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.)
France is the most-nominated country of all time in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race. What's more their tally is so impressive it will be probably be several decades before anyone catches up (IF that ever happens). Though they don't lead in winners (Italy holds that distinction) they haven't ever had a true slump of being passed over for nominations* so they're always crucial to watch. Consider the crazy impressive stats. They are the only country to submit to each and every Oscar race in this category.Their total honors include 38 nominations, 9 wins, and 3 additional finalists from 67 submissions. Before this became a competitive category in 1956, they won 3 Honorary Awards.
What will they select this year? The Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, the agency responsible for choosing France's submission has named five finalists, all but one of which are from female directors. Here's a little detail on each film (if the title is linked it goes to our festival coverage)...
7 hours of glorious sleep at a festival! Knowing that nothing could compare to my Tanya T adventure the day before, I sensibly hadn’t booked any further films for the evening, so I was home in bed by midnight. I know it sounds ridiculous when some people work in mines and on 16-hour shifts of emergency wards, but film festivals are exhausting! Not proper, real-world exhausting but certainly no-time-to-do-anything-else or call your mum exhausting. I also of course have to find time every day to send these lightweight bulletins for the millions of you eagerly awaiting my next update. All refreshed at 7am I was ready for the days entertainment. As you will discover that early start came back to bite me by the end of the day.
I started my viewing in style, Harry Styles in point of fact. After dabbling in acting the last few years, he’s been handed actual leading-man status. By the evidence of this offering, it may be a bit too soon...
Kate Hudson is the standout in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery"
The day had finally come. My most anticipated film of the whole festival. The one we’ve all been waiting for. A veteran star on the comeback trail. A critical darling steering the ship. There’s talk of awards but will the public and pundits be on board? I for one couldn't wait to find out, but The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlisle was in the evening. I had other movies to see first.
And it started early. To my horror the screening of Glass Onion started at 9am. NINE AM!!! What was I thinking? It was worth the effort, though...
I wasn’t a big fan of the first Knives Out. Too convoluted by far. Too pleased with its own cleverness. Having been totally confused on first watch I saw it again earlier this year and still came away just as befuddled. Glass Onion, though,is a meticulously plotted and a huge improvement. The all-star cast are uniformly great. The relentless Elon Musk/Joe Rogan ribbing is a bonus delight. Great start to the day. It certainly woke me up.
Brian Tyree Henry & Jennifer Lawrence in "Causeway"
Next up was Causeway, JLaw’s return to serious acting after three years off and some dud of a comedy from last year I’ve done my best to forget (did you?). She’s pretty great in this small-scale character study but ironically it may be that her star power unbalances the tiny, understated indie. Very smart career move even if it seems unlikely to garner her another Oscar nod. Then again she got in for Joy so anything’s possible.
From there I went straight into Living a very subtle, quiet period drama with the great Bill Nighy making a serious bid for awards. To be honest I nodded off for a while in the middle and think I may have missed some crucial plot points. This is no reflection on the film, I was just tired (9am remember!). I suspect Academy voters may be taking more notice than I.
Now we come to the main event. As a Black man from London, I don’t think I’m her usual audience, but I adore Tanya Tucker. Although she’s barely known in the UK for soe reason I’ve been obsessed with her for decades. Many years ago, when Iived with my twin brother Jompy and best friend Kitty Supreme we played her songs to death. We loved every tale of revenge and heartbreak all being sung by a teenager who sounded like she smoked 40 a day.
In 2019 I flew straight from Toronto to NYC to see her in concert and then crashed the Meet and Greet (There was no way I was leaving without getting a photo with my heroine). Kitty Supreme was well jel. I can’t be objective about this doc. I loved every minute of it. My face hurt from smiling. It’s a behind the scenes look at her triumphant comeback after 17 years away from the recording studio. Shepherded by current Country superstar it’s beautiful to watch her coaxing a clearly nervous Tucker back to doing what she does best, with sensational results.
A notorious 70’s wild child who acquired drink and drug problems to go along with her forty Top 10 country hits. A pioneer who’s never received the respect she deserves is finally getting her due.
A lot of people are talking abou The Whale but I'm waiting to see it at the London Film Festival in a few weeks. The last time I saw a Darren Aronofsky film at TIFF it gave the man sitting next to me a nosebleed.
Film of The Day: My girl Tanya wins this one to go along with her 2 overdue Grammys!
Oscar Buzz: Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy has a nice ring to it, but will voters take to a very subtle performance in the very quiet film that is Living? Glass Onion could definitely repeat its predecessor and score a Screenplay nomination. It would be wonderful to see the stand-out Kate Hudson back in the Supporting Actress race after 22 years away from that party. Meanwhile Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy has a nice ring to it, but will voters take to a very subtle performance in a very quiet film?
Star Spot: The entire cast of Glass Onion was in attendance this morning with Daniel Craig’s horrendous hangover causing much hilarity. I also randomly saw Jordan Peele getting out of a car and most importantly I was able to apologise to Tanya for crashing her Meet & Greet three years back. I offered to pay the $50 she was owed but she graciously declined.
You all know that we here at TFE are huge fans of Girl Picture and today comes news that Finland has chosen it as their Oscar submission. While we wish its US release had been noisier (it was still playing in NYC last week) we've talked it up to everyone we know and all of you of course. It's one of the seven most recent official submissions to be announced. More after the jump...
Real life multi-lingual Portuguese twins play mute twins in Albania's entry
Chart update time yet again. We have five more entries for Best International Feature Film from Algeria, Hungary, Slovenia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only one of the submitted directors has been sent to the Oscars before so it's mostly young(ish) filmmakers in this block of contenders...
Thursday, September 15, 2022 at 10:48AM 
