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Filmmaker Spike Lee has nearly 100 credits to his name. From documentaries to movies to short films (“don’t call them music videos”), Lee has covered it all.

And through his films, he tackles issues of race, class, and history. Lee who started as an independent filmmaker burst onto the scene with 1986’s “She’s Gotta Have It” and in 1988 he made his first studio film, “School Daze.” From the get-go, Lee’s arresting opening credit sequences have become a signature. It’s a sign that audiences can expect a funny, provocative ride, one usually set to some killer music. In other words, a typical Spike Lee Joint.

Here, Lee breaks down his favorites and tells the story behind some of his most memorable opening credits, and he shares his favorite opening sequence of all-time. Watch the video above to see some of the opening sequences and the conversation with Lee in full.

It’s truly a measure of the pandemic that the 19th annual Ves Awards (to be held virtually on April 6) was dominated by Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” with 13 nominations (topped by photoreal episode). Like the Oscar shortlist, there was an absence of big budget, VFX-intensive studio films. But, truth be told, Season 2 of Jon Favreau’s engaging “Star Wars” bounty hunter series offered the industry’s most innovative tech (wrapped around Industrial Light & Magic’s improved StageCraft virtual production system).

Pixar’s “Soul” was the top animation contender with five nominations, while the feature competition was split between “Project Power,” the Netflix superhero film, Robert Zemeckis’ “The Witches” (which streamed on HBO Max), and Disney’s live-action “Mulan” (which streamed on Disney+), each garnering three nominations.

Joining “Project Power” and “The Witches” in the top photoreal feature category were Netflix’s “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” and “The Midnight Sky...

The nominations for the 19th Annual Visual Effects Society Awards have been announced with “The Mandalorian” and “Soul” leading.

“The Mandalorian” leads with 13 nominations including outstanding visual effects in a photoreal episode. “Soul” was next with five nominations, followed by “The Witches” and “Project Power.”

The Ves awards will be handed out in a virtual ceremony and will stream worldwide on April 6.

“Traditions find a way to persist,” said Lisa Cooke, Ves Board Chair. “With vision and a lot of hard work, we are proud to host our annual celebration of the artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world – virtually. We are seeing best in class work that elevates the art of storytelling and engages the audience in new and innovative ways. The Ves Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our nominees!

The Visual Effects Society today announced the nominees for its 19th annual Ves Awards, which recognize VFX artistry in 25 categories spanning film, TV, animation, commercials and video games. Winners will be announced during a virtual ceremony on Tuesday, April 6.

Disney+’s The Mandalorian leads all TV shows and films with 13 noms, and Disney/Pixar’s animated Soul tops the film side with five. Project Power and The Witches tied for second among movies with three noms apiece in a decidedly strange year for VFX-heavy projects.

Vying for the Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature prize are Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, The Midnight Sky, Project Power, Tenet and The Witches. The films up for

Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature are Da 5 Bloods, Extraction, Mank, News of the World and Welcome to Chechnya.

Soul will battle it out for the Visual Effects in an Animated Feature trophy against fellow Pixar pic Onward,...

Barry Alexander Brown first met Spike Lee while researching his follow-up documentary to his 1979 film, “The War at Home.” Lee, a recent Morehouse grad who was then enrolled in NYU’s graduate film program, jumped at Brown’s job offer to clean and ship film prints for First Run Features. Back in New York, the two quickly bonded over their very similar way of thinking about movies. “We both wanted to make movies that had something to say, but we also were just interested in the cinematic experience,” Brown told IndieWire. “He was really the only one around who I knew in the New York film scene who just could love cinema for cinema, entertainment for entertainment. That idea that movies could be both pulled us closer and closer together.”

It’s a bond that led to Brown trying to help Lee scrape together funds for his early features — at...

