Online Film Critics Choose "Moonlight"

by Glenn Dunks

Moonlight took 4 prizes from the OFCS

The Online Film Critics Society, of which I am a member, just announced their winners and... I'd love to say they're a great bunch, but I haven't been able to see at least two of the big winners yet. International release dates (I'm back in Australia) always make voting in these sort of awards a tricky prospect when the need to be early is ever-present, but I have no doubt that the OFCS's selection of Moonlight as the best picture of 2016 is worth cheering about.

The organisation with its some 260 members awarded the Barry Jenkins' drama with three additional wins for Best Director, and duel supporting acting prizes for Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. Casey Affleck and Natalie Portman took the lead actor awards, Arrival and Hell or High Water took screenplay honours, Kubo and the Two Strings was handed a much-deserved animation win, and the Oscar frontrunner La La Land settled for the two technical prizes that the organization gives out for cinematography and editing.

And proving yet again that South Korea made the wrong choice by not selecting Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden for the foreign language Oscar, it was awarded Best Film Not in the English Language alongside its nomination for Best Picture.

What do we think that film's Oscar prospects are like? Hong Kong's The Grandmaster surprised with two nominations several years ago - there's certainly precedence. It just depends on whether Oscar's costume and production design voters are having one of those years where they think more outside of the box or fall in line with general Oscar buzz.

FULL NOMINEES AND WINNERS AFTER THE JUMP...

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Casting Society and ACE "Eddie" Nominations

Two branches of movie craftsmen have sounded off now in what will soon be a deluge of guild announcements. The casting directors and the editors have spoken and they've rallied behind some Best Picture hopefuls (the three frontrunners: La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight are showing up everywhere) and passionate fanbase movies (20th Century Women, Deadpool, Captain Fantastic) ...and 'oh, they remembered that!' surprises (Hail, Caesar!).

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Your First Film Screening of 2017? Mine was "Casablanca"

Happy 2017, everyone! Dancin' Dan here, to celebrate how I rang in the New Year in cinema.

I personally opted not to go with any of the new releases, instead choosing January 1st to see a 35mm print of one of my Top Three films of all time, Casablanca. Apparently the print is making the rounds in honor of the 1943 Best Picture winner's 75th Anniversary. The timing, as always with Casablanca, is confusing: Casablanca premiered in New York in November of 1942 but it didn't become Oscar eligible until the 1943 film year winning the Oscar in March 1944 sixteen whole months after its premiere. Technically it's not quite 75 yet.

But never mind that, because Casablanca is always worth celebrating. It's so easy to fall in love with the shared beauty and charisma of stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and to applaud the film's witty, instant-classic lines. This time around, though, I was particularly struck by two things...

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Doc Corner: 'I Am Not Your Negro' is a Towering Achievement

In Doc Corner, Glenn Dunks looks at current, future and past documentaries of note...

With new year resolutions no doubt already a distant memory (it's been three days!), it’s probably time to remember that it is really hard for people to change. And I don't just mean quitting smoking. We can try all we want, but even those of us who consider ourselves ‘progressive’ probably can’t say with any real confidence that we're not set in our ways; the same person deep inside that we were a decade ago. And even if that isn’t the case, as hard as it is to change just ourselves, just think how much harder it is to change the larger mass. And with a new President about to be inaugurated on the back of violent, blatant racism, it is sadly even more pertinent to remember this.

Now, these are not necessarily ideas that are at the forefront of Raoul Peck’s superb I Am Not Your Negro, but as it was with 13th, 10 Bullets, 3 ½ Minutes, O.J.: Made in America and many other documentaries about race, it is a recurring theme that bubbles to the surface as if by default. The more we think things are changing, the more they sadly stay the same. A film about race in the 1950s and 1960s is, sadly and inevitably, a film about race in the modern age for we are doomed to repeat the sins of the past no matter what we do...

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Talented Mr Linky

Must Reads
The New Yorker an evocative thoughtful profile of Mike Mills and 20th Century Women
The Muse Rich Juzwiak on the year in overrated pop culture, starting with Manchester by the Sea. ("A Masterpiece." "It's not tho")
The Metrograph Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy (Carol) reflects on Patricia Highsmith's dislike of the screen adaptations of her work - Metrograph is showing a handful of them his month. (Finally my chance to see Purple Noon on a big screen.)

Films which take place in 2017, Hayao Miyazaki's non-retirement retirement, Aquaman stunts, Broadway divas, and Postcards from the Edge after the jump...

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