criterionforum.org

domino harvey wrote:Paper calls 12 Years a Slave the Worst Film of the Year

I mean, it's just one guy's opinion though, from a magazine I've never heard of before. I fail to see how this is news. Maybe the Playlist is just jealous that this guy didn't see the need to waste as much time as they did writing at length about films they didn't like.

Or uh oh, did I just go contrarian?

Paper is the music magazine grocery stores carry. They used to have nice DVD samplers with neat-o music videos, but I haven't picked up an issue in like seven years

Foreign Language Film Oscar shortlist announced:

• Belgium, "The Broken Circle Breakdown," Felix van Groeningen, director;
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker," Danis Tanovic, director;
• Cambodia, "The Missing Picture," Rithy Panh, director;
• Denmark, "The Hunt," Thomas Vinterberg, director;
• Germany, "Two Lives," Georg Maas, director;
• Hong Kong, "The Grandmaster," Wong Kar-wai, director;
• Hungary, "The Notebook," Janos Szasz, director;
• Italy, "The Great Beauty," Paolo Sorrentino, director;
• Palestine, "Omar," Hany Abu-Assad, director.

No the Past?!

Was The Past eligible?

knives wrote:Was The Past eligible?

Yes, it was Iran's official submission.

The Academy has whittled down the Foreign Film category to 9......
-Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen
-Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic
-Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh
-Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg
-Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas
-Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai
-Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz
-Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino
-Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad

Wow. No The Past or Wadjda

I didn't bother to check if anyone else has posted this yet, but here's the Oscar's foreign film shortlist:

-Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen
-Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic
-Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh
-Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg
-Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas
-Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai
-Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz
-Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino
-Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad

Can't believe they skipped out on The Past. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Anyone else?

When is Criterion releasing Bottle Rocket?

Same day "Border Radio" and "Hopscotch" are released as Dual Disc upgrades.

Matt wrote:Anyone else?

I was going to say something, but what's Past is Past.

Apparently even the Razzies do short-lists now, and in something of an eyebrow-raiser, one Oscar hopeful has secured a bunch of possible noms

domino harvey wrote:Apparently even the Razzies do short-lists now, and in something of an eyebrow-raiser, one Oscar hopeful has secured a bunch of possible noms

Walter Mitty? I think it might only be looking at some possible tech noms at best.

That's not what my elaborate day dreams depict

The ten PGA nominations were announced today:

American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Saving Mr Banks
12 Years a Slave
the Wolf of Wall Street

The PGAs use the same preferential balloting system as the Oscars, so this is a pretty good climate-indicator. Some notable missing titles-- Inside Llewelyn Davis, Lee Daniels' the Butler, Philomena, Fruitvale Station, and August Osage County-- are likely indicators that they won't make it all the way for Oscars (though I wouldn't count out the Coens at least). Dallas Buyers Club and Blue Jasmine were something of a surprise for the Best Picture category

Writer's Guild of America nominations:

Original screenplay:
“American Hustle” (written by Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell)
“Blue Jasmine” (Woody Allen)
“Dallas Buyers Club” (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack)
“Her” (Spike Jonze)
“Nebraska” (Bob Nelson)

Adapted screenplay:
“August: Osage County” (Tracy Letts, based on his play)
“Before Midnight” (Richard Linklater,Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, based on characters created by Mr. Linklater and Kim Krizan)
“Captain Phillips” (Billy Ray, based on a book by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty)
“Lone Survivor” (Peter Berg, based on a book by Marcus Lutrell with Patrick Robinson)
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (Terence Winter, based on a book by Jordan Belfort)

Documentary screenplay
“Dirty Wars” (Jeremy Scahill, David Riker)
“Herblock – The Black & The White” (Sara Lukinson, Michael Stevens)
“No Place on Earth” (Janet Tobias, Paul Laikin)
“Stories We Tell” (Sarah Polley)
“We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks” (Alex Gibney)

Was 12 Years a Slave not written by a Guild member? That's a huge snub otherwise

Edit: No Coens or Gravity either, wow

Several high-profile films (including 12 Years a Slave) were considered ineligible.

So wait, Before Midnight is an adapted screenplay because it was based off characters created by the director? Does this mean all sequels are "adapted"?

Yes, last instance was Toy Story 3, I think

The last thing Gravity should receive an award for is its screenplay.

I haven't seen Her yet but putting that aside the Original category is brutal. There's one excellent screenplay (American Hustle) and three complete duds. I mean, I know Nebraska has its defenders, but think of how awful that screenplay would seem if stripped of Payne's directorial flourishes (such as they are).

National Society of Film Critics
BEST PICTURE
*1. Inside Llewyn Davis – 23
2. American Hustle – 17
3. 12 Years a Slave – 16

BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Joel and Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis) – 25
2. Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) – 18
3. Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) – 15

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
*1. Blue Is the Warmest Color – 27
2. A Touch of Sin – 21
3. The Great Beauty – 15

BEST NON-FICTION FILM
*1. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer) – 20
*1. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman) – 20
3. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel) – 18

BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke) – 29
2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen) – 26
3. American Hustle (Eric Singer and David O. Russell) – 18

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel) -28
2.Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki) – 26
3. Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael) – 19

BEST ACTOR
*1. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) – 28
2. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) – 19
3. Robert Redford (All Is Lost) – 12

BEST ACTRESS
*1. Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) – 57
2. Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Color) – 36
3. Julie Delpy (Before Midnight) – 26

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. James Franco (Spring Breakers) – 24
2. Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) – 20
3. Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) – 14

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) – 54
2. Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) – 38
3. Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) – 18
3. Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color) – 18

EXPERIMENTAL FILM
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel), a nonfiction film about

FILM HERITAGE AWARD
• To the Museum of Modern Art, for its wide-ranging retrospective of the films of Allan Dwan.
• “Too Much Johnson”: the surviving reels from Orson Welles’s first professional film. Discovered by Cinemazero (Pordenone) and Cineteca del Friuli; funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation; and restored by the George Eastman House.
• British Film Institute for restorations of Alfred Hitchcock’s nine silent features.
• To the DVD “American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive.”

BEST FILM STILL AWAITING AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION
• Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
• Hide Your Smiling Faces (Daniel Patrick Carbone)

DEDICATION: The meeting was dedicated to the memory of two distinguished members of the Society who died in 2013: Roger Ebert and Stanley Kauffmann.

Happy to see Franco win for Spring Breakers.