Cannes Days 2-4: "Wonderstruck" and More

by Nathaniel R

One of our all time favorite movie couples reunited: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes

After the fiasco of that opening press conference and the typical "underwhelmed" response to the opening night film, happier news. The first full day of screenings brought us news of Todd Haynes Wonderstruck which reunites one of the world's greatest auteurs with his earliest muse Julianne Moore, and other reportedly fine films. Read on for more!

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Posterized: Thomas Vinterberg

By Nathaniel R

Vinterberg at the Oscars in 2014When we were first were introduced (not literally) to writer/director Thomas Vinterberg, who turns 48 today (Gratulerer med dagen!), in 1998 we thought "he ought to be in pictures!".

⇱ Just look at that mug!

The Dane auteur IS in pictures, at least spiritually, since he still makes Danish pictures inbetween his English language films and some of them are clearly pulled from his soul. His new film The Commune is a fictional story but the director did grow up in a commune watching the adults struggle with their decisions (The Commune has a key teenage character who is very observant).

So with that film in theaters in select cities and also on VOD (you can stream it for a price on Amazon) let's look back at his career to date via movie posters.

He's made nine features. How many have you seen? 

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Thomas Vinterberg returns with "The Commune"

This review originally ran in September 2016 from the Toronto International Film Festival. With the film finally in theaters in select cities starting today (and available to rent on Amazon), we didn't want you to miss it...

Thomas Vinterberg first came to fame with the Dogme 95 masterpiece The Celebration (1998) which was an international success reaping Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Foreign Film. Oscar famously snubbed it during their long stretch of controversial years in the 90s and 00s where they regularly ignored major critical darlings eventually prompting reforms to the selection process in the late Aughts. Vinterberg was eventually nominated with another international success The Hunt (2012) and after his English language sleeper success Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) it's safe to say he's on quite a roll currently. 

For years people had suggested to Vinterberg that he make a film about commune life since he had grown up in one as a child in the 70s...

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The Nine Foreign Film Finalists for Oscar

The Academy's complicated process in nominating for Best Foreign Language Film is nearing completion. Last night they winnowed down the 85 film list to a more manageable 9 films. Those 9 will screen for selected panels in multiple cities and 5 nominees will be determined. A few observations and trivia notes about the list after the jump...

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Foreign Film Race Pt 4: Female Directors and Oscar Submissions

Everything you wanted to know about the foreign language film race ...but were afraid to ask*

Toni Erdman, one of 14 films in the Foreign race directed by women, is widely expected to be nominatedPt 1 All the trailers -Albania to Italy
Pt 2 All the trailers - Japan to Yemen
Pt 3 Debut directors

Though Hollywood has an appaling track record when it comes to female representation behind the camera, other countries actually fare a lot better in this regard. Oh sure, it's still not as easy as it is for the men, but each and every year we see several female filmmakers from various countries around the Globe chosen as the best representative of their country's cinema. Now try to imagine how rarely that would happen if the USA had to export only one film to represent them annually. Hard to imagine isn't it? The only times it might conceivably have happened would have been Lost in Translation (2003) which lost best picture to a New Zealand production or The Hurt Locker (2009) which actually won best picture.

Denmark's PAW (1959) and Italy's SEVEN BEAUTIES (1976) were Oscar firsts for women

The 20 Oscar Nominated Foreign Language Films Directed By Women (and this year's hopefuls) after the jump. If you've ever wanted to do that 52 films by women viewing challenge some great ideas follow...

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