Here Are The Winners Of The 2024 Cannes Film Festival


Palme d’Or: Anora, Sean Baker

Grand Prix: “All We Imagine as Light”

Director: Miguel Gomes, “Grand Tour”

Actor: Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness.”

Best Actresses: Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana “Emilia Pérez”

Jury Prize: “Emilia Pérez”

Special Award (Prix Spécial): Mohammad Rasoulof, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”

OTHER PRIZES

Camera d’Or: “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel

Camera d’Or Special Mention: “Mongrel,” Chiang Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin

Short Film Palme d’Or: “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” Nebojša Slijepčević

Short Film Special Mention: “Bad for a Moment,” Daniel Soares

Golden Eye Documentary Prize: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” and “The Brink of Dreams”

Queer Palm: “Three Kilometers to the End of the World”

Palme Dog: Kodi, “Palm Dog”

FIPRESCI Award (Competition): “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof

FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard): “The Story of Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine

FIPRESCI Award (Parallel Sections): “Desert of Namibia,” Yoko Yamanaka

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Un Certain Regard Award: “Black Dog,” Guan Hu

Jury Prize: “The Story of Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine

Best Director Prize: (ex aequo) “The Damned,” Roberto Minervini; “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni

Performance Awards: “The Shameless,” Anasuya Sengupta; “The Story of Souleymane,” Abou Sangare

Youth Prize: “Holy Cow! (Vingt Dieux),” Louise Courvoisier

Special Mention: “Norah,” Tawfik Alzaidi

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

Europa Cinemas Label: “The Other Way Around,” Jonás Trueba

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “This Life of Mine,” Sophie Fillières

Audience Choice Award: “Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin

CRITICS’ WEEK

Grand Prize: “Simon of the Mountain,” Federico Luis

French Touch Prize: “Blue Sun Palace,” Constance Tsang

GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: Jour2Fête, “Julie Keeps Quiet”

Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Ricardo Teodoro, “Baby”

Leitz Cine Discovery Prize (short film): “Guil Sela,” Montsouris Park

Here’s The Trailer for Civil War!


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Alex Garland has got a new film coming out in April of 2024.  It’s entitled Civil War and it imagines a near future in which America slips into …. well, civil war.  There’s a lot of talented people in the cast, like Kirsten Dusnt and Jesse Plemons.

That said, the trailer dropped today and it almost feels like a parody of these type of films.  I almost laughed out loud when I heard the newscaster say “three-term president” because it just felt like such an awkward piece of exposition.

Anyway, I could be wrong and there are a lot of talented people involved with this film.  So, here’s the trailer:

Lisa Marie’s Oscar Predictions For August


Well, it’s that time of the month again!  Here are my Oscar predictions for August!

This month, the biggest development in the Oscar race was Dune Part Two being moved to a 2024 release.  With no end in sight for the SAG/AFTRA strike, it wouldn’t surprise me if more big productions — like The Color Purple — ended up following Dune to 2024.  (One film that will not be moving back is Killers of the Flower Moon, as everyone knows that Martin Scorsese is the true star of that film.)  With so many films potentially moving back, this Oscar race could end up paralleling the 2020 race, in which a lot of movie that might otherwise not be nominated moved into the slots that would have otherwise been reserved for the big studio productions.  (Regardless of their individual strengths, both Nomadland and CODA owed a bit of their victory to the way COVID disrupted their Oscar races.)

Below are my predictions for August.  Be sure to also check out my predictions for March and April and May and June and July!!

Best Picture 

Air

Barbie

The Color Purple

Ferrari

The Holdovers

The Killer

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

The Zone of Interest

Best Director

Greta Gerwig for Barbie

Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest

Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

Alexander Payne for The Holdovers

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper in Maestro

Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon

Colman Domingo in Rustin

Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer

Best Actress

Helen Mirren in Golda

Carey Mulligan in Maestro

Natalie Portman in May December

Margot Robbie in Barbie

Kate Winslet in Lee

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon in Oppenheimer

Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon

Robert Downey, Jr. in Oppenheimer

Ryan Gosling in Barbie

Jesse Plemons in Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer

Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

Taraji P. Henson in The Color Purple

Julianne Moore in May December

Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers

Can You Find The Wolves In This Picture? Here’s The Trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon!


