Monthly Archives: January 2017

Academy Awards, Oscar

18 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS TO BE HONORED WITH ACADEMY AWARDS

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced 18 scientific and technical achievements represented by 34 individual award recipients, as well as five organizations, will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.

“This year we are particularly pleased to be able to honor not only a wide range of new technologies, but also the pioneering digital cinema cameras that helped facilitate the widespread conversion to electronic image capture for motion picture production,” said Ray Feeney, Academy Award® recipient and chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. “With their outstanding, innovative work, these technologists, engineers and inventors have significantly expanded filmmakers’ creative choices for moving image storytelling.”

Unlike other Academy Awards to be presented this year, achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2016. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.

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The Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements are:

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (ACADEMY CERTIFICATES)

To Thomson Grass Valley for the design and engineering of the pioneering Viper FilmStream digital camera system.

The Viper camera enabled frame-based logarithmic encoding, which provided uncompressed camera output suitable for importing into existing digital intermediate workflows.

To Larry Gritz for the design, implementation and dissemination of Open Shading Language (OSL).

OSL is a highly optimized runtime architecture and language for programmable shading and texturing that has become a de facto industry standard. It enables artists at all levels of technical proficiency to create physically plausible materials for efficient production rendering.

To Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy and Maurice van Swaaij for the pioneering development of the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios.

CGI Studio’s groundbreaking ray-tracing and adaptive sampling techniques, coupled with streamlined artist controls, demonstrated the feasibility of ray-traced rendering for feature film production.

To Brian Whited for the design and development of the Meander drawing system at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Meander’s innovative curve-rendering method faithfully captures the artist’s intent, resulting in a significant improvement in creative communication throughout the production pipeline.

To Mark Rappaport for the concept, design and development, to Scott Oshita for the motion analysis and CAD design, to Jeff Cruts for the development of the faux-hair finish techniques, and to Todd Minobe for the character articulation and drive-train mechanisms, of the Creature Effects Animatronic Horse Puppet.

The Animatronic Horse Puppet provides increased actor safety, close integration with live action, and improved realism for filmmakers.

To Glenn Sanders and Howard Stark for the design and engineering of the Zaxcom Digital Wireless Microphone System.

The Zaxcom system has advanced the state of wireless microphone technology by creating a fully digital modulation system with a rich feature set, which includes local recording capability within the belt pack and a wireless control scheme providing real-time transmitter control and time-code distribution.

To David Thomas, Lawrence E. Fisher and David Bundy for the design, development and engineering of the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless Microphone System.

The Lectrosonics system has advanced the state of wireless microphone technology by developing a method to digitally transmit full-range audio over a conventional analog FM radio link, reducing transmitter size, and increasing power efficiency.

To Parag Havaldar for the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

This pioneering system enabled large-scale use of animation rig-based facial performance-capture for motion pictures, combining solutions for tracking, stabilization, solving and animator-controllable curve editing.

To Nicholas Apostoloff and Geoff Wedig for the design and development of animation rig-based facial performance-capture systems at ImageMovers Digital and Digital Domain.

These systems evolved through independent, then combined, efforts at two different studios, resulting in an artist-controllable, editable, scalable solution for the high-fidelity transfer of facial performances to convincing digital characters.

To Kiran Bhat, Michael Koperwas, Brian Cantwell and Paige Warner for the design and development of the ILM facial performance-capture solving system.

This system enables high-fidelity facial performance transfer from actors to digital characters in large-scale productions while retaining full artistic control, and integrates stable rig-based solving and the resolution of secondary detail in a controllable pipeline.

SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING AWARDS (ACADEMY PLAQUES)

To ARRI for the pioneering design and engineering of the Super 35 format Alexa digital camera system.

With an intuitive design and appealing image reproduction, achieved through close collaboration with filmmakers, ARRI’s Alexa cameras were among the first digital cameras widely adopted by cinematographers.

To RED Digital Cinema for the pioneering design and evolution of the RED Epic digital cinema cameras with upgradeable full-frame image sensors.

RED’s revolutionary design and innovative manufacturing process have helped facilitate the wide adoption of digital image capture in the motion picture industry.

To Sony for the development of the F65 CineAlta camera with its pioneering high-resolution imaging sensor, excellent dynamic range, and full 4K output.

Sony’s unique photosite orientation and true RAW recording deliver exceptional image quality.

To Panavision and Sony for the conception and development of the groundbreaking Genesis digital motion picture camera.

Using a familiar form factor and accessories, the design features of the Genesis allowed it to become one of the first digital cameras to be adopted by cinematographers.

To Marcos Fajardo for the creative vision and original implementation of the Arnold Renderer, and to Chris Kulla, Alan King, Thiago Ize and Clifford Stein for their highly optimized geometry engine and novel ray-tracing algorithms which unify the rendering of curves, surfaces, volumetrics and subsurface scattering as developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle SL.

Arnold’s scalable and memory-efficient single-pass architecture for path tracing, its authors’ publication of the underlying techniques, and its broad industry acceptance were instrumental in leading a widespread adoption of fully ray-traced rendering for motion pictures.

To Vladimir Koylazov for the original concept, design and implementation of V-Ray from Chaos Group.

V-Ray’s efficient production-ready approach to ray-tracing and global illumination, its support for a wide variety of workflows, and its broad industry acceptance were instrumental in the widespread adoption of fully ray-traced rendering for motion pictures.

To Luca Fascione, J.P. Lewis and Iain Matthews for the design, engineering, and development of the FACETS facial performance capture and solving system at Weta Digital.

