IN THE BEGINNING
The Film Experience has been a popular web destination for Oscar obsessives and cinephiles for a decade. After a few evolutionary swims it grew legs and walked ashore in 2001 when Nathaniel began obsessing over Moulin Rouge! and letting his off-cinema life die of consumption malnourishment. International recognition grew over the years and exploded with the addition of a daily blog in 2005. He found a whole legion of readers who also deeply loved AMPAS (the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences) and its movie-making members even while passionately debating their collective sanity; A Beautiful Mind over... this? Come again?
In the past two years, The Film Experience has been recognized as "a pretty hip blog" (The New York Times), profiled in "Meet the Bloggers" (The Advocate Magazine) and Nathaniel has been named "Inarguably the most exuberant, optimistic and quick-witted Oscar blogger on the Web" (Vanity Fair).
WHERE TO NOW?
The Film Experience has finally fused its many parts in this redesign to bring readers the passionate daily cinematic observations they've come to expect as well as the detailed Oscar punditry that first led them here. "Awards, Actresses, Cinematic Musings..." that's what we serve up and what you return for.
EDITOR | OWNER
Nathaniel Rogers, the creator and chief contributor to The Film Experience is a member of the BFCA. He is a film columnist and Oscar pundit for Towleroad and Tribeca Film and his writing has appeared in both online publications (Awards Daily, Pajiba, Zoom-In) and print magazines (Esquire and Winq). Nathaniel has served on four international film festival juries and appeared as an on-air Oscar pundit for Sky News London. He first fell in love with the cinema in the 1980s. Three things happened after which he was never the same: Watching his first Oscar ceremony on TV (March 1983), realizing how deeply he felt a movie his family didn't "get" (The Purple Rose of Cairo, 1985), and seeing Michelle Pfeiffer on the piano top (The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989). Nathaniel currently lives and works as a writer in New York City.
[Follow Nathaniel on Twitter | Contact Nathaniel]
CONTRIBUTORS
Jason Adams is half man, half plant. When he dreams of his childhood, Rosemary Woodhouse and Kermit the Frog play his parents. He only recently learned that Stacey Dash's character's full name in Clueless is Dionne Davenport and laughed for half an hour about that. Movies about cannibals always make him hungry. He wishes his parents had named him after the killer in the Friday the 13th movies but takes comfort in the fact that on their first date they went to see The Exorcist. He writes lots more junk like this every day at his blog My New Plaid Pants, at least when he isn't hunting giant alligators in the sewers. There's no service down there.
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Craig Bloomfield is a UK-based film writer for both online and print publications. He writes the weekly character actor column "Take Three" for the Film Experience, contributes frequently to The Hub magazine and writes regularly at his own blog, Dark Eye Socket. He stands by the notion that horror films are for life, not just for Halloween – but is similarly thrilled by the imagery of any film, especially world cinema, documentaries and any movie that features some kind of spectacular light display. He undertook a BFI Film Journalism course in 2006 and has written for both the Cambridge and London Film Festivals.
[Follow Craig on Twitter]
Michael Cusumano is a freelance writer currently living in Brooklyn. In 2010 his love of the cinema prompted him to start his own film blog, Serious Film. His film commentary has since been featured on such prominent sites as Cinematical, Basket of Kisses, and the official website for actor Lance Reddick. He currently writes "Unsung Heroes" for The Film Experience. In addition to blogging, Michael also writes and produces plays and short films that have been shown in film and theater festivals, and holds a BFA in film from the University of the Arts.
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Alexa Frangos is an artist and recovering lawyer with a cinematic bent. She completed her M.F.A. thesis at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus on images of women in film, and when she subsequently became a lawyer she would sneak into the movies between depositions. Now a stay-at-home mom, she celebrates the intersection of art and film on her blog, Pop Elegantiarum. She is obsessed with Cindy Sherman, Carole Lombard, Pauline Kael and cherry pie.
R. Kurt Osenlund has been obsessed with movies and media since he staged scenes with action figures on his parents' living room floor. He was officially diagnosed with cinephilia in 2003, when his beloved The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Angels in America rightfully gobbled up mountains of trophies. Currently based in Philadelphia, he is an editor, writer and film critic with Inter-County Newspapers and BucksLocalNews.com, where his work has earned him awards from Suburban Newspapers of America. He is the film critic for South Philly Review newspaper and a contributing writer for ICON magazine. He compiles his work and posts more fun stuff at his blog, Your Movie Buddy. The blog name was coined by friends and family, back in the action-figure days.
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Jose Solís wanted to be a spy since he was a child, which is why by day he works as a content editor/graphic designer by day and by night he writes and dreams about film. Although he doesn't travel the world fighting villains, his mission is to trek the planet from screen to screen. He opened his film website Movies Kick Ass seven years ago and in addition to The Film Experience he contributes to the Costa Rica-based Chepestyle. His writing has given him the opportunity to travel and get advice from some of the most prominent film critics and scholars in Latin America. His next mission is going back to school for his Film Studies Masters degree. This time he won't be undercover.
[Follow Jose on Twitter]