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Entries in Border (8)

Tuesday
May242022

Cannes at Home: Day 6 – Trolls, Actresses, and the Whole Shebang

by Cláudio Alves 

Well, folks, it seems we have another strong contender for the Palme d'Or. If Cristian Mungiu's R.M.N had people whispering about awards possibilities, Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider upped the conversation considerably. It isn't the first time the Iranian-Danish filmmaker presented work at Cannes, though Border was relegated to the Un Certain Regard competition – which it won. That same day, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi showed her latest directorial effort, Forever Young. The actress-turned-director already competed for the Palme back in 2013 with A Castle in Italy. Nevertheless, like Abbasi, her first film to be screened at Cannes was slotted for the Un Certain Regard section. In 2007, Tedeschi won a Special Jury Prize for Actresses.

As one ponders these directors' latest accomplishments, let's look back at their first prize-winning Cannes experiences…

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Dec182018

100 Most Popular Foreign Films of 2018 + the Oscar Hopefuls!

Our year in review party begins TODAY. A different list each day! Here's Nathaniel R...

Time for an annual look back at subtitled fare in cinemas. As with 2017 and the year before India, China, Mexico, and South Korea dominate with a smattering of Oscar contenders and random other countries faring much less well in the American marketplace. Much of the imbalance is due to dedicated distributors who saw a underserved market and focus specifically on it. Here in Manhattan, it's interesting to watch how this plays out. Generally speaking some big multiplexes reserve one or two screens for super specific distributors (Bollywood and mainstream Asian features for example are often at the Empire in Times Square which has 25 screens). Meanwhile the traditional "arthouse theaters" continue to rely on the decades-long practice of programming festival hits, docs, and arthouse style cinema which leans heavily European with a few buzzy Asian titles thrown in; in other words they're Oscar-aligned in their tastes.

For the purposes of the following list we skipped documentaries and animated films to keep the list more focused (and avoid arguments about dubbed versions or whatnot). The numbers are pulled from Box Office Mojo.

TOP 100 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS FOR 2018
Domestic Box Office Grosses Only - Figures as of March 2nd, 2019

The $1 Million Plus Club
(The Success Stories) 

01 Padmaavat $11.8 (India) Jan 25th
This lux nearly 3 hour medieval epic is about an ambitious Sultan who becomes obsessed with a beautiful Queen. Available to stream on Amazon Prime.

02 Sanju $7.9 (India) June 29th
Biopic of a famous controversial actor. Available to stream on Netflix.

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Nov102018

EFA Nominations: Poland's "Cold War" Leads

by Nathaniel R

Joanna Kulig in "Cold War"

It was a big morning for Oscar hopefuls in the foreign language film category as a handful of them have been nominated for multiple European Film Awards. Pawel Pawlikowski, whose nun drama Ida won the Oscar a handful of years back, is leading the EFA field with his new music-filled drama Cold War, about a musician and singer in a long tragic love affair across Europe. It's nominated in 5 categories. The nearest rivals with 4 nominations each are Italy's Dogman, Sweden's Border, and Italy's Happy as Lazzaro (the only one not submitted for the Oscars). Two other Oscar submissions also had cause to celebrate: Denmark's police thriller The Guilty and Belgium's trans ballerina drama Girl were also nominated for a few awards. 

The complete list of nominations and a few more comments are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Oct302018

Podcast: The Hate U Give, Burning, Border, Suspiria

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl talk four new films now in theatrical release in select cities


Index (67 minutes)
00:01 The Hate U Give is heavy handed but moving. Amandla Stenberg and Russell Hornsby are very good in it
27:19 Spoiler warning about our discussions of Burning and Border (though in truth we don't get that spoilery. We still speak vaguely but if you wanna go in completely cold, skip!)
28:12 Burning starring Steven Yeun and directed by genius Lee Chang-dong
39:30 Discussion of Oscar's foreign film hopefuls and how they routinely ignores Asian movies
47:00 Sweden's bizarre submission Border and its multiple genres
53:15 Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria
64:00 Running times and wrap-up.

References / Further Reading
Nathaniel's review of Burning & Border
Dan's Review of The Hate U Give
Chris's review of Wildlife 
• Carey Mulligan drag Instagram cuteness 
Best Foreign Language Film Predictions

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

The Hate U Give and more...

Wednesday
Oct172018

Podcast: First Man, Colette, and A Star is Born

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl talk three new films in theaters.


Index (54 minutes)
00:01 Intro & Festival fatigue
02:00 First Man Nathaniel is pro and Murtada mixed
14:30 We both love A Star is Born (but aren't rooting 4 Gaga to win)
35:00 Backlashes at the Oscars and what happens.. or doesn't
38:00 Best Picture randomness and Roma
42:35 Keira Knightley as Colette
48:20 Please look out for Border and Shoplifters which are opening soon

Referenced in this discussion
Roma review
NYFF Reviews
Best Actress Chart 
Best Actor Chart

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

Colette, First Man, A Star is Born