The Greek provocateur seemed to be smiling throughout Oscar night. In the past he’d delivered films with titles like Dogtooth and The Lobster, and his newest, Poor Things, was now stockpiling the statuary even as Hollywood’s filmmaking elite looked on, perplexed.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ code-busting Poor Things was winning not only successive awards (four in all) Sunday but also the exuberant applause from an audience that seemed to welcome change. Even chaotic change.
Oppenheimer won the big prize on Oscar night, of course, but Oscar voters once again demonstrated their support for the product of the filmmaking underclass. The Scorsese-Spielberg-Ridley Scott fraternity looked on while dark horses like Lanthimos, or, a year earlier, the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) from Everything Everywhere All at Once, stole the action. Coda from Sian Heder was the surprise of 2022.
Does all this reflect a restive mood? “The power of Poor Things stems...
Yorgos Lanthimos’ code-busting Poor Things was winning not only successive awards (four in all) Sunday but also the exuberant applause from an audience that seemed to welcome change. Even chaotic change.
Oppenheimer won the big prize on Oscar night, of course, but Oscar voters once again demonstrated their support for the product of the filmmaking underclass. The Scorsese-Spielberg-Ridley Scott fraternity looked on while dark horses like Lanthimos, or, a year earlier, the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) from Everything Everywhere All at Once, stole the action. Coda from Sian Heder was the surprise of 2022.
Does all this reflect a restive mood? “The power of Poor Things stems...
- 3/14/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:
Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys
2024 Oscars Predictions:
Best Adapted Screenplay Oppenheimer, from left: Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, 2023. © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Weekly Commentary: Cord Jefferson stands on the brink of potentially making history in the adapted screenplay category with “American Fiction,” potentially becoming only the second...
Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:
Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys
2024 Oscars Predictions:
Best Adapted Screenplay Oppenheimer, from left: Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, 2023. © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Weekly Commentary: Cord Jefferson stands on the brink of potentially making history in the adapted screenplay category with “American Fiction,” potentially becoming only the second...
- 3/7/2024
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
“It Happened One Night,” which premiered at Radio City Music Hall on Feb. 22, 1934, helped usher in the screwball romantic comedy, changed the careers of stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin and transformed the Poverty Row Columbia Pictures into a major player. And let’s not forget, “It Happened One Night” also made Oscar history winning five major Oscars: picture, director, adapted screenplay and both actor and actress. It would be 41 years before “One Flew of the Cuckoo’s Nest” would accomplish the same feat at the Academy Awards.
Based on the short story “Night Bus,” the smart, endearing road movie focuses on spoiled rotten Ellie Andrews (Colbert) who has gone against her wealthy father’s (Walter Connelly) wishes by marrying the gold-digging King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Before their wedding night, her father whisked her away to his yacht in Florida. She manages to...
Based on the short story “Night Bus,” the smart, endearing road movie focuses on spoiled rotten Ellie Andrews (Colbert) who has gone against her wealthy father’s (Walter Connelly) wishes by marrying the gold-digging King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Before their wedding night, her father whisked her away to his yacht in Florida. She manages to...
- 2/20/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
February––particularly its third week––is all about romance. Accordingly the Criterion Channel got creative with their monthly programming and, in a few weeks, will debut Interdimensional Romance, a series of films wherein “passion conquers time and space, age and memory, and even death and the afterlife.” For every title you might’ve guessed there’s a wilder companion: Alan Rudolph’s Made In Heaven, Soderbergh’s remake, and Resnais’ Love Unto Death. Mostly I’m excited to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a likely essential viewing before Megalopolis.
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Alice Walker published her acclaimed novel “The Color Purple” in 1982. It sold five million copies; Walker became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and she also received the National Book Club Award. Three years later, Steven Spielberg directed the lauded film version which made stars out of Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. It earned 11 Oscar nominations. The story revolves around a young woman who suffers abuse from her father and husband for four decades until she finds her own identity. Not exactly the stuff of a Broadway musical.
But the 2005 tuner version received strong reviews, ran 910 performances and earned ten Tony nominations, winning best actress for Lachanze. The 2015 production picked up two Tonys for best revival and actress for Cynthia Erivo. The movie musical version opened strong Christmas Day with $18 million and is a strong contender in several Oscar categories especially for Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
But the 2005 tuner version received strong reviews, ran 910 performances and earned ten Tony nominations, winning best actress for Lachanze. The 2015 production picked up two Tonys for best revival and actress for Cynthia Erivo. The movie musical version opened strong Christmas Day with $18 million and is a strong contender in several Oscar categories especially for Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
- 1/2/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
James Sanders in Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies quotes Deborah Kerr with Cary Grant in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember: “It’s the nearest thing to heaven we have in New York.”
In the first instalment with architect, author, and filmmaker James Sanders, we discuss his timeless and profound book, Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies, in which he explores how deeply one informs the other. From Joan Didion’s wisdom to Cedric Gibbons’s dream sets in the sky, we touch on George Stevens’s Swing Time (starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and Robert Z Leonard’s Susan Lenox (with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable); East River running with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Murphy in Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
James Sanders with Anne-Katrin Titze: “One of the aspects of a mythic city is that it can go anywhere ”
The mansion...
In the first instalment with architect, author, and filmmaker James Sanders, we discuss his timeless and profound book, Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies, in which he explores how deeply one informs the other. From Joan Didion’s wisdom to Cedric Gibbons’s dream sets in the sky, we touch on George Stevens’s Swing Time (starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and Robert Z Leonard’s Susan Lenox (with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable); East River running with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Murphy in Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
James Sanders with Anne-Katrin Titze: “One of the aspects of a mythic city is that it can go anywhere ”
The mansion...
