TIFF: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls from Hungary & Belgium

by Nathaniel R

On day one of TIFF two official Oscar foreign film submissions, one emphatically weird but kind of irresistible and the other mainstream but lush and erotically charged.

what's that panda doing in her bed?

On Body and Soul (Hungary)
Written and directed by Ildikó Enyedi 

Ildikó Enyedi first came to niche fame in 1989 winning the Camera d'Or at Cannes for My Twentieth Century the story of identical twins separated as children who both board the Orient Express as much different adults unaware of the other. The film had a succesful arthouse run in the US and was submitted but not nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. 28 years later Enyedi is winning prizes again for another film that concerns doubling...

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Mother! has arrived ~ La Pfeiffer in Venice

by Nathaniel R

Mother! arrives in movie theaters in just one week and people are calling it "insane". So YOU are if you think I'm reading any festival reviews before laying mine own Pfeiffer-deprived eyes upon it. Oh sure I've watched the trailer and the head-tilt clip a million times (good call, Murtada) but that's enough until the whole 121 minutes unspools before me.

Nevertheless we must celebrate the RePfeiffal which gets its first big red carpet outing in Venice. I mean just look at her...

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Final Pre-Festival Oscar Charts

All Oscar charts have been updated. It's mostly huge gains for Alexander Payne's Downsizing and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water (both premiering hot with "masterpiece!" reviews at the Venice Film Festival) but there are also a few other nips and tucks on each chart given buzz shifting, release date movies (goodbye Mary Magdalene), probably category hijinx (Last Flag Flying, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, etcetera), and lack of distribution news for certain pictures. 

Check out the charts and report back, won'cha?

• INDEX • PICTURE • DIRECTOR • ACTRESS • ACTOR • SUPPORTING ACTRESS • SUPPORTING ACTOR • VISUAL CATEGORIES • SOUND CATEGORIES • SCREENPLAYS • ANIMATED FEATURES • FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS • FOREIGN SUBMISSIONS PT 1 • FOREIGN SUBMISSIONS PT 2 • FOREIGN SUBMISSIONS PT 3

The Bening hits Venice. Telluride and TIFF queue up.

by Nathaniel R

Consider prestige season officially on. The Venice Film Festival is currently in its first full day of screenings after last night's glitzy opening and Telluride just announced its lineup (which they always keep secret until after everyone has booked their passes). You can safely expect that many of the Oscar players will emerge in the next two weeks though with Spielberg's film not ready for the festivals and with Dunkirk already in theaters this could be the first year in ages where the eventual Best Picture winner does NOT emerge at the fall festivals...

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Locarno Winners: Huppert, The Big Sick, and More...

by Nathaniel R

Isabelle Huppert as "Madame Hyde"

The Locarno Film Festival wrapped up today in Switzerland and guess who's back for yet more film honors? Isabelle Huppert, that's who! In the new French film Madame Hyde she plays an eccentric teacher who is struck by lightning. When she wakes she, well, the title will probably cue you in to her sudden split personality. The sleeper hit/romantic comedy The Big Sick also took a big prize. The Awards are after the jump...

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