Video News Briefs

Films Media Group (FMG) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with the newest-generation release of Films on Demand, its web-based digital video delivery service, which now gives viewers access to more than 5600 educational titles and 56,000 individual segments from producers such as the BBC, ABC News, and CNBC. FMG offers 12,000 titles on DVD and VHS in addition to its streaming output. More info at www.films.com/digital.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced it would be doubling the number of best picture nominees. In the 1930s and for several consecutive years, the Oscars featured up to ten best-picture choices; the five-film limit was set in the mid-1940s, and it has been that way ever since. Could this decision have grown in part from last year's protests over the failure of The Dark Knight to crack the academy's top five?

Newly available from Acorn Media Group: Apollo 11: A Night To Remember (UPC 0-54961-82759-6). The two-hour documentary coincides with the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing and features long-lost BBC footage of the historic mission available to U.S. audiences for the first time. Special features include a 17-minute episode from the BBC program The Sky at Night and a biography of the show's presenter, astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. More info at www.acornonline.com.

In late June, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) launched the first phase of its New Media Initiative, the world's largest and most comprehensive online resource for Jewish film. Features include a searchable archive of Jewish film with downloadable videos of festival panels and Q&As, a program of online festival shorts, educator curricula, user reviews, and social networking tools for teen filmmakers. Check for updates and watch selections from the 29th Jewish Film Festival, held in San Francisco through August 11, at www.sfjff.org.

More than 21,000 new images have been added to WilsonWeb's Cinema Image Gallery (see eReviews, LJ 3/1/09), bringing the total number of images in the database to more than 176,000. Other additions include biographical profiles and broader search parameters. The updated content encompasses 1,386 films new to the database and expands entries for 1,868 films already represented. More info at www.hwwilson.com.