HollyShorts 1 "Action Packed"

HollyShorts, now in its 16th year, is an Oscar-Qualifying festival. Even better, it's a festival that's specifically devoted to short films so it's quite the showcase for its official selections. Team Experience thought we'd look at some of the films for you. Perhaps they'll pop up later in Oscar longslists or even as nominees!?

by Ben Miller

When it comes to action films, short form might be an ideal medium to take it all in.  The 16th annual HollyShorts Film Festival showcased their action block this week and proved that to be the case. A quick disclaimer, though: the term “action” is pretty broadly deployed here.  Of the eight films showcased, I would classify three as actual action movies, but we’ll go with it.

The reviews are presented alphabetically...

Click to read more ...

International Contenders Update

Since the last round up 6 more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 43.

 

• BELGIUM - Working Girls  A drama about three women from France crossing the border daily to Belgium for sex work
• INDONESIA - Impetigore (previously discussed) Usually there's a random horror movie somewhere in the submission list but this year we have not one but two Asian horror movies (the other is Roh/Soul from Malaysia). The only horror movie we can think of to be successfully nominated in this category was a very long time ago with Japan's Kwaidan (1964). 
• IRAN - Sun Children (previously discussed) 
• KENYA - The Letter This is the first time Kenya has submitted a documentary (the nomination for Honeyland last year seems to have embolded various countries to send docs as it looks like there will be more of them than usual this year)
• LESOTHO -This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection First submission from this country! It's one of only three independent states on earth that are entirely surrounded by another single country (in this case South Africa) -- they call them "enclaved countries", so it's the first submission from any enclaved country actually (the others are San Marino and Vatican City). The film is about an 80 year old woman who fights the construction of a reservoir in her village
• TURKEY - Miracle in Cel No 7  This is a loose remake of a South Korean film of the same name about a mentally disabled man who is wrongly imprisoned. The original is just 7 years old and it's already been remade by Turkey, The Philippines, and Indonesia.

More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd

International Contenders: Guatemala, Bulgaria, Slovakia

Since the last round up three more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 37.

Guatemala's La Llorona, from the director of Ixcanul

• BULGARIA - The Father
• GUATEMALA - La Llorona
• SLOVAKIA - The Auschwitz Report

A few trivia notes regarding these latest submissions. First, Maria Bakalova who is currently enjoying an instant critical/populist splash as the co-star of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is in the ensemble of Bulgaria's dramedic submission The Father. That film is not to be confused with the English-language Anthony Hopkins Oscar hopeful The Father or the Serbian film Father (which we loved at CIFF this fall). Too many movies named Father!

Meanwhile, Guatemala has submitted the newish filmmaker Jayro Bustamante again, who made a festival splash with his debut Ixcanul (2015). His new film is La Llorona (2020)... yes, another film with a title that could easily get it confused with other contemporary offerings like Curse of La Llorona (2019) or Legend of La Llorona (2020). More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd

Pt 2 - Looking at Netflix's contenders in all Oscar categories

by Juan Carlos Ojano

As explained in Part One we're looking at Netflix's deep slate this year and pinpointing how they might be competitive in each of the 23 Oscar categories (it used to be 24 categories but Sound Editing and Sound Mixing have now become one category). In part two, which follows after the jump, we're discussing the "big eight" marquee categories, plus animated feature...

Click to read more ...

Pt 1 - Sizing up Netflix's contenders in all 23 Oscar categories

by Juan Carlos Ojano

It is already November and the pandemic rages on.  With moviegoing risky or unavailable movielovers have turned to streamers for their film consumption. The Academy has even acknowledged this shift in how we consume films by allowing films to qualify for the Oscars even if they only went streaming.  While the past few years have seen the rise of streaming wars (Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Disney+, etcetera), nobody has been able to match the sheer quantity of content that Netflix has been producing or acquiring. Netflix could well dominate this awards season. But by how much?

Important Caveat: Do note that Netflix has not announced the entirety of its slate through February 28, 2021, the final day of eligibility for this Oscars; pieces are still moving and more films will probably show up. With that, here are Netflix’s contenders in all 23 Oscar categories...

Click to read more ...