1:51pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic Park 4, Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Colin Trevorrow, who made his feature directorial debut on the no-budget Sundance pic Safety Not Guaranteed, is about to make a Tyrannosaurus rex-sized leap in scale for his next film. He has been set by Universal Pictures to helm Jurassic Park 4, the third sequel to the dinosaur franchise hatched from Michael Crichton’s novel. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver have written the script. Frank Marshall is producing with Patrick Crowley, and Steven Spielberg is executive producer. It will be shot in 3D and get released June 13, 2014. This is Spielberg’s baby, and he got this giant franchise going by directing the first two films. This is a big piece of business for Universal and Spielberg; their last Jurassic Park picture was released in 2001, directed by Joe Johnston.

Trevorrow made his jump to features on Safety Not Guaranteed, which FilmDistrict acquired and released and which grossed $4 million. He’s making a humungous step up in every way by joining a franchise which, in three films, has grossed nearly $2 billion worldwide, with Universal preparing a theatrical rerelease of the first film in 3D on April 5. Read More »

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DreamWorks Takes On Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Acquiring Upcoming David Finkel Book ‘Thank You For Your Service’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday March 12, 2013 @ 4:08pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, David Finkel, DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg, Thank You For Your Service
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: As Steven Spielberg has been barnstorming the globe, he revealed plans for a mini about Napoleon while in France and a movie in Kashmir as he has been touring India. He’s not abandoning the home front, though. DreamWorks has acquired screen rights to Thank You For Your Service, an upcoming book by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel. He is also the author of The Good Soldiers, the acclaimed 2009 book about his experience embedding with a battalion of elite soldiers that led the “surge” to overtake Baghdad called for by President George W. Bush in 2007.

That book dealt mostly with the soldiers and their battlefield experiences. Finkel’s follow-up, to be published in the fall by Sarah Crichton Books, covers the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that is making it so difficult for these and other soldiers to return from the battlefield and reintegrate into society. I am told DreamWorks will soon set a major writer to script a film. It’s unclear whether Spielberg would direct this, though he certainly has done his share of war films, and PTSD is going to become a growing problem as troops continue returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them traumatized by their experiences. Read More »

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In Mumbai, Steven Spielberg Talks Kashmir Project, MLK Film, ‘Tintin’ & Bond: Report

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Tuesday March 12, 2013 @ 4:20am PDTTags: adventures of, DreamWorks, Reliance Entertainment, Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg‘s international tour of newsy tidbits continues. Speaking to France’s Canal Plus recently, the filmmaker dropped info about his development of a Napoleon miniseries based on a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick. Yesterday, Spielberg was in India to talk about Lincoln, meet with the local industry and attend a party hosted by Anil Ambani, the head of DreamWorks partner Reliance Entertainment. He also spoke to The Times Of India about a project that DreamWorks plans to make locally. “We have finalized a script for a movie that DreamWorks and our partners Reliance Entertainment plan to make together. Part of it will take place on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. But we’re still trying to figure out the casting, locations and who’s going to direct it,” Spielberg told the paper. He also renewed talk of a long-gestating Martin Luther King project saying “DreamWorks-Reliance is also planning a movie on Martin Luther King Jr. I wouldn’t call it a biopic, it’s more a story of King and the movement and also about how his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi helped to shape his moral core.” DreamWorks acquired the civil rights leader’s life rights from the King Estate in 2009 Read More »

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Steven Spielberg Developing Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Napoleon’ As TV Miniseries

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday March 3, 2013 @ 2:09pm PSTTags: Napoleon, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg

It was a screenplay first written by Stanley Kubrick back in 1961 and now Steven Spielberg says he’s working with the late filmmaker’s estate on the project. “I’ve been developing Stanley Kubrick’s screenplay, for a miniseries not for a motion … Read More »

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Steven Spielberg To Head Cannes Film Festival Jury

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 11:01pm PSTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg will head this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury, festival organizers announced Thursday morning local time in Paris. The director has been a festival regular but most of his movies have screened out … Read More »

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OSCARS: Directing Nominees On The Process

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday February 18, 2013 @ 5:45pm PSTTags: Ang Lee, Awardsline, Benh Zeitlin, David O. Russell, Michael Haneke, Oscars, Steven Spielberg

Michael Haneke | Amour

Oscar pedigree: He has two nominations this year for screenwriting and direction. Previously, 2009’s The White Ribbon received two noms for best foreign language film and cinematography.

