Archive for the "News" Category
Feb17

Oscar Nominations

Posted at 12:04 AM • Comments

The awards this year will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin; this will be Martin’s third time hosting the oscars.

Avatar and Hurt Locker top the nominations list with nine each, Inglorious Basterds has eight nominations.

Nominations






Nominations By Films

“Ajami,” an Inosan Production (Kino International) (1 nomination)
Best foreign language film (Israel)

“Avatar,” a Lightstorm Entertainment Production (20th Century Fox) (9 nominations)
Art direction
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Original score
Best picture
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

“The Blind Side,” an Alcon Entertainment Production (Warner Bros.) (2 nominations)
Sandra Bullock – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Best picture

“Bright Star,” a Jan Chapman/Bright Star Films Production (Apparition) (1 nomination)
Costume design

“Burma VJ,” a Magic Hour Films Production (Oscilloscope Laboratories) (1 nomination)
Documentary feature

“Coco before Chanel,” a Haut et Court Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (1 nomination)
Costume design

“Coraline,” a LAIKA Production (Focus Features) (1 nomination)
Best animated feature film

“The Cove,” an Oceanic Preservation Society Production (Roadside Attractions) (1 nomination)
Documentary feature

“Crazy Heart,” an Informant Media/Butcher’s Run Films Production (Fox Searchlight) (3 nominations)
Jeff Bridges – Performance by an actor in a leading role
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Original song – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)”

“District 9,” a Block/Hanson Production (Sony Pictures Releasing) (4 nominations)
Film editing
Best picture
Visual effects
Adapted screenplay

“An Education,” a Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (3 nominations)
Carey Mulligan – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Best picture
Adapted screenplay

“El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” a Haddock Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (1 nomination)
Best foreign language film (Argentina)

“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” an American Empirical Production (20th Century Fox) (2 nominations)
Best animated feature film
Original score

“Food, Inc.,” a Robert Kenner Films Production (Magnolia Pictures) (1 nomination)
Documentary feature

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” a Warner Bros. Production (Warner Bros.) (1 nomination)
Cinematography

“The Hurt Locker,” a Voltage Pictures Production (Summit Entertainment) (9 nominations)
Jeremy Renner – Performance by an actor in a leading role
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Original score
Best picture
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Original screenplay

“Il Divo,” an Indigo Film/Lucky Red/Parco Film/Babe Films Production (MPI Media Group through Music Box) (1 nomination)
Makeup

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” a Poo Poo Pictures Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (2 nominations)
Art direction
Costume design

“In the Loop,” a Loop Film/BBC Films and UK Film Council in association with Aramid Entertainment Production (IFC Films) (1 nomination)
Adapted screenplay

“Inglourious Basterds,” a Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg Production (The Weinstein Company) (8 nominations)
Christoph Waltz – Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Best picture
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Original screenplay

“Invictus,” a Liberty Pictures Production (Warner Bros.) (2 nominations)
Morgan Freeman – Performance by an actor in a leading role
Matt Damon – Performance by an actor in a supporting role

“Julie & Julia,” a Columbia Pictures Production (Sony Pictures Releasing) (1 nomination)
Meryl Streep – Performance by an actress in a leading role

“The Last Station,” an Egoli Tossell Film/Zephyr Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (2 nominations)
Christopher Plummer – Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Helen Mirren – Performance by an actress in a leading role

“The Lovely Bones,” a Wingnut Films Production (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount) (1 nomination)
Stanley Tucci – Performance by an actor in a supporting role

“The Messenger,” an All the King’s Horses Production (Oscilloscope Laboratories) (2 nominations)
Woody Harrelson – Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Original screenplay

“The Milk of Sorrow,” a Wanda Visión/Oberon Cinematogràfica/Vela Production (1 nomination)
Best foreign language film (Peru)

“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” a Kovno Communications Production (1 nomination)
Documentary feature

“Nine,” a Weinstein Brothers/Marc Platt/Lucamar/Relativity Media Production (The Weinstein Company) (4 nominations)
Penélope Cruz – Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Art direction
Costume design
Original song – “Take It All”

“Paris 36,” a Galatée Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (1 nomination)
Original song – “Loin de Paname”

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” a Lee Daniels Entertainment/ Smokewood Entertainment Production (Lionsgate) (6 nominations)
Gabourey Sidibe – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Mo’Nique – Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Directing
Film editing
Best picture
Adapted screenplay

“The Princess and the Frog,” a Walt Disney Pictures Production (Walt Disney) (3 nominations)
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Almost There”
Original song – “Down in New Orleans”

“The Secret of Kells,” a Cartoon Saloon/Les Armateurs/Vivi Film Production (GKIDS) (1 nomination)
Best animated feature film

“A Serious Man,” a Working Title Films Production (Focus Features) (2 nominations)
Best picture
Original screenplay

“Sherlock Holmes,” a Warner Bros. UK Services Production (Warner Bros.) (2 nominations)
Art direction
Original score

