News

By Michelle McCue and Gary Salem

Welcome to Oscar Week!

From Tuesday through Saturday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences invites movie geeks each night to get an up close look at the various categories and nominees.

Kicking off the week was the “Oscar Celebrates: Shorts” event on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Actor Kevin Pollack hosted the evening with screenings of all the 2013 Oscar-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories, plus onstage discussions with the filmmakers.

So what exactly qualifies a film into these categories? According to AMPAS rule 19, “a short film is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.” It goes on to say, “An animated film is created by using a frame-by-frame technique, and usually falls into one of the two general fields of animation: character or abstract.

To be fair, the sorta-raunchy rom-com "Someone Marry Barry" is shamelessly and unapologetically up front about how much it owes and rips off from the Judd Apatow oeuvre. And we're not just talking about the four-bros-with-women-and-life-problems premise. Whether it's nodding to the speed dating sequence from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," or even the detail that the titular character lives off money he earned after falling into an open manhole (not unlike Seth Rogen's Ben from "Knocked Up" who received a settlement after his foot was run over by a mail truck), it's clear writer/director Rob Pearlstein—Oscar nominated for his 2004 short "Our Time Is Up"—has spent some time watching a very selective batch of movies. And as we saw last month with "That Awkward Moment," if you don't understand what makes Apatow's films work, the results can disastrous. And while "Someone Marry Barry" is missing some key ingredients,...

We've all had that one friend; the kind that's loved, socially awkward warts and all, within your own group, but who just doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the world. Someone Marry Barry is about that guy. It stars Damon Wayans Jr. and Hayes MacArthur as two friends who are trying to find someone to marry their dear, but weird, friend Barry (Tyler Labine). Enter Lucy Punch, who ends up being perfect for Barry, only she's no better off socially than he is. Someone Marry Barry marks the feature debut of Rob Pearlstein, whose first short film, Our Time Is Up, was actually nominated for an Oscar a few years back. It opens in select theaters on February 7, and will then be available on VOD platforms everywhere (iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, cable Movies On...

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Josephson Entertainment, Madrose Productions, and Straight Up Films announced that digital curator FilmBuff will release the romantic comedy "Someone Marry Barry" in theaters and on VOD on February 13, 2014. Written, directed and produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rob Pearlstein (“Our Time Is Up”), the film stars Tyler Labine, Damon Wayans Jr., Lucy Punch, Hayes MacArthur Thomas Middleditch, Lauren Miller, and Joe LoTruglio. Equal parts irreverent and charming, "Someone Marry Barry" follows three childhood friends who plot to pawn off their socially inappropriate friend Barry on a woman. But when Barry finally meets the girl of his dreams, she turns out to be even worse than he is. "We are thrilled to be working with Rob on this hilarious and thoroughly original romantic comedy,” said Steven Beckman, FilmBuff’s Head of Content Partnerships, in a statement. “We fell in love with Barry and Mel and know that audiences will as...

Josephson Entertainment, Madrose Productions, and Straight Up Films announced today that digital entertainment curator FilmBuff will release the hilarious and irreverent romantic comedy Someone Marry Barry in theaters and on VOD on February 13, 2014.

Written, directed and produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rob Pearlstein (“Our Time Is Up”) the film stars Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Damon Wayans Jr. (The Other Guys, “Happy Endings”), Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher), Hayes MacArthur (Bachelorette, She’s Out of My League), Thomas Middleditch (The Campaign, “CollegeHumor Originals”), Lauren Miller (For a Good Time, Call…) and Joe LoTruglio (Superbad).

Someone Marry Barry is a raucous comedy following three childhood friends who plot to get rid of their socially inappropriate friend Barry (Labine) by finding him a wife. But when Barry finally meets a woman, she turns out to be even worse than he is, and now the guys have to deal with not one but two “Barrys.

This episode was a wildly strong entry for the premiere of Criminal Minds Season 9.

The intense interest of the Bau members and their stories often overshadows whatever is going on with the Unsub of the week. In this case, you have to give the nod to the criminal storyline in "Inspiration" - which was delightfully macabre. Clearly, something was eating at our Unsub. So he made everyone else eat too.

Janine Sherman Barrois - who wrote this episode - did a great job in ratcheting up the tension from the get-go, showing a small bit of the end story first. When we saw the oil tanker barreling down on Jj and Morgan, it seemed certain that someone was going to be in the hospital for a few episodes. Fortunately, it was just a tease, and it wasn't until the end we got to see Morgan do a quick reverse to...

