#Tom Linay

Digital Cinema Media (DCM) hosted a panel session on ‘The Future of Cinema’ today as part of its annual ‘Introduction to Cinema’ media training event at BAFTA.

The diverse panel, hosted by DCM’s Film Specialist, Tom Linay, included: Danny Barnes, Head of Investment at PHD, Michael Kalli, Head of Corporate Sales & Advertising at VUE Entertainment, Mike Bennett, CEO/Creative Director/Founder, Oil Studios and Joe Evea, Commercial Director at DCM.

Themes covered by the panel included the ongoing transformation of the cinema environment, the role of film as the ultimate storytelling vehicle and the consumer demand for consuming quality content on multiple platforms.

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Smart brands will find plenty of big films in the coming months to associate themselves with, Tom Linay writes.

Highlights included UK premières for Sundance’s 2013 US Grand Jury Prize: Documentary winner, Blood Brother, and Lake Bell’s directorial debut and the winner of a screen-writing award, In A World. There were also music performances, workshops and Q&As providing a Millennium Dome-shaped Mecca for film lovers.

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Last Friday morning, DCM’s resident film specialist, Tom Linay, took a trip to Havas Media UK to participate in Ideas Week, with Ed Edwards, Creative Director, Writer and Director at Havas Worldwide.

Their Q&A session covered diverse topics, including how the story-telling power of the big screen compares to other media platforms, the sanctity that cinema provides in a content saturated, multi-device age and whether the fear of failure inspires or hinders creativity.

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Congratulations to all our exhibitors for making cinema a Blockbuster year in 2012. Fuelled by titles such as The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and the record breaking Skyfall. UK and Ireland Box Office ticket sales exceeded the £1 billion mark for the fourth consecutive year, which equates to admissions of over 172 million people.

In a year dominated by landmark entertainment events in the UK, such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, this is an impressive feat. The exact total across UK & Ireland was £1,172,037,248.

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The top two films from last weekend held on to their places and both experienced strong holds on another impressive weekend for the box office. The snowy conditions last week obviously hampered Les Misérables as it bounced back easing a miniscule 9% to £4m and a huge cume of £24.6m. On Saturday it overtook High School Musical 3 (£22.8m) and now the only musical ahead of it on the all-time list is Mamma Mia with £68.5m. Django Unchained fell just 14% to £2.4m and now has a cume of £7.2m. Despite opening lower than Inglourious Basterds, its final total of £10.9m looks very achievable.

In third spot was another awards hopeful and the highest new entry, Lincoln, with £1.7m. That’s a very solid start and as the BAFTAs and Oscars get closer, it should continue to perform strongly. Fourth place was taken by Life of Pi 3D, which crossed the £25m mark with a further £1.1m and now stands on a spectacular £25.9m, a total that would have put it 8 on the list of 2012’s biggest films. Another new entry rounded out the top five, with Zero Dark Thirty opening with £1.1m. That’s significantly more than Kathryn Bigelow’s last film, The Hurt Locker, which opened with £309k in 2009.

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Figures just released reveal that the week commencing 26 October 2012 saw the highest admissions to cinema in the UK this century, at over 7.5m. Furthermore, the month of October has seen industry admissions, which totalled 16.8m, up 24% from the same period in 2011 and the biggest October in terms of admissions for nearly a decade.

The release of the 23rd James Bond movie, Skyfall, has made this October huge. Bond’s return has easily beaten the one week box office record, previously held by Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (£18.1m) with £33.1m.

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The BFI London Film Festival is the big one. With over 200 films spanning 11 days – from Hollywood releases, art-house trailblazers or breakout indie gems – the sheer scope and range of the festival has long-established it as the UK’s answer to Cannes, with one crucial difference…

The LFF is open to the public, giving true film-lovers the chance to experience the most exciting cinematic events of the year, far in advance of their UK release dates.

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On Friday the exhibitors were imploring the populace to get their mass to ours, as the remake of Total Recall was finally on general release. The populace agreed and twenty two years after the original was released, the new Total Recall topped the UK box office with £2.8m (including £959k from previews).

In second spot and benefitting from the unusual step of opening on a Monday was all-star comedy The Watch with £2.2m (including £1.4m from previews). Brave 3D continues to enchant adults and children alike with a further £1.6m over the weekend taking its cume to £17.9m. Ted still bears fruit, easing 42% to £989k for a cume of £28.1m.

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For the second successive weekend Brave 3D hit the bullseye, falling a very light 9% to £2.4m (fall-off not including opening weekend previews). Including bank holiday Monday, Pixar’s latest smash now has a cume of £14.4m and is fast closing in on Cars 2 (£15.6m) and Cars (£16.5m). After that the next Pixar title in its sights is Toy Story with £22.3m, which is looking increasingly likely.

The remarkable performance of ribald bear Ted shows little sign of slowing down as a further £1.7m over the weekend takes its cume to £26.2m. It has now grossed more than any Austin Powers film and will probably finish around Meet The Fockers’ final total of £28.9m. It is also the fourth biggest film of the year so far, having just surpassed The Amazing Spider-Man 3D’s current cume of £25.8m.

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Every so often a documentary is released that emphatically proves the age old adage that truth really is stranger than fiction. The Imposter is one such film; an extraordinary tale of intrigue, deception and the nature of memory that will leave audiences opened mouthed with its twists and turns.

In 1993, thirteen year old Nicholas Barclay went missing after playing basketball with friends in San Antonio Texas. Three and a half years later Frederic Bourdin is found by police in Madrid claiming to be Nicholas Barclay. Despite bearing little resemblance to Barclay, indeed having different colour hair and eyes, and speaking with a strong French accent, Barclay’s family welcome Bourdin into their home, convinced he is their missing son/sibling.

What follows confounds expectations and continually asks you to reassess what you had have just seen. The tale is told using haunting archive footage, atmospheric reconstructions and talking head interviews, most notable of which are with Bourdin himself, a deeply troubled but immensely charismatic individual who persuasively puts forward his side of the story. The Imposter is not just one of the best documentaries of the year, it’s one of the best films of the year.

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