César Nominations & Lumière Awards

by Nathaniel Rogers

NOUVELLE VAGUE

(I know I know we need to talk about the BAFTAs but I started this post first. Patience). We like to share the César nominations each year (i.e. the French Oscars) and as in most years there is at least a bit of Oscar crossover -- this year you see it in Best Screenplay, Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Feature, and of course Best International Feature which tends to be the category with the most crossover at any country's own awards. Richard Linklater's delightful black-and-white retelling of the making of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, Nouvelle Vague, led the nominations. Their Oscar submission/nominee this year Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident received just two nominations but it's in the top category.

To make this even more interesting we thought we'd compare it to the Lumière Awards which were already held and which I've heard called France's Golden Globes though I don't know about the accuracy of that. Their taste runs quite different this year as they loved François Ozon's The Stranger most which barely shows up at the Césars. Okay ready? Read on for Isabelle Huppert's latest, Jodie Foster's snub, and more...

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Ranking the two-time Best Actress winners

by Baby Clyde

Hilary Swank accepts her second Best Actress Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards.

To celebrate the 50th birthday of two-time Best Actress winner Hilary Swank, I've decided to rank all of the double champs in everyone's favorite category. It's a list of all-time greats, but the performances range from the sublime to the truly Dangerous. They are being judged solely on the performance, but I may be somewhat swayed if they beat out more deserving nominees or didn't win for their best work. I do not include those overachieving triple and quadruple recipients (Kate, Frances, Meryl, and Ingrid) who don't need any more attention. So, with a hearty Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, let's see how our Million Dollar Baby stacks up against her second-time sisters…

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Oscars: The Five Club

by Eric Blume

It’s always fun when “the conversation” starts to brew for Oscar nominations every year, seeing which actors are gaining traction for a potential nomination. What’s interesting this year is that there are an unusually high number of actors (six, in fact!) who currently have four acting nominations under their belt who all stand good-to-great chances of joining The Five Club with nods this year. Five Oscar nominations is a big deal. Only 22 actors currently have five, and the names are among some of our best from older Hollywood (Olivia de Havilland, James Stewart), to the modern age (Albert Finney, Anne Bancroft, Susan Sarandon) to contemporary (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams). It’s very nice company to be in. 

Let’s take a look at the actors who stand a very real shot of being a part of The Five Club this year…

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My Mom's Favorite Actress

by Cláudio Alves

If you've read my NYAD review from TIFF, you'll know that Jodie Foster gets my MVP honors despite the movie's construction as Annette Bening's latest Best Actress bid. Unencumbered by mannerisms or affectation, she's a relaxed presence that must bear the weight of the drama on her back once the titular character is made silent inscrutable by her swimming effort. That said, I should probably confess I've been inducted into the church of Jodie Foster from an early age, my movie love shaped by her presence since I can remember. Finding Foster to be the best part of a given film feels natural and just right. After all, she's my mother's favorite actress…

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TIFF '23: Bening swims for gold in "Nyad"

by Cláudio Alves 

Amid arthouse offerings and experimental fare, daring feats of international cinema and midnight madness, the traditional Oscar movie can have a hard time standing out. Still, coexistence is possible, and there's always that beautiful occurrence, once every blue moon, when a festival's boldest piece is its most likely to succeed with awards. I wish I could say Nyad was that movie, but Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's narrative feature debut falls short of such lofty expectations. Yet, don't let this curmudgeon film critic's dissatisfaction dissuade you from predicting it in several categories. Sink or swim, Nyad is going for gold…

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