First time directors dominate AACTA nominations

by Travis Cragg

Rising stars Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects) and George Mackay (1917) headline the AACTA frontrunners "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

COVID hasn’t delayed ALL the awards… The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts will have two ceremonies  one remote, the other with reduced capacity, on the 27th and 30th of this month. Not that AACTA gets much press. The nominations were announced a week ago to little fanfare but we'll share them here because we value Australian cinema.  The family cancer dramedy Babyteeth (which is current streaming on Hulu)leads the nominations for 2020, receiving nods in 12 out of a possible 13 categories (only missing out on Costume Design). Often in AACTA when a film is this dominant, it proceeds with a sweep (e.g. Somersault) or near-sweep (The Great Gatsby) of the awards on the night. Despite the possibility of a Babyteeth sweep, it certainly does have competition. Full nominations and a few comments after the jump...

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25th Anniversary: "Home for the Holidays"

by Mark Brinkherhoff

In high school, I managed to hoodwink my journalism advisor into letting me review movies for our semi-regular school paper. In some cases, these were movies my parents certainly did not approve of (Se7en, Showgirls, etc.); in other cases, there were movies I would have seen anyway but was able to write off as a “class expense.” Home for the Holidays, Jodie Foster’s sophomore directorial effort, fell into the latter camp.  

Arriving on a post-Oscar blitz of new films starring Holly Hunter (e.g. Copycat, Crash—no, not that one), Home for the Holidays got lost in the shuffle of both 1995’s crop of holiday fare and its stars own filmography...

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"The New Classics" - in case you missed any

We're already in withdrawal. Tuesday are when we normally get a new episode of Michael Cusamano's insightful and engaging series "The New Classics," which focuses on top-notch 21st century films by dissecting a single defining scene. But season 2 just ended last week so no new episode today. But if you missed any of his great great articles, please catch up. We're just assuming you might need cinematic healing / distraction tonight and tomorrow given all the anxiety and stress of waiting for election results.

Season 1 of The New Classics (22 episodes)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) | Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) | Sexy Beast (2001) | Master and Commander (2003) | Shattered Glass (2003) | Before Sunset (2004) | Collateral (2004) | Eastern Promises (2007) | Michael Clayton (2007) | No Country For Old Men (2007) | Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)  | The Hurt Locker (2009) | Inglourious Basterds (2009) | In the Loop (2009) | I Am Love (2010) | Meek's Cutoff (2010) | A Separation (2011) | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) | It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) | Blue Ruin (2014) | 20th Century Women (2016) | The Florida Project (2017)

Season 2 of The New Classics (22 episodes) 

Wonder Boys (2000) | Amélie (2001) | Gosford Park (2001) | Capote (2005) | The Descent (2005) | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) | The New World (2005) | Bridesmaids (2011) | Drive (2011) | Oslo August 31 (2011) | Lincoln (2012) | The Master (2012) | Frances Ha (2013) | Wolf of Wall Street (2013) | The Babadook (2014) | Nightcrawler (2014) | Two Days One Night (2014) | It Follows (2015) | The Handmaiden (2016) | Moonlight (2016) | The Witch (2016) | First Reformed (2018)

I will be begging Michael for a third season in 2021 since he hasnt yet written up the two towers of 2015, Carol and Mad Max Fury Road, nor has he graced us with any picks from the film years of 2002 or 2006, respectively. 

Nicole in HBO's "The Undoing"

by Eric Blume

There are few things in life more exquisite than watching Nicole Kidman unravel.  And she does so with her usual panache in the new HBO miniseries The Undoing, from director Susanne Bier.  

HBO is releasing the six episodes week by week, so we're currently only two episodes in, but what we have on our hands with The Undoing is a genuine potboiler!  The program slowly lays out its icy upper east side NYC terrain with careful deliberation, only to end the initial episode with a fun corker that sets Nicole into a fiery actressy spiral...

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What will be Portugal's choice?

by Cláudio Alves

Just this weekend, I was singing the praises of Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela. Lo and behold, the shadowy chamber drama is one of four finalists for Portugal's Oscar submission. A jury of the Portuguese Film Academy, made up of directors Gonçalo Galvão Teles, Lauro António and Monique Rutler, actors Isabel Abreu and Welket Bungué, and cinematographer Miguel Sales Lopes, has selected their finalists from a list of 33 eligible features. The quartet of lucky films are…

 

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