- 11/2/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig. Those are just three names that suggest that the upcoming Academy Awards could well be the year of the auteur — a beloved director who takes their movie through every stage of the filmmaking process from script to screen. This all-hands-in approach sees these types of filmmakers take on scriptwriting, directing, and producing roles — the “holy trinity” of filmmaking if you like.
We’ve had plenty of these types of creatives before but not all of them have resulted in Oscars success. Only nine filmmaker across Oscar history have pulled off a triple play with wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and either Best Adapted Screenplay or Best Original Screenplay:
Leo McCarey, “Going My Way” (1945) Billy Wilder, “The Apartment” (1961) Francis Ford Coppola, “The Godfather Part II” (1975) James L. Brooks, “Terms of Endearment” (1984) Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen,...
We’ve had plenty of these types of creatives before but not all of them have resulted in Oscars success. Only nine filmmaker across Oscar history have pulled off a triple play with wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and either Best Adapted Screenplay or Best Original Screenplay:
Leo McCarey, “Going My Way” (1945) Billy Wilder, “The Apartment” (1961) Francis Ford Coppola, “The Godfather Part II” (1975) James L. Brooks, “Terms of Endearment” (1984) Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen,...
- 9/21/2023
- by Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
Christian Petzold’s Afire on the IFC Center marquee Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment with director/screenwriter Christian Petzold on Afire starring Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert (winking at the audience like Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster Barbie), Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt we touch upon Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in reference to Paula Beer in the wheelchair; pronouncing Walter Benjamin and Uwe Johnson; Margarethe von Trotta’s film series Jahrestage; Devid Striesow in Yella; new Baltic Sea tourism in the old east, and the goulash in and out of the bag.
Christian Petzold on Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr: “Oh, this is a fantastic movie! It all comes back now!” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their...
In the second instalment with director/screenwriter Christian Petzold on Afire starring Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert (winking at the audience like Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster Barbie), Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt we touch upon Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in reference to Paula Beer in the wheelchair; pronouncing Walter Benjamin and Uwe Johnson; Margarethe von Trotta’s film series Jahrestage; Devid Striesow in Yella; new Baltic Sea tourism in the old east, and the goulash in and out of the bag.
Christian Petzold on Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr: “Oh, this is a fantastic movie! It all comes back now!” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their...
- 7/26/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Christian Petzold, the director of the well-timed summer movie Afire with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I’m really sure that we don’t have summer movies. The Americans have summer movies, the French have summer movies.”
Christian Petzold’s slow-burning Afire, shot by Hans Fromm, stars Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Nadja (Paula Beer) with Devid (Enno Trebs), Felix (Langston Uibel), and Leon (Thomas Schubert) in Afire
A scene in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember (with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr); Sophie Calle’s Voir La Mer and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs; Astrid Lindgren; a Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre touch; Uwe Johnson’s Mutmassungen über Jakob and Margarethe von Trotta’s Jahrestage series; Johan Wolfgang von Goethe; a Nanni Moretti quote; meeting Paul Dano’s Wildlife cinematographer Diego García (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendor) in Tel Aviv; Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak,...
Christian Petzold’s slow-burning Afire, shot by Hans Fromm, stars Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Nadja (Paula Beer) with Devid (Enno Trebs), Felix (Langston Uibel), and Leon (Thomas Schubert) in Afire
A scene in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember (with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr); Sophie Calle’s Voir La Mer and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs; Astrid Lindgren; a Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre touch; Uwe Johnson’s Mutmassungen über Jakob and Margarethe von Trotta’s Jahrestage series; Johan Wolfgang von Goethe; a Nanni Moretti quote; meeting Paul Dano’s Wildlife cinematographer Diego García (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendor) in Tel Aviv; Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak,...
- 7/2/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we look at Oscars categories from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winners stand the test of time.)
When we think of great Hollywood directors, we think of names like John Ford, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, and moving on up to the likes of Steven Spielberg. These are filmmakers who not only had strong artistic and creative instincts and abilities, but they also knew how to translate those skills into making films that appealed to gigantic mass audiences. They made the films that Hollywood always strives to make.
Unquestionably, another filmmaker who belongs on that list is Alfred Hitchcock, the so-dubbed "Master of Suspense." That moniker suits him perfectly, as he was able to craft some of the most tense pictures ever produced in Hollywood. He perfectly understood set-up and payoff. He knew how to ride the line between euphemism and explicitness,...
When we think of great Hollywood directors, we think of names like John Ford, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, and moving on up to the likes of Steven Spielberg. These are filmmakers who not only had strong artistic and creative instincts and abilities, but they also knew how to translate those skills into making films that appealed to gigantic mass audiences. They made the films that Hollywood always strives to make.
Unquestionably, another filmmaker who belongs on that list is Alfred Hitchcock, the so-dubbed "Master of Suspense." That moniker suits him perfectly, as he was able to craft some of the most tense pictures ever produced in Hollywood. He perfectly understood set-up and payoff. He knew how to ride the line between euphemism and explicitness,...
- 5/28/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
Remakes are nothing new in Hollywood, and horror movie remakes have long been a thriving part of the industry. Directors will turn their creepy, viral short films into larger studio features, like David F. Sandberg did with Lights Out, and surprise foreign genre hits will sometimes get a makeover for U.S. audiences with the original director at the helm. But you’d be hard pressed to find a modern American director who’s interested in remaking their own feature film.