There’s been a lot of controversy about the length of Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film, Killers of the Flower Moon, with many of the same people who regularly praise 150-minute comic book films complaining that Scorsese shouldn’t be allowed to devote over 3 hours and 26 minutes to telling the story of the Osage murders.  You can probably already guess from my tone that I have no problem with the idea of watching a 206-minute Martin Scorsese film.

The trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon was released earlier today.  (The film itself will be premiering at Cannes in just a few more days.)  The trailer looks great, with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio appearing to be in fine form.  (Reportedly, the film’s hero is played by Jesse Plemons but he’s barely glimpsed in the trailer.  It makes sense, of course.  For a lot of people, one of the main attractions of Killers of the Flower Moon will be a chance to see Scorsese’s two regular leading men, DiCaprio and De Niro in the same film.  Yes, I know about This Boy’s Life but come on, that was Michael Caton-Jones.  This is Scorsese!)  Can you find the wolves in this picture?

Lisa Marie’s Way Too Early Oscar Predictions For April


Here are my Oscar predictions for April!  As always, when it’s this early in the year, I recommend taking all of these with a grain of salt.  At this point, the only thing that anyone knows for sure is that it’s safe to remove Jonathan Majors and Magazine Dreams from any list of predictions.

Check out my predictions for March by clicking here!

Best Picture

The Actor

Barbie

The Color Purple

Dumb Money

Dune: Part Two

Flint Strong

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Oppenheimer

Rustin

Best Director

Blitz Bazawule for The Color Purple

Rachel Morrison for Flint Strong

Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

Alexander Payne for The Holdovers

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper in Maestro

Colman Domingo in Rustin

Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers

Andre Holland in The Actor

Anthony Hopkins in Freud’s Last Session

Best Actress

Fantasia Barrino in The Color Purple

Emily Blunt in Pain Brokers

Greta Lee in Past Lives

Margot Robbie in Barbie

Emma Stone in Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor

Willem DaFoe in Poor Things

Matt Damon in Oppenheimer

Brian Tyree Henry in Flint Strong

Samuel L. Jackson in The Piano Lesson

Jesse Plemons in Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis in Air

Jodie Foster in Nyad

Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

Taraji P. Henson in The Color Purple

Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers

Lisa Marie’s Way Too Early Oscar Predictions For March


Now that the 2022 Oscars are over with, it’s time to move on to the 2023 Oscars!

Needless to say, there’s probably nothing more pointless than trying to guess which films are going to be nominated a year from now.  I can’t even guarantee that all of the films listed below are even going to be released this year.  And, even if they are released this year, I can’t guarantee that they’ll actually be any good or that the Academy will show any interest in them.  I mean, Martin Scorsese always seems like a safe bet but we all remember what happened with Silence.  For months, everyone said Silence would be the Oscar front runner.  Then it was released to respectful but not ecstatic reviews.  Audiences stayed away.  The film ended up with one technical nomination.

My point is that no one knows anything.  As much as I hate quoting William Goldman (because, seriously, quoting Goldman on a film site is such a cliché at this point), Goldman was right.

So, you may be asking, how did I come up with the nominees below?  For the most part, I guessed.  A few of them I went with because of the people who made the film.  Though shooting has wrapped, Ferrari might not even be released this year but it’s a Michael Mann film that stars Adam Driver so, for now, I have to include it.  Of course, I had to include Scorsese and Killers of the Flower Moon.  Asteroid City is there because the Academy embraced Wes Anderson once and it could always happen again.  Fair Play and Magazine Dreams‘s Jonathan Majors are listed because the Sundance Film Festival is still a recent memory.  Maestro is there because the Academy seems like to Bradley Cooper.  Dune Part Two and Oppenheimer are there because Film Twitter is convinced that they will be.

In other words, there’s no real science to these predictions.  It’s too early in the year to do anything but guess.  And for now, these are my guesses.  A year from now, they’ll be good for either bragging rights or a laugh.  Hopefully, they’ll be good for both.

