Save the date(s) - We're in the home stretch

With January wrapped up, we're in the final month of Oscar mania. Here are major events and/or awards nights to keep your eye on for the next month plus.

FEBRUARY

2 A Fantastic Woman (Chile's Oscar nominee) opens in limited release
2 CAS Cinema Audio Society final voting opens (Closes Feb 14th)
3 DGA Directors Guild of America Awards
3 Annie Awards (Honoring the year's animated films)
5 Oscar Nominees Luncheon...

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CAROL

Happy 97th* birthday to the one and only Carol Channing! I wish I were as rich as Jeff Bezos so I could commission Todd Haynes to make her a biopic by her 100th: Carol (2021)

* Carol Channing is the third oldest living Academy Award nominee for acting behind only the 101 year olds Olivia de Havilland and Kirk Douglas.

The Passion of the Link

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• THR details the first attempt to put Black Panther on screen in the 1990s with Wesley Snipes stories about trying to collaborate with John Singleton (ye olde creative differences)
• Coming Soon Jim Caviezel and Mel Gibson reuniting for a sequel to Passion of the Christ about, you guessed it, the Resurrection
• IndieWire you knew that RuPaul was a major film buff, didn't you? Here he is on this year's Oscar race

More after the jump including Andrew Scott, honoring supporting actors, Bollywood stars, Xavier Dolan's next project, and Armie Hammer in a track suit...

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"BPM" Leads César Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The stars of BPM (Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) were all nominated for Césars

The César Awards, now in their 43rd year, and essentially France's Oscars have announced their nominations. It wasn't a great year for France in terms of their US arthouse performances. The most successful French release this past year in the States was François Ozon's Frantz (César eligible in 2016) which finished its theatrical run just shy of a million dollars. But of the French films that did make some sort of transatlantic mark this year (whether through festival hype or theatrical release) you'll see BPM (Beats Per Minute), the horror film Raw, and Agnes Varda's Oscar nominated Faces Places among their nominees...

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Soundtracking: "The Shape of Water"

by Chris Feil

“You’ll never know...” Is it safe yet to discuss the musical flourish in The Shape of Water? It’s a moment that should remain unspoiled if you haven’t seen it.

Guillermo Del Toro’s interspecies romance is itself in love with the movies, and its genre bending owes as much to classic musicals as it does to Sirkian melodrama and monster movies. Even without the moment in question or Alexandre Desplat’s gorgeous score, the texture of the film recalls old Hollywood musicals from its structure to its overflowing emotionality. But Del Toro actually goes there, and unexpectedly reveals something more than an expression of love from its heroine Eliza, played by Sally Hawkins.

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