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2015 Sundance Festival: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl wins grand jury prize

Written By Unknown on Senin, 02 Februari 2015 | 22.19

Sundance breakout Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a quirky, heartfelt story about a pair of high school film-lovers who befriend a girl with cancer, won both the U.S. dramatic audience award and the grand jury prize at the 31st Sundance Film Festival awards, announced Saturday.

Thomas Mann, R.J. Cyler and Olivia Cooke lead the cast of the idiosyncratic tearjerker from director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who dedicated the audience award to all the filmmakers and artists in his hometown of Laredo, Texas. Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, and Molly Shannon also star.

"My love goes out to the entire cast and crew," Gomez-Rejon said. "This movie was about processing loss, but really to celebrate a beautiful life and a beautiful man, which is my amazing father ... to celebrate his life through humour."

The Wolfpack, Crystal Moselle's documentary about six movie-loving teenage boys isolated from society picked up the grand jury prize for best documentary.

"I stalked these kids on the street one day and here I am," Moselle said.

Comedian Tig Notaro, whose documentary Tig premiered at the Festival, hosted the ceremony. She also told the audience that she used to volunteer at the Festival in the mid-'90s.

The 31st Sundance Film Festival wrapped on Sunday.

Other winners Saturday:

U.S. drama, grand jury prize: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
U.S. drama, audience award: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
U.S. drama, directing: The Witch, Robert Eggers.
U.S. drama, special jury award for cinematography: Diary of a Teenage Girl, Brandon Trost.
U.S. drama, special jury award for collaborative vision: Advantageous.
U.S. drama, special jury award for editing: Dope, Lee Haugen.
U.S. documentary, grand jury prize: The Wolfpack.
U.S. documentary, audience award: Meru.
U.S. documentary, directing: Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman.
U.S. documentary, special jury award for social impact: 3 ½ Minutes.
U.S. documentary, special jury award for verite filmmaking: Western.
U.S. documentary, special jury award for cinematography: Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman, Matt Porwoll.
U.S. documentary, special jury award for breakout first feature: (T)error.
Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize: The Stanford Prison Experiment.
Waldo Salt screenwriting award: The Stanford Prison Experiment, Tim Talbott.
World cinema drama, grand jury prize: Slow West.
World cinema drama, audience award: Umrika.
World cinema drama, directing: The Summer of Sangaile, Alante Kavaite.
World cinema drama, special jury award for cinematography: Partisan, Germain McMicking.
World cinema drama, special jury award for acting: The Second Mother, Regina Case and Camila Mardila.
World cinema drama, special jury award for acting: Glassland, Jack Reynor.
World cinema documentary, grand jury prize: The Russian Woodpecker.
World cinema documentary, audience award: Dark Horse.
World cinema documentary, directing: Dreamcatcher, Kim Longinotto.
World cinema documentary, special jury award for unparalleled access: The Chinese Mayor.
World cinema documentary, special jury award for impact: Pervert Park.
World cinema documentary, special jury award for editing: How to Change the World, Jim Scott.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Black History Month: 6 black Canadian culture-makers

February is Black History Month in Canada, which provides an opportunity to celebrate some of the movers and shakers at the heart of this country's arts and culture scene – and the icons who helped inspire them.

Meet six black Canadian culture-makers and the legends who energized them in this CBC Arts special feature.

Selma star and Canadian actor Stephan James, named his Selma co-star and American media mogul Oprah Winfrey as the black icon who most influenced him. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)

Canadian culture-maker: Stephan James, Toronto actor and Selma star.

Most influenced by: Oprah Winfrey.

Why: "[It's] what she's been able to do for so many people, just as a humanitarian, as a giver, as a lover of people. [She is] somebody so charitable, who has been able to have such a large effect on so many different people. That's somebody I definitely look up to."

On working with Oprah on Selma: "She's everything I thought she was. Working with her was a complete honour, she's so personable, and once you get over the whole 'oh, she's Oprah!' … it's kinda normal."

James takes on the role of black American sprinter Jesse Owens in the upcoming historical drama Race. James talks about what he learned from portraying the legendary athlete in the video link above.

