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Mere days before the political primaries begin, which will eventually lead to selecting his successor, Barack Obama is all the buzz in Park City after the festival screening of Southside with You, screenwriter/director Richard Tanne’s debut film which recounts a very special day in the lives of the people we now refer to as the First Couple. Tanne’s film details the Obamas’ first date – although Michelle (Tika Sumpter) may (and does) have something to say about that characterization in the film! On that summer day in 1989 Chicago Harvard law student Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) in his late twenties is spending the summer back in Chicago interning at a prestigious law firm where his advisor is fellow Harvard alumna Michelle Robinson.

For the third year in a row the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was applauded at the annual Noir City, the San Francisco noir film festival, for its support of the restoration of endangered noir films. The 14th edition of Noir City, currently under way in San Francisco, has an added international flavor: the film restored with HFPA support, Los tallos amargos (The Bitter Stems) is not a USA noir, but an Argentinian classic, the 1956 winner of the Silver Condor award for best feature, given by the Argentinian Film Critics Association.

He co-wrote movies such as The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, produced Brokeback Mountain, founded and ran Focus Features (2002-2013), where he oversaw the production and distribution of Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Kids Are All Right, but this year, at the age of 57, James Schamus arrived at Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut Indignation, which he adapted from Philip Roth’s novel of the same name. “I never really had any particular envy or urge over the years to direct,” he explained at an HFPA-hosted dinner in Park City.

In its domestic debut, Kung Fu Panda 3 won first place with $41 million, falling behind the $47 million of Panda 2 five years ago. The decline, however, was highly compensated by its international numbers, starting with China where the animated movie produced by DreamWorks and Oriental DreamWorks along with China Film Group made a massive $58.

Only Cannes has more events than Sundance. A serious party hopper could easily start around 3pm every day and not get home until a good 12 hours later.

When Hateful 8 won the Golden Globe for Best Score of January 10, director Quentin Tarantino stepped onstage to accept the award for composer Ennio Morricone, 87, who was unable to travel from Rome to receive the globe in person. Tarantino called Morricone his favorite composer – and not only in the movie composing world: “I’m talking Mozart, I’m talking Beethoven and Schubert,” gushed the director, “that's what I’m talking about!” Now Tarantino is not a complete stranger to, ehm, enthusiasm but in this case his words were not hyperbolic, at least not to Morricone’s legions of fans.

Want to know what trends we'll see on the red carpet as awards season peaks? Look no further than the Golden Globes - all the major style tendencies were clearly spelled out and displayed brilliantly by our nominees, presenters and guests. Here's a strong trend: don't paint it black, embrace the blues.

Climate change, gun control (or lack thereof), ISIS, women’s rights, gender issues, a privileged socialite’s life, poetry, and music – these were the most timely themes of the documentaries that premiered at the Sundance festival over the past ten days. There was no shocking doc that had people lining up around five blocks (and not getting in) like last year’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

Indignation. Directed by James Schamus.

Happy belated 80th birthday to our six-time Golden Globe winner Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo, born January 28m 1936 in New York, NY - and better known as Alan Alda. Nominated 14 times, Alda received his six Globes for his work on the same show: as Captain Benjamin Pierce in the hit TV series M*A*S*H.