Linkmaids

• Variety The Venice Film Festival will commence (not cancelling) on September 2nd
• IndieWire does some myth-busting by looking back at an historic movie weekend in 1977, when both Smokey and the Bandit and Star Wars opened
• Variety on how Carole Lombard becamse the first Hollywood casualty of WW II

After the jump including the first drag queen Emmy nominee, fight challenge, Michel Piccoli RIP, no Bridesmaids sequel, trivia and Brokeback reminiscences with Oscar pundits, Diva, and more... 

Click to read more ...

Japanese cinema and the Best Costume Design Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

The Academy has always had a certain difficulty in recognizing excellence from films made in any language other than English. When it comes to Asian cinema, that is especially true. Parasite's recent grand victory may be a sign that times are a-changing, but there are still branches of AMPAS that remain quite closed-off and insular.

Thankfully that hasn't been the case with thee design branches. For a long time they were the only place where you could hope to find any sort of honor given to the works of masters like Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Japanese cinema, in particular, has found success in the Costume Design category. Overall, five pictures from Japan have been nominated for the prize and two have won. Since all those films are currently available online, most of them streaming on the Criterion Channel, it's a good time to take a look at this peculiarity of Oscar history…

Click to read more ...

Announcement: Weekly Trivia!

Hey, everyone. Michael Cusumano here with an exciting announcement. My company Whiskey Cat LLC recently launched a weekly Movie Trivia night on Zoom and The Film Experience has come aboard as a sponsor! It's 5 rounds with 50+ question with a variety of questions and games including audio and visual clues. Rest assured I am taking care to craft questions that The Film Experience audience will enjoy. Oscars and actresses will no doubt abound. Nathaniel will be writing one of the 5 rounds this week!

Here's an example of one ten minute round last week. Within that time limit, how many of these could you answer correctly (no googling allowed obviously)

How do you play? The event is held every Thursday at 7:30 PM EST on Zoom and runs about 2 hours. It’s $5 per person payable through Venmo or PayPal. Send a team name along with the payment and I will reply with the ZOOM information. You can include your information in a comment along with the PayPal or Venmo payment or contact me one of these ways: 

Email: WhiskeyCatProd@gmail.com
Twitter: @TriviaWhiskey
Facebook: Whiskey Cat presents: Zoom Movie Trivia  

Hope to see you there this Thursday!

Oldies but Linkies

• Indiewire Waiting for Chris Nolan's Tenet -  Hollywood hopes summer can be saved
• Rick's Real Reel remembering Doris Day and Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink
• Slate fun short piece on the absurd thrill (in a vacuum) of the Ben Affleck / Ana de Armas romance as witness by paparazzi

Today's roundup continues after the jump and is a mix of new and old (i.e. past couple of weeks) stuff since we haven't hit you with a link in a bit: Robert Pattinson profiled, a rift at the César awards, Dear Evan Hansen couplings, Drama League nominations, Peabody Awards, RIPs and more...

Click to read more ...

When Oscar met Razzie

by Cláudio Alves

Founded by Mo Murphy and John J. B. Wilson, the Golden Raspberry Awards, more commonly known as Razzies, are the evil twin to the Academy Awards. Instead of celebrating the best achievements in world cinema, they award the worst, ridiculing them in the process and daring anyone to go accept their gold sprayed statuette in good humor. They've been handed out since 1981 when Xanadu and Can't Stop the Music battled out for the title of Worst Picture. Since then, the Razzies have made many controversial choices, showing an especially troubling fondness for lampooning female-centric stories or examples of campy entertainment.

Today we'll be talking about two instances when the Oscars and the Razzies tastes diverged so much they ended up nominating the same performances…

Click to read more ...