A deep dive into the emergence and success of independent filmmaking in America A Los Angeles Times Bestseller The most important development in American culture of the last two decades is the emergence of independent cinema as a viable alternative to Hollywood. Indeed, while Hollywood's studios devote much of their time and energy to churning out big-budget, star-studded event movies, a renegade independent cinema that challenges mainstream fare continues to flourish with strong critical support and loyal audiences. Cinema of Outsiders is the first and only comprehensive chronicle of contemporary independent movies from the late 1970s up to the present. From the hip, audacious early works of maverick David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Spike Lee, to the contemporary Oscar-winning success of indie dynamos, such as the Coen brothers ( Fargo ), Quentin Tarentino ( Pulp Fiction ), and Billy Bob Thornton ( Sling Blade ), Levy describes in a lucid and accessible manner the innovation and diversity of American indies in theme, sensibility, and style. Documenting the socio-economic, political and artistic forces that led to the rise of American independent film, Cinema of Outsiders depicts the pivotal role of indie guru Robert Redford and his Sundance Film Festival in creating a showcase for indies, the function of film schools in supplying talent, and the continuous tension between indies and Hollywood as two distinct industries with their own structure, finance, talent and audience. Levy describes the major cycles in the indie film movement: regional cinema, the New York school of film, African-American, Asian American, gay and lesbian, and movies made by women. Based on exhaustive research of over 1,000 movies made between 1977 and 1999, Levy evaluates some 200 quintessential indies, including Choose Me , Stranger Than Paradise , Blood Simple , Blue Velvet , Desperately Seeking Susan , Slacker , Poison , Reservoir Dogs , Gas Food Lodging , Menace II Society , Clerks , In the Company of Men , Chasing Amy , The Apostle , The Opposite of Sex , and Happiness . Cinema of Outsiders reveals the artistic and political impact of bold and provocative independent movies in displaying the cinema of "outsiders"-the cinema of the "other America."

Oscar« Fever is both history and appreciation, filled with insider stories and little-known facts, such as who came up with the idea of the Academy Awards«; who the youngest and oldest winners are; which film garnered the most nominations; who has been nominated the most times without ever winning and more. Included are all the latest anecdotes and statistics, as well as a selection of film stills from the greatest winners, nostalgic and new, to tell the inside story of Oscar«. .The Academy Awards ceremony is the single most anticipated and widely viewed spectacle in the world. It has close to one billion viewers every year. How has this event grown, in some seventy-five years, from an intimate gathering of directors and actors to a global phenomenon that dominates magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and the internet.Oscar« Fever is a completely new and far more popular rewriting of And the Winner Is...(1987;1990). It is both history and appreciation, chockablock with inside stories and little-known facts. Included are all the latest facts and statistics, as well as film stills, nostalgic and new, to tell the inside story of Oscar and what the awards really say about our times.