Podcast: Emmy Nods & Oscar Worries

with Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl

Hey, it's a wee break from our smackdowning for an old school podcast of rambling conversation!

Index (68 minutes)
00:01 We're back talking about what we've been watching
08:13 Emmy nomination theories and viewing habits. The Mandalorian and more
19:13 Comedy series nominees: Insecure, What We Do in the Shadows, etc...
27:20 Limited Series is what we're both most invested in: Little Fires Everywhere, Unorthodox, Normal People, Mrs America and various acting categories
49:00 Emmy's "creative arts" - why not televised? 
53:00 What kind of an awards season and Oscar race are we heading into? Fall festivals are announcing but not really happening. The movie calendar is in disarray
01:05:00 Critics groups will also postpone their awards

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

Emmy Reactions and Oscar Worries

OUTStream Film Festival - It's Happening Right Now

by Nathaniel R

Last night we told you about the Cannes selection. While that's glitzy information it's not particularly useful since none of the films are available and Cannes isn't actually happening. But there is a festival happening right now. It's called OUTStream and 2020 is its inaugural outing. The queer festival runs through this weekend (Sunday, June 7th) if you wanna have a mini queer film adventure over the next few days. You purchase virtual "tickets" to the movies and watch (if you want to see the Q&As though you have to watch at the alotted times, otherwise it functions like a normal rental). 

HERE ARE SOME OF THE HOT TICKETS

Song Lang is a Vietnamese drama from debut filmmaker Leon Le. It's about the romance between an opera performer and a debt collector in 1980s Saigon. We've heard nothing but good things about this one on the festival circuit but we haven't seen it yet. Leon Le won Best New Director at the Beijing Film Festival for this. There's a livestream Q&A on Friday June 5th...

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A few notes on the Cannes "lineup" that won't make it to Cannes

by Nathaniel R

Steve McQueen would have had TWO films at Cannes this yearCannes won’t be held this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic but the powers that be at Cannes have announced that 56 films that would have filled out various programs will bear the Cannes label as in "we selected them!". i.e. they would have played there. This will give the films a leg up moving forward should any of the fall festivals actually take place. This does not however tell us anything about what would have “competed” this year at Cannes since they generally only have 20 or so films in the main competition. Spike Lee was meant to preside over the competition jury this year but instead he'll do the honors next summer instead.

It will forever be lost to an alternate history what might have been this year and what film might have held the difficult task of following in Parasite’s footsteps to the Palme d’Or...

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The Linkling

• Interview Awesome oddball auteur Miranda July interviews director Cary Joji Fukunaga about his latest, No Time To Die
• Variety good length piece from Peter DeBruge about the when and how of movie theaters reopening and what that might mean
• /Film Netflix wins a bidding war for a new Melissa McCarthy drama, The Starling from director Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures, St Vincent). Damn, shoulda included it in those Oscar predix we just made
• MNPP Good morning. Here are photos of Paul Newman in tighty whities

Film festival news, Julia Child doc sale, There Will Be Blood snarkiness, John Cameron Mitchell's birthday and more after the jump...

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Beauty Break: The Celebrity Portraits of Victor Skrebneski (1929-2020)

by Nathaniel R

One of the most celebrated fashion and celebrity photographers of the 1960s-1980s, Victor Skrebneski, has passed away at the age of 92.  Above you'll see a self portrait and next to it one of his most iconic images, Vanessa Redgrave shot in 1967.

Skrebneski's heyday was a smidgeon before our pop-cultural awareness dawned (we grew up during the heyday of celebrity photographers like Herb Ritts, David LaChapelle, and Annie Liebovitz), but we knew Skrebneski's images before we ever learned his name. He did amazing portraits of Bette Davis, Dolph Lundgren, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Kathleen Turner and more. His black and white work was often extremely sexy and there are a few NSFW images after the jump. He shot movie stars masterfully, you must agree...

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