#The Artist

The Sapphires Preview

June 6th, 2012 Author: Tom LinayTags: Cannes 2012, Cinema Advertising, DCM, Digital Cinema Media, Harvey Weinstein, The Artist, The Sapphires, Tom Linay

Of all the films on this list The Sapphires sticks out like a sore thumb. An unashamed and genuine crowd-pleaser, the film has already been picked up for UK distribution by Harvey Weinstein who has proclaimed it ‘this year’s The Artist’. Talk is that it’s planned for a January release, much like The Artist, and I wouldn’t bet against it making a similar splash at the box office.

The story is based on true events surrounding an aboriginal girl group who, facing prejudice in their home country, find themselves touring Vietnam during the war entertaining the American troops. The story may rely heavily on cliché but the performances are uniformly winning and the laughs come regularly. The main source of the humour is Irish comedian Chris O’Dowd, who puts in a sensational performance as the band’s put upon manager.

UK Box Office – 14 March 2012

March 14th, 2012 Author: Tom LinayTags: Bel Ami, Cinema Advertising, Digital Cinema Media, John Carter 3D, The Artist, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Muppets, The Raven, The Woman In Black, Tom Linay, UK Box Office, War Horse

Disney’s sci-fi fantasy epic, John Carter 3D topped the weekend’s box office with £2m. It’s a decent performance from a film that many had been predicting to fail. The obvious point of comparison is Disney’s last fantasy epic, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which kicked off its cinema run with £1.4m in May 2010. That film went on to gross £8.7m in total. John Carter 3D also had a stronger opening than last year’s fantasy epic, Cowboys and Aliens, which opened to £1.8m in August.

In second place with a further £1.8m was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Easing just 24% from last weekend this was another strong performance from a film on its third weekend on release and it now has a cume total of £10.9m. In third place with its fifth £1m+ weekend in succession was The Woman In Black. This time around it took £1.1m and on Friday cantered past War Horse to become the highest grossing film in the UK so far this year with a cume total of £19.5m.

UK Box Office – 06 March 2012

March 6th, 2012 Author: Tom LinayTags: Act Of Valor, Cinema Advertising, Digital Cinema Media, Dr Seuss: The Lorax 3D, Project X, Safe house, The Artist, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Woman In Black, This Means War, UK Box Office, Wanderlust

A British film topped the UK box office for the fourth weekend in succession. This time it was the turn of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with £2.3m on its second weekend on release, an improvement of 5% from last weekend. 2003’s Calendar Girls only managed to gross £1.9m on its second weekend on wide release, which suggests that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel may get close to that film’s final total of £20.4m. It has now grossed a very impressive £7m after ten days in cinemas.

Despite failing to top the box office for the first time since release, The Woman In Black still took second place with a further £1.9m. This takes its cume total to £17.6m and it looks set to overtake War Horse (£18.3m) as the biggest grossing film of the year so far. As you may have read in the press last week, The Woman In Black is now the most successful British horror film of all time. A terrific result for distributor Momentum and the recently revived Hammer Films.

The 84th Academy Award Winners

A black and white French silent film with no big name stars that had somehow become known as the ‘safe’ choice won five awards at the 84^th Academy Awards last night. The Artist won the award for best picture, Michel Hazanavicius picked up the best director prize, while Jean Dujardin won the best actor award. It also won for Ludovic Bource’s score and best costume design. The film tied for most awards with another film in thrall to the silent era of film-making, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo 3D. Predominantly filmed here in the UK at Shepperton Studios, Hugo collected five major technical awards including best cinematography (Robert Richardson).

Although George Clooney missed out on the best actor statuette to Jean Dujardin, The Descendants won the award for best adapted screenplay and Woody Allen won his fourth Oscar for best original screenplay for Midnight In Paris. As is his usual stance he was not in person to collect it.

Meryl Streep won her third Oscar, having been nominated a record seventeen times, for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. The remaining acting awards went to Octavia Spencer for best supporting actress in The Help and Christopher Plummer for best supporting actor in Beginners. In doing so, the 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest person to win an Oscar.

Full list of winners and nominations can be found below.

UK Box Office – 20 February 2012

February 20th, 2012 Author: Tom LinayTags: Digital Cinema Media, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D, Safe house, Star Wars: Episode 1 3D, The Artist, The Muppets, The Vow, The Woman In Black, This Means War

On a strong weekend, the top two from last weekend managed to hold on to the top two spots and both managed to improve on last weekend’s performance. The last time this happened was January 2010 with Avatar and Sherlock Holmes at one and two and this time it’s The Woman In Black and The Muppets. There was very little to separate them but a further £3.5m for The Woman In Black, an 11% increase from last weekend, saw it come out on top and it now has ten day gross of £10.5m. The Muppets had to be content with £3.4m, a 29% improvement on last weekend, and a ten day gross of £10.7m.

The Orange British Academy Film Awards

February 13th, 2012 Author: Maria DeevoyTags: BAFTA, Carey Mulligan, Digital Cinema Media, Drive, Jessica Chastain, Joe Cornish, Judi Dench, Martin Scorsese, Melissa Mccarthy, Octavia Spencer, Senna, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tom Linay, Tyrannosaur, We Need To Talk About Kevin

As we walk up the red carpet the screams get louder and louder; unfortunately we realise early on this isn’t for us but for a certain George Clooney who is working his fans into a high pitched frenzy. The celeb spotting doesn’t stop there, this years 65^th British Academy Film Awards was one big celeb-fest.

From Brad Pitt to Meryl Streep and everything in-between this was one of the most impressive BAFTA’s to date. Despite the freezing conditions, the women paraded in their finery (with some carrying it off better than others) while the men looked as dashing as ever (take a bow Mr Fassbender!).

We were lucky enough to get front stall seats allowing a great view point for the stars below (including the amazing Scorsese) and the captivating and engaging Stephen Fry who returned as host and managed to carry the night with great aplomb and some seriously funny one liners.

SAG Nominations 2012

January 31st, 2012 Author: Sarah OwenTags: Awards, Bridesmaids, Digital Cinema Media, film, J.Edgar, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Screen Actors Guild, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, The Iron Lady

Awards season is in full bloom as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were handed out last weekend. The big winner of the evening was The Help, which picked up three awards.

Viola Davis,The Help, won best actress beating The Iron Lady Meryl Streep to the gong. While Best Actor favourite George Clooney, The Descendants, was piped to the post by The Artist’s Jean Dujardin.

Things are hotting up between this year’s contenders as each award ceremony throws a different film into the spot light. With The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Help, Moneyball, War Horse and The Tree of Life all up for best picture the Oscar race is getting even more interesting.

The full list of SAG award nominees and winners can be found below.

Oscar nominations 2012

January 24th, 2012 Author: Tom LinayTags: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, George Clooney, Glenn Close, Hugo, Meryl Streep, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Rooney Mara, The Artist, The Descendants, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Help, The Iron Lady, The Tree of Life, War Horse

The 2012 Oscar nominations were announced earlier this afternoon of which you can find the major categories below. Gary Oldman, Janet McTeer and Kenneth Brannagh are keeping the British end up in the acting nominations. Let us know what think about this years nominations via our facebook and twitter account.

SAG Awards Nominations Announced

December 20th, 2011 Author: Sarah OwenTags: Awards, Bridesmaids, Digital Cinema Media, film, Midnight in Paris, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep was among the nominees when the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced last week.

Streep was nominated for her role in The Iron Lady, a biopic about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Help was one of the leading candidates with the film’s actors getting a nod for outstanding cast; The Help stars Viola Davis (leading role) and Octavia Spencer (supporting role) were also tapped for individual nominations.