Lawrence Hill, the Canadian author who penned the bestselling novel The Book of Negroes named American boxing great Muhammad Ali as his most influential black icon. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images, Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)

Canadian culture-maker: Lawrence Hill, best-selling author of The Book of Negroes.

Most influenced by: Muhammad Ali, American boxing phenom.

Why: "He came into his prime as a boxer and as a civil rights activist when I was a young boy. You are always open to influence and to inspiration when you're a child. It wasn't because he was a champion boxer – if that's all he was I wouldn't have paid much attention to him. It's because he had the courage to give up his heavyweight boxing title and refused to go fight in the Vietnam war – a war he knew was unjust."

The Book of Negroes, the six-part miniseries based on Hill's award-winning novel, airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV. Full episodes can be viewed online.

This composite shows Canadian hip-hop artist Shad and American singer Lauryn Hill. Shad says listening to Hill's music in high school was inspirational. (John Woods/The Canadian Press, Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Canadian culture-maker: Shad, Juno award-winning hip-hop artist.

Most influenced by: Lauryn Hill, American singer-songwriter and former member of The Fugees.

Why: "Not just for her incredible music and just how fun it was to listen to — but her courage. The fact that she was a whole person. She's fun and also spiritual and also smart and so having that example of a really whole and complete person in the media, I think that that was important for me in high school."

Why Shad's mother was his true role model: "What was important to her was that I was a caring person and an honest person, a fully human individual. [That's] a really important lesson in retrospect, a super valuable lesson, because this culture and this world is difficult to navigate … especially for a lot of young black people."

Shad, who beat out Drake for rap recording of the year at the 2011 Junos, will perform a concert March 27 in Toronto.

Measha Brueggergosman and Sterling Gosman

This composite shows Canadian singing sensation Measha Brueggergosman and her father, Pastor Sterling Gosman. (Malcolm Taylor/Getty Images, New Minas Baptist Church)

Canadian culture-maker: Measha Brueggergosman, award-winning international opera singer.

Most influenced by: Sterling Gosman, her father.

Why: "He's always been very civic minded: he was a city councillor; he was a deacon; he worked for the CBC. He was also an athlete, but then in his retirement he went to university for the first time and became a pastor. He's been relentless and has never once brought up the issue of race as anything but a thing that either needs to be addressed and overcome – never ignored – but it wasn't ever going to be a factor in his success or failure."

Brueggergosman describes the evolution of her black identity and what Black History Month means to her in the video link above.

Clément Virgo, the Jamaican-born Canadian filmmaker and director of the The Book of Negroes TV series, identified reggae music legend Bob Marley as his most influential black icon. (Ben Gabbe, Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Canadian culture-maker: Clément Virgo, feature filmmaker and director of the hit miniseries The Book of Negroes.

Most influenced by: Bob Marley, international reggae music legend.

Why: "I'm from Jamaica. Bob Marley is from Jamaica. When I was a child he was a big influence on us in terms of his politics. Growing up, it was a political upheaval in Jamaica and Bob Marley was a voice of peace and of reason. I was too young to have met him, but he would be someone I would've loved to have met."

Virgo's top-rated TV adaptation of Lawrence Hill's novel The Book of Negroes is currently airing on CBC-TV. The six-part series premiers in the U.S. on BET on Feb. 16.

This composite shows Victoria, B.C.-based author Esi Edugyan and Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Toni Morrison. (Steven Price/The Canadian Press, Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)

Canadian culture-maker: Esi Edugyan, novelist and author of the award-winning book Half-Blood Blues.

Most influenced by: Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.

Why: "I was just blown away by her voice, the strength of that and just how idiosyncratic it was and how she was searching to find ways to write or to articulate certain black expressions. I was completely floored by this. I was given permission, reading this book, to have a go with that myself. She was hugely influential for me."

Edugyan is working on a new novel that she hopes will be out next year.

Tell us which black artist, musician, author, actor or cultural figure most influenced you in the comments below. Check back for more Black History Month content throughout the month of February.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bobbi Kristina Brown: Celebs offer prayers for Whitney Houston's daughter

Celebrities are offering their support and prayers for Whitney Houston's daughter, who has reportedly been placed in an induced coma after she was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in a Georgia townhouse on Saturday.

