Category Analysis - Limited Series Supporting Categories

by Christopher James

Will Golden Globe winner Paul Walter Hauser win the Emmy for his work on Apple TV+'s Black Bird?

Emmy voters spread the wealth quite a bit in the Limited Series/TV Movie section of their ballots. When Abe covered the Drama Supporting races only four shows filled the sixteen (!) available slots. The same Supporting Categories for limited series bring us eight shows with only fourteen slots to fill.

Both Beef and Welcome to Chippendales have three nominated supporting performances. Meanwhile, the following shows have two actors represented between the two categories - Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Black Bird. These races welcomed in a healthy mix of newcomers (six nominees received their first acting Emmy nomination) alongside three previous Emmy winners. Will the newcomers overthrow the proven winners? Let’s take a look at the categories and their submissions...

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Review: Glenn Howerton Dominates in ‘BlackBerry’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There are a number of tech-related crash and burn stories that have made their way to the big and small screens recently. It’s remarkable to watch the rise and falls of certain magnetic leaders and come to understand how their big ideas managed to ultimately be their undoing. The Dropout and Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber are two worthwhile television examples. A recent IFC Films theatrical release, BlackBerry, now available to rent, is also very much worth checking out.

It's hard to remember a time before the iPhone, but this film looks at a crucial moment before Steve Jobs and Apple changed everything. The opening titles identify it as a fictionalized version of true events, though it’s never made quite clear what authenticity remains in the finished product...

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Venice 2023: Opening film "Comandante" and the latest from Liliani Cavani

by Elisa Giudici

Edoardo De Angelis & Pierfrancesco Favino on the set of "Comandante"

Opening the Venice Film Festival is a daunting enough challenge. Now imagine being called in as a last-minute replacement for Luca Guadagnino’s new film starring Zendaya. Yet, Edoardo De Angelis managed to uphold the honor of Italian cinema admirably. His new film Comandante stands as a notable piece of filmmaking, injecting an interesting angle into the war subgenre of submarine films. To put it in perspective, it holds its own against the likes of The Wolf's Call, a recent European film of similar ambition from 2019, which boated a budget twice the size of Comandante.

A budget of 14 million euros isn't trivial within the national cinematic landscape, where the majority of yearly productions hover around the 1 to 2 million euro mark. This significant financial backing primarily went into meticulously recreating the interior and exterior spaces of the Cappellini submarine. Surprisingly, this endeavor was complicated by the scarcity of photographic references for the original ship or its close counterparts. De Angelis's film underscores a poignant historical reality: the majority of Italy's 120 submarines utilized during World War II met their demise, their crews were lost at sea, resting beneath coral crosses...

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My Helen Mirren Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

It's hard to believe Helen Mirren hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since The Last Station, way back in 2009. The shock comes not from her fate's unfairness, mind you. Instead, it stems from how Mirren seems to be actively chasing gold, nabbing essential precursor support for projects like Hitchcock, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Woman in Gold, Trumbo, and The Leisure Seeker. This year, the actress may be going down the same road with Golda, the recently released biopic about Golda Meier, "the Iron Lady of Israel.". To mark the occasion, let's look away from the failed Oscar buzz and consider the peak of Helen Mirren's work as a big-screen legend.

As with Angela Bassett, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver, Marilyn Monroe, and Maggie Smith, TV performances will be set aside for another day, and so will her Academy-anointed turns. Caveats out of the way, this is my Mirren top ten…

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Elisa hits Venice once again!

Our favourite Italian journalist Elisa Giudici has arrived at the Lido for the 80th annual Venice Film Festival. I had the pleasure of attending with Elisa two years ago and though I couldn't make it this year, Elisa will do her usual wonderful job of filling us in on the details. Elisa's first review will be up tonight. In the meantime do follow Elisa on Instagram. 

Once Elisa is done at Venice, the festivals continue across the ocean. This year Claudio will be our man on the ground at TIFF for the first time, so stay tuned.