Enter Clive Barker protégé Anthony Diblasi, who was certainly up for the challenge when he was approached by new genre studio Welcome Villain with the possibility of remaking his 2014 low-budget gem, Last Shift. The director believes he’s the first American director to take on such a feat since Leo McCarey remade Love Affair into An Affair to Remember in 1957.
This week, Welcome Villain releases Diblasi’s remade version of Last Shift,...
Enter Clive Barker protégé Anthony Diblasi, who was certainly up for the challenge when he was approached by new genre studio Welcome Villain with the possibility of remaking his 2014 low-budget gem, Last Shift. The director believes he’s the first American director to take on such a feat since Leo McCarey remade Love Affair into An Affair to Remember in 1957.
This week, Welcome Villain releases Diblasi’s remade version of Last Shift,...
- 3/31/2023
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
- 3/12/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
- 3/11/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
- 3/4/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels, Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner).
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
- 3/3/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
The Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in March, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks – the film...
- 2/19/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out shiny gold Oscar statuettes to actors in four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. But believe it or not, what they don't do, anywhere in the Oscar rulebook, is clearly define what the difference is between a lead performance and a supporting performance.
In the end, they leave that decision up to the Academy voters, who can sometimes make weird calls. How the heck they thought Viola Davis was just "supporting" Denzel Washington in "Fences" is anyone's guess, for example. But the thing is, one rule the Academy does have for these categories, is that you are absolutely not allowed to be nominated for Best Lead and Best Supporting for the same performance, in the same film, in the same year.
At least, not anymore. Because someone already did get nominated for...
In the end, they leave that decision up to the Academy voters, who can sometimes make weird calls. How the heck they thought Viola Davis was just "supporting" Denzel Washington in "Fences" is anyone's guess, for example. But the thing is, one rule the Academy does have for these categories, is that you are absolutely not allowed to be nominated for Best Lead and Best Supporting for the same performance, in the same film, in the same year.
At least, not anymore. Because someone already did get nominated for...
- 1/19/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Fay Wray began her autobiography On the Other Hand with an open letter to her most famous co-star. In it she said, “for more than half a century, you have been the most dominant figure in my public life. To speak of me is to think of you. To speak to me is often a prelude to questions about you.” This most dominant figure was of course the mighty King Kong and the film they appeared in together is unquestionably the best remembered in Wray’s career. She went on to tell Kong, “I admire you because you made only one film—and that became famous, whereas I made seventy-five or eighty and only the one I made with you became really famous.” Despite this fact, which was true for many decades, other films in Wray’s filmography have found new life in the years since she wrote those words in 1988. Now,...
- 1/13/2023
- by Brian Keiper
- bloody-disgusting.com
Holidays loom, but don’t fear TBS marathons of A Christmas Story. If, like me, you once enacted some good and let studio classics stream on Criterion during family Christmas, you know the trip home will be easier with December’s additions. (People at Criterion: please don’t report me for logging into multiple devices.) As family arrives, drinks are downed, and questions about what you’ve been up to are stumbled through it’ll be nice to stream their “Screwball Comedy Classics” series—25 titles meeting some deep cuts (10 via Venmo if you’ve recently watched It Happens Every Spring).
Personally I’m most excited about the 11 movies in “Snow Westerns,” going as far back as The Secret of Convict Lake, as recently as Ravenous, with the likes of Wellman, Peckinpah, and Corbucci in-between. I personally cannot stand soccer but I appreciate the World Cup giving occasion for a series...
Personally I’m most excited about the 11 movies in “Snow Westerns,” going as far back as The Secret of Convict Lake, as recently as Ravenous, with the likes of Wellman, Peckinpah, and Corbucci in-between. I personally cannot stand soccer but I appreciate the World Cup giving occasion for a series...
- 11/22/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Director/Tfh Guru Allan Arkush discusses his favorite year in film, 1975, with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Rules of the Game (1939)
Le Boucher (1970)
Last Year At Marienbad (1961)
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
Topaz (1969)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary
The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)
Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Going My Way (1944)
Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary
M*A*S*H (1970)
Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
The Nada Gang (1975)
Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Rules of the Game (1939)
Le Boucher (1970)
Last Year At Marienbad (1961)
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
Topaz (1969)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary
The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)
Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
Going My Way (1944)
Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary
M*A*S*H (1970)
Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
The Nada Gang (1975)
Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...
- 9/20/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
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Jack Ging, the familiar character actor who recurred on such series as Tales of Wells Fargo, Mannix, Riptide and The A-Team and appeared in three films opposite Clint Eastwood, has died. He was 90.
Ging died Friday of natural causes at his home in La Quinta, California, his wife, Apache Ging, told The Hollywood Reporter.
In rare starring turns, Ging played the love interest of Diane Baker’s character in a remake of Tess of the Storm Country (1960), a soldier and reluctant hero in the waning days of the Korean War in the drama Sniper’s Ridge (1961) and a clinical psychiatrist on the 1962-64 NBC medical series The Eleventh Hour.
Alongside Eastwood, Ging portrayed a marshal in Hang ‘Em High (1968), a doctor in Play Misty for Me (1971) and Morgan Allen, the mine owner (and lover of Marianna Hill’s character), in High Plains Drifter...
Jack Ging, the familiar character actor who recurred on such series as Tales of Wells Fargo, Mannix, Riptide and The A-Team and appeared in three films opposite Clint Eastwood, has died. He was 90.
