Trailer For Oscar Hopeful ‘The Great Debaters’ Goes Online

The trailer for the Denzel Washington-directed film “The Great Debaters” just went online at Yahoo! Movies.

Click here for “The Great Debaters” trailer.

Denzel Washington in “The Great Debaters”.
Photo credit: IMDb
The film, which is produced by Oprah Winfrey, stars Washington and 2006’s best-actor Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker. It’s set for release on Christmas Day and is expected to be the Weinstein Company’s big entry for this year’s Oscars.

Eight New Governors Elected to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Eight new governors – four of them serving for the first time – have been elected to represent their branches on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Six incumbent governors were reelected.

Newcomers to the board are Henry Winkler, actors branch; Vilmos Zsigmond, cinematographers; Richard Pearce, documentary; and Charles Fox, music. Returning to the board after a hiatus are Dede Allen, film editors; Curt Behlmer, sound; Richard Edlund, visual effects; and Frank Pierson, writers.

Oscar News: ‘Amadeus,’ ‘Persona,’ ‘Being John Malkovich,’ Rare Poster Paintings

This post covers an array of news recently released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

On July 6, the academy announced that actors F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce and Christine Ebersole will join director Milos Forman and production designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein in the “Monday Nights With Oscar” (MNWO) screening of “Amadeus” on July 16 at 7 p.m.

Shot in Prague, “Amadeus” is loosely based on the relationship between 18th century composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.

The screening will show at at the Academy Theater, which is located at 111 E. 59th St. in New York City. Tickets for the screening are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

On July 5, the academy announced that “Persona” and “Being John Malkovich” will screen as a double feature of psychological explorations on film on July 20 at 7 p.m.

The screening will show at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, which is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. A single ticket will admit individuals to both features. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Showcasing 150 rarely seen original movie poster paintings, the academy’s new book entitled “Now Playing: Hand-Painted Poster Art From the 1910s Through the 1950s” offers a glimpse into a world of cinema art that until recently was mostly forgotten.

The book, which is available for purchase wherever books are sold, is based on original research by Jane Burman Powell and Lori Goldman Berthelsen. It retails for $50.

The 1986 best-picture nominee “A Room With a View” will be screened on July 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. and pre-show elements begin at 7 p.m.

The academy’s Science & Technology Council has launched a summer internship program designed to provide real-world experience to students interested in careers in computer graphics and animation technology.

Pixar Animation Studios, Rhythm & Hues Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks will each provide an eight-week internship that gives students hands-on opportunities in animation, production management, software programming and visual effects.

The council will provide a stipend of $4,000 to each student.

The 2007 council interns are:

Blake Johnson, Brigham Young University, Pixar Animation Studios

Ben Beech, Ringling College, Sony Pictures Imageworks

Max Abrahams, Brown University, Rhythm & Hues Studios

News: ‘The Color Purple’ Screening, ‘SiCKO’ Campaign, Harry Potter in IMAX

The 1985 best-picture nominee “The Color Purple” will be screened as the next feature in the “Great To Be Nominated” series from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.


The film will screen on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The Oscar-nominated live-action short “The Big Snit” will be screened prior to the feature.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, “The Color Purple” received a total of 11 Academy Award nominations and introduced film audiences to Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Hoping to spur a fundamental change in health care politics, a national coalition of nurses and doctors on June 18 announced plans to rally around the opening of Michael Moore’s “SiCKO” on June 29.


Coined the “Scrubs for SiCKO” campaign, organizers will recruit registered nurses and doctors to every theater in the nation where “SiCKO” opens to ensure that caregivers in “SiCKO” scrubs are in the audience.

The latest Harry Potter iteration – “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” – will open in IMAX at Chicago’s Navy Pier on July 11. About 20 minutes of its finale have been transformed into IMAX 3D.


My interview with IMAX Filmed President Greg Foster will run the week of the film’s opening in Time Out Chicago.

