Golden Horse Awards 2023

by Nathaniel R

Ang Lee congratulates the Best Actor winner at the Golden Horse Awards. Image via Golden Horse instagram.

While Stonewalling, a drama about a pregnant flight attendant had the least amount of nominations of the "Best Narrative Feature" contenders (just 3), it emerged with the big win this past weekend in Taipei. (You can stream the film on Criterion Channel in the US). Curiously the big winner in terms of number of prizes was Old Fox, which wasn't nominated for Best Feature though it took Best Director and three other prizes. Another curiousity: none of the acting winners were from Best Feature nominees. The winners and a few of their trailers are after the jump...

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Five Things I've Learned From "The Film Critic & The Common Man"

By Ben Miller

I danced around the idea of hosting my own podcast for quite some time.  There were a thousand reasons to avoid it.  What made me special that anyone would care what I have to say?  I'm just another straight white guy who loves films.  But, I discovered if I talked to someone who doesn't have the same critical approach, we could really be onto something.  Enter my big brother Jake. 

We started a podcast called The Film Critic & The Common Man.  Together, we discuss a film from my critical perspective and from his perspective of a regular guy.  Sometimes we talk about a box office hit that won Best Picture.  Other times, we talk about a dumb comedy.  We record episode 10 this weekend.  Despite our limited time, I've learned a lot from the experience...

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Almost There: Sigourney Weaver in "The Ice Storm"

by Cláudio Alves

As the 1997 Supporting Actress Smackdown approaches, our celebration of that cinematic year continues. But of course, this project wouldn't be complete without a deep dive into the performance that almost made it to the Oscar lineup, representing a previous Academy Queen's comeback after years of unheralded work. In the 80s, Sigourney Weaver seemed poised to be one of those names who'd inevitably win a little golden man. However, after 1988's double nomination, awards organizations lost interest. Because of that, Ang Lee's The Ice Storm felt like a return to form in terms of sheer prestige, positioning Sigourney Weaver as an expected contender for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Unfortunately, the critical hit failed to secure any Academy Award nomination, a surprising result after a good performance that season. All these years later, Weaver's snub hurts the most…

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Interview: The Director of 'Lunana' on making the Oscar finals, working with yaks, and meeting Ang Lee

by Nathaniel R

Making movies is never "easy" but some movies achieve the impossible. Pawo Chonyning Dorji's debut feature, the Bhutanese Oscar finalist Lunana A Yak in the Classroom, is one of the latter kind. Its very existence is a miracle, and that's before you even get to the lottery-ticket like good fortune of competing for the Oscar. While Bhutan has a growing local film and television industry, heavily influenced by the films of Bollywood, the pictures are mostly low budget and don't travel outside of the small landlocked country. They definitely don't travel anywhere near the mountainous village where Lunana A Yak in the Classroom takes place, since there is no electricity let alone a movie theater. The charming soulful movie is about a restless young teacher named Ugyen (first time actor Sherab Dorji) who dreams of moving to Australia to pursue a music career. He very reluctantly accepts a final teaching gig to complete his government contract but that assignment is in the most remote part of all Bhutan.

Setting a story there is one thing, filming there without electricity with cast and crew of first timers -- some of whom had never even seen a movie -- is another.  We had the pleasure of talking to the director about his miracle Oscar contender and why he made it and our interview follows after the jump...

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Oscar hopeful "The Falls" wins at the Golden Horse Awards

by Nathaniel R

Alyssia Chia and Gingle Wang arrive for "The Falls" -- will we also see them at the Oscars?

Chung Mong-hong's mother/daughter drama The Falls, which revolves around COVID-19 and mental illness, and is Taiwan's submission to the Oscars this year took home the top prize at the 58th annual Golden Horse Awards. But it was no sweeper. Chung Mong-hong, who had previously dominated the Golden Horse Awards just two seasons ago with A Sun (which went on to make Oscar's international finalist list), lost best director. Overall the wealth was spread with all of the Best Film nominees taking home statues. Chang Chen's latest star vehicle The Soul (streaming on Netflix) picked up four of them, tying The Falls haul. 

The complete list of winners and gifs and photos from the event are after the jump...

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