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Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burrough’s second novel, Queer, begins, shall we say, peculiarly. Sinéad O’Connor’s haunting cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies” scores overhead shots of what we soon realize is Burroughs’s own writing space, every object alluding with cringey literalness to the Beat Generation author’s thorny mythos.

“Everyone is gay,” per “All Apologies,” and it quickly becomes clear that Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes are content to stay on the surface of that knotty lyric and plenty more besides. They would seem to think that plumbing depths is for snootily cultured queens. Queer prefers to oafishly stick, and not always unentertainingly so, to mincing façades, beginning with Daniel Craig’s performance as Burroughs avatar William Lee.

His bruiser face tarted up with dorky specs and his growly voice tending ever so slightly toward a lisp, Craig sashays his way around a fever-dream...

Luca Guadagnino wanted an "iconic" actor in the lead role for 'Queer'.The 53-year-old filmmaker has helmed the historical romantic drama and revealed how he and his agent Bryan Lourd came up with the idea of Daniel Craig starring in the adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1985 novel.Luca told Variety at the Venice Film Festival: "We were chatting about who could be the incarnation (of Burroughs) and I said, 'I don't know. I think it should be someone iconic.' And he said, 'What about Daniel Craig?'"I said, 'Well, I thought about him, but I don't know. I would never dare to ask. He goes like, 'Why? He would love that.'"He gave the script to Daniel, and Daniel and I were on the phone a week later. Then, a week passed, and he was in the movie."The former James Bond star has been tipped for...

Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novella “Queer,” which premieres Tuesday in competition at the Venice Film Festival, is his most personal film yet — and one that he’s been dreaming of making for many years.

The stars aligned when producer Lorenzo Mieli and Fremantle’s head of literary acquisitions Raffaella de Angelis were able to get the book rights and Guadagnino rapidly paired up again with “Challengers” writer Justin Kuritzkes. Then, CAA chief exec Bryan Lourd brought Daniel Craig on board to play the renowned counterculture author’s alter ego, Lee, an outcast American expat who lives in Mexico, and “Outer Banks” star Drew Starkey was cast as a younger man with whom he becomes madly infatuated.

From the director of “Call Me by Your Name,” the film features intimate love scenes between the two men that will certainly make it one of the buzziest indie movies of the year.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s turn in Bullet Train has led to theories he’s going to play Bond next. But do actors who play Bond-like characters go on to actually play 007? We take a look.

At the time of writing, at least, there’s much speculation about Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his connection to the James Bond franchise. In March, a British newspaper with a big red masthead spread the rumour that the actor is secretly being lined up to play 007, taking over from Daniel Craig.

It’s a rumour so persistent that Taylor-Johnson has started to get a bit cross when ‘The Bond Question’ is brought up in interviews. When asked by an Associated Press reporter about the whole matter, Taylor-Johnson looked down at his feet, as though trying to repress some terrifying wellspring of anger, before abruptly marching off with a chirpy, “Alright, have a good one!”

Adding fuel to...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we talk about one of the best actresses working today: Tilda Swinton!

Our guest is the great Dan Walber, public historian and recovering (!) film critic. Walber is also part of the @closefriendscollective, which you can find on Instagram.

Our B-Sides today are: Edward II, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, Possible Worlds, The Deep End, and Teknolust.

Walber speaks to her immediate exceptionalism in Derek Jarman’s ‘80s films, we marvel at her endless range (from Constantine to Snowpiercer and so on and so forth), and I gush about the work of Francis Bacon and the depths of his controversial career after falling in love with Love is the Devil. We...

“Minyan,” an acclaimed tale of sexual and spiritual identity directed by Eric Steel, has sold to Strand Releasing in North America.

The film, starring stage breakout Samuel H. Levine of Broadway and the West End’s “The Inheritance,” played in the official selection at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival and went on to win Outfest’s grand jury prize for U.S. narrative feature.

In Judaism, a minyan refers to the minimum amount of celebrants required for certain religious traditions. Set in 1980s Brighton Beach, the film follows a young Russian Jewish immigrant who is caught up in the tight constraints of his community. He develops a close friendship with his grandfather’s new neighbors — two elderly closeted gay men who open his imagination to the possibilities of love and the realities of loss. In the East Village, he finds a world teeming with the energy of youth,...