Vol. I Issue 10 February 2013

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As this last weekend approached I was faced with marking my Academy Award ballot. This process is always really difficult. How does one sort out the “best” film or accomplishment of five or nine in the case of the Best Picture? For me it has been over 30 years of screenings. Thousand of films. Some really great films and many not so great. I also try to think what it means to be one of the nominees. What was the off-screen story but always more importantly what their contribution was to the work and how the film compares to others. What’s great about short films is that they can be made for almost nothing by a few filmmakers without a large budget, crew or cast.

The Academy has three nomination categories for films less than 41 minutes in length: short fiction, documentary and animation. Once nominated, there are public screenings and panels to celebrate the nominated films at the Academy in Beverly Hills. A group photograph of all the nominees is taken with a large Oscar in the lobby of the Academy headquarters. It is really a wonderful experience.

It wasn’t always like that. There were no special celebrations for the short or documentary films until the l980s. While the Foreign Language films had their seminar, nothing was done for these films. We tried to remedy that in the 1980s and started the Direct Cinema receptions and screenings with UCLA, USC and, a few years later, the Ida sponsored “Docuday” and the Academy started doing an annual reception for the shorts and documentary filmmakers. Today the Academy’s evening receptions for the short films, animated features (a relatively new Oscar category) and the documentaries are annual sell-out events. The filmmakers and their works are celebrated and it has become a highlight of the Oscar week for the filmmakers and those associated with the films.

When I first became a member of the Academy the short films and animation branch was headed by a number of extraordinary talents: T Hee, Saul Bass and June Forey. These three remarkable artists represented classic Disney animation (T. Hee), fiction and narrative short films (Saul Bass), and the television and theatrical films (June Forey, who voiced hundreds of characters.)

Saul Bass articulated the branch’s membership policy, “We want them to be part of our branch.” This liberal interpretation allowed documentary filmmakers like Ken Burns as well as voice artists and creatives like Stan Friedberg (and June Forey) to be part of a group that included IMAX filmmakers as well as classic character animation directors, colorists, layout artists, producers and other key short film and animation filmmakers. The animation filmmakers represent both the studio animators and the independent animators who work globally doing personal work as well as studio work. Other governors from 1979 to the present have included Hal Elias, who served on the Academy board for 37 years and was a short film publicist for MGM among other things; Bill Littlejohn, who worked on over 90 films as an animator ranging from Charley Brown, Peanuts Christmas Specials to working with the Hubleys’; Bill Scott, who acted and wrote over a hundred animated films, and Carl Bell, who worked on over 35 films at Disney in its animation department.

Unlike most of the other branches, the Short Films branch screens all of the submitted films in 16mm and 35mm and now in Digital Cinema, in an effort to find and nominate the best short films produced in the world. The branch rules allowed films to qualify in an effort to encourage more international entries in the 1990s by taking a first prize at key festivals in addition to the method that all Academy films can use to qualify, a theatrical week long (now three day for shorts) run in a theater in Los Angeles County. Branch screenings were expanded to New York to permit more members to participate in the nomination process in the 1990s. The final short listed screenings are in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Over one-third of the branch participates in the voting. The best change took place this year, sending DVD screeners to all Academy members of the short live action and animated nominated films. While this still won’t force members to watch them, members can’t claim they can’t see them. This is not only great for the branch but great for the nominated filmmakers. Who would not want to screen their short film for Academy members?

The process of the branch for selecting Nominees has remained unchanged for years—members screen the films in a theater rather than on DVDs, which is how the Documentary branch is dealing with the flood of feature docs and their unwillingness to trust committees. Nothing beats seeing films projected on a large screen with perfect sound and that is now lost. In a two step process, a committee (self selected from the branch membership) screens the films and the 15 films with the highest scores are short listed. The short listed films are then screened again and members vote.

The current Short Film Branch governors are Jon Bloom (pictured with the 2007 nominees), a 1983 fiction short nominee, filmmaker, editor and producer who chairs the branch, animator and Disney Creative Head and multi-Oscar winner, John Lasseter, and William "Bill" Kroyer,an award-winning director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films and faculty member Chapman College.

