A History of Sex Workers and Oscar Wins

by Nathaniel R

Mikey Madison, Best Actress winner for "ANORA"With Mikey Madison's much buzzed about semi-surprising Best Actress win for Anora (2024) and Madison and her writer/director Sean Baker both paying tribute to sex workers in their speeches, let's talk sexworkers and the Oscars. It is a myth that playing a sex worker will get you an Oscar but it is also not wholly false that these roles are of great interest to Hollywood. Many actresses have been celebrated for playing women of ill repute whether they're traditional prostitutes, strippers, sex therapists, or it happens to be a character detail that they used to trade sex for money, or whatnot. What this says about Hollywood and the public's taste in entertainment is... well, it says many things... but they do call it 'the oldest profession' for a reason.

Male actors are not nominated for this sort of role (which also says a lot about society and Hollywood) even when they deserve to be...

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Venice Diary #01 - Tár, White Noise, and Princess

by Elisa Giudici

Hello readers! It's Venice time again. As with previous festivals, I'll be reviewing the movies with some festival experience details on the side. I screened three and a half movies (we'll get to the half at the end) in the first Day of the Mostra. Both the official opening night film White Noise and Princess in the Orizzonti section were a bit disappointing though both are far from failures. On the bright side, Cate Blanchett really delivers in Tár.

But first something a little spooky as Venice starts off on the wrong foot. This year Sala Darsena (the main screening room for press and industry) appears to be …cursed? During the screening of White Noise a bat (a real, actual bat!) flew in front of the screen...

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Klute, pt 1: Auditions, Tricks, and Transformations

Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), West Side Story (1961),  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cabaret (1972), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Aladdin (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992).  

KLUTE
A Mini-Series Retrospective with "Best Shot" Choice
Part 1 by Nathaniel R

The Oscar winning thriller Klute (1971) is now just over a half-century old. Since it's a personal favourite of mine, and features the iconic Jane Fonda in her first Best Actress winning performance, it's high time we really gave it its due here at The Film Experience. So let's start from the beginning and dive into what makes it great. Along the way we'll pick a "Best Shot" from each section, too, to coincide with that series...

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