Part of our on-going series, Notebook Soundtrack Mixes.Ryuichi Sakamoto can be found at home in a vast array of places. There is always a grounding within his music wherever you are in the world or, in his movie soundtracks, with whatever character you are following on screen. Subtle hints of Sakamoto’s signature sound always bubble to the surface. The notion of Eastern and Western sound distinctions do not matter to Sakamoto; instead, the play and fusion between these differing worlds and sounds has always been of more interest, to Sakamoto it’s all about the emotion produced—a universality that eventually moves the sound beyond place. The musician and composer needs no introduction. He is the master of so many musical universes: The Sakamoto whose work with Ymo and solo experimental productions shaped the future sounds of what would become electro and hip hop, an early pioneer of electronic music.

Granted, The Berlinale and Efm seem like a thousand years ago, but look, what have we got to look forward to? Not much right now, as everything is being cancelled, so let’s talk about the past Berlinale.

I was just going through my Berlin trades and just discovered that Ben Gibson, all of our favorite leftist renegade, crazy but good educator, producer of I don’t know how many films.”

That the trade press could write such reports about a friend to hang out with at parties at least, without first fact checking and interviewing their longtime colleague/ friend Ben or an actual witness is reprehensible because with a care–less stroke of their pen, they seem to have blocked any academic institution from ever interviewing Ben again. At first Google, the Screen article will appear. The article was next picked up by Variety who later corrected the reported...

The Museum of Modern Art tribute to the career of Daniel Craig has been cut short by the coronavirus pandemic Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Museum of Modern Art announced that it will be closed at least until March 30, cancelling their tribute to Daniel Craig which would have started today, March 14.

They Will Take My Island, Atom Egoyan’s collaboration with composer Mary Kouyoumdjian and projection artist Laurie Olinder on Arshile Gorky, which was scheduled for March 27 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been cancelled because the museum, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, is undergoing a thorough cleaning.

IFC Center announced it was closing today through March 31, where Kleber Mendonça Filho...

The British director of the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), one of Germany’s most prestigious film schools, has stepped down following an incident during the Berlin Film Festival in which he exposed his backside to a woman during a heated argument. The DFFB’s board of trustees and Ben Gibson, a veteran film producer, agreed to end their relationship by mutual consent “for various reasons,” the DFFB said in a statement. Sandra Braun, the DFFB’s administrative manager, will head the academy until further notice. Gibson, whose credits include the 1998 Daniel Craig starrer “Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon,” by John Maybury, and Lech Majewski’s 2004 “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” reportedly dropped his pants in anger during an argument with a woman at the DFFB facilities, located in the Sony Center at Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, on Feb. 21. In an email to DFFB students cited by Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Gibson wrote that he had allowed himself to be provoked and then “exposed” himself. He described his behavior as a “serious mistake” and apologized for the incident, the paper reported, citing his email. Before taking on the DFFB gig in 2016, Gibson worked at the Australian National Film School from 2014 to 2016 and served as director of the London Film School from 2001 to 2014. He also produced such works as Terrence Davies’ 1992 gay classic “The Long Day Closes,” Derek Jarman’s 1993’s “Wittgenstein,” Carine Adler’s 1997 “Under the Skin” and Jasmin Dizdar’s 1999 “Beautiful People.” The DFFB’s board of trustees, whose members include Chairman Christian Gaebler, head of Berlin’s Senate Chancellery, Vice Chairman Eberhard Junkersdorf of Bioskop Film and Kirsten Niehuus, head of regional funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is to meet soon to consider its next course of action. The board’s members also include Claudia Tronnier of ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel film division, producer Regina Ziegler of Ziegler Film, Detailfilm’s Fabian Gasmia, regional pubcaster RBB’s Martina Zöllner and Iris Brockmann of the Berlin Senate Department of Finance.

Before Daniel Craig hangs up his license to kill, the Museum of Modern Art will offer up a film series tribute to the actor’s big screen career. The program, which will run from March 3 to 22, comes on the eve of Craig’s final appearance as James Bond in “No Time to Die.”

“I couldn’t ever imagine being put in a museum, but what an honor and a thrill to be shown at MoMA,” noted Craig.

The film series will trace Craig’s evolution from European arthouse regular to A-list superstar. It will include notable early turns by Craig in the likes of John Maybury’s “Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon” (1998), Roger Mitchell’s “The Mother” (2003) and “Enduring Love” (2004), and Matthew Vaughn’s “Layer Cake,” the stylish crime thriller that helped the actor land the 007 franchise.

Craig will be in attendance for the...

Times are tough for UK producers, some of whom are working for virtually nothing.

