National CineMedia has named Lawrence Snapp to the new role of senior vice president of corporate development and chief digital officer. A Microsoft and digital transformation veteran, Snapp joined NCM in September as senior vice president of corporate development and will lead NCM’s newly formed digital products team focused on delivering innovative consumer experiences and new ways for brands to connect with movie audiences as chief digital officer.
A new set of materials from Orson Welles’ daughter will make the University of Michigan Library's Orson Welles collection the world's most comprehensive resource for Welles scholars and fans. The daughter of the renowned filmmaker and Italian actress Paola Mori, Beatrice Welles had a particularly extraordinary childhood. She was brought up jet setting to different countries, playing on various film sets, interacting mostly with adults (her parents and their friends), and falling asleep to the rhythmic sounds of her father working on his typewriter late into every night.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will bridge the worlds of Silicon Valley and Hollywood with its Entertainment Technology in the Connected Age conference, May 8-9 at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, California. During this year's conference, titled "Redefining the Entertainment Experience," experts and executives from leaders across the technology, telecommunications, streaming, broadcast, and cinema sectors will come together to explore emerging technologies' impact on the current and future delivery of compelling connected entertainment experiences.
Dolby’s short animated film Escape, a sequel to two-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning short Silent, premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Chosen for the Tribeca short film category out of a record number of 4,38 submissions, Escape is the story of a lone space explorer who crash-lands on a desolate planet and must find a way to make her new home habitable.
Ymagis today announced that it has been awarded the Tech 40 label, marking its entry into the EnterNext Tech 40 index.
Novo Cinemas, part of the Elan Group in Qatar, has launched a new flagship cinema at Mall of Qatar, in Al Rayyan, Doha. The new cinema features 19 screens, including an IMAX Laser theatre that features the largest IMAX screen in the MENA region and seats 530 people. It also includes an upgraded sound system featuring 12 channels plus sub bass that delivers lifelike sound from all directions, including overhead, to fill the cinema with astonishing clarity, richness, detail, and depth. I spoke recently with Novo Cinemas CEO Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen about the new theatre and, in particular, her belief in the importance of lobbies.
Ymagis Group announced today that it has agreed with Dallas-based CinTech to form a new, full-service exhibitor services company in North America. Under the terms of the agreement and subject to the fulfillment of conditions precedent, a new company, CinemaNext North America, will be created with Ymagis Group acquiring a 75 percent stake and CinTech the remaining 25 percent. CinemaNext North America will be managed by industry veteran Stan Hays. Both parties intend to start operations during the second quarter of the year
CinemaCon 2017 demonstrated, once and for all, that this is truly the dawn of the digital cinema era. The installation of digital projection systems in virtually every movie theatre in the world was the beginning of something, not the conclusion, because it opened the door to a wide range of possibilities. The tradeshow floors in Caesar’s Palace demonstrated this fact more than ever before. For the third consecutive year, a host of new companies crowded the exhibit halls. On display were products and services designed not simply to improve the operation of a movie theatre, but, in some cases, to expand the concept of what a movie theatre is. And, for the third year in a row, Digital Cinema Report is presenting the Catalyst Award to those products that we consider to be the best new technology on display at CinemaCon 2017.
Maccs International has announced the integration of CineLab software with Maccs’ online platform DCinemaHub.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today announced that Shane Murphy has won the $5,000 grand prize in The Vista Project student filmmaker competition and that Jon Navarro was selected as runner-up. Led by cinema-industry pioneer Bud Mayo, chairman of New Vision Theatres, and by Barbara Lange, SMPTE and Hollywood Professional Association executive director, the judging committee named the winners during CinemaCon week, March 27-30 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
