SHORTS COLUMN | Oscar-Nominated Short Film Directors Bask in the Spotlight

On Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Curtis Hanson hosted the Academy's pre-ceremony screening of the nominated live action and animated short films. With directors and producers of eight of the ten films in attendance, the sold-out event was a rare opportunity for the filmmakers to see each other's work and for the audience to hear what inspired these Oscar-caliber stories. The one-time-only gathering also drove home the point that none of this year's honorees are from the United States, and only one producer and one director have ever been nominated before. "We are seeing the future," announced Hanson in his opening remarks to the program, which lasted over four hours, including two panel discussions and an intermission.
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CRITICS' POLL '07 | "There Will Be Blood" Hailed as Best of 2007 in iW Poll of 100+ Critics; "No End In Sight," "Away From Her" Singled Out

Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" (which opened in two theaters over the weekend) recently dominated indieWIRE's annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics. The exceptional fifth feature by P.T. Anderson was named best film of the year in indieWIRE's poll of 106 film critics. Notably, the film topped five categories: Anderson was singled out for best director and best screenplay, while Daniel Day-Lewis' role as oil man Daniel Plainview was named the best performance of 2007 and Robert Elswit was singled out for best cinematography. Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight" was voted the best documentary of the year and in the category of best first film, Canadian actress turned director Sarah Polley, with her debut feature "Away From Her," edged out fellow thespian Ben Affleck's "Gone Baby Gone."
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CRITICS' POLL 2007: The Critics Speak: State of Distribution, Politics, 'Shmabortion', Year of the Actor, and More

Included within their ballots in the 2007 indieWIRE Critics Poll are comments on the year in film from many of the 106 participants. Today, we offer the third in a three part series of edited comments from the critics. In Part 1, a look at some of the orphan #1 picks from the critics, while in Part 2, feedback on the best and worst of the year. Finally, in this edition, thoughts on the business side of things, as well as insights on films about the war in Iraq, considering Apatow, and talk about some of the year's stand-out performances.
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CRITICS' POLL 2007: The Critics Speak: Best, Worst, the Auteurs and the Underrated

Included within their ballots in the 2007 indieWIRE Critics Poll are comments on the year in film from many of the 106 participants. Today, we offer the second in a three part series of edited comments from the critics. In this edition, a look at cinephilia, comments about the best and worst of the year, considering the underrated and the underappreciated, and thoughts on "No Country For Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "I'm Not There," and "Southland Tales."
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CRITICS POLL 2007 | Poll Comments: Critics Defend Their #1 Orphan Picks

Included within their ballots in the 2007 indieWIRE Critics Poll are comments on the year in film from many of the 106 participants. Today, we offer the first in a three part series of edited comments from the critics. The group collectively cited a total of 176 best films; of these movies, a small handful garnered a single, defiant #1 mention from a maverick voter. Below, some critics defend their #1 best film orphan picks.
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AWARDS SEASON NOTEBOOK | Five Films -- All Nominated for a Gotham Award -- That Are "Not Playing at a Theater Near You"

One of the coolest categories at the annual Independent Feature Project's (IFP) annual Gotham Awards, taking place on November 27th in Brooklyn, is "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You," offering a prize recognizing films that have had solid play on the fest circuit but have not yet had major theatrical runs. The five indies nominated in the category this year are Ronald Bronstein's "Frownland," Lanre Olabisi's "August the First," John Fiege's "Mississippi Chicken," Jeremy and Randy Stalberg's "Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa," and Chris Fuller's "Loren Cass." These are all solid films that have gotten some decent fest buzz, yet even folks who hit the fest circuit may not have seen (or even heard of) them. So, here's a round-up of the five nominees, which were nominated by judges from The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), IFP and Filmmaker Magazine. The films are screening at MoMA in New York City today through Monday, and the winner, selected by the editors of Filmmaker, will be awarded at the Gotham Awards. Here's a roundup of the Gotham Awards' five best fest-circuit films you probably haven't seen yet.
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WORLD CINEMA | The Foreign-Language Oscar Race: Where (Almost) Anything Can Happen