Best Picture

Asteroid City

The Color Purple

Dune Part Two

Fair Play

Ferrari

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Rustin

Best Director

Chloe Domont for Fair Play

Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

Alexander Payne for The Holdovers

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Denis Villeneuve for Dune Part Two

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper in Maestro

Colman Domingo in Rustin

Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers

Jonathan Majors in Magazine Dreams

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer

Best Actress

Emily Blunt in Pain Hustlers

Carey Mulligan in Maestro

Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers

Julia Roberts in Leave the World Behind

Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali in Leave The World Behind

Willem DaFoe in Poor Things

Matt Damon in Oppenheimer

Ethan Hawke in Strange Way Of Life

Jesse Plemons in Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer

Tantoo Cardinal in Killers of the Flower Moon

Taraji P. Henson in The Color Purple

Florence Pugh in Oppenheimer

Tilda Swinton in Asteroid City

6 Actors Who I Hope Will Win An Oscar In The Next Ten Years


We talk a lot about which performers and directors have been snubbed at Oscar time.

For movie lovers, that’s an important subject. We all know that great actors like Peter O’Toole, Cary Grant, Albert Finney, and far too many others all went to their graves with several nominations but not a single competitive Oscar to their name. Just a few years ago, Kirk Douglas died at the age of 103 without having ever won a competitive Oscar.  We always talk about how certain actors are overdue for their first Oscar but sometimes we forget that being overdue doesn’t always translate into an eventual win. Sometimes, it translates into people watching a movie on TCM and saying, “How did that person never win an Oscar in their lifetime?”

With that in mind, here are 6 actors who I sincerely hope will have won their first Oscar by the time that 2033 rolls around:

  1. Caleb Landry Jones

Caleb Landry Jones is one of the masters of playing the type of eccentric characters who can be both dangerous and yet oddly sympathetic.  (One always get the feeling that Jonses’s characters are haunted by demons that they simply cannot control.)  He’s like a Texas-version of Ben Foster.  This year, he deserved a nomination for his devastating work in Nitram.  Hopefully, he’ll get that first nomination and his first Oscar in the years to come.

2. Steve Carell

Steve Carell was nominated for Best Actor for playing against type in Foxcatcher.  I’m always a little bit surprised to be reminded that Foxcatcher is, to date, Carell’s only Oscar nomination.  Part of the problem for Carell is that he’s so well-known for being a comedic actor that it’s easy to forget that he can handle dramatic roles as well.  (The Academy still has a bias against comedy.)  Another part of the problem is that some of Carell’s best performances have been in films that were otherwise underwhelming, like Beautiful Boy.  Here’s hoping that Carell finally finds the right role and the Academy takes notice.  By most accounts, he is one of the nicest guys in the business and I’m sure his acceptance speech would bring us all to tears.

3. Jesse Plemons

The heir to Philip Seymour Hoffman received his first Oscar nomination for The Power of the Dog.  He didn’t win but at least the Academy acknowledged that Plemons is one of the best character actors around.  This year, he has a starring role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.  Though most of the early publicity has focused on Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, it’s said that Plemons is actually the film’s main character so it will be interesting to see if the Academy again takes notice.

4. Matt Damon

Matt Damon actually does have an Oscar, for co-writing Good Will Hunting.  Still, it seems odd that Damon has yet to pick up an Oscar for acting.  It seems even stranger that he’s only been nominated three times, for Good Will Hunting, Invictus, and The Martian.  (I will still always be amazed that Damon wasn’t even nominated for Steven Soderbergh’s last truly good film, The Informant.)   There’s strong buzz around Air, though the film’s April release might mean that it’ll be out of the awards conversation by the time the precursor season starts in December.

5. Paul Dano

Paul Dano’s another really good actor who has somehow never been nominated, not even for The Fabelmans!  That said, it’s hard not to believe that Dano will be honored more sooner than later.

6. Brendan Gleeson

Gleeson actually could be an Oscar winner by the end of tonight.  If not, I hope he gets another chance soon.  He’s one of the best character actors around and it’s somewhat amazing that his nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, while being very deserved, was also the first of his career.

