ACORN TV
Programming from several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand, and UK. AMC Networks chief Josh Sapan told The Hollywood Reporter that Acorn TV has "among the lowest churn" among major services owing to its focus as well as viewers' "dedication and affinity" for its content.

Cabaret, Bob Fosse’s landmark musical set in a Berlin nightclub in 1931 amid the rise of Nazism, turns 50 this week. The film won eight of the 10 Academy Awards for which it was nominated. Among its winners was Liza Minnelli, then 27, who earned a best actress statuette for her portrayal of the irrepressible performer Sally Bowles. She remebers: “We were in Germany and away from Hollywood, and the studio executives couldn’t keep an eye on us, so Bob got away with a lot that he couldn’t have done in Hollywood. He was ruthless and fearless. But it was a low-budget film and we were feeling like this scrappy little family trying to prove ourselves. They didn’t even release the movie with a stereo soundtrack because it cost too much”...

In a move that is already causing tension within the leadership of the Academy, but is likely to be well received by the general public, the presentations and acceptance of eight awards — documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short and sound — will take place inside the Dolby Theatre an hour before the live telecast commences, will be recorded and will then be edited into the subsequent live broadcast, a variation of a controversial approach that the Academy first adopted and then abandoned in 2018...

Motion smoothing, also called motion interpolation, is born out of a discrepancy between the frame rates of films and the frame rates modern TV sets are capable of running. A standard film or TV show is usually shot at 24 to 30 frames per second, while modern TVs are capable of operating at 60, 120 or occasionally even 240fps. When motion smoothing settings are turned on your TV, the TV essentially adds fake frames into a film or show in order to artificially increase the frame rate. Motion smoothing works best when the scene is moving slowly in a predictable way, like a panning shot or a big object moving sideways. Small objects moving fast in unpredictable ways or complex transformations like explosions are the hardest to estimate and will result in weird visual artifacts.” In practice, the errors and visual artifacts it causes has made it extremely controversial, and many directors, filmmakers and critics have decried it as a technology that ruins film...

Michael Bay is calling “BS” on the James Bond franchise for holding the Guinness World Record for largest film stunt explosion. It was the 007 tentpole “Spectre” that set the record with one set explosion that had “a total yield of 68.47 tonnes of TNT equivalent.” Not so fast, Bay recently told Empire magazine. According to the mayhem-loving action director, his historical war epic “Pearl Harbor” has an even bigger explosion during the central attack sequence...

Hong Kong protest films “Revolution of Our Times” and “May You Stay Forever Young” will have their British premiere in March at a new film festival organized by artists and culture sector workers who have relocated to the U.K. Ng Ka-leung, a producer and director of Hong Kong dystopian anthology “Ten Years,” and documentary filmmaker and writer Wong Ching, co-curators of Hong Kong Film Festival U.K. 2022, said the festival is more than just about screening films that can no longer be shown in their hometown due to political changes. It is organized by Hong Kong Umbrella Community, a U.K.-based body co-founded by Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong lawmaker who is now living in exile in Britain. The inaugural edition of the festival is funded by private donors, but event organizers hoped to raise funds from other sources for future editions...

Matthijs Wouter Knol, director of the European Film Academy (Efa) has expressed the solidarity of Efa’s 4,000-plus membership and its board with all of the Ukrainian people, including the 61 who are Efa members. “While we have been aware of the ongoing political and military escalation in the Eastern part of Ukraine for many years, which first gained international attention with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, we do realise that the current events and daily increase of tension has an impact on filmmakers’ lives and health, morale, and creative work,” Knol said. The European Film Academy has pledged support to its members in Ukraine and is looking for practical ways to help them. “We need to immediately move beyond ‘thoughts and prayers’ and start to concentrate on what practical help can be given to our membership and community,” European Film Academy chair and board member of the International Coalition for Film makers at Risk, Mike Downey, told Variety. “It’s too early to know how best to assist, but we are monitoring the situation as it unfolds and in discussion with partners and members closer to the border in Poland, and working out what is the best form of response and assistance based on knowledge on the ground.”...

Netflix has signed a three-year agreement with French film guilds to invest a minimum of €40 million ($45 million) in the financing of French and European movies which will be released in French theaters.The agreement will see Netflix investing 4% of its annual revenue made in France on the financing of French and European movies, with at least €30 million invested in French-language movies. All these movies will premiere in French cinemas and will be launched on Netflix 15 months later...