Middleburg Film Festival Announces Its (Oscar-Seeking) Lineup

by Nathaniel R

The Middleburg Film Festival is one of The Film Experience's favorite stops on the road to Oscar. It's only one weekend long (like Telluride) and takes place in scenic Virginia, just one hour from DC, at the Salamander Resort and Spa. The festival began in 2013 and has been upping the ante each year (last year's festival prominently featured future Oscar nominees and winners like Greta Gerwig, Mudbound, James Ivory, and A Fantastic Woman.) Inbetween movies you can go horseback riding, visit the charming town and its wineries, or go for walks on the grounds.

One of my favorite events, unique to this festival, is a concert featuring a famous film composer -- the Nicholas Britell concert last year was just phenomenal. This year, they're throwing a bit of a curveball since the event will be in honor of a songwriter instead. Nine-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren will be performing some of her work.

Diane Warren

The lineup this year is as follows and tickets are now on sale...

Opening Night:  ROMA 

Friday Spotlight: BOY ERASED
Centerpiece: THE FRONT RUNNER

Closing Film: GREEN BOOK
Tributes/Honorees: Actress Yalitza Aparicio, Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, Songwriter Diane Warren, and Director Nadine Labaki (Capernaum).

The Rest of the Films AT ETERNITY'S GATE • BEN IS BACK • BIGGEST LITTLE FARM (doc) • BORDER (Sweden's Oscar submission) • CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? • CAPERNAUM (Lebanon's Oscar submission) • COLD WAR (Poland's submission • DIVIDE AND CONQUER: ROGER AILES (doc) • EVERYBODY KNOWS • THE FAVOURITE • HAPPY AS LAZZARO • LITTLE WOODS • MARIA BY CALLAS (doc) • NEVER LOOK AWAY (Germany's submission) • A PRIVATE WAR • RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR (Animated) • SHOPLIFTERS (Japan's submission) • SUNSET (Hungary's submission) • THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (doc) • WHAT THEY HAD • WIDOWS • WILDLIFE • WOMAN AT WAR (Iceland's submission)

We have almost the full list of Foreign Oscar Contenders now

by Nathaniel R

We're now up to 79 entries for Best Foreign Language Film, so this will be our last chart update before the official announcement by AMPAS in a week or so. There's probably only 10-12 that weren't officially announced that will show up on the list as that list generally tops out at around 90 titles.

A few of the most recent entries are from Argentina (the beautiful-boy-on-crime-spree drama El Angel), Bangladesh (No Bed of Roses headlined by international star Irffan Khan), Kyrgyzstan (road trip drama Night Accident), and Costa Rica (university student pregnancy drama Medea). I'm kicking myself that I didn't see El Angel at TIFF because it was on the schedule but I dropped it on an exhausting day.

RafikiFinally, perhaps you've been following the drama around Kenya's submission. The director of the initially-banned lesbian romance Rafiki (which Chris reviewed here from TIFF) fought valiantly to get the film screened at home to make it eligible for submission. The government caved to allow it but, as we predicted, Kenya still wouldn't actually submit it. The less political (and thus a very political choice!) inspirational drama Supa Modo about a terminally ill little girl was submitted instead.

FOREIGN PREDICTIONS
Submissions pt 1 - Algeria through Estonia
Submissions pt 2 - Finland through Morocco
Submissions pt 3 - Nepal through Vietnam

Sept 23rd - Post Festival Oscar Charts Redux

by Nathaniel R

Once Venice and Telluride and TIFF wrapped it was time to reflect the changes in buzz and hunches to reflect all that new information. Only a few potentially key titles now remain largely unseen by anyone: Vice, Mary Poppins Returns, Mary Queen of Scots, and Wecome to Marwen. If you want to get generous in the technical categories Mortal Engines and Alita: Battle Angel are two risky original would-be blockbusters that remain mysteries as well. 

The freshly revamped charts...

INDEX |  PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTOR  | ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | SCREENPLAYS | FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - we're up to 70 submissions now | VISUALS | SOUNDS | ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY CATEGORIES

Hope you enjoy the updates.

Best Actress - New Oscar Chart

by Nathaniel R

Beware the premature envelopers! The Best Actress race is far from over and it's very exciting. I still suspect that Glenn Close wins IF nominated but Lady Gaga could IF nominated (though we suspect she's just winning Best Song despite the early hoopla). And who knows, perhaps Olivia Colman in The Favourite will go lead (we still have her in the supporting chart) and from early reports she could also win IF nominated. Then you have Carey Mulligan and Melissa McCarthy, both arguably doing the best work of their careers. Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone, Emily Blunt, Toni Colette and Viola Davis all in very flashy roles or high profile films and Yalitza Aparicio as a highly sympathetic debut in a critical favorite. 

The grid above shows you what we predict are the current top ten (alpha order) but a lot can change once the movies... 

1. Face the public
2. Fine tune their Oscar campaigns and press play/
3. Meet the first wave of precursors which will generally shun some worthy competitors and embrace others and in ways that are not always easy to predict until suddenly everyone is doing the same thing and it is.

Ah the agony and joy of Awards Season. It's not much further away. One thing is for certain. If any competitors from the first half of the year want to reemerge or move up the chart, they need a strong campaign. Only Toni Collette in Hereditary remains in the top ten from the year's first half and it's not because other contenders (Elsie Fisher, Charlie Theron, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Pfeiffer, etcetera... ) didn't do fine work, too. It's just people have short memories and they like shiny new toys.

UPDATED OSCAR CHARTS: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Foreign Film

Supporting Actress - New Oscar Chart

by Nathaniel R

Continuing the chart updates to reflect this post-festival world, Supporting Actress is now redone with new images and new rankings and new text. The major change is that I've thoroughly convinced myself that Elizabeth Debicki will nab her first nomination for Widows. In some ways she has the biggest character arc, and it's a very large role that still is a supporting one (and screen time really counts as you know) and she has interesting screen chemistry of all types with her primary scene partners (Viola Davis, Lukas Haas, Jon Bernthal, and Jacki Weaver). Plus she's one of the most exciting new actresses working and there's usually someone newish in a lineup. Of course to include her I've had to drop Amy Adams out of the predictions for her Second Lady role in Vice which might be foolhardy. On the other hand, Oscar eventually falls out of obsessive love with every actor (unless their name is Meryl Streep).

Check out the new chart

ICYMI: Supporting Actor and Leading Actor are also revamped