"Shadow" leads the Golden Horse nominations

Good news for fans of Zhang Yimou. His latest film Shadow, which we quite liked at TIFF, leads the 55th annual Golden Horse nominations which focus on Chinese language cinema. The higher Shadow's profile gets the more eyeballs it will theoretically find once Well Go, releases it in US theaters. It's definitely worth seeing in a movie theater since it's a visual spectacle. China still hasn't named their Oscar submission so we hope it's going to be Shadow which was released at home yesterday, the last day of eligibility for Oscar's Foreign Language Film submission requirements.

Interestingly enough, Hong Kong's Oscar submission Operation Red Sea received NO nominations whatsoever. 

A full list of Golden Horse nominations is after the jump with links to reviews for the few films we've seen...

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Showbiz History: New Streisand and Old Horror Classics

Boo! October is here. Are you excited for this month (it's myfavorite for a variety of reasons). Since it's the spooky month (among other things) I've personally started it off with a night of insomnia after a nightmare -- ON TREND! 

Here are 9 random things that happened on this day, October 1st, in showbiz history...

1962 Barbra Streisand signs her first recording contract with Columbia. Offers had started to come in after she brought down the house on Broadway in I Can Get It For You Wholesale that spring. It was a one year contract (with an option for five) giving her 5% of royalties on albums sold. Streisand has never left Columbia and her 37th studio album Walls drops a month from now. People are already meme-ing the album cover left and right since it's accidentally in keeping with the horror theme of October...  

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Tiffany on Top. What did you see?

by Nathaniel R

A quick perusal of this weekend's top movies in wide (left) and limited (right) release. Commentary after the jump...

Weekend Box Office Estimates (September 28th-30th)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1. 🔺 NIGHT SCHOOL $28 *NEW*	1. THE WIFE $777K on 437 screens (cum. $6.1) Review, Poster Blurb, Glenn's Oscar

2. 🔺 SMALLFOOT $23 *NEW* Warner Animation Movies	2. 🔺LITTLE WOMEN $747k on 643 screens

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We have almost the full list of Foreign Oscar Contenders now

by Nathaniel R

We're now up to 79 entries for Best Foreign Language Film, so this will be our last chart update before the official announcement by AMPAS in a week or so. There's probably only 10-12 that weren't officially announced that will show up on the list as that list generally tops out at around 90 titles.

A few of the most recent entries are from Argentina (the beautiful-boy-on-crime-spree drama El Angel), Bangladesh (No Bed of Roses headlined by international star Irffan Khan), Kyrgyzstan (road trip drama Night Accident), and Costa Rica (university student pregnancy drama Medea). I'm kicking myself that I didn't see El Angel at TIFF because it was on the schedule but I dropped it on an exhausting day.

RafikiFinally, perhaps you've been following the drama around Kenya's submission. The director of the initially-banned lesbian romance Rafiki (which Chris reviewed here from TIFF) fought valiantly to get the film screened at home to make it eligible for submission. The government caved to allow it but, as we predicted, Kenya still wouldn't actually submit it. The less political (and thus a very political choice!) inspirational drama Supa Modo about a terminally ill little girl was submitted instead.

FOREIGN PREDICTIONS
Submissions pt 1 - Algeria through Estonia
Submissions pt 2 - Finland through Morocco
Submissions pt 3 - Nepal through Vietnam

Best of September

Fall is our favorite time of year so we're going to keep relishing it however quickly it vanishes. The movies get really exciting and we don't feel exhausted yet with the holidays + incessant Oscar mania. But alas, the first month of fall is already (just about) a wrap.

Herewith a bakers dozen fav posts from September in case you missed them:

• Wildlife - Chris is thrilled by Carey Mulligan & Paul Dano's beautiful drama
• Funny Girl at 50 - Tim looks at Babs' ageless Oscar-winning star turn
• TIFF Jury of One - Nathaniel hands out honors for 'best in fest'
• Cynthia Erivo to play Harriet Tubman - Murtada is watching her career
• A Prayer for Alessandro - Jason highlights one of the best turns of the year, Alessandro Nivola in Disobedience
• Roma - Nathaniel on Alfonso Cuarón's personal/visual triumph
• Destroyer - Nathaniel watches Kidman transform
• Adventures in Babysitting - Chris takes in lipsync queen Elisabeth Shue in his Soundtracking series
• Black Mirror: USS Callister - Jorge discusses the screenplay of one of TV's brightest moments this past season

And the most discussed posts by you:

• Best Actress race - the post festival rethink
• Best Actor race - the post festival shake-up
• Emmy night - the winners and highlights
• Mary Poppins Returns - the Yes No Maybe so of the new trailer

COMING IN OCTOBER...

A Star is Born mania, More from the New York Film Festival, Rita Hayworth and Teresa Wright Centennials, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Hugh Jackman's 50th birthday, Moon landing spectacular First Man, the 25th anniversary of Nightmare Before Christmas, various Halloween hijinx, the new horrors of Suspiria, Daredevil season 3, the long delayed Smackdown of 1972 (it's not tomorrow -- apologies!), and lots of Foreign Film Oscar race hoopla when the official list is announced (probably a week from now).