Cannes at Home: From Linklater to Ducournau

by Cláudio Alves

Between an Oscar, a Silver Bear, and THE SECRET AGENT's sterling reviews, Brazilian cinema is having a moment.
The 2025 Cannes Film Festival is almost over, so I've got to get going with this miniseries. After the directors already discussed in parts one and two, it was Richard Linklater's turn to present his latest creation. Nouvelle Vague purports to tell the making of Godard's Breathless, paying homage to the vanguard's aesthetic in a fashion some have compared to Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar-winning pastiche. Lynne Ramsay proved polarizing, as usual, with her Die, My Love, a literary adaptation that's gotten critics raving about Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. But the best-reviewed title of this batch has to be Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, a period thriller of epic proportions with Wagner Moura in the leading role. Then there's Tarik Saleh's supposedly underwhelming Eagles of the Republic and Julia Ducournau's follow-up to her Palme d'Or victory. The AIDS crisis allegory Alpha divided audiences and disappointed many of the director's fans, but that's to be expected with such a provocateur.

For this chapter of Cannes at Home, I invite you to revisit Linklater's Waking Life, Ramsay's Morvern Callar, Mendonça's Aquarius, Saleh's Cairo Conspiracy, and Ducournau's Titane…

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César Nominations: 'Lost Illusions' and 'Annette' score but 'Titane' struggles

by Nathaniel R

France's own Oscar-like ceremony the Césars will take place this year on February 25th and they've just released their list of nominations. In a mild surprise this past summer's Palme d'Or winner Titane did not do well in the nominations scoring in only 4 categories (Director, Female Newcomer, Cinematography, and Visual Effects). Instead the nominations were led by the costume drama Lost Illusions (15 nominations) which premiered at Venice. Other quick items of note: Canadian writer/director/actor Xavier Dolan, a perennial favourite at Cannes, picked up his first César nomination (Best Supporting Actor). Adam Driver also received an acting nomination for the musical Annette (it's very rare for US stars to be nominated there). Cate Blanchett will be receiving the Honorary César this year. 

The nominations and a few comments are after the jump. If we've written about the film, it's linked up, and since we love French cinema we've covered quite a few of these...

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Cláudio's 2021 Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

Ever since late 2019, there's seldom been a week when I didn't write for The Film Experience. Being part of the blog's team is a dream come true in many regards, having followed it since I was a baby cinephile back in the mid-aughts. Considering how much The Film Experience has become part of my life, it's with great delight that I'm now sharing my year-end personal top 10 in these hallowed pages. While I love to read everything my fellow Team Experience colleagues write, we all have distinctive tastes. Indeed, many are the movies where many disagree – just look at the polarizing reactions to Spencer. This means that it's unlikely there's much overlap in any list of favorites, including that of our beloved editor, Nathaniel. Our heterogeneous opinions are part of what makes The Film Experience so special. 

With that in mind, here are my ten favorites features released in 2021. (First, though, some honorable mentions)…

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"Happening" and "Annette" win at the Lumières

by Nathaniel R

Some of you may recall that we were thrilled when Happening (also known as L'Evenement) won the Golden Lion at Venice this past September. Audrey Diwan's abortion drama, set in the 1960s when the procedure was still illegal in France, is a riveting film with a superb lead performance. It's also apparently popular in France since it's just won the top prize at the 27th annual Lumière Awards, France's other big movie award beyond their top industry prize (the César). César nominations hit on January 26th so we'll see how films like Titane and Happening and Annette do there, but we already know what the Lumières thought of those three films. The complete list of nominations and wins are after the jump. If we've written about the films there's a link...

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Contemporary Costume Design - an FYC overview

by Nathaniel R

We don't get "finalist" lists for half of the craft categories so theoretically everything is still in the running for the visual categories of Cinematography, Editing, Costume, and Production Design. Today let's focus on Best Costume Design options for awards voters. While two-time winner Jeanny Beavan's work on Cruella has been looking like a potential Oscar-winner since way back in May, plenty of competition has arrived since. Our first clue as to what the industry might go for here will be on January 26th with the CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) nominations which divide movies up into period, sci-fi/fantasy, and contemporary. That's a handy way to do it, since it's too easy to fall into "Most Costuming" otherwise and entirely ignore the breadth of what is possible in this field. 

What follows are NOT predictions as to what the Guild or the Oscars might choose (craft predictions are here) but FYCs if you will, highlighting six options we think are interesting in the realm of "contemporary" (mostly)...

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