News and Events

The Oscar-nominated documentary short “Poster Girl’’ is Newton native Sara Nesson’s first film, but it was only a matter of time. After all, she’s proud to say, it was beneath her father’s editing table that she learned to crawl. Robert Nesson of Somerville, an independent producer/director whose films focus on the environment, human rights, and educational projects (he’s also an instructor at Emerson College), taught his daughter not just the nuts and bolts of filmmaking but how it can raise awareness and effect social change.

The old Quincy High School overshadowed its newer counterpart Wednesday as offices were set up inside for the production crew of a movie that will star Kevin James. The movie, titled “Here Comes the Boom,” may be about a high school teacher who turns to professional fighting as a way to save his school’s music program.

MPC President Joe Maiella talks about the film industry in Massachusetts on Fox 25.

Production is scheduled to begin in Quincy this month on a new Kevin James flick, “Here Comes the Boom,” and the comedy about a teacher who tries to save his school’s music program by becoming a mixed-martial arts fighter is going to save some real-life music programs.

The interior of the vacant school, which is next to the new high school on Coddington Street, will be the setting for scenes that are tentatively scheduled to be filmed starting next month, said Christopher Walker, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch.

After receiving a public relations boost from the Academy Award-nominated films “The Fighter” and “The Social Network” and Golden Globe nominee “The Town” – all filmed in Massachusetts – state officials are looking to capitalize by attracting more major motion pictures to the Bay State.

As Oscar season enters its homestretch, Academy voters receive their final ballots, consensus gels around the favorites—and one name you hear over and over is Melissa Leo. She’s already won a Golden Globe and a SAG award for her portrayal of Alice Ward, the tough-as-nails Massachusetts mother in The Fighter.

“The Social Network,” “The Town,” and “The Fighter” — all filmed in and around Boston — received a total of 16 Oscar nominations Tuesday. The nominations included Best Picture and Best Director nods, along with possible awards for actors Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jesse Eisenberg and Jeremy Renner.

Dicky Eklund’s last stop yesterday was Sully’s Tuxedos in Lowell. “The Fighter’’ had received an impressive seven Oscar nominations, and Eklund was thinking about what he might wear when Hollywood hands out the hardware Feb. 27.

Hollywood tilted significantly and decisively to the Northeast yesterday. An unusually high percentage of nominations for the 83d annual Academy Awards went to movies set in Boston and its environs, and featuring actors either from Massachusetts or playing local natives.

The Academy Award bounty for Mark Wahlberg’s “The Fighter” and Harvard-to-Facebook tale “The Social Network” — and a Best Supporting Actor nod for Jeremy Renner, who played a bank-robbing Charlestown punk in Ben Affleck’s “The Town,”

Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced this morning and films shot on location in Massachusetts garnered a total of 16 nods, including Best Motion Picture of the Year for “The Social Network” and “The Fighter,” starring Boston native Mark Wahlberg. The film is also attached to local producer Dorothy Aufiero of Red Hawk Entertainment. “The Town,” directed by Cambridge native Ben Affleck, received a best supporting actor nomination.

Because Pittsburgh’s steel mills have vanished, John Wells shot “The Company Men” in Boston.

The Hollywood Radio and Press Foundation opened their annual Golden Globes ceremony by naming Christian Bale this year’s best supporting actor for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund in The Fighter.

“The Social Network,’’ the story of the founding of Facebook at Harvard University, won best motion picture, drama, best director, best screenplay and best score at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

A complete list of recipients at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 68th Golden Globe Awards, presented last night in Los Angeles.

With a nod to Mark Wahlberg’s and author Dennis Lehane’s Dorchester ties, and the successes of locals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Denby wonders aloud whether this trend amounts to a “last united stand in multicultural America.” Denby declares “In part because the Boston talk has so much salt, “The Fighter” and “Company Men” are among the best movies of the year.”

All of our shooting was done “on location,” meaning we really didn’t use any sets or studio space. Often times we were shooting in live, working environments, which presented its own set of challenges, mostly related to sound. We shot in New Bedford, Fairhaven, Westport, Fall River, and even out at sea on a commercial fishing boat.

“Boston must have a wicked awesome agent: Beantown and its burbs were everywhere.”

When Mark Wahlberg and director David O. Russell asked the 62-year-old Lowell police sergeant, Mickey O’Keefe, to play himself in “The Fighter,’’ the new, critically lauded film about boxer “Irish’’ Micky Ward, his first reaction was to laugh them off.