Massive Awards Roundup: "Movies for Grown-Ups", EFA, BIFA, Astra

by Nathaniel R

Image of the nominees for BIFA's "INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM", all but one of which are also up for the top prize at EFA

The Thanksgiving holidays are typically the busiest screening times for awards voters who aren't Academy members. Many of the big mainstream groups as well as the regional critics awards will be cramming movies in before their December announcements. (Academy voters can of course wait for the Christmas break to catch up before their ballots are due) Naturally then some groups vote yet earlier than Thanksgiving because so many love to be "first" and December is all-announcements-all-the-time. So here are four groups that announced in November: BIFA, EFA, AARP, and HCA. Given their different purviews (British Films, European Films, mostly American Films with a focus on film artists of a certain age, mostly American films with a focus on Oscar buzz) there's not a ton of overlap across all four. But the two buzziest International Oscar contenders Sentimental Value and It Was Just An Accident  were honored by all four groups even if it was just a single nomination from BIFA for both).

Let's start with the 50+ set before moving to Europe and back to Hollywood...

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2025 Gotham Award Nominees

by Nick Taylor

With yesterday's announcement from the Gotham Awards, our very first nominees of the 2025 awards season have arrived. Setting aside my inherent disdain for the big-budget American films now allowed to compete alongside genuine independent cinema across the world, this looks like a pretty neat set of films! Let's dive into the nominees, and as always, share somoe verbose opinions despite not seeing all these features . . . .

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NEON out there trying to hog the entire Best International Feature Film category!

by Nathaniel R

Dear reader, every time I've attempted to write anything regarding the Best International Feature Film race, another film was announced. Can't keep up! We're now up to 64 official submissions (the number is likely to top out in the 80s so 20ish films to go) with dozens of announcements since we last tried to get something on the main page. The big news is that France chose Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident (We wonder what the average Frenchmen makes of two films in a row that aren't in French being submitted!), Spain chose Sirat by Oliver Laxe, and Brazil made it official with The Secret Agent by Aquarius / Bacarau director Kleber Mendoca Filho. All three films were sensations at Cannes and all three will be distributed by NEON in the US over the next two months.  NEON is poised to utterly dominate conversations around this Oscar race since they now have five super-buzzy contenders for this category including previously announced titles from major auteurs: Norway's Joachim Trier is back with Sentimental Value and South Korea's Park Chan-wook is in the house with No Other Choice. 

At this writing (Friday, Sept 19th, around 3:00 pm) 26 of the 62 films have secured distributions so more on when they're arriving after the jump...

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Cannes Diary 07: Palme d'Or Winner "It was just an accident"

by Elisa Giudici

Jafar Panahi's "It was just an accident"

In awarding the Palme d'Or to Jafar Panahi, Jury President Juliette Binoche was keen to emphasize that the prize was not awarded due to the notorious political and judicial circumstances surrounding the Iranian filmmaker, but rather for the profound humanity that permeates his cinema. The reference, quite evidently, was to those who venomously suggest that the oppressive conditions Panahi and his colleagues have battled for decades somehow aid their entry into the festival's honor roll. Yet, the issue is far more complex, much like the narrative of It Was Just an Accident itself...

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