"45 Years," Ten Years Later...

by Cláudio Alves

The past is never gone. You think it is, fall into the comfort of believing it dormant, but one day, it awakens and rocks the foundations of the now. This is true of historical cycles, of political waves and culture and vales. It's true of love affairs, too. Of marriage and cinema. 45 Years is a rumination on such ideas, having premiered at the Berlinale a decade ago today, where it signaled the maturation of Andrew Haigh into one of Britain's most essential filmmakers after his promising beginnings in the realm of queer cinema - Greek Pete and Weekend. It also brought Charlotte Rampling out of the rarefied, vaguely alienated, auteurist plane she existed within for many decades, turning her into someone less adventurous cinephiles came to know and cherish.

She also became a first-time Oscar nominee thanks to Haigh's creation. 45 Years remains the crowning achievement of her career, and the same could be said of Tom Courtenay. The Berlinale Jury was right when it gave them both Silver Bears for their performances…

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2015

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

In this year’s group of nominees - more than any other year I have covered so far - the given space during their introductory moments is incredibly important in establishing the character and their place within the story. Whether it is set in the past or the present, the stories where these characters are situated are framed through the visual juxtaposition of the character and their location a few shots into the film. While that is the unifying theme among these women, they also dabble into different variations of perspective, filmmaking styles, and acting registers. This makes for a dynamic comparison of their first impressions.

Are you ready? The year is 2015...

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Soundtracking: "45 Years"

by Chris Feil

“They asked me how I knew...”

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by The Platters is a cinematic staple, constantly showing up in films and yet hasn’t become a cliche. The song has been used for umpteen other tragic romances in film like Blue Valentine and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, not to mention countless less narratively significant needle drops on screen. But Andrew Haigh's 45 Years is the one that wrings it for every last drop of its sweeping grandeur and matches the scale of its emotion...

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IFC Films Acquires Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women

Daniel Crooke here, with the news that Kelly Reichardt’s sixth feature film, Certain Women, has found a home at IFC Films after screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim but no immediate buyer. While some of her (unnamed) louder, male peers from the American indie scene of the ‘90s have gone on to beat their chests across multiplexes with Great Big Cinema, Reichardt has kept fixing nitrogenous empathy to her storytelling roots over the years and elevated them into a premiere form of living, breathing naturalism. Certain Women stars Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart as an intersecting triptych of Montana ladies, whose “performance style is as casually organic and democratic as in any of her more scrappily cast early projects,” according to Guy Lodge at Variety.

For longtime fans or recent converts evangelized by Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, or Night Moves, this distribution partnership is a particularly exciting one as it promises Reichardt her largest release platform to date – with no offense to sage curatorial lookouts Oscilloscope Laboratories and Cinedigm, this is a big bump in maximizing eyes on the screen and seats in the theater. IFC Films has yet to announce a specific release date but assures that it will hit theaters at the tail end of 2016.

As if upping the ante for exposure weren’t enough, this puts Certain Women in the excellent company of other, ahem, certain exemplary women from female-forward stories in the IFC Catalogue. At their poker table of daring heroines with complex agendas, you find no less than: 45 Years’ shatter-glass Kate Mercer holding a royal flush (which she’ll soon discover is actually just an Ace high); Maria Enders and Valentine of Clouds of Sils Maria bluffing one another under the table; and the ultimate in unpredictable poker faces, Phoenix’s Nelly. So welcome to the IFC Films party, Certain Women, and know going in that Two Days, One Night’s Sandra has already paved the way in pressuring them to sacrifice a little extra dough when it comes to Oscar campaigning for a critic’s favorite. But above all else, per Amelia, watch out for The Babadook!

Team Experience Awards ... with love to Carol, Ex Machina, Girlhood, and more

Amir here, to welcome you to the 4th annual Team Experience Awards, bestowed on the year’s best in film by the Film Experience community (you can read about us here) – sans Nathaniel, our host; you can follow his personal awards here. In the past three installments, we honoured Leos Carax’s Holy Motors (France/Germany), Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (USA/UK) and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (UK/USA/Switzerland) as our Best Pictures.

Perhaps it won’t surprise you that the awards below, particularly in the craft categories, are more or less dominated by a couple of films that we have all been championing throughout the year, but the usual caveats of all our team posts apply to this one as well. Though the final results might be not be shocking, there were bloodbaths in most categories with many strong contenders for each prize. The best actress category’s contenders, for example, were separated by a hair, rather fittingly, given the winner and and the runner-up.

Some of these behind the scenes details are listed in the trivia section, but without further ado, here are the winners of 2015’s Team Experience Awards:

BEST PICTURE
Carol Runner-up: Brooklyn

BEST UNRELEASED FILM
The Lobster Runner-up: Chevalier

foreign film, acting prizes, and craft achievements after the jump...

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