Cinema Science

From the Hollywood Reporter the American Film Institue's list of significant events of 2007.

Adding its voice to the accumulating punditry summarizing the year that is about to end, the American Film Institute declared on Wednesday that the current writers strike tops the seven "moments of significance" that have had an impact on the moving image in the past year.

Describing the strike as "part of a larger paradigm shift," the AFI said the labor battle is part of "the ongoing digital revolution (that) has upended conventional economic models, and uncertainty abounds when attempting to project how an audience will receive its storytelling in the years to come and how creators will be paid for their work."

The other events cited by the AFI are:

-- The death of influential filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni on July 30.

-- The birth of the iPhone, which because of its ability to stream and download TV shows and movies is "a symbol of a public that demands its content where they want it and when they want it."

-- Films such as "In the Valley of Elah," "Lions for Lambs," "Charlie Wilson's War," "Grace Is Gone," "A Mighty Heart," "The Kite Runner" and "Redacted" that responded to the war on terror. "No other American war has inspired this deep a cinematic expression while the conflict is still taking place," the AFI said.

-- Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" series, which it hailed as "landmark programming in high definition."

-- The hyper-tabloidization of TV news.

-- Summer programming on basic cable that is redefining the traditional TV season.