New International Contenders: "The Hand of God" and an extremely hot Instagram star

by Nathaniel R

Time to check in again with Oscar submissions as five more countries join the fray. The highest profile new entry is Italy's The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino. He triumphed in this category eight years back with The Great Beauty (2013) which ended the longest drought -- seven years -- that Italy has ever had in this particular competition. If The Hand of God snags the nomination, Sorrentino will have performed this feat twice since Italy hasn't been nominated since. Sorrentino joins Iran's Asghar Farhadi (A Hero) as the only International contender this season who has already led a film to victory in this category.  The Hand of God is a memoir about Sorrentino's teenage years and a family tragedy. He's been campaigning enthusiastically since Cannes, recently attending the Middleburg Film Festival to receive an International Spotlight prize.

Other new contenders are after the jump...

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The Italian Oscar race: 18 contenders for the submission, 1 probable winner

by Elisa Giudici

THE HAND OF GOD

The Italian longlist for the 2021 Oscar submission is very long and much better than usual, quality-wise. Although if the Italian Cinema Academy appointed by ANICA really wants to give Italy a chance to make the finals,the choice is obvious: Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God.

Unfortunately, in the last decade, the Italian film commission's rulings on this matter have not proved to be that smart. I mean, how can you send Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor (as beautiful and important as it was domestically) when The New York Times states that Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden is the best movie of 2020? Our only solace was that that was the year of Parasite, so there was no room for a real contender to Bong Joon-ho's victory in Best Internatural Feature Film...

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Venice winners!

by Elisa Giudici

It's time to celebrate Venice Film Festival winners and comment on the choices of the Jury lead by Bong Joon-ho.

Golden Lion -Happening by Audrey Diwan

This year Venice and Cannes winners have lots in common. The most important prize of the both festivals went to young female French directors presenting their sophomore features. It's a good year for French cinema and a double victory of (deserving) female artists: let's hope we will never go back to decades of male-only director winners. One extra point to Venice: it is the second year in a row a woman has won: in 2020 Chloe Zhao - now a juror - won with Nomadland...

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Elisa's Venice Diary #2: Lost Daughter and lost souls: Sorrentino, Schrader and Gyllenhaal

by Elisa Giudici

Day two, three movies: a luxury, considering how difficult it is to get tickets this year. Usually, the Venice way is to queue outside the screening hoping to be able to get inside. If you have a red or blue pass you are reasonably sure to see everything you want, even when you arrive only 5 minutes before the beginning of the show. If you are a green or yellow pass holder, you need to show up early and hope red or blue pass holders are busy somewhere else. Due to Covid-19 safety rules and social distancing, only one-third of available seats can be occupied. It means you have to be really quick to book a seat online, 74 hours before the show. The hot movies sold out in mere seconds so I am incredibly lucky to be able to review three major movies from the main competition today.

The Card Counter (Paul Schrader)
Knowing how austere and morally inflexible Paul Schrader is about cinema (and life) I think The Card Counter is his most  accessible recent movie by pure accident. I really enjoyed it and I think the general public will like this thriller about poker, gambling, and the casino world...

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Missing Italy

by Eric Blume

We’re not far from crowning a new Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and part of the fun and excitement for international film lovers is seeing which country takes the top prize.  The last ten years has marked three winners from France (The Class, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Dheepan), and in fact France has won ten times since 1955 when the prize has been named the Palme d’Or (there was a ten year gap in 1964-74 where the top prize had a different name, for those into these technicalities).   

Winning just under that number, with nine trophies, remains Italy.  Once a mighty force on the international film scene, Italy seems to have fewer major filmmakers emerging.  The last Italian film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes was Nanni Moretti’s film The Son’s Room in 2001...   

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