Best Actress in the 1920s: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Janet Gaynor won the first ever Best Actress Oscar with her performances in Borzage's 7TH HEAVEN and STREET ANGEL, as well as Murnau's SUNRISE. Does she also win here?

To misquote Mark Twain, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Or maybe I should go with Dr. Frankenstein by way of James Whale and scream to the high heavens: It’s ALIVE! Now, dear readers, as I try to return to writing regularly for The Film Experience, I feel like I owe you an explanation for my prolonged absence, not to mention an apology.

I’ve suffered from migraines since I was four, but around the middle of July, a crisis like none other began. Unparalleled in intensity and duration – still going, though not as strong as before - it took me to the ER, a CT scan, a cardiologist’s office, a bunch of new medication, and, soon, a wisdom tooth extraction and an appointment with a neurologist. In other words, it’s been hell, endless pain for over a month that mostly left me useless as far as writing articles or anything longform is concerned. Still, movies have been a refuge, as they’ve always been, and social media has allowed me to keep writing in short spurts whenever the pain medication kicked in, mostly about what I’ve been watching. Specifically, I’ve been emboldened by Twitter user HungryBear’s Oscar retrospectives to revisit my Best Actress picks from the very beginning of the Academy Awards, way back in 1928.

What better way to mark my comeback than to share these with you, too? TFE readers seemed to like reading – or enjoyed arguing over and against – my picks from the 80s, when I shared them two years ago, after all. That’s most of what I’ll be doing as I prepare myself for another TIFF coverage in September, with maybe a couple of other things thrown in if my ever-evolving torment nexus of pain permits it. Anyway, to start things off, we have the first three Oscar editions, when the twenties were honored and, with them, the twilight of the silent era…

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First 11 Submissions for Best International Feature Film

by Nathaniel R

It's nearly September which means we're about to be flooded with the official submissions for Best International Feature Film for the upcoming Academy Awards. Within the new system, which allows prize winners at a handful of major film festivals automatic entry into the competition, we know that the Turkish language film Yellow Letters from German director Ilker Catak, Norway's Fjord from Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu, and the Albanian film Shame and Money from Visar Morina can compete without being selected by their country/countries of origin. It'll be interesting to see if those countries select different films to double up their chances or double-down on the acclaim that's already there.

But here are the 11 films to date that have  been named as their home country's official submission...

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VOD Catch-Up: "We Are Pat" is a Fun, Intelligent Ode to Queer Dissection

by Joanna Sodeman-Taylor

I’m not sure when I first heard of Julia Sweeney’s breakout SNL sketch “It’s Pat!”. Joe Reid’s comprehensive article on SNL’s queer catalogue was what made me aware of it years ago. Then a young adult of less inquisitive sensitivities, I almost certainly brushed off the whole project as a reflex, the controversial legacy of Pat’s discomforted, gender-nonconformist schtick stinking as too problematic and outdated to bother engaging with. Watching it as a slightly older adult, I can’t say brushing this off was a bad move, even if my reasoning was flawed. There’s certainly a lot of material to seriously analyze - if I felt it was worth the effort. What exactly is the ultimate joke of this character? Are they worth rehabilitating under the progressive gaze of the gays, let alone any other group who feels represented by Pat, for better or worse?

Lucky for us, director Ro Haber saw plenty to discuss, and their 2025 documentary We Are Pat gives this character the intelligent, playful, communal autopsy they deserve . . . .

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Streaming Review: "Don't Say Good Luck" Transcends Happy Madison

By Ben Miller

It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. Julia Hart's Don't Say Good Luck might have all the makings of a nothingburger direct-to-streaming film, but instead delivers a character-focused film filled with emotion and devoid of cliches. It's also one of the unexpectedly great films of the year...

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Locarno: The Struggle of Being David Lynch as told by his Producer

Elisa Giudici reporting from Locarno

David Lynch has consolidated his status as one of cinema's greatest auteurs and geniuses to such an extent that it is easy to forget just how much fighting against compromise every step of his career required, even after winning the Palme d’Or for Wild at Heart or revolutionizing TV history with Twin Peaks.

At the Locarno Film Festival, his Icelandic producer and lifelong friend Sigurjón "Joni" Sighvatsson was presented with the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for his decades-long career as an outsider working within Hollywood. The Festival recognized how, as an outsider, he found ways around the major studio system's rules, helping lots of the soon-to-be great directors of the Eighties and Nineties gain some experience as music video makers...

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