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Tag: Daniel Scheinert

  • Daniel Kwan Calls for Coordinated Industry Response to AI: “An All-Hands-on-Deck Situation”

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    Daniel Kwan has a lot to say on the subject of artificial intelligence.

    The Oscar-winning filmmaker — one half of The Daniels directing team behind Everything Everywhere All at Once alongside Daniel Scheinert — returned to Sundance in January alongside Scheinert and their producer Jonathan Wang to support the world premiere of Focus Features’ The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, which they produced for another directing team in Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell.

    Amid a busy festival schedule, Kwan ducked into the Pendry Park City to headline the THR x Autodesk AI and Independent Filmmaking panel presented in partnership with the Berggruen Institute on Jan. 25. The program also featured conversations with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, filmmaker Noah Segan, producer Janet Yang and Autodesk’s Matthew Sivertson in chats moderated by THR’s Mia Galuppo and Stacey Wilson Hunt.

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Janet Yang, Noah Segan, Daniel Kwan and Matthew Sivertson ahead of the THR x Autodesk “AI and Independent Filmmaking” panel at Sundance.

    Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

    Kwan kicked things off, but before diving headfirst into all things AI, the filmmaker looked back on a milestone Sundance anniversary. He and Scheinert made their Sundance debut 10 years ago with the Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano starrer Swiss Army Man, which was acquired out of the fest by A24 and earned them best director trophies.

    “Ten years is kind of wild,” Kwan said, before launching into a warning about the social media trend that inspired countless users to post retrospective 2016 photos on multiple platforms from Instagram to TikTok to Threads. “I’ve been thinking a lot about 2016 because of that trend right now. By the way, don’t do that. They’re using that to train their machines on you to show how people age. Stop it, stop posting stuff, OK? Just be careful, OK? Be careful with these things.”

    Actually, Kwan emphasized care, caution and vigilance throughout the nearly 30-minute discussion, which covered The AI Doc, the recently launched Creators Coalition on AI and the urgency to participate at this critical juncture before AI companies set the rules of engagement and leave various industries and the general public to pick up the pieces: “We are not ready for this and we are the collateral damage.”

    “We are currently in a transition,” Kwan acknowledged. “Things are coming to an end, but that also means something else is coming. If we can all agree that that’s true, we first have to mourn the things that are ending but protect what really matters in that mourning. Once we see what’s coming to an end, we can protect what matters and plant the seeds for what’s coming next. So much of my work is motivated by that one single principle, whether it’s in AI or the stories I’m telling, the movies that Daniel and I are trying to make as this old world ends. What can we protect? What can we fight for? What can we plant for the next world?”

    In the immediate future, they’ll be planting The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. The film is set for release on March 27, and Kwan said it covers all the main AI issues and features nearly all of the big names from the industry. What it doesn’t cover is his regret in making it.

    “A wonderful team worked for the past over three years on this doc, and we spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how do we show people what the main drivers are behind everything that’s happening? How do we get past all the bullshit, all the hype and all of that noise to show people some sort of way to regain some agency?” he explained. “Every other month I regretted saying yes to this project, if I’m being very honest. Honestly, I’m sick of talking about AI. Who else is sick of talking about AI? I don’t want to just be negative because this technology is both good and bad at the same time. Just like any other technology, every tool can be used for good and for bad. You can build things and break things with the same tool. The problem is with human nature, and entropy, in general. Oftentimes, building things is much harder than breaking things and, right now, the breaking things is much easier.”

    That said, Kwan noted how AI technology can both be “amazing” and “terrible” for filmmakers. “The one thing that we all have to agree on is that this technology is incompatible with our current systems, our current institutions, our current labor laws. It carves a bunch of lines through all these walls that we’ve put up over the last 100 years.”

    As AI carves those lines, Kwan said it is imperative that industries, like Hollywood, band together to help set the guardrails. “This is an all-hands-on-deck situation,” he said. “How do we imagine a world where this tool is not just something that we’re fighting but also something that can transform our industry to make it much better? Be honest, our industry is not perfect.”

