Academy Awards
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Christian Petzold on Barbara
With Barbara, German auteur Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow) delivers one of 2012’s better character studies, a tense and sparing Cold War-era drama about a female doctor (Petzold muse Nina Hoss) who’s relegated to a hospital near the Baltic Sea after trying to leave the German Democratic Republic. It’s 1980, and the movie effortlessly conveys the period in all its stark unease. Honored at the 62nd Berlinale and serving as Germany’s official Foreign-Language entry for the 85th Academy Awards, Barbara sees its eponymous heroine grapple with the restraints of politics and her own fears in a manner as mysterious as it […]
by R. Kurt Osenlund on Dec 21, 2012 -
Baltasar Kormákur on The Deep
Since making his transition from actor to writer/director in 2000 with the raucous comedy 101 Reykjavik, Baltasar Kormákur has rapidly established himself as one of the most gifted and versatile European filmmakers. The Icelandic multi-hyphenate has moved with seeming ease from grand family dramas (The Sea) to gritty police procedurals (Jar City) and poignant comedies (White Night Wedding), while also turning out English-language indie thrillers such as 2005’s A Little Trip to Heaven (starring Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner) and the 2010’s Inhale, with Diane Kruger, Dermot Mulroney and Sam Shepard. Though Kormákur had arguably the biggest film of his career this year with Contraband – the Mark […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 18, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Bad Intentions Director Rosario Garcia-Montero
Cayetana de los Heros, the eight-year-old protagonist of The Bad Intentions, is precociously preoccupied with death. She idolizes her nation’s independence heroes, imagining the many exotic ways in which they have been executed for their valor. “Massacre, massacre,” she whispers into the ears of her sleeping cousin. Beautifully shot in steely gray and blue hues that look cold to the touch, The Bad Intentions moves away from the conventional pastel-hued whimsy often used to depict childhood. Death — the fear and the fact of it — quietly pervades the entire film. Cayetana’s divorced parents mean well but have too many […]
by Esther Yi on Dec 17, 2012 -
Made in Bolivia, Short-listed for the Oscars: The Story Behind Salar
We had just lost all of our locations in one fell swoop the day before, and I was walking along the train tracks that cut through the sun-baked adobe village of Chita, pretending to measure the light, but really just trying to re-convince myself that coming all the way to Bolivia to make a short film was a good idea. Since arriving, we had somehow eased our lenses through airport customs, protected our camera from torrential rain and endless sun, teamed up with a film school, and learned to love rice and potatoes with every meal. But that was before […]
by Nicholas Greene on Dec 14, 2012 -
Matt Damon, David O. Russell and Jeff Skoll to be Honored at Gothams
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today that Matt Damon, David O. Russell and Jeff Skoll will be presented with career tributes at the 22nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards™ on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street, in New York City. These honorees also represent some of the most highly anticipated films of 2012 including: Promised Land from Focus Features (co-starring and co-written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski and directed by Gus Van Sant, produced by Participant Media); and the upcoming Weinstein Co. release Silver Linings Playbook (directed by David O. Russell and featuring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence). “It is with pride and […]
by Billy Brennan on Oct 1, 2012 -
ACADEMY PICKS 15 DOCUMENTARY OSCAR FINALISTS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch Screening Committee has announced the 15 film shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar. The selections were culled from a list of 124 eligible titles. Some Filmmaker favorites, including films by 25 New Face Directors Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) and Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) are in the mix, as are Wim Wender’s Pina, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Battle for Brooklyn, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost 3. I was sad to see more experimental docs like Bombay […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2011 -
CLAUDIA LLOSA, “THE MILK OF SORROW”
For Claudia Llosa, director of the Berlinale-winning and Academy Award-nominated Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow, magical realism isn’t a literary genre or filmic device, it’s an element of national identity and consciousness. Her film, easily the most critically-lauded film to emerge from Peru, is set in the rough-hewn mountain settlements on the outskirts of Lima. It concerns a young Peruvian woman (the captivating Magaly Solier) who, having contracted a mysterious disease that is passed on via breast milk to the daughters of rape victims taken by soliders serving Peru’s deposed terrorist regime, sets out to bury her newly deceased […]
by Brandon Harris on Aug 25, 2010
