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...

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

NYFF Lineup: Call me by your florida project, Meyerowitz

The New York Film Festival's 55th edition begins on September 28th and runs through the first two weeks of October. This year they're super hooked on France (not that there's anything wrong with that) and their longstanding compulsion to screen every single thing that the prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-Soo has ever shot results in him hogging 2 of the 25 slots. Predicting a Hong Sang-Soo at NYFF is like saying "Woody Allen is filming an untitled new project this year"... it's always true so you will always be prophetic. 

Joachim Trier's THELMA - will it be Norway's Oscar submission?

The results of the NYFF lineup are helpful when planning your Toronto festival because many of the titles overlap. If it's showing at NYFF I try to avoid it in Toronto knowing I can see it in just two weeks time. But in some cases the need to shove something in your eyeballs will be too great to wait. 

How many of the foreign titles after the jump will be Oscar submissions this season? I'm guessing at least a few with the most likely being Sweden's The Square and Norway's Thelma. Other possibilities are Argentina's Zama (though Argentina often has several options), Finland's The Other Side of Hope (Finland's sole nomination comes from this director) and Poland's Spoor (two of Agnieszka Holland's previous movies have received an Oscar nomination, Europa Europa in screenplay and In Darkness for foreign language film).

The lineup is after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

More TIFF Lineups: Midnight Madness and Platform

Another day another festival announcement. TIFF keeps adding to the festival. Even though they've reduced the number of films this year it's still SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM IN EACH SECTION. Herewith the Midnight Madness and Platform choices. Let us know which ones you're most curious about!

Gael García Bernal in the French film "If You Saw His Heart"

PLATFORM
This section of 12 films, which tends to focus on directors in early stages of their careers, is actually juried (though TIFF isn't known for awards really outside of "People's Choice" which tends to have a strong correlation to eventual Best Picture nominations at the Oscars).

“Platform is the place to look for the distinct stamp of today's most interesting directors as they establish their reputations.
- -Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director

The three-person jjury for 2017's Platform are directors Chen Kaige (China), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Wim Wenders (Germany)

• Beast (UK) A troubled woman becomes involved with a suspected killer in this debut from Michael Pearce [WORLD PREMIERE]
• Brad's Status (US) Screenwriter Mike White returns to the director's chair for this story about a man (Ben Stiller) comparing himself unfavorably to friends while touring colleges with his teenage son [WORLD PREMIERE]...

Click to read more ...

Venice Lineup 2017: mother!, Bardem & Cruz, and more...

Fall Film Festival season is rapidly approaching. TIFF let us know their "special presentations" with many more announcements to come and now Venice (which actually starts sooner at the tail end of August) has announced its whole lineup. The films, including out of competition reunions of two iconic screen couples (Javier Bardem & Penélope Cruz / Jane Fonda & Robert Redford), are after the jump...

Click to read more ...