Venice at Home – Day 6: (A)Moral Tales

by Cláudio Alves

Good news for Martin McDonagh fans - The Banshees of Inisherin is getting great reviews, marking a potential return to form after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri proved to be a polarizing picture, regardless of its awards success. The new film reunites the Irish director with two of his favorite thespians, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. With another hit on his resume, the latter is having a marvelous year. Maybe that will materialize in Oscar buzz, or maybe not.

In contrast, Koji Fukada and his cast need not worry about such matters. The Japanese auteur rarely registers with voters beyond the festival circuit. Nevertheless, fans should be excited about Love Life, a family drama centering on a returning patriarch who brings with him much pain and guilt. Such aching themes are a constant in Martin McDonagh's cinema, too, featuring prominently in the first collaboration between the director, Farrell, and Gleeson. So let's remember that brilliant black comedy and one of Fukada's offbeat oddities… 

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Venice Diary #5 - L'Immensità, Other People's Children, Padre Pio, Love Life

by Elisa Giudici

Today we have on our menù four movies so different one for the other there's no point in trying to find common ground or a theme. Let’s begin with the surprising and very good Penélope Cruz film... 

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Denmark's 3 Oscar finalists and their strong awards history

by Nathaniel R

If you've been reading the Film Experience for some time you know that your host here is fond of Scandinavian cinema. I'm of partial Danish descent and once lived in Norway and the two combined prompted the interest around the time the Oscars took over my life. When it comes to Oscars' Best International Feature Film category the common wisdom is that France, Italy, an Spain reign but that's only because they have the most in terms of "all time" stats. If you look at more recent history, it's a much different story. For instance, in the 22 years of the 21st century to date, Norway has doubled its meager nomination count and Denmark has more than doubled its previous nomination count. In fact, Denmark is currently tied for #1 in terms of Oscar's favourite foreign country of the 21st century thus far (8 nominations and 2 wins... which Germany also has. Only Sweden, once Oscar's favourite scandinavian country, has been losing momentum.

To make a long story short, Denmark should always be watched closely in the Oscar race. After the jump their three finalists for their 2022 Oscar submission plus their rich Oscar history overall...

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Venice Gowns '22, Round 3

Belgian goddess Virginie Efira (at Venice for Other People's Children) and French icon Isabelle Huppert (presenting Le Syndicaliste) often exude sexual danger onscreen, but only Huppert opted for murder weapons as heels (look at those!). Efira went with a non-dangerous but gorgeous carmine velvet dress. Spain's movie queen Penelope Cruz hit Venice to promote her new Italian film L'Immensita and stunned as usual; truly one of the bonafide MOVIE STARS of our era. American actresses Hong Chau, Sadie Sink (both promoting The Whale), Patricia Clarkson (Monica), ad Britich actresses Jodie Turner-Smith (who is at every red carpet event in Venice this year), and Mia Goth (promoting Pearl) complete today's red carpet lineup. 

online polls

Round 1 - Jodie Turner-Smith, Catherine Deneuve, Julianne Moore, etc...
Round 2 - Timothée Chalamet, Tessa Thompson, Cate Blanchett, etc...

Venice at Home – Day 5: Returning Champions

by Cláudio Alves

The fifth day of competition finds three award-winning filmmakers vying for more golden plaudits. Rebecca Zlotowsky's directorial works have left strong impressions across some of Europe's biggest festivals, and this is her first time in Venice. Her new film, Other People's Children, stars Virginie Efira and Roschdy Zem – he's also in competition as a director with a different film. Next, Italy's  Emanuele Crialese returns with L'immensità after nabbing nine prizes in past editions of the festival. Finally, there's Darren Aronofsky who is a former Venice champion whose new project, The Whale, is already enshrined in Best Actor Oscar buzz for Brendan Fraser.

So today we're looking back at Aronofsky's 2008 Golden Lion winner, Zlotowsky's sensual summer, and Crialese's voyage to the New World…

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