AJT Movie Briefs – Feb 27
Movie Briefs
No Oscar for Atlanta’s ‘Dragon’ Lady
The Oscar did not go to Jewish filmmaker Bonnie Arnold, an Atlanta native and University of Georgia graduate who got her start in the movie business here.
Arnold, who has been a movie producer since “Dances With Wolves” in 1990 and has worked almost exclusively on animated films since producing “Toy Story” in 1995, had her first Academy Award nomination Feb. 22 for “How to Train Your Dragon 2” in category of best animated feature film.
But the award went to Disney’s “Big Hero 6.”
Arnold will have another shot with “How to Train Your Dragon 3,” due out in summer 2018.
The 87th Oscars weren’t particularly good for Jewish filmmakers. Israeli duo Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis, nominated for their live-action short “Aya,” lost to “The Phone Call.”
‘Apples,’ ‘Above and Beyond’ Win Over AJFF Audiences
Festival-opening documentary “Above and Beyond” and coming-of-age narrative “Apples From the Desert” are the winners of the 2015 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival Audience Awards for feature-length movies.
“Above and Beyond,” produced by Nancy Spielberg, tells the story of the birth of the Israeli air force at the start of the War of Independence. It drew an audience of more than 2,000 people for the festival’s opening night, then did not screen again at the festival.
“Apples” is about a young Israeli woman who rebels against the strict rules of her Haredi parents. It is a nominee for three Israeli Academy Awards. In addition to three scheduled screenings during the festival, “Apples” was one of 11 movies to get special encore screenings the last two days of the festival. Only “Apples From the Desert” and “Serial (Bad) Weddings” got two encore showings.
Also winning an Audience Award, based on the ballots turned in by moviegoers after each screening, is short “A Good Story,” which portrays the desire of an elderly women for a broken jug in an antiques shop near the German-Polish border.
All three winning films will return to Atlanta for special Audience Award screenings at dates to be determined.
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