    Kwan speaks during the THR x Autodesk “AI and Independent Filmmaking” panel at Sundance.

    Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

    The moment during the panel that generated the most laughter and response from the nearly 100 or so guests in the room came when Kwan used a “sex positive” analogy to describe the best response to widespread adoption of AI tools.

    “It’s a crude one, but it’s worth saying because it sticks,” he explained before launching into it. “We’re all sex positive here [so imagine if] you have a relationship with someone. They’re loving and it’s great, but they’re not always the best communicator. They say, ‘Hey, we’re having an orgy. We’re bringing a bunch of people over. Doesn’t that sound great?’ And you’re like, ‘Hold on. Who’s coming? What are the rules? What are the safe words?’ And they’re like, ‘No, no, no, no. Look at the tools and the toys we have. We’re going to have a dungeon.’ This is what the tech industry feels like to a lot of crew members.”

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    Chris Gardner

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  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ dominates at SAG Awards

    ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ dominates at SAG Awards

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    The unlikely awards season juggernaut “Everything Everywhere All at Once” marched on at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, and even gathered steam with wins not just for best ensemble, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan but also for Jamie Lee Curtis.

    The SAG Awards, often an Oscar preview, threw some curve balls into the Oscars race in a ceremony streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page from Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

    But the clearest result of the SAG Awards was the overwhelming success of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s madcap multiverse tale, which has now used its hotdog fingers to snag top honors from the acting, directing and producing guilds. Only one film (“Apollo 13”) had won all three and not gone on to win best picture at the Oscars.

    After so much of the cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” had already been on the stage to accept awards, the night’s final moment belonged to 94-year-old James Hong, a supporting player in the film and a trailblazer for Asian American representation in Hollywood. He brought up the ignoble yellowface history of the 1937 film “The Good Earth.”

    “The leading role was played with these guys with their eyes taped up like this and they talked like this because the producers said the Asians were not good enough and they were not box office,” said Hong. “But look at us now!”

    Hong added that the cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wasn’t all Chinese, though he granted Jamie Lee Curtis had a good Chinese name. Curtis’ win was one of the most surprising of the night, coming over the longtime favorite, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), who had seemed to be on a clear path to becoming the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance in a Marvel movie.

    A visibly moved Curtis said she was wearing the wedding ring her father, Tony Curtis, gave her mother, Janet Leigh.

    “I know you look at me and think ‘Nepo baby,’” said Curtis, who won in her first SAG nomination. “But the truth of the matter is that I’m 64 years old and this is just amazing.”

    The actors guild, though, lent some clarity to the lead categories. Though some have seen best actress as a toss up between Yeoh and BAFTA winner Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Yeoh again took home the award for best female lead performance.

    “This is not just for me,” said Yeoh, the first Asian actress to win the SAG Award for female lead. “It’s for every little girl that looks like me.”

    Quan, the former child star, also won for best supporting male actor. The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-star had left acting for years after auditions dried up. He’s also the first Asian to win best male supporting actor at the SAG Awards.

    “When I stepped away from acting, it was because there were so few opportunities,” said Quan. “Now, tonight we are celebrating James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Hong Chau, Harry Shum Jr. The landscape looks so different now.”

    Some online commentators suggested there was irony in Mark Wahlberg, who presented best ensemble, handing out the night’s final award to a film with a predominantly Asian and Asian American cast. In 1988, a 16-year-old Wahlberg attacked two Vietnamese men while trying to steal beer near his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Wahlberg, who said race wasn’t a factor in the assault, served 45 days of a two-year sentence. Wahlberg also announced the film “Women Talking” as “Women Are Talking.”

    Best actor has been one of the hardest races to call. Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell ( “The Banshees of Inisherin” ) have all been seen as possible winners. But it was Fraser who went home with the SAG Award for his comeback performance as an obese shut-in in “The Whale.”

    “Believe me, if you just stay in there and put one foot in front of the other, you’ll get where you need to go,” said Fraser, who anxiously eyed the actor-shaped trophy and left the stage saying he was going to go look for some pants for him.