FACETS was one of the first reliable systems to demonstrate accurate facial tracking from an actor-mounted camera, combined with rig-based solving, in large-scale productions. This system enables animators to bring the nuance of the original live performances to a new level of fidelity for animated characters.

To Steven Rosenbluth, Joshua Barratt, Robert Nolty and Archie Te for the engineering and development of the Concept Overdrive motion control system.

This user-friendly hardware and software system creates and controls complex interactions of real and virtual motion in hard real-time, while safely adapting to the needs of on-set filmmakers.

Portions of the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation will be included in the Oscar® telecast.

The 89th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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(Source: oscars.org)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Documentary

Forum 2017: Realistic and Surreal

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

The 47th Berlinale Forum is showing 43 films in its main program, 29 of which as world premieres and 10 as international premieres. This year’s Special Screenings will be announced in a later post.

This year’s program shines a light on the sheer wealth of forms employed by the documentary, including films from Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The spectrum could hardly be broader here, encompassing institutional portraits, long-term observational projects, and works that employ participatory, narrative, essayistic, ethnographic, political and experimental approaches. These are joined by various hybrid forms that cannot be clearly categorized as either fiction or non-fiction. One recurring motif is that of landscape, which is seldom relegated to the status of backdrop, but rather frequently takes on a leading role.

One regional focus is formed by films from Latin America, with six works from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Argentina exhibiting a wide range of different formal approaches.

 

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Davi Pretto’s narrative feature Rifle sets out for the endless plains of the Brazilian south to stage a modern Western there. A taciturn former soldier is employed to guard a small landholder’s estate. But when an agricultural company seeks to buy up the land, he reacts in truly drastic fashion.

Peruvian brothers Alvaro und Diego Sarmiento find stunning images to convey the leisurely flow of life in a verdant river landscape. Río Verde. El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River. The Time of the Yakurunas) is an attentive observation of the daily routines of the indigenous inhabitants of Peru’s Amazon region.

In Casa Roshell, Chilean director Camila José Donoso assembles a portrait of a most unusual institution in the Mexican capital, a place where men learn to be women during the day, before the parties get going at night. All manner of boundaries blur in this tiny utopia: between gay, straight and bi, male and female, past and present, reality and fiction.

Vladimir Durán’s debut feature Adiós entusiasmo (So Long Enthusiasm) is at once realistic and surreal and one of three Argentinian films showing in the main program. Ten-year-old Axel lives with his mother and three sisters in a flat in Buenos Aires. They’d be a perfectly normal family if only the mother weren’t imprisoned in one of the rooms.

El teatro de la desaparición (The Theatre of Disappearance) by sculptor and installation artist Adrián Villar Rojas presents a hypnotic triptych which depicts latent states of war, drawing on sensual images seemingly only tenuously connected that employ disparate styles and jump freely from continent to continent.

Albertina Carri’s Cuatreros (Rustlers) examines Argentina’s complex recent past: Isidro Velázquez was a bandit and dissident active in the 1960s whose story formed both the basis for a sociology book by her father Roberto Carri and a feature film that is now lost. The director draws on archive images to bring her own biography into alignment with wider historical events.

The Sensory Ethnographic Lab has already been well-represented at the Forum and Forum Expanded in the form of Sweetgrass, Leviathan and Yumen and several of its key figures now return to this year’s program. Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s somniloquies works with sound recordings of Dion McGregor, who became famous for talking in his sleep. In El mar la mar, J.P. Sniadecki and Joshua Bonnetta dissect the Sonoran Desert – a landscape marked by the border between the United States and Mexico.

North American cinema once again forms a strong presence at this year’s Forum. Golden Exits by Alex Ross Perry tells the story of a young Australian woman who comes to New York for a few months and unwittingly throws the lives of two couples into disarray.

Menashe, the feature debut by Joshua Z Weinstein, is set in Borough Park, Brooklyn and is almost entirely in Yiddish. The titular Menashe fights to keep custody of his son following the death of his wife. Yet the Hasidic community demands he lead a more ordered life and find a new spouse, neither of which come easy to this kind, but awkward loner.

Amman Abbasi is also showing his debut feature at the Forum. It tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who has lost direction following the death of his brother, meaning that being initiated into a local gang now appears a necessary step towards becoming a man. Dayveon is a search for brotherhood in an African American community in the rural South.

Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest’s sensitive long-term documentary For Ahkeem was shot in Missouri, focussing on Daje, who lives with her single mother in St. Louis. Like many black teenagers in the neighbourhood, she has problems at school, while her everyday life is shaken again and again by the violent deaths of her friends.

The many strong documentaries in the program also include works from Germany. Ann Carolin Renninger and René Frölke’s Aus einem Jahr der Nichtereignisse (From a Year of Non-Events) follows a year in the life of a 90-year-old north German farmer, who lives alone on a rural farmstead.

Heinz Emigholz, a familiar Forum guest for many years now, returns to the programme with his “Streetscapes” series, which loosely links together four separate films. 2+2=22 [The Alphabet] documents the recording sessions for the album “ABC” by electronic music group Kreidler in Tbilisi, Georgia. Bickels [Socialism] examines the architecture of Samuel Bickels, who created numerous kibbutz buildings and museums in Israel. Streetscapes [Dialogue] is a fictionalized dialogue about filmmaking based on the protocols of a mammoth psychoanalysis session and was shot in buildings by Julio Vilamajó, Eladio Dieste and Arno Brandlhuber in Uruguay and Berlin, some of which then pop up again in the final chapter Dieste [Uruguay].

