This morning at 3am the Library of Congress announced the new additions to the National Film Registry. There are now about 750 films in the registry, including the ones announced this morning.

Legendary documentary filmmaker DA Pennebaker, 93 years young. already has one on the list– “Don’t Look Back,” his groundbreaking 1967 film about Bob Dylan. Pennebaker was the first doc worker to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, back in 2013. He and his award winning filmmaker wife Chris Hegedus were nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for “The War Room,” which should also be in the film registry.

Today, his seminal 1968 film “Monterey Pop,” joins the National Film Registry. He shot it at the groundbreaking Monterey Pop Film Festival in 1967. It was the summer of love. The Festival introduced Janis Joplin and Otis Redding, among others, to the world. It was organized, as you can see in the film, by the Mamas and the Papas, Lou Adler, and Bill Graham. A young Clive Davis can be seen rocking out among the fans in his tennis sweater. This was before Woodstock. Everything changed.

Penny, who I was lucky to make “Only the Strong Survive” with in 2002, told me last night that “the crew of Monterey Pop should get the applause. The cameramen were all novices. I’d send them out in the morning with a roll of film and told them to just shoot.”

The cameramen were his allies, all famous now: Richard Leacock, Al Maysles, Nick Doob, Jim Desmond among them. I was lucky and blessed to have Nick and Jim help shoot “Only the Strong Survive” decades later.

Penny told me: “I didn’t know how to make a film with five or six people. I thought it was a personal thing, you did yourself. In the end, what a gift they were. You have to have the best people you can find help you.”

And who was his favorite performer? “Janis Joplin, because I got to know her so well,” he said. “If she were alive  I know she’d be writing and doing all kinds of things. But I loved Otis Redding, too” In truth, long friendships were formed by Penny with John and Michelle Phillips, Lou Adler, everyone who worked on the project.

I’ll update the other registry inductees when I wake up. Why the press release is coming at 3am eludes me.

Here’s the full list of the 2018 additions:

• Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
• Broadcast News (1987)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• Cinderella (1950)
• Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
• Dixon-Wanamaker Expedition to Crow Agency (1908)
• Eve’s Bayou (1997)
• The Girl Without a Soul (1917)
• Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy-Headed People (1984)
• Hearts and Minds (1974)
• Hud (1963)
• The Informer (1935)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
• Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
• Monterey Pop (1968)
• My Fair Lady (1964)
• The Navigator (1924)
• On the Town (1949)
• One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
• Pickup on South Street (1953)
• Rebecca (1940)
• The Shining (1980)
• Smoke Signals (1998)
• Something Good – Negro Kiss (1898)

The African American Film Critics association has chosen “Black Panther” and its director Ryan Coogler as the Best of 2018. John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman”), Regina Hall (“Support the Girls”), Russell Hornsby (“The Hate U Give”), Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”) and Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”)
won acting honors. I’m thrilled for all them, but a little sad they didn’t somehow include Mahershala Ali from “Green Book” or Viola Davis from “Widows.” But really, all their choices are excellent. Bravo! PS The Regina’s are kicking ass this season!

AAFCA Awards Winners:

Best Film: “Black Panther”
Best Director: Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”)
Best Screenplay:  Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”)
Best Actor: John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman”)
Best Actress: Regina Hall (“Support the Girls)”
Best Supporting Actor: Russell Hornsby (“The Hate U Give”)
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”)
Best Breakout Performance: Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”)
Best Animated Film: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
Best Independent Film: “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Best Foreign Film: “Roma”
Best Documentary: “Quincy”
Best Song: “All The Stars” (“Black Panther”)
Best New Media: “Red Table Talk”
Best TV Drama:  “Queen Sugar”
Best TV Comedy:  “Insecure”

AAFCA’s Top Ten List:

1. Black Panther (Walt Disney Studios)
2. If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures)
3. The Hate U Give (20^thCentury Fox)
4. A Star is Born (Warner Bros. Studios)
5. Quincy (Netflix)
6. Roma (Netflix)
7. Blindspotting (Lionsgate)
8. The Favourite (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
9. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
10. Widows (20^thCentury Fox)

from the press release–

“Selecting Disney’s “Black Panther” as the year’s best film was a no-brainer,” stated AAFCA co-founder Shawn Edwards.  “Beyond its tremendous reviews and historic box office performance, the film changed the culture and became a defining moment for Black America. Finally, after years of painfully negative and blatantly harmful depictions of blacks on screen there was a movie full of positive images and characters that blacks could rally around. For many blacks the film’s release was like a national holiday. The movie sparked a sense of pride and inspired Afro-futurism-theme parties, academic panel discussions, scholarship funds, vacation plans to Africa and thousands of black kids dressing-up like their favorite characters on Halloween. Many have waited a lifetime for a moment like this and “Black Panther” delivered with a multi-generational appeal never before seen.”

“It’s been a breakthrough year in cinema on a number of fronts,” said Gil Robertson, president of AAFCA. “Most significantly, the tremendous success of “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians” clearly demonstrates that films populated by people of color can perform well overseas. AAFCA’s Top 10 marks the first time so many films by or about black identity have made our list, presenting storylines that reflect the diversity that lives within the black community.  It was also good to see “Roma” and “The Favourite” make our TOP 10 because these films, as well, shine light on themes and storylines representing popular culture.”

Several special achievement awards will be announced in the coming weeks including the Cinema Vanguard Award, the ICON Award, AAFCA’s Stanley Kramer Award and the organization’s inaugural Pioneer Award.

The AAFCA Awards, sponsored by Nissan, Home Depot and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment, will take place on February 6, 2019 at the Taglyan Complex.  For additional information, please visit AAFCA.COM.

The Kardashians can’t keep up with themselves.

Their season finale pulled in just 851,000 viewers on Sunday night– a steep drop of 37% from the season premiere of 1.3 million.

They pulled out all the stops, too, throwing in Kanye’s problems, and Kim’s efforts to get a woman released from jail.

But the overall trend for the K’s on E! is down, down, down. The week before only produced 941,000 viewers.

When they return, if they return, the K’s will be looking at fewer than 1 million viewers and a decline to around 500,000.

All good things come to an end. And even bad things. At least for now, we get a break.

The top cable show on Sunday night was a Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas movie, with 3.4 million viewers. The K’s were beaten soundly at 9pm by “Alaska: The Last Frontier” with 1,990,000.

Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool” videos on social media continue to be hilarious. His post last night was an apology to god awful rock group Nickelback for a slag in an earlier video with “Wonder Years” star Fred Savage playing his “Princess Bride” character 30 years later. This is all to promote the re-release of “Deadpool 2” in a PG-13 version. Very, very clever, all of it.

Dec. 12th. #RespectTheBack pic.twitter.com/emfSkHpJvt

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) December 10, 2018