You've got to hand it to Bulgaria, Chile, and the Philippines: Year after year, the countries proudly enter their most celebrated films into the race for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film--with not a chance in hell of winning. And poor Portugal: it holds the record for most submissions without ever receiving a nomination. With the exception of Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's "No Man's Land" victory in 2002, the prize has never gone to a director from a developing country.
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SHORTS | Everyone's a Winner at the Academy's Pre-Oscars Shorts Screening

Five nights before the February 25th award ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicked off Oscar Week by screening this year's nominated live action and animated short films in front of a sold-out crowd at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. All but two of the directors were on hand to join the post-screening discussion hosted by Taylor Hackford, who hyped the audience by claiming, "You'll never have a better time watching movies than you'll have tonight."
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The Critics Have Spoken (Again); National Society Chooses "Pan's Labyrinth" As Best Film of 2006

The National Society of Film Critics selected the best of 2006 on Saturday in New York City, naming Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" the best movie of the year. The group, comprised of 58 leading national critics, votes and announces its winners without hosting an annual ceremony. In its 41st annual awards announcement, "United 93" director Paul Greengrass was named best director and "An Inconvenient Truth" was voted the best nonfiction film of the year. The announcement from the National Society of Film Critics marks the final critics organization to announce picks for the best films of the year, as organizations in New York and L.A. prepare to present their prizes during events this week.
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CRITICS' POLL '06 | The Afterlife of "Mr. Lazarescu": Cristi Puiu's Meditation on Mortality Tops indieWIRE Critics Poll

Welcome to the first annual indieWIRE film critics' poll. If you're experiencing deja vu, it's because this national survey is a direct descendant of the Village Voice poll, which I conducted from 1999 to 2005 ("Take One" through "Take Seven") with the help of my former colleagues J. Hoberman and Michael Atkinson. Recent developments at the Voice have left that poll without a home and the good folks at indieWIRE have graciously stepped in to adopt it.
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CRITICS' POLL '06 | Film Critics Pick 200+ Favorite Undistributed Films

Is Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo the must unsung auteur in the U.S. marketplace? For the last several years, the director's work has continued to place high atop critic polls of the year's best undistributed films at both indieWIRE and the Village Voice. From "The Power of Kangwon Province" to "Turning Gate" to "Woman is the Future of Man" to "Tale of Cinema" to this year's top undistributed vote-getter "Woman on the Beach," Hong represents the profound chasm between art and commerce in cinema today.
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CRITICS' POLL '06 | The Comments: Critics Defend Their Orphan Pick

[Our 107 participants collectively cited a total of 189 films; of those movies, 68 garnered a single, defiant Top 10 mention from a maverick voter. Below, some critics defend their orphan picks.] It's all very well for critics to denounce "The Good German" as a slab of artifice, to compare it negatively with "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca," and to trot out cliches about film noirs and femme fatales--all of which avoids dealing with the movie's seriousness and its mood of paranoia and despair. The morally squalid labyrinthine necropolis of Soderbergh's "Germany Year Zero" perfectly evoked the nation's shattered psyche, and was made all the worse by America's occupation. (Sound familiar?) The masterstroke was the lack of heat between Clooney and Blanchett. In a city where women were raped en masse in 1945, love was all used up. Don't believe that "play it again" stuff.--Graham Fuller
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CRITICS' POLL '06 | The Comments: The Worst, the Overlooked, and The Death (and Rebirth?) of Film Culture

THE DESCENT: The Worst Movie Ever Made and Other Low Points Wow, what a terrible year.--Jeff Reichert Winter Passing," "Trust the Man," "American Gun," "Wah-Wah," "Twelve and Holding," "Coastlines," "A Good Woman," "Ask the Dust," "Loverboy," "The Lost City," "Shadowboxer," "The Wicker Man," "Confetti," "Lucky Number Slevin." By my count, I saw the worst movie ever made more than a dozen times this year. In 10 years of year-ending, I've never had such a hard time compiling a list of movies I was unreservedly unenthusiastic about. Thank heavens for "The Fallen Idol" and "Out 1"; otherwise I might think I'd simply lost my love of the art form.--Sam Adams
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CRITICS' POLL '06 | The Comments: The Best, From Mr. Lazarescu to Mr. Eastwood

