TIFF '24: Oscar submissions from Denmark & Bulgaria

by Cláudio Alves

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE may have benefited from a different title, different expectations.
Like last year, my 2024 TIFF journey was marked by many a Best International Film Oscar submission. I've already written about some of them, including contenders from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Palestine, and Portugal. Now, as this protracted post-festival coverage reaches its end – got to move on to NYFF at some point – let's consider the official submissions from Denmark and Bulgaria. The Cannes-competing The Girl with the Needle from Magnus von Horn, and the TIFF-premiering Triumph by Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva dramatize shocking true stories that prove Lord Byron was right. Truth really is stranger than fiction…

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Would you rather?

Would you rather...

• grab a hot dog w/ Margo Martindale in Iceland?
• soak in Iceland's geothermal Blue Lagoon w/ Michelle Yeoh?
• feed raccoons w/ Liev Schreiber?
• relax between reps w/ Lupita Nyong'o?
• referee an arm-wrestling match between Brie Larson & Jacob Tremblay?
• accompany Jessica Chastain to the fruit market?
• indulge Charles Melton in Matrix cosplay?
• visit Bulgaria with Maria Bakalova?
• take a swim in Capri, Italy with Eiza González?
• ...or think about Chester on Genera+ions with Justice Smith? (Seriously why aren't you watching that show? It's phenomenal. I'm going to be gutted if HBOMax cancels it)

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide. 

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Supporting Actress Smackdown '20: Bakalova, Close, Colman, Seyfried, and Youn!

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. For the season premiere we're starting with the current Academy Awards competition honoring the films of 2020.  

THE NOMINEES 2020's shortlist, chosen much later than we're used to in 2021 due to the pandemic reschedulings, collects one breakout young Bulgarian actress (Maria Bakalova), one Hollywood legend (Glenn Close), a popular recently Oscar-winning British treasure (Olivia Colman), a former Mean Girl who continues to expand her range (Amanda Seyfriend), and a revered South Korean actress (Youn Yuh-Jung).

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about their performances and films are, in alpha order:  actress/playwright/comedian Grace Aki (Tell Me on a Sunday), awards columnist Scott Feinberg (The Hollywood Reporter), writer/producer Peter Knegt (CBC Arts), writer/podcaster Jorge Molina (Just to Be Nominated), and awards pundit Matt Neglia (Next Bext Picture). As ever the event is hosted by TFE's mastermind, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

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What's the worst case of "category fraud"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some people don't care about "category fraud" and that's understandable. I'm a big proponent of just being happy that great artists are honored, ignoring the categorization of their work, especially when it's all so subjective. However, when it comes to the Oscar acting prizes, it does feel wrong that awards specifically created to honor character actors are now regularly dominated by stars in leading roles. Instead of opening avenues to highlight those performers with less narratively-prominent parts, the Supporting categories have become a way for leading actors that couldn't crack the leading prizes to still win gold. This game of fraudulent campaigning may have just hit its apex with this year's slew of Best "Supporting" Actor and Actress nominees.

To organize my thoughts and hopefully make the arguments clearer, here's a ranking of the "category fraud" cases of the year from least to most egregious. This is all subjective, though I'd side-eye anyone who tried to argue for the legitimacy of that top choice... 

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Oscar race: Supporting Actress Chaos & Supporting Actor Lock-up

by Nathaniel R

don't despair ladies, you're the only two locks in "Best Supporting Actress"

We saw a tweet yesterday that implied that the Oscar race for Best Supporting Actress is now between Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) and Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian) which felt a bit insane to us. That's a Globe induced fever. Nevertheless the shock of Foster's win for a movie people have barely noticed does maybe tell us that the Supporting Actress competition is more fluid than assumed. So who is leading and who is going to be left out on the 15th when the nominations are announced? The way we see it there are 9 women left standing for various reasons (which is a lot going into voting since it's usually only 6 or 7 by now). Only two of them (Glenn Close and Olivia Colman) feel locked up for honors. Curiously despite the sure-thing feel of Colman's soon to be second nomination, it's unlikely she has ANY shot at a win. Her Oscar win is very recent and The Father isn't quite the contender it should be (qualitatively speaking) given its quiet campaign. But the nomination battle is always different than the battle to win.

Who gets the other three spots?

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