EXAMINING OSCAR’S BELOW-THE-LINE NOMINEES – Susan Granger reports
Without doubt, movies are the most collaborative artistic medium, and streaming has made this year’s contenders more available than ever before. Some of the most memorable artisan aspects of filmmaking are Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design and Sound, all contributing to the ultimate success of a film.
Read MoreOscars 2020 Primer and Predictions – Susan Granger reports
For movie lovers, here’s the bad news and the good news. Last year, movie ticket sales in the United States & Canada were about $11.4 million, a 4% decrease from 2018. The good news is that the international box-office will exceed $30 billion for the first time ever. More films from streaming services are in the awards race, recognizing quality, no matter how it’s delivered. And I predict we’ll soon see the simultaneous release of movies at home and in theaters. This year the Oscars are on Feb. 9th; last year’s was on Feb. 24th; next year’s will be on Feb.28th. That means campaigners have fewer weeks this year to get their movies seen.
Read MoreAfrican-American Women Winners Make History at 91st Oscars – Lana K. Wilson-Combs reports
The 91st Annual Academy Awards set records for honoring African-American women. Regina King won “Best Supporting Actress” for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk, with Hannah Beachler receiving an Oscar for “Best Production Design” and Ruth E. Carter taking home another for “Best Costume Design” for their work on Black Panther. Beachler and Carter are the first black women to win Academy Awards in their categories. All were exuberant about their wins and fielded questions back stage about their films and their historic achievements. Read what they had to say…
Read MoreDebra Granik, Lynne Ramsay and Tamara Jenkins Nominated for Spirit Awards Best Director – Brandy McDonnell reports
Film Independent has announced the nominations for the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards, and three of the five finalists in the best director category are women. This is the first time in Spirit Awards history that more women than men have been nominated for best director.
Read MoreEarly Oscars Buzz for LEAVE NO TRACE — Jennifer Merin reports
Debra Granik is attracting early Oscars buzz for Leave No Trace, her third narrative feature. AWFJ selected Leave No Trace as Movie of the Week for June 29, and an informal poll of AWFJ members shows that the film is placing high on most members’ lists of best 2018 films to date. AWFJ says Leave No Trace has legs that will lead to Oscars, come awards season.
Read More90th Oscar Noms Mark Milestones for Women and Diversity — Brandy McDonnell reports
The 90th Academy Awards seem to be shaping up to be the most diverse ever. In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite, #MeToo and a cavalcade of sexual misconduct scandals brought to light after explosive investigative reports about Harvey Weinstein, the 2018 Oscar nominations marked several milestones for women, African-Americans and transgender people making movies. Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMAN.
Read MoreWomen Receive Two of Three Filmmaker Grants from the Independent Spirit Awards
Film Independent announced the winners of its five Spirit Awards filmmaker grants at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch held in West Hollywood on Janaury 6. John Cho (Star Trek, Columbus, Search) and Alia Shawkat (Search Party, Blaze, Duck Butter) co-hosted the event and handed out the honors. There’s quite a lot of money involved!
Read MoreGlobes Honor Oprah but Pass on Female Directors, SAG Awards Boast Female Presenters — Brandy McDonnell reports
Oprah Winfrey will receive the 2018 Cecil B. de Mille Award at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, but that big honor for Oprah does little to the ease the sting of HFPA’s snub of women among its best director nominees. However, when the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are simulcast live on TNT and TBS, the presentation, hosted by Kristen Bell, will feature only women presenters in 13 of the categories. Read details on THE WEEK IN WOMEN.
Read MoreThe Academy’s 90th Oscars: Latest Round Of Contenders for Best Foreign Film — Michelle Hannett reports
On December 19, AMPAS announced that nine feature films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category. Ninety-two films had originally been considered in the category. Foreign Language Film nominations for 2017 are determined in two phases.
The Phase I committee, consisting of Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 11. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist. Continue reading…
AWFJ Members’ Oscars 2017 Opinions, in Brief — Jennifer Merin reports
This compendium of AWFJ members’ takes on Oscars 2017 represents our diverse opinions. Read what Jeanne Wolf, Susan Wloszczyna, Moira Sullivan, Diana Saenger, Sheila Roberts, Nell Minow, Brandy McDonnell, Michelle McCue, Karen Martin, Kimberly Lindbergs, Leba Hertz, Candice Frederick, Marilyn Ferdinand, Chaz Ebert, Katherine Brodsky, Liz Braun, Betsy Bozdech and Erica Abeel have to say about Oscar 2017. Exclusive commentaries with links to other coverage. Read on…
Read MoreOscars 2017: Poise Under Pressure — Sheila Roberts comments (Exclusive)
Etched indelibly in my mind about the Oscars this year is how graciously the presenters and the filmmakers from “La La Land” and “Moonlight” handled the confusion that ensued on stage after the wrong Best Picture was announced. Noteworthy was the leadership of “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz who took charge and stepped in to clarify what had gone wrong, even when it meant acknowledging his own loss. It was done with a lot of class, dignity, and poise under pressure.
Read MoreOscars 2017: We Need More Creativity on Stage! — Katherine Brodsky comments (Exclusive)
This year had several worthy nominees and they were well-recognized. Although as a whimsical musical fan, I was rooting for “La La Land” as Best Picture, having finally caught up on “Moonlight” a few nights prior, I recognized what a great film it was as well. But here’s a sad fact: This year’s Oscar ceremony will be remembered most for the hiccup at the end rather than anything in between. Every year, I tune in to the Oscars telecast hoping for a great show, thinking that this year will be the one.
Read MoreOooops! Oscars 2017 As Seen from the Pressroom — Jeanne Wolf (Exc;usive)
What???? What’s going on? How could this happen? What went wrong? WOW! Oh my God! The F word flying in the air.
