| By Mike Tyrkus |
Decidedly adding to the conversation on what Magill’s Cinema Annual editor Brian Tallerico calls “one of our greatest art forms,” the latest addition to the series, Magill’s Cinema Annual 2019, continues the fine film reference tradition that has defined the VideoHound® series of entertainment industry products published by Gale by providing readers the opportunity to experience the artistry of film through some of the best writing on cinema available and, as Mr. Tallerico puts it, “step into someone else’s shoes in a way that no other medium can possibly replicate.”
The thirty-eighth annual volume in a series that has developed from the core twenty-one-volume Magill’s Survey of Cinema set—formerly published by Salem Press—Magill’s Cinema Annual 2019, Gale’s twenty-fifth volume, contains essay-reviews of significant domestic and foreign films released in the United States during the preceding year.
This latest edition of Magill’s Cinema Annual offers an in-depth retrospective on 225 significant domestic and foreign films released during 2018 in the United States. Distinguishing features of the volume (and the series as a whole) include extensive credit sections, domestic box-office grosses, publicity taglines featured in reviews and advertisements, awards and nominations listings, MPAA ratings, as well as trivia and additional “fun facts” for each film in the volume when available.
Additionally, Magill’s Cinema Annual 2019 features nine exhaustive indexes (including those covering Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers, Editors, Art Directors, Music Directors, Performers, Subjects, and a cumulative Title index spanning the breadth of the entire series); an obit section profiling major contributors to the film industry who have passed away during the previous calendar year; and an annotated list of selected film books from the past year all add to the exhaustive amount of information provided in this year’s volume. Most importantly, the 225 authoritative critical reviews included within the pages of Magill’s Cinema Annual 2019, complete with author bylines, round out this breathtaking reference source.
To compile this unparalleled collection of film criticism, the Magill’s editorial staff at Gale, has reviewed a variety of entertainment industry publications, including trade magazines and newspapers, as well as other online sources, on a daily and weekly basis in order to select significant films for inclusion in this edition of Magill’s Cinema Annual. After these selections were made, members of the Magill’s staff, and additional contributing reviewers, including various film scholars and other industry professionals, created the reviews that can be found within the pages of the Annual.
The Magill’s Survey of Cinema series, now supplemented by the Annual, has been the recipient of the Reference Book of the Year Award in Fine Arts from the American Library Association. Now, Gale, an award-winning publisher of reference products, is proud to again offer Magill’s Cinema Annual as part of its popular VideoHound® product line, which also includes VideoHound®’s Golden Movie Retriever 2019. In addition, other film-related products available from Gale, include the four-volume International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers; Women Filmmakers & Their Films; and the four-volume Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film.
Magill’s Cinema Annual, 2019 Edition will be available in print and eBook format on GVRL June 2019.
Meet the Author
An award-winning independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, Mike Tyrkus has spent much of the last two decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema. He is a standing member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group’s webmaster and current president. His contributions to the world of film criticism can be found in such places as the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Magill’s Cinema Annual, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). Mike is also the editor of VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their two dogs. You can find Mike on Twitter and Facebook, or at CinemaNerdz.com.