On Soderberg, Experimenting...

by Eric Blume

We've discussed Let Them All Talk a few times, but mostly in the ccontext of Meryl Streep. In honor of director Steven Soderbergh's birthday, I'd like to root for this weird little movie currently streaming on HBOMax.

Before the film came out, a friend of mine texted and said, "I feel like Soderbergh doesn't even make movies anymore...he just does experiments."  And that feels true.  Several years ago now, Soderbergh toyed with retiring, saying something along the lines of if he had to shoot one more over-the-shoulder shot, he was going to kill himself.  (I'm paraphrasing, relax.) While that may sound a bit pretentious, it also makes sense...

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International Oscar Race Pt 3: More than you need to know about the directors!

by Nathaniel R

In past years we've broken the International Feature Oscar category down into lots of different articles but we should probably calm down. So herewith the lists we usually provide in several articles in a more condensed all-in-one format! 93 films are competing for the nomination in this category. Given the field, consider this a year for fresh voices. Only eight countries (Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iran, Italy, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Russia) chose directors who have previously helmed Oscar-nominated or finalist films. Since we've already covered the previously Oscar-honored directors, let's look at the others.

We'll divvy it up into three categories: debuts, female directors, and the rest of the field. 

THE DEBUT DIRECTORS LIST

Amjad Abu Alala (You Will Die at 20 for Sudan)
Sudan's first-ever Oscar submission comes from a first-time director. He previously worked as a producer. 

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Joan Micklin Silver (1935-2020)

by Nathaniel R

A appreciative goodbye to the writer/director Joan Micklin Silver who died on New Years Eve at 85 years of age of vascular dementia. Long before elevating female directors was a thing for the media or the industry, she was out there doing her thing. Imagine the lift for female directors in the 20th century to get not one but several films made with little media attention or social justice support. The NY Times has a fine overview of the type of obstacles she faced.

Silver's directorial debut came in the 1970s with the Jewish drama Hester Street which earned a well deserved Best Actress nomination for Carol Kane and a WGA nomination for Micklin herself for Comedy writing -- though what an odd classification that was for the immigrant drama...

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Link Sauce

• MNPP Jamie Bell is going to make a Fred & Ginger biopic with Margaret Qualley...
• TFE we're elated for Bell because if you recall our interview two years back he said playing Astaire was his dream role
• Variety Steven Soderbergh working on a Sex Lies and Videotape sequel with Andie MacDowell and Laura San Giacoma both returning. Yes, ma'am. Sold

More after the jump including live concerts to stream tonight, Wong Kar Wai, pandemic grief, Disney proejcts, and more Warner Bros/HBO Max fallout...

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International Contenders: Will we get a repeat Nominee?

by Nathaniel R

Roughly 34% of Oscar's Best International Feature hopefuls (thus far) come from debut filmmakers so it feels like we're headed for an "emerging filmmaker" kind of year at the Oscars (and not just in this category). But while the 2020 competition is likely to favor fresh blood statistically, eight countries have submitted famous directors who've made it to the nomination list already... or almost made it in two of the cases.

They are...

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