74th Cannes. Red Carpet from Days 1-3

by Nathaniel R

We already covered opening night fashion so let's check in on days 2 and 3. Unfortunately we can't be as comprehensive as we once were in previous years. We used to live on the site Zimbio when they released enormous day-by-day galleries including basically every celebrity, whether they were famous internationally or not and every red carpet shot, whether or not it was a particularly good one including non-glam people like old film directors. They've done away with that section and now you have to look for specific people (so you have to magically know who might have attended each screening). Otherwise you can only see highlights (like every other site) which means you see the same very famous celebrities over and over again. And you lose some of the coolest sightings of rising stars or obscure stars from various countries who are not that famous outside of their home country. Which sucks for internationally minded cinephiles like us...  Ah well. On to the red carpet premiere lewks we did see...

Who gets your vote for best dressed from the first few days?

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74th Cannes. The Competition Lineup!

by Nathaniel R

The official lineup for the 74th Cannes Film Festival has been announced. It's always an exciting time for cinephiles, doubly so this year since the festival had to be cancelled last season due to COVID-19. This year four actors have multiple films in contention: Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Rampling, Anders Danielsen Lie, and the probably queen of the festival France's Léa Seydoux who has three films in the main competition and another in Un Certain Regard!  We already know that Spike Lee will be presiding over the jury, since he was supposed to do that last year (though we don't know who will be on the jury with him yet).

Cannes has been criticized for years for their lack of gender parity in direction. They're likedly to be criticized again with only 4 of the 24 competition films from female auteurs but that's actually a huge improvement for the world's most famous film festival. As per usual French and English language films dominate though there are actually only three films from the USA in competition this year (Flag Day, The French Dispatch, and Red Rocket) Anyway let's look at the official lineup. More to come since there are other sections, too.

24 Official Competition Films
Who will win the Palme D'Or, Director, and Acting prizes. Care to place any bets?

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All Oscar charts have been updated. But first, look how starry the shorts are!

by Nathaniel R

After the shortlist announcement we had to cram in some  quick research on the shorts categories. Live action short might prove rather starry because one of the ten stars Tilda Swinton (The Human Voice) and another stars Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat (The Letter Room). Most of the filmmakers behind this years 30 finalist shorts (across the 3 categories) would be receiving their first nominations but there are a few previous Oscar players in the mix too:  Skye Fitzgerald (Hunger Ward, doc short), Pedro Almodovar (The Human Voice, live action short), Max Lang (Snail and the Whale, animated short) 

We'll discuss each category in its own post as we approach the Academy's nomination ballot week (which is still almost a month away if you can believe it!) but in the meantime all the charts are freshly updated...

INDEX | PICTURE | DIRECTOR

ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPP' ACTRESS | SUPP' ACTOR | 
SCREENPLAYS | VISUAL | SOUND | 
ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE 

Showbiz History: Oscared Siblings and Tilda's Sensuality

Six random things that happened on this day, November 5th, in showbiz history

Douglas Shearer and his baby sister Norma

1930 The third Oscars were held (yes, the Oscars were in Novembers for three years early in their history. The masterful anti-war picture All Quiet on the Western Front took Best Picture. The First Lady of MGM, Norma Shearer won Best Actress (The Divorcée) but, get this, her big brother Douglas won Best Sound Recording for her Best Picture rival (The Big House) making them the first sibling pair to win Oscars. 15 more pairs of siblings have followed them to win Oscars. They are, in rough chronological order...

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Horror Costuming: Suspiria

A special miniseries for Halloween by Cláudio Alves

Costume sketches by Giulia Piersanti

As cinephiles, we're often too quick to condemn the idea of the remake. But remakes can often be illuminating. A good remake is a conversation made of echoes refracted through cinema and cultural history and time, as valuable, in its own way, as the original picture.

Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria is perhaps the supreme example of this. Instead of replicating Dario Argento's 1977 post-Giallo masterpiece, Guadagnino and his team have created an entirely new work that further explores themes only glanced at in the first movie. Even its look is excitingly different, autumnal and chilly where the previous film was carnivalesque and hot-blooded. One could write about the perfection of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's cinematography or Inbal Weinberg's scenography, but, today, you're invited to reflect on the work of costume designer Giulia Piersanti…

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