I traced the backing behind 3,044 features selected by Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance and Toronto to find out how many got ...

I am writing this as I fly out of Toronto, after spending five days at the film industry’s brand-new major market, TIFF: The Market, attached to the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. A number ...

How tall does Tom Cruise look in his movies? I measured 8 million frames from 2,000 films to find out whether Hollywood's ...

As with all the best questions I answer, this one came from Ted Hope. Ted sat on the Debut film jury at the recent Venice Film Festival and emailed to ask: I was surprised to learn that the Venice ...

I’m a huge fan, and if you like the kinds of things I write about, then you’ll love his work. So today I’m giving the floor to Daniel, sharing one of his posts on the future of theatrical. Few ...

Every year, tens of thousands of screenwriters pay to enter contests. A major selling point for them is that winning (or placing highly) will mean that the right people will finally read your script.

I had the privilege of seeing Terminator 2 in the cinema a few weeks ago, in a 4K restoration released to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Beyond providing a terrifying context to the very real ...

In my latest Film Data Scientist video, I’m looking at on-screen death rates to figure out how representative movies are of real life. Plus, if you want to join the crime underworld, I’ll show you ...

At CinemaCon last week, five of the most-hyped announcements from the major studios were headlined by actors aged 58 or older. Top Gun 3 with Tom Cruise at 63 Highlander with Russell Crowe at 62 and ...

My latest Film Data Scientist video, this time investigating why so many film posters seem to have forgotten the names of their lead actors. I’ll be uploading new video essays every couple of weeks ...

Ted Hope reached out to ask: What percentage of first-time feature filmmakers made a second film within five years? A damn fine question. Is it talent? Connections? Money? Luck? A famous parent and a ...

Films evolve in many small ways that are easy to miss if you are not looking for them. One area I had not studied before is shot composition. It is such a basic building block of visual storytelling ...