"Pain and Glory" leads the European Film Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The European Film Awards will be held in Berlin in just one month (December 7th) and big names are nominated: Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Roman Polanski, and more. But the question is who will actually attend and who will win? The Oscar submitted titles from Spain (Pain and Glory) and Italy (The Traitor) lead the nominations along with Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy from France. Almodóvar is of course an old favourite of the EFAs. With the Pain & Glory nominations he's now up to 22 EFA nominations (he's won 6 times plus received a special honor). His movies have won the top prize twice (All About My Mother and Talk To Her) while Volver won an "audience" version of Best Film, too. 

A full list of nominations with more comments is after the jump...

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European Film Awards - Voting Now Open

by Nathaniel R

The Favourite may have lost most of its Oscar nominations but it can still win some EFAs!

The 32nd annual European Film Awards are happening this December 7th in Berlin. Voting for the People's Choice prize is now open. And -- "gay rights!"-- The Favourite still probably has another award ceremony to get through. Due to the EFA's non-calendar year eligibility as well as the complications of release patterns in multiple countries and the EFA's non-fussiness about dates you'll find that the people's choice options are a very strange mix this year from THREE calendar years worth of movies (2017-2019). 

After the jump, that odd group as well as two longlists (to give you festival prioritizing help) before the nominations are announced in early November...

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[Drum Roll] It's the Film Bitch Awards Medals Ceremony

It's the most painfully drawn-out nomination process followed by the swiftest awards ceremony of all. It involves your host Nathaniel slapping gold, silver, and bronze medals on the winners in the Film Bitch Awards chart! A Star is Born (10), The Favourite (9), and BlacKkKlansman (8) which all made the top ten list here, led the total medals count. It may surprise you to hear that Lady Gaga (5 for A Star is Born) and Rachel Weisz (4 between The Favourite / Disobedience) won the most medals for an individual performer,  since we didn't actually nominate either of them in the traditional 4 acting categories! But we have lots of "special" categories to reflect how we really experience the movies.  

Awards Pg 1: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Animated Feature
Awards Pg 2: The Four Traditional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 3: Visuals 
Awards Pg 4: Sound and Music
Awards Pg 5: Additional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 6: 'Characters of the Year' Prizes
Awards Pg 7: Best Individual Scenes (AND TRIVIA ABOUT THE AWARDS) 

AND WITH THAT, MY FRIENDS, FOLLOWING THE OSCAR WRAP-UP, THE FILM YEAR IS COMPLETE. ON TO 2019, ALREADY IN PROGRESS! We're currently at two festivals (SXSW and San Luis Obispo) and of course we've been discussing Avengers and Captain Marvel  and gems currently in theaters like Ash is Purest White, Transit, and more.

Nathaniel's (Belated) Top Ten List of 2018

by Nathaniel R

Given that we're two months into a new year, the best cinema of 2018 is receding in our mind's eye, still shimmering but moving out of focus. But so much vivid color and feeling remains. Before we are fully blinded to its beauties (until, that is, they are "old films" and we can revisit) by a whole new batch of cinematic images to obsess over, here's one last post to honor the year that was. Here's your host's choices for the 25 best films of 2018.

This year's HONORABLE MENTIONS are a varied bunch taking us from horny self-discovery in Swedish woods to a trash-heap island in Japan. Strangely, grief was the year's most defining theme across genres as diverse as horror, tragicomedy, bopics, thrillers, character studies, and romantic dramas.

The films are listed in loosely ascending order, though we always reserve the right to change our minds where lists and rankings are concerned:

• Paddington 2 (Paul King, UK) If all franchises were crafted with this much heart and warmth and wit, Hollywood wouldn't feel souless at all.
• Border (Ali Abassi, Sweden) A refreshing oddity which totally commits to its own hybrid identity as its protagonist discovers hers.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Ramsey, Persichetti, and Rothman, US) If all superhero movies were this fun, inclusive, and inventive, they'd deserve their now automic success in the marketplace.
• First Man (Damien Chazelle, US) A nation's epic ambitions paired with a marriage's intimate drama. So elegantly crafted.
• Burning (Lee Chang-dong) as elusive and mysterious as a cat that doesnt want to be seen, until it saunters boldy into sight to stare you down.
• First Reformed (Paul Schrader, US) The year's most disturbing drama. Hard to shake and necessary.
• Widows (Steve McQueen) Overstuffed and strangely paced, but reverberating with provocative ideas and juicy characters. 
• Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, Lebanon) For all that urgency and visceral feeling, not to mention one of the great child performances.
• Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, US) for its ramshackle charms and subtle character-portrait
• Hereditary (Ari Aster, US) What a calling card debut, from that dollhouse opening shot all the way through that psychotic break ending, a new horror classic. 

RUNNERS UP. Oh, if there were room in the top ten for all of these...

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Reader Polling Results

by Nathaniel R

So each year we poll you on who you'd like to see take the Oscars (among their nominees of course, which are obviously different than who you may want to see up for the prizes each year) and after a month of voting here's how you responded. You can look up the individual charts on each Oscar page if you so desire to see a fuller breakdown but your collective vote went like so if you're curious, and we hope you are. The eventual Oscar winners were usually either your winner or your runner up but I was personally surprised by a few of the polls...

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