In celebration of its recent film preservation efforts, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will launch the first-ever “Film-to-Film” Festival, which will run September 27 through September 29, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

A year ago the Academy Film Archive launched an ambitious effort called “Project Film-to-Film,” aimed at preserving as many films on film as possible over a two-year period. The initiative’s main goal is to take advantage of the current, but threatened, availability of film stock to create new prints of a diverse range of motion pictures, encompassing the whole history of the art form.

More than 390 new prints have already been created from the best available film elements, covering significant narrative features and documentaries, as well as experimental, animated and short film titles. The wide variety of titles range from ‘Navajo’, the only film to receive Oscarnominations for both Documentary Feature and Cinematography, to ‘Naked Yoga’, a short once presumed lost, and ‘Carnival of Souls’, a cult favorite that has been rescued from late-night television and restored to the big screen.

The complete “Film-to-Film” Festival schedule is as follows:

Thursday, September 27 — Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 7:30 p.m.

‘Brazil’ (1985), Original Director’s Cut (35mm, color, 142 min.): Onstage discussion with Katherine Helmond and Arnon Milchan

Writer-director Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” is set in an alternative reality “somewhere in the 20th century,” where civil servant Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) fights a hopeless battle against a totalitarian state. The film earned Academy Award nominations for Original Screenplay (Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown) and Art Direction (Art Direction: Norman Garwood; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray). The stellar supporting cast includes Helmond, Jim Broadbent, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Charles McKeown and Michael Palin.

Friday, September 28 — Linwood Dunn Theater, 7:30 p.m.

Animated and live action shorts program: This program illustrates the wide range of films preserved by the Film-to-Film initiative, including a rare short made by the Academy itself, intriguing works by noted animators and the big-screen debut of crooner Phil Harris.

‘Of Men And Demons’, John Hubley and Faith Hubley (1969, 16mm, color, 9 min.)
Academy Award nominee: Cartoon Short Subject
‘So This Is Harris’, Mark Sandrich (1933, 35mm, black-and-white, 28 min.)
Academy Award winner: Comedy Short Subject
‘The Unicycle Race’, Robert Swarthe (1966, 35mm, color, 7 min.)
‘Railway With a Heart of Gold’, Carson “Kit” Davidson (1965, 16mm, color, 15 min.)
‘Screen Actors’, (1950, 35mm, black-and-white, 9 min.)

Friday, September 28 – Linwood Dunn Theater, 9:30 p.m.

Experimental Film Program: The boundaries of the film medium are stretched, ignored and laughed at in these experimental shorts that manipulate sight, sound, narrative and the relationship between filmmaker and spectator.

‘Eye Myth’, Stan Brakhage (1967, 35mm, color, silent 24fps, 9 seconds)
‘Night Mulch & Very’, Stan Brakhage (2001, 35mm, color, silent 24fps, 6 min.)
‘Experiments in Motion Graphics’, John Whitney (1968, 16mm, color, sound, 11min.)
‘Madame Mao’s Lost Love Letters’, Tom Leeser & Diana Wilson (1983, 35mm, color,
3 min.)
‘Babobilicons’, Daina Krumins (1982, 35mm, color, 16 min.)
‘Pencil Booklings’, Kathy Rose (1978, 35mm, color, 14 min.)
‘Furies’, Sara Petty (1977, 35mm, color, 3 min.)
‘Sonoma’, Sky-David, formerly known as Dennis Pies (1977, 35mm, color, 7 min.)
‘Background’, Carmen D’Avino (1973, 35mm, color, 20 min.) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject

Saturday, September 29 — Linwood Dunn Theater, 2 p.m.

Doc Program #1: The afternoon’s first program illustrates the diverse topics of the documentaries covered by the initiative, with a short about the spiritual aspects of Hatha yoga, and the Maysles brothers’ portrait of movie distributor Joseph E. Levine.

‘Naked Yoga’, Paul Cordsen (1974, 35mm, color, 25 min.) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
‘Showman’, Albert Maysles and David Maysles (1963, 35mm, black-and-white, 52 min.)

Saturday, September 29 –Linwood Dunn Theater, 4 p.m.

Doc Program #2: The afternoon’s second documentary program features two titles that use a semi-documentary approach to convey stories of World War II rumor-mongering and the cultural conflict faced by a young Navajo boy.

‘Mr. Blabbermouth!’, Basil Wrangell (1942, 35mm, black-and-white, 19 min.) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
‘Navajo’, Norman Foster (1952, 35mm, black-and-white, 70 min.) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature; Black-and-White Cinematography

Saturday, September 29 — Linwood Dunn Theater, 7:30 p.m.

‘Spider Baby’ (1968, 35mm, black-and-white, 81 min.): World premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s new restoration from the original negative, with special guest writer-director Jack Hill.

