EDITORIAL

APPLE TV
Today the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards announced that Apple has been recognized with SAG Award nominations for acclaimed Apple Original series including Emmy Award-winning drama “Severance” and Critics Choice Award nominee “Black Bird.” Apple’s “Severance” also earned the honor of becoming one of the most-nominated series for this year’s Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards, and also landed two Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nominations...

Artificial Intelligence is poised to create a seismic shift in entertainment, and the technology isn’t just in development. It’s arrived and Hollywood needs to be prepared. That was the message of a SAG-AFTRA-hosted CES panel, as AI-driven tools permeated the consumer tech show’s exhibition halls. Nina Schick, author and advisor on generative AI, projected that 90 percent of content may be — at least in part — AI-generated by 2025. She further predicted that everyone in the audience would be planning to use some form of generative AI within the month...

Sundance will continue to see a number of first-time official “houses” dedicated to specific cultural groups during the 2023 festival. IllumiNative, the Indigenous social justice organization founded in 2018, will host the inaugural Indigenous House on Main Street in Park City from Jan. 21 and 22. “The entertainment industry has always been one of the biggest perpetrators of our erasure, but Native peoples have flipped the script and are breaking barriers and making incredible strides in representation. The Indigenous House is a celebration of the contributions made by Native creatives, artists, filmmakers and the creativity, beauty and strength of Native peoples,” IllumiNative founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk said in a statement. “Our hope is to create a space where Native and non-Native peoples can come together in community, learn and get inspired, acknowledge the barriers Native peoples have overcome and still face in the film industry, as well as celebrate the Native films selected for this year and the opportunities in the future to bring more Native stories, talent and voices to audiences.”...

Some high school student filmmakers will have their work shown nationwide, thanks to The Roku Channel. Last spring, the company partnered with youth organization Fresh Films for the Roku Change Makers Program, which trained more than 250 high schoolers from 23 cities nationwide in filmmaking, with career mentorship from Roku employees. Under the leadership of Roku’s Mitch Rogers and Leslie Lai, participants had the opportunity to create short films featuring a social subject close to their hearts and how progress is being made in their communities and now, select projects will premiere as Roku Originals on the company’s streaming channel...

Cameron's sequel currently ranks as the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time — it is the fifth-biggest international release behind the movies "Avatar," "Avengers: Endgame," "Titanic" (which is getting a re-release, by the way), and "Avengers: Infinity War." Do the math quickly, and you'll know that means James Cameron helmed three of the top five international releases in history. That's a tremendous feat — but he doesn't think about the statistics that way. The legendary filmmaker considers the success to be a reminder of how moviegoers are done with streaming services: they want to go back to theaters around the world. "I'm not thinking of it in those terms ... I'm thinking of it in the terms of we're going back to theaters around the world. They're even going back to theaters in China where they're having this big COVID surge. We're saying as a society, 'We need this! We need to go to theaters.' Enough with the streaming already! I'm tired of sitting on my a**."...

Nicolas Cage’s approachach on his newest project "The Old Way.": "Charles Bronson, Charles Bronson, and Charles Bronson. I think 'Once Upon a Time in the West' might even be my favorite movie. I think his performance as Harmonica is arguably one of my top five favorite performances ever because he was able to, with [director Sergio] Leone, convey so much and do so little, and it looked like he meant it. He's acting opposite Henry Fonda, who is a hugely lauded film actor, with 'Young Mr. Lincoln' and 'The Grapes of Wrath' and all that -– even 'The Oxbow Incident.' But Bronson don't give a s***. I mean, just like, 'Well, you've got a Purple Heart, and you almost got shot down in a B-52. You're on set. You're looking in his eyes, and you mean it.' I grew up watching that. When I got invited to do Colton Briggs, yeah, he was always on my mind. I don't know if I got close to that, but that's certainly what I was aspiring to."...