With a budget of $1.5 million, 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight” cost less than a 30-second ad during the Oscars (reported price: $2.2 million). And, among the category’s 89 winners, it stands as the lowest-budgeted film in the Academy Awards’ history.
To determine the 10 least expensive Best Picture winners, we looked back at each year, researched reported budgets, and then calculated them at 2017 dollar values. Although independent films have dominated the Oscars for the last decade, the only indie to make the cut from that period was “Crash.” Nor did Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” or some black-and-white studio classics like “Casablanca” or “The Lost Weekend.”
The 10 straddle almost every decade of the Oscars and come from either independent producers or smaller distributors (four of the 10 were released by United Artists).
For comparison, the most expensive film to win remains “Titanic;” its adjusted budget was $300 million more than “Moonlight.” That total dwarfs the...
To determine the 10 least expensive Best Picture winners, we looked back at each year, researched reported budgets, and then calculated them at 2017 dollar values. Although independent films have dominated the Oscars for the last decade, the only indie to make the cut from that period was “Crash.” Nor did Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” or some black-and-white studio classics like “Casablanca” or “The Lost Weekend.”
The 10 straddle almost every decade of the Oscars and come from either independent producers or smaller distributors (four of the 10 were released by United Artists).
For comparison, the most expensive film to win remains “Titanic;” its adjusted budget was $300 million more than “Moonlight.” That total dwarfs the...
- 3/1/2017
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
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The sensational, overlooked film scores from the years 1990 to 1999 that really are well worth digging out...
The movies went through tumultuous and exciting changes in the nineties. Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs, Generation X gave rise to slacker marvels like Clerks, and blockbusters like The Matrix put the awe back into special effects.
However, the 90s was also a sensational decade for film music, gifting us classics including the likes of Jurassic Park, Titanic, Total Recall, Braveheart and countless others. But the sheer quality of these soundtrack treasures shouldn’t overshadow those undervalued hidden gems that demonstrate the extraordinary range and versatility of our finest film composers, ones that may have passed you by. So here’s our selection of those incredible works: ranging from the earworming to the unsettling, the melodic to the chaotic, these are the scores that simply demand your attention.
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The sensational, overlooked film scores from the years 1990 to 1999 that really are well worth digging out...
The movies went through tumultuous and exciting changes in the nineties. Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs, Generation X gave rise to slacker marvels like Clerks, and blockbusters like The Matrix put the awe back into special effects.
However, the 90s was also a sensational decade for film music, gifting us classics including the likes of Jurassic Park, Titanic, Total Recall, Braveheart and countless others. But the sheer quality of these soundtrack treasures shouldn’t overshadow those undervalued hidden gems that demonstrate the extraordinary range and versatility of our finest film composers, ones that may have passed you by. So here’s our selection of those incredible works: ranging from the earworming to the unsettling, the melodic to the chaotic, these are the scores that simply demand your attention.
- 1/20/2016
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
South by Southwest, the multi-faceted film, music and technology festival held annually in Austin, TX will feature such upcoming films as Paul Feig’s Spy, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Ondi Timoner’s Russell Brand profile Brand: A Second Coming as headliners in this year’s film festival lineup.
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
- 2/3/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Alex Ross Perry's second feature, The Color Wheel (2011), is now playing on Mubi in the U.S. through March 23. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky wrote about it earlier on the Notebook.
Alex Ross Perry's first two features, Impolex (2009) and The Color Wheel (2011), climax with single-take rug-pulls—performance-intensive scenes which reveal the loneliness and longing that underpins Perry's freewheeling humor. The camera style developed by Perry and his regular director of photography, Sean Price Williams, is already actor-friendly, largely handheld, and composed mostly in eye-level, three-quarter profile close-ups. These climactic sequences, however, stretch this style to its limits—unfolding as a single close-up in Impolex, continually reframing from close-up to medium shot and back again in The Color Wheel—while also straining technical limitations. (Impolex and The Color Wheel were shot on 16mm, and both films' big long takes run almost as long as a standard 400' magazine.) What makes these sequences...
