"Beasts," "The House I Live In" win top awards at Sundance

PARK CITY: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “The House I Live in” won the top awards at the Sundance Film Festival, making them likely favorites for independent movie audiences in 2012.

Directed by Benh Zeitlin and set in impoverished Louisiana, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” picked up the jury prize for best drama with its tale of the bond between a father and a daughter.

The documentary winner, “The House I Live In,” was one of many documentaries that looked at a struggling America at Sundance 2012, with its examination of America’s long failed war on drugs and critiques of U.S. drug policies, its court system, prisons and their impact on minorities.

“The war on drugs is a terrible scar on America,” said director Eugene Jarecki.

Special juries of industry professionals vote on winners, and those are considered the top prizes, but audiences also vote for their favorites.

“The Surrogate,” which stars Helen Hunt and John Hawkes and is about a man’s quest to lose his virginity while mostly confined to an iron lung, won the Audience Award for best drama.

The film, based on the real life poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, fetched one of the highest selling prices at the festival – a reported $6 million.

“Love is a journey, that’s it,” said director Ben Lewin when accepting his trophy, quoting a line from the film.

The Audience Award for documentary was given to “The Invisible War,” about an epidemic of sexual assault in the U.S. military.

Other documentary special jury prizes went to “Love Free or Die,” about the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson; and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” about the Chinese artist and activist who was detained for 81 days last year.

Sundance, which is backed by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute for filmmaking, is the largest U.S. gathering for independent movies. Festival winners go on to become some of the most talked about films in art houses.

In addition to prizes for U.S. films, Sundance also gives awards in world cinema. Chile’s “Violeta Went To Heaven,” based on the life of Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra’s journey from a poor upbringing to national hero, won the jury prize for best drama, and “The Law In These Parts” was the jury’s pick for best documentary.

“Searching for Sugar Man,” about the search for an obscure 1970s Detroit folk singer known as Rodriguez, won the audience award for best world documentary as well as a special jury prize. AGENCIES

Akshay Kumar signed up as brand ambassador of Eveready?

One need not give any introduction about the Macho Man of the tinsel town. The very word ‘Khiladi’ very aptly describes the man with the golden touch: Akshay Kumar!

We all know that the USP of this man lies in his ability to connect with the audience. And it is this ability that has made him not just the silver screen’s darling, but also the darling of the FMCG sector! News Trends’s ever reliable sources inform that this dude has now been signed as the brand ambassador of Eveready batteries. Readers may note the fact that, prior to this man, it was none other than Big B who was endorsing the said brand.

The official announcement regarding Akshay’s appointment as the new face of the brand is awaited.

Oscars telecast to undergo dramatic change

LOS ANGELES: The Oscars are entering the world of virtual reality.

This year’s Academy Awards telecast is taking a radical departure from past years. Producers of the February 27 show are abandoning the concept of a traditional set. Instead, they will rely on a series of “projections” to give the show a constantly changing look.

“Our design this year is actually going to reflect more content than you would usually expect of an awards show of this type,” producer Don Mischer told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview with fellow producer Bruce Cohen in the Kodak Theater. “We’re using our environment to take us to different places, different times, and it will change dramatically. The look will change from act to act.”

Producers plan to take viewers on a trip through Hollywood history.

“We’re doing six or seven scenic transitions during the show, but they are each sort of a different concept,” Cohen explained. “In other words, one might be a scene from a film, one might be a more specific time in history, one might be a specific event, one might be a specific genre. The hope is that we briefly leave the Kodak in 2011 — not literally, but metaphorically — and take the audience, both in the room and on television, to a specific time and place.”

Pressed for more detail, Cohen added, “This is the tenth anniversary of the best animated feature Oscar, so we go to an animated environment to present that Oscar — actually two, animated feature and animated short — but the reason we are there is to celebrate that this is the tenth anniversary of the best animated feature Oscar.”

The transitions, Mischer explained, will not be long segments, but 30-45 second set-ups. “We are not going back to teach history, but to put the awards in context.”

The design scheme grew out of the theme that the two producers devised once they began working on the show back in June. In an extensive review of past broadcasts, they were struck by the two-fold nature of the assignment. On the one hand, they have to come up with something new and different. On the other, they wanted to recognize the previous 82 years of Oscar history.

