20.February.2012: The San Francisco Art Institute has announced Living in Studio Kuchar, a celebration of the life and work of independent film legend and SFAI faculty member George Kuchar, who passed away last September. Running from March 9 through April 21, the exhibition promises screenings, lectures and the participation of a number of prominent former students, colleagues, and fans, as well as Kuchar’s twin brother and occasional collaborator, filmmaker Mike Kuchar.
Meanwhile, the Kadist Art Foundation, inspired by Kuchar’s collaborative style of filmmaking, has set up the George Kuchar Kapsul. Friends and fans alike are invited to contribute images and videos to the project, and even at this early date they’ve managed to amass an appropriately eclectic collection of film stills and clips, interview footage, comics, and more.
Berlinale 62 concluded Saturday, with Paolo and Vitorrio Taviani’s Caesar Must Die taking the Golden Bear, with the first Silver Bear, the Jury Grand Prix, being awarding to Bence Fliegauf for Just the Wind. Keyframe favorite Christian Petzold took the Silver Bear for Best Director for his film Barbara, and a full list of award winners can be found on the Berlinale website. Next up on the international film festival circuit: SxSW.
The Writers Guild of America handed out their awards on Sunday evening, with Woody Allen’s popular Midnight in Paris taking the Best Original Screenplay Award, with Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash of The Descendants being awarded the equivalent award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Considering the high ratio of of WGA members who also vote for the Academy, both films are now considered the frontrunners for the Best Screenplay Oscar. But don’t count out The Artist just yet, as the WGA named the best film of the year in their annually released list. As a film penned by French screenwriters, it was ineligible for the WGA awards. Quel scandale!
It’s the kind of story that only Hollywood could make up: a former movie star-turned-nun returns to Hollywood to attend the Oscars. Dolores Hart, now 73, is most remembered today for her roles in Where the Boys Are (1960) as well as playing Elvis’s love interest in Loving You (1957) and King Creole (1958), but over 50 years ago she abandoned a successful Hollywood career and a marriage engagement to a Los Angeles businessman to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis in rural Connecticut. Now known as Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, she is the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary short God Is the Bigger Elvis, which is set to air on HBO in April. And she has already spilled to The Huffington Post what she plans to wear to the glitzy Hollywood ceremony: her habit.