Alex Ross Perry's first two features, Impolex (2009) and The Color Wheel (2011), climax with single-take rug-pulls—performance-intensive scenes which reveal the loneliness and longing that underpins Perry's freewheeling humor. The camera style developed by Perry and his regular director of photography, Sean Price Williams, is already actor-friendly, largely handheld, and composed mostly in eye-level, three-quarter profile close-ups. These climactic sequences, however, stretch this style to its limits—unfolding as a single close-up in Impolex, continually reframing from close-up to medium shot and back again in The Color Wheel—while also straining technical limitations. (Impolex and The Color Wheel were shot on 16mm, and both films' big long takes run almost as long as a standard 400' magazine.) What makes these sequences...
- 3/14/2014
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- MUBI
Shia Labeouf ‘Nymphomaniac’ sex scene teaser, courtesy of Lars von Trier (photo: Shia Labeouf and Stacy Martin in ‘Nymphomaniac’) A PG-rated (okay, PG13-rated) still — or publicity shot — from Lars von Trier’s (reportedly) sexually explicit Nymphomaniac aka Nymph()maniac, starring Transformers‘ Shia Labeouf and newcomer Stacy Martin, was recently posted on the film’s website and elsewhere online. Note that any body parts that could even remotely be considered risqué were either left on the cropping-room floor (e.g., Shia Labeouf’s crotch — in fact, most of Labeouf’s body) or carefully concealed by clever lighting or equally clever hair placement. Now, don’t go blaming Lars von Trier for all this circumspection; Nymphomaniac‘s U.S. distributor Magnolia Pictures is likely the one that doesn’t want to offend the sensibilities of the Prudish & Proud crowd. Each month, Lars Von Trier will be releasing teasers from Nymphomaniac‘s various chapters.
- 7/27/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
I’ll just fess up: Despite the fact that it’s in its 41st year, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is something I’ve kind of never heard about until today. (Let’s blame it on a slip in my geography skills.) This ignorance on my part notwithstanding, taking a look at their initial lineup for this year — when the event runs from January 25th to February 5th — has left me mightily impressed.
The biggest world premieres come from two directors on opposite ends of at least a few spectrum: Takashi Miike and James Franco. (Discounting the fact that they’ve both depicted amputations onscreen, in one way or the other.) The former is debuting his adaptation of the popular Nintendo DS game, Ace Attorney, while the latter will be exhibiting Francophrenia (Or: Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is). A movie based on a kid’s...
The biggest world premieres come from two directors on opposite ends of at least a few spectrum: Takashi Miike and James Franco. (Discounting the fact that they’ve both depicted amputations onscreen, in one way or the other.) The former is debuting his adaptation of the popular Nintendo DS game, Ace Attorney, while the latter will be exhibiting Francophrenia (Or: Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is). A movie based on a kid’s...
- 1/6/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Chicago – One of the most reliable scenarios in the horror movie playbook is the satanic possession of a human character. “Antichrist” is about a woman who isn’t possessed, but is nevertheless absolutely convinced that she is an instrument of the devil. This is a much scarier premise, since the greatest horrors externalized in the film are spawned entirely from the woman’s unstable psyche, deranged by guilt.
It’s a sad day in film criticism when a daring and exhilarating work of art like Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” is widely labeled as a “joke” directed by a “fraud.” Say what you will about von Trier, but he is nothing if not sincere. Using this latest effort as a catalyst to free him from paralyzing depression, von Trier delved into his own lifelong struggles with anxiety, exorcising his psychological demons onscreen. While the film is certainly not devoid of von Trier’s irony-laced humor,...
It’s a sad day in film criticism when a daring and exhilarating work of art like Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” is widely labeled as a “joke” directed by a “fraud.” Say what you will about von Trier, but he is nothing if not sincere. Using this latest effort as a catalyst to free him from paralyzing depression, von Trier delved into his own lifelong struggles with anxiety, exorcising his psychological demons onscreen. While the film is certainly not devoid of von Trier’s irony-laced humor,...