“A Single Man,” a Fade to Black and Depth of Field Production (The Weinstein Company) (1 nomination)
Colin Firth – Performance by an actor in a leading role

“Star Trek,” a Bad Robot Production (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) (4 nominations)
Makeup
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” a Don Murphy/Tom DeSanto/di Bonaventura Pictures/Ian Bryce Production (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro, Distributed by Paramount) (1 nomination)
Sound mixing

“Un Prophète,” a Why Not/Page 114/Chic Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (1 nomination)
Best foreign language film (France)

“Up,” a Pixar Production (Walt Disney) (5 nominations)
Best animated feature film
Original score
Best picture
Sound editing
Original screenplay

“Up in the Air,” a Montecito Picture Company Production (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) (6 nominations)
George Clooney – Performance by an actor in a leading role
Vera Farmiga – Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Anna Kendrick – Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Directing
Best picture
Adapted screenplay

“Which Way Home,” a Mr. Mudd Production (1 nomination)
Documentary feature

“The White Ribbon,” an X Filme Creative Pool/Wega Film/Les Films du Losange/Lucky Red Production (Sony Pictures Classics) (2 nominations)
Cinematography
Best foreign language film (Germany)

“The Young Victoria,” a GK Films Production (Apparition) (3 nominations)
Art direction
Costume design
Makeup

Feb11

Robin Hood Tax

Posted at 1:33 AM • Comments
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I personally think this is an excellent idea, I ecourage others who think so to head on over to http://http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/

How I Works

• The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on bankers that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and By taking an average of 0.05% from speculative banking transactions, hundreds of billions of pounds would be raised every year.

• That’s easily enough to stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK, and to help fight global poverty and climate change.

Why now?

• Because of the financial crisis, frontline services at home – like the NHS and our schools – are under fire.

• At the same time, poor communities and the environment are being hit hard – as aid and green budgets are slashed by rich countries.

• So it’s time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up.

Who’s in?

• Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel (the German Chancellor) and Nicolas Sarkozy (the French President) have all spoken out in support of a tax on financial transactions.

• Plenty of business bigwigs are on-board too. Like Lord Turner (from the Financial Services Authority), George Soros (the philanthropist) and Warren Buffet (US businessman extraordinaire). And then there are the hundreds of economists who have backed the idea, too.

• This isn’t some crazy pipedream. It’s a simple and brilliant idea which transcends party politics and which – with your support – can become a reality.

The Big Idea

We are calling for governments around the world to implement a tax on financial transactions – called the Robin Hood Tax.

Implemented globally, it would tax the trade of certain financial assets. Things like stocks, bonds and foreign exchange, traded both physically and as derivatives (options, forwards, futures and swaps), and bought and sold on Exchanges and Over the Counter (OTC). While OTC trades are technically more difficult to capture, the long-term goal is for all financial transactions to be taxed.

How much would it raise?


Up to $400 billion globally every year. The rate of tax would vary from 0.5% on stocks to 0.005% on currency transactions.

(source: Bank of International Settlements, International Finance Services London)

Various experts (Schulmeister (2009) who provides a good summary of the work of others, Baker et al (2009), and our own campaign research) have produced estimates of the tax receipts, using various methodologies. All estimates are in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

How does it work?

Ten years ago it was felt that a financial transaction tax was too complex to collect.

But a lot has changed in the last decade, as banks have improved their IT infrastructures (such as the Real Time Gross Settlement – RTGS) to help drive down trading costs. The 0.5% Stamp Duty paid on shares on the London Stock Exchange is one of many taxes on financial transactions now in place.

So the Robin Hood Tax would be applied wherever a transaction takes place. Currently, the vast majority of financial transactions take place on regulated exchanges in financial centres like New York, London and Tokyo.

And though the details of how to tax Over The Counter transactions have yet to be finalised – as these currently occur between financial institutions, without the official exchange being involved – the bank licence system could be changed to ensure that these trades do take place within financial exchanges.

Will the tax be passed on to consumers?

The Robin Hood Tax will not impact on personal banking or on retail banking. That’s because it targets a distinct area of bank operations – high-frequency large-volume trading, undertaken by financial institutions in the ‘casino economy’. 

If you change money to go on holiday, send remittances abroad, invest in a pension fund or take out a mortgage, you will not be affected by this tiny tax.

Can the financial sector afford to pay it?

Although 0.05% is a tiny tax, $400 billion is a substantial amount. We recognise that even such a small tax will have an effect on the market. Economists such as Schmidt have estimated that at a rate of 0.005% currency markets may shrink by 14%. This is due in part to the fact that the margins on some speculative trades are extremely low and these may not continue.

Banking is the most profitable industry in the world, with profits of $788 billion in 2006, which have rapidly returned since the financial crisis, and are predicted by some to double by 2016. Banking is 26 times more profitable per employee than the average of all other industries. (Source: McKinsey, What’s in store for global banking?)