The official blog of Laemmle Theatres
CRIES FROM SYRIA Q&A schedule:
Friday 03/03/17 – Evgeny Afineevsky (Director and producer) + Aaron I. Butler (Producer and Editor of the movie) will be doing Q&A after 7:20pm show.
Saturday 03/04/17 – Evgeny Afineevsky (Director and producer) will be doing Q&A after 4:30pm show.
Sunday 03/04/17 – Aaron I. Butler (Producer and Editor) will be doing Q&A after 4:30pm show.
Sunday 03/04/17 – Aaron I. Butler (Producer and Editor) will be doing Q&A after 7:20pm show.
The results of Sunday’s Oscars were pretty ho-hum right up until somewhere around the 245th minute, when we all witnessed the most embarrassing accounting error of all time. Apparently the gentleman from PricewaterhouseCoopers was more focused on his star-struck tweeting than making sure he gave Warren Beatty the right envelope. However, let’s not let this snafu obscure the fact that the Academy surprised everyone and honored a genuinely marvelous film, Moonlight, only the second Best Picture Winner about LGBTQ people (the first was Midnight Cowboy) and the first with an all-African American cast.
Anyway, in our little Oscar contest, the winner was the only one with 20 correct, so they stood alone at the top. For the 2nd-5th place winners, 24 people correctly guessed 18 categories – and even with the Tie-Break question about the show’s running time there were still multiple ties.
Interestingly, for Best Picture, our winner picked La La Land – which for about two minutes was the correct answer – but they still beat their competition by two answers. Among the winners, the difficult categories were Best Picture (Moonlight or La La Land), Best Actor (Denzel Washington or Casey Affleck), Best Sound Mixing (La La Land or Hacksaw Ridge), and Best Live Action Short.
Congratulations to all. If we’ve heard back from you, your Laemmle Premiere Cards are en route. And Moonlight is back in theaters.
20 correct
1st Place) Mariano A. of Beverly Hills.
18 Correct – 1 minute off official time
Tie 2nd) Jen M. of Pasadena.
Tie 2nd) Marina O. of Los Angeles.
18 Correct – 6 minutes off official time
3rd Place) Martha C. of Valley Village.
18 Correct – 8 minutes off official time
Tie 4th) Tristan K. of West Hollywood.
Tie 4th) Cory G. of Los Angeles.
Tie 4th) Jacob W. of Los Angeles.
18 Correct – 9 minutes off official time
5th Place) Rachel S. of West Hollywood.
WATER & POWER director Marina Zenovich will participate in a Q&A following the 7:40 PM screening at the Monica Film Center on Friday, March 3.
MARINA ZENOVICH (director, executive producer) is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker whose films have been praised for their powerful storytelling and thoughtful and sensitive approach to difficult subjects and controversial people.
Zenovich is best known for her compelling portraits of Roman Polanski and Richard Pryor and her sensitive retelling of the notorious Duke lacrosse case. Her films reframe familiar, high-voltage stories in new ways and always spark intense conversation and debate.
Zenovich’s breakthrough film, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim and considerable media attention, and won the award for Best Editing. It then screened at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Screening. Soon afterward, Roman Polanski’s lawyers used the film as evidence to reopen his 30-year-old case.
“Wanted and Desired” was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the Best Documentaries of 2008. The film also won Emmys for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming (shared with Joe Bini and P.G. Morgan). Zenovich’s follow-up film, “Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out,” premiered at the 2012 Toronto and New York Film Festivals.
In 2013 Zenovich turned her attention to Richard Pryor, another electrifying and provocative figure. “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic” premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and then debuted on Showtime. The film was the highest-rated documentary on Showtime in the past 10 years and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Editing.
Zenovich’s latest film, “Fantastic Lies” — about the Duke lacrosse scandal — screened at SXSW in 2016 and then premiered on ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary series to great acclaim. The film generated an enormous amount of social media coverage and was subsequently repeated on ABC. “Fantastic Lies” has been seen by an estimated five million people and is often rated as one of the top five episodes of “30 for 30.”
Zenovich’s directing credits also include a range of imaginative and innovative shorter films. They include “Who Is Bernard Tapie?” about the French former politician and convicted criminal turned actor, and her fascination with him; “Independent’s Day” about the struggles of independent filmmakers set in Park City, Utah; and “Estonia Dreams of Eurovision!” about the wacky world of Tallinn, Estonia, as it prepares to host the Eurovision Song Contest. She has also made short films about Julian Schnabel, Takashi Murakami, Vanessa Beecroft and Robert Wilson, among others.
PUNCHING HENRY star Henry Phillips and filmmaker Gregori Viens will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:40 shows and introduce the 10:15 shows at the Monica Film Center on Friday and Saturday, February 24 and 25. Actor-comedian Tig Notaro, cinematographer Bryce Fortner, and moderator Lesley O’Toole will join them for the Friday, 7:40 show Q&A.
KIKI Q&A schedule:
Friday, Feb 24th: 7:10pm Showtime Q&A participants: Sara, Chichi, Chris, Twiggy and Zariah; moderator TBC Trace Lysette; + 9:55pm intro by Sara, Chichi, Chris, Twiggy and Zariah;
Saturday, Feb 25th: 7:10pm Showtime Q&A participants: Sara, Chichi, Chris, Twiggy and Zariah; moderator Wilson Cruz; + 9:55pm intro by Sara, Chichi, Chris, Twiggy and Zariah.
Join us at the M
onica Film Center on Sunday, March 5, 2017 for Laemmle Live’s third concert featuring Lincoln Middle School Madrigal Singers. The program will include a variety of classical and popular music, folk songs and audience participation, too! Under the direction of Vanessa Counte, Choral Director, the Madrigal Singers are an audition-based a cappella ensemble that perform as part of Santa Monica’s Lincoln Middle School choral program. They meet once a week to rehearse and focus on Renaissance through contemporary a cappella choral literature. Recipients of top ratings in Southern California Festivals, they have been guest performers at local elementary schools, cub scout holiday meetings and the Aga Khan Foundation Walk.
Vanessa Counte has been the Choir Director at Lincoln Middle School since 2005. Mrs. Counte earned her BA in Music Education at Western Michigan University. An active member of the American Choral Directors Association and the Southern California Vocal Association, she is currently finishing her Master of Music in Choral Conducting through CAL State LA’s three summer program.
RSVP using Eventbrite
This is a Free Event!
EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, March 5, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center
AMERICAN FABLE filmmaker Anne Hamilton and select cast members will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening at the Monica Film Center on Friday, February 17.
BORNLESS ONES producer-actor Devin Goodsell and actor Mark Furze will introduce and participate in a brief Q&A after the 7:30 PM screening at the Monica Film Center on Saturday, February 11th.