Who would be an independent UK film producer? One statistic that leapt out of ‘The State Of The UK Independent Film Sector’ study recently completed for UK producers’ association Pact by Olsberg Spi was that 78% of the UK producers contacted for the report have had to defer some or all of their fees since 2007. Given they were unlikely to have had much of a share of the ‘backend’ from the profits of their films, this means that, in certain circumstances, they are working for virtually nothing.

Almost equally gloomy was the report’s observation that the international market value for independent UK films has suffered a decline of an estimated 50% since 2007. The report puts this down to digital disruption, increased competition for audiences and the squeeze caused by the global financial crisis of 2007. It concludes the present financial model is “broken”.

Off the back...

The distributor has picked up all North American rights and select international rights in territories where it has output deals to the upcoming Good Films thriller, it emerged on Monday.

Miramax will partner and co-finance with Open Road for Us distribution, while Good Universe, which introduced the project in Toronto, handles remaining international sales. Screendaily broke the news of the project two weeks ago.

Brad Furman will direct Labyrinth, which will star Depp as disgraced L.A.P.D. detective Russell Poole, the late, real-life investigator who teams up with a reporter and takes on corruption to solve the mystery of the murders of hip-hop legends Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.

Production is scheduled to start in mid-November.

Miriam Segal and her Good Films are producing and the company’s credits include The Infiltrator, Good, and Love Is The Devil.

Furman will direct from a Black List screenplay by Christian Contreras that was adapted from Randall Sullivan...

For this weeks Q&A I asked for an art theme to celebrate the joint birthday of Vincent Van Gogh and Francisco de Goya on this very day! So we'll start with a few art-focused topics before venturing to rando questions.

Tom: Which film about an artist (in any field of the Arts) that you were not particularly knowledgeable about made you want to see/hear the real work by that artist? 

I vastly prefer non-traditional biopics so I'm susceptible to stuff that piques curiosity rather than gives you a greatest hits. So I like bios like Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993). I have some problems with I'm Not There (2007) which is my least favorite Todd Haynes film but I respect the hell out of it conceptually. In terms of movies about painters I definitely became more interested in Francis Bacon after Love is the Devil (1998) and not...

Project is based on the memoir of author Helga Schneider.

Drama Let Me Go, starring Juliet Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham), has begun principal photography in Surrey, England.

Filming will continue for three weeks before moving to London and Vienna. The production will last five weeks.

Based on the memoir of Helga Schneider, the story follows the emotional journeys of four generations of women from the same family and how they suffer from a trauma created during the Second World War.

The script was written by Polly Steele (Lena: The Bride of Ice), who will also direct, and will star Stevenson as Schneider alongside Jodhi May (The Last of the Mohicans) and Lucy Boynton (Sing Street, Life in Squares).

New cast members announced include Éva Magyar (X-Men: First Class), Abhin Galeya (Exodus: Gods And Kings), Stanley Weber (The First Day of the Rest of Your Life), Simona Hughes (Woman In Gold) and Elizabeth Webster (Cockneys vs Zombies).

David Broder...

BFI colleagues have paid tribute to Chris Collins, the BFI Film Fund Senior Development and Production Executive who lost his battle to cancer on Saturday, Nov 1.

In a letter to industry colleagues today, BFI Film Fund head Ben Roberts wrote: “We are all going to miss his loyalty, honesty and integrity, his warm dry wit, and his complete devotion to independent film and the film industry he loved.

“He was a champion for new filmmakers and a brilliant creative mind. I think we will all feel his loss quite profoundly.

“All our hearts and thoughts are with Chris’s wife Emma, his daughters Matilda and Jessie, and all his family.”

At the BFI Film Fund Collins had strategic responsibility for shorts and low budget film, taking a leading role in the creation of the BFI Net.Work, as well as projects which pushed the envelope of traditional filmmaking, including Amma Asante’s Belle and Jonathan Glazer’s [link...

Ben Gibson, the departing Director of the London Film School, has been appointed to a new senior role at Aftrs, the Australian Film Television & Radio School, as Director, Degree Programs. He will start work in Sydney in September.

Gibson will play a key leadership role in ensuring the successful delivery and development of a new three-year Aftrs Bachelor of Arts (Screen) degree and Aftrs Screen and Screen Business Masters degrees, which are being restructured and relaunched for 2015.

“Ben is eminently qualified for this pivotal new role at Aftrs, and I’m thrilled that he could be persuaded to bring his considerable skills, experience and academic rigor to Australia. His 14 years as Director of the very successful London Film School are notable for his work in building up the school’s reputation in the UK and abroad and expanding and accrediting its prestigious postgraduate degrees. Ben has also been a very successful and original independent producer and production executive, and has previously worked in distribution and exhibition, so he comes with a deep knowledge of the international screen industry at all levels,” said Sandra Levy, CEO of the Aftrs.