Police said Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, was taken to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, a suburb north of Atlanta. Her townhome is in a subdivision near a bend in the Chattahoochee River, about 30 kilometres northeast of downtown Atlanta.

Lindsey Harber, a spokeswoman at North Fulton Hospital, where police say Houston's daughter was taken, declined comment.

"I can't confirm she's even there," Harber said Sunday.

La Toya Jackson is one of several celebrities who used Twitter to express her support. "Let's All Send Love Light & Prayers to Bobbi Kristina Brown!," Jackson tweeted.

Singer-songwriter Missy Elliott tweeted that she's also throwing her support behind Brown. "Still Praying 4 Bobbi Kristina," Elliott tweeted in part.

Brown is the only daughter of late pop star Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown. On Sunday Brown asked for privacy regarding his daughter.

"Privacy is requested in this matter. Please allow for my family to deal with this matter and give my daughter the love and support she needs at this time," Brown said in a statement issued by his lawyer, Christopher Brown.

Doctors put her in a medically induced coma, according to CNN and other media, all of whom quoted a single source close the family. However, the hospital would not confirm those reports.

Houston, with dozens of hit songs to her credit, was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and a cousin of pop singer Dionne Warwick. Bobby Brown is a Grammy Award winner who started his career as frontman for the R&B group New Edition.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, shown in 2012, was found in the bathtub by her husband. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press)

Both of Bobbi Kristina's parents struggled with substance abuse, and Houston described their 15-year marriage, which ended in 2007, as drug- and alcohol-fuelled. Bobby Brown was sentenced to 55 days in jail in 2013 after admitting to driving drunk in 2012.

The incident comes three years after Houston drowned in a bathtub in Beverly Hills, Calif., in February 2012. Authorities examining Houston's death found a dozen prescription drug bottles in the hotel suite. They concluded Houston accidentally drowned. Heart disease and cocaine use were listed as contributing factors in her death.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, who was hospitalized twice with anxiety after her mother's death, was found by her husband, Nick Gordon, and a friend at her home in Roswell, an Atlanta suburb, at about 10:20 a.m ET.

The friend called the emergency dispatcher while her husband performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Brown because they believed she was neither breathing nor had a pulse, Officer Lisa Holland, a police spokeswoman, said Saturday.

Brown married Gordon, who was also raised but never adopted by Houston, in January 2014.

Over her career, Houston sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs such as Saving All My Love For You, I Will Always Love You, The Greatest Love of All and I'm Every Woman. Her six Grammys were only a fraction of her many awards.

Houston, who had her first No. 1 hit by the time she was 22, followed by a flurry of No. 1 songs and multi-platinum records, left her entire estate to her daughter.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

The top 10 Super Bowl commercials of 2015

It's not by chance that the Super Bowl always manages to attract more viewers than any other game during the regular NFL regular season (or any other major U.S. sporting event period, most years.)

Whether it's for the promise of a can't miss half-time show, a game-day party with friends, or the chance to go nuts on a Super Bowl snack spread, scores of people who wouldn't regularly be interested in watching football tend to swell the big game's audience each year — even if their eyes are glued to their phone for most of the event.

Yet, as Google data shows, not even imported $140 pizzas can hold a candle to what gets the majority of non-sportos paying attention to the world of football for one day each calendar year: Super Bowl commercials.

Canadians are a particularly ad-savvy bunch when it comes to the Super Bowl, according to Google Canada. In fact, we've been outpacing our U.S. counterparts in searches for "Super Bowl Commercials" on YouTube for the past five years — likely because Canadians can't view U.S. commercials as they air (yet.)

Fortunately for those outside of the U.S., more and more brands are choosing to release their Super Bowl ads online before, during, or after the big game each year in an attempt to get the most brand-boosting bang for their buck.

Many of 2015's most high-profile spots were indeed released days or even weeks before Super Bowl Sunday, and while there were certainly some shockers that premiered during the game itself, the majority of this year's most critically-acclaimed ads had already hit YouTube well before kickoff.

