French Cinema and the Oscars: A Love Story

by Cláudio Alves

France is the most-nominated country in the History of the Best International Feature Oscar, having conquered 39 nods over the decades. They'll probably up that number soon with Ladj Ly's Les Misérables. The likeliness of a nomination doesn't mean the selection of the country's Oscar submission was without controversy. Many a cinephile thinks Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire was more deserving. Without the benefit of being in the race for that particular trophy, the much-lauded period lesbian romance is likely to receive no Oscar love, even though it's eligible for most other categories

While it's rare for French films to be recognized outside the Best International Feature race, it's not unheard of. Since the beginning of the Academy Awards, 53 films have done so. That's not including documentaries or short films (or the number would be yet more inflated) . The Oscars may be very local in their tastes, but they've always shown a bit of Francophilia…

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ACE and Art Directors Guild Awards Nominations

by Murtada Elfadl

American Cinema Editors (ACE), the honorary society of film editors, today announced their nominations for 2019. For the first time in their history three foreign language films are among the nominees The Farewell, Parasite and I Lost My Body. Some of the films that solidified their awards path with editing nominations include The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. All these films have been recognized by all the guild that have announced awards so far.

Missing from the list again is Little Women which was also blanked earlier today by SAG. Hustlers seems to be only about Jennifer Lopez, it missed here and so far only the costume designers showed that they have taste. Taking the spot of the contemporary crowd pleaser with both guilds is Knives Out.

The big miss with the production design guild awards is again Little Women. Marriage Story also didn’t make the cut, production designers becoming the first award body to blank that film. The full lists are after the jump.....

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International Documentary Association winners announce

By Glenn Dunks

The International Documentary Association announced their winners this past weekend with the Syrian-UK For Sama taking the top prize among a field of ten nominees. IDA aren’t the best gauge of where the winds are going to blow for the Academy Awards – the last three years alone, the Best Feature prize has gone to Minding the Gap (Oscar nominated), O.J.: Made in America (Oscar winner) and Dina (not nominated). So, make of these results what you will.

Nevertheless, this win when combined with its recent BIFA win for Best British Independent Film and a swag of other nominations does position it nicely for a slot on the short list and inching closer to a nomination (although I am less a fan of it than most).

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A Best Picture think... what if there were only five?

by Nathaniel R

 

Consensus is taking clear shape with film critics and awards bodies. They're finding Parasite the very best film of 2019 fairly regularly now. In terms of both critics and larger more 'industry' organizations Martin Scorsese's elegaic The Irishman is leading the English language films in nomination counts and prizes. Noah Baumbach's impressive superbly-acted dramedy Marriage Story and Tarantino's shape-shifting gorgeously executed 1969 homage Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are not far behind in the collective love sweepstakes. That could mean that any of those four will be vying for the Best Picture win at the Oscars in February. With the preferential ballot it helps to have passion votes and all of them have that. It also helps to be everyone's second or third favourite and each of those films could theoretically score high on virtually any voter's ballot.

But what's in fifth place?

Since 2011 rules have been in place to deliver between 5 to 10 Best Picture nominees depending on percentages of votes. To date, though, this system has only produced years with either 8 or 9 nominees for the top prize. But a though exercize today. Which of the remaining films would make it in a year with only 5 films in play...

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SAG Nominations

by Nathaniel R

It was a surprising morning at the SAG nominations with Bombshell coming in hot with 4 nominations (!!!) and Parasite becoming only the second foreign language film ever nominated for Oustanding Cast. In other news we saw the first chink in Netflix's considerable Oscar-seeking armor today as The Irishman and Marriage Story both arguably underperformed and Dolemite was shut out. (And, as always, we've investigated the "Cast" nominations to see who was left out.)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”)

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)

Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”)

Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)

In a surprising state of affairs -- though not as surprising if you remember that SAG nominations often skew “earlier” buzz than what’s happening in December, Taron Egerton, Leo DiCaprio, and Christian Bale are all accounted for rather than later openings like Robert DeNiro, Adam Sandler. Netflix push Eddie Murphy also failed to win them over...

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