Ging died Friday of natural causes at his home in La Quinta, California, his wife, Apache Ging, told The Hollywood Reporter.
In rare starring turns, Ging played the love interest of Diane Baker’s character in a remake of Tess of the Storm Country (1960), a soldier and reluctant hero in the waning days of the Korean War in the drama Sniper’s Ridge (1961) and a clinical psychiatrist on the 1962-64 NBC medical series The Eleventh Hour.
Alongside Eastwood, Ging portrayed a marshal in Hang ‘Em High (1968), a doctor in Play Misty for Me (1971) and Morgan Allen, the mine owner (and lover of Marianna Hill’s character), in High Plains Drifter...
- 9/12/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an ongoing correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.Stars at Noon.Dear Leo and Danny,Danny, I’m glad you brought up Three Thousand Years of Longing, a film whose conceptual explorations of myth and storytelling sustained my interest for quite some time. The fundamental question it raises—and which is studied by narratologists and students of comparative religion the world over—is whether there is a finite number of narrative patterns and character archetypes, whether there is a theoretically enumerable list of story structures which we simply repeat again and again. In Three Thousand Years, the basic idea, voiced by Tilda Swinton's academic, is whether it is possible to tell a story about wish-granting that is not a cautionary tale? In its exploration of this, the film played, for a time, a bit like...
- 5/27/2022
- MUBI
Before the academy expanded the Best Picture race in 2010, the winner of that award almost always picked up the Best Director prize as well. But since then, these two awards have aligned at only seven of the dozen ceremonies. We thought that we’d see another case of double-dipping this year with Jane Campion winning for both directing and producing “The Power of the Dog.” But now it looks like “Coda” will claim the top prize of Best Picture, with Campion consoling herself with being the third woman to win Best Director.
Why the change?
When the decision was made to increase the number of nominees for Best Picture, it was also decided to bring back the preferential ballot that had been used by the academy until the mid 1940s. The rationale was that by ranking the nominees, the winner would be the film that had the broadest level of support.
Why the change?
When the decision was made to increase the number of nominees for Best Picture, it was also decided to bring back the preferential ballot that had been used by the academy until the mid 1940s. The rationale was that by ranking the nominees, the winner would be the film that had the broadest level of support.
- 3/27/2022
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Any belief that the Oscars award the right films, directors and performances has faded over the years.
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
Despite the recent victories of Parasite and Nomadland, the Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2022 ceremony arriving this weekend, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win...
While every ceremony has a smattering of correct decisions – trophies handed to the right people for the right films – more often than not, the pervading feeling is one of pessimism caused by a deluge of undeserving recipients.
Despite the recent victories of Parasite and Nomadland, the Oscars are a far cry from what they claim to be – a celebration of the previous year’s cinematic offerings. But his does not stop people from trawling the internet the following morning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, the winners list impresses rather than disappoints.
With the 2022 ceremony arriving this weekend, we have highlighted 17 films that really should not have been awarded Oscars.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win...
- 3/24/2022
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
If there’s any film which really conjures an ‘empire state of mind,’ it’s Leo McCarey’s 1939 romantic tearjerker, Love Affair. Strangely, despite an intensely impressive and prolific filmography from McCarey, this is the title most securely saturated in the cinematic zeitgeist, as evidenced by two remakes, the first of which McCarey himself directed as 1957’s An Affair to Remember (arguably most prominent version). But it’s this original morsel, based on a short story by Mildred Cram, adapted by Donald Ogden Stewart and Delmer Daves (just prior to his ascension as a notable director of film noirs and groundbreaking westerns), which remains the most unfettered and potent version.…...
- 3/16/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
How Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ Could Shatter Multiple Oscar Records for Women If She Wins
Those who do not know Oscar history are surprised when it repeats. It’s a different take on philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Statistics are an important piece to consider when analyzing an Oscar race. Too often, from the casual awards-watchers on social media, contenders are easily dismissed because of “missing x or y” during its run. However, this new Academy membership, which has diversified immensely in the last few years, has led to various statistics falling in the wake of a new movie being crowned. Jane Campion has been the prom queen of the awards season, with her film “The Power of the Dog” leading the way in the Oscar nomination tally, and despite a recent surge from “Coda,” it remains competitive in many of its races, including best picture.
Read more: Variety’s Awards Circuit Predictions...
Statistics are an important piece to consider when analyzing an Oscar race. Too often, from the casual awards-watchers on social media, contenders are easily dismissed because of “missing x or y” during its run. However, this new Academy membership, which has diversified immensely in the last few years, has led to various statistics falling in the wake of a new movie being crowned. Jane Campion has been the prom queen of the awards season, with her film “The Power of the Dog” leading the way in the Oscar nomination tally, and despite a recent surge from “Coda,” it remains competitive in many of its races, including best picture.
Read more: Variety’s Awards Circuit Predictions...
- 3/4/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Leo McCarey’s beloved 1939 romance “Love Affair” starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer as star-crossed lovers who meet cute on a luxury liner. Since they are both attached to others — Dunne is actually a “kept” woman — they agree to meet six months after they land in New York at the Empire State Building. For years, “Love Affair” was near impossible to see after the rights of the Rko production had been sold to 20th Century Fox for Carey’s scene-by-scene 1957 remake “An Affair to Remember” with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant.
But in 1977, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s film department lead by the late great Ron Haver presented a months’ long Rko festival featuring every film from the studio that still existed including “Love Affair,” which had earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best...
