We’d be lying if we told you we didn’t love being Arizona’s largest film festival. It gives us the ability to throw a great party every year and show you hundreds of amazing films. We’re fortunate to be where we are.

But size and reach aren’t everything. We take a lot of pride in the fact that our festival retains a “home-grown” attitude. It’s run by real people – not a large media company or conglomerate. In fact, nearly every staff member you see at the festival is a volunteer. They do it for the love of film.

In this series, The People of PFF, you’ll get to know some of our awesome staff members and volunteers. Maybe you’ll even learn a little more about our festival. So, without further delay, we present Jason Carney.

We’ve heard some version of that question over the past few weeks. We’re listening!

While we can’t release the full schedule quite yet, we can assure you that you’ll be able to plan your festival week very, very soon. But feel free to keep asking! It makes us feel special.

In the meantime, here are a couple choice selections:

Hollywood to Dollywood – A documentary about two brothers with a special fondness for Dolly Parton and an incomparable drive to get their screenplay into her hands.

How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song - After landing an opportunity to write for an Off-Broadway musical, Joe is forced to cast either the love of his life or his newly discovered muse.

Hit our Facebook for more announcements and keep checking back for more!

The example that comes to mind first: “Real Steel,” in which a boy reconnects with his boxing robot trainer father while giant machines duke it out Rocky-style. If you missed it in theatres, don’t worry, you can now buy it on Blu-ray or just play a few rounds of Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots with your dear old pappy.

And now, coming straight out of your childhood and into a theater near you: “Battleship.” As in “‘E-4.’ ‘You sunk my battleship!’” How do they turn the beloved game into a movie? Aliens. If you don’t remember alien invaders in your version of this classic, you’re not alone. But who knows, maybe it will end up being pleasantly entertaining. Especially with dialogue like this:

Admiral Shane: “Prepare to fire.”
Crew member: “Sir, which weapons?”
Admiral Shane: “All of them.”

But wait, there’s more! While Universal did pass on a project to produce a movie based on the spook-tacular sleepover toy, the Ouija Board, another studio, Relativity Media, didn’t consider it too much of a “stretch” to give the green light to this little gem: http://bit.ly/wrLvcD.

This revelation leaves us with only one unanswered question: How soon before the lights dim down for the premiere of “Connect Four The Movie?”

Give up? This year is the first either has been nominated for an Oscar (it’s pretty much a crime that this is Oldman’s first time around).

The Hollywood Reporter has posted their annual list of facts, stats, shockers, and snubs about the Academy Award nominations. The long, long list contains many interesting items like:

“The Artist becomes just the fifth predominately or entirely silent film to score a best picture nomination and the first in 83 years…”

and

“Hugo becomes just the fourth film released in 3D to score a best picture nomination…”

And then there are the entries that make you wonder, “Who keeps track of all this stuff?” Regardless, this helpful list should make it easy for you to take the title in any 2012 Oscar Trivia contest: http://bit.ly/wzCKtI

BONUS LINK: Cutest Oscar Dog Showdown

The best picture category is interesting this year with only nine nominees. Apparently after upping it to 10 from 5, the Academy has devised some sort of system where a film must receive a certain number of first-place votes to be nominated – thus, the odd number of nominees.

While some may be shocked to find Malik’s “Tree of Life” in the running for best pic, there aren’t any surprises in the best actor/actress category. Meryl Streep, whose performance was praised in the critically-panned film “The Iron Lady,”  is up for her 17th nomination. She has astonishingly only ever won two and the buzz is that Viola Davis (The Help) will take it this year.

Check out the list of nominations for some of the top categories here and then hit the link at the bottom for a full printable list.

 BEST PICTURE

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis, The Help

Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Demián Bichir, A Better Life

George Clooney, The Descendants

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt, Moneyball

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

The Artist, Written by Michel Hazanavicius

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Margin Call, Written by J.C. Chandor

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen

A Separation, Written by Asghar Farhad

http://a.oscar.go.com/media/2012/pdf/nominees.pdf

Dun, dun, dun, dun, DA-dun, dun, DA-dun…

 If you guessed correctly (The Imperial March, duh!) then your Friday night probably just got booked.

Mesa Arts Center is hosting “Symphony Pops: The Music of John Williams” this Friday, January 27^th at 7:30 in the PM. In a few short hours, conductor Joseph Young will take you on a whirlwind ride as you relive all your favorite moments from childhood. You’ll hear compositions from Star Wars, of course, and…

…JAWS
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dundundundundundundun

 …Superman
Dun, dundundundun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dundundundun, DUN, DUN, DUN!

 …and many, many more.

The concert, presented by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, will be very similar to what you just read except better.  For the John Williams aural experience of a lifetime, pick up some tickets over at mesaartscenter.com or just hit the link.

Suspicion Official Trailer from Tea, Earl Grey, Hot Productions on Vimeo.

2011 PFF selection, “Suspicion” will be opening at Harkins Valley Art on March 2nd. Here’s the trailer.

COME FOLLOW ME TEASER from APAIRUS COMPANY on Vimeo.

See the trailer for “Come Follow Me”. See the short as part of the Arizona Shorts Program at the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival.

We’ve taken it upon ourselves to modernize the PFF website for your surfing pleasure. At the top of the page you’ll notice we’ve simplified our navigation, making it easier for you to get the information you want, when you want it.

We’ll also be sharing film news and updated festival info on our shiny new blog, so be sure to bookmark it and check back at least semi-often. We get lonely when you don’t come around.

Go on and take it for a test drive.

**Special raise-the-roof (do people still do that anymore?) shout-out to Marty Freetage for his time and phenomenal design skills.**

Anderson died peacefully Jan. 1 at a hospital, British Academy of Fencing President Philip Bruce wrote on the organization’s website.

“He was truly one of our greatest fencing masters and a world-class film fight director and choreographer and both the fencing community and film world will miss him,” Bruce wrote. “My heart felt sympathies and thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time.”

Also read: 3D Version of ‘Star Wars’ Gets a Release Date

Considered to be Hollywood’s go-to choreographer for sword-fighting, Bruce tutored Sean Connery and Lindsay Lohan, among others.

In “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” Anderson was Darth Vader’s onscreen stunt double in the light saber battles — including the scene in which the character cuts off the hand of Luke Skywalker. Anderson was uncredited in both films.

In a 1983 with Starlog magazine, Mark Hamill, who played Skywalker, said Anderson’s contributions to the films should be made known.

Also read: ’Star Wars: The Complete Saga’ Sets Blu-ray Sales Records

“Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader’s fighting,” he said. “It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told [director] George [Lucas] I didn’t think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It’s ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man.”

Anderson also lent his sword-fighting talents to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Princess Bride,” “The Mask of Zorro” and the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap,” for which he tutored Lohan.

He was also Connery’s stunt double in “Highlander” and performed sword-fighting stunts for Johnny Depp’s and Orlando Bloom’s characters in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

Bruce is survived by his wife and three children.

Read more on Mr. Anderson’s life over on NPR.org. There’s also a bonus video of Viggo Mortensen talking about his time training with the sword-wielding legend.