Red Carpet Lineup: 30 Looks from Venice 2020

The 77th Venice Film Festival wrapped today with the Golden Lion going to Chloe Zhao's Nomadland (which we'd predicted as far back as our annual April Foolish Predictions to be in the forthcoming Best Picture and Best Director lineups (we'll update all those charts this week). Venice wasn't the star-studded affair it usually is due to the shortage of travel and the ongoing troubles of the pandemic but they shouldered on. Cate Blanchett was in town for the whole festival as the President of the Jury and she made the all too rare decision to be sustainably fashionable by wearing only red carpet looks she'd worn before at other glitzy events. But her superpower, well one of them at any rate, is to make any year's fashions look utterly timeless.

29 other looks after the jump from the small batch of stars who went to Venice...

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Doc Corner: The best of this year's virtual documentary festivals

By Glenn Dunks

Despite what may be happening across the rest of film distribution, the documentary realm has barely had a chance to breathe. Just as there ever was, there are so many titles coming out each and every week that it is impossible to keep up with in a weekly column. This includes not just new releases to streaming, VOD and virtual cinemas (and now, as lockdowns cease around the globe, theatrical), but also festivals.

In fact, I’ve been able to attend more than any before. Whereas I wouldn’t have had the time nor the access to ‘attend’ England’s Sheffield Doc/Fest or the United States’ AFI Docs or Canada’s Hot Docs, I was able to finish my day job in the afternoon and take a quick world tour of some of the finest documentary and non-fiction festivals around. And there’s still more of them to come (like DocNYC) because, folks? There’s just so.many.movies. 

I wanted to highlight the best that I saw across each of the three festivals and give a spotlight to movies that took me to a poisoned Martinique, the frontlines of the women’s liberation movement, and the underground dance scene of Baltimore...

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What will we miss with a streaming future?

By Glenn Dunks

All of the talk these last few months about getting back into cinemas has focused on movies like Christopher Nolan’s time-bending Tenet or superhero extravaganzas like Wonder Woman 1984. And it’s not hard to see why. The thrill of watching the biggest movie in the world in a packed cinema with an audience that is eager to go on that ride can be a real buzz.

Many people’s favourite film memories are those rooted in the shared experience of seeing dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park, discovering Darth Vader is Luke’s father or that Bruce Willis was dead all along, watching the Titanic sink or any number of other iconic pop culture moments surrounded by hordes of moviegoers in equal rapture. I may be a bit of an ol’ stick in the mud these days when it comes to American blockbusters, but even I can admit that watching Hollywood do what it does best(?) on a screen the size of a house can add half a star or more to a film’s enjoyment.

For me, however, the largest impact of shut down cinemas hasn’t been felt in the mainstream blockbusters...

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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