But in 1977, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s film department lead by the late great Ron Haver presented a months’ long Rko festival featuring every film from the studio that still existed including “Love Affair,” which had earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best...
- 2/28/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
“This picture is perfect, end of review.” That may not be 100 true, but Leo McCarey’s unabashed leap into romantic Nirvana really hasn’t been bettered, although his color & ‘scope remake is very good. Never was smart adult dialogue this winning — Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer’s cinematic courtship is a highlight of the Big Studio years. And Maria Ouspenskaya’s performance will send you out to pamper the nearest grandmother. The restoration for this one is a revelation, as the show has looked terrible for sixty years- plus. Serge Bromberg and Farran Smith Nehme make the extras especially valuable.
Love Affair
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1114
1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 15, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovitch, Ferike Boros, Scotty Beckett, Bess Flowers, Harold Miller, Dell Henderson, Frank McGlynn, Sr., Joan Leslie.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté
Art Director: Van Nest Polglase,...
Love Affair
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1114
1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 15, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovitch, Ferike Boros, Scotty Beckett, Bess Flowers, Harold Miller, Dell Henderson, Frank McGlynn, Sr., Joan Leslie.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté
Art Director: Van Nest Polglase,...
- 2/26/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Locarno Film Festival recently announced a complete retro dedicated to Douglas Sirk, 35 years after the death of the director best known for melodramas made in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, such as “Magnificent Obsession” and “Written on the Wind,” that aims to provide a fresh critical interpretation of his work.
Sirk, who was born in Denmark and worked in Germany, which he left for Hollywood during Hitler’s rise to power, later returned to Europe and eventually retired in Switzerland.
Among his most prominent fans were late great German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Bernardo Bertolucci.
For the first time, Sirk’s filmography will be reviewed in the light of unpublished documents made available by the director’s family through the Douglas Sirk Foundation and preserved since 2012 at the Cinémathèque Suisse, broadening the perspective on this major auteur.
Variety spoke to Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro...
Sirk, who was born in Denmark and worked in Germany, which he left for Hollywood during Hitler’s rise to power, later returned to Europe and eventually retired in Switzerland.
Among his most prominent fans were late great German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Bernardo Bertolucci.
For the first time, Sirk’s filmography will be reviewed in the light of unpublished documents made available by the director’s family through the Douglas Sirk Foundation and preserved since 2012 at the Cinémathèque Suisse, broadening the perspective on this major auteur.
Variety spoke to Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro...
- 2/16/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Along with being one of the favorites in the best picture category, “Belfast” shepherded producer, writer and director Kenneth Branagh into Oscars history books.
With nominations for best picture (as one of the film’s producers) and original screenplay, Branagh is the first person to be nominated in seven individual Oscar categories, surpassing George Clooney, Alfonso Cuarón and Walt Disney, who were recognized in six.
In addition, Branagh joins Clooney and Warren Beatty as the only people to have received noms in every eligible major category — picture, director, lead or supporting acting and both original and adapted screenplay.
Prior to nominations, he received five noms over his respectable career, across different categories — director (“Henry V”), actor (“Henry V”), supporting actor (“My Week With Marilyn”), adapted screenplay (“Hamlet”) and live-action short (“Swan Song”).
Branagh has been a respected actor and director for over three decades. He took on the words of...
With nominations for best picture (as one of the film’s producers) and original screenplay, Branagh is the first person to be nominated in seven individual Oscar categories, surpassing George Clooney, Alfonso Cuarón and Walt Disney, who were recognized in six.
In addition, Branagh joins Clooney and Warren Beatty as the only people to have received noms in every eligible major category — picture, director, lead or supporting acting and both original and adapted screenplay.
Prior to nominations, he received five noms over his respectable career, across different categories — director (“Henry V”), actor (“Henry V”), supporting actor (“My Week With Marilyn”), adapted screenplay (“Hamlet”) and live-action short (“Swan Song”).
Branagh has been a respected actor and director for over three decades. He took on the words of...
- 2/8/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Next month’s Mubi lineup for the U.S. has been unveiled and a number of our recent festival favorites that were awaiting distribution will be coming to the service, including Mr. Bachmann and His Class, Ballad of a White Cow, Madalena, Taste, The Monopoly of Violence, and For Lucio.
One of last year’s great films, Hong Sangsoo’s The Woman Who Ran, will also be arriving, alongside Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45, the Safdies’ Heaven Knows What, Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, and Leo McCarey’s Love Affair, with the latter two pairing for a Valentine’s Day double feature.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
February 1 | The Monopoly of Violence | David Dufresne | From France with Love
February 2 | Looking for Venera | Norika Sefa | Festival Focus: Rotterdam
February 3 | Madalena | Madiano Marcheti | Festival Focus: Rotterdam
February 4 | Honey Cigar | Kamir Aïnouz | From France with Love
February 5 | …and...
One of last year’s great films, Hong Sangsoo’s The Woman Who Ran, will also be arriving, alongside Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45, the Safdies’ Heaven Knows What, Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, and Leo McCarey’s Love Affair, with the latter two pairing for a Valentine’s Day double feature.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
February 1 | The Monopoly of Violence | David Dufresne | From France with Love
February 2 | Looking for Venera | Norika Sefa | Festival Focus: Rotterdam
February 3 | Madalena | Madiano Marcheti | Festival Focus: Rotterdam
February 4 | Honey Cigar | Kamir Aïnouz | From France with Love
February 5 | …and...
