John Waters Designs NYFF Poster

by Nathaniel R

With TIFF disinviting 2/3rds of their regular press attendees (including yours truly 🤬 ) and a much smaller roster of film, and with Telluride cancelled altogether, NYFF is staking its claim to be the coolest North American film festival.

We've already seen their solidly interesting lineup and NYFF doubled down on their coolest film festival intention today by releasing their official poster designed by that icon of trash cinema, John Waters. 

See the full brilliant poster and John Waters quote about it after the jump...

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Venice Begins with Tilda's Mantra

by Nathaniel R

Cinema, simply, is my happy place. Its my true motherland. And its fellowship is my heart's family tree.
- Tilda Swinton

The Venice Film Festival has begun its annual journey. Venice's 77th opening night film was the Italian marital drama Lacci. The day's festivities also included the arrival of the glamorous jury (Jury presiden Cate Blanchett is only wearing gowns she's previously worn at other events!) and a Golden Lion lifetime tribute to the alien icon punk actress Tilda Swinton.

Tilda's full speech is below... it's a true beauty. I want to type it all up and use it as a daily mantra but first let's join together in listening to Tilda's elegant commanding voice and passion.

Tilda Swinton Leone d’Oro alla carriera a #Venezia77 #biennalecinema2020 #tildaswinton #leonedoro@la_Biennale pic.twitter.com/GCgrRDUhZX

— Rai Movie (@raimovie) September 2, 2020

Showbiz History: Richard Farnsworth, The Women, Shirley Maclaine's daughter and more

8 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1920 Richard Farnsworth, the very talented actor (Comes a Horseman, The Grey Fox), who started in film as a stuntman, was born on this day 100 years ago in Los Angeles. Happy Farnsworth Centennial.  Sadly he died 20 years ago, shortly after delivering his tremendously moving Oscar-nominated performancee in The Straight Story...

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Berlinale goes for genderless acting prizes

There were quite a few comments the other day wondering why we hadn't shared the news that Berlinale, one of the world's top film festivals, will no longer be giving out separate Best Actress and Best Actor prizes. Instead they'll now be giving out two genderless acting prizes, one for a leading role and one for a supporting role. The reason we hadn't yet shared the news is that we found it self-sabotaging and depressing. A disclaimer before we continue: Before yet another angry comment explosion wherein we're accused of not having any perspective -- 'the world is burning, who cares about movie awards,' etcetera, you know the drill -- we must state upfront that we're fully aware that film awards are not the most important thing going on in the world. To which we must also state "duh!" reflectively and pre-emptively. But this is a film site, and a film site that is obsessed with film awards so please just let us do our thing. If you want to read about the world burning, you're at the wrong website anyway. This one is built for talking about arts and entertainment with a heavy emphasis on the filmed kind.

Now let's continue to the Berlinale topic...

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NYFF Lineup: Art films, gay romances, female directors, and more...

by Nathaniel R

The gay romantic drama "I Carry You With Me" will play at NYFF

Most film festivals seem to be trying to soldier on with smaller lineups and virtual screenings. NYFF is no exception. Today they've revealed the full lineup after previously announcing their opening, centerpiece, and closing films. So let's dig in to the lineup shall we? It includes several female directors, two major Oscar hopefuls, a new anthology series from Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), and two gay romances...

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