Chicago – For film lovers unable to attend international film festivals, “Paris, je t’aime” provided an irresistible glimpse at world cinema. Eighteen celebrated filmmakers were each recruited to make a short subject set in the City of Love, thus allowing audiences to view the same town from different cultural perspectives. Some shorts worked better than others, but the resounding majority of them were utterly captivating.

It’s great to see this cinematic experiment continue with “New York, I Love You,” despite the fact that it isn’t anywhere near as artistically stimulating or dramatically satisfying as its predecessor. There’s only ten filmmakers this time, excluding Randy Balsmeyer, who handles the transitions. While “Paris” included Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen brothers, “New York” offers directors like Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”), Allen Hughes (“The Book of Eli”) and Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”), whose very name inspires derisive laughter amongst film purists.

Chicago – In our latest romance/drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the Chicago screening of the new film “New York, I Love You” from an eclectic group of some of today’s most imaginative filmmakers. This film also features a powerhouse of today’s hottest stars!

“New York, I Love You” stars Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Emilie Ohana, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thilrlby, Blake Lively, Drea de Matteo, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia Labeouf, Ugur Yucel, Taylor Geare, Carlos Acosta, Jacinda Barrett, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Ammuri, Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman.

The film is directed by Natalie Portman, Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and Randall Balsmeyer.

With the short film anthology “New York, I Love You” (a sort of sequel to “Paris, je t’aime”) set for release October 16th, Vivendi Entertainment has released a ton of clips and I’ve posted all of them after the jump. While most film’s get four to eight clips released for promotional purposes, due to how large the cast is and how each person needs a clip when promoting the movie on a talk show, the studio has released a whopping 16 clips and it’s about sixteen minutes of the movie. So if you’ve been waiting for the film, you can see a lot of it right now. If you’re not familiar with “New York, I Love You”, the film’s got a huge cast and eleven directors telling stories about New York City and love. Take a look:

Here’s the synopsis, cast and directors:...

Labor Day weekend is coming up, and it's a holiday that marks the end of the summer movie season along with summer itself. All the kids are heading back to the classroom for another dreaded year of school and (for those in L.A. like myself) the weather starts to cool... hopefully. While fall usually isn't seen as a cinematic hotbed, with the blockbuster summer season over, there are still plenty of quality films to check out at the box office. This year we have Megan Fox's possessed body, a sensational animated film and a new zombie adventure. There's a lot more that I'm looking forward to this fall, so here is a comphrehensive look at what you can expect from this fall movie season.

September

Gamer - September 4th

Starring: Gerard Butler, Kyra Sedgwick, Michael C. Hall, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, John Leguizamo, Amber Valletta, Terry Crews, Logan Lerman,...

The official trailer for a collection of several short films – “New York, I Love You” has been released. Check it out below and you can also see the first poster for the movie here.

New York City is the main unifying character and the movie will show the city as a living, breathing and loving whole. In the end, the audience will not only understand each individual story, but they will also see the integrated whole of chance encounters through these unique transitions.

The movie is directed by 10 different helmers - Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner and Randall Balsmeyer who is director of the transitions.

The screenwriters were Emmanuel Benbihy, Alexandra Cassavetes, Anthony Minghella, Israel Horovitz, Fatih Akin among others.

There are a lot of big name actors in the movie like Andy Garcia, Julie Christie,...

I have yet to watch Paris, je taime, but I actually just added it to me Netflix Instant Queue just yesterday and will have it out of the way very soon as the trailer for New York, I Love You has just found its way onto the Internet. Rachel Bilson, Kevin Bacon, Natalie Portman, Maggie Q, Robin Wright Penn, Chris Cooper, Shia Labeouf, Orlando Bloom, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, Olivia Thirlby, James Caan, Blake Lively, Drea de Matteo, Bradley Cooper, Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman, Andy Garcia, Julie Christie, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Hayden Christensen and many more. It also includes segments directed by Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as newcomers to the game along with the big boys such as Joshua Marston, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Andrei Zvyagintsev and Randall Balsmeyer. Just like Good, which I showed you the trailer for yesterday,...