Lunchtime Poll: Oscar omissions... the ones that sting?

by Nathaniel R

A lot of people -- including me! -- wanted to see Delroy Lindo nominated

Cláudio will be sounding off on the "almost there" class of 2020 soon but until then, let's get the disappointments out of our system before we concentrate on enjoying the rest of the Oscar race, which has now entered it's second phase. 

Here's to the fallen! Which misses on Oscar nom morning -- our Christmas! -- are the closest things to coals in your stocking? I'll start with the five I (virtually) weep for outside of the acting categories...

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Interview: Sue Kim on "The Speed Cubers" her Oscar finalist

by Nathaniel R

After screening the moving and very engaging doc The Speed Cubers we were shockd to learn that it was a debut Figuring there was a story we sat down with director Sue Kim and as it turns out, we were right. Though she comes across as genuinely humble, twenty years of experience on sets helped her to be fully formed as a filmmaker the first time out of the gate. She'd been producing commrcials for 20 years before directing her first short The Speed Cubers. As the mom of a cuber, she knew the world intimately and knew how she wanted to frame the story. After a pitch to Netflix and the benefit of a few years of archival footage from The Cubicle, to help shape the backstory, "we were able to focus our filming efforts pretty precisely."

Kim and her team shot for six months up leading up the Speed-Cubing World Championships. We were delighted to hear what convinced Sue to try her hand at directing and what it was like to make a movie with no antagonists and two heroes, speed cubing champs Max Park and Feliks Zemdegs...

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Oscar Race: Live Action Short Finalists Reviewed

by Nathaniel R

As we did with the Documentary shorts finalists, we're reviewing the Oscar possibilities in Live Action short. Unfortunately this group is harder for audiences to see (at this writing) so we don't have screening links for all of them. We've been unable to track down Two Distant Strangers but let's discuss the other nine options, divvied up into four 'types'...

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The Human Voice... on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

You already know that we loooooved The Human Voice by way of its NYFF run last year and the Best of 2020 article. It's now one of the ten finalists for Best Live Action Short (a category we'll review as soon as we're able to track down the only two entries we haven't seen). Now we have word about its release plans. The Human Voice, based on the Jean Cocteau "monodrama" will be in theaters starting March 12th in the US, three days before Oscar nominations are due. Will it be nominated? Who knows! Some Academy members might resent a world class auteur infiltrating a category that generally rewards newbies but others, judging on the work alone, might easily go for it. Thirty minute films are generally a hard sell for standard movie ticket prices. So it will be paired with Pedro Almodóvar's international breakthrough feature, the Oscar nominated Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) in theaters. If you've never seen the latter indisputable classic, here's a perfect excuse to rectify that gaping hole in your 80s cinematic knowledge, and get a great new 30 minute Tilda Swinton performance in the process. 

That is IF movie theaters are open where you are by March 12th and you feel comfortable going. 

Oscar Race: Documentary Short Finalists reviewed (and where to stream them)

by Nathaniel R

Without theaters open the popular annual tradition of the nominees bundled together at movie theaters will probably have to wait, so we thought we'd discuss them before the Academy votes on nominations this year as they were blessedly easy to track down -- at least in the Doc Short category, all of which are available to stream. Herewith, a look at the ten films competing for those five slots, half of which are directed or co-directed by women.

They're grouped by emotional or thematic similarities. UPDATE: IF THEY WERE NOMINATED THAT'S MARKED BELOW...

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