- 1/20/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Twentieth CenturyA common misconception about 1930s Hollywood cinema is that escapism was the trend du jour. The ubiquity of genres like historical melodramas and musicals indicates that rationale may be true to an extent, but even the most fantastic films were grounded in some semblance of social realism. And how could they not be? With nearly one in four Americans out of work by 1933 and a slow-but-stable economic recovery stimulated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal program, the bleakness of the Great Depression and the disparity between the haves and have-nots was an omnipresent thread throughout the decade’s popular culture. Like any major American industry, Hollywood was formative to the public’s perception of culture and politics, and the movies were a temperature gauge of the decade’s cultural climate.
- 1/3/2022
- MUBI
This remarkable black comedy is often listed as a horror film yet it has more nervous laughs than shivers. It’s a solid idea: cruelly marginalized old folks get madder than hell and just won’t take it any more. Or maybe they simply go nuts. The cast of ‘over seventies’ playing over eighty is just marvelous, and one murderous little pixie is a delight: Paula Trueman. Things do become absurd but the universally-understood premise stays firm. . . we’ll all be there sooner or later. “A Murder A Day Keeps the Landlord Away.”
Homebodies
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.
Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky
Art Director: John Retsek
Film Editor: Peter Parasheles
Original Music: Bernardo Segáll
Written by Larry Yust, Bennett Sims,...
Homebodies
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.
Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky
Art Director: John Retsek
Film Editor: Peter Parasheles
Original Music: Bernardo Segáll
Written by Larry Yust, Bennett Sims,...
- 12/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This remarkable little black comedy is often listed as a horror film yet it has more nervous laughs than shivers. It’s a solid idea: cruelly maginalized old folks get madder than hell and just won’t take it any more. Or maybe more accurately, they simply go nuts. The cast of ‘over seventies’ playing over eighty is just marvelous, and one murderous little pixie is a delight: Paula Trueman. Things do become absurd but the universally-understood premise stays firm. . . we’ll all be there sooner or later. “A Murder A Day Keeps the Landlord Away.”
Homebodies
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.
Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky
Art Director: John Retsek
Film Editor: Peter Parasheles
Original Music: Bernardo Segáll
Written by Larry Yust,...
Homebodies
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.
Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky
Art Director: John Retsek
Film Editor: Peter Parasheles
Original Music: Bernardo Segáll
Written by Larry Yust,...
- 12/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Potently blending long-awaited classics, new filmmakers, and a modern-ish American classic, Criterion’s February slate has arrived. No 4K discs, sadly, but we’re still awaiting Christmas in hopes the Dolby Vision-equipped player will be under our tree.
My personal recommendation is Ann Hui’s Boat People, an absolutely despair-inducing drama that raised waves of controversy upon release and marked a major (albeit long-neglected) moment in Hong Kong cinema. But we also want to have fun. So thank God for Leo McCarey’s Love Affair, Miller’s Crossing, and Written on the Wind, in which Douglas Sirk also induces despair but in astonishing Technicolor.
See artwork below and further details on all titles here:
The post Criterion’s February Lineup Includes Miller's Crossing, Written on the Wind & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
My personal recommendation is Ann Hui’s Boat People, an absolutely despair-inducing drama that raised waves of controversy upon release and marked a major (albeit long-neglected) moment in Hong Kong cinema. But we also want to have fun. So thank God for Leo McCarey’s Love Affair, Miller’s Crossing, and Written on the Wind, in which Douglas Sirk also induces despair but in astonishing Technicolor.
See artwork below and further details on all titles here:
The post Criterion’s February Lineup Includes Miller's Crossing, Written on the Wind & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
- 11/15/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film “Belfast” is opening in theaters this week and has already attracted an immense amount of Oscar buzz, currently sitting as the frontrunner for best picture, director and several other categories. With honors and audience awards from various festivals, the Focus Features black-and-white drama has the famed filmmaker on a path to make Oscar history.
For “Belfast,” Branagh serves as one of the producers, which makes him eligible to be nominated for best picture, along with director and original screenplay. He’s received five nominations during his career, all across different categories – director, actor, supporting actor (“My Week with Marilyn”), adapted screenplay (“Hamlet”) and live action short (“Swan Song”).
Pending any unforeseen catastrophe, Branagh is on track to add two new categories to his arsenal (picture and original screenplay). This possibility could set a couple of records for the Ireland native. First, he would tie George Clooney,...
For “Belfast,” Branagh serves as one of the producers, which makes him eligible to be nominated for best picture, along with director and original screenplay. He’s received five nominations during his career, all across different categories – director, actor, supporting actor (“My Week with Marilyn”), adapted screenplay (“Hamlet”) and live action short (“Swan Song”).
Pending any unforeseen catastrophe, Branagh is on track to add two new categories to his arsenal (picture and original screenplay). This possibility could set a couple of records for the Ireland native. First, he would tie George Clooney,...
- 11/8/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
We're revisiting 1937 this month leading up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternates to Oscar's ballot.
We begin 1937 with Fay Bainter, the third-ever winner of the Supporting Actress Oscar for Jezebel in 1938 (you may have heard about it last year!) in Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow. McCarey viewed the film as his greatest achievement, to the point that when he received his Best Director Oscar for The Awful Truth the same year Make Way for Tomorrow earned no nominations, he opened his acceptance speech by saying he won for the wrong movie. We can discuss the considerable merits of both films about couples splitting up and staying together, along with how brilliantly they showcase McCarey’s skills with tone, blocking, performance shaping, scene construction, as well as its enduring legacy in films like Tokyo Story and Love is Strange. Bainter...
