What did Telluride and Venice Teach Us About the Oscars?
Both the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals ended in the last week. These two festivals, along with the currently running Toronto Film Festival, are some of the prime locations for major Oscar contenders to premiere their films. Here is a look at some of the films that opened to welcome applause at the two festivals, and that may be popping up more often come awards season.
Out of the award winners at Venice, only one seems to be a possible major Oscar contender: Michael Fassbinder in Shame. The Steve McQueen film, which might be too graphic for more conservative audiences, was recently picked up by Fox Searchlight for release near the end of the year. The film also took the FIPRESCI prize. Wuthering Heights, the new British adaptation of the classic novel, picked up the Best Cinematography award.
2011 Venice Film Festival Prizes Announced
The winners for the 68th Venice Film Festival prizes have been announced.
VENEZIA 68
Golden Lion for Best Film
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Silver Lion for Best Director
Shangjun CAI for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong)
Special Jury Prize
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress
Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong)
What Did Cannes Teach Us About the Oscar Race?
The Cannes Film Festival is the first major event of every film season. It is the time when several films that will be vying for the Oscar next year are first shown, when the film studios are busy looking at projects to distribute both in America and internationally and a time for the brightest and most up-and-coming stars to get a lot of international attention. This year didn't see as many high-profile American releases in competition as the past few years have shown us (only two this year), but there is still a lot of buzz around certain pictures, and we can start getting answers on films from previous Oscar nominees and winners (Terrence Malick, Tilda Swinton, Pedro Almodovar) and some Oscar novices. So, what can the reactions of critics, press and a Robert DeNiro-led jury tell us about how this year's Oscar race is going to shape up?
Cannes Film Festival Winners
The winners of the 64th Festival de Cannes have been announced and despite all the grousing over The Tree of Life being a heavily divisive film, it still managed to pick up the top prize. After Lars von Trier's outburst about Hitler sympathies (for which he later apologized), the perception was that his film Melancholia would be ignored. However, it seems that the festival decided not to punish the film's star Kirsten Dunst who picked up the Best Actress prize. Here are the rest of the winners.
Palme d'Or: The Tree of Life
Grand Prix: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia - Nuri Bilge Ceylan & The Kid with a Bike - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive
Actor: Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Actress: Kirsten Dunst - Melancholia
Screenplay: Footnote
Jury Prize: Poliss
Camera d'Or: Las Acacias
Un Certain Regard Prize: Arirang - Kim Ki-Duk & Stopped on Track - Andreas Dresen
Un Certain Regard, Special Jury Prize: Elena - Andrey Zvyagintsev
Un Certain Regard, Director: Mohammad Rasoulof - Au Revoir
Festival: Sundance Film Festival
The annual Park City, UT festival started by Robert Redford, revealed its winners today. Here's a list.
Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Like Crazy
Grand Jury Prize, Documentary: How to Die in Oregon
Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic: Happy, Happy
Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary: Hell and Back Again
Audience Award, Dramatic: Circumstance
Audience Award, Documentary: Buck
Audience Award, World Cinema Dramatic: Kinyarwanda
Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary: Senna
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Cannes 2010 and the Oscars
What can this year’s Cannes Film Festival tell us about the Oscars?
When it comes to prestige, the Cannes Film Festival is one of the most celebrated and respected film awards to receive. When it comes to the Academy Awards, though, the Cannes Film Festival doesn’t always line up too nicely with what gets honored on this side of the Atlantic. For every The Pianist or Pulp Fiction, you have many more films that completely fall out of the public eye (The Wind That Shakes the Barley is one recent example). Out of last year’s line-up, only four films managed Oscar Nods: Bright Star, Inglourious Basterds, A Prophet and The White Ribbon, and only one of those was nominated in one of the above line categories (although Precious, Up and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus played out of the main competition). Generally one or two of the foreign-language film nominees will come out of the festival, but choosing which ones this early is futile until countries start submitting films.
Only one American film was in competition this year, and that was Doug Liman’s Fair Game. The film got mixed reviews by the critics, but still looks like it could play very well over here (Matt Noler at The House Next Door called it “slick” and “porn for smug liberals”, a combination that seems destined for Oscar nods). I still think it will be a major contender next winter, and no one really seemed to hate the film, which should bode well for its future.
Festival de Cannes: Winners Announced
The Cannes Film Festival is over and the awards have been announced. Below are the official winners listed on the Cannes website
In Competition: Feature Films
Palme d'Or
Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)
Grand Prix
Des Hommes et Des Dieux (Of Gods and Men)
Best Director
Mathieu Amalric - Tournée (On Tour)
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Cannes Film Festival: Lineup Announced
Opening Film (Out of Competition)
Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, USA)
In Competition
Tournee (Mathieu Almaric)
Des Hommes et des Dieux (Xavier Beauvois)
Hors la loi (Rachid Bouchareb)
Biutiful (Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu)
A Screaming Man (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
Housemaid (Im Sangsoo)
Copie Conforme (Abbas Kiarostami)
Outrage (Takeshi Kitano)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Fair Game (Doug Liman)
You, My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa)
La Nostra Vita (Daniele Luchetti)
Utomlyonnye Solntsem 2 (Nikita Mikhalkov)
La Princesse de Monptpensier (Bertrand Tavernier)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
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Festival: Sundance Winners
Below are the Sundance Film Festival prizes. I've tried to break them into categories, but some of the breaks don't feel right, but I'm not certain how else to break them up.
Grand Jury Awards
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Winter’s Bone
Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
Restrepo
Audience Awards
Dramatic Audience Award:
happythankyoumoreplease
Documentary Audience Award:
WAITING FOR SUPERMAN
General Awards
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award:
Winter’s Bone
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