“Is there any way to approach the show where those two ideas are working together and not fighting each other with every single decision?” they asked themselves. The solution, they decided, was somehow to combine the old and the new.

To that end, they cast Anne Hathaway and James Franco — two of the youngest hosts to ever front the Oscars — as audience surrogates for the journey.

“Yes, they are famous, but they are on their way up,” Cohen said of the two stars. “They are not untouchable, they are not unreachable. We hope they will offer a way in. So everyone come along, and we’ll see through the eyes of these two up-and-coming stars.”

The hosts’ job, he said, will be “to take the audience on this journey of a show that will hopefully start in one place, and if it all goes according to plan, it will take you back to where we started at the end.”

To realize that on stage visually, the producers have been working with production designer Steve Bass, who’s previously worked with Mischer on such shows as the “62nd Primetime Emmy Awards” and “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.”

While the production has moved into the Kodak to set up the show, it’s been using the daytime hours to hang the physical scenery on which the projections will be displayed, and then during the night another team has been programing the projections. Working throughout this weekend, the goal is to have the whole system up-and-running by Monday. AGENCIES

Tabu to play Irrfan Khan’s mother in Life Of Pi

By now its common knowledge that Irrfan Khan and Tabu would be seen together in internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ang Lee’s ambitious project Life Of Pi. However, what is surprising or rather shocking is the fact that Tabu would be playing the role of Irrfan’s mother in the film.

Life of Pi is the story of self-discovery of Piscine Molitor ‘Pi’ Patel and is based on the Booker Prize winning novel of the same name. While 17 year old Delhi boy Suraj Sharma would be playing the role of the young Pi, Irrfan Khan would be seen playing the adult Pi.

It may be recalled that Irrfan and Tabu were cast as husband-wife in Mira Nair’s The Namesake, a film which won international appreciation. It would now be interesting to see how the audience takes to Tabu playing Irrfan’s mother in Life Of Pi.

Nawaz says won’t accept RGST Bill

Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday resolved to make PML-N a revolutionary party.

Addressing a public gathering at Sumundri, Nawaz said that corruption in Hajj arrangements is an unpardonable mistake. It is the height of corruption in our country; the federal minister himself admitted the irregularities, he lamented. Referring to RGST, he said, The government should eliminate corruption prior to imposing the RGST Bill; We will not accept this Bill.Nawaz maintained that the government would not be in need of loans, if it spends the money being collected through tax judicially. He denied the allegation leveled on him by Wikileaks, saying that Musharraf dubbed him a hijacker wrongly. Do I look like a highjacker?, the PML-N chief asked the audience. He blamed the incumbent government for the prevalent power shortage.

Nawaz says won’t accept RGST Bill

Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday resolved to make PML-N a revolutionary party.

Addressing a public gathering at Sumundri, Nawaz said that corruption in Hajj arrangements is an unpardonable mistake. It is the height of corruption in our country; the federal minister himself admitted the irregularities, he lamented. Referring to RGST, he said, The government should eliminate corruption prior to imposing the RGST Bill; We will not accept this Bill.Nawaz maintained that the government would not be in need of loans, if it spends the money being collected through tax judicially. He denied the allegation leveled on him by Wikileaks, saying that Musharraf dubbed him a hijacker wrongly. Do I look like a highjacker?, the PML-N chief asked the audience. He blamed the incumbent government for the prevalent power shortage.

Live Chat: Cast & crew of KHJJS on Dec 7 at 1600 hrs IST

They say that ‘History repeats itself’. Last Friday, one just saw the ‘History in the making’ in the form of Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, a magnum opus by the Master Class film maker Ashutosh Gowariker. While the film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and the rest of the gang, the ‘real stars’, eventually, have turned out to be the script as well as the audience, who has given the film a huge thumbs up!

Bollywood Hungama brings to you an exclusive Celebrity Chat with the likes of Vishakha Singh, Sikander Kher, Amin Gazi, Vijay Maurya
and Samrat Mukerji, who, together have aptly formed the pillars of the film. Do remember that the time of the chat Dec 7 at 1600 hrs IST.

Do log on if you want to be a part of history…else be ready to become history!