Film Review: Windfall (dir by Charlie McDowell)


I really hate home invasion movies.

Seriously, it’s always the same thing.  Some mysterious stranger breaks into an empty house and hangs out for a few days, trying on clothes and smoking cigars and drinking whatever’s available in the refrigerator.  Eventually, the couple who own the house comes home.  They get held hostage.  The stranger wastes a lot of time trying to be intimidating.  The husband always tries too hard to take control of the situation.  The wife tries to keep everyone calm.  The stranger is poor.  The husband is rich.  The stranger and the wife form a connection.  Secrets are revealed.  Blah blah blah.

Don’t get me wrong.  There have been a few good home invasion movies.  There are some directors who can pull it off and make a film compelling despite telling an overly familiar story.  Ruggero Deodato brought some life to the genre, with a little help from David Hess and Giovanni Lombardo Radice, in The House At The Edge of the Park.  For the most part, though, the home invasion genre has led to some of the stagiest and most dramatically inert films ever made.

Consider Windfall, which premiered on Netflix earlier this month.  Starring Jason Segel, Lily Collins, and Jesse Plemons, the film has a talented cast.  It’s directed by Charlie McDowell, who previously made a very intriguing  film called The One I Love.  Like Windfall, The One I Love was largely confined to one location but, unlike Windfall, McDowell still managed to use that location to craft an intelligent and compelling film that never felt stagey.  The house in which Windfall takes place is lovely to look at.  The film has many of the ingredients to be a success but it doesn’t have a particularly clever or even interesting script and, as such, it falls flat.

Segel, Collins, and Plemons play three characters who aren’t actually given names.  Segel plays the home invader, who is credited as being “Nobody.”  Plemons is the CEO, a billionaire who is responsible for putting people out of work and who makes his employee signs NDAs.  Collins in the Wife, who is secretly taking birth control pills.  Segel may be a criminal but he’s not a very good criminal, as becomes clear as he continually finds himself being manipulated by his hostages.  Plemons is selfish and never stop talking down to Segel, even when the latter is pointing a gun at him.  Collins claims that she works very hard at running a charity that her husband set up but it’s obvious that she and and her husband have a strained relationship, even before Segel shows up.  There’s a few heavy-handed attempts at social relevance, with Segel and Plemons debating whether or not Plemons deserves to be a billionaire.  The film ends with a twist that Godard or Bunuel could have pulled off but here, it just falls flat.  The action is just too predictable and dramatically inert for Windfall to be anything more than a movie about three talented performers acting up a storm while trying to bring three boring characters to life.

Windfall is a very much a film of its time, both in its focus on inequality and it’s minimalist style.  Like Malcolm and Marie, it’s the type of one-location, small crew film production that was popular at the height of the COVID pandemic and the CEO and his wife heading to their vacation home to hide out from the world will undoubtedly remind some viewers of the wealthy people who were able to isolate themselves during the early part of the pandemic.  So, the film has some historical value if not much dramatic value.  In the end, Windfall serves as a reminder that, when combined with Malcolm and Marie, Netflix has pretty much cornered the market on pretentious, one-location films.

Here Are the 2021 Nominations of the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics!


The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics have announced their nominees for the best of 2021!  The winners will be announced tomorrow so that means you have exactly one day to see all the nominees.  GET TO IT!

Best Film
Belfast
The Green Knight
The Power of the Dog
tick, tick…BOOM!
West Side Story

Best Director
Kenneth Branagh – Belfast
Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
David Lowery – The Green Knight
Steven Spielberg – West Side Story
Denis Villeneuve – Dune

Best Actor
Nicolas Cage – Pig
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield – tick, tick…BOOM!
Will Smith – King Richard
Denzel Washington – The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actress
Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter
Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardos
Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
Kristen Stewart – Spencer
Tessa Thompson – Passing

Best Supporting Actor
Jamie Dornan – Belfast
Ciarán Hinds – Belfast
Troy Kotsur – CODA
Jesse Plemons – The Power of the Dog
Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

Best Supporting Actress
Caitríona Balfe – Belfast
Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
Ann Dowd – Mass
Kirsten Dunst – The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard

