International Feature: "Titane" and other new Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

If you've missed Oscar submission announcements we've covered all of them from Croatia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Israel, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, Ecuador, Serbia, Switzerland, though Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Peru, and on to Spain. We've reviewed nine other entries including films from Cambodia (White Building), Colombia (Memoria), Finland (Compartment No 6), Germany (I'm Your Man), Japan (Drive My Car), Morocco (Casablanca Beats), Poland (Leave No Traces), and Taiwan (The Falls). Now we have five more announcements to "consider" the highest profile new contender being France's Titane, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. But let's take the five new options alphabetically by country after the jump...

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Doc Corner: Todd Haynes and 'The Velvet Underground'

By Glenn Dunks

It feels like something of a miracle that The Velvet Underground is as good as it is. Music bio-docs are hardly the most invigorating brand of documentary these days, and the story of this band and their Factory adjacent avant-garde artworld has been told many, many times before. So much so that Andy Warhol, the emperor of this New York underground art scene, would have probably been impressed by the assembly line of documentaries that emerged about him and his assorted acolytes, hangers-on, and affiliated artists whose fame (and/or infamy) are directly tied to him.

That Todd Haynes has made a great movie out of this all is hardly a surprise, though. After all, he is the man behind the 1998 glam rock opera Velvet Goldmine. Having said that, the recent milieu within which he has been working in Dark Waters and Wonderstruck hardly signposted that he had something so frenetically electric in him. If we never get another documentary about The Velvet Underground then it probably wouldn’t matter because we have this.

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Almost There: It’s time to vote! (Halloween edition)

by Cláudio Alves

It’s been a while since you, the readers, have decided what performance should be analyzed in the Almost There series. Since it’s October, let’s do a Halloween-themed poll to spice things up. While AMPAS is notoriously allergic to horror movies, some performances came close to an Oscar nomination, whether their movies were otherwise embraced or not. Here are ten examples, complete with the precursors they won, why I think they were close, and where you can find each flick. The contenders are…

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Reason #10,473 to love Jamie Lee Curtis

She went to the premiere of Halloween Kills (2021) dressed as Marion Crane from Psycho (1960)...

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Almost There: Ann Dowd in "Compliance"

by Cláudio Alves

Here, at The Film Experience, there's a lot of love for Ann Dowd. The actress has been celebrated numerous times, interviewed, and she even took over the blog for a day in 2015. With Fran Kranz's Mass in theaters, Dowd may finally be poised to receive her first Oscar nomination after decades doing superb work on stage and on screens of all sizes. For years, despite the consistent quality of her performances, Dowd went unrecognized. In 2012, however, it all changed when Craig Zobel's Compliance generated widespread critical acclaim for the thespian, inspiring her to start a self-funded awards campaign. Making formidable use of this career momentum, Dowd quickly became a recognizable character actress powerhouse and an Emmy winner. Even so, all these years later, Compliance remains one of her greatest achievements…

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