"Parallel Mothers" to open Venice

by Nathaniel R

Reporting Pedro Almodóvar news twice over. First, his 22nd feature Parallel Mothers will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 1st, followed by a September rollout in Europe.  Sony Pictures Classics will distribute the film in the US though they haven't announced a specific date yet. Almodóvar has been an arthouse sensation in the international marketplace since the late 80s. Though he feels like an Oscar perennial the truth is that though he's often in 'the conversation', as it were, Oscar has been a bit stingy; Collectively his films have earned 7 Oscar nominations and 2 wins (Best Foreign-Language Film for All About My Mother and Best Screenplay for Talk To Her) but are often snubbed despite outclassing their competitors. Remember Volver not placing in Foreign-Language Film and The Human Voice not landing in the short film category just last season when in both cases they both ought to have won those particular categories given the finalists? 

The second bit of news is that we'll be launching a Thursday series here at TFE in which we'll (re)watch his whole filmography... which we've been meaning to do for awhile. His official debut Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980) is surprisingly available on HBOMax at the moment!

"I Carry You With Me"

by Nick Taylor 

I am both tremendously enthusiastic and a bit disappointed that I Carry You With Me is finally getting a theatrical release. Enthused because it’s a goddamn gem that ranks among the best films of last year, and sits right alongside Lingua Franca and Welcome to Chechnya as one of the very best queer films. The disappointment comes from the fact that, as far as anyone's concerned, this is a 2020 film. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics went out of its way to give this an awards-qualifying run despite pushing its wide release date further and further back. As with the aesthetically entrancing documentary Gunda or the tonally triumphant, richly acted French Exit (both also distributed by SPC), it’s a bit mystifying that this was seen as the superior strategy rather than letting I Carry You With Me’s reputation build over the course of this year. Art doesn’t need awards, sure, but it’s a bummer that Heidi Ewing’s fiction film debut won’t be able to generate the sort of grassroots attention that Isabel Sandoval, Eliza Hittman, Kelly Reichardt, and Kitty Green all earned to different degrees over the extended 2020 season.

But enough griping! Legitimate criticisms about a film’s release strategy shouldn’t totally overcome the fact that such an engrossing, formally adventurous and emotionally direct feature has gotten a theatrical release. Compared to Lingua Franca and Welcome to Chechnya, it’s by far among the most approachable of the three, which shouldn’t bely how adventurous its storytelling approach is...

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The Link Place

• Glamour Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) to become Titania, She-Hulk's arch-enemy in the forthcoming Disney+ Marvel sitcom
• Coming Soon Randomly enough April 8th, 2022 is already a theatrical battleground date. The Brad Pitt action flick Bullet Train, the all-star Viking picture The Northman, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, an untitled Disney film, and an untitled musical from Universal have all claimed the date!
• Deadline remember little Julia Butters stealing her scene in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood? She's just been cast in Steven Spielberg's loosely autobiographical film as his sister

News on the animated feature Belle, first visual (of sorts) from Thor Love and Thunder, a new Zoë Kravitz project, two animated series Human Resources and Centaurworld, and more after the jump...

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Oscar picks a new date.

The Oscar prediction charts will be up soon but thought you should know if you haven't yet heard a couple of news items in relation to awards season. The Oscar ceremony is not reverting to February as we'd hoped (shame). The 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27th, 2022 next year to be exact.

They're keeping the streaming eligibility rules but thankfully the eligibility calendar is back to the Calendar Year. Well sort of...

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Movie Release Dates as 2021 Finally Gets Going

As we move into Memorial Day Weekend, moviegoing is back. The fall movie and festival seasons are beginning to take shape as well. After a Cannes premiere Wes Anderson's long COVID delayed comedy The French Dispatch will open in cinemas on October 22nd. That's the same day that a bevy of possible Oscar contenders are opening. After the jump the dates to watch...

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