One of the challenges for the branch is how to grow live action producing members. With the addition of feature animation to the awards and the large number of feature animation films being released, the branch would like to have the most qualified animators to become members. The number of animators grows at a far faster rate than that of the live action filmmakers since only a few live action filmmakers can qualify for membership. The commercial success of animated features, the long production schedules and the large number of animators who work in qualifying positions allows for six plus individuals per picture to be eligible for membership. With five nominees a year, the number of individuals who can play a key role in two or three features becoming eligible for membership can easily approach 30 plus individuals annually. Add in the short animation nominees and competition for the limited new slots allocated to the branch can be brutal. The talent pool of animators is both astonishingly strong and suggests that Hollywood can easily double production from the 15 or so films made annually to 25 or 30 without having to compromise on talent.

Many of the filmmakers in the branch who make their Oscar nominated or winning live action short have made or are interested in making feature length works. A number of recent nominees or winners have made that transition. The following list looks at all of the live action nominees from 2001 to 2011, using the Internet Movie Database I looked up each nominee and listed what they reported they were doing professionally. Obviously, this is not intended to show everything. In each case, I listed credits or summarized credits shown in the IMDb listing.

Some observations about 11 years of Live Action Short Film Academy Award Nominees:

There were 86 nominations (out of a possible 110) This is because in some years only three films were nominated and in some cases only one filmmaker from a film was eligible for a nomination. Non-us based filmmakers dominate this category. Despite the huge number of short films being made annually in the Us, a majority of the nominated films come from filmmakers based abroad. In part this is due to the government subsidies available, but it is also due to the strong training programs, commercial support for the short films and a rich tradition of theatrical shorts. This year (2012) four of the five films in the live action category are from Us filmmakers. This is an unusual year. Few filmmakers have more than one nomination, only a handful of the nominees have made multiple Academy worthy short films. As one might expect, many of the filmmakers have continued their film work in television, some in features. The European Oscar winners (vs nominees) have done better at snagging features after a win than have their American counterparts. Again, this is likely a function of government support for entry features. Perhaps one of the short films seem to have been turned into a feature (or television) film. Some of the short films are intended to be sizzle reels for features, but it is not clear why so few of the nominated short films have been turned into features. A number of the Oscar winners have not continued working in film. No record of future productions are shown on IMDb. It would be interesting to see what they are doing now. Two of the Oscar winners have written critically award winning screenplays, one received two Academy Award nominations for his screenwriting. None of these nominees have gone on to win Oscars in directing or producing for feature films.

The data is from the Academy and the IMDb databases.

Apologies in advance, if credits were missed or other factual errors were made. In a week we’ll be able to add this year's winner.

2001 (74th)

Short Film (Live Action) (* won Academy Award)

*the accountant -- Ray McKinnon: Two Features: Randy and the Mob 2007 and Crystal 2004 Lisa Blount: Produced these features. Copy Shop -- Virgil Widrich Gregor's Greatest Invention -- Johannes Kiefer A Man Thing (Meska Sprawa) -- Slawomir Fabicki, Two Features: Loving 2012, Retrieval 2006 (Also wrote) Bogumil Godfrejow Has shot multiple features Speed for Thespians -- Kalman Apple, Shameela Bakhsh

2002 (75th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Fait D'Hiver -- Dirk Beliën, Anja Daelemans produced Comrade Kim Goes North I'll Wait for the Next One... (J'Attendrai Le Suivant...) -- Philippe Orreindy, Thomas Gaudin Inja (Dog) -- Steven Pasvolsky Feature, Deck Dogz Joe Weatherstone, produced episodic television. Johnny Flynton -- Lexi Alexander, directed 3 features: Lifted, Punisher: War Zone and Green Street Hooligans Alexander Buono as a Dp has shot series and features *This Charming Manon (Der Er En Yndig Mand) -- Martin Strange-Hansen, Mie Andreasen produced both features, series and documentaries.

2003 (76th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket) -- Florian Baxmeyer Multiple television films and series Most (The Bridge) -- Bobby Garabedian, William Zabka Mr. Zabka has appeared as an actor in numerous films and television shows Squash -- Lionel Bailliu Features: Fair Play and Denis (in post) (A) Torzija [(A) Torsion] -- Stefan Arsenijevic Directed: Lost and Found, Love and Other Crimes, and Do Not Forget Me Istanbul *Two Soldiers -- Aaron Schneider,Asc (Cinematographer numerous credits) and feature, Kiss the Girls, Andrew J. Sacks Series The Closer (98 episodes) and Major Crimes.