Best Acting Ensemble
Belfast
The French Dispatch
The Harder They Fall
Mass
The Power of the Dog

Best Youth Performance
Jude Hill – Belfast
Emilia Jones – CODA
Woody Norman – C’mon, C’mon
Saniyya Sidney – King Richard
Rachel Zegler – West Side Story

Best Voice Performance
Awkwafina – Raya and the Last Dragon
Stephanie Beatriz – Encanto
Abbi Jacobson – The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Kelly Marie Tran – Raya and the Last Dragon
Jacob Tremblay – Luca

Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Branagh – Belfast
Mike Mills – C’mon, C’mon
Zach Baylin – King Richard
Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
Fran Kranz – Mass

Best Adapted Screenplay
Siân Heder – CODA
Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth – Dune
Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
Steven Levenson – tick, tick…BOOM!
Tony Kushner – West Side Story

Best Animated Feature
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Documentary
The First Wave
Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Val

Best International/Foreign Language Film
Drive My Car
A Hero
Lamb
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

Best Production Design
Jim Clay, Production Designer; Claire Nia Richards, Set Decorator – Belfast
Patrice Vermette, Production Designer; Richard Roberts and Zsuzsanna Sipos, Set Decorators – Dune
Adam Stockhausen, Production Designer; Rena DeAngelo, Set Decorator – The French Dispatch
Tamara Deverell, Production Designer; Shane Vieau, Set Decorator – Nightmare Alley
Adam Stockhausen, Production Designer; Rena DeAngelo, Set Decorator – West Side Story

Best Cinematography
Haris Zambarloukos – Belfast
Greig Fraser – Dune
Andrew Droz Palermo – The Green Knight
Ari Wegner – The Power of the Dog
Bruno Delbonnel – The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Editing
Úna Ní Dhonghaíle – Belfast
Joe Walker – Dune
Andrew Weisblum – The French Dispatch
Peter Sciberras – The Power of the Dog
Myron Kerstein & Andrew Weisblum – tick, tick…BOOM!

Best Original Score
Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner – Cyrano
Hans Zimmer – Dune
Alexandre Desplat – The French Dispatch
Jonny Greenwood – The Power of the Dog
Jonny Greenwood – Spencer

Lisa Marie’s Oscar Predictions for August


It’s time for me to do my monthly Oscar predictions.  Again, as I’ve said in the past, the majority of these predictions are based on a combination of instinct and wishful thinking.  However, the picture may become a bit clearer as early as the end of this week.  With the Venice and Telluride film festivals right around the corner and Toronto also swift approaching, critics are finally going to get a chance to see some of the contenders and, as the early reviews come in, it should be easier to pick the probable nominees from the also-rans.

Personally, I will curious to see how people react to Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.  Among the other possibilities that we’ll be hearing about: Spencer, King Richard, Dune, The Lost Daughter, The Last Duel, and Belfast.

If you’re curious to see how my thinking has developed, check out my predictions for March and April and May and June and July!

Best Picture

Belfast

Blue Bayou

CODA

House of Gucci

A Journal For Jordan

Mass

The Power of the Dog

Soggy Bottom

The Tragedy of MacBeth

West Side Story

 

Best Director

Pedro Almodovar for Parallel Mothers

Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog

Joel Coen for The Tragedy of MacBeth

Ridley Scott for House of Gucci

Denzel Washington for A Journal For Jordan

 

Best Actor

Clifton Collins, Jr. in Jockey

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog

Udo Kier in Swan Song

Will Smith in King Richard

Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth

 

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Penelope Cruz in Parallel Mothers

Jennifer Hudson in Respect

Lady Gaga in House of Gucci

Kristen Stewart in Spencer

 

Best Supporting Actor

David Alvarez in West Side Story

Bradley Cooper in Soggy Bottom

Andrew Garfield in The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Jason Isaacs in Mass

Jesse Plemons in The Power of the Dog

 

Best Supporting Actress

Ann Dowd in Mass

Kirsten Dunst in Power of the Dog

Marlee Matlin in CODA

Ruth Negga in Passing

Alicia Vikander in Blue Bayou