In 2007, Academy Invites 115 to Become Oscar-Voting Members

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (the group that brings you the Oscars) announced on Monday that it is inviting 115 artists and executives to join the academy. Those who accept will be the only additions in 2007 to its roster of voting members.

The diverse array of people all represent individuals who have made significant contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Voting membership has now held at about 6,000 members over the past four years.

New members will be welcomed into the academy at an invitation-only reception at the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills, Calif. in Sept. 2007. The 2007 invitees are:

Actors
Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Steve Carell, Daniel Craig, Aaron Eckhart, Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Fichtner, Ryan Gosling, Jackie Earle Haley, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Huston, Eddie Murphy, Christopher Plummer, James Rebhorn, Michael Sheen, Maribel Verdu

Animators
Sharon Calahan, George Griffin, John Kahrs, Torill Kove, Marcy Page, Troy Saliba

Art Directors
Hugh Bateup

At-Large
Sam Mercer, Lia Vollack

Casting Directors
Lisa Beach, Leslee Feldman

Cinematographers
Javier Aguirresarobe, Steve Gainer, Michael Goi, Michael Grady, Adam Kimmel, Alar Kivilo, M. David Mullen, Xavier Perez Grobet

Music
Carter Burwell, Alexandre Desplat, Javier Navarrete, Gustavo Santaolalla

Producers
Agustin Almodovar, Bonnie Arnold, Julia Chasman, Jonathan Glickman, Daniel Goldberg, Jack Rapke, Jane Rosenthal

Production Designers
Eugenio Caballero, Nathan Crowley, Nigel Phelps

Public Relations
Kevin Campbell, Jason Cassidy, Frank J. Chiocchi, Sarah Greenberg, Ileen Reich, Jeff Smith, Valerie Van Galder

Costume Designers
Consolata Boyle, Nancy Steiner

Directors
Peter Berg, D.J. Caruso, Antoine Fuqua, Paul Greengrass, Monte Hellman, Simon West

Documentary
Steve James, Nathaniel Kahn, James Longley, Brett Morgen, Laura Poitras, Eric Simonson

Executives
Greg Foster, Judd Funk, Adam Goodman, Andrew W. Gumpert, Michael J. Lambert, Yair Landau, David Weil

Film Editors
Sandra Adair, Virginia Katz, Saar Klein, Richard Pearson, Alex Rodriguez, Christopher Rouse

Live-Action Short Films
Borja Cobeaga, Javier Fesser, Ari Sandel

Makeup
John E. Jackson, David Marti, Montse Ribe, Kazuhiro Tsuji

Sound
Michael J. Benavente, Linda Folk, Jessica Gallavan, Tim Gomillion, Howard London, Steven D. Williams, Jim Wright

Visual Effects
John Andrew Berton Jr., Al DiSarro, Bryan Hirota, Alan E. Lorimer, Christopher Nibley, Douglas H. Smith, Ben Snow, Eric Swenson, Jon Thum

Writers
J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, Guillermo Arriaga, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Patrick Marber, William Monahan, Peter Morgan, Billy Ray, Erin Cressida Wilson

New HollywoodChicago.com Film-Rating System

HollywoodChicago.com has a new film-rating system using Oscar trophies. Films can receive between zero and five Oscars.

Films are docked Oscars based on missing key elements. There are five key film elements: story, acting, visuals, directing and writing.

5 Oscars: Knockout film, all critical elements (rare)
4 Oscars: Superb film, missing one key film element
3 Oscars: Strong film, missing two key film elements
2 Oscars: Decent film, missing three key film elements
1 Oscar: Weak film, missing four key film elements
o Oscars: Failed film, missing five key elements (rare)

Half-Oscar designations are awarded as well. These are the ratings given for the last three films on HollywoodChicago.com:

“Spider-Man 3”: 3.5 Oscars out of 5

“The Condemned”: 2/5

“Fracture”: 4/5