Filmed in 1964 but not released theatrically until 1968, this cult classic marked the solo directorial debut of Hill. The eerie story follows three siblings suffering from a rare genetic disorder that causes them to regress to a primal state of being and act out with savage, incestuous and animalistic behavior.

Saturday, September 29 — Linwood Dunn Theater, 9:30 p.m.

‘Carnival of Souls’ (1962, 35mm, black-and-white, 78 min.): World premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s new restoration from the original negative.

Director Herk Harvey’s only feature film was made on a tiny budget with a crew largely composed of industrial filmmakers from Lawrence, Kansas. Filled with evocative images, the film tells the story of a young woman who seemingly survives a car crash but is haunted by a ghostly figure that is somehow connected to an abandoned carnival pavilion.

Tickets for each screening in the “Film-to-Film” Festival are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID, and may be purchased online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office, or by mail. Each time slot listed indicates a separate ticketed program. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Doors open an hour before each program. Ticketed seating is unreserved. For more information, visit www.oscars.org.

Image Courtesy of   ChinellatoPhoto / Shutterstock.com

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The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Academy) are pleased to co-present the first U.S. retrospective of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, developed in collaboration with the Kubrick Estate and the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt. The exhibition provides access to the director’s extraordinary vision and working methods while illuminating the network of influences and conditions that came together to make his films universally regarded as modern masterpieces. The Los Angeles presentation is made possible by a generous gift from Steve Tisch.

“By featuring this legendary filmmaker and his oeuvre in his first retrospective within the context of an art museum, Stanley Kubrick will reevaluate how we define the artist in the twenty-first century, and simultaneously expand upon LACMA’s commitment to exploring the intersection of art and film,” said Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA. “We are also pleased to honor Kubrick’s impact on film and art history at our 2012 Art + Film Gala, along with artist Ed Ruscha, on October 27.”

“Stanley Kubrick represents the perfect opportunity to collaborate with LACMA on the presentation of film in a museum setting,” said Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO. “It is a taste of things to come when we open the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in the historic Wilshire May Company building on the LACMA campus.”

LACMA trustee Steve Tisch said, “I am glad to support this important retrospective of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. This is one more example of LACMA’s commitment to film as an art form, along with past exhibitions like Tim Burton and Dalí: Painting & Film and recent acquisitions like Christian Marclay’s The Clock.”

Kubrick’s acclaimed repertoire of films, including ‘Paths of Glory’, ‘Lolita’, ‘Dr. Strangelove’, ’2001: A Space Odyssey’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘The Shining’, ‘Full Metal Jacket’, and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, among others, highlights not only his signature directorial tenacity but also major technological innovations of the time, such as filming by candlelight in Barry Lyndon and utilizing the front projection effect in 2001. The exhibition also includes an alternate beginning to this seminal science fiction film.

Kubrick’s films will be represented through a thoughtful selection of archival material, annotated scripts, photography, costumes, cameras and equipment, set models, original promotional materials, and props. The interdisciplinary exhibition draws attention to Kubrick’s fixation with historical research and his visionary adaptations of influences from the fine arts, design, and architecture, and enables visitors to experience the cinematic journey of one of the great artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition also includes sections dedicated to projects that were never completed, as well as to the special effects (visual and auditory) developed by Kubrick and his team.

Terry Semel, co-chair of LACMA’s board of trustees, said “I had the great privilege of working with Stanley on many of his films, including ‘Barry Lyndon’, ‘The Shining’, ‘Full Metal Jacket’, and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. I am thrilled to see his work honored in a museum setting.”

Hawk Koch, Academy president, said “This is a major step in the Academy’s plan to create a premier movie museum in Los Angeles. We are pleased to co-present this retrospective with LACMA which will provide visitors the opportunity to experience Kubrick’s iconic work as well as his influence on our culture.”

Image Courtesy of  Cea.

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Beverly Hills, U.S.A. – Disney Media Distribution and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have extended their agreement for DMD to distribute the annual Academy Awards telecast internationally through 2020, Tom Sherak, Academy president and Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, announced on June 29. The previous agreement had been set to expire in 2014.

“Disney Media Distribution has been successful in securing distribution around the world for the Academy Awards and we’re thrilled to extend this partnership,” said Sherak. “The Oscars are an international event beloved by a global audience. It’s a testament to the magic of Hollywood.”

“We are excited to be able to extend our agreement to deliver the world’s biggest celebration of entertainment to audiences around the globe,” said Sweeney. “We look forward to building on the foundation of our relationship with the Academy, and working together to reach new audiences on new platforms in the years ahead.”

This past February, a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions experienced the Academy Awards in more than 225 international territories via a variety of both traditional broadcast outlets and new emerging video-on-demand and online streaming platforms.

In 2011, the Academy and the ABC Television Network signed a domestic rights agreement which also extended their contract through 2020.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theater at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network.

