What will Israel submit to the Oscars?

by Nathaniel

Flawless, which is called "The Prom" at home stars Stav Strashko (the one behind the wheel) who is a trans actress

The Ophir nominations were recently announced in Israel and we thought we'd share their Best Picture nominees. The winner of the Ophir -- which will be announced September 6th -- is almost always submitted for the Oscar's Foreign Language Film category. There are two LGBTQ films in the mix this year. Thanks to our loyal Israeli reader Yonatan for alerting us to the nominees. They're after the jump along with some stats about Israel's history with the Oscars and in US arthouse movie theaters...

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Big Beautiful Losers

by Jason Adams

Have y'all been keeping an eye on the ever-ballooning cast of cool cats that've joined the It sequel? This week brought one of the names that's made me the happiest - Jess Weixler, star of Teeth and Jessica Chastain BFF, has joined It: Chapter II to play the wife of Bill Denbrough, aka the leader of the "Losers Club" who will be played by James McAvoy in the sequel. (Chastain herself is playing grown-up Bev, the lone girl in the Losers.) We've been clamoring for good stuff for Weixler ever since she wowed hard with Teeth in 2007 but even though she's worked steadily she's remained under-the-radar. The role of Bill's wife will probably definitely still under-exploit her talents, but it'll be good to have her around all the same.

Anyway back in September Chris asked y'all to offer up casting suggestions for the adult versions of the first film's kids and y'all actually got some names right in the comments! Pat yourselves on the back! The rest of the cast besides Chastain & McAvoy (Eleanor Rigby reunion in the house) are as follows: Bill Hader is Richie, James Ransone is Eddie (that one's my favorite), Jay Ryan is Ben, Isaiah Mustafa is Mike, and Andy Bean is Stanley. Oh and Xavier Dolan is playing a character that everybody figured would get cut from the film adaptation... but I'll refrain from details to keep this spoiler-free. Plus Bill Skarsgard will be of course be back doing his Pennywise thing. What do we think of the new cast? 

Doc Corner: 'Three Identical Strangers'

by Glenn Dunks

“Truth is stranger than fiction”, nudge, wink, geddit? It’s fairly common that that old chestnut of a phrase makes its way into writings about documentaries as more and more filmakers uncover strange but true stories that then make their way into cinemas and onto streaming services. Crazy! Amazing! Insane! Shook! Whatever. Sometimes it's justified (Hi Tickled!) and then there’s Three Identical Strangers. A film that would almost certainly be a farce if invented in the mind of a screenwriter. There’s no way such a story could play as straight drama. It’s just too nutty. It is crazy and amazing and insane and I was shook.

Three Identical Strangers starts the way somebody telling this story might. Have you heard of the one of three brothers, identical triplets, who were separated at birth? That's where we begin...

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Welcome the Academy's Class of 2018!

Chris here. It's that time of year again for Oscar to welcome its new members into the fold. And the class of 2018 is the largest batch of inductees ever: 928, ahead of last year's previous record of 774. Among the names you will find last year's nominees like Daniel Kaluuya, Timothée Chalamet, and The Big Sick's creative duo Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, as well as beloved folks awaiting that first nomination like Melanie Lynskey, Sean Baker, and Ann Dowd.

These invitees (remember, some people do decline to join) show further attempt to diversify the ranks of the Academy across all categories. Should all accept, the Academy membership for women and people of color will both increase towards last year's goal to double both by 2020. One exciting stat is that 9 branches feature more female invitees than male, including actors, documentary, and producers.

The full list is after the jump, so do share the names you are most excited to see! Here's the cast of Big Little Lies adorably celebrating Zoë Kravitz's invitation to kick off the excitement (but there's tons more adorable well-wishing on The Academy's Twitter page):

The cast of #BigLittleLies welcomes the our newest member invitees —including @ZoeKravitz—to the Academy. #WeAreTheAcademy pic.twitter.com/qooOqsnyTk

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) June 25, 2018

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Marcia Says "Hi"

by Nathaniel R

Putting the Gay Harden in Gay Pride! Just a brief note from a slammed day to share the wonderful news that yours truly met Tony and Oscar winning Marcia Gay Harden at New York City's pride parade yesterday. How perfect is it that the original Harper Pitt in Angels in America was out to see the festivities with her kids... and sporting rainbow colors, too!?! 

We didn't speak for long but she seemed delighted when I mentioned her brief comic genius in Grandma (2016) -- it's probably not the title most people bring up first! She was so warm and friendly. One things for sure: This was much a happier outdoor parade moment than her despairing final scene in Mystic River (2003)!