Nicolas Wackerbarth’s feature Casting is also dedicated to the process of filmmaking. Director Vera is unwilling to compromise when it comes to finding the right lead actress for a Fassbinder remake for television. Acting assistant Gerwin delivers dialogues with a bevy of famous actresses and soon realises that this could be his big chance. The film’s starry cast includes Ursina Lardi, Andrea Sawatzki, Corinna Kirchhoff, Judith Engel, Marie-Lou Sellem and many more.

The films of the 47th Forum

2+2=22 [The Alphabet] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Adiós entusiasmo (So Long Enthusiasm) by Vladimir Durán, Argentina / Colombia – WP

At Elske Pia (Loving Pia) by Daniel Joseph Borgmann, Denmark – WP

Aus einem Jahr der Nichtereignisse (From a Year of Non-Events) by Ann Carolin Renninger, René Frölke, Germany – WP

Autumn, Autumn by Jang Woo-jin, Republic of Korea – IP

Barrage by Laura Schroeder, Luxembourg / Belgium / France – WP

Bickels [Socialism] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany / Israel – WP

Casa Roshell by Camila José Donoso, Mexico / Chile – WP

Casting by Nicolas Wackerbarth, Germany – WP

Chemi bednieri ojakhi (My Happy Family) by Nana & Simon, Germany / Georgia/France

Cuatreros (Rustlers) by Albertina Carri, Argentina – IP

Dayveon by Amman Abbasi, USA – IP

Dieste [Uruguay] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Drôles d’oiseaux (Strange Birds) by Elise Girard, France – IP

For Ahkeem by Jeremy Levine, Landon Van Soest, USA – WP

Golden Exits by Alex Ross Perry, USA – IP

Jassad gharib (Foreign Body) by Raja Amari, Tunisia / France

Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake) by Haobam Paban Kumar, India

Maman Colonelle (Mama Colonel) by Dieudo Hamadi, Democratic Republic of Congo / France – WP

El mar la mar by J.P. Sniadecki, Joshua Bonnetta, USA – WP

El mar nos mira de lejos (The Sea Stares at Us from Afar) by Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Spain / The Netherlands – WP

Menashe by Joshua Z Weinstein, USA / Israel – IP

Mittsu no hikari (Three Lights) by Kohki Yoshida, Japan – WP

Mon rot fai (Railway Sleepers) by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand

Motherland (Bayang Ina Mo) by Ramona S. Diaz, USA / The Philippines – IP

Motza el hayam (Low Tide) by Daniel Mann, Israel / France – WP

Mzis qalaqi (City of the Sun) by Rati Oneli, Georgia / USA / The Netherlands / Qatar / USA – WP

Newton by Amit V Masurkar, India – WP

Occidental by Neïl Beloufa, France – IP

Qiu (Inmates) by Ma Li, People’s Republic of China – WP

Rifle by Davi Pretto, Brazil / Germany – IP

Río Verde. El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River. The Time of the Yakurunas) by Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento, Peru – WP

Shu’our akbar min el hob (A Feeling Greater than Love) by Mary Jirmanus Saba, Lebanon – WP

somniloquies by Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, France / USA – WP

Spell Reel by Filipa César, Germany / Portugal / France / Guinea-Bissau – WP

Streetscapes [Dialogue] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Tamaroz (Simulation) by Abed Abest, Iran – WP

El teatro de la desaparición (The Theatre of Disappearance) by Adrián Villar Rojas, Argentina – WP

Tiere (Animals) by Greg Zglinski, Switzerland / Austria / Poland – WP

Tigmi n Igren (House in the Fields) by Tala Hadid, Morocco / Qatar – WP

Tinselwood by Marie Voignier, France – WP

Werewolf by Ashley McKenzie, Canada – IP

Yozora ha itsu demo saikou mitsudo no aoiro da (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue) by Yuya Ishii, Japan – WP

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale Talents, European Film Market

Berlin’s Drama Series Days 2017 Expanded!

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Berlin Drama Series Days 2017 Expanded!

Program / Series Events for Berlinale Market Attendees at Legendary Zoo Palast

The “Drama Series Days”, a joint initiative for series content co-organized by the industry platforms European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents, are set to celebrate their third annual edition this year. Building on the great success of the previous years, a third day has been added to the program for 2017, which runs from February 13 to the 15.

The new venue for the panel discussions and market screenings, which are offered by the European Film Market, is Berlin’s legendary Zoo Palast cinema, which will be transformed this year into the premiere meeting place for series content for members of the industry. “CoPro Series”, the pitching session organized by the Berlinale Co-Production Market, will also take place there.

The “Drama Series Days” are a vibrant, specialized platform, which invites filmmakers, buyers, salespeople, producers, editors and financiers of high quality drama series to come together to share their knowledge and ideas and present new series content.

“CoPro Series” creates an active space for networking and exchange between the film and series industries. At this event, the registered participants – producers and financiers from the pool of the Berlinale Co-Production Market – and the “Drama Series Days” industry guests have the opportunity to get to know the series’ creators and producers at the Networking Get-Together after the pitching session, where they can learn more about the pitched content. In previously arranged one-on-one meetings, participants can also engage in concrete talks with the aim of developing potential partnerships.

A portion of the “Drama Series Days” program for 2017 is already confirmed:

“CoPro Series” 2017: Seven International Series Projects Pitching Their Content and Searching for Partners

On February 15 the Berlinale Co-Production Market is inviting producers, television representatives, distributors and further series financiers for the third time to the exclusive series pitching session “CoPro Series”, which will be taking place for the first time this year at the new venue for the “Drama Series Days”, the fabled Zoo Palast cinema.