We begin 1937 with Fay Bainter, the third-ever winner of the Supporting Actress Oscar for Jezebel in 1938 (you may have heard about it last year!) in Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow. McCarey viewed the film as his greatest achievement, to the point that when he received his Best Director Oscar for The Awful Truth the same year Make Way for Tomorrow earned no nominations, he opened his acceptance speech by saying he won for the wrong movie. We can discuss the considerable merits of both films about couples splitting up and staying together, along with how brilliantly they showcase McCarey’s skills with tone, blocking, performance shaping, scene construction, as well as its enduring legacy in films like Tokyo Story and Love is Strange. Bainter...
- 9/16/2021
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
- 8/25/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Little Rascals Volume 1
Blu ray – The ClassicFlix Restorations
ClassicFlix
1929-30 / 1.37:1 / 3 Hr. 43 Min.
Starring Allen Hoskins, Jackie Cooper, Mary Ann Jackson
Cinematography by Art Lloyd, F. E. Hershey
Directed by Robert F. McGowan, Anthony Mack, James W. Horne
An epic celebration of the American melting pot, E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime ends with a beginning; an immigrant named Tateh escapes the tenements to produce a string of comedies about mischievous slum kids. It’s a fitting, if fanciful, origin story for Hal Roach’s own series of films featuring footloose small fry; visions of ethnic harmony as idealistic as Tateh himself. Roach’s world view was formed during his early adventures as a jack of all trades—mule skinner, iron worker, and miner. And though he ended up as a movie producer he remained a prospector—one day, thanks to some bickering children, he struck gold. The dispute was...
Blu ray – The ClassicFlix Restorations
ClassicFlix
1929-30 / 1.37:1 / 3 Hr. 43 Min.
Starring Allen Hoskins, Jackie Cooper, Mary Ann Jackson
Cinematography by Art Lloyd, F. E. Hershey
Directed by Robert F. McGowan, Anthony Mack, James W. Horne
An epic celebration of the American melting pot, E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime ends with a beginning; an immigrant named Tateh escapes the tenements to produce a string of comedies about mischievous slum kids. It’s a fitting, if fanciful, origin story for Hal Roach’s own series of films featuring footloose small fry; visions of ethnic harmony as idealistic as Tateh himself. Roach’s world view was formed during his early adventures as a jack of all trades—mule skinner, iron worker, and miner. And though he ended up as a movie producer he remained a prospector—one day, thanks to some bickering children, he struck gold. The dispute was...
- 6/19/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In three of the last five years, there has been a divide between the winners of Best Picture at the Oscars. Before the academy reintroduced the preferential ballot for Best Picture in 2010, such splits were fairly rare. Since then, they are almost the rule rather than the exception at the Academy Awards having occurred in five of the last 11 years. Why the change? (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2021 Oscars predictions for Best Director.)
The winner of Best Picture is now determined by a weighted ballot while the other 23 races, including Best Director, are decided by a popular vote. While voters simply check one nominee in those other races, when it comes to Best Picture they are asked to rank all the nominees. If one contender garners more than 50% of the first-place votes, it wins. If, however, no nominee crosses that threshold, the film with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated,...
The winner of Best Picture is now determined by a weighted ballot while the other 23 races, including Best Director, are decided by a popular vote. While voters simply check one nominee in those other races, when it comes to Best Picture they are asked to rank all the nominees. If one contender garners more than 50% of the first-place votes, it wins. If, however, no nominee crosses that threshold, the film with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated,...
- 3/9/2021
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Separated by oceans, time, propriety – or prison – long-distance lovers are a cinematic staple, and perfect viewing for virtual valentines everywhere
For some, Valentine’s Day is one red-letter occasion that won’t be significantly spoiled by a global pandemic and attendant lockdown: skipping the impossible-to-book dinner date and settling for a cosy couple’s night in isn’t too much of a sacrifice. For those who don’t live with the one they love, however, it further emphasises this pained, indefinite period of isolation and separation. For them, it will be a Valentine’s Day of FaceTime intimacy, romantic meals eaten over Zoom, perhaps a favourite film simulwatched across the miles.
Cinema, at least, is sympathetic to such circumstances. History is stacked with screen romances in which the drama hinges on keeping people apart rather than together. In Sleepless in Seattle (1993; Now TV), of course, Nora Ephron pulled off the...
For some, Valentine’s Day is one red-letter occasion that won’t be significantly spoiled by a global pandemic and attendant lockdown: skipping the impossible-to-book dinner date and settling for a cosy couple’s night in isn’t too much of a sacrifice. For those who don’t live with the one they love, however, it further emphasises this pained, indefinite period of isolation and separation. For them, it will be a Valentine’s Day of FaceTime intimacy, romantic meals eaten over Zoom, perhaps a favourite film simulwatched across the miles.
Cinema, at least, is sympathetic to such circumstances. History is stacked with screen romances in which the drama hinges on keeping people apart rather than together. In Sleepless in Seattle (1993; Now TV), of course, Nora Ephron pulled off the...
- 2/13/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
by Cláudio Alves
"Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture."
Those were Leo McCarey's words upon winning the Best Director Oscar of 1937. His victory was for the screwball classic The Awful Truth, though the filmmaker would have preferred if the honor had been bestowed upon another of his films. In 1937, McCarey not only directed one of Old Hollywood's most beloved comedies, but he also helmed one of its most devastating tearjerkers. According to Orson Welles, Make Way for Tomorrow could make a stone cry…...
"Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture."
