Hollywood
41st Student Oscar winners announced
MUMBAI: 15 students have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards competition. They will arrive in Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, 7 June at 6 p.m. at the DGA Theater in Hollywood. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony.
For the alternative category, the winners are “Oscillate,” Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York and “Person,” Drew Brown, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida. For the animation category, the winners include “Higher Sky,” Teng Cheng, University of Southern California; “Owned,” Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah and “Yamashita,” Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California.
In the documentary category, the winners are “The Apothecary,” Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University; “One Child,” Zijian Mu, New York University and “White Earth,” J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University.
The winners in the narrative category include “Above the Sea,” Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York; “Door God,” Yulin Liu, New York University and “Interstate,” Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California. The winners who took home the coveted prize in the foreign category include “Border Patrol,” Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom; “Nocebo,” Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany and “Paris on the Water,” Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
This year saw first-time honours go to Tel Aviv University, Israel, and The Northern Film School, United Kingdom, in the foreign competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 49 finalists, announced earlier this month. The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. The previous Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
Hollywood
US Justice Department probes Warner Bros sale impact on cinemas: Report
Theatre chains called in to discuss potential effect of Netflix or Paramount deals
NEW YORK: The US Justice Department has summoned some of the country’s largest cinema chains to private talks about the possible sale of Warner Bros Discovery, according to a Bloomberg report. Government antitrust lawyers are seeking information on how a sale could affect film releases and the wider movie-going public.
Bloomberg reports that, sources familiar with the meetings said officials are exploring whether a sale could shrink the number of films hitting theatres or shift the balance in the streaming versus cinema tug-of-war.
The review is focused on the potential impact of a sale to either Netflix or Paramount Skydance. While Netflix has a history of releasing only a limited number of films in select theatres for short runs, Paramount Skydance could face heavy debt if it succeeds, possibly limiting its film production.
The meetings come after Warner Bros recently rejected Paramount Skydance’s hostile $30-a-share bid, while giving the rival studio seven days to submit a best and final offer that would top the existing Netflix agreement. Paramount acknowledged the offer but called Warner Bros’ board actions unusual.
Warner Bros is moving forward with a vote on Netflix’s offer for its streaming and studio businesses on March 20. If approved, the merger would follow a spin-off of Warner Bros’ Discovery Global cable operations, including CNN, TLC, Food Network and HGTV, into a separate publicly traded company.
For cinema-goers, the question remains whether Hollywood’s boardroom battles will shrink the number of films on the big screen or just shuffle the popcorn seats.
