Al Pacino May Meet Oscar Again

by Murtada Elfadl

Oscar may call an old favourite's name again this year. Al Pacino, an eight-time nominee, has not been recognized by his peers in the Academy since he won for Scent of a Woman (1992) more than a quarter century ago. However in Martin Scorsese The Irishman he finally gets a showcase part that will likely bring him back to the ceremony. 

In this story of American moral decay and gangland infiltration into all structures of American society, Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa the controversial leader of the country’s strongest union, the Teamsters. The film tracks his involvement with the mafia particularly his friendship with hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). It’s not only a great part but a flashy and memorable one particularly in comparison with the quieter tones that his co-stars De Niro and Joe Pesci have to play...

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Oscar History: Dame Maggie Smith

by Cláudio Alves

Younger audiences may know Dame Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall and the sharp-tongued Countess of Grantham, but, before Downton Abbey and Harry Potter, she was already a British national treasure, having won two Oscars by 1979, with four additional nominations. This awards season, with the Dowager Countess promoted to the big screen, she might return to the Academy’s good graces.

Her Downton Abbey role has already proven an awards magnet with three Emmys and a Golden Globe. Maybe its popularity will translate to movie awards? 

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Middleburg Film Festival will honor Terence Blanchard and open with "Marriage Story"

by Nathaniel R

Composer Terence Blanchard

Longtime readers will note that mid October means Virginia to The Film Experience. We’ve been attending the rising Middleburg Film Festival for the past few years and this year yours truly will be on a three person panel discussing the Oscar race! More details to come but if you’re attending please come and say hi. If you’ve been following our festival coverage each year you’ll know that our favourite event annually is a live orchestra concert celebrating a film composer with the composer speaking in between numbers. This year that concert will be for Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Terence Blanchard (BlacKkKlansman, Malcolm X, Harriet) -- can’t wait! 

Festival sensation Marriage Story is Thursday’s opening night film and Irishman the closing night event. Ford V Ferrari, Harriet, and Waves will also get spotlight treatment and there will also be tributes to Director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Two Popes).

NYFF: "The Irishman"

Jason Adams  reporting on the opening night of the New York Film Festival

A camera stalks through the hallways of what we typically call an Old Folks Home. Old Folks. Ever think about that phrase? Disarming in its literal folksiness -- it's in truth a place where the day breaks are taken to pick out caskets. So the camera tracks through the Old Folks Home like so many cameras have tracked through Martin Scorsese's so many movies -- through the nightclubs in Goodfellas and the trading rooms and offices in The Wolf of Wall Street, the muddy mountain sides of Silence. We have walked with this man's camera through space and time together and now here we are, all of us Old Folks, stalking one another down antiseptic corridors on shaky wheels.

The camera comes to rest on Robert De Niro, as it must. De Niro looks old -- older than the actor looks right now in real life, and older than his character Frank Sheeran will look for the majority of The Irishman thanks to the (occasionally spotty) state of the art technology that will pinken his cheeks and taut up his neck flesh as the tale he starts to tell us winds us back, way back in time...

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Links: Joker, Spidey, Clint, Kristen, and more

New Yorker  “movies I can’t watch anymore because my climate anxiety is too real”

Filmmaker Laura Dern will get a tribute at the Gotham Awards on December 2nd. Your move Jennifer Lopez

Coming Soon - Because Warner Bros can't help themselves with Clint Eastwood flicks, The Ballad of Richard Jewell is joining the already crowded December calendar of film releases. Eastwood’s last Oscar-smash was American Sniper (2014) though the past three pictures (Sully, 15:17 to Paris, The Mule) have not interested Oscar much at all.

After the jump Kristen Chenoweth, Spider-Man, Joker and more…

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