Prior to joining the London Film School in 2001, Gibson worked as a film distributor and independent producer, and as Head of Production at the British Film Institute from 1988 to 1998. His production and executive production credits include Terence Davies' " The Long Day Closes," Derek Jarman's "Wittgenstein," John Maybury's "Love is the Devil," Carine Adler's "Under the Skin"and Jasmin Dizdar's "Beautiful People," as well as 20 other low budget features and many shorts by UK directors including Patrick Keiller, Gurinder Chadha, Lynne Ramsay, Richard Kwietniowski and Andrew Kotting. As a partner in distributors The Other Cinema/Metro Pictures he acquired and promoted films by Pedro Almodovar, Chris Marker, Chantal Akerman and Jean-Luc Godard as well as opening the West End’s Metro Cinema in 1986. He has also been a theater director, a repertory film programmer and a film critic and journalist. He leaves Lfs at the end of July.

Ben Gibson said: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to Sandra Levy’s vision of Aftrs as a complete screen school -- and to get the chance to work in the Australian film industry, one I’ve hugely admired and followed -- so far from a great distance. Aftrs offers a special combination of good things: self-confidence, an extraordinary heritage, great creative ambition, exceptional resources, a wide educational scope and a central mission in a dynamic and productive screen industry. It’s rightly considered to be one of the great film schools of the world. I can’t wait to join the team and get started there.”

Gibson’s final year at Lfs has been attended by great creative success. The school won 35 festival prizes and mentions in 2013-14, including a BAFTA nomination. Ms Levy pointed out that this year’s Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival was won by Leidi, the Lfs graduation film of Simón Mesa Soto. Also at Cannes, amongst seven graduates featured in the 2014 selection, "The Salt of the Earth," co-directed by Lfs graduate Juliano Ribeiro Salgado with Wim Wenders, was awarded the Un Certain Regard’s Special Jury Prize.

Director Mike Leigh, Chair of Governors at the London Film School, in announcing Ben’s departure earlier this year, said: “Ben Gibson has led Lfs from strength to strength over his fourteen years of outstanding service, and we will be sad to see him go.”

Aftrs is Australia’s national screen arts and broadcasting school and has been named as one of the Top 20 film schools in the world by industry journal, The Hollywood Reporter. As an elite specialist institution, Aftrs provides excellence in education through its practice based model, and aspires to deliver a dynamic educational offering that prepares the most talented and creative students – novice, experienced, fully fledged professional specialists – to be platform agnostic, creative and resilient in an industry subject to constant changes in knowledge and technology. The new BA Screen is a 3-year program offering a strong base in the understanding of story and screen history alongside a comprehensive introduction to the skills of screen production.

Outgoing director of the London Film School to join Australian Film School.

Ben Gibson, the departing director of the London Film School, has been appointed to a new senior role at Aftrs, the Australian Film Television & Radio School, as director, degree programs. He will start work in Sydney in September.

Gibson will play a key leadership role in ensuring the successful delivery and development of a new three-year Aftrs Bachelor of Arts (Screen) degree and Aftrs Screen and Screen Business Masters degrees, which are being restructured and relaunched for 2015.

Prior to joining the Lfs in 2001, Gibson worked as a film distributor and independent producer, and as head of production at the British Film Institute (BFI) from 1988 to 1998.

His production and executive production credits include Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes, Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein, John Maybury’s Love is the Devil, Carine Adler’s Under the Skin and Jasmin Dizdar’s Beautiful People, as well as...

Did you know that only one other Oscar ceremony has ever been held on a March 2nd? That'd be March 2nd, 1944 which crowned Casablanca 1943's best picture. Let's hope Oscar chooses as well tonight.

May your favorites lose tonight ... if they're different than mine! Kisses.

Though Casablanca is one of those rare pictures that virtually everyone loves, it actually only won three of its eight Oscar nominations that night: Picture, Director (Michael Curtiz), and Screenplay. Only Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) won fewer Oscars among the Best Pictures of the 1940s with just two statues. So I don't wanna see any online snarking if 12 Years a Slave goes home with only a 2 or 3 statues including the big one. Spreading the wealth is not a new thing and i'd argue it's a healthier thing for the movies, too.

Jennifer Jones with Ingrid Bergman who she beat to Best Actress 1943Happy Birthday March 2nd Oscar Babies!

