"Pain and Glory" leads the European Film Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The European Film Awards will be held in Berlin in just one month (December 7th) and big names are nominated: Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Roman Polanski, and more. But the question is who will actually attend and who will win? The Oscar submitted titles from Spain (Pain and Glory) and Italy (The Traitor) lead the nominations along with Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy from France. Almodóvar is of course an old favourite of the EFAs. With the Pain & Glory nominations he's now up to 22 EFA nominations (he's won 6 times plus received a special honor). His movies have won the top prize twice (All About My Mother and Talk To Her) while Volver won an "audience" version of Best Film, too. 

A full list of nominations with more comments is after the jump...

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Beauty Break: Almodóvar's Eye Candy

by Cláudio Alves

César Vicente in PAIN & GLORY (2019).

Before Martin Scorsese ignited the internet's fury with his comments about the MCU, another master filmmaker had already made headlines with less than complimentary opinions on the matter. Back in April, before he took his glorious Pain & Glory to Cannes, Pedro Almodóvar criticized superhero movies for having no sexuality. According to the Spanish auteur, they are neutered.

When compared against his passionate filmography they are piteously sexless indeed. But so are most movies. Few filmmakers have explored the many permutations of desire as thoroughly as Almodóvar has, usually with a patina of irreverent queerness. From killers in skimpy white briefs to ballets of bulges and sculpted asses, his camera is always ready to lick an actor's body and crystalize them into divinities of wantonness.

You're invited to peruse the director's gallery of beautiful men, starting at the dawn of his career and ending with Pain & Glory's first bloom of desire. Come see Almodóvar's NSFW eye candy…

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Murtada talks "Pain & Glory"

The Film Experience representing on Turkish TV! Murtada appeared this weekend to discuss Pedro Almodovar's autofiction career reflection in Pain & Glory. Well done. (If you haven't yet caught Murtada's review, referenced here, check it out.)

Pain & Glory now playing in NYC, LA, DC, San Francisco, Chicago.
Oct 18^th Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Miami…
Oct 25^th Detroit, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Fort Meyers, New Jersey, Ontario…
Nov 1^st Atlanta, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Santa Barbara...
Nov 8^th New Orleans, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinatti, Des Moine...

Three Little Links

• The Guardian - an excellent profile of Pedro Almodóvar by Xan Brooks
• /Film Daveed Diggs to play Sebastian in the live-action Little Mermaid. But Sebastian is a crab so this is probably not fully live-action but half and half style.
• Vulture - 15 essential Judy Garland performances. Solid list with some strong points made, though I think dead wrong about why Zellweger is awards worthy in Judy (as noted on the podcast I liked her performance quite a bit but what’s missing is exactly what’s cited here as the chief strength, the capturing of Judy’s once in a century kind of talent.

Oscar's International Race Pt 4 - Returning Directors

by Nathaniel R

In the race for this year's Best International Feature Film, Parasite definitely has the lead but Bong Joon-ho is one of only 20 directors trying again with Oscar after previous submissions in this category. None of them have been nominated before except the LEGEND we'll start with...

THE RETURNING GIANT
Spain's most globally celebrated director, Pedro Almodóvar, is back in contention for the seventh time with Pain and Glory, his 21st feature at the age of 72. This finally makes him Spain's most submitted director of all time...

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