Bob Mitchell (1912-2009) from Cinefamily: I have sad news. Our organist, Bob Mitchell, has passed on at the age of 96. I did not know Mr. Mitchell well, but I did have the pleasure of seeing him play many times over the past year and a half. Mr. Mitchell, who started playing at the Pasadena...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 semi-finalists in the live action short film category of the 2010 Academy Awards. Seventy-one pictures had originally qualified. The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order: The Door, Juanita Wilson, director, and James Flynn, producer (Octagon Films Ltd.) The Ground Beneath, Rene Hernandez, director, and Kristina Ceyton, producer (Passion Pictures) Hotel, Tim Conrad, director-producer (Oyster Films) Instead of Abracadabra, Patrik Eklund, director, and Mathias Fjellstrom, producer (Direktorn & Fabrikorn) Kavi, Gregg Helvey, director-producer (Gregg Helvey) Miracle Fish, Luke Doolan, director, and Drew Bailey...

Ben Chasny, Chris Corsano, and Richard Bishop live at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle (photo by Joe Mabel)

Ronald Colman in The Prisoner of Zenda: Never a dull moment, whether fighting Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or romancing Madeleine Carroll Celebrating Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s 100th birthday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) on Wednesday, December 9, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Oscar-winning visual-effects supervisor Craig Barron and Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt will examine the photographic and sound effects used in this Ruritanian classic directed by John Cromwell, and also starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, and Mary Astor. As a plus, the evening will feature rare behind-the-scenes color footage...

“one for jack” jack rose was one of those guys with whom one feels an immediate bond he wasn’t a physical giant or anything but he had an immense presence something, perhaps, more spectral than tangible which filled a room easily enveloping you in a kind of bear hug that could seem either threatening or comforting depending on the look in jack’s eyes and on [...]

The Most Beautiful (1944). For Donald Richie DB here: Cinephile communities aren’t free of peer pressure. Sometimes you must choose or be thought a waffler. In postwar France, the debate within the Cahiers du cinéma camp often came down to big dualities. Ford or Wyler? German Lang or American Lang?...

Ulrich Tukur in John Rabe (top); City of Life and Death (middle); Lebanon (bottom) A record 69 foreign language films are in the running for the 2010 Golden Globes, Philip Berk, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has announced. Among the films in the longlist are Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces, starring Penelope Cruz; Costa-Gavras socially conscious drama Eden Is West; Xavier Dolan’s I Killed My Mother, one of the Toronto Film Festival’s best Canadian films of the year; and Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere, about Mussolini’s first wife (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and child (Filippo Timi). Some of the titles, e.g., A Prophet, The White Ribbon, are also in the running for the best...

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (top); Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart in The Twilight Saga: New Moon (bottom) With $20 million, Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side did indeed lead the pack at the domestic box office last weekend, earning nearly $5 million — or about 30% — more than The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Robert Pattinson’s vampire, Kristen Stewart’s teen, and Taylor Lautner’s werewolf had to settle for the second spot after three weeks at the top. Among other box-office news were the results for five new movies: Brothers, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Natalie Portman in a love triangle that is an indirect result of the war in Afghanistan (Now, get real. Don’t expect any...

Floating World Comics is proud to offer original artwork by Al Columbia.��� Every week or so we plan on making a new piece available for sale.��� We’re down to the last dozen copies of the limited edition ‘TOYLAND’ giclee print.��� Be sure to order one before they’re all gone!��� Also we want to remind you [...]