Film

Leslie Odom Jr to Receive Spotlight Award From Palm Springs Film Festival

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

Leslie Odom Jr. will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor from the Palm Springs International Film Awards for his role in “One Night in Miami,” PSIFA organizers announced on Monday.

Odom plays iconic soul singer Sam Cooke in the film from director Regina King and also does his own singing on Cooke classics like “Chain Gang” and “A Change Is Gonna Come.” “I was terrified,” he told TheWrap of playing Cooke in the drama, which is based on an actual night in which Cooke, boxer Muhammad Ali (then called Cassius Clay), activist Malcolm X and football star Jim Brown met in a Miami hotel room after one of Ali’s fights.

Odom also co-wrote and performs a new song, “Speak Now,” in the film.

Past recipients of PSIFF’s Spotlight Award, Actor include Timothée Chalamet, Jamie Foxx, Sam Rockwell and J.K. Simmons.

Also Read: ‘One Night in Miami’ Film Review: Regina King Goes

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‘Sabaya’: Film Review | Sundance 2021

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago


Sabaya

Sabaya

The last major stronghold of the Islamic State — also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh — fell in March 2019, when the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the town of Baghouz, on the border between Syria and Iraq. At the peak of its power, ISIS controlled a swath of land the size of Britain between those two Middle Eastern countries, with some 8 million people under the rule of its so-called caliphate. Among the militant group’s highest-profile victims were the Yazidi, a religious minority in northern Iraq that was targeted by ISIS for genocide and the mass kidnapping, rape and forced marriage of its young girls.

Violence needs only an instant to transpire; recovery and restoration can take a lifetime or more. That’s the heart-wrenching reality that Iraqi-born, Sweden-based director Hogir Hirori (The Deminer, The Girl Who Saved My Life) captures in Sabaya, which

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Longtime Paramount Film Publicist Was 52

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

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Karl Williams, the longtime Paramount Pictures publicist who was integral in campaigns for the studio’s Transformers, Iron Man, Star Trek, Indiana Jones and other franchises, died Sunday of liver complications at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview, IL. He was 52.

For those like me who worked with Karl, he was a hysterically funny, good-guy, cinema savant and ultimate fanboy — a trailblazer in digital PR before any studio employed such experienced flacks in the current Twitter/YouTube/Facebook/Snapchat-obsessed promo era. For reporters, he was the face of the studio he worked with, notably Paramount, where he spent the bulk of his career. And for those who annually spent time with Karl at Burning Man, he was that groovy guy who ran camp.

Even when Karl was the assistant to a bigger PR exec, he had the answers and the access, whether it was

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Film Producing Is ‘Not a Sustainable Career,’ New Study Says

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago


a man holding a gun: film set proudction behind the scenes generic

© TheWrap
film set proudction behind the scenes generic

Despite their flashy reputation of wielding the money behind the movies, film producers often can’t sustain a career in the profession, a new study concludes.

56% percent of the 474 respondents said they earned $25,000 or less — and more than a quarter earned less than $2,500 from producing in 2020.

Almost two-thirds of participating producers said they earned their primary income through producing in 2019, while that share dropped to 56% last year.

Also read: Producers Guild Sets Virtual Awards Show for March 2021

Rebecca Green, the founder of Dear Producer whose credits include “It Follows” and “See You in My Dreams,” told TheWrap that a lack of education about what producing means has led to a false perception that producers benefit more than the rest of the creative team from their work on a film.

“Even for me, it’s

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