TIFF Galas & Special Presentations Announced

by Nathaniel R

TIFF is around the corner y'all. Excited we are since it means the prestige film season and another round of Oscar madness is about to begin. For the first time TIFF has allowed The Film Experience two press passes so Chris Feil and Nathaniel R (that's me) will both be covering in real time for the whole fest from September 6th through the 16th. Today TIFF has announced the 47 films that will be featured in their Galas and Special Presentations sections. These are the two sections wherein you'll usually find the mainstream awards hopefuls shoulder-to-shoulder with more traditional festival fare and world cinema premieres. TIFF usually has hundreds of films so this is just the first announcement. 

The full list containing masterpieces and duds and everything inbetween (though we won't know which-is-which-is-which until we see them) is after the jump!

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"BPM" takes the César

by Nathaniel R

Nahuel Perez Biscayart (pictured in BPM and AU REVOIR LA HAUT) can't get out sick beds!

So much awardage being crammed in before the Oscars. In addition to the Spirits, the French César Awards were just held where, as expected, BPM took six trophies including Best Film and Best Male Newcomer for its terrific leading man, the Argentine born actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. BPM apparently had tough competition, though, from Albert Dupontel's Au revoir Là-Haut (the English title will maybe be See You Up There) which also stars Biscayart! He's having quite a year...

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"BPM" Leads César Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The stars of BPM (Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) were all nominated for Césars

The César Awards, now in their 43rd year, and essentially France's Oscars have announced their nominations. It wasn't a great year for France in terms of their US arthouse performances. The most successful French release this past year in the States was François Ozon's Frantz (César eligible in 2016) which finished its theatrical run just shy of a million dollars. But of the French films that did make some sort of transatlantic mark this year (whether through festival hype or theatrical release) you'll see BPM (Beats Per Minute), the horror film Raw, and Agnes Varda's Oscar nominated Faces Places among their nominees...

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120 Reasons to be excited about '120 Beats Per Minute'

by Murtada

Of all the movies that unspooled at this year’s ongoing Cannes Film Festival, the one that got this writer most excited is 120 Battements Par Minute (120 Beats Per Minute). The movie has gotten almost unanimous praise and is expected by many to nab a major prize at the festival. Update: And it won the Queer Palme award as expected. 

Campillo (center) and his cast at Cannes

Let’s count the reasons to be excited about it after the jump. I lied, not 120 reasons, but here are 9... 

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Tribeca 2017: Guillaume & Marion in "Rock'n Roll"

Here's Jason Adams reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival

As the fifth movie I saw in a single day at the Tribeca Film Festival this past weekend (a new personal record!) I couldn’t have chosen wiser – Guilluame Canet’s movie star satire Rock'n Roll is as broad and goofy and absurd as they come, and while it might overstay its welcome (I’d say no comedy should run over two hours but Toni Erdmann did recently prove that golden rule incorrect) it’s also a lively good-natured farce that had the audience half rolling in the aisles. 

Canet co-wrote and directed Rock'n Roll, and he stars as Guillaume Canet, famous French actor and director, partnered with and father to the child of Marion Cotillard, world-famous Oscar winning actress – the two actors (and a troupe of famous French faces that they enlist to star alongside them and fill out their world) all send up their own images, taking them to absurd (and man does it go there) extremes...

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