Movies

The Academy Announces 8-Week Summer Film Series

By Michelle McCue | April 22, 2015

Got your Summer film calendar planned yet? On Wednesday The Academy announced their May and June programs which will explore the past, present and especially the future of moviegoing, as the availability of a wide variety of platforms for viewing films alters the habits of today’s audiences.

“The New Audience: Moviegoing in a Connected World,” a live panel presentation on May 12, complements “This Is Widescreen,” an eight-week screening series beginning May 1 that illustrates one of the ways filmmakers more than a half-century ago responded to the competition of that era, television.

THE NEW AUDIENCE: MOVIEGOING IN A CONNECTED WORLD
TUESDAY, MAY 12│7:30 P.M.│SAMUEL GOLDWYN THEATER, BEVERLY HILLS
Moderator Krista Smith, Vanity Fair’s executive West Coast editor, will lead an onstage panel discussion of how filmmakers and studios seek to take advantage of the wide variety of viewing platforms available to contemporary audiences.

Scheduled guests include Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures President Ze Frank, Professor Henry Jenkins, the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at USC, and Team Oscar winner Tayo Amos. The program is conceived by Oscar-nominated producer Michael Shamberg.

Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

THIS IS WIDESCREEN
MAY 1–JUNE 19│SAMUEL GOLDWYN THEATER, BEVERLY HILLS, AND LINWOOD DUNN THEATER, HOLLYWOOD
“This Is Widescreen” examines how filmmakers responded when audiences began trading regular visits to movie palaces for the ease, immediacy and affordability of the first small screen: television. In response to this domestication of film viewing, numerous widescreen cinematic formats were rolled out around the world.

“This Is Widescreen” offers an eclectic selection of films including “Oklahoma!,” “The Graduate” and “Carmen Jones,” which demonstrate the various widescreen processes popular in the 1950s and ’60s – from Cinerama, launched in 1952, to CinemaScope, VistaVision, Panavision and others that were part of the subsequent widescreen boom. Each evening’s pre-show festivities include shorts, trailers, cartoons and behind-the-scenes footage.

Click here for screening schedule and to purchase tickets.