Exclusive: Mike Leigh praises London Film School director Ben Gibson for “outstanding” service.

London Film School director Ben Gibson has stepped down from the post he held for 14 years.

The Lfs board is now looking to appoint a new director who will likely assume the role from next autumn.

Gibson will remain active at the school until the transition to the new director.

Gibson has been instrumental in raising the profile of the Lfs in the UK and abroad and has also overseen the school’s long-gestating transition from Covent Garden to the Barbican.

In December 2013, the school announced its first major funding towards the transfer, with a move planned for 2016, the same year the school celebrates its 60th birthday.

Gibson told ScreenDaily: “It has been an engrossing pleasure to lead this dynamic and important institution since 2000. Lfs is a wonderful place to work and learn, and the privilege of teaching and supporting talented, collaborative and clear-eyed...

Suggest a perfect pair of films for our season of cult classics

For the next few weeks, we'll be giving you the chance to watch a number of British cult classics on guardian.co.uk.

We kick off the series today with a double bill of Love Is the Devil, John Maybury's 1988 study of Francis Bacon, and Derek Jarman's 1986 film Caravaggio (both films can be watched here), while on the Guardian film blog Andrew Pulver looks at both productions and explains how they complement each other.

We'll be unveiling another two films next Friday – but before then, we'd like to hear from you. Which cult British films would make a perfect double bill? Let us know your suggestions below – we may feature the best over the next few weeks.

Adam Boult

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of...

Our season of British cult classics gets off to an arty start with a duo of films about Francis Bacon and Caravaggio

Love Is the Devil, the 1998 film directed by John Maybury, is many things: the first serious cinematic study of the life and art of painter Francis Bacon, a tour de force performance by Derek Jacobi, an unholy convocation of YBAs (including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst) filling in as background extras; and perhaps, most remarkably in hindsight, an early sighting of 007 himself, Daniel Craig. Craig is rather brilliant in Love Is the Devil, playing the troubled George Dyer, Bacon's petty-criminal lover, who met the artist after crashing through his roof while attempting a break-in, and who killed himself in 1971. You can't say Craig doesn't go all the way for his art: the film includes a jaw-dropping scene of him in the bath, entirely in the altogether.

On its release in 1998, the Guardian hailed John Maybury's biopic of Francis Bacon as a 'brilliantly sustained imagining'. Read Richard Williams' full review below

I came out of John Maybury's Love Is the Devil, which is rather coyly subtitled "Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon", feeling I'd never seen a film that makes such direct and illuminating connection with the eye of an artist. On the other hand, I didn't know Francis Bacon, so I can't tell whether the story Maybury tells us is true, in the literal sense. That bothers me. But if you want a brilliantly sustained imagining of how, according to some of the best available evidence, Bacon saw his world, and how he rendered that vision on to canvas, then Love Is the Devil is a very remarkable film indeed.

Their first encounter is handled with deft humour. When Dyer falls through the skylight,...

The Guardian's art critic Adrian Searle gave his opinion of the film shortly after its release: he was impressed by the accuracy of Jacobi's performance, if not by the insertion of YBAs into the pub scenes …

The painter Francis Bacon, who turned down both the Order of Merit and the Companion of Honour, is crouched over the bed in nothing but his underpants. He waits. His lover, a Kray gang hanger-on called George Dyer, stands over him, a cigarette in his mouth, a belt twisted in his fist.

This is a scene from John Maybury's Love Is the Devil, subtitled "Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon" starring Derek Jacobi as the painter, and Daniel Craig as Dyer, Bacon's lover, tormentor, victim and model. In the film, Dyer, a hapless East End burglar, introduces himself by crashing through the skylight of Bacon's tiny South Kensington studio, while attempting a burglary.

Backed by funding of nearly £100m, producers promise quality dramas and no tax benefit abuses

An independent British film company has won funding for six productions with a combined budget of $155m (£96m), the Observer can reveal.

The company's financial model is unusual in that investors are offered all six movies, spreading the risk significantly beyond the usual single film, and with a "transparency" that seeks to reassure investors stung by notorious abuses of tax schemes involving film investment.

The producer, Miriam Segal, has a track record that includes the award-winning Love is the Devil, with Derek Jacobi as artist Francis Bacon, and Good, Cp Taylor's Nazi drama with Oscar-nominated Viggo Mortensen.

One of the films, a £21m production entitled The Infiltrator, features a story of greed and deception surrounding the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International amid fraud allegations. "It's 23 years old now, but has great contemporary resonance,...

