Variety and Ortsbo.com to Provide Global Interactive Live Red Carpet and Back Stage Coverage at Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2012

LOS ANGELES, LONDON and TORONTO, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Variety, the world's leading publication for business entertainment news, and strategic partner, Los Angeles and Toronto based Ortsbo Inc. ("Ortsbo"), the leader in real time experiential language services, are partnering to present unprecedented and exclusive online global coverage of the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2012.  Coverage will be presented simultaneously in 53 languages from the red carpet and backstage winner's press area.  The event takes place on February 12, 2012 at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

The Live & Global Red Carpet event will broadcast live at 12 pm Eastern / 9 am Pacific (1700 GMT) on Sunday, February 12, 2012 and can be viewed at www.ortsbo.com and www.variety.com as well as select streaming partners from around the globe. The Winner's Press Area will be broadcast based on a required press delay at 5 pm Eastern / 2 pm Pacific (2200 GMT). Users from around the world will be able to submit questions at Ortsbo.com for the red carpet and backstage winner's press area beginning Thursday, February 9, 2012. 

Variety and Ortsbo will be broadcasting their coverage live, around the world, showcasing Ortsbo's Live & Global Language Captioning System recently unveiled at the Variety Entertainment Summit at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV and the Variety Studio at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  The technology was also showcased during The Sundance Film Festival at Ortsbo's Live & Global event with the legendary Stan Lee and Ortsbo spokesperson and business partner Gene Simmons.

Representing Ortsbo on the red carpet will be Sky News' entertainment correspondent Jane Witherspoon and Jason Solomons, film critic with The Observer.   Before joining Sky News, Jane worked across the BBC reporting for the BBC News Channel, BBC Breakfast and BBC London News.  She has covered the Oscars, the Brits and interviewed some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.  In addition to his work with The Observer, Jason is a presenter for the Film Weekly podcast on Guardian.co.uk and is the Chairman of the London Film Critics' Circle.

The Orange British Academy Film Awards have tended to be a reliable indicator of who will be taking home Academy Awards in L.A. just a few weeks later.  "The Artist" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" both have the most nominations at this year's BAFTA awards.  Both films received 12 and 11 nominations respectively with each film up for Best Picture, Best Director and Leading Actor nominations for Jean Dujardin and Gary Oldman.  "The Help," "Drive" and "The Descendants" are also in the running for Best Film.   

"Hugo" has 9 nominations, "My Week with Marilyn" has 6 nominations and "The Help" and "War Horse" are each nominated 5 times.  "Drive," "The Iron Lady" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" have 4 nominations. "The Descendants," "Moneyball," "Senna" and "We Need to Talk about Kevin" all have 3 nominations apiece, and "Shame," "The Ides of March," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Bridesmaids" and "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn" each received 2 nominations.

Competing in the Best Actor category along with Gary Oldman and Jean Dujardin are George Clooney for his role in "The Descendants," Michael Fassbender for "Shame" and Brad Pitt for "Moneyball."   Best Actress nominees include Berenice Bejo for "The Artist," Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady," Michelle Williams for "My Week With Marilyn," Tilda Swinton for "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and Viola Davis for "The Help." 

Best Supporting Actor nominations were announced for Kenneth Branagh in "My Week With Marilyn," Jim Broadbent for "The Iron Lady," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Ides of March," Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" and Jonah Hill for "Moneyball."  The Best Supporting Actress category pits Carey Mulligan for "Drive," Melissa McCarthy for "Bridesmaids," Olivia Spencer and Jessica Chastain for "The Help" and Judi Dench for "My Week With Marilyn" against one another for the award. 

To see the full list of nominations and information about the Awards, please visit www.bafta.org.

"Our partnership with the Orange British Academy Film Awards provides a perfect venue for Ortsbo to showcase its global, real time experiential language platform," said David Lucatch, CEO of Ortsbo Inc.  "Real time translation combined with live streaming and an interactive communication platform to ask questions gives users the ultimate Global Village experience, providing opportunities for commercial sponsors to reach a worldwide, interactive audience."

"Variety is constantly evolving how we deliver our content to audiences, who are quickly embracing new platforms and digital experiences," said Neil Stiles, CEO and President of Variety. "Our partnership with Ortsbo and our global coverage of the red carpet and winner's press area in 53 languages definitely accomplishes this, as we strengthen the ability for our global audience to benefit from our premier entertainment business coverage."

About Ortsbo's Language Captioning System

Ortsbo's Language Captioning System allows viewers to watch video broadcasts, and also view an accompanying language real time text stream, like closed captioning found on television broadcasts, but in their personally selected choice of over 50 languages.  This game-changing proprietary system, which is part of Ortsbo's Live & Global platform, provides the ability for universal language broadcasting on a global basis, regardless of the native language of the broadcaster, potentially changing the face of ethnic, cultural, sports, entertainment, business and other forms of online, video and television live and pre-recorded broadcast programming.

Once a user reaches the event web broadcast page, the Language Captioning System will default to the user's pre-set system language.  The users can also select the language of their choice from an on-page drop down menu, with continuous live streaming updates.  The system will automatically deliver a "real time" effective stream of "closed captioning" in the user's chosen language.

About The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) www.bafta.org

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round Learning & Events programme that offers unique access to some of the world's most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, lectures and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. BAFTA relies on income from membership subscriptions, individual donations, trusts, foundations and partnerships to support its ongoing outreach work. For further information, visit www.bafta.org .

About Variety www.variety.com

Variety is the leading publication for business entertainment news, recognized and respected throughout the world of show business. The Variety Group – Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, Weekly Variety and Variety.com – are all owned by Reed Business Information (RBI), the largest business publisher in the U.S. RBI is a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK) (NYSE: ENL).

About Ortsbo Inc. www.ortsbo.com  

With over 40 Million monthly users in over 170 countries and territories, Ortsbo (www.ortsbo.com) enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today's most popular social media platforms.

Ortsbo's flagship product for social media (www.ortsbo.com) supports global communications with instant translation capability, real time multi-lingual social media chat connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers as well as all major chat platforms including MSN, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! and others.

Ortsbo allows users to communicate with family, friends and colleagues around the world, providing users with the ability to break down language and cultural barriers through its easy to use, language centric interface.

Ortsbo also provides plug-in email translation capabilities for Microsoft Outlook.

Ortsbo's Live & Global platform offers a unique solution for broadcasting events to a global audience, with video and real time, multi-lingual chat.  Ortsbo currently hold the Guinness World Record for the most nationalities in an online chat.

International rock legend, accomplished global entrepreneur and one of the world's most recognized personalities, Gene Simmons has endorsed Ortsbo.com, having signed on as a business partner and to serve as Ortsbo's official spokesperson.

Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash is an official spokesperson for Ortsbo.  Leading Ortsbo's global sports fan program, Nash will present and participate in a number of online fan chats with international athletes from a number of sports disciplines.

Ortsbo is an Academy Partner to the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2012.

Headquartered in both Los Angeles, CA and the Toronto, Canada area, with additional offices in New York and San Mateo, CA, Ortsbo Inc. is a subsidiary of Intertainment Media Inc. a publicly listed company on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol "INT" (TSXV:INT) and traded in the US on the OTCQX under the symbol "ITMTF". Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on the Frankfurt Exchange on the XETRA trading platform under the symbol "I4T".

SOURCE Ortsbo Inc.