Seven select series projects will be on the lookout for co-production and financing partners here among the industry guests. The productions include for instance Cognition, a crime thriller concept from director Alex Garcia Lopez (Misfits, Utopia), which is being produced by companies from the United Kingdom and the USA. The team behind the French series Trepalium, which gained positive attention last year from critics and series audiences alike in France and Germany, will be presenting their new project Metro, a historical thriller set in the days of the first efforts to construct the subway system in Paris.

In the Austrian-German crime project Freud, the psychoanalytical skills of the titular hero are needed in the race to catch a serial killer. German author and director Till Kleinert’s Hausen on the other hand, a project produced in Bulgaria, combines elements of the mystery, horror and drama genres in a story set in a run-down high-rise estate.
The Belgian crime series Omerta, whose characters must constantly walk a fine line between trust and betrayal, is also searching for partners at the event – and the same goes for the drama series State of Happiness, in which a small Norwegian city gets caught up unexpectedly in the oil boom.

A further project will be presented in co-operation with the renowned Paris-based series festival and co-production forum “Series Mania”: the series Warrior, featured at the Paris festival’s 2016 edition and directed by Christoffer Boe, who has previously made a name for himself primarily as a feature film director (Reconstruction; Offscreen; Sex, Drugs & Taxation), has also been invited to Berlin. As in previous years, one of the six other series presented at “CoPro Series” will once again have the opportunity to meet additional potential partners at “Series Mania” in April.

The main partners for the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 15, 2017) are the MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe – MEDIA, a program of the European Union.

The Networking Get-Together at “CoPro Series” at the Zoo Palast cinema is being held in co-operation with the Norwegian Film Institute.

Projects selected to participate at “CoPro Series” 2017 (in alphabetical order by production company):

  • Freud (Bavaria Fernsehproduktion & Satel Film), Germany & Austria
  • Cognition (Catalyst Global Media & A Better Tomorrow Films), United Kingdom & USA
  • Omerta (Caviar), Belgium
  • Metro (Kelija), France
  • State of Happiness (Maipo Film), Norway
  • Hausen (Tanuki Films), Bulgaria

Project in co-operation with “Series Mania”:

  • Warrior (Miso Film), Denmark

EFM: 20 Series from Around the World in Market Screenings, Successful Industry Get-Together for the International Series Scene To Be Expanded with New Conference Program

20 new series from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, France, Island, Israel, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA will be presented to series buyers from February 13 to 15 in the market cinemas at Berlin’s Zoo Palast. They feature a broad spectrum of subjects and demonstrate a high level of quality, as attendees of the event have come to expect. With established market players such as Global Screen, Red Arrow, Studio Canal, eOne, DR, Keshet, Lagardère, Sony TV, ITV, Dutch Features and TV Globo and producers like Vimeo and Left Bank Pictures on board, the specialist audience will be treated to a wide range of content.

For the first time, a multifaceted conference program will take place on February 13 and 14 at Zoo Palast, where the newest trends and developments – from forecasted shifts in genre popularity to new European funding options – will be presented and discussed by experts in the field.

The program is only accessible for accredited industry attendees in possession of a Market Badge and will consist of the following events:

Monday, February 13
1.00 pm Opening of “Drama Series Days”
1.30 pm “How to Make Your Series Go Global? Co-Production, Financing and Distribution Strategies for Binge-worthy TV” in co-operation with Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and The Hollywood Reporter
2.30 pm “New Frontiers: Creating Original Content in Mexico and Latin America” in co-operation with IMCINE
3.30 pm “European Series Funding At a Glance”

Tuesday, February 14
1.00 pm “Berlin on Screen: Zeitgeist in Serial Drama” supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
2:00 pm “Spotlight UFA: High-End Drama for the International Market” in co-operation with UFA Fiction
3:00 pm “Pay TV Expanding: What to Expect?” in co-operation with HBO Europe and C21

Official partner for “Drama Series Days” 2017 at the European Film Market is the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW; the platform is organised in co-operation with HBO Europe and made possible with the support of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

“Drama Series Days” @ Berlinale Talents

In addition, on Monday, February 13 (from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm at HAU Hebbel am Ufer 3), Berlinale Talents will present and discuss the production conditions for the spy series Berlin Station in a detailed case study with numerous members of the German crew in attendance. The series from the USA was shot entirely on location in Berlin last year.

The full program for the “Drama Series Days”, including all scheduled screenings, will be made public on January 31.

In addition to the “Drama Series Days”, series content will also be featured once again in the festival program of the Berlinale: in the framework of the Berlinale Special Series, a hand-picked selection of high-quality series will be shown again this year at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

SBIFF Announces 2017 Maltin Modern Master Award

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

SBIFF Announces 2017 Maltin Modern Master Award

Another must-see! Mr. Washington has had another extraordinary achievement with August Wilson’s “Fences.” Denzel Washington is set to receive the Maltin Modern Master Award at the 32nd SBIFF! Washington will be honored for his longstanding contributions to the film industry culminating with Paramount’s upcoming Fences which he directs, produces and stars in. Leonard Maltin, for who the award was recently renamed after, will return for his 26th year to moderate the evening. The award will be presented on Thursday, February 2, 2017 at Santa Barbara’s historic Arlington Theatre. Open the link for tickets.

 

Oscar

2017 Oscar Nominations: Live Stream

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences along with several Oscar-winning and Academy nominated members including Jennifer Hudson, Brie Larson, Emmanuel Lubezki, Jason Reitman and Ken Watanabe as they join Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to reveal the 89th Oscars® Nominations, on Tuesday, January 24, beginning at 5:18 a.m. PST/8:18 a.m. EST/1:18 p.m. GMT/9:18 p.m. CST. Come and celebrate the nominees here with HollywoodGlee!

ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a global community of more than 7,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers and executives working in film.  In addition to celebrating and recognizing excellence in filmmaking through the Oscars, the Academy supports a wide range of initiatives to promote the art and science of the movies, including public programming, educational outreach and the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which is under construction in Los Angeles.

(Source: oscars.org)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Berlin’s Panorama Dokumente Complete: Opening on February 10, 2017

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

 

 

Authoritarian Regimes Under Observation / Music Documentaries Featuring Almodóvar’s Muse and Electronic Avant-Garde

Director Monika Treut Receives Special TEDDY Award 2017

 

The French production Belinda by Marie Dumora is slated to open Panorama Dokumente with a contribution to the previously announced thematic focus “Europa Europa” (see post here). The Yenish people have occupied a difficult position in the national fabric of Europe since time immemorial: like the Sinti and Roma, they typically have trouble aligning themselves as they are legally and socially excluded by majority populations. The grandparents of 15-year-old sisters Belinda and Sabrina first met in a German concentration camp – the young women were placed in foster care at an early age and were lucky to land in the La Nichée children’s home. With the start of life comes the start of a long struggle with the world – a world also determined by limits and rules on this most diverse of all continents. A haunting, harrowing documentation of everyday life as it is lived on the margins of society.

Three films demand that we take a fresh historical look at European events whose echoes are still felt so many years later:

First off is No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) from Brazil’s João Moreira Salles, who juxtaposes a cornucopia of archive materials documenting the events which unfolded in Paris in 1968 with amateur footage showing the suppression of the Prague Spring and footage of a self -confident Chinese society under Mao, just as his mother experienced it back then – as a private political reflection.

Next up is an exciting bit of time travel in Jochen Hick’s Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin), an account of queer living situations in West Berlin in an era when emancipation had yet to be invented, primarily covering the 1960s to the the 1980s but also taking time to revisit the roots of the gay rights movement in the immediate post-war period.

 

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Bones of Contention, by American Andrea Weiss, is an in-depth look at the LGBT community in Spain during the Franco regime into the present. (Photo courtesy of Berlinale Press Office)

 

And finally, a long look underneath the rug of Spanish reticence in Bones of Contention by Andrea Weiss of the USA: In search of the earthly remains of iconic Spanish poet and fascist murder victim Federico García Lorca, the filmmaker stumbles upon the entirely unexamined history of the suppression of the LGBT community under Franco, while also becoming familiar with the struggles of today’s movement, whose efforts to procure some sort of long overdue justice for the hundreds of thousands who were “disappeared” during the fascist era are met with little support.

In Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise), distinguished French director Merzak Allouache seeks answers to a question which also exerts an influence on today’s Europa. In order to try to fathom the origins of the desire for death exhibited by so many young Arab men in Algeria, one must understand that they are motivated by the florid fairy tales that their spiritual leaders have led them to believe, including above all the notion that sex and wine will finally be available in abundance after death. The young Algerian journalist Nedjma researches the paradise that Salafist preachers promise young men together with her colleague Mustapha. A dense analysis of the extreme manifestations of a destructive, conservative Islam that seeks to dominate.

The second of the two previously mentioned thematic focal points “Black Worlds” is reinforced by Yance Ford’s Strong Island. The director processes the murder of his own brother 25 years ago in a documentary film by equal turns personal and political, in a formally open examination of racist terror, grief work and smouldering anger about inequality.

Is this the heart of “America”? And does Rambo live inside it like the man in the moon lives inside his satellite? Erase and Forget by Andrea Luka Zimmerman (Great Britain) doesn’t pose the question, it answers it instead. The all American hero, the most highly decorated soldier of all time with hundreds of human lives on his conscience, roams like a benevolent patriarch through Idaho, where the people are proud of the high level of diversity in the available flavours of right-wing radicalism, just another normal part of life out here.

Two films turn their attention to Latin America and structures that still make their effects felt from left and right-wing authoritarian forms of society.

In Tania Libre, Lynn Hershman Leeson, a guest at Panorama for the third time, accompanies Cuban artist Tania Bruguera during sessions with trauma therapist Dr. Frank Ochberg. After having served a sentence for treason meted out in the wake of a performance that expressed criticism of the regime, she wants to acquire the skills necessary to process the invasive infringement wrought by the paranoid machinery of the people’s dictatorship, including the revocation of her right to practice her art. The founder of the Institute for Artivism Hannah Arendt in Havana intends to campaign in Cuba’s next presidential election in 2018.

The second film hails from Chile: El Pacto De Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) by Lissette Orozco. The director accidently comes across indications that her once favourite aunt Adriana colluded actively with the secret service back in the days of the Pinochet junta. Her research yields a picture that can be found after the fall of every dictatorship ever: those that lived well under the terror regime steadfastly deny their involvement after the winds have shifted. A macrocosm opens up within a family’s intimate history – and no one knew nothing.

The French-Swiss-Palestinian co-production Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) by Raed Andoni on the other hand leads us back into the present. In the scope of shooting for a film, a group of ex-prisoners from Israeli detention re-enact a sort of exhaustive catalogue of their experiences, in role plays and often in what borders on trauma therapy. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have experienced things like this in a variety of forms – what impact will these experiences have on the affected societies in the future?