One of the most exciting talents to emerge out of the U.K. in the last decade or so is Andrea Arnold. The former television presenter won an Oscar for her short film "Wasp" in 2005, and made her feature debut the following year with the powerful, gritty thriller "Red Road." 2009 saw her follow it up with "Fish Tank," another kitchen-sink type film showcasing some incredible performances, gathering even more acclaim, and allowing the director to make inroads internationally. Her choice of a third film raised some eyebrows, however: Arnold was selected to helm a long-in-the-works film version of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights." The film had been in development for years: Natalie Portman was originally attached to a version helmed by John Maybury ("Love is the Devil") before Abbie Cornish stepped in, with Michael Fassbender set to play the key role of Heathcliff, while another about face in 2009 saw Peter Webber.

Rupert Everett returns to dish the dirt in his second fearless and witty account of life with the A-list crowd

As sexist old Samuel Johnson said of a woman preaching, when an actor writes a book "it is not well done, but you are surprised to find it done at all". These are adults who spend their whole lives raiding dressing up boxes and speaking the words of others for a living, after all. Rupert Everett, like Richard E Grant and Kathy Burke, is the exception that proves the rule; he really can write, as his 2006 bestseller Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins – which took a bejewelled hatpin to the blow-up egos of co-stars Madonna and Sharon Stone, among others – proved. But despite reviews that, above the sound of easily impressed critics noisily wetting themselves, could be heard comparing him to Evelyn Waugh, Noël Coward and Lord Byron, the question...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brings you the Oscars (yep, that's why they're called Academy Awards), and on Friday, the organization announced that it was prepared to invite 176 new folks to its fold.

In a list posted on its website, the Academy deemed Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Terrence Malick, Jonah Hill, Berenice Bejo, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and a host of other film luminaries worthy of inclusion in its nearly 6,000-member army.

The Academy has drawn the ire of critics who bemoan its overwhelmingly male, white population. A Los Angeles Times investigation found that of all Academy members, 94 percent are Caucasian and 77 percent are male. A mere 2 percent are black, with Latinos constituting an even smaller portion. Only 14 percent of members are under the age of 50.

Full members of the Academy select and vote on Oscars nominees. The organization was started in 1927 and is now governed by a 43-person board.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended their 2012 membership invitations today to 176 lucky actors, directors, cinematographers, and other members of the filmmaking industry.

Terrence Malick, who somehow wasn’t already a member, received an invitation, as did fellow directors Rodrigo Garcia and Asghar Farhadi.

For actors, Melissa McCarthy’s invitation continues her incredible post-Bridesmaids rise. In addition, actors Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Andy Serkis, Jessica Chastain, and Octavia Spencer were all invited to be members, among others.

Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003, according to the Academy’s website.

HollywoodNews.com: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 176 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2012 to the Academy’s roster of members.

“These film professionals represent some of the most talented, most passionate contributors to our industry,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. “I’m glad to recognize that by calling each of them a fellow Academy member.”

Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003.

The 2012 invitees are:

Actors

Simon Baker – “Margin Call,” “L.A. Confidential”

Sean Bean – “Flightplan,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”

Bérénice Bejo – “The Artist,” “Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies”

Tom Berenger – “Inception,” “Platoon”

Demián Bichir – “A Better Life,” “Che”

Jessica Chastain – “The Help,” “The Tree of Life”

Clifton Collins,...

Daniel Craig is currently between Bonds, and heading up a Stieg Larsson adaptation. But, he tells Ryan Gilbey, he's itching to get back on her majesty's secret service

The surprise upon meeting Daniel Craig is his gentleness. It isn't that you expect him to be scarred and basted and bleeding, as he is throughout much of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the two films in which he has played James Bond. (He is currently shooting a third, Skyfall, which will open next October, and is rumoured to have signed up for a further five.) But he goes beyond politeness: he's relaxed, even goofy, and quick to laugh, especially at himself. The blue eyes, which can seem glacial in his closeups as Bond, are warm and zesty. His features are as deeply etched as the grooves of a wood carving; the hair is sandy-coloured and fluffy. What else? There's the...

"Full credit to director Andrea Arnold for taking such a bold and distinctive approach to Emily Brontë's account of sweeping passion on the Yorkshire moors," writes the Guardian's Xan Brooks. "Her line in creative vandalism rips off the layers of fluffy chiffon that have adhered to the tale through the course of numerous stage and screen adaptations. It pushes the story all the way back to its original 1847 incarnation and then beyond, up-river, into primordial sludge. What comes back is a beautiful rough beast of a movie, a costume drama like no other. This might not be warm, or even approachable, but it is never less than bullishly impressive."

