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The Southern California Journalism Awards are given by the Los Angeles Press Club, the city’s oldest and most prestigious professional association. The prizes were first awarded in forties when Los Angeles journalism was dominated by the city’s many newspapers, TV was in its infancy, women journalists were rare in mainstream media and minorities, even rarer.

After a tremendous opening run Transformers: Age of Extinction is not just this weekend’s number one movie, but also that of every weekend this year to date. Michael Bay’s fourth installment of the Paramount tent-pole series, revamped with Mark Wahlberg taking the place of recently troubled star Shia Lebouf and the addition of robotic dinosaurs, earned $100 million at the domestic box office.

              It was more than half a century ago when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognized the chameleon-like acting skills of a newcomer to the big screen. In 1957 the HFPA nominated Eli Wallach for Best Actor Award for his role in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll.

Eli Wallach was an American original and, some would say a national treasure. Born in Brooklyn and with a college degree in education, Wallach came into serious acting relatively late, after serving in World War 2, studying at the Actor’s studio with a generation of great American actors including Marlon Brando and Paul Newman.

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Tyrant, a new dramatic series premiering on FX is a reworking of an Israeli format (the country which has already brought us In Treatment and Homeland). A group of HFPA journalists recently traveled to Israel to visit with the production of the show.

Laughter rang louder than music as Think Like a Man Too finished first ahead of Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Broadways’ hit Jersey Boys to take this weekend’s top domestic honors with a $30 million close. The sequel from director Tim Story, based on Steve Harvey’s life-coaching book for women, Act like A Lady, Think Like a Man, finished just below the original’s $33.

Two champions divided the spoils over the weekend as How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 22 Jump Street managed to hit their respective target demographics with aplomb, and avoided stepping on each others tails. Both films did exceptionally well given their budgets and ambition but with its $60 million domestic haul 22 Jump Street was, in the end, the stronger contender.

Ale Abreu’s The Boy and the World won the top awards at the 38th Annecy International Animation Film Festival that concluded Sunday in France. Considered the Cannes of the Animation Industry the two awards bestowed upon the Brazilian toon only underlines the strength of that country’s animation industry.

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