EFA Nominations: Comedy, Short, Animated Feature

by Nathaniel R

LITTLE NICHOLAS - HAPPY AS CAN BE (France/Luxembourg)

The European Film Awards announce in lots of small increments for reasons that have never been entirely clear to us. But here we are. So it is today that we learned that Italian Director Marco Bellochio has won Innovation in Storytelling for his miniseries Exterior Night (a follow up to his 2003 feature Goodmorning Night) and full nominations for three categories have been announced including Animated Feature (now updated with winners as of 12/12)...

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Goya Awards: Javier Bardem & Cate Blanchett honored

by Nathaniel R

Cate Blanchett was honored with a Honorary Goya Award this weekend while The Good Boss, Spain's Oscar finalist (which did not secure a nomination) dominated the awards. Though Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers) lost Best Actress to her Volver co-star Blanca Portillo (Maixabel) she still emerged as quite a winner given Cate's shout-out to her brilliance in her own acceptance speech. The list of winners, photos, and fashion after the jump...

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Best International Film: Chile, Netherlands, Spain

by Cláudio Alves

I'm pleased to bring you the annual grouped reviews of the less high profile submissions for Best International Film Oscar. Many major contenders have already been reviewed (check the end of this article for links), but others remain unexamined. With 93 titles to consider, that's bound to happen. So as we wait for December 21st, when the Academy announces its 15-wide shortlist for this particular race, let's take a look at some of those submissions, starting with three previous champions from the category's history.

Chile won once before, while the Netherlands has three Oscars, and Spain counts four previous victories. This year, they submitted a portrait of colonialism, a drama about war's hell, and a dark comedy starring an Oscar-winning international star… 

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Goya Nominations: "The Good Boss" sets a record and Javier Bardem vies for a 7th win.

by Nathaniel R

Spain's Oscar submission, The Good Boss, starring Javier Bardem has set an all time record, securing a huge 20 nominations (!) at the 36th annual Goya Awards including 75% of the nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category. Pedro Almodóvar's new feature Parallel Mothers, which also has Oscar dreams, was in a distant third place with 8 nominations at Spain's own Oscars-like event.

All the nominations, the two you can see in the US this month, and a little commentary after the jump...

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It's 2002 all over again with Spain's Oscar submission choice

by Nathaniel R

We hinted that this could happen again and it has. In 2002 the Spanish Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences passed over Pedro Almodóvar's internationally fêted Talk to Her for the country's Oscar submission in favor of Mondays in the Sun, a Fernando León de Aranoa film starring Javier Bardem. Now 19 years later history repeats itself as Spain has passed over Pedro Almodóvar's internationally fêted Parallel Mothers for their Oscar submission in favor of The Good Boss, a Fernando León de Aranoa film starring Javier Bardem. 

Now we wait and see if history will be yet more repetitive. In 2002 Oscar voters ignored Mondays in the Sun but honored Talk to Her with nominations for Director and Screenplay. We doubt that history will repeat itself that fully since Parallel Mothers is considerably less flashy a film but you never know. Either way it went today the Javier Bardem/Penélope Cruz household would have a reason to celebrate so congrats to Spain's most famous movie star couple and to Aranoa, too.

Submission charts for more info and current predictions. You can also follow along on Letterboxd.