Portal:Film

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The Film Portal

Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Film is an important art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten, and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and in turn, affect them.

Traditional films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to a combination of physiological and psychological effects. One is known as persistence of vision—whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers also perceive motion due to psychological effects called beta movement and the phi phenomenon.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture; picture show; photo-play; flick; and most commonly, movie. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen; the silver screen; the cinema; and the movies.

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Tropic Thunder is a 2008 American action satire comedy film directed and produced by Ben Stiller. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated writer and director decide to drop them in the middle of a jungle, the actors are forced to portray their roles without the comforts of a film set. Written by Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen, the film was produced by DreamWorks and Red Hour Films and distributed by Paramount Pictures. After the film was greenlit in 2006, filming took place in 2007 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai over thirteen weeks and was later deemed the largest film production in the island's history. It received generally favorable reviews with critics approving of the film's characters, story, and faux trailers while criticizing its offensive content. In its North American opening weekend, the film earned US$26 million and retained the number one position for the first three weekends of release. The film and its cast were nominated for several awards from various groups including the Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics Association, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Tropic Thunder grossed $180 million in theaters before its release on home video on November 18, 2008.

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Credit: Maharepa

The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the "Berlinale" (in reference to the Biennale at Venice), ranks alongside Venice and Cannes as Europe's leading film festival.

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Did you know...

...that Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, the first feature film in Hong Kong cinema, was the first ever Chinese film to be shown abroad?

...that the 1927 silent film The Scar of Shame is an early example of a "race movie," in which a feature film was made by a black cast exclusively for black audiences?

...that Cheryl Dunye's 1996 film The Watermelon Woman was the first feature film to be directed by a black lesbian?

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Eric Bana (born Eric Banadinovich on August 9, 1968) is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper (2000). After a decade of critically acclaimed roles in Australian television shows and films, Bana gained Hollywood's attention by playing the role of American Delta Force Sergeant Norm 'Hoot' Gibson in Black Hawk Down (2001) and the lead role as Bruce Banner in the Ang Lee directed film Hulk (2003). An accomplished dramatic actor and comedian, he received Australia's highest film and television awards for his performances in Chopper and Full Frontal. Bana performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of low-budget and major studio films, ranging from romantic comedies and drama to science fiction and action thrillers. His most popular films include Black Hawk Down (2001), Hulk (2003), Troy (2004), and Munich (2005).

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Judy Garland received numerous awards and honors in the course of a career that spanned over 40 years. Garland won or was nominated for awards for her work in motion pictures, television, music recording and on stage. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award and was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1940. Garland won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a second, and she received a special Tony Award for her record-breaking concert run at New York's Palace Theatre. Garland won two Grammy Awards for her concert album Judy at Carnegie Hall. Garland has also received a number of posthumous awards and honors. She was the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. She has twice been honored on United States postage stamps and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The American Film Institute has repeatedly recognized her talent, placing Garland eighth on its list of the top 100 female stars of all time and placing five of her recordings in its list of the 100 best songs from films, including "Over the Rainbow" at number one.

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It [the movie art form] combines so many other art forms, as do theater and opera, but the essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images, images of people during emotional moments, or just images in a general sense, but put together in a kind of alchemy. A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.

— Francis Ford Coppola

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