Through Her Lens: 2017 (The 90th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Previous Episodes: 2018 | 2019 | 2020-21

The 2017 awards season was marred by the multiple accusations of sexual abuse and harrassment made towards several industry giants, mainly notorious film producer Harvey Weinstein. This catapulted the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement into the international spotlight, addressing women’s issues in a broader context, especially with a misogynistic president sitting at the White House.

At that year’s Oscars, Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman to be nominated for Best Director in the awards’ ninety years of existence. A moment that must be celebrated, but also an embarrassing reminder of how Hollywood has failed women directors, whether in awards or in actual film production. Out of the 341 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2017 (90th Academy Awards), 60 (17.6%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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1961 Flashback: Best International Film

by Cláudio Alves

Did you know that Juan Carlos Ojano hosts one of the best film podcasts around? The One-Inch Barrier started last year, examining the Best International Film race, going backward in time. As its penultima season is drawing to an end, I was honored enough to return for my third stint as a guest.

The subject, this time, was Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, which won the Oscar in 1961, beating Denmark's Harry and the Butler, Japan's Immortal Love, Mexico's The Important Man, and Spain's Plácido. Though the Swedish flick about God's silence and Harriet Andersson's general awesomeness isn't an especially joyous piece, this was a fun, thoroughly entertaining conversation. Topics ranged from faith to class warfare, from ironic movie titles to Toshiro Mifune's hotness. There was even time to throw shade at some 2021 Oscar contenders, though I refuse to name the mediocrity in question. Take a listen:

What do you think of this Oscar lineup? Are you similarly drawn to the bleak conclusions of Through a Glass Darkly, or do you have another favorite from '61?

Tweetweek

Accurate, this!

seems like the pandemic is structured like buffy the vampire: each season has a lot of mini crises but is about one big bad. (new Variant, etc) by that logic does will the series finale will find us sinking into a hole in the earth as the hellmouth consumes us? plz, yes. hurry.

— Allison P Davis (@AllisonPDavis) December 16, 2021

After the jump many more curated tweets including reactions to Time's Person of the Year, Spider-Man No Way Home, various awards things, and relatable and/or amusing tweets...

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Team Top Ten: Steven Spielberg for his 75th Birthday

by... our team here at TFE!

West Side Story, now in theaters. is Steven Spielberg's 32nd motion picture. Though he directed one self-financed "feature" at 17 (shown at one movie theater), Duel (1971) a made for television movie was his first Hollywood gig. His movie career proper began with the spring release of The Sugarland Express in 1974. By the end of the following summer, due to Jaws, he was globally famous and a bankable A list director, lists he'd never fall off of. To celebrate Spielberg's 75th birthday (today, December 18th) we recently polled the team about the work of America's most beloved auteur: his best, worst, and most underappreciated.

It was fascinating to be reminded how widely viewed Spielberg's filmography is. Of his 31 pictures prior to West Side Story, not a single one of them went unmentioned in the answers to our three-part poll which 23 members of our team participated in. That said the least often cited for any reason (so probably the least seen?) were Sugarland Express and 1941. Of Spielberg's blockbusters Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom  and War of the Worlds were the two that had the weakest turn out under any section of the polling.

In the end we opted not to focus on the Worst as that isn't celebratory and, what's more, there was not a clear consensus but if you're curious Ready Player One, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Terminal, The BFG, and Lost World Jurassic Park all sprung up regularly. Hey you can't win them all but Spielberg has won more than most. Ready for the Best of List? Enjoy...

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Best International Film: Luxembourg, Paraguay, Switzerland

by Cláudio Alves

Instead of thinking about continental closeness, feminine authorship, or similar Oscar records, today's Best international Film submissions are bonded by a thematic link. The pictures selected to represent Luxembourg, Paraguay, and Switzerland all explore matters of displacement, whether through immigration or forced uprooting. They run the gamut, from fiction to documentary, from stories of economic precarity and political oppression to tales of colonial trauma. Though they're championing their countries in the Oscar race, these films consider the nations through complicated lenses and layers of otherness…

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