AFI World Premiere: Halle Berry's "Bruised"

by Eurocheese

Bruised gives us Halle Berry behind and in front of the camera, telling the story of a former MMA fighter who has been down on her luck for some time. When her life is complicated by the return of her son, she is forced to get her priorities in order and address the demons of her past. Berry spoke about revamping the script – originally written with a young white protagonist in mind – to reflect her own vision with the writer’s assistance, and it’s clear this was a passion project for her.

Does that passion translate to the screen? Yes, but this can be both a curse and a blessing...

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Ranking Jane Campion

by Cláudio Alves

The upcoming release of The Power of the Dog is a joyous moment for all cinephiles everywhere. Finally, after twelve long years, Jane Campion is back with a new feature that won her the Best Director prize at Venice earlier this year and might lead her to more Oscar nominations, maybe victories. Personally speaking, I'm on cloud nine right now, seeing as Campion is my favorite living filmmaker. Having watched every one of her features and most shorts, I've fallen in love with her cinema of extreme materiality and negative capability, her portraits painted with unsaid words and aborted gestures, silences, and voids.

 Such is my love that, to celebrate the incoming release of The Power of the Dog, I've decided to rank Jane Campion's nine features. It's a veritable cornucopia of cinematic excellence…

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Through Her Lens: An Introduction

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

Will any female directors be nominated this year at the Oscars? It's too early to say but sexism has been a long-standing problem in the history of cinema and the Oscars -- that's often reflected in who is invited to enter the canon and who is not. Year after year, films directed by women have been routinely ignored. Seeing five men in Best Director lineups during awards season has long been a given. Only seven women have been nominated for Best Director. Ever. Last season, though, featured what we hope will prove a turning point.

In this series, we will share an alternate list of five films directed by women per Oscar vintage, based on what was eligible. This is not to say that the films we'll cite will always be better than the ones nominated. Take this list more as a reminder that the work by women has always existed. That should be reason enough for celebration. This is Through Her Lens...

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Portugal chooses "The Metamorphosis of Birds" for Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

When reading the list of films shortlisted for the Portuguese Oscar submission, I confess I was a tad disheartened. Only two of the six films had even been released when the finalists were announced, and I only had watched one of them. The other happens to be a project that reeks of exploitation, which I wasn't enthusiastic about promoting. At least, the film I did see, Catarina Vasconcelos' The Metamorphosis of Birds, was one I loved, going so far as voting for it as one of the best unreleased films on last year's Team Experience Awards. As luck would have it, the voting body responsible for the submission fell for it too…

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New International Contenders: "The Hand of God" and an extremely hot Instagram star

by Nathaniel R

Time to check in again with Oscar submissions as five more countries join the fray. The highest profile new entry is Italy's The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino. He triumphed in this category eight years back with The Great Beauty (2013) which ended the longest drought -- seven years -- that Italy has ever had in this particular competition. If The Hand of God snags the nomination, Sorrentino will have performed this feat twice since Italy hasn't been nominated since. Sorrentino joins Iran's Asghar Farhadi (A Hero) as the only International contender this season who has already led a film to victory in this category.  The Hand of God is a memoir about Sorrentino's teenage years and a family tragedy. He's been campaigning enthusiastically since Cannes, recently attending the Middleburg Film Festival to receive an International Spotlight prize.

Other new contenders are after the jump...

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