Cannes Official Poster and Opening Motion Picture

The official poster for the 66th Cannes International Film Festival (15 - 26 May, 2013) was released earlier today. It features Mr. and Mrs. Paul Newman, an acting, producing, philanthropic couple married for over five decades until his death, highly usual in Hollywood. Newman died in September, 2008. Woodward is still living in Westport, Connecticut.

The photograph was taken during the filming of the 1963 romantic comedy, "A New Kind of Love." In 1958, the year they married, the first film in which they appeared together, "The Long hot Summer" directed by Martin Ritt, was in competition at the festival. Newman has often been quoted as saying about his relationship with Woodward, "Why go out for hamburger when you can have steak at home?"

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Mulligan as Daisy and DiCaprio as Gatsby

As of now, Buz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" (3D, Warner Bros.) based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel,  will open this year's festival May 15th, after having opened Stateside on the 10th. It has been pointed out that opening Stateside before Cannes might cause some Box Office problems for the movie. Stars Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio and director Buz Luhrmann are expected to attend the festival. The movie also stars Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton.  Festival Website in English

Writers Guild Oscar Nominations, and Short List for Visual Effects

Download this official poster in many sizes for free!
 

Interesting that The Tree of Life is on the current visual effects list and not on the Writers Guilds' list. Here are the nominees from the Writers Guild:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, written by Will Reiser;

Bridesmaids, written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig; 

Midnight in Paris, written by Woody Allen;
Win Win, screenplay by Tom McCarthy; story by Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni;
Young Adult, written by Diablo Cody.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Descendants, screenplay by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash; based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming;
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, screenplay by Steven Zaillian; based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts;
The Help, screenplay by Tate Taylor; based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett;
Hugo, screenplay by John Logan; based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick;
Moneyball, screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; based on the book by Michael Lewis.

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Better This World, written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega;
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, written by Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek;
Nostalgia for the Light, written by Patricio Guzmán;
Pina, screenplay by Wim Wenders;
Position Among the Stars, script by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Leonard Retel Helmrich;
Senna, written by Manish Pandey.

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There are now 10 motion pictures are on the short list in the 84th Academy Awards Visual Effects (VFX) category awaiting a possible Oscar nomination. They are listed below in alphabetical order:

    Captain America: The First Avenger

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

    Hugo

    Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

    Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

    Real Steel

    Rise of the Planet of the Apes

    Transformers: Dark of the Moon

    The Tree of Life

    X-Men: First Class

All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on Thursday, January 19. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

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 The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Poster for 84th Academy Awards Available for Download

This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the 84th Academy Awards official poster. Nothing unusual about that, but what is unusual this year is the Academy is inviting the public to download the poster in multiple sizes, from a full-sized poster, to a size useful as a profile picture in social networking sites.

The art features the iconic Oscar statuette alongside memorable images of eight films spanning eight decades: Gone with the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1943), Giant (1956), The Sound of Music (1965), The Godfather (1972), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Forrest Gump (1994) and Gladiator (2000). All the films featured on the poster won the Academy Award for Best Picture, except Giant, but George Stevens won the Oscar for Directing.

Actor James Dean was killed in an automobile accident in September 1955, but he was still nominated for best actor in Giant, along with his costar Rock Hudson. Yul Brynner in The King and I received the best actor Oscar that year.

The best picture was Around the World in Eighty Days, produced by Mike Todd, who was then husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor. Tragically, Todd was killed two years later in a plane crash. But, I digress. Back to the poster.

The Oscar poster's tagline "Celebrate the movies in all of us," and its over-all design, is meant to evoke the emotional connections we all have with the movies. The public is encouraged to download the poster image to use as wallpaper and profile icons, and to share with friends, available on the Academy's website, www.oscars.org/poster.

The artwork was created by award-winning graphic designer Anthony Goldschmidt, and Mark and Karen Crawford of the design firm Blood and Chocolate. Posters will be available to theaters in the U.S., and internationally, on January 6th, along with a theatrical trailer.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, and broadcast on ABC's Good Morning America.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center, and televised live at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.