Monday, March 5, 2018

The 2018 Crested Butte Film Festival


Filmed on location, Artists and Orphans: A True Drama tells the story of a dance and theater troupe visiting the Republic of Georgia, where they decide to help the orphans they find living under harsh conditions. Artists and Orphans: A True Drama received recognition at film festivals such as the Crested Butte Film Festival, where it earned the Illumination Award.

Colorado's Crested Butte Film Festival takes place every year in the autumn, featuring more than 100 films from across the globe. The 2018 festival will take place from September 27-30.

Over the course of four days, the Crested Butte Film Festival displays a diverse range of documentaries, short films, outdoor adventures, and other types of cinematic works. The event also includes free programming for children and talks from distinguished filmmakers.

For more information about the Crested Butte Film Festival, visit cbfilmfest.org. The site offers resources for those preparing to attend the festival to decide which films to view and where to stay, as well other tips for planning an enjoyable visit to the area.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Documentaries and the Academy Awards


The short documentary Artists and Orphans: A True Drama follows a New York theater group that worked to improve the lives of orphaned children they encountered in the Republic of Georgia while attending an arts festival. Artists and Orphans: A True Drama screened at various film festivals throughout 2001 and 2002, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject during the 74th Academy Awards. 

Academy Awards for documentary works fall under two categories: Documentary Feature for films with a running time of more than 40 minutes and Documentary Short Subject for films with a running time less than 40 minutes, credits included. Films must meet at least one of three criteria before they can become eligible for nomination. The criteria include a seven-day commercial run at a theatrical venue, receiving a documentary medal at the Student Academy Awards the year prior, or winning a qualifying documentary award at a competitive film festival. In addition, films must meet these criteria within the timeframe established by that year’s Academy Awards. 

Members of the Documentary Branch will view all works submitted for consideration and employ an average score system to create a shortlist of 10 films. A second round of balloting will select five documentaries from the shortlist for Academy Award nomination. Voting for the final selections are restricted to active and life Academy Award members who view all nominated documentaries.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Documentary Genre Gaining Popularity


Artists and Orphans: A True Drama is a story about humanitarian work undertaken by a group of American actors and dancers in the Republic of Georgia. Profiling an effort to aid an orphanage in need of repairs and supplies in the face of the oncoming winter, Artists and Orphans: A True Drama that earned an Academy Award nomination in 2002 for Best Documentary Short Subject.

In order to qualify as a documentary, a film must be a nonfiction piece that uses motion picture to capture some aspect of reality. Documentary films often take an unusual or unknown approach to a topic and craft a narrative that generates a desire in the audience to continue watching through to the end, even when the subject matter is emotionally difficult.

In recent years, the documentary film genre has experienced a significant boost in popularity. For example, the British Film Institute indicated that only four documentaries were released in British theaters in 2001, whereas just over a decade later 86 found their way into theaters. This can be attributed, in part, to a higher number of streaming platforms offering documentaries for rent or purchase.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Beginning of the Academy Awards


Artists and Orphans: A True Drama is a short documentary about a group of New York artists attending an arts festival in the Republic of Georgia. Artists and Orphans: A True Drama tells the story of the artists’ efforts to help the children of a dilapidated orphanage in the face of seemingly endless obstacles. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2002, at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony.

The International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was formed by the studio chief Louis B. Mayer as a group to support the film industry. The organization was created in 1927 and actor Douglas Fairbanks was installed as president.

In 1930, the first Academy Awards ceremony was a banquet with 270 Hollywood luminaries in attendance. The next year, the Academy Awards were produced with a live broadcast on the radio. The list of winners was given to newspapers across the country to be published after 11 p.m. In 1940, the Los Angeles Times published the list early, allowing those in Los Angeles to discover the winners before the ceremony took place. This led to the live announcement of the winners at the ceremony, with the voting results for each award kept securely in a sealed envelope.