Golden Globes Night: 11 Moments. 27 Winners. 3 Takeways.

by Nathaniel R

How was Globe night for you? We don't plan to rain on your parade if you loved it as we'll focus on the positive herein. That said a dark storm threatened to dampen the jolly proceedings from Ricky Gervais opening monologue. The joke gathering the cloud "I don't care anymore. Kidding, I never did." We have personally never seen an awards show host phone it in as much as Gervais did on the big night -- even James Franco tried harder at his famously disastrous Oscar co-host gig -- so good riddance to Gervais forever and ever. There's insult humor and then there's being a walking insult to anyone who deigns to watch you. BUT ON TO HAPPIER THINGS.

After the jump we'll share the key moments, winners, and takeaways...

Click to read more ...

Oscar's International Race - Pt 2: Random Stats and Key Trivia

Now that we have the whole list of 93 films vying for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, it's time for a collection of trivia regarding this particular vintage...

LONGEST FILM
The Painted Bird (Czech Republic) is just 11 minutes shy of three hours. Lots of films are that long but given that this movie has been referred to as 'the child rape Holocaust movie' three hours sounds utterly punishing. Naturally then, it's split audiences between 'masterpiece' and 'unwatchable' camps. Runners up: Domain (Portugal) and Truth or Justice (Estonia) are just a little bit shorter, both about two hours and 45 minutes long.

SHORTEST FILM
Poisonous Roses (Egypt) is just 70 minutes long. It's reportedly a mood piece about life in lower-class Cairo that primarily focuses on the relationship of a sister and brother. Runners up: The light documentary When Tomatoes Met Wagner (Greece) is just two minutes longer than that one. Belgium's Our Mothers, Belarus's Debut, Lithuania's Bridges of Time, Albania's The Delegation, and Montenegro's Neverending Past are the other really short titles, all clocking in at 80 minutes or less.

Movie stars, languages, and gayness are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

"Out Stealing Horses" wins Norway's Top Film Prizes

by Nathaniel R

Out Stealing Horses

You may recall that when we posted our April Foolish Oscar predictions we suggested that the Norwegian film Out Stealing Horses could well compete for the Best International Film Oscar. That was a blind call based solely on its pedigree (a lush adaptation of a best-seller with a known director) since a) we hadn't seen the picture, b) Norway hadn't submitted it, and c) there weren't many industry reactions yet. Those things are still true save the latter which is now emphatically untrue. It's obviously well liked since it just took the top prize at Norway's annual Amanda Awards. Early critical reaction via Berlinale in February was also positive. 

More about the Amanda Awards and that film after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Terry Gilliam's "Quixote" is Complete

Chris here, with some heartwarming news: a film nearly twenty years in the making has finally wrapped filming. You'll remember Terry Gilliam's ill-fated attempts to adapt Cervantes's legendary Don Quixote to the big screen as they were told in the documentary Lost in La Mancha - floods, lost funding, and casting woes made this film one of the most notorious productions of all time.

But now Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will rise from the ashes of cinema history. Gilliam has completed filming - with a new cast that includes Adam Driver, Jonathan Price, and Stellan Skarsgård - and Amazon will bring the film to theatres sometime next year. Someone please protect the digital print (or film, if Gilliam went that route) from any mishandling so that Gilliam isn't put through the ringer again!

Gilliam's last film The Zero Theorem came and went quietly, but we suspect this one will get much attention on arrival given its unfortunate history. You can probably bank on a major film festival to debut the film as well. Regardless, it will be fantastic to see this story come to a happy ending for Gilliam! Do you have any troubled productions that fascinate you?

Today in Film History. Meow

It's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day. It's also Juneteenth. The day in which the nation commemorates the end of slavery in the mid 1860s (though like most holidays the actual timeline involves several days and months and years and lots of political manuevering -- see Lincoln and be reminded what a mess governing and policy making and constitutional debates always are). June 19th has another history civil rights event in 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act (see Selma) so exercize your right to vote in November. People are always trying to deny people that right, and if everyone voted, we'd be in such better shape. Now on to cinema...

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Good god, woman. Let it go.1865 Dame May Whitty, two time Oscar nominee is born in Liverpool. Remember her all caps obsession with winning that damn flower contest in Mrs Miniver? 
1905 The first Nickelodeon (an early form of the movie theater) opens in Pittsburgh. By 1910 there are thousands of them and an estimated 26 million Americans visit them weekly. Can you imagine how popular film blogs would be - sniffle. The movies shown in them get longer and longer...

Click to read more ...