Social reaction during the game (which was won by the New England Patriots, by the way) indicates that the ads of Super Bowl XLIX sent viewers on more of an emotional roller-coaster than usual, prompting tears, laughter and thousands of confused tweets at every commercial break.

Celebrities played a major role in winning audiences over once again this year, but a number of ads managed to stand out even more than Bryan Cranston and Kim Kardashian, simply by packing more substance than we're typically used to seeing in a 30-second Super Bowl spot.

Based on critical reviews, online reactions, comments from Canadians and YouTube metrics, here are our picks for the top 10 best Super Bowl Commercials of 2015:

Dove Men+Care's "#RealStrength"

Nationwide "Invisible Mindy Kaling"

It was a hit and a miss for Nationwide Insurance at the 2015 Super Bowl. The first of the company's two very different ads to run during Sunday's game — a light-hearted spot featuring actors Mindy Kaling and Matt Damon — was hailed as "cute," "funny," and "charming." A second commercial, aired later in the game, revolved around a dead child mourning the life he'll never get to live. While the ad is clearly meant to educate audiences about preventing accidental childhood deaths, many of those who viewed it on Sunday were seriously bummed out by the story it told. "Make Safe Happen" is currently being floated around the web as a contender for "the worst Super Bowl ad in history." "Invisible Mindy Kaling," on the other hand, is a solid hit.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Bud Light's "Real Life PacMan"

Bud Light's ambitious 2015 Super Bowl spot — comprised of footage from a life-sized PacMan stadium built by the beer brand in early January — took an early lead in the race to win the most YouTube views, thanks to plenty of early social media buzz. While the actual commercial only boasts about 13 million views as of Sunday evening, videos featuring content from the PacMan shoot brings Bud Light's YouTube impressions to well over 100 million for this ad alone.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Loctite Glue's "Positive Feelings"

Straight from out of left field, the first-ever Super Bowl ad from Loctite — a 52-year-old German glue company — managed to win big on Twitter by playing to the Internet's collective fondness for all things offbeat. Loctite's perfect combination of normcore fashion, stone-faced dancing, branded fanny packs and the finishing quote "Loctite Glue saved our marriage" made for an unexpected, yet incredibly refreshing Super Bowl ad.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Clash of Clans' "Revenge" starring Liam Neeson

The fact that Finnish video game company Supercell could afford to run a 60-second-long Clash of Clans Super Bowl commercial (estimated to cost about $9 million US this year) and hire film legend Liam Neeson to star in it says a lot about how far the mobile gaming industry has come in recent years. Regardless, the company's investment on behalf of its top-grossing app appears to have paid off. The 2015 Clash of Clans Super Bowl commercial is being circulated widely online right now by fans of both Neeson and the game itself, racking up more than one million views on YouTube alone in less than 24 hours.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Mophie's "All-Powerless"

This commercial from Super Bowl new-comer Mophie was being pegged as a front-runner in the annual ad race by critics well before it actually aired on game day. The spot essentially taps into the sense of chaos and horror that many of us now feel when our cellphone battery dies (a problem that Mophie, purveyor of battery-charging phone cases, hopes to help eliminate.) The sense of urgency created within the ad, combined with some eye-popping Michael Bay-style special effects, make for one impressive Super Bowl commercial — especially given that it was produced by a lesser-known brand.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

NOMORE.org's official Super Bowl ad

A PSA produced by the public awareness campaign NOMORE.org made history this year as the first ever Super Bowl commercial to address domestic violence and sexual assault. Released Jan. 26, this chilling spot generated a significant amount of media attention last week. To date, it's generated more than five million views on Youtube, — as well as plenty of discussion around the web about domestic abuse scandals within the NFL.

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Budweiser's "Lost Dog"

Snickers' "The Brady Bunch"

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Always' "Like a Girl"

(Can't see the video? Click here to view on YouTube)

Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts on which commercials won the Super Bowl ad game this year by tweeting us at @CBCNews.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Black History Month: 6 black Canadian culture-makers

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 01 Februari 2015 | 22.19