The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Today it was announced that AMPAS (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) has invited 842 new members to join them, further swelling the Oscar ranks. The Academy has recently entered a period of unprecendented growth as they continue to address gender parity and racial inclusivity within their ranks. For the first time that we recall they actually did achieve gender parity in regards to their new invites - exactly 50% of the new members are women and 29% of the invitees this year are people of color. Most impressively given the dire previous numbers the directors branch invited more women than men this year! THE DIRECTORS. Think about what a major step that is.
A full* list of new members follows and we threw some hearts up by people for which we went spontaneously aflutter though this is not to imply that the others don't deserve our love. It's a lot of names so it's easy to get overwhelmed...
With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 19 performances by actors we liked most at the movies thus far this year. We hope you'll sound off on these and share a few of your own in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar, Globe, critics, and SAG voters that amazing performances can happy at any time of the year. Why wait til December to start considering your "Best of" ballot? We're not saying that all 19+ of these fellows deserve prizes, just that everyone should be keeping lists of standouts for their own pleasure and edification and to combat faulty memories as the year progresses.
Subject to Change! I regret missing the following actor-led pictures which I will catch up with as soon as I have the opportunity: The Mustang and Sorry Angel. Okay here we go...
9 FAV LEADING ACTORS (Jan 1st - June 30th releases)
Chao Deng as "Jing Zhou/ Zi Yu" in Shadow An amazing dual role wherein he delivers both near-camp level villany and subdued stoic masculinity sometimes in the same frame. [Awards for this performance: Best Actor nominations at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Huading Awards.]
• IndieWire the problem of too much television for Emmy voters • Vanity FairBook Club is getting a sequel with its quartet of stars returning. VF wants Andy Garcia back as well and we concur. • Variety an ouch ouch pan review of Nicolas Winding Refn's new TV series (which he keeps saying is a movie) • Variety this seems like a bad-omen move. Amazon is only giving their chief Oscar hopeful The Report (starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening) a two week theatrical window before it streams...
[More after the jump including Madonna's Madame X, Daredevil's longshot fight sequences, news on King Richard, and Catherine O'Hara visiting Broadway...]
Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow in "Shame"Pete Hammond at Deadline revealed this morning that with all the dates moving earlier next Oscar season, the Academy is actually choosing the next Honorary Oscar winners THIS WEEKEND. It's too late then for an FYC but we feel the need to do one anyway. In the past we've made great suggestions like Albert Finney, Doris Day, Neil Simon, Michael Ballhaus, and Marni Nixon but they let all those people die without honoring them which is such bad form. At least they heard us on Maureen O'Hara, Harry Belafonte, and Angela Lansbury!
I have a suspicion that Caleb Deschanel, obviously a well-loved cinematographer given that surprise sixth nomination for the German film Never Look Away last season, will be named this year. He's 74 years old. For some reason I don't think they'll go with Glenn Close quite yet though she's a common prediction. She's 72 but working a lot right now and still in her prime.
• NYT Which Cannes films and performances will factor into the Oscar race. Kyle Buchanan thinks Parasite and Pain & Glory are the biggest foreign threats but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the big one. • Hugh Jackman singing Happy Birthday to Sir Ian McKellen with a whole staidum backing him. Awesome • Variety Owen Gleiberman surveys his Cannes experience and how well the movies filled the big screen • Variety Chris Hemsworth is the coverboy at the moment so here's the big profile • The Sheila Variations on Joseph Cotten's active listening in Gaslight (1944)
• Variety so far Netflix is the only studio to speak out on Georgia's attack on abortion rights which could threaten the massive amount of filmmaking that goes on in that state. • Out for a blu-ray release of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, John Leguizamo is talking about his character Chi Chi Rodriguez • Town & Country we missed this news during Cannes but congrats to Jennifer Lawrence who is now engaged • IndieWire surveys critics on the best movies that played at Cannes. Parasite comes out on top just as it did with the jury, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire (which only took Screenplay at Cannes) was the runner up. • Variety more Cannes prizes. FIPRESCI chooses The Lighthouse (from the director of The VVitch) • /Film a piece on Quentin Tarantino's female characters in light of a tense moment at Cannes when he was asked about Margot Robbie's lack of dialogue in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Tony Season • NYT fun piece on "mysteries" of this Broadway season including how tall is the tall man in Hadestown, how does Santino Fontana sing like a woman in Tootsie, and how does one do partner dances while in a wheelchair? As for that 'tall man' in Hadestown. We first noticed him in Frozen and we ran into him on the subway over the weekend and he was as sweet and gorgeous as can be while towering over us. • ... Timothy Hughes is his name and you can follow him on Instagram • Stagecraft Rosemary Harris will get a lifetime achievement at this year's Tony Awards. But her previous Tony has a typo on it! • Playbill Wesley Taylor (Smash) who recently won the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Male Dancer is engaged to marry Isaac Powell (last seen in Spongebob Squarepants) • Playbill Fresh out of high school, Renée Rapp, who won this year's Jimmy Award (that's the highest honor for High School students in musical theater) is stepping into the role of Regina George in Mean Girls for her Broadway debut this summer.
And look here's a video about Dianne Wiest's latest play Off Broadway. It's a monologue play from Samuel Beckett
Monday, July 1, 2019 at 4:45PM 