About the Academy

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards – in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners – the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.

Image Courtesy of  Disney

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Beverly Hills, U.S.A. — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the 1963 ensemble comedy ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ as the inaugural film in its series “The Last 70mm Film Festival” on Monday, July 9, at 7 PM at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Directed by nine-time Oscar nominee Stanley Kramer, ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ earned six Academy Award nominations, including Cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.), Music – Music Score, substantially original (Ernest Gold), Music – Song (Gold, Mack David), Sound (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director), and took home the Oscar for Sound Effects (Walter G. Elliott).

Prior to the screening, there will be a panel discussion with actors Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Stan Freberg and Barrie Chase, as well as script supervisor Marshall Schlom, casting director Lynn Stalmaster, and Stanley Kramer’s widow, Karen Kramer.

The 70mm short ‘The Miracle of Todd-AO’ (1954) will be screened before the film.  This live action short highlights the innovation of the Todd-AO wide-angle lens with an optical journey from the Grand Teton National Park to the streets of San Francisco.

The Last 70mm Film Festival, a six-film series, will run Mondays through August 13, showcasing 70mm classics from different genres as well as rarely screened 70mm short subjects.

The remaining screenings in the series are ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (1959) on July 16, ‘Grand Prix’ (1966) on July 23, ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) on July 30, ’2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968) on August 6, and ‘Spartacus’ (1960) on August 13.

Series passes for The Last 70mm Film Festival are on sale now. Passes are $20 for the general public and $15 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Tickets to individual evenings, if still available, will go on sale Friday, June 29. Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Passes and tickets may be purchased online at www.oscars.org, by mail, in person at the Academy during regular business hours or, depending on availability, on the night of the screening when the doors open at 6:30 PM.

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Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and NASA will explore cutting-edge film techniques and virtual voyages using animation on Tuesday, July 10, at 7:30 PM at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Hosted by five-time Oscar-nominated producer Frank Marshall, “Capturing the Final Frontier” will feature film clips and conversations with such filmmakers as Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar and leading NASA animators and scientists. This list of prominent names in the field of film and science include Eric De Jong, Principal Investigator of the Solar System Visualization Project; Bobbie Faye Ferguson, The Director of Multimedia at the Department of Homeland Security and former NASA Public Affairs Multimedia Manager; Tom Jacobson, Producer of “Mission to Mars;” Dave Lavery, NASA Program Executive of Solar System Exploration; Dan Maas, the Art and Technical Leader of “Roving Mars;” Lisa Malone, Director of Public Affairs at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center; Toni Myers, the Director of “Hubble 3D;” Dr. Frank Summers, an Astrophysicist for the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute; and Bert Ulrich, Liason for the Multimedia Film and TV Collaborations at NASA’s Headquarters.

Presented by the Academy’s Science and Technology Council, the event will take a journey through the space program’s breakthroughs in animation with NASA “Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s” Eric De Jong, who began his career creating Voyager animations. The evening features a look at Mars rover Curiosity graphics in anticipation of its landing on the Red Planet in August 2012.

NASA animators and image specialists regularly take these visual concepts a step further by joining forces with Hollywood filmmakers to create new wonders for the big screen.”Capturing the Final Frontier” will examine some of these collaborations, exploring the documentary films “Hubble 3D” (2010) and “Roving Mars” (2006) along with feature films “Mission to Mars” (2000) and the Oscar-nominated “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (2011).

Tickets for “Capturing the Final Frontier” are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID, and may be purchased online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office, or by mail.

Image Courtesy of  Scott Beale

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The Oscar-nominated films “The Warriors of Qiugang” and “Gasland” will screen as the next installment in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 30th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission to all screenings in the series is free.

Directed by Ruby Yang, who produced the film with Thomas Lennon, “The Warriors of Qiugang” follows the villagers of Qiugang, China, as they fight for a safer living environment when a chemical company begins to poison their air and water. The film earned a 2010 Academy Award nomination for Documentary Short Subject.

When director Josh Fox was approached by a company requesting to drill for natural gas on his property, he began a disturbing investigation into the environmental repercussions of the process. “Gasland” documents evidence of serious pollution and contamination across the United States caused by drilling methods that have been exempted from the standards required by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

Fox produced the film with Trish Adlesic and Molly Gandour. “Gasland” earned a 2010 Academy Award nomination for Documentary Feature. Editor Matthew Sanchez will be present to take questions from the audience following the screening.

The 30th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series continues through May 30, showcasing feature-length and short documentaries drawn from the 2010 Academy Award nominations, including the winners, as well as other important and innovative films considered by the Academy that year.

All films will screen at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.  Doors open at 6 p.m. Seating is unreserved. The filmmakers will be present at screenings whenever possible.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.warriorsofqiugang.com

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