"First Cow" leads the Gotham nominations

by Nathaniel R

This year's Gotham Awards have fully embraced the female gaze. In fact, the entire Best Feature nominee list is female-helmed films with First Cow leading with 4 nominations. Unfortunately that means Lee Isaac Chung's Minari was shut out for the top prize (it only received one acting nomination), which is a shame but you can't have everything. Though the Gotham Awards are not a traditional "precursor" to Oscar (they rarely align) we tend to like that kind of precursor best. Groups with their own personality are the only ones that have a reason to exist! 

Full nomination list with a few comments after the jump...

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"Hope" and Norway's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

The Norwegian Film Institute has selected Maria Sødahl's cancer drama Hope to represent them at the Oscars. The film stars Bræn Hovig and the ever-ubiquitous Stellan Skarsgård (who works as often in Scandinavia as he does in Hollywood, which is to say, a lot) as the couple thrown by a terrible diagnosis. Hope was selected over two other finalists which were: Disco by Jorunn Myklebust Syversen about a young girl mixed up with a Christian cult (which we reviewed at TIFF last fall), and Margreth Olin's documentary The Self Portrait about an acclaimed photographer struggling with anorexia. (Olin was submitted 11 years ago for her second narrative feature Angel though she's primarily a documentarian.)

1987 Norwegian nominee "Pathfinder"Norway has been perpetually overshadowed by Sweden and Denmark in terms of the cinema. They have a smaller film industry than their Scandinavian neighbors but the other problem is a noticeable lack of internationally-adored auteurs. We hoped that the rise of Joachim Trier would change that but, alas, the Oscars aren't helping in that regard as he's been submitted twice from his three Norwegian language films and the Academy passed both times.

Oscar stats and great Norwegian films after the jump...

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Showbiz History: Horny Pussycats, Photoshopped Gosling, and Julie's Second Marriage

9 random things that happened on this day, November 12th, in showbiz history...

1880 Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is published. It was  the best-selling American novel of all time (for awhile). The film adaptation in 1959 won 11 Oscars, a feat that's never been bested though Titanic and Return of the King later tied its haul. 

1946 Disney's Song of the South has its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. Disney has long since hidden it from view though it was celebrated in its time, winning one competitive and one Honorary Oscar

More after the jump including Penelope Pussycat, Julie Andrews, and Ryan Gosling...

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20:20 (Pt 3) Mind games, mood pieces, and Spanish winners

Since the year will soon wind to a close we're surveying the films of 2020 here and there -- terrific, terrible, and anywhere in between -- based on what's available to stream by freezing them at the 20th minute and 20th second. (Though please note that some services' time stamps make this difficult to get exactly right). What comes up? That's the fun of it. (Here are Part One and Part Two if you missed 'em).

Does this captured moment make you wanna investigate any of these 20 films?

Oh, and there's a murderer in the woods, so stay close.

FIRST COW  (Kelly Reichardt, US)
A24. Original release date: March 6th, 2020. Streaming on Showtime

I must confess that I have never jumped on the Kelly Reichardt bandwagon. Other than Wendy & Lucy I haven't yet been blown away but this is on my list to catch up with. Especially after reading the pieces right here about it from Jason, Claudio, and Daniel. 

This is a total great piece. Absolutely.

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1987: Karen Allen in "The Glass Menagerie"

Each month before the Smackdown, Nick Taylor considers alternates to Oscar's ballot...

Remember way back when this Smackdown season started with 1981, and I mentioned Karen Allen as someone who somehow missed out on a well-deserved Supporting Actress nomination despite how few films Oscar bothered to recognize that year? Her barnstorming performance in Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of that adventure classic's secret weapons, building on the potential in Marion Ravenwood and delivering a tangible, electrifying character even when the script lets her down. In truth, I sometimes think of Allen alongside contemporaneous stars like Jessica Harper and Brooke Adams: singular, charismatic screen presences you could never mix up for one another despite their similar appearances, all of whom starred in some of the best, most idiosyncratic films of the ‘70s and ‘80s. 

I’d also wager that Harper and Adams’ personas would suggest themselves for the role of the shy, undemonstrative Laura Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie more than Allen’s would. Who’d pick Marion Ravenwood (!) for a part given to Jane Wyman in 1950? Yet it was Allen who played the role onstage opposite Joanne Woodward, John Sayles (!), and James Naughton at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 1986, and Paul Newman was so impressed by their performances that he decided to make a damn movie...

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