In such a wild – lightning bolt of a moment minds explode with a jumble of reactions and parallel narratives. Nervous laughter, adrenaline driven shouts, everyone guessing at an explanation, asking each other for an urgent reality check.
Read MoreIran’s Oscar-Winning THE SALESMAN — Review by Susan Granger
Iran’s Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film is another marital drama from Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi (“The Separation”). When Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) Etesamis are forced to evacuate their crumbling Tehran apartment, they move into a more dilapidated abode, one that was previously occupied by a single woman with a young child. The clutter she left behind when she was evicted gives subtle clues as to who she is and the promiscuous life she led. She’s described as “a woman with lots of acquaintances…who lived a wild life.” Read on…
Read MoreOscars and Movies and Targeting Millennials — Michelle McCue comments
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced – to widespread chagrin– that the press and publicists would no longer be a part of the annual tradition of being at AMPAS headquarters in Beverly Hills at the Samuel Goldwyn theater when the Oscar nominations are revealed on January 24.
Read MoreAWARDS INTELLIGENCER: Please stand by….
Thank you for following AWARDS INTELLIGENCER! We are on haitus until the arrival of the next awards season. Meanwhile, here’s to a new year full of great movies, greater equality and diversity in the biz and on screen and your ongoing fascination with and delight in cinema!
Read MoreRooney Mara’s Evolution With Clues from Cate Blanchett, Todd Haynes – Quendrith Johnson comments
To hear fellow Oscar-nom, two-time winner Cate Blanchett, gush about her Best Supporting Actress and Carol consort Rooney Mara, is almost as shocking as when Blanchett uses the word “startling” to describe Mara’s acting chops. Next “The Great Cate,” a woman many Oscar watchers believe will one day match or best Katharine Hepburn in lead wins, cobbles together some descriptive sentences worthy of a literary titan…
Read MoreMaltin’s Gravitas Matters As Oscar Takes a Powder for Johnny Depp & BLACK MASS – Quendrith Johnson comments
Leonard Maltin just tells it like it is, but with such heart and insight for viewers. So much so that the elder statesman of cinema had a life achievement award renamed after him at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) in 2015: The Maltin Modern Master Award. Last night his legacy was cemented as A-List actor Johnny Depp, or “John Christopher Depp,” as Maltin called him, came to SBIFF to accept The Other Golden Statuette.
Read MoreArcLight Women First-Ever Summit: Gretchen McCourt, Geena Davis, Cathy Schulman & More
With the disparity in representation of women in the director’s chair and actor compensation, as Jennifer Lawrence penned in a recent letter, it’s no surprise that ArcLight Cinemas just presented an “Inaugural Women in Entertainment Summit” (WIE). Host Gretchen McCourt, Executive Vice President of ArcLight, can be said to be a driving force here, complete with a hashtag #arclightwomen.
Read MoreHow Oscar 2015 Shapes 2016 With Kat Kramer & Thank Meryl via Patricia, Now Lily, Jane Fonda
What happened after winner Patricia Arquette’s impassioned Equal Pay Oscar acceptance speech in 2015, remarkably, has had a ripple effect, not just with the projects it inspired for 2016, but also in legislation, and even a federal investigation into equal pay in Hollywood based on salary numbers leaked as part of the Sony Hack. ArquetteASFArquette’s trophy moment for Boyhood, Best Supporting Actress, crescendoed with “To every woman who gave birth, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality…”
Read MoreEAST LA INTERCHANGE: “If This Film Could Vote” With Director Betsy Kalin
No one disputes that there are a lot of LA’s, from the ancient Los Angeles of Pueblo and Missions, to Hollywood and LA Film Noir, to the Watts Towers, to Dog Town Surf Culture, to CGI pioneers and Silicon Beach. But director Betsy Kalin’s new documentary East LA Interchange is likely one of the few to explore the neighborhood known as Boyle Heights.
Read MoreQue Horas Ela Volta? Or, Powerhouse Director Anna Muylaert’s Contender from Brazil
Sometimes you see a film and think, ‘is it just me, or is this movie really good?’ And, in the case of Brazilian Director Anna Muylaert’s new film Que Horas Ela Volta?, titled The Second Mother for US audiences which opened this past weekend, it’s clearly a critical hit. Meaning other critics and reviewers have weighed in with surprise and delight. But this politics-of-the-nanny story is made all the more remarkable once you get a chance to talk with the filmmaker.
Read MoreTop 10 Road Movies: His vs Hers, Why Not?
Summer is when a lot of us hit the highway, so a round-up of Road Movies makes sense. But how do you assess the genre, because the freeway and its parallel story-lines have been the purview of men traditionally? Easy, just compare two Top 10 His & Hers Road Movie Lists.
Read MoreTop 5 Movies Most Distorting to Female Psyche & The ‘Isotta Fraschini’ Syndrome
Ever since Maggie Gyllenhaal went public with the fact that she lost a role, at 37, as a love interest for a 55-year-old leading male because she was “too old,” the internet lit up with shock. But why should we be surprised? Disparity in casting leading men and women has been around since the Silent Era. So has a distorted view of the female psyche on film. Not only a distortion as to who and what women represent, but how the props, set dressing, costumes, conspire with the script, even the director, to really hammer the point home.
Read MoreWhat We Talk About When We Talk About Drone Strikes or “Good Kill”
When Voltage’s new war drama Good Kill, starring Ethan Hawke, Bruce Greenwood, January Jones, and Zoe Kravitz is released on May 15, it will be viewed as thematic, a complex “message” movie riffing on modern warfare, specifically focused on weapons-grade drones. Will it win any awards though?
Read MoreWelcometo Awards Intelligencer, , an AWFJ Network Blog authored by members of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists
