The Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film & Television is nominating two WFPF-preserved films – The Wobblies and Betty Tells Her Story – for inclusion on this year’s National Film Registry. Both films explore a diverse range of issues and innovative approaches to filmmaking practiced by women makers.
Moving Image Technologies vice president, technical sales support, Frank Tees has been named president of the International Cinema Technology Association, the cinema industry’s trade association whose members are widely recognized as the experts within the industry on theatre equipment and services.
Alex Younger, CEO of integrator CES+ has been appointed a board member of the International Cinema Technology Association.
Ivar Halstvedt, director of cinema at Kulturmeglerne and former country manager, Norway, at Nordic Cinema Group and Odeon Cinemas Group, has been named as the 2021 recipient of the Union Internationale des Cinémas/International Union of Cinemas Achievement Award, given each year in recognition of outstanding dedication and service to European cinema exhibition. The award will be presented as part of the CineEurope Awards Ceremony on October 7 at the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.
In a strongly worded statement, the National Association of Theatre Owners defended the practice of exclusive theatrical release windows for exhibitors and used Disney’s latest movie, Black Widow, as its prime example. Here is NATO’s statement in full: “Black Widow’s excellent reviews, positive word of mouth, and strong previews and opening day total ($13.2 million/$39.5 million) led to a surprising 41 percent second day drop, a weaker than expected opening weekend, and a stunning second weekend collapse in theatrical revenues. Why did such a well-made, well-received, highly anticipated movie underperform? Despite assertions that this pandemic-era improvised release strategy was a success for Disney and the simultaneous release model, it demonstrates that an exclusive theatrical release means more revenue for all stakeholders in every cycle of the movie’s life.
At its July virtual meeting, Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineer’s Hollywood section will host a panel of experts for a discussion on the critical importance of standards in the motion picture and television industry. Providing the technical framework upon which the industry depends, standards are central to SMPTE’s mission—and yet people are often unsure of what the term means.
The organizers of ShowEast have announced that this year’s conference will be an in-person event to be held November 8-11 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
In the next edition of Post Break, the free webinar series from Post New York Alliance, a pair of post-production veterans will discuss the pros and cons of working for a show versus working for a facility, and of the freelance lifestyle versus staff employment. Post-production supervisor Jean Lane and post-production coordinator Sherrell Hodges will examine both sides of the production/post-production divide and offer practical advice for young professionals seeking to choose the right career path. Performer, producer and film promoter Eli Zevala will moderate.
While it has been widely understood that, because of the pandemic, 2020 was a terrible year for the cinema business, a new report from the European Audiovisual Observatory documents just how bad it really was. The theatrical market collapsed in 2020 with cinema attendance in the EU and the UK plummeting by 70.2 percent to an estimated 300 million tickets, down from more than one billion admissions in 2019 (the highest level since 2004). Gross box office earnings dropped correspondingly from Euro 7.20 billion to Euro 2.13 billion (US 2.4 billion), down by 70.4 percent from 2019, as the average ticket price in the EU remained stable at Euro 7.1 (USD 8.1).
The International Union of Cinemas, the European cinema trade grouping, has launched the fifth edition of its Women’s Cinema Leadership Program, a 12-month mentoring program for women in cinema exhibition.
