NYFF: Kelly Reichardt's "First Cow"

Jason Adams reporting from the NYFF which opens tomorrow

First Cow is the sort of blunt title that you immediately have a bit of a chuckle with when you picture somebody speaking it at the theater's box office -- "Two tickets for First Cow, please!" (I'd love for somebody to program a double feature with Her Smell just for such whimsy. "I came for First Cow but I stayed for Her Smell.") It's just this sort of bluntness that sticks and that director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy & Lucy, Certain Women) lovingly specializes in. A first cow is what we are promised and a first cow is what we get, dagnabit.

Reichardt is nothing if not a documentarian of practicality and face value -- as in both that she sees the value in staring at faces, and in that things being what they seem to be is never boring to her. Her camera is always fascinated by ordinary people doing ordinary things, and under her eye the ordinary magnifies, finding itself extraordinary...

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15:17 to Link

• IndieWire Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth starring Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche, and Catherine Deneuve to open the Venice Film Festival
• The Guardian on the rise of millenial filmmakers -- they're just beginning
• /Film a rare straight-to-series order for a new sitcom from the 30 Rock team - Ted Danson & Tina Fey will star
• Variety why audiences are only going to Disney movies
• /Film the new Mortal Kombat movie will be going for a violent "R" rating
• The Guardian terrific actress Billie Piper is now a director, too. Her first film Rare Beasts is going to Venice. She calls it an anti-rom-com

• Coming Soon Dark Crystal Age of Resistance gets a sneak peek via ComicCon
• Film School Rejects offers up a handy list of forthcoming action films that are directed by women
• BuzzFeed "Euphoria" and the meaning of penises onscreen via the only context in which we're ever shown them. 
• AV Club Archer renewed for an 11th season - this time he'll be back to espionage?
• Deadline Brandon Routh, who had the misfortune of being cast as Superman in a bad Superman movie (Superman Returns) gets to put the cape back on for the CW.
• Gr8ter Days TV's Hart to Hart celebrating its 40th anniversary
• Hard Times "James Corden prepared for 'Cats' role by living as obnoxious creature for decades"
• Gold Derby a nearly decade-long trend suggests a Billy Porter or Kit Harrington win for Best Actor
• Variety Two Emmy nominations revoked from Better Call Saul in the short form categories. We think they need much stricter rules about short form because it's starting to seem like a way to just give regular series extra prizes for bite-sized things (instead of honoring shows that are born and intended for the short form) 
• Refinery 29 a new interview with Madonna as she premieres another music video from Madame X "Batuka"

It Begins. Algeria submits "Papicha" for the Oscars

by Nathaniel R

We were waiting to see which European country would be first to announce before publishing our famous Oscar submission pages. But an African country surprised us by being first up to bat. Word is in that Algeria will submit Papicha as their Oscar entry this year.

Papicha centers on a teenager (her nickname being the title) who dreams of being a fashion designer despite conservative bans. The film, a debut from the 41 year-old director Mounia Meddour, premiered at Cannes. No word yet on US distribution. This is the second consecutive submission from Algeria by a female director. Only two previous women have been submitted by Algeria: Yamina Bachir (Rachida, 2002) and later her daughter Yasmine Chouikh (Until the End of Time, 2018) 

Papicha's trailer, and more on Algeria, Africa, and the Oscar race after the jump...

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Halfway Mark Box Office (Part 2: Of Special Interest)

As part of our midway through the year report (previously: top fives from the team , favourite male performances , and mainstream box office hits) here's a look at the box office year thus far but getting very niche with queer cinema, documentaries, movies with rave reviews, and other specialty interests. We all know that superhero movies earn a lot of money at the box office so it's more fun to dig deeper. Figures here are actuals as of Sunday June 30th for films released in the first six months of the year. We'd love to know what you make of the following lists so don't be shy in the comments, please.

BOX OFFICE IN EIGHT NICHE CATEGORIES
🔺= the movie is still in a decent number of cinemas so its numbers will go up.

TOP GROSSING FILMS THAT NEVER WENT INTO WIDE RELEASE

The Mustang

01 No Manches Frida 2 (Pantelion) $9.2 March 15th (472 theaters at widest)
02 Apollo 11 (Neon) $8.9 March 1st (588 theaters at widest)
03 The Wandering Earth (CMC) $5.8 Feb 5th (129 theaters at widest)
04 Gully Boy (Viva Pictures) $5.5 Feb 14th (270 theaters at widest)
05 The Mustang (Focus) $5 March 15th (527 theaters at widest)
06 Amazing Grace (Neon) $4.4 April 5th (263 theaters at widest)...

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Welcome to the Academy, 2019 Newbies!

Today it was announced that AMPAS (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) has invited 842 new members to join them, further swelling the Oscar ranks. The Academy has recently entered a period of unprecendented growth as they continue to address gender parity and racial inclusivity within their ranks. For the first time that we recall they actually did achieve gender parity in regards to their new invites - exactly 50% of the new members are women and 29% of the invitees this year are people of color.  Most impressively given the dire previous numbers the directors branch invited more women than men this year! THE DIRECTORS. Think about what a major step that is. 

A full* list of new members follows and we threw some hearts up by people for which we went spontaneously aflutter though this is not to imply that the others don't deserve our love. It's a lot of names so it's easy to get overwhelmed...

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