Middleburg Opening Nite: Yalitza Aparicio and "Roma"

by Nathaniel R

with Yalitza Aparicio on opening nightThe Film Experience's beloved annual trip to the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia got off to a late start. Flight delays and airport mix-ups and the like but a happy result: the Lyft driver was very chatty and wanted movie recommendations. I was happy to oblige since it wasn't just small talk but actual cinephilia! She wanted to know if I'd ever seen Woman in the Dunes and Hereditary. C'mon Double Feature! 

By the time I arrived at the opening night film, Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, it was already halfway over. As you know we've already seen and loved, but I watched from the back of the house as it was a sold-out house. Who knows how many chances any of us will have to see those teeming incredible images on a gargantuan screen...

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Middleburg Film Festival Announces Its (Oscar-Seeking) Lineup

by Nathaniel R

The Middleburg Film Festival is one of The Film Experience's favorite stops on the road to Oscar. It's only one weekend long (like Telluride) and takes place in scenic Virginia, just one hour from DC, at the Salamander Resort and Spa. The festival began in 2013 and has been upping the ante each year (last year's festival prominently featured future Oscar nominees and winners like Greta Gerwig, Mudbound, James Ivory, and A Fantastic Woman.) Inbetween movies you can go horseback riding, visit the charming town and its wineries, or go for walks on the grounds.

One of my favorite events, unique to this festival, is a concert featuring a famous film composer -- the Nicholas Britell concert last year was just phenomenal. This year, they're throwing a bit of a curveball since the event will be in honor of a songwriter instead. Nine-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren will be performing some of her work.

Diane Warren

The lineup this year is as follows and tickets are now on sale...

Opening Night:  ROMA 

Friday Spotlight: BOY ERASED
Centerpiece: THE FRONT RUNNER

Closing Film: GREEN BOOK
Tributes/Honorees: Actress Yalitza Aparicio, Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, Songwriter Diane Warren, and Director Nadine Labaki (Capernaum).

The Rest of the Films AT ETERNITY'S GATE • BEN IS BACK • BIGGEST LITTLE FARM (doc) • BORDER (Sweden's Oscar submission) • CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? • CAPERNAUM (Lebanon's Oscar submission) • COLD WAR (Poland's submission • DIVIDE AND CONQUER: ROGER AILES (doc) • EVERYBODY KNOWS • THE FAVOURITE • HAPPY AS LAZZARO • LITTLE WOODS • MARIA BY CALLAS (doc) • NEVER LOOK AWAY (Germany's submission) • A PRIVATE WAR • RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR (Animated) • SHOPLIFTERS (Japan's submission) • SUNSET (Hungary's submission) • THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (doc) • WHAT THEY HAD • WIDOWS • WILDLIFE • WOMAN AT WAR (Iceland's submission)

TIFF 2018 Finale. Jury of One: Nathaniel

OKAY WRAPPING UP TIFF NOW. Unless you are on an actual jury at a festival, you see a different set of films than everyone else attending (with a handful of crossovers) so I couldn't corral votes with my festival roomies (Nick, Joe, and Chris -- instead we did a podcast). So I thought it might be fun to share my favorites from the festival in 'nominee' Oscar style. These are not, of course, Oscar predictions or even Film Bitch ballots because not all of the films are guaranteed eligibility this year and we've had 8 months of good movies before these and we'll have 3 months of hopefully good movies afterwards that they'll have to compete with. But here's the achievements within traditional awards categories that thrilled me most at TIFF during that 29 film screening marathon.

They're listed in alpha order (by film) except the actors (by name) and links go to our festival reviews if we managed one -- a few more reviews are half written but we need to wrap up TIFF so expect more on A Star is Born, Beautiful Boy, Border, and more soon as they'll be in theaters within the next few weeks.

TEN BEST FILMS I SAW AT TIFF

"Roma" is rich with endless details and emotional punch

• Border (Sweden)
• First Man (US)
• Museo (Mexico)
• The River (Kazakshtan)
• Roma (Mexico)
• A Star is Born (US)
• Transit (Germany)
• Widows (US)
• Wildlife (US)
• Woman at War (Iceland)

Runners up: Cold War (Poland)

Lots more after the jump including best performances, best visuals, best dogs (yes, really), best original songs and more...

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TIFF Delivers an Oscar bound-surprise with "Green Book"

by Nathaniel R

Go figure. The winner of TIFF's "Grolsch's People's Choice Award" is a film that literally none of my TIFF airbnb troupe (Joe Reid, Chris Feil, Nick Davis and I) saw during our 10 day stretch in Ontario. Green Book by Peter Farrelly (yes, of Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary fame) took TIFF's most coveted prize. (the runners up were Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk and Alfonso Cuarón's Roma). So we'll have to add it to the Best Picture chart when we update this week (we're looking at probably Wednesday night for across the board updates to reflect all the festival madness).

In the entire 40 year history of this prize, stretching From Girlfriends (1978) through Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), 16 of the winners went on to Best Picture nods at the Oscars. The 40 winners also include 7 future Best Picture winners, 6 future Best Foreign Language Film winners, and 2 future Best Documentary Feature winners. The Oscar correlation is getting stronger all the time, too...

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'Roma' and 'The Favourite' win Venice

by Murtada Elfadl 

Cuaron with Lion

As expected Roma and The Favourite won the biggest prizes at this year’s Venice Film Festival main competition. The two films screened on the same day and were both raved and loved equally. Roma, a story that Alfonso Cuaron based on his memories growing up in 1970’s Mexico City, has been hailed as both personal and epic which bodes well for its awards success...

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