The first Guild Nominations are here!

by Cláudio Alves

THE SUBSTANCE continues to be a hit with precursors. A rare feat for horror cinema.

So far, the season has been dominated by critics' awards, which, while worthy of attention, don't offer great help when it comes to predicting the Oscars. After all, AMPAS is formed by industry people rather than critics. So, the guilds are a better indicator of what might be a hit with the Academy and, at long last, we're starting to see the first guild nominations. These past few days, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and the Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild (MUHS) announced their yearly honors. The Producers Guild of America (PGA) also announced their documentary contenders. Let's see what we can deduce from the results so far…

Click to read more ...

Golden Globe Nominations!

by Eric Blume

Let's take a look at the Golden Globe nominations announced yesterday, in the major categories.

BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

• THE BRUTALIST, A24
• A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, Searchlight Pictures
• CONCLAVE, Focus Features
• DUNE: PART TWO, Warner Bros. Pictures
• NICKEL BOYS, Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios
• SEPTEMBER 5 Paramount Pictures

It's very "Globe-y" that both NICKEL BOYS and SEPTEMBER 5 received a nomination for the Big Award and for absolutely nothing else.  They're both solid films, tricky to single out actors in.  The Globes went in big for both THE BRUTALIST and CONCLAVE, so it seems like the race is between those two at this point...

Click to read more ...

Category Confusion '24: COMEDY or DRAMA – Part One

by Cláudio Alves

Is THE SUBSTANCE a comedy or a drama? What gives?

This year, I am part of the voting body for the Golden Globes. This means I get a front row seat to the annual issue of strange categorizations. Not just in terms of finagling distinctions between lead and supporting performances either. Because this is the Globes, there's also the matter of which films compete in Drama, and which others battle it out in the presumably less competitive realm of Musical or Comedy. Because we all need distractions right now, let's ponder these inconsequential genre divides and enjoy some benign polls whose results don't really matter beyond these awards obsessive circles of ours…

Click to read more ...

"The Room Next Door" and "Emilia Perez" lead the EFA Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Nominations are in the for 37th annual European Film Awards which will take place on December 7th in approximately one month's time. You may recall that last year was dominated by Anatomy of a Fall which took home six awards (Film, Director, Actress, Screenplay, and special awards like Editing and the European University Film Award). It also proved popular with Oscar voters. Here are your nominees for the 2024 prizes. The awards ceremony moves each year. In December it moves to Switzerland for the first time. Oscar hopefuls The Room Next Door (hitting US theaters in December) and Emilia Perez (which hits Netflix next week) lead the nominations with four citations each. International Feature Film Oscar contenders like Denmark’s The Girl with the Needle, Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Italy’s Vermiglio, Latvia’s Flow, Norway’s Armand and Senegal’s Dahomey were also popular with voters, scoring multiple nominations. 

Although people don't tend to think of the EFAs as an Oscar precursor, their collective taste does align fairly well with Oscar voters. It's been 9 years, for example since the winning film wasn't also Oscar nominated for either Best Picture and/or Best International Feature Film...

Click to read more ...

Halloween Treats: A Sample of 2024 Horror

by Cláudio Alves

There's no better way to celebrate the spookiest holiday of them all than by indulging in the perverse pleasures of horror cinema. But what to watch? While classics are reliable, keeping up with the latest gems is fun, too. Every year, new delights are added to the nightmare canon, and 2024 is no different, with many scary movies among the best releases of the past few months. With that in mind, let's dive into the horror pool and see what precious gems we discover hiding in its depths - ones already available to stream at home, alone in the dark. For brevity's sake, I focused on English-language fright fests and films not yet reviewed at The Film Experience, starting with I Saw the TV Glow…

Click to read more ...