Jess ♥︎ Isabelle, Part 37

Ginger lovers unite! Vive Cannes indeed. More photos at THR and delicious quotes like this one from Jessica on her first trip to Cannes:

When Tree of Life went to Cannes, all the interviewers were asking me about my favorite actors and actresses because I was new to the industry, and they wanted to get to know me. I was always gushing about this little, unknown actress Isabelle Huppert. (Laughs). Everyone kept saying, "She's here." And so they were trying to get an introduction. We had dinner in Paris. And when I said to her: "Oh, I love you. You're my favorite actress," she goes, "I know." (Laughs.) Because that's how much I was talking about it.

Cannes Jury: Almodóvar, Chastain, Fan Bingbing, and more...

The complete jury for the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival has been announced. As previously noted, Pedro Almodóvar will preside over the jury. To celebrate, The Film Experience will have "Almodóvar Week" from May 9th through the 15th so catch up with a few of his movies you've always wanted to see. We are currently planning to hit the following pictures in some capacity: Pepi Luci Bom, Dark Habits, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, All About My Mother, Volver, All About My Mother, and The Skin I Live In... though there might be alterations in that schedule or additions. 

But, yes, the Cannes jury. They are...

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Best Actress - April Foolish Oscar Predix

We always save the best category for last.

The April Foolish Oscar predictions are officially complete with the BEST ACTRESS chart which has just gone up. So many talent women. So much luscious actressing to come. We cannot wait to see these performances, wherever they happen to fall on the chart. Predictions are for fun and do not indicate who we're rooting for ever -- we try not to root for anything without actually seeing the films because "may the best performance win!" and we don't know what that will be yet, now do we? This year the April Foolish crystal ball says "all previous nominees" but that's largely because it does not appear to be a year where many women who aren't previous nominees have managed to land leading roles. But we shall see. 

Answer me these questions three:

1. Which actress's double feature are you most excited to see? The busy choices are: Jessica Chastain (A Woman Walks Ahead, Molly's Game), Kate Winslet (Wonder Wheel, The Mountain Between Us), Sally Hawkins (Maudie, The Shape of Water), and Charlize Theron (Tully, Atomic Blonde). Let's leave the very busy Nicole Kidman out of this survey since the size of her roles aren't totally obvious this year.

2. Do you think Annette Bening has momentum due to that near-miss last season (those sometimes build goodwill) or do you think 20th Century Women is irrelevant to this year's prediction equation?

3. Which performance are you convinced will be great sight unseen? ...and vice versa if you're feeling irritable today.

ICYMI 
Past articles on this new Oscar race
Last year's Oscars, the full index

Instagram Battles: Juliette with needles, Jess with Playbill, Gwynnie with "farmgarita"

Would you rather...

...hit a Broadway show with Jessica Chastain?
...have a photo op with the women of Big Little Lies?
...double fist with Armie Hammer?  
...get acupuncture with Juliette Lewis?  
...drink a farmgarita with Gwyneth Paltrow? 
...share a tongue bath and head massage with Luke Evans? 

Pictures after the jump to help you decide. 

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Review: The Zookeeper's Wife

A portion of this review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

Jessica Chastain stars as Antonina Zabinski, The Zookeeper's Wife, a true story based on the international bestseller of the same title. The Zabinski family run a lovingly crafted zoo in Warsaw but political unrest unnerves Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) enough to attempt to send his wife and child away. Antonia, naive and endearingly devoted to her animals, won't have it. Then German bombs hit their attraction, killing many animals. Poland surrenders to Germany quickly. Much to the Zabinski’s horror they learn that their surviving animals will all be killed for meat to feed soldiers unless they can strike a deal with fellow zookeeper and now Nazi officer (Daniel Brühl, Hollywood’s go-to Germanic villain who isn’t named Christoph Waltz). 

While working on this deal with the devil, Antonina and her husband begin a dangerous game, hiding Jews in their now empty zoo until they can figure out a way to get them out of Poland to (relative) safety in a world gone mad...

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