The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

A Plethora of Oscar-Nominated Docs and Shorts on the Big Screen

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Last year was a great movie year and we’re still enjoying the cream of the Oscar-nominated crop. Moviegoers still have time to catch many of the documentaries and shorts in all their big-screen glory before filling out their Oscar ballots, either at work or with Laemmle. This weekend we’re opening the live action, animated and documentary shorts and if you haven’t yet enjoyed the doc features THE SQUARE, TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM or CUTIE AND THE BOXER, we’re playing those too! It’s a splendid time to be a cinephile.

From THE SQUARE

Q and A’s with THE HUNT Director Thomas Vinterberg at the Royal this Weekend

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Thomas Vinterberg, writer-director of Best Foreign Language Film nominee THE HUNT, will participate in Q&A’s moderated by film critic James Rocchi after the 7:10 PM screenings at the Royal on Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9.

L.A. Times Interview: “Filmmaker flashes back to her ’90s girlhood in Georgia for IN BLOOM”

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From today’s L.A. Times:

Filmmaker flashes back to her ’90s girlhood in Georgia for IN BLOOM

Nana Ekvtimishvili recalls things being even worse than depicted in her movie IN BLOOM, which is set in a newly independent Georgia. She and husband/co-filmmaker Simon Gross discuss the film.

By Susan King

“In Bloom,” the foreign language film Oscar submission from Georgia, revolves around two 14-year-old girls coming of age in 1992. Best friends Eka and Natia live in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a newly independent country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but independence hasn’t made life any easier.

There’s violence and unrest, with justice doled out vigilante style. Food is scarce and bread lines are long. And a lot of young girls don’t even get the opportunity to be teenagers because they are kidnapped by men and forced into marriage.

Nana Ekvtimishvili, who was raised in Tbilisi, wrote the film, which opens Friday, and co-directed it with her German-born husband, Simon Gross. The two met in Munich, Germany, as film students and currently live and work in Tbilisi.

Read the interview on the L.A. Times website.

Filmmakers Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross of IN BLOOM

Laemmle Theatres’ Umpteenth Annual Oscar Contest

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Laemmle Theatres will bestow fabulous prizes (movie passes) upon the people who most accurately predict the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s choices in all 24 categories, from the shorts to the Big Kahuna, Best Motion Picture. (Why INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS is not the tenth nominee in the latter category, we do not know.) We’ve got some smart cookies for customers so we have a tie-breaker question: you also have to guess the show’s running time. Take a crack at it! FABULOUS PRIZES (movie passes) to the those who can best predict the winners. First place wins ten pairs of passes, second place wins eight pairs and third place wins six pairs. Good luck!

Meet the Filmmaker and Co-Star of BRIGHTEST STAR at the NoHo

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BRIGHTEST STAR writer-director Maggie Kiley and actress Rose McIver will participate in a Q&A at the NoHo after the 7:40 PM screening on Thursday, February 6th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHAvzD25Iq0#t=1

Pete Seeger!

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We lost a great one this week when folk singer-musician Pete Seeger died. What a brave, talented man. There are a wealth of Pete videos on YouTube and a quick search turned up this gem, Pete’s March 4, 1970 appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. Among other things, it’s a great example of Pete’s musicianship and aversion to singing alone: watch him get the audience singing along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADtAU43MM14

For a complete portrait of Pete, there’s a great 2007 documentary called PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG, available on DVD and streaming, and, for those who want to dig a little deeper, THE WEAVERS: WASN’T THAT A TIME, available on DVD.

Manohla Dargis/N.Y. Times Dispatch from Sundance

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We greatly admire the film writing of Manohla Dargis, first of the Village Voice, then the L.A. Weekly, then the L.A. Times and now the New York Times. Her reviews and reporting from important film festivals like Sundance are required reading in our little corner of the film industry. She posted this yesterday and as always it’s exciting to hear what we have to look forward to, including Boyhood, We Come as Friends and Land Ho! The latter, Ms. Dargis writes, features “the breakout star of this year’s festival,” Earl Lynn Nelson, which is refreshing because the actor is neither a comely ingenue nor a chiseled hunk but rather an elderly man.

Earl Lynn Nelson, left, and Paul Eenhoorn in Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz's "Land Ho!"

Climate Ride with Greg Laemmle and Win a 2014 Movie Pass

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Last year’s Ride with Greg Laemmle Climate Ride Contest was so successful we’re doing it again!

Tell us why you want to ride with Greg and you could win an Unlimited Laemmle Movie Pass for the remainder of 2014, free registration for Climate Ride California, and a $2500 contribution toward your Climate Ride fundraising goal from the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.  See the second and third prize packages, eligibility requirements, and all contest details over on the contest entry page.

An outside panel of judges will select the winners based on the quality of their entry statement so take the time to craft something that’ll really knock their cycling socks off! But don’t wait too long, the deadline for entry is Monday, February 17!

Climate Ride Wine Country 2014 is a fully-supported, four-day group ride covering 250 miles of stellar Northern California scenery starting in San Francisco and winding through the famous wine growing regions of Napa Valley and the Russian River Valley.  It culminates at the iconic state capitol building in Sacramento.  Bike fitness is recommended, but the ride caters to all levels of ability.

You can listen to Greg Laemmle talk about Climate Ride on KPFK’s Bike Talk here. He was joined by past Climate Riders, Ride Director Blake Holiday, and LA County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Jennifer Klausner.

ENTER HERE