Those were Leo McCarey's words upon winning the Best Director Oscar of 1937. His victory was for the screwball classic The Awful Truth, though the filmmaker would have preferred if the honor had been bestowed upon another of his films. In 1937, McCarey not only directed one of Old Hollywood's most beloved comedies, but he also helmed one of its most devastating tearjerkers. According to Orson Welles, Make Way for Tomorrow could make a stone cry…...
- 12/3/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
- 11/24/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The November 2020 lineup for The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, toplined by a Claire Denis retrospective, including the brand-new restoration of Beau travail, along with Chocolat, No Fear, No Die, Nenette and Boni, Towards Mathilde, 35 Shots of Rum, and White Material.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
- 10/27/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The creators of HBO Max’s Search Party join Josh and Joe to talk about their favorite films.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Tenet (2020)
Piranha (1978)
Piranha 3D (2010)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Jaws (1975)
E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)
Looker (1981)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Waiting For Guffman (1996)
True Stories (1986)
Another Year (2010)
Abigail’s Party (1977)
Brazil (1985)
The Pink Panther (1963)
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Network (1976)
Idiocracy (2006)
A League Of Their Own (1992)
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
About Schmidt (2002)
Please Give (2010)
Duck Soup (1933)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Love Potion No. 9 (1992) – Sarah
The Birdcage (1996) – Charles
Mandy (2018)
Other Notable Items
Search Party TV series (2016- )
The Coen Brothers
The DGA
Jon Favreau
Garry Marshall
Christopher Nolan
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series (2000-2015)
Jurassic Park series
Laura Dern
Jeff Goldblum
Sam Neill
Steven Spielberg
Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Tenet (2020)
Piranha (1978)
Piranha 3D (2010)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Jaws (1975)
E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)
Looker (1981)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Waiting For Guffman (1996)
True Stories (1986)
Another Year (2010)
Abigail’s Party (1977)
Brazil (1985)
The Pink Panther (1963)
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Network (1976)
Idiocracy (2006)
A League Of Their Own (1992)
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
About Schmidt (2002)
Please Give (2010)
Duck Soup (1933)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Love Potion No. 9 (1992) – Sarah
The Birdcage (1996) – Charles
Mandy (2018)
Other Notable Items
Search Party TV series (2016- )
The Coen Brothers
The DGA
Jon Favreau
Garry Marshall
Christopher Nolan
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series (2000-2015)
Jurassic Park series
Laura Dern
Jeff Goldblum
Sam Neill
Steven Spielberg
Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton...
- 10/13/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup Includes Sátántangó, Agnès Varda, Albert Brooks & More
As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
- 8/25/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
The Lady Eve
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
- 7/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Before each Smackdown, we look at alternate possibilities to the actual Oscar ballot...
by Nick Taylor
Camila Henriques wrote a great article last week on Deborah Kerr’s performance in An Affair to Remember, a film whose cultural resonance feels like a tribute to the star power of its lead couple. A remake of the romantic drama Love Affair (1939) from its original director Leo McCarey, the film follows wealthy socialites Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and Nick Ferrante (Cary Grant), who fall in love over the course of an eight-day transatlantic cruise to New York despite being engaged to other people. The relaxed pacing, resplendent colors, high production values, picturesque photography, and appealing slow-burn chemistry between Kerr and Grant reads like an open invitation from McCarey to luxuriate in the sheer handsomeness of what he’s put together. The economy of Love Affair is missed, though for my money the film...
by Nick Taylor
Camila Henriques wrote a great article last week on Deborah Kerr’s performance in An Affair to Remember, a film whose cultural resonance feels like a tribute to the star power of its lead couple. A remake of the romantic drama Love Affair (1939) from its original director Leo McCarey, the film follows wealthy socialites Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and Nick Ferrante (Cary Grant), who fall in love over the course of an eight-day transatlantic cruise to New York despite being engaged to other people. The relaxed pacing, resplendent colors, high production values, picturesque photography, and appealing slow-burn chemistry between Kerr and Grant reads like an open invitation from McCarey to luxuriate in the sheer handsomeness of what he’s put together. The economy of Love Affair is missed, though for my money the film...
- 7/2/2020
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
by Camila Henriques
The mid 50s were huge for Deborah Kerr. She followed up the huge hit The King and I (1956) with two leading roles the following year in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and An Affair to Remember.
1957 brought Oscar nomination number four to Deborah Kerr. It happened for her turn as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. She lost to Joanne Woodward’s intricate work in The Three Faces of Eve. She would applaud, sitting in the Academy audience as a gracious nominees, twice more until the Academy gave her an honorary award in 1994. But, for me, it was another movie she did in '57 that truly cemented her as a Hollywood icon.
Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember put Kerr in the same frame as Cary Grant. It wasn’t a first time partnership for them, as they had worked together in 1953’s Dream Wife...
The mid 50s were huge for Deborah Kerr. She followed up the huge hit The King and I (1956) with two leading roles the following year in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and An Affair to Remember.
1957 brought Oscar nomination number four to Deborah Kerr. It happened for her turn as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. She lost to Joanne Woodward’s intricate work in The Three Faces of Eve. She would applaud, sitting in the Academy audience as a gracious nominees, twice more until the Academy gave her an honorary award in 1994. But, for me, it was another movie she did in '57 that truly cemented her as a Hollywood icon.
Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember put Kerr in the same frame as Cary Grant. It wasn’t a first time partnership for them, as they had worked together in 1953’s Dream Wife...
- 6/26/2020
- by Camila Henriques
- FilmExperience
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