 

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Three extraordinary music documentaries make up a last thematic focus: On the one hand, we have Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, an homage to the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, whose exceptional talent carried her to the world’s most notable concert halls, and whose independence and prodigious sacrifice in her life as a lesbian testified to an admirable attitude that stayed with her to a ripe old age. The last concert of this lover of Frida Kahlo, which took place under the patronage of Pedro Almodóvar (who has featured her music consistently in his films), was an homage performed in Madrid to the great gay Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (see also the Panorama production Bones of Contention in this connection).

On the other hand, Panorama brings together two films that treat electronic music culture in Germany: An inventor, innovator, a creator of genres, that’s Edgar Froese. Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream by Margarete Kreuzer is devoted to the story of the band and their influential, world famous music – while director Romuald Karmakar turns his attention once again to the settings of his “Club Land Trilogy”: With Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) he shows the development of the music genres in question in the here and now, by enabling us to watch and listen to notable DJs while they work, including Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata Macias, Roman Flügel and Move D/David Moufang.

After her success at Panorama with Anderson, Annekatrin Hendel is back with an extremely intimate story of friendship that has larger societal implications. In Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) she spends four existential weeks in a seaside hotel with a close female friend. The two women’s conversations revolve around the often glamorous past in East Berlin, the current struggle with a diagnosis – and how our life plans relate to our actual lives.
Speaking of life plans: they can be found in abundance in Tristan Milewski’s Dream Boat – even if they seem to resemble one another, here under the premise of a temporary manipulation of society on a cruise exclusively for gay men. A society completely devoid of heteros, who normally rule the world, and completely devoid of women too: by purging the majority the minority becomes one. Many of the guests come from countries where simply being the way they are exposes them to serious danger: a concentrated form of existence is the result here, which represents a challenge beyond the purely physical for the participants.

Special TEDDY for Monika Treut

The Special TEDDY Award is presented by the friends’ association TEDDY e.V. to a filmmaker whose accomplishments have made an especially significant contribution to the characterisation of queer filmmaking over the years.

As a director, producer and author, Monika Treut has not only left her mark on feminist and lesbian cinema since the 1980s – she has also had a great impact on the German-speaking independent film scene and inspired practitioners and audiences alike all the way into world of US American indie cinema as a trailblazer for the New Queer Cinema. The boldness of and iconoclastic approach to her subjects and aesthetics are closely linked with the liberating energy of the Spontex movement of the 1970s. Her documentary Gendernauts won the TEDDY Award for Best Documentary Film in 1999 as well as audience prizes the world over. Since the presentation of her feature film debut with Elfi Mikesch Seduction: The Cruel Woman in 1985, the Berlinale has shown more than twelve of her films. On the occasion of the presentation of the award in the scope of the 31st TEDDY Awards on Friday, February 17th, Panorama will be showing her second feature film, the 1989 classic Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine).

 

Panorama Dokumente

Belinda – France
By Marie Dumora
World premiere

Bones of Contention – USA
By Andrea Weiss
World premiere

Chavela – USA
By Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi
With Chavela Vargas, Pedro Almodóvar
World premiere

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) – Germany
By Romuald Karmakar
With Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flügel, Move D/David Moufang
World premiere

Dream Boat – Germany
By Tristan Ferland Milewski
World premiere

Erase and Forget – United Kingdom
By Andrea Luka Zimmerman
World premiere

Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) – Germany
By Annekatrin Hendel
World premiere

Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) – France / Palestinian Territories / Switzerland / Quatar
By Raed Andoni
World premiere

Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin) – Germany
By Jochen Hick
World premiere

No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) – Brazil
By João Moreira Salles
World premiere

El Pacto de Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) – Chile
By Lissette Orozco
World premiere

Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream – Germany
By Margarete Kreuzer
With Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Christoph Franke, Johannes Schmoelling
World premiere

Strong Island – USA / Denmark
By Yance Ford
International premiere

Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise) – France / Algeria
By Merzak Allouache
International premiere

Tania Libre – USA
By Lynn Hershman Leeson
With Tania Bruguera, Frank Ochberg
Spoken by Tilda Swinton
World premiere

 

Already announced for Panorama Dokumente:

Casting JonBenet – USA / Australia, by Kitty Green
Combat au bout de la nuit (Fighting Through the Night) – Canada by Sylvain L’Espérance
I Am Not Your Negro – France / USA / Belgium / Switzerland, by Raoul Peck
Política, manual de instrucciones (Politics, instructions manual) – Spain, by Fernando León de Aranoa
Ri Chang Dui Hua (Small Talk) – Taiwan, by Hui-chen Huang
Untitled – Austria / Germany, by Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

 

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

BEN GURION, EPILOGUE will have its US premiere at the Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Go2Films is bringing light in the form of the founder of the State of Israel and its first Prime Minister.

At a time of  global leadership crisis, BEN-GURION, EPILOGUE (Israel/France, 2016 | Documentary, 55 min. Director: Yariv Mozer) brings thought-provoking insights about the role of leaders in today’s complex world.

In the great depths of the archive, six hours of interview footage was discovered of one of modern history’s greatest leaders- David Ben-Gurion. It is 1968 and he is 82 years old, five years before his death. He lives in his secluded home in the desert, removed from all political discourse, which allows him a hindsight perspective on the Zionist enterprise. Ben-Gurion’s introspective soul searching is the focus of this film, and his clear voice provides a surprising vision for today’s crucial decisions and the future of Israel.
BEN-GURION, EPILOGUE will be making its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF).  The festival will run February 1-11, 2017. SBIFF recently released its film program.

Watch the Trailer

Here’s a poignant review of  BEN-GURION, EPILOGUE by the New York Times’ Isabel Kershner:
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Ben-Gurion on Israel, Peace and Back Pain: A Lost Interview Is Brought to Life

KIBBUTZ SDE BOKER, Israel — The rare, intimate and reflective interview with Israel’s founding prime minister was filmed nearly 50 years ago, but it never aired.

David Ben-Gurion, at 82 and five years out of office, spoke in the six-hour interview of state-building and the biblical prophets that guided him; the security imperative of his young nation and Israel’s quest for spiritual and moral superiority; his battle with lower back pain and his interest in Buddhism.

It was April 1968, and “The Old Man,” as Ben-Gurion was nicknamed for much of his life, had been largely abandoned by his own political protégés. Paula, his rather brusque and devoted wife, had died that January, leaving him in near isolation in his chosen retirement home in Sde Boker, a remote communal village in the Negev desert.

“The most important thing which I learned, I learned by living here,” he said. “I want to live in a place when I know that my friends, and myself, we did it. Everything. It’s our creation.”

Watch Ben-Gurion reflecting on the prophets and on turning to God for strength. “God is everywhere,” he said.

He sat for two hours a day, over three consecutive days, and spoke in English. He wore a turtleneck sweater, his casual uniform for cooler days. When the interviewer said he was ready to wrap up the final session, Ben-Gurion protested that they still had 10 minutes to go.

But the reels of silent footage and the soundtrack languished for decades in separate archives. Excerpts from the recently rediscovered conversation form the core of a new documentary, “Ben-Gurion, Epilogue,” in which the Zionist luminary offers a raw, contemplative self-analysis of his life’s work.

Asked if he feared for his country, he replied, “Oh, I always feared. I always. Not just now.” Though it was 20 years after Israel’s founding, he said that he feared “the state does not yet exist. It’s a beginning only.”

Interwoven with other footage from the period — of meetings with foreign leaders, a speech in Israel’s Parliament, birthday celebrations — the film is, in part, a wistful ode to a lost generation of leaders who viewed simplicity as a virtue even as they strove for giant goals.

“There is an absence of leadership with those values and that vision,” said Yariv Mozer, the Israeli writer, director and producer of the movie, which premiered last month at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The film, and the recent book by Avi Shilon on which it is based, Mr. Mozer added, “reflect the interest of some young Israelis to turn back to our history, to our past, in order to find answers for today and maybe for the future.”

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Ben-Gurion’s matter-of-fact voice from the grave resonates hauntingly, with its mix of pragmatism and philosophical prescriptions bordering on the prophetic. He described the prophet Jeremiah as one of the greatest because, he said, “I have the feeling that what he was saying is true.”

“He understood politics more than the kings,” Ben-Gurion said. “But he was unpopular.”

Mr. Mozer and Mr. Shilon pointed to the former prime minister’s pronouncements at the time that in return for a true peace, he would give up the territories that Israel conquered in the Arab-Israeli War in 1967, except for the Golan Heights, Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Hebron. He saw no contradiction in believing that Israel had the right to all the land, but could also concede some of it.

“He thought that the most important thing was to live in the Middle East in peace with our neighbors,” Mr. Shilon said. “He said that Israel can win a lot of wars and the Arabs can lose a lot of wars, but that Israel would not be able to stand one defeat; that one lost war would be the end of Israel.” Mr. Shilon added, “The problem with Ben-Gurion was that people stopped listening to him.”

Mr. Mozer and Yael Perlov, the editor and co-producer of the documentary, uncovered the lost interview almost by chance, in the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive in Jerusalem. There, while working to restore an old and unsuccessful feature film about Ben-Gurion by Ms. Perlov’s late father, David Perlov, they tripped across the silent film reels. It took six months to find the soundtrack, which they did in the Ben-Gurion Archives in the Negev.

The interview had actually been conducted as background research for the Perlov film. The former prime minister had chosen the interviewer, Clinton Bailey, who was then a recent immigrant from the United States. Mr. Bailey had been befriended by the Ben-Gurions after Paula invited him in for tea one day when he was wandering near their home in Tel Aviv.

Ben-Gurion helped Mr. Bailey secure a teaching job at the academy he had established at Sde Boker, and Mr. Bailey would sometimes join the aging politician on his brisk walks around the kibbutz.

Mr. Bailey went on to become an eminent scholar of Bedouin culture — and mostly forgot about the 1968 interview. Recalling the period, Mr. Bailey said the simplicity of the Ben-Gurions’ cabin at Sde Boker was “a statement,” adding: “ I don’t think Ben-Gurion wanted the perks of power.”

At Ben-Gurion’s request, the cabin has been preserved and is open to the public. A trickle of Israeli families on school break and foreign tourists passed through on a recent sunbaked weekday.

The man who helped create the modern state of Israel insisted, in his sunset years, on being treated like any other member of the Sde Boker collective and ate lunch in the cramped communal dining room.

“In our kibbutz I told them my name is David,” he said in the interview with Mr. Bailey. “Not Ben-Gurion. So every morning I came to see what David has to do, and I went to do the work. This is what our prophets said, to serve as an example to other people.”

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(Kibbutz residents who were there at the time said they gave him the easier jobs, like tending to the lambs and measuring precipitation.)

Archival footage shows Ben-Gurion dedicating the arrival in Sde Boker of the “radiotelephone,” which he called a “dubious blessing.” In another clip, Moshe Feldenkrais, the mind-body clinician, described how he persuaded Ben-Gurion to perform a circuslike physical feat to bring him more in tune with his body, which resulted in Ben-Gurion’s famously photographed headstands.

Ben-Gurion died in 1973, and was buried in a simple grave next to Paula’s on the edge of a stunning desert canyon. His will stipulated no eulogies or gun salute. The tombstone is inscribed only with his name and the dates of his birth, death and immigration to the country.

Settling the Negev, in his mind, was imperative for the young state’s future. It was also a place where he could champion his ideals.

“We wanted to create a new life, not the life that exists,” he said of the Zionist pioneers. “I believed that we had a right to this country. Not taking away from others, but recreating it.”

He had made tough choices along the way, like refusing to allow the return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war over Israel’s creation, and placing Israel’s Arab citizens under military rule.

Ben-Gurion believed the state’s mission was to fulfill the biblical concept of an “am segulah,” an exemplary nation of higher virtues, treasured by God. Asked in 1968 if Israel was carrying out that mission, he replied: “Not yet.”

(Source: Go2Films)

Feature Film

Japanese cast of Scorsese’s Silence speak of masterwork for the ages

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Kenta Kato

Japanese stars heap praise on American auteur’s direction in his searching adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel about religious persecution.

“God is silence. You have to go into your soul and search for the answer by yourself.”

Thus Yosuke Kubozuka meditated on Martin Scorsese’s new film, Silence, at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) on January 12.

Scorsese’s long-awaited project – based on the acclaimed Japanese novel by Shusaku Endo, a story of religious prosecution in 17th-century Japan, where Christianity was prohibited – has finally been realized. Karen Severns, the FCCJ’s film programmer, praised Scorsese’s film as “a slow-burn masterwork, with a message that has contemporary resonance, reverberating across the centuries.”

The FCCJ screened the movie back in its home country in partnership with Kadokawa Corporation, then hosted a discussion with three of its Japanese stars – Kubozuka, Tadanobu Asano and Issey Ogata.

 

Ogata, who plays the grand inquisitor, Inoue Masashige, said of Scorsese’s direction:

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Japanese Actor Issey Ogata plays the Grand Inquisitor, Inoue Masashige, in Martin Scorcese’s Silence. (Photo via zimbio.com)

“He never really instructs you to act in a certain way, but lets you bring what you have to the table. He never ever said anything negative about what I have to provide for him. In that way, it is really inspiring for actors and leads to many other ideas.”

 

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Yosuke Kubozuka (AsianWiki)

According to Kubozuka, “Scorsese is the king on set. Just being there makes acting so much easier. He is like a mirror that makes me look like twice or three times bigger, and you can kind of think of yourself as a wonderful actor.”

 

Ogata, who tried to read Endo’s novel when he was younger but couldn’t finish, said Scorsese had developed his character beyond what was is laid out in the book. “Scorsese made so much effort to build the character of Inoue… by using imagination as much as possible. That gave me a lot of room to act in free style.”

 

The director himself has said: “The conflicts that occur – the persecution of religious minorities, the testing of faith – are timeless.” The film takes place in the insular Japan of the 17th Century, but its themes and characters reverberate across the ages.

 

Asano, who plays a translator involved in prosecuting Portuguese Jesuits, noted:

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Tadanobu Asano (AsianWiki)

“I empathized with the character that I played, and I don’t see him as a vicious figure. He was probably a Christian himself but no longer able to carry on his faith. That led him to the line of work he is in.”

 

One of the most unforgettable characters in Silence is Kichijiro, an indecorous character who succumbs easily to the pressure applied by his prosecutors, who force Christians to trample on a ‘fumie’, a crudely carved image of Christ. According to Kubozuka, Kichijiro “is depicted as a weak, ugly, cunning, and dirty character. But he does commit fumie over and over again, which makes me wonder if he is really weak or actually strong. He is kind of two sides of the same coin.”

The film hints at the fragile morality that exists in the heart of all mankind. “When I went to the United States on 5 January, I asked this question about whether Americans would step on the picture of Jesus Christ in this day,” claims Kubozuka, “And a lot of people said, ‘I guess everybody would.’ So, by having this character Kichijiro, this story becomes something that is relevant to this modern age.”

Silence has been well-received by critics all over the world. Already, Ogata has been named runner-up in the Best Supporting Actor category by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Asked about the growing Oscar buzz, Asano jokes: “If it were not nominated, I suspect God would say something that he should not have said.”

(Source: atimes.com)

 

distribution

Ericsson’s Nuvu to distribute 20th Century Fox TV’s DreamWorks animated features across Africa

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Nuvu, Ericsson’s SVOD platform will distribute 20th Century Fox TV’s DreamWorks Animation-produced titles along with an extensive selection of global film franchises for territories across sub-Saharan Africa in multiple language.

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In a statement, Thorsten Sauer, head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson said:

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Thorsten Sauer, head of Ericsson’s Broadcast and Media Services (Photo via digitalveurope.com)

“This feature film content deal through 20th Century Fox Television Distribution is another major milestone for Ericsson as we look to expand our new SVOD service, Nuvu. Through this partnership, Nuvu subscribers will have access to some of Hollywood’s hottest films as part of their package, localized on a market-by-market basis.”

Developed for mobile operators in Africa, Nuvu leverages the company’s extensive over-the top capabilities based on Ericsson Managed Player and components of Ericsson MediaFirst TV Platform, Ericsson’s highly scalable modular technology platforms used by broadcasters and telco service providers to distribute video content efficiently to connected devices.

For a monthly fee, subscribers have unlimited access to an initial 3 000 local and international premium titles across a wide variety of genres including Hollywood and Nollywood movies, TV series, kids, music, gospel and education.

To take on competitors – ShowMax, Amazon and Netflix – Nuvu has built-in ability to distribute content to consumers during off-peak periods minimising data costs for both operator and consumer. The platform also integrates fully into the operator’s customer relationship management and payment systems.

(Source: screenafrica.com, TechMoran)