News

December 14, 2010 - [ Pop Eater ]

Tom Colicchio whipped up some decadent delights at Time Warner Cable Signature Home launch event in New York, and PopEater was lucky enough to stop by and chat with the 'Top Chef' judge, who dished about the All Stars' "spicy personalities" and his new documentary about domestic hunger.
 
"A lot of people try to blame parents for their kids' poor nutrition, but when you're struggling to make ends meet, you go for the cheapest thing possible to put in your kid's stomach. Unfortunately, the cheapest things possible, are not the healthiest things for you," Colicchio told PopEater about the growing domestic hunger problem in the U.S. He and his wife plan to release the film 'Hungry in America' in 2012.

December 13, 2010 - [ Broadcast Film Critics Association ]

The Broadcast Film Critics Association has nominated Waiting for “Superman” for 2 Critics Choice Awards for 2010 in the following categories:

Best Documentary Feature
Best Song/“Shine”

December 13, 2010 - [ 411mania.com ]

The American Film Institute announced its selections for AFI Awards 2010, AFI's almanac that records the year's most outstanding achievements in film, television, and other forms of the moving image arts. AFI Awards is the only recognition that honors the community's creative ensembles as a whole, acknowledging the collaborative nature of the art form.

AFI SPECIAL AWARDS:

- The King's Speech
- Waiting for Superman

December 7, 2010 - [ Parade Magazine ]

The Kids of Waiting for ‘Superman’
Five students who kicked off a national debate about education   
Game changers come in all shapes and sizes. In 1955, a defiant secretary refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus and jump-started the civil rights movement. In 1980, after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver, a California real-estate agent channeled her grief into creating Mothers Against Drunk Driving. In 1985, when a 13-year-old HIV-positive boy was barred from his Indiana school, the ensuing uproar helped break down the wall of prejudice against the disease. And in 2010, five children—Emily, 15; Anthony, 13; Daisy, 12; Francisco, 7; and Bianca, 7—revealed their hopes and dreams for a good education in the documentary Waiting for “Superman,” and in doing so catalyzed a very public discussion about our country’s broken school system.

December 3, 2010 - [ Producers Guild of America ]

The complete list of nominees:
 
“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” directed by Alex Gibney
“Earth Made of Glass,” directed by Deborah Scranton
“Inside Job,” directed by Charles Ferguson
“Smash His Camera,” directed by Leon Gast
“The Tillman Story,” directed by Amir Bar-Lev
“Waiting for Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim
 
The PGA will announce its narrative feature nominations on January 4, 2011.  Awards in both categories will be handed out January at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

December 2, 2010 - [ Grammy.com ]

The song “Shine,” from Waiting for “Superman”, has been nominated for a Grammy Award as Best R&B Song and John Legend and The Roots’ performance of “Shine” (album version) has been nominated for Best Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.  The winners will be announced on February 13th.

December 2, 2010 - [ National Board of Review ]

Waiting for “Superman” has been named Best Documentary and Fair Game has received “Freedom of Expression” Award (with two other films) from the National Board of Review.

December 2, 2010 - [ International Press Academy ]

The International Press Academy today announced the nominees for the 15th Annual Satellite Awards™.  
 
Among the nominees were Countdown to Zero and Waiting for “Superman” for Best Documentary, and Naomi Watts for Best Actress (Drama), Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor (Drama) and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth for Best Adapted Screenplay for Fair Game.
 
The winners will be announced on Sunday, December 19th.

November 10, 2010 - [ People's Choice ]

Other nominees:  The Last Exorcism; Let Me In;  A Nightmare on Elm Street; Resident Evil: Afterlife
The winners will be announced January 5th on CBS

November 8, 2010 - [ The Globe & Mail ]

Naomi Watts, star of the new political thriller Fair Game, says that for her, it was about getting the spy to talk. Jim Berk, chief executive officer of Participant Media, one of the film’s production companies, says that for him, it’s about pulling everyone into the conversation. But I think it’s about more than either of them is copping to.
 


Fair Game tells the riveting true story of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who specialized in weapons of mass destruction, whose life fell apart when her identity was revealed to the media by sources close to then-U.S.-President George W. Bush. It’s widely believed that Plame was outed to punish her husband, Joe Wilson, a former adviser to several administrations, because he’d written a piece for The New York Times that suggested that the White House exaggerated the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Tarred as traitors, Plame and Wilson lost their jobs and nearly lost their marriage.


November 5, 2010 - [ The New York Times ]

What makes the film work — in addition to the energy and agility of the performances and Mr. Liman’s fast and fluid style — is the precise counterpoint of public and domestic dramas. Mr. Penn and Ms. Watts are a convincingly imperfect couple. Joe, a business consultant who had been a diplomat, tries to suppress his frustration at how much his wife works, and perhaps also his envy that she has a more important and glamorous job than he does.