"You call tell almost immediately that this Wuthering Heights is a film by Andrea Arnold, the writer-director of Red Road and Fish Tank," writes Time Out London's Dave Calhoun. "This might be the British filmmaker's first literary adaptation, but all her trademarks are there,...

Derek Jarman's former muse is the hottest property at Cannes with her tour de force performance in the film of Lionel Shriver's bestseller

The word last week in Cannes was that Tilda Swinton is perfectly cast in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay's film of Lionel Shriver's novel that is one of the favourites to win the Palme d'Or. The news comes as no surprise because Swinton is one of those rare actresses who never leaves an audience wondering what another actor might have been like in a part she has played. As soon as you see her, it's impossible to imagine anyone else taking her place.

This is due in part to the way she looks – like no one else. A whole thesaurus of adjectives – haunting, androgynous, ethereal – has failed to describe her singular appearance. Better to imagine the offspring that would result...

Art house patrons first saw Tilda Swinton in a series of controversial works from gay British auteur Derek Jarman's in the late 80s and early 90s (he died in 1994). A much larger international audience followed with Orlando (1993). In the past decade, key roles in mainstream Hollywood efforts won the great Swinton plentiful new devotees.

Do you remember the first time you saw her onscreen? My first time was Edward II in 1992 and though I was impressed, I had no idea what marvels awaited in Orlando the next year...

Tilda Swinton in Posters...

Caravaggio (86, debut) | The Last of England (88) | Edward II (91)

Orlando (92) | Female Perversions (96) | Conceiving Ada (97)

The Beach (00)| The Deep End (01) | Teknolust (02)

Young Adam (03) | The Chronicles of Narnia (05) | Stephanie Daley (06)

Michael Clayton (07) | Julia (08) | I Am Love (10)

That's not the complete filmography but the lead roles and a few key / essential supporting gigs. There are many more smaller roles. She's not...

Indie Movies Online is a brand new UK based movie-on-demand website that offers hundreds of great films to watch at high quality online, legally and for free. There is literally something for everyone, and many gems to be found.

All types of movie are represented including thrillers, sci-fi, comedies and slick Us horrors and more. New and classic films are added all the time. Expect to find titles like: Allegro, Baise Moi, The Boss of it All, Brothers, Chopper, Choking Man, Dark Star, Evil Aliens, Funny Ha Ha, George Washington, HurlyBurly, King of New York, Kontakt, Love is the Devil, Millennium, Mirror Maze, Mutual Appreciation, My Left Foot, Old Joy, The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Reprise.

There are also stacks of quality documentaries including: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese, Crass: there’s no Authority but Yourself, Sympathy for the Devil, Word Wars, The Cutting Edge, Room 2017 and many more.

What I love about this new poster for Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) is not just its gorgeous typography, but also how it celebrates its lead actress, the incomparable Tilda Swinton. In the film, which premiered at Venice and Sundance and opens in the U.S. in June, Swinton plays a Russian woman married into a rich Milanese family who embarks upon a tempestuous affair with her son’s business partner. In the UK quad poster Swinton’s co-stars (including Barry Lyndon’s Marisa Berenson) have been turned into grey statues, like characters in a Roy Andersson film, while Swinton is suitably vivid in pink.

Ever since she pirouetted to the wails of Diamanda Galas, tearing furiously at her wedding dress and running with scissors, in Derek Jarman’s masterpiece The Last of England (1988), Swinton has been a constantly arresting presence in film. Furiously intelligent and a restlessly curious human being,...

Screened

Telluride Film Festival

A small but big-talent cast gets an intellectual workout in Enduring Love, director Roger Michell's wrenching tableau of an unraveling relationship. Daniel Craig, in his meatiest film role to date, delivers his usual incisive performance, even if this intimate drama of contemporary Londoners pushes the boundaries of credibility.

Novelist Ian McEwan's book, though opened out by screenwriter Joe Penhall, receives a faithful rendering. We are privy to a provocative examination of romance, obsession and the manner in which an unexpected event can subvert our lives. The Paramount Classics release should produce solid early-autumn boxoffice in adult specialty venues.

Craig, reteamed with his producer and director from The Mother, portrays Joe, a London professor contentedly involved with his live-in girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton), a successful sculptress. In the film's opening scene, they settle into an idyllic picnic in Oxfordshire. Then, literally out of the blue, a gigantic hot-air balloon comes bouncing into view. It is in distress, with a frightened boy in its basket. Craig and a handful of farmers and passers-by instinctively try to bring it safely to earth. One of the good Samaritans suffers a fatal accident, but it is another, a moon-faced Jed (Rhys Ifans), who sets the story in motion.