    The SAG Awards are considered one of the most reliable Oscar bellwethers. Actors make up the biggest percentage of the film academy, so their choices have the largest sway. Last year, “CODA” triumphed at SAG before winning best picture at the Oscar s, while Ariana DeBose, Will Smith, Jessica Chastain and Troy Kotsur all won at a SAG Award before taking home an Academy Award.

    After the SAG Awards, presented by the film and television acting guild SAG-AFTRA, lost their broadcast home at TNT/TBS, Netflix signed on to stream Sunday’s ceremony. Next year’s show will be on Netflix, proper.

    Sunday’s livestream meant a slightly scaled-down vibe. Without a broadcast time limit, winners weren’t played off. A regal and unbothered Sam Elliott, winner for male actor in a TV movie or limited series for “1883,” spoke well past his allotted time. The show sped through early winners, including awards for Jean Smart (“Hacks”), Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”) and Jason Bateman (“Ozark”).

    Another streaming effect: No bleeping.

    Quinta Brunson and Janelle James of “Abbott Elementary” kicked off the ceremony with a few opening jokes, including one that suggested Viola Davis, a recent Grammy winner, is beyond EGOT status and has transcended into “ShEGOTallofthem.”

    Brunson later returned to the stage with the cast of “Abbott Elementary” to accept the SAG award for best ensemble in a comedy series. Brunson, the sitcom’s creator and one of its producers, said of her castmates, “These people bring me back down to Earth.”

    “The White Lotus” also took a victory lap, winning best ensemble in a drama series and another win for Jennifer Coolidge, coming off her wins at the Emmys and the Golden Globes. A teary-eyed Coolidge traced her love of acting to a first-grade trip to see a Charlie Chaplin film. She then thanked her date, a longtime friend, the actor Tim Bagley.

    “You’re a wonderful date tonight,” said Coolidge. “I can’t wait until we get home.”

    The ceremony’s first award went to a winner from last year: Jessica Chastain. A year after winning for her lead performance in the film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Chastain won best female actor in a TV movie or limited series for Showtime’s country music power couple series “George & Tammy.” Chastain jetted in from previews on the upcoming Broadway revival of “A Doll’s House.”

    One award was announced ahead of the show from the red carpet: “Top Gun: Maverick” won for best stunt ensemble. Though some have cheered that blockbusters like “Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” are best picture nominees at this year’s Oscars, the indie smash “Everything Everywhere All at Once” increasingly looks like the biggest blockbuster at this year’s Academy Awards.

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    For more coverage of Hollywood’s awards season, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/awards-season

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  • ‘Tár,’ ‘Everything Everywhere’ tie for LA critics’ top award

    ‘Tár,’ ‘Everything Everywhere’ tie for LA critics’ top award

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    LOS ANGELES — Todd Field’s symphonic backstage drama “Tár” and the existential comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” tied for top honors with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in awards announced Sunday.

    The critics group opted to split its best film award between the two acclaimed films. “Tár,” which was also chosen as best film by the New York Film Critics Circle, cleaned up in other categories as well. Field won for both directing and screenplay, and Cate Blanchett, who stars as an internationally renowned conductor, won best lead performance. The critics, who don’t separate award by gender, also gave best lead performance to Bill Nighy for the “Ikiru” remake “Living.”

    “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the madcap metaverse movie from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, also picked up an award for Ke Huy Quan, for supporting performer. The former child star added to his rapidly increasingly awards haul for his lauded comeback performance. The other supporting performer winner was Dolly de Leon from Ruben Östlund’s class satire “Triangle of Sadness.”

    Other winners from LAFCA included Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” for best animation; Jerzy Skolimowski’s “EO” for best non-English language film; and Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” for best documentary.

    The critics will hand out their awards at a gala on Jan. 14. The French filmmaker Claire Denis was previously announced as the recipient of the group’s career achievement award. Last year, the LAFCA awarded Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” best film.

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