MTI Film recently completed an all-new 4K restoration of director Lewis Milestone’s 1931 film The Front Page. The months-long project was conducted for The Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with MTI Film’s restoration team working under the direction of AFA director Michael Pogorzelski and film preservationist Heather Linville.
Roundabout Entertainment recently collaborated with Paramount Pictures and Park Circus on a luminous, 4K-restoration of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 classic Romeo and Juliet. The restored film is currently enjoying a new theatrical run as part of Shakespeare Lives, a worldwide program of special events commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. The project was made possible through funding from the British Council and the British Film Institute.
The 38th edition of The Reel Thing, a three-day symposium addressing audio/visual restoration and archiving, will explore the constantly evolving ecosystem of film and digital restoration and preservation. This year's program will examine legacy film restorations and showcase modern technologies being used to future-proof collections and keep them viable for future display and distribution formats. The event will take place August 18-20 at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
The Association of Moving Image Archivists and Alamo Drafthouse, in partnership with The Film Foundation, will host a three-day film projection workshop offering expert-led training for managers, curators and projectionists in the proper presenting of 35mm film in theaters. The hands-on, educational event will be held August 22-24 in Austin, Texas, at the Alamo South Lamar location. Additional partners supporting the symposium include Kodak and Boston Light & Sound.
Universal Pictures premiered the restored 1929 silent film classic The Last Warning June 4 at the Castro Theater as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Directed by Paul Leni and starring Laura La Plante, The Last Warning is a dramatic horror centered on an unsolved murder during a theatrical performance and the revival production meant to solve the mystery. This restored version is a part of Universal's silent restoration initiative announced last year.
In a project for 20th Century Fox spanning nine months, Roundabout Entertainment restored and remastered the first eight seasons of the classic procedural police drama NYPD Blue. More than 170 one-hour episodes were scanned and finished in 2K, restoring the show to pristine quality for a new domestic release.
Ymagis Group has announced the June 8 launch of Celluloid Angels, the first crowd-funding platform to finance the restoration of heritage/classic films. Celluloid Angels will enable visitors to participate in a unique experience by assisting in the conservation of international heritage films in a meaningful way.
The Library of Congress is once again providing a unique opportunity for film scholars and archivists to play cinematic detective by participating in its free Mostly Lost workshop. The case is solving riddles and finding clues to the identity of unidentified, under-identified or misidentified silent and early sound films. The scene is the state-of-the-art theater at the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and the date is Thursday, June 16, through Saturday, June 18.
Universal Pictures and The Film Foundation celebrated the Cannes Film Festival with the world premiere screening of the newly restored 1961 film, One-Eyed Jacks, starring and directed by Marlon Brando. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, who had long advocated for the film's restoration, closely supervised the work to ensure the restoration honored Brando's original artistic vision. One-Eyed Jacks was digitally scanned in 6K and restored in 4K from the original 35mm VistaVision negative.
New York Women in Film & Television’s Women's Film Preservation Fund is calling for proposals for grants to restore and preserve American films in which women have had significant creative positions. The WFPF's mission is to save films of unique importance in American history and in the history of women's cinema. Individuals and not-for-profit organizations are eligible to apply for grants of up to $10,000. The association’s next grant proposal deadline is June 1st, 2016.
