The Film Industry

This is a "catch–all" category for a variety of questions about the film industry. It includes studios, producers, production tools, film festivals, and film awards (not including the Oscars, which get a couple of pages all to themselves).

Bristol–based animation studio, founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton: best known for Nick Park's stop–motion films (many of them featuring Wallace & Gromit)			Aardman Animations
US film director and writer, has won more Baftas than anyone else			Woody Allen
Informal name given to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai (previously known as Bombay)			Bollywood
Produced propaganda films such as the feature Victory Through Air Power and the short Education for Death (both 1943), during World War II			Disney
Co–producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (with Saul Zaentz)			Michael Douglas
Film company founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzeberg and David Geffen; its films were distributed by Disney between 2009 and 2016, and by Universal since 2016			DreamWorks
Britain's first sound studio (1931)			Ealing
Formed in 1979 by George Harrison and Denis O'Brien, initially to finance Monty Python's Life of Brian			Handmade Films
First knight of the cinema			Alexander Korda
Name of the MGM lion (actually at least five different lions have been used)			Leo
Film company bought by Disney in 2012 for $4 billion (owner)			George Lucas
"More stars than there are in the heavens": motto of			MGM
Company founded in 1961 "to make English language films in India aimed at the international market"			Merchant Ivory
Film and television production and distribution company, founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 1979: sold to Disney in 1993, and to a private holding company in 2005			Miramax
Studio that made six of the seven Road films; re–established in late 1960s and early 70s under Robert Evans, after near bankruptcy, with films such as Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather, Chinatown			Paramount
Logo features a mountain peak surrounded by a circle of stars
"The oldest name in the cinema today" – founded in France 1895, famous for its newsreels 1910–56, introduced by a crowing rooster; bought by RKO 1931, Warner Bros 1947			Pathé
Major film studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire – founded in 1934, particularly associated with James Bond and Carry On			Pinewood
Computer animation studio, founded in 1979 as the Graphics division of George Lucas's Lucasfilm company; spun off in 1986, when Steve Jobs became its major shareholder (having left Apple); bought by Disney in 2006; products include the Toy Story franchise, Monsters Inc (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL–E (2008) and Up (2009)			Pixar
British film–making partnership – together often known by the name of their production company, The Archers; they wrote the scripts together, but the first usually directed and the second usually acted as producer; their best–known films include The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)			Michael Powell
			Emeric Pressburger
Entered the film industry in the 1930s to counteract the negative influence that films were perceived to be having on family life in Great Britain, having started showing religious films as a Sunday School teacher in the Methodist Church			J. Arthur Rank
Polish–born father and Mexican–born son: controversial producers of The Three Musketeers (1973, and sequels) and the Christopher Reeve Superman films (1978–83)			Alexander & Ilya Salkind
Producer of the Keystone Cops films			Mack Sennett
Major film studio in Surrey, founded 1931, associated with British Lion Films; merged with Pinewood 2001			Shepperton
The USA's biggest festival for independent films: named ultimately after a Robert Redford film role, held annually in Utah			Sundance
Disney "label" used for films with adult content – started 1984 for Splash			Touchstone
Studio formed by merger, 1935; run by Darryl F. Zanuck, 1935–71; saved from bankruptcy by The Sound of Music			20th Century Fox
Founded 1910 by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.), D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford			United Artists
Studio founded in 1912, and said (by Wikipedia in 2023) to be the oldest in the USA: logo features a spinning globe			Universal
Produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons (1930–69) – featuring (among others) Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Speedy Gonzales and the Tasmanian Devil			Warner Bros
Former boxer (British and Empire heavyweight champion, 1911–19) who banged the J. Arthur Rank gong			'Bombardier' Billy Wells
Informal name given to the New Zealand film industry (see Bollywood)			Wellywood

British cinema chain founded by Oscar Deutsch in Brierley Hill (near Dudley, Worcs) 1928; sold to Rank after Deutsch's death from cancer in 1941			Odeon
Office that administered the US film Production Code, 1930–67 (often called censorship)			Hays Office
Term popularised by Alfred Hitchcock, for a plot element that may or may not turn out to be a red herring – sometimes called a "plot coupon"			McGuffin
Term used for a comedy film genre, popular in the 1930s and 40s, typically involving an assertive female and a weak male, resulting in a "battle of the sexes"; named after a type of baseball delivery that breaks in the "wrong" direction			Screwball

Golden and Silver Bears: awarded at		Berlin Film Festival
Grand Prix, Palme d'Or, Golden Camera Prize: awarded at		Cannes Film Festival
Home of the world's oldest film festival, founded in 1932; principal awards are the Golden Lion (for best film) and the Volpi Cup (for best actor and actress, named after the founder)		Venice
Film and television awards, awarded annually since 1944 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association		Golden Globes
Created 1980 by US copywriter John Wilson (first awarded 1981) as a counterpoint to the Oscars – "honouring" the worst in film		Golden Raspberry Awards
Awarded annually in Hollywood to sci–fi films (a.k.a. Golden Scrolls)		Saturn Awards

Name given as director of Hollywood films (1969–99) that the actual director has disowned; he had to prove to the Directors' Guild of America that he had been deprived of artistic control. (Since the practice became public knowledge, a different pseudonym has been used in each case)		Alan Smithee
1969 film that started the above practice (actor Richard Widmark disapproved of Robert Totten's direction, and arranged to have him replaced by Don Siegel. Neither director wanted to be credited)		Death of a Gunfighter

Second electrician		Best boy / girl
Camera mounting		Dolly
Responsible for post–production sound effects (after the man who pioneered the art at Universal Studios in the early days of talkies)		Foley artist
In charge of camera support equipment (mounts, etc.)		Grip
Senior grip on a set		Key grip
Head electrician		Gaffer
Small wooden platform for vertically challenged actors		Pancake

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24