"God willing, Housefull 2 will be biggest ‘paisa vasool’ entertainer" – Sajid Khan

Plans are being put together at a frantic pace to bring Housefull 2 on floors. Meanwhile, Sajid Khan has made a promise to his team as well as audience. For the sequel to his hit flick Housefull, he is confident that the film would prove to be 10 times funnier than the first in the series.

“The entire team is quite gung-ho about the sequel to Housefull. The script has come up pretty fabulously. God willing, Housefull 2 will be biggest ‘paisa vasool’ entertainer for the audience”, says Sajid confidently.

Housefull stays on to be one of the top money spinners of 2010 and also the film that boasts of highest collections of an Akshay Kumar starrer. Though Sajid isn’t quite pointing on any particular milestone that he has in mind for Housefull 2, he doesn’t deny the fact that sequels always rake in manifold collections than the first in the instalment.

Whether it is Dhoom 2, Krrish, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Golmaal Returns, Golmaal 3, Phir Hera Pheri – each of these films have done double (and at number of instances even triple) the business of their predecessor.

“Well, such statistics are always good to know. Going by that logic, I guess I should be confident of Housefull 2 also doing three times the business of Housefull”, smiles Sajid.

Shooting of Housefull 2 will kick start in middle of 2011 and wrap up in three months flat. Yet again, producer Sajid Nadiadwala would be making Housefull 2 a lavish affair by taking the film to some of the most exotic locations worldwide.

“Every product demands a certain budget and with the kind of setup that we have brought together for Housefull 2, there has to be certain expenditure involved”, says Sajid Nadiadwala who has put his money yet again on Sajid Khan after Heyy Babyy and Housefull.

Talking about the film’s setup, it indeed is turning out to be the biggest ever for a Nadiadwala production. From the original cast of Housefull, Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey have been retained. Though Lara Dutta and Jiah Khan are not really making the cut in the sequel, there are good chances of Arjun Rampal finding his way into the film. However, John Abraham is the confirmed new entrant in Housefull 2.

Says our source, “It is anyways a huge cast that Housefull 2 is boasting of. The makers are also planning to rope in Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar as well as Paresh Rawal along with two other girls.”

If that indeed turns out to be the case, Housefull 2 could well be the biggest ever film till date for both Sajid Khan as well as Sajid Nadiadwala.

“Of course to hear something like that always feel good. Having said that, all my concentration is on making a hugely entertaining film for the audience. First and foremost the product should be terrific enough for people to crave for it. I am working in that direction”, assures Sajid.

Rituparno Ghosh’s Noukadubi to be premiered at IFFI Goa

The magic and imagery of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s words will once again cast a spell over the audience when his ‘Noukadubi’ in Bengali and Hindi , a tale of four cross-wired lovers, gets a contemporary makeover in director Rituparno Ghosh’s film by the same name and presented by Mukta Searchlight Films. The film produced by Subhash Ghai stars well known Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Raima Sen and Riya Sen.

The film will have its World Premiere at IFFI Goa and will be the opening film of the India Premier Section on 24th November. The entire cast, producer, director and crew will be present for a limited screening for select audience including the Indian and world media. The importance of the screening is underlined by the fact that that the screening is also a celebration of Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th anniversary.

The film has already generated a lot of interest in the International Film Festival circuit.

A progressive Bollywood-style story from ‘Galpa Cuccha’ (Collection of Stories published in 1912), ‘Noukadubi’ had raised eyebrows during Tagore’s life-time.

The film is slated for theatrical release worldwide end of January 2011 both in the Hindi and Bengali version.

Conan O’Brien launches new show on cable channel TBS

LOS ANGELES: Former “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien returned to television on Monday, more than nine months after he lost his coveted network job, and poked fun at his downsized gig on a cable channel.

His opening monologue, predictably, revolved around his unceremonious departure from the NBC role he had coveted for years and his arrival at TBS, whose lineup includes old sitcoms like “King of Queens” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

“Welcome to my new show. It’s called ‘Conan,’” the bearded 47-year-old comic told the audience at a Burbank soundstage around the corner from his old employer. “People ask me why I named the show ‘Conan.’ I did it so I’d be harder to replace.

“This is an exciting night,” he added. “I’m really glad to be on cable … The truth is, ladies and gentleman, I have dreamed of being a talk show host on basic cable ever since I was

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