Jed, apparently dazed by the incident, begins to contact the professor at his apartment in the city. The bedgraggled soul seems at first to be a religious zealot, or perhaps a bit of a simpleton. One thing is certain: In his insistence on exploring an imagined bond between the two of them, he quickly becomes a nuisance.

The balance of the movie finds the academic at his wits' end, both in grappling with the residual effects of the bizarre rescue/tragedy as well as in discerning the motivations of this sycophant-cum-stalker. Intriguingly, Joe tries to connect strands of these two themes to uncover the truth and solve (for his own sanity) the mystery of that fateful afternoon. Not surprisingly, he is starting to alienate Claire and everyone in his life.

To its credit, the film is tight, focused and suspenseful in the depiction of the randomness of events, and how a serendipitous moral action can spiral out of control, upsetting not merely order and regimen but emotion and love. Michell and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos perfectly capture the gray yet trendy London settings with constantly fluid, roaming and offbeat angles that suit the story.

But it is hard to fathom Joe's internalizing of such a potentially explosive situation. Claire suggests that he seek psychological counseling, and virtually anyone would at least consider alerting the police. However, Joe can't help but see the balloon accident as a springboard for self-examination and discovery. Consequently, his skirmishes with Jed are almost operatic in their intensity.

Ifans, who broke out in Michell's Notting Hill, delivers a performance that teeters admirably between the pathetic and disturbed. Craig, who has been effective going back to Love Is the Devil, is well cast as the modern "hero," embodying the physical and cerebral, something of a cross between Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins. Morton is good in what is essentially a supporting role.

The couple's best friends (characters invented for the film) are depicted by the always reliable Bill Nighy and Susan Lynch. Helen McCrory impresses as a conflicted widow. Impatient viewers will miss the filmmakers' nicely executed (unspoken) coda after credit roll.

ENDURING LOVE

Paramount Classics

Pathe Pictures in association with the U.K. Film Council and Film Four and Inside Track present a Free Range Film

Credits:

Director: Roger Michell

Writer: Joe Penhall

Based on the novel by: Ian McEwan

Producer: Kevin Loader

Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tessa Ross

Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos

Production designer: John-Paul Kelly

Music: Jeremy Sams

Costume designer: Natalie Ward

Editor: Nicolas Gaster

Cast:

Joe: Daniel Craig

Jed: Rhys Ifans

Claire: Samantha Morton

Robin: Bill Nighy

Rachel: Susan Lynch

Mrs. Logan: Helen McCrory

TV Producer: Andrew Lincoln

Professor: Corin Redgrave

MPAA rating: R

Running time -- 98 minutes...

Mark Wahlberg and British director John Maybury are attached to star in and helm Mandalay Pictures/Section Eight's feature The Jacket. Producers are hoping for a fall start. Jacket is about a man (Wahlberg) falsely imprisoned for murder. While being tortured, he is able to foresee how and when he will be killed. By moving through altered states, he tries to figure out a way to prolong his life so he can solve his own murder. Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Peter Guber are producing. The trio will approach Warner Bros. Pictures first about coming on board. The project was set up at Paramount (without Section Eight), with Colin Farrell starring and Antoine Fuqua directing. Wahlberg and Maybury are both repped by Endeavor. Wahlberg, additionally repped by Leverage Management, next stars in Paramount Pictures' The Italian Job. Maybury is best known for writing and directing the award-winning 1998 British feature Love Is the Devil, starring Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig and Tilda Swinton.

Mark Wahlberg and British director John Maybury are attached to star in and helm Mandalay Pictures/Section Eight's feature The Jacket. Producers are hoping for a fall start. Jacket is about a man (Wahlberg) falsely imprisoned for murder. While being tortured, he is able to foresee how and when he will be killed. By moving through altered states, he tries to figure out a way to prolong his life so he can solve his own murder. Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Peter Guber are producing. The trio will approach Warner Bros. Pictures first about coming on board. The project was set up at Paramount (without Section Eight), with Colin Farrell starring and Antoine Fuqua directing. Wahlberg and Maybury are both repped by Endeavor. Wahlberg, additionally repped by Leverage Management, next stars in Paramount Pictures' The Italian Job. Maybury is best known for writing and directing the award-winning 1998 British feature Love Is the Devil, starring Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig and Tilda Swinton.