- 11/10/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
This morning the Venice Film Festival announced the line-up for their 2010 Festival which will run from September 1-11, and a lot of hot titles and directors are set to be on hand including the already announced festival opener Black Swan from Darren Aronofsky and closer, The Tempest from Julie Taymor. In competition, Aronofsky's feature is joined by titles from Sofia Coppola, Vincent Gallo, Julian Schnabel, Francois Ozon, Abdellatif Kechiche, Takashi Miike and Tom Tykwer. Also, making a midnight Lido appearance will be Robert Rodriguez with his grindhouse thriller Machete. One other notable title is the inclusion of the Casey Affleck-directed Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary I'm Still Here, which will be screening out of competition.
Unfortunately I won't be able to cover this one, but one of these years I would like to find a way to pull a triple play and cover Cannes, Venice and Toronto in the same year...
Unfortunately I won't be able to cover this one, but one of these years I would like to find a way to pull a triple play and cover Cannes, Venice and Toronto in the same year...
- 7/29/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Now that all bets are off on Terrence Malick showing up on the Lido, and Wong Kar-wai's The Grand Master appears to be on the same no-show list (the fest have announced that Andrew Lau's The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen has their second opening night flick celebrating the anniversary of Bruce Lee’s 70th birthday). Among the other films with odds against, I'm not seeing the Coens (True Grit), Eastwood (Hereafter), Boyle (127 Hours) and Oscar contender The Fighter was according to it's star, no going to tour the fest circuit. Just announced today, Head Jury member Quentin Tarantino's buddy Robert Rodriguez's Machete will be the third opening film - it'll screen at midnight, and I think it'll be in good company genre-wise with some of the genre titles below. Here are some titles (ranging from almost guaranteed to only minimal chance...
- 7/29/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
While there are no mentions of Terrence Malick, Variety are confirming the obvious (view my predictions) in Aronofsky's Black Swan, Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff, Corbijn's The American, Schnabel's Miral, Coppola's Somewhere, Kechiche's Black Venus, Ozon's Potiche, Tykwer's Three and Cordier's Happy Few all making it to the Lido this year, but they've added a couple more brow lifters that I'll delve into below. Among the titles that are being mentioned for Venice, and which I thought were strictly Tiff items, they and several sources mention Ben Affleck's The Town will hit the Lido first, and they say the same as well for Tom Hooper's The King's Speech, and Iciar Bollain's Even the Rain - which I saw more as Tiff and San Sebastian double booking. And if Canadian film Richard J. Lewis' Barney's Version turns out to be gold, then people might question why it wasn't the opener in Toronto,...
- 7/21/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Check out two brand-new clips from “44 Inch Chest.”
Provocative, outrageously profane and surprisingly tender amidst an explosion of unbridled testosterone, “44 Inch Chest” explores the masculine ego at breaking point, testing whether fear is stronger than love. Colin (Ray Winstone) is in agony, shattered by his wife’s (Joanne Whalley) infidelity. However, he has friends who do more than stand by – they kidnap the wife’s French lover and hold him prisoner so that Colin can restore his manhood with revenge. A kangaroo court takes place and as the situation escalates Loverboy’s life hangs in the balance as Colin wrestles with revenge, remorse, grief and self pity, all the while egged on by his motley crew of friends who just want him to get on with it so they can get down the pub.
The film stars John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane, Melvil Poupaud and Joanne Whalley.
Provocative, outrageously profane and surprisingly tender amidst an explosion of unbridled testosterone, “44 Inch Chest” explores the masculine ego at breaking point, testing whether fear is stronger than love. Colin (Ray Winstone) is in agony, shattered by his wife’s (Joanne Whalley) infidelity. However, he has friends who do more than stand by – they kidnap the wife’s French lover and hold him prisoner so that Colin can restore his manhood with revenge. A kangaroo court takes place and as the situation escalates Loverboy’s life hangs in the balance as Colin wrestles with revenge, remorse, grief and self pity, all the while egged on by his motley crew of friends who just want him to get on with it so they can get down the pub.
The film stars John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane, Melvil Poupaud and Joanne Whalley.
- 1/29/2010
- by Allan Ford
- Filmofilia
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