Showbiz is big business as Oscars hits town

HOLLYWOOD: The Oscars are big business for stars and filmmakers - but they also spell big bucks for limo firms, caterers, designers and thousands of others as Hollywood rolls out the red carpet.

In fact, the Academy Awards on Sunday are the climax of the annual awards season which generates fortunes for those behind the scenes in Tinseltown, who keep the champagne flowing, parties buzzing and posh frocks just right.

From the Golden Globes to the Grammys, the Screen Actors Guild ceremony to the Razzies, the awards shows -- and all those pre- and after-parties, keep everyone busy from November to February every year.

You don't have to go far to stumble on a red carpet in Hollywood - even outside awards season, film premieres regularly attract scrums of cameramen, photographers and fans spilling across sidewalks outside key movie theaters.

So a visit to the cinema can sometimes turn into a scramble through a melee created by an arriving celebrity, lensmen's flashlights and shouts of "Angelina, over here!" ricocheting around the cinema lobby.

But Angelinos are used to it, and many depend on it for their livelihoods, as - like the annual harvest elsewhere - the first two months of the year bring huge crops of orders for everything that surrounds the shows.

Tony Adzar, founder & CEO of Red Carpet Systems, is one of those reaping the benefits: in February, he sells twice as much carpet as he does in August, and his is only one of dozens of similar firms.

To get to the parties, people of course need limousines.

The larger companies, which have a fleet of maybe 25 luxury vehicles, are booked to capacity and are able to give their affiliates and subcontractors a lot of business.

ITS works closely with Sequoia Productions, which has organized Hollywood events for 23 years and produces the traditional post-Oscars soiree known as the Governors Ball.

The ball brings together the governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars. On Sunday night, 1,500 people will attend.

For Sunday's ball alone, Sequoia employs 150 technicians, 400 catering staff and a management team of 30. The company unveiled its menu last week, chosen by Austrian celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, also an Oscars veteran.

Red Carpet provider Adzar said awards season is exhausting, but essential for his and many other businesses in Hollywood. (AFP)

Saving Face shortlisted for Oscars nomination

Saving Face, a film chronicling the work of a British Pakistani plastic surgeon, Dr Mohammad Jawad, aiding victims of acid attacks in Pakistan as directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Jung has been shortlisted as one of only eight documentaries from across the globe for the Best Documentary, Short Subject as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Indeed Saving Face is set to air on America’s premier television cable network HBO, in March 2012. Saving Face was filmed entirely in Pakistan in the Seraiki belt as well as in Rawalpindi, Karachi, Islamabad and its outskirts.

Speaking about this international achievement, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy said: “It still hasn’t quite sunk in that Saving Face has been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination. It is a huge honour for me and a tremendous feeling to know that this film, based in Pakistan, has been appreciated and acknowledge by a global jury - My co-director Daniel Junge and I are now keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that the shortlist turns into a nomination come January 24th!”

In the documentary Saving Face, along with her other films, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy constantly seeks to set a new standard for cinema that furthers the art of nonfiction storytelling in Pakistan. With a formidable list of awards under her belt including a coveted Emmy Award for her film ‘Pakistan’s Taliban Generation’, Chinoys’ eponymous film company has garnered a reputation for producing content that extends boundaries and challenges audiences.

 From following the lives of child suicide bombers in ‘Pakistan’s Taliban Generation’ to bringing to light the plight of Iraqi refugees in, ‘Iraq: The Lost Generation’ her films continue to highlight the voices of marginalized communities around the world. Now her recently launched production company intends to groom a new generation of directors, producers and writers who will be equipped with the skills and training to produce quality films for a Pakistani as well as an international audience. Sharmeen Obaid Films is currently editing, ‘Taboo Beauty’, a film about the transgender community in Pakistan for Channel 4, UK.