The first year of Cinema Scholars is officially in the books. In this anniversary piece, our team looks back on the experience including their favorite moments this past year.
Benjamin McVay, Contributor/Social Media
For the most part, the people working on this website all had experience doing something similar to what we do at Cinema Scholars. However, I don’t think any other site has the wide variety of content we publish at the high level of quality we strive for in every article.
When Hugh and I decided to start this website he was the brainchild of not solely wanting to do retro-style pieces, which was my initial idea. Instead, he thought it would be even better if we augmented that type of content with reviews and interviews for newer releases. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be as successful as it has become since we launched it a year later.
Favorite Moments
By far the best parts of the great experience for me are when we find out that a big “name” in Hollywood has read one of our articles. This has happened twice that we know of. The first time was when Ridley Scott left us a Facebook comment on Hugh’s A Clockwork Orange article (Click Here to read it).
The second was when we heard that Quentin Tarantino had read my in-depth interview with my friend Vintage Los Angeles’ Alison Martino (Click Here to read it). The Twitter account for the movie theatre he owns, The New Beverly, even retweeted the link to the article. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.
It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since we launched Cinema Scholars, and what a year it’s been! After a couple of decades at another website, I finally decided to take the leap to my new home at Cinema Scholars just ahead of the site’s official launch. I was excited by the concept of a website that blended stories and reviews from Old Hollywood along with reviews and interviews highlighting smaller current releases.
With many of the new writers covering film nostalgia, I brought my experience with contemporary independent film and festivals to the table. Since then, we’ve been covering a steady stream of new releases across various genres.
Highlights
September saw our first official press accreditation for the Fantastic Film Festival held annually in Austin, TX. In my coverage for the festival, I was honored to speak with visual effects pioneer Phil Tippett in support of his stop-motion opus Mad God. Interviewing horror icon Barbara Crampton for her role in the spine-tingler Alone With You was also a high point of my first year writing for Cinema Scholars.
(L-R) Barbara Crampton as Mom and Emily Bennett as Charlie in the horror film ‘Alone With You,’ a Dark Star Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures.
At Fantastic Fest, I was also able to attend the U.S. premiere of Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho with the director in attendance. Hopefully, there will be many more opportunities and events like these in the future for Cinema Scholars.
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO – U.S. Premiere w/ Edgar Wright and Tim League (Photo Credit: Jack Plunkett)
While I love contributing content to the site, I also enjoy communicating with studios and publicists to arrange film screeners and interviews for other Cinema Scholars writers. Being able to facilitate interviews with filmmaking luminaries like award-winning hair and make-up artist Donald Mowat (Dune, Blade Runner) as well as talent from numerous revered projects has been incredibly satisfying.
On the left, Donald Mowat wearing his award, a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
Kate Beckinsale in a scene from “Jolt.” The film is directed by Tanya Wexler and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on July 23, 2021
Ben Miller, Contributor
I am just so honored to be a small part of this team. Hugh, Ben, Diana, Rebecca, and the whole crew have been nothing but warm and welcoming to a small fry like myself.
Highlights/Favorite Moments
While having the ability to interview actors like Billy Howle and directors like Dan Mirvish, I had the exhausting pleasure of covering the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on behalf of the site. Just like all festivals have their duds, this year’s edition featured some of the most dynamic and challenging films I’ve seen in such a short span. The site and the team have allowed me to do that and I will be forever grateful.
Grandier (Oliver Reed) meets Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) for the first time in ‘THE DEVILS’
Hugh Feinberg, Editor-In-Chief/Contributor
I’ll second that comment above in that getting a “shout out” by Sir Ridley Scott is pretty darn cool and makes all of this worth it. What’s to say that hasn’t already been said. This site is a labor of love and is hard work, but the rewards are extremely satisfying. In just under one year we have attained a growing loyal following of readers and that’s simply awesome.
This is a difficult field to break into as there are many, many websites out there devoted to all things cinema, TV, comics, entertainment, etc. What Ben, Rebecca, and I thought was how could we make this site even the slightest bit “unique.” The plan we came up with seems to have paid off so far. It also helps that our writers are all writing at an extreme level of quality and skill that rivals anything on the internet today.
I’d personally like to thank everyone who contributed to our little website that could over the past year. This includes the following people whose participation has been incredibly valuable in this site getting its legs underneath it and propelling things forward:
Thanks to all our writers for making this first year a year to remember!
Of course, it goes without saying that Rebecca Elliott and Benjamin McVay are both the engines that keep this ship running. I am truly honored to be working with them on this site as well as getting to know them better as friends. I hope that this journey will continue to move forward and prosper creatively.
Highlights/Favorite Moments
In all honesty, it’s really hard to pinpoint just one favorite moment or highlight. Unlike other publications, for the most part, Cinema Scholars writes about stuff that we love. Anytime I write about something that I love and can share with others, that is truly a “highlight.” An example is an article I wrote about the fantastic Apple TV+ series Severance. This was a deep dive into the making of this insane show and it was fantastic to see that our readers responded to the piece.
As an editor, it is always a joy to read new articles from our incredible writers. There is no better feeling than reading and getting a new article into the pipeline. Aside from that, it’s also an honor that in just one year, we have gotten press credentials for three of the most prestigious film festivals in the world: Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca Festival. I attended several in-person events for Tribeca and that was a huge highlight for me. Mixing it up with fellow writers and journalists from all over the world was exhilarating.
Here’s to hoping that the next year at Cinema Scholars will be as good as the first!
I was approached to join Cinema Scholars before we had even decided upon the name of the site. I was interested in the idea of being part of a somewhat ‘retro’ site that did not have to constantly look for the latest scoops. The added plus was being able to go into depth about the interesting people that have made some of the best entertainment in the history of films and television.
Highlights/Favorite Moments
I have to say that I came in to write a few articles a month but ended up in the background building this site. It was a great learning curve and I was glad to step in and get the site up and running. Look for more interesting updates to the site later this year!
