Elias Savada

Biography:

Raised in Harrison NY, Elias Savada joined The American Film Institute immediately after his graduation from Cornell University in 1972, working on their ongoing project to catalog feature length motion pictures produced and released in the United States. In 1977 he began a five year stint as senior researcher at the Law Firm of E. Fulton Brylawski and J. Michael Cleary, a top copyright law firm. He returned to the AFI from 1983 to 1991, where he compiled a massive database of silent films released in the United States prior to 1911. The information he compiled was published in 1995 as the two-volume, 1,800-page, work-in-progress The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Film Beginnings, 1893-1910, listing over 17,000 films. Meanwhile, in 1977 Savada founded the Motion Picture information Service (MPIS), which originally assisted the United States Information Agency with repertory film programming for overseas cultural festivals, particularly the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon. In the ensuing years, he has arranged for the transportation of more than 2,000 films to the Cinemateca, the Filmoteca Española in Madrid, the San Sebastian (Spain) Film Festival, the Pordenone (Italy) Silent Film Festival, and other archives and events around the world. In September 2002 he served on the New Directors Jury at the 50th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. In the mid-1980s he began to perform copyright research under his MPIS banner and now writes over 600 reports each year covering thousands of movies, television programs, songs, recordings, books, plays, etc., having serviced more than 850 clients, including law firms, motion picture and television production companies, home video firms, and individuals. Using a vast knowledge of cinema history and keen intuitive skills, he has been able to expand on a basic copyright report to include information not available in the Copyright Office files. Since 1991 he has been working out of his residence in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1975 he and co-author David J. Skal had their biography Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre published by Doubleday. His interest in the director of Freaks (1932) and Dracula (1931), date from screenings of the films in a "flicks for kicks" course in college. It was nearly a quarter-century later that interviews he recorded in 1972 with associates and friends of Browning would be incorporated into the biography. The book, translated and published in Spain and Japan, has been optioned for feature production. Savada's interest in film mirrors his late father's professional infatuation with 78 rpm records. Morton Savada, who owner of Records Revisited in New York, was an expert in his field of this long-discontinued vinyl record format. Savada's obsession to detail has now been extended to his own family genealogy. For nearly two decades he has been tracking down cousins and has documented nearly 20,000 relatives. He was co-chair of the 23rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy held in Washington DC in July 2003.

Favorites:

Top Eleven of 2004: 1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2. Finding Neverland 3. The Incredibles 4. Hotel Rwanda 5. Vera Drake 6. Shaun of the Dead 7. Napoleon Dynamite 8. Ray 9. Million Dollar Baby 10. Sideways 11. Fahrenheit 9/11 Worst Films of 2004 (in order suffered): Against the Ropes The Big Bounce Eurotrip Starsky & Hutch Broken Lizard's Club Dread Twisted The Whole Ten Yards Envy Around the World in 80 Days Sleepover Catwoman Thunderbirds Little Black Book Exorcist: The Beginning First Daughter Raise Your Voice Birth Surviving Christmas Christmas with the Kranks Alexander Top Ten of 2003: 1 In America 2 American Splendor 3 The Station Agent 4 Lost in Translation 5 Finding Nemo 6 Blue Car 7 Shattered Glass 8 Capturing the Friedmans 9 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 10 Kill Bill: Volume 1 Worst 10 of 2003: 1 In the Cut 2 Gigli 3 Dumb and Dumberer 4 Grind 5 Duplex 6 Ghosts From the Abyss 7 Alex & Emma 8 Matchstick Men 9 Hollywood Homicide 10 Either Matrix sequel Top Ten of 2002: 1. Bloody Sunday 2. Bowling for Columbine 3. About Schmidt 4. Adaptation 5. The Importance of Being Earnest 6. Lord of the Rings, The: The Two Towers 7. Chicago 8. The Pianist 9. Antwone Fisher 10. Spirited Away Worst 20 (alphabetical order) of 2002: Bad Company Dans Ma Peau feardotcom Formula 51 Full Frontal Half Past Dead I Spy Kung Pow: Enter the Fist Master of Disguise Mr. Deeds National Lampoon's Van Wilder Orange County Possession Pumpkin Resident Evil Rollerball The Salton Sea The Time Machine The Truth About Charlie Welcome to Collinwood Top Ten of 2001: 1. Memento 2. The Man Who Wasn't There 3. In the Bedroom 4. The Deep End 5. Shrek 6. Hearts in Atlantis 7. Amelie 8. Monster's Ball 9. Series 7: The Contenders 10. Panic Other Favorites of 2001: Apocalypse Now Redux A Beautiful Mind Black Hawk Down Dark Blue World The Dish Donnie Darko Ghost World Hedwig and the Angry Inch Lord of the Rings Moulin Rouge Mulholland Dr. Songcatcher Top Fifteen of 2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Erin Brockovich Best in Show Finding Forrester Room for Romeo Brass Time Code The Tao of Steve Traffic Nurse Betty Chuck & Buck The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg Almost Famous Two Family House Wonderland Joe Gould's Secret Top Five Foreign Films of 2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Aimee and Jaguar Adrenaline Drive The Color of Paradise Shower Favorites of 1999: American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, Election, October Sky, Affliction, Galaxy Quest, Twin Falls Idaho Favorites of 1998: Shakespeare in Love, Truman Show, Waking Ned Devine, Gods and Monsters, The Imposters, Life Is Beautiful, Rush Hour, Zero Effect, Wag the Dog Top 25 Overlooked Films (1990-1999) 1 Pi 2 Cookie's Fortune 3 Dick 4 Election 5 Flirting With Disaster 6 October Sky 7 Run Lola Run 8 Waiting For Guffman 9 The Spanish Prisoner 10 Waking Ned Devine 11 Fly Away Home 12 Go 13 Citizen Ruth 14 Grosse Pointe Blank 15 Muriel's Wedding 16 The Impostors 17 The Secret Garden (1993) 18 Smilla's Sense of Snow 19 Ulee's Gold 20 Cold Comfort Farm 21 Drop Dead Gorgeous 22 The Iron Giant 23 Sneakers 24 Twin Falls, Idaho 25 The Minus Man

Publications:

Film Threat , Nitrate Online

Critics' Group:

Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association