Birds … Read More »

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ACE Eddie Awards: ‘Argo’, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, ‘Brave’; TV ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘The Newsroom’, ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday February 16, 2013 @ 7:31pm PSTTags: ACE Eddie Awards, American Cinema Editors, Argo, Steven Spielberg

Ross Lincoln is a Deadline contributor.

Argo continued its winning streak tonight at the 63rd annual ACE Eddie Awards nabbing Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic, with the nod going to editor William Goldenberg. Silver Linings Playbook took Best Edited Feature – Comedy or Musical and Brave won Best Edited Animated Feature. Brave editors Nick Smith and Robert Grahamjones spent five years working on the Pixar pic, which is also up for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. “Some people think we’re censors and a lot of people think films are shot in the camera but they’re not”, Smith told Deadline before the awards ceremony, “so it means a lot to be honored by people who actually know what we’re doing”. Goldenberg nabbed the BAFTA on Sunday and was nominated tonight for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty (with Dylan Tichenor). He is Oscar-nominated for both films as well. Goldenberg spoke with Deadline shortly after his win. “I spend most of my life in a dark room, so I’m not used to [awards shows]“, he quipped, “so I was only moderately terrified and not completely terrified like I was at the BAFTAs”. Other winners included Searching For Sugar Man – Best Edited Documentary Feature, and HBO’s Hemingway & Gellhorn - Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture For Television. Breaking Bad: Dead Freight won Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television and The Newsroom: “We Just Decided To (Pilot) took the Non-Commercial TV nod. 

The American Cinema Editors event honored the best in film, television, and documentary editing in nine categories. Actor and comedian David Cross emceed the evening, cracking jokes about everything from Breaking Bad spoilers to Sofia Vergara to his own bad movies: “I was in three Alvin And The Chipmunks movies!” (“You’re killing it”, Spielberg was overheard backstage saying to Cross.) Four time Oscar- and ACE-nominated Richard Marks, A.C.E. (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets) and Emmy-nominated Larry Silk, A.C.E. (Pumping Iron, American Dream) were honored with lifetime career achievement awards for their work, while Steven Spielberg was presented with the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year award. In his acceptance speech, Spielberg said “editing and directing are almost interchangeable” to explain the impact on his development. “I’ve always looked at the editing room as the safe haven of second chances… Editors, everybody here: You are my heroes”. The complete list of winners follows:  Read More »

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Hot Featurette: Will Oscar Shine On ‘Life Of Pi’s Ang Lee In Strong Best Director Race?

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 1:13pm PSTTags: Ang Lee, David O. Russell, Life of Pi, Oscars, Steven Spielberg
Pete Hammond

EXCLUSIVE: Whatever happens in the Best Picture Oscar race, where Argo has emerged as a strong frontrunner thanks to an unbroken string of victories in all the key precursor awards, the race for the Best Director Oscar is … Read More »

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USA Network To Air ‘Schindler’s List’ On February 23 With Intro By Steven Spielberg

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 6, 2013 @ 2:58pm PSTTags: Steven Spielberg, USA Network

Schindler’s List will air on USA Network at 8 PM Saturday, February 23 as part of USA’s public service campaign Characters Unite, a program created to promote greater tolerance and acceptance.  It will be presented commercial-free with a … Read More »

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Steven Spielberg To Receive Filmmaker Of The Year Award From American Cinema Editors

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 30, 2013 @ 7:51am PSTTags: ACE Eddie Awards, American Cinema Editors, Steven Spielberg

Universal City, CA, January 30, 2013 –Award winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg has been selected by the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) to be honored with the organization’s prestigious ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award. The award will be presented at the 63rd Annual ACE Eddie Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 16, 2013 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it was announced today by the ACE Board of Directors. The previously announced ACE Eddie Award nominees in nine categories of film, TV and documentaries is available online: http://ace-filmeditors.org/ace-eddie-awards/nominees-recipients/.

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