2004 (77th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Everything in This Country Must -- Gary McKendry Directed Killer Elite, Joseph and the Girl Little Terrorist -- Ashvin Kumar Produced and Directed features (2) and documentaries (2) 7:35 in the Morning (7:35 de la Mañana) -- Nacho Vigalondo Directed and written multiple films, series, shorts Two Cars, One Night -- Taika Waititi, Acted and directed and written multi television and films Ainsley Gardiner Nz based producer of multiple shorts, television and feature films *Wasp -- Andrea Arnold Actor, director and writer of numbers films, television programs

2005 (78th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Ausreisser (The Runaway) -- Ulrike Grote Ms. Grote has acted in over 42 programs, features, television series and films Cashback -- Sean Ellis, Director/Writer Metro Manila, The Broken Lene Bausager Producer, The Broken, Ginger and Rosa The Last Farm -- Rúnar Rúnarsson, Director/Writer Volcano, Thor S. Sigurjónsson Produced multiple features Our Time Is Up -- Rob Pearlstein, Director/Writer multiple television and a feature Pia Clemente Producer, documentaries *Six Shooter -- Martin McDonagh Writer/Director Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges

2006 (79th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea) -- Javier Fesser, no other credits shown Luis Manso Produced multiple features Éramos Pocos (One Too Many) -- Borja Cobeaga Writer, multi films and television series Helmer & Son -- Søren Pilmark no other credits, Kim Magnusso Producer over 100 film, television films (4 Best Short Film Academy Award nominations) Won for Ernst & Lyset The Saviour -- Peter Templeman, no other credits Stuart Parkyn, Producer, multi-short film credits *West Bank Story -- Ari Sandel Director, one short, one documentary

2007 (80th)

Short Film (Live Action)

At Night -- Christian E. Christiansen, Directed, Features and television series Louise Vesth Producer, multi features Il Supplente (The Substitute) -- Andrea Jublin

*Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) -- Philippe Pollet-Villard Actor and director short films, a television film

Tanghi Argentini -- Guido Thys, Director, Multiple television series Anja Daelemans, nominated for 2 Short Film nominations (Gridlock, 2002) Producer/Pm various The Tonto Woman -- Daniel Barber, Directed The Keeping Room, Harry Brown Matthew Brown Produced 2 shorts

2008 (81st)

Short Film (Live Action)

Auf der Strecke (On the Line) -- Reto Caffi Manon on the Asphalt -- Elizabeth Marre, Director, Television series Olivier Pont Director, Television series New Boy -- Steph Green, Director Run and Jump Tamara Anghie Producer Run and Jump The Pig -- Tivi Magnusson, Producer Over 64 titles many short films, Dorte Høgh Writer multiple series, (Directed The Pig) *Spielzeugland (Toyland) -- Jochen Alexander Freydank Producer of multiple television series

2009 (82nd)

Short Film (Live Action)

The Door -- Juanita Wilson, Director As If I Am Not There James Flynn Multiple Producer credits for over 50 titles, television and theatrical Instead of Abracadabra -- Patrik Eklund, Director, Television film and feature Mathias Fjellström Kavi -- Gregg Helvey Miracle Fish -- Luke Doolan, Multiple credits as editor Drew Bailey Multiple credits as Assistant Director *The New Tenants -- Joachim Back, no other credits shown as a director, Tivi Magnusson This is Mr. Magnusson’s first Academy Award and second nomination. See 2008.

2010 (83rd)

Short Film (Live Action)

The Confession -- Tanel Toom The Crush -- Michael Creagh *God of Love -- Luke Matheny Feature Love Sick and multiple Television series episode Na Wewe -- Ivan Goldschmidt Wish 143 -- Ian Barnes, Multiple directing credits Television Samantha Waite Credits as production coordinator on multiple titles

2011 (84th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Pentecost -- Peter McDonald, Credits as actor Eimear O'Kane Credits as Producer on The Shadows and on television programs. Raju -- Max Zähle, Director, Television series Stefan Gieren Producer-Writer credit on feature film, Kunduz: The Incident at Hadji Ghafur *The Shore -- Terry George, Writer Two Oscar nominations for screenplays In the Name of the Father and Hotel Riwanda Producer and director on films and television series Oorlagh George Numerous credits as Assistant on features, documentaries and television shows Time Freak -- Andrew Bowler Writer and actor in a short film Gigi Causey Production manager, producer shorts, series and films