He is also her temperamental foil, floridly argumentative while she is circumspect. Joe loves to be right and to tell other people that they are wrong, whether at the dinner table or on television, and his zeal comes into conflict with both Valerie’s ingrained habit of secrecy and her natural reserve

November 5, 2010 - [ The Wall Street Journal: Speakeasy ]

Valerie Plame Wilson and actress Naomi Watts “Fair Game,” which opens on Friday, recounts the events that led to Valerie Plame Wilson being outed as a covert operative with the CIA after her husband, Joe Wilson, wrote a New York Times op-ed accusing the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence data to support their argument for war with Iraq.
 


Sean Penn plays Wilson and Naomi Watts is Plame Wilson, but to help promote the film, the real-life couple, whose books were adapted for the script, have been working with co-distributor Participant Media on a social action campaign. The campaign is designed to expand the leadership positions of women in the arena of nuclear security with local events and a summit in Washington held last month.

November 3, 2010 - [ Filter Magazine ]

When the Grammy and Oscar winning composer and producer T Bone Burnett saw Davis Guggenheim’s documentary film "Waiting for 'Superman'" at television legend Norman Lear’s home in Beverly Hills a few months ago, his reaction was immediate: he understood that the crisis affecting America’s public education system was overwhelming, and he wanted to do something to help.
 
Jim Berk, the CEO of Participant Media, the film production company behind 'Superman', immediately started a dialogue with Mr. Burnett that resulted in this season’s most critically acclaimed all star concert events: T Bone Burnett’s Speaking Clock Revue: "Waiting for 'Superman'" Edition. Net proceeds from the concerts, which took place in Boston and New York over the past ten days, as well as a live concert recording to be released in early 2011, will benefit music education programs via grants made by the Participant Foundation.

October 21, 2010 - [ The Huffington Post ]

Last month we announced HuffPost's 2010 Game Changers -- 100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders who are changing the way we look at the world and the way we live in it.

October 18, 2010 - [ Fortune Magazine ]

The entrepreneur backs heady causes and finances serious films (including documentary of the moment Waiting for "Superman"). How did this unassuming Canadian billionaire become a philanthropic superhero?

A few years ago Jeff Skoll, recently arrived in Hollywood from Silicon Valley, took a call from George Clooney. Clooney had directed Good Night, and Good Luck, one of the first films that Skoll financed, and positive reviews had begun fueling Skoll's reputation for backing serious projects. Clooney, it turns out, was doing someone else's bidding: Veteran newscaster Dan Rather wanted an introduction. "Well, George," Skoll teased the perennial Sexiest Man Alive. "I hate it when people use you to get to me."

October 11, 2010 - [ USA Today ]

The five children featured in Davis Guggenheim's documentary about the state of education in America received a special invitation from President Obama to visit the White House today. Francisco, left, Bianca, Daisy, Emily and Anthony from Waiting For Superman got the red carpet treatment and a private audience with the Prez. Obama called the film, which Oprah highlighted a few weeks ago, "heartbreaking.

October 6, 2010 - [ News 10 ]

A film grabbing national attention had local legislators speaking out about the issues students face in an old fashioned education system.
 
Tenured teachers, money lost in the hands of legislators and unions, and too many underperforming public schools are problems highlighted in the newly-released documentary "Waiting for Superman."
 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson were among a group of legislators and educators on hand for a screening of the film and a panel discussion at the Century Stadium Theatres in Sacramento Tuesday night.

October 1, 2010 - [ Washington Post ]

Let it be stipulated that, when the president of the United States talks about your movie, you've attained major buzz.

That's precisely what happened with "Waiting for 'Superman,' " Davis Guggenheim's documentary about education reform that, when it opened in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 24, arrived in the midst of escalating chatter. Just before the film opened, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who is lionized in the movie, made news at a screening when she decried the recent Democratic mayoral primary in Washington as "devastating" for the city's schoolchildren.

In the ensuing days, education reform seemed to take on a life of its own, with "Waiting for 'Superman' " leading the way. The whirlwind culminated on Monday's "Today" show, when President Obama mentioned the film while explaining his education agenda -- which closely tracks much of the documentary's message.

October 1, 2010 - [ Entertainment Tonight ]

These celebrities had a thing or two to learn before they made it big. In a public service announcement to promote the documentary 'Waiting for Superman,' celebs give thanks for the teachers that inspired and shaped them.
 
"A great teacher is a key to success," Jon Hamm of "Mad Men" says in the PSA. Commenting on what she learned from her teacher, actress Minnie Driver says, "I learned everything is possible."
 
'Waiting for Superman' is an inside look into how America's public school system is lacking within the lives of five families. The provocative documentary is in select theaters now.

September 28, 2010 - [ WBTV.com ]

Simply watching a movie could bring thousands of dollars to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.  More important however, say teachers and students, it will bring awareness.



 The movie is called "Waiting For Superman".  It's a documentary that puts into perspective the crisis in public schools.  It debuted in major cities on Friday, September 24, and will likely be coming to cities like Charlotte in the next several weeks.

Just watching the trailer has inspired one group of students to take action.



 The students at Renaissance at Olympic, a high school with several smaller schools inside, have started a movement to become active participants in their schools and their educations.  They realize their school is in better shape than many.