DGA Nominees: Chung, Fennell, Fincher, Sorkin, and Zhao

by Nathaniel R

The Director's Guild of America have announced their nominations for the 2020 film year. And it's a doozy. For the first time ever two women have been nominated in the top category. It's worth noting that the DGA has nominated more women for their top prize over the years than Oscar has but they've never nominated two simultaneously in their top category.  The nominees and some comments and awards season stats are after the jump...

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Minari: A tale of two (or more) grandmas

By Lynn Lee 

This is a story about grandmothers.

Having finally seen Minari, I’d originally intended to write about its place in the evolution of Asian American film over the last 20 years.  Or about Steven Yeun becoming the new face of Asian American masculinity in Hollywood.  But I couldn’t stop thinking about the Korean grandmother, Soon-ja, played by Youn Yuh-jung, because she reminded me so much of my own late grandmother.  Youn’s vibrant, hugely endearing performance—still Minari’s best shot at an Oscar acting nomination—and the cultural specificity of her character struck a chord of recognition that reverberated right to and through my core...

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Spirit Award Nods: "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" and "Minari" lead the nominations

Chauncy and Barry helping announce the Spirit nominationsby Nathaniel R

Nominations for the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards have been announced. Spirit winners Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) as well as actress Laverne Cox announced the nominations. 

BEST FEATURE

• First Cow (Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani)
  Received 3 nominations
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf)
  Received 5 nominations
• Minari (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh)
  Received 6 nominations
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski)
  Received 7 nominations
• Nomadland (Mollye Asher, Dan Janveey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloe Zhao)
  Received 5 nominations

A Full list of Film Independent Spirit nominees and commentary follow after the jump...

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Middleburg Highlights: "Minari" and 'Coffee & Contenders'

by Nathaniel R

I had the pleasure of serving once again on Middleburg Film Festival's Oscar-discussion panel this past Friday. Jazz Tangcay, Clayton Davis, and I chose the name "Coffee & Contenders" because when we launched  the event last year it was first thing in the morning in a cozy room designed specifically for group gatherings at the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg Virginia. You grabbed your complimentary coffee and pastries on the way in. This year we were completely virtual and on Zoom but the title was still literal. Coffees in hand we discussed the race.

The race is a mess of possibility without much clarity. It's not that there aren't contenders or reason to celebrate film (see Juan Carlos' recent rant). It's that we're in uncharted territory given the pandemic and suddenly virtual nature of movies and campaigning; Publicists and awards strategists have their work cut out for them! 

But let's talk about the winning film...

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