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Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

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Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

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©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Despite film hits such as Billy Elliot and The Reader, theatre is 'home' to Stephen Daldry and now he's back in the West End, directing a regal Helen Mirren. Here he talks about communal living, depicting Hm on stage – and those Olympic ceremonies

It's been a long day at the end of a long week and Stephen Daldry needs a drink. But before that a cigarette. "I'm on a pack-and-a-half a day at the moment," he says, as he ducks out of an airless, windowless rehearsal room that smells, in the opinion of the Observer's photographer, "of actor". He continues: "I blame it entirely on Peter Morgan."

Daldry, the director, and Morgan, the writer, have been stuck in here for weeks working on a new play called The Audience, which opens at the Gielgud on Friday. The premise is enticing: since the second world war, the British sovereign has met...

The Us film star on the dangers of high heels, the charms of Ryan Gosling, and nudity in her new movie, Take This Waltz

People might see that your new film, Take This Waltz, also stars Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman and think it's a comedy. They'd be really wrong. It's actually quite upsetting…

I gave the script to a friend of mine and I said, "I'm going to make a comedy! I'm so excited." She sat down to read it and an hour later I walk in and she was crying on the couch and said, "Michelle, when am I going to get to the funny part?"

We should explain: your character Margot is married to Lou (Rogen), who's this tremendously sweet and decent guy, but they slowly drift apart. He writes cookbooks that only contain recipes for chicken – that's a metaphor for the relationship, right?

Comforting and bland,...

Rob Pearlstein's guy-buddy comedy "Someone Marry Barry" has begun principal production, with Damon Wayans Jr., Tyler Labine and Lucy Punch heading up the cast. The film follows a trio of male friends who conspire to boot the socially inappropriate Barry (Labine) out of their extended buddy circle by marrying him off. But when Barry does find true love, his bride-to-be is as much of a weirdo as he is, and suddenly there are two "Barrys" to contend with. Ed Helms of "The Office" and "Hangover" fame and Lauren Miller (co-writer and star of upcoming sex comedy "For a Good Time, Call") also have supporting roles. Pearlstein received an Oscar nomination for his live-action short film "Our Time Is Up," and describes this new project as "a love story between the friends," and that "the funniest, most outrageous characters are often relegated to the role of sidekick... We’re bringing those.

Warner Bros. is developing a comedy-drama for Ed Helms called True North, Variety reports. The project is being produced by Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer. The studio picked up the pitch from Rob Pearlstein, and focuses on "a selfish talk-show host whose plane crashes, putting him into a two-year coma. When he awakens, he finds that his appearance has been surgically altered and then tries to track down his family to reconnect with his former life."

Helms stars on The Office, and appeared in both the Hangover films. He also starred in Cedar Rapids, which just was released on DVD/Blu-ray. In 2009 he  set up a comedy at Warners in which he would portray "a Civil War re-enactor accidentally transported back in time." Pearlstein is best known for his work on Medium and The Inside. He directed a short film called Our Time is Up, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Alarmingly for Jeff Bridges, his talents finally seem to be winning awards. The actor tells Xan Brooks why anonymity, sincerity and studiously avoiding work is the key to success

There is a nice scene in Jeff Bridges' new film in which his character – a broken-down country singer – sits down on a bed and composes a song. He decides that it is a good song because it sounds timeless and familiar, "like you've heard it someplace before". Great songs, he suggests, have always been with us; they just need someone to dust them off and turn them to the light. The same, perhaps, can be said of great actors too.

Last month Bridges was sitting at a table at the Golden Globes when his name was read out as the winner of this year's best actor award. This was a surprise to other guests, who figured that George Clooney would...

This year's five Oscar nominees for best live-action short film are available to buy on Apple's iTunes Music Store. Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures, which recently partnered to bring all 10 live-action and animated short film nominees to theaters before Sunday's ceremony, have teamed again to bring the live shorts to the Internet. The five available films are Ulrike Grote's Ausreisser (The Runaway), Sean Ellis' Cashback, Runar Runarsson's The Last Farm, Rob Pearlstein's Our Time Is Up and Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter.