Best International Feature: Italy, Palestine & Indonesia's contenders

by Cláudio Alves

We're just two weeks away from knowing the 10 finalists for the Best International Feature Oscar. It'll happen on December 16th and, as we wait away the days, it's a good time to investigate the 91 submitted films. Some of them have already been reviewed here at The Film Experience, like Senegal's Atlantics, South Korea's Parasite and Spain's Pain and Glory, among others. Still, there are many less talked about films that deserve attention too, spanning from nationalities that have been overrepresented in the Academy's history to others that have still to conquer their first nomination.

Think of Italy's newest crime epic, Palestine's offbeat comedy or Indonesia's lyrical reveries through a dancer's memories…

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NBR goes crazy for Scorsese with a little love left over for Clint & Quentin

by Nathaniel R

 

The National Board of Review  is often derided online for being such a confusing and secretive organization (they cant correctly be defined as a critics group though the media / online pundits love to inaccurately list them that way). Nevertheless they've been a significant Oscar bellwether nonetheless. That's partially from positioning since for many years they were the first awards body to announce. This year, they still acknowledged their favourite person on earth (Clint Eastwood) with three citations for Richard Jewell but they’ve transferred most of their 'we stan legends' obsessive devotion to Martin Scorsese who wins Best Film AND is being honored in Best Documentary AND with a special “Icon” prize. If that weren’t enough two films he executive produced (Uncut Gems and The Souvenir) are also cited with awards or lists.

Though the multiple lists each year assure that a huge bulk of Oscar contenders are accounted for there are notable omissions each year. Some high profile films they completely ignored were: Joker, The Two Popes, Little Women, Hustlers, Rocketman, Clemency, and Bombshell.

Here are the films and actor they'll be honoring on January 8th in NYC. We've also added some stats to give these awards a bit of prognosticating contex...

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'Marriage Story' Wins the Night at the Gotham Awards

by Murtada Elfadl

Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach’s LA has nothing on New York except space divorce story, fittingly dominated the Gotham Awards last night. It won every award it was nominated for - feature, screenplay, actor - plus the audience award. Awkwafina won best actress for The Farewell over Indie Spirit nominees Alfre Woodard, Mary Kay Place and Elisabeth Moss. She is not nominated for the LA counterpart to the Gothams. We doubt they’ll fall for Baumbach as hard as the New Yorkers did. They’ve seen the film and know which city he prefers.

Tributes were given to Laura Dern, Sam Rockwell, Ava DuVernay and producer Glen Basner. Baumbach and his partner Greta Gerwig came out in Raf Simmons designed sweaters adorned with Dern pictures to present her award. 

Here is the evening’s full list of winners...

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Podcast: A Beautiful Day, Knives Out, Waves, Atlantics

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R 

Index (61 minutes)

• 00:01 Happy belated Thanksgiving
• 02:01 Marielle Heller and Tom Hanks offer catharsis with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• 14:30 Knives Out and that yummy cast: Chris Evans, Toni Collette, etc...
• 21:30 Film Bitch Awards / Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers tangent
• 23:00 Exciting new voice: Senegal's Mati Diop and Atlantics
• 29:20 Waves divides people, including Nathaniel and Murtada, and we also discuss the rush to judgment on first screenings among pundits
• 38:00 Spirit Nominations - What did we make of them?
• 48:20 Best Cinematography - Roger Deakins for 1917... but who else? 
• 59:00 Can you believe it's December already? 

Related Reading
Murtada's interview with Mati Diop
Monica Castillo's Knives Out essay

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

A Beautiful Day for Podcasting

"Pain and Glory" big at the Goyas

by Nathaniel R

We remain nervous about the American awards prospects of Almodovar’s wonderfully moving 'i’m not dead yet but I kinda feel like it some times' autobiography, but at least in Spain, Pain & Glory is having a love-fest. This year the latest Almodóvar movie received 16 nominations, that's two more than even Volver got in its year. The Goya nominators did not spread the wealth. We're not sure if it was a weak year for Spanish cinema or if they just didn't look around much but the other two biggies, While at War and The Endless Trench, received 17 and 15 nominations respectively. 

 BEST FILM

• “Pain and Glory” (Pedro Almodóvar)
• “Out in the Open” (Benito Zambrano)
• “The Endless Trench” (Aitor Arregui, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga)
• “Fire Will Come” (Oliver Laxe)
• “While at War” (Alejandro Amenábar)

You may recall that While at War was a finalist for Spain's Oscar submission this year...

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