Sundance: Rita Moreno in the Spotlight

By Abe Friedtanzer 

In a week where we’ve lost both Cicely Tyson and Cloris Leachman, it feels like the right time to celebrate trailblazing actresses who are still earning awards love well into their eighties and nineties. On tap at Sundance in the U.S. Documentary Competition section is Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It. This exploration of her life and the profound influence she has had on so many is a rich, endearing journey that constitutes a truly delightful and energizing look at a remarkable actress who just last week earned her fourth consecutive Critics Choice nomination at the age of eighty-nine.

This film should work equally well for those intimately familiar with much of Moreno’s resumé as well as those who know her only from her signature film role that won her an Oscar, 1961’s West Side Story, or from the great TV work she’s still doing on the recently-wrapped One Day at a Time...

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Sundance Opening Night: CODA

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s never the biggest movies that premiere on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival, but they’re always worth looking at carefully since they do set the tone for what comes next. I reviewed the first films I saw in 2020 and 2019 for this site, and they were both among the best films I saw each year – Summertime, director Carlos López Estrada’s follow-up to another Sundance opening night premiere, Blindspotting, coming out sometime this summer, and the Alex Gibney documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which ended up debuting on HBO.

That impressive club adds a new member this year in the form of CODA. I didn’t realize until I finished watching the film that its title is an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults...

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Cannes & Berlinale delayed

While we're on record objecting to awards shows changing their eligibility dates like crazy (despite, you know, the quarantine accessibility of streaming giving us all ways to see lots of movies) here's one change we can totally get behind and which makes total sense. Cannes, which always takes place in May, has moved itself to July for the 2021 film year.  More specifically the festival will run from July 6th through July 17th.  Last year, Spike Lee as chosen as jury president but then the event was cancelled so he was meant to reign in 2021 instead. That's still the plan (assuming Spike's schedule hasn't changed).

Though this is only a two month move it could prove a bit disruptive to the fall A list festivals like Venice, Telluride, and Toronto who generally can nab world premieres from prestige filmmakers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes. Now all the A-list non Sundance festivals, including Berlinale, which is usually in February but will be in June this year, will take place across only a four month span. That's a lot of competition for films!

Juliette Binoche and Hayao Miyazaki to be honored at Meihodo International

by Nathaniel R

If you're like us, every once in a while you find yourself asking "What's going on with Juliette Binoche?" The all time great has been a bit quiet this past year (apart from that unfortunately hushed release of The Truth) but this week she'll be honored at the Meihodo International Youth Visual Media Festival. If your reaction is "third annual what?" don't feel ashamed. There are so many festivals -- even in this virtual year - that it's hard for even the most devout cinephiles to keep track. But this one will be easy to get familiar with. The nominees are all on YouTube and the Meihodo ceremony will stream live on YouTube this Thursday (January 7th) at 3 PM EST. Juliette will open the ceremony and give a short interview from the set of the Claire Denis new movie (!!!) Radioscopie...

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Sundance 2021 - The Lineup

by Nathaniel R

Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in "Passing"

Sundance has revealed its lineups for the forthcoming virtual edition of their fesival: 72 features, 50 shorts, 4 indie series, and more. It's a bit shorter and later than usual this year running from January 28th through February 3rd. Tickets are on sale  January 7th. The full lineup is after the jump...

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