In a year where many movies barely skimmed the surface, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" got under my skin. Its extraordinary long takes forge a practically physical connection between audience and subject; I'll never forget the moment when I felt my own body jerk in response to Lazarescu's spasmodic cough. Mr. Lazarescu slips closer to death, rendered mute and finally inert, relieved of his combative personality and reduced to his elemental physicality. There were plenty of bodies chopped up, mangled, dissected, and split open this year, but only one that we were encouraged to take as our own.--Sam Adams
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AWARDS WATCH | New York Critics Pick "United 93" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" Top Choice in LA

Two notable critics groups named their top choices for 2006 in the last 24 hours, both considered harbingers in the Oscar race among awards watchers. Unlike last year, the two groups had separate choices for best film, with the New York Film Critics Circle naming "United 93" by Paul Greengrass as its choice for best picture, while the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) bestowed their top prize to Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima." In the best director category, however, the L.A. critics cited Greengrass for best director ("United 93") while New York gave the honor to Martin Scorsese for "The Departed." Last year, both groups named "Brokeback Mountain" their picks for best picture and director Ang Lee as their choice for best director. The film later lost the Academy Award in the best film category to "Crash," though Lee did win best director Oscar last year.
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The Spirit Awards Alternative: A Survey of This Year's Nominated Docs

The Independent Spirit Awards have changed a lot since the ceremonies began two decades ago, and this year's nominees look a lot like the Oscars -- except in the documentary category, where "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," is the only doc to be nominated for both honors. This season, the Spirit Awards nominees are an eclectic mix of some truly excellent documentaries, in both the Best Documentary section as well as for the Truer Than Fiction Award, which presents a $25,000 grant to an unrecognized documentary filmmaker. The prizes will be awarded this Saturday, the day before the annual Academy Awards, and will be broadcast live on IFC (with a re-broadcast on AMC).
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Critics Diary: New And Noteworthy At Toronto '05

Until last week, this year's Oscar frontrunner looked to be a leftover from last year's Toronto International Film Festival. Though a startling number of critics have gotten behind "Crash," I belong to the equally outspoken contingent that can't stand Paul Haggis' hateration ensemble, with its condescendingly simple-minded "racism is bad" message and the manipulative emotional theatrics it uses to hammer it home. But as Toronto 2005 draws to a close, I'm pleased to report that I've seen enough top-notch entries here that "Crash" should be a non-issue come Oscar-time.
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Critics Diary: Romance, Cigarettes, Capote, and an Irish Transvestite

Romance and cigarettes. You could make a compelling case that those two ingredients are what the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival is all about. Romance, of course, remains the age-old standby. As for cigarettes, it seems like everyone's lighting up on screen these days (everyone, that is, except the characters in "Thank You for Smoking," a satire in which Aaron Eckhart plays an unscrupulous tobacco lobbyist). In keeping with the theme, it seems only fitting that John Turturro's new film, "Romance and Cigarettes," should kick off the latest round of award-worthy performances worth pointing out at the festival.
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Critics Diary: Adaptations, "Pride & Prejudice," "Bee Season," "Tristram Shandy," "Everything Is Illuminated"

When it comes to spotting awards contenders at the Toronto International Film Festival, it helps to start by finding the films that started off as books. Adaptations don't always make the best movies, but at least you have a pretty good idea of what you're in for. Take "Pride & Prejudice", for example. Focus Features just unveiled an intoxicating new version of Jane Austen's beloved novel starring Keira Knightely that stands a fair shot at a Best Picture nomination (insofar as it's better than a couple of last year's Best Picture nominees, although it remains to be seen what competition the fall season holds).
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Critics Diary: Reese & Charlize, "Walk the Line" and "North Country"

It's a strange thing being only two weeks into September and feeling fairly certain that at least one major category of the Oscar race is already over, done, and decided. Then again, that's the nature of the Toronto International Film Festival, where the press and public get their first look at the year's top award contenders. Consider the response to Jamie Foxx in "Ray" at last year's festival, then imagine the same momentum applied to the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line", which premieres today in Toronto. However, it's not Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Cash with the single-minded focus of a runaway train, but co-star Reese Witherspoon who steals the show, and if the Academy is listening, they might as well go ahead and give her the award.
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