Cannes' Oscar Impact

by Murtada Elfadl 

The Cannes Film festival is not usually a bellwether for Oscars. That happens with the trifecta of late August / early September of Venice, Telluride and Toronto. However this year several movies that premiered in the main competition and in adjacent sections have been nominated for Oscars. Two of them  - Parasite and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - scored multiple nominations and are expected to win a few and are considered favorites for the big prize, Best Picture... 

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The prizes literally never stop... NSFC, GLAAD, NAACP and more

As per usual we've fallen a bit behind in the awardage department so we're doing a massive post right now to catch up. Here are the latest critics groups to announce their awards as well as nominations from two civil rights organizations, GLAAD and the NAACP...

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'Parasite' Sweeps Dorian Awards with Five Wins

by Murtada Elfadl

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite dominated the winners list at the Dorian awards. The season’s front runner managed five wins, including Film of the Year, Director and Screenplay. Renée Zellweger took Performance of the Year—Actress for Judy, with Antonio Banderas the top choice in the Actor race in Pain and Glory. Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) and Song Kang-ho (Parasite) won the Supporting awards. The Dorian Awards are handed out by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, comprised of 260 mainly U.S. journalists covering film and television. Among the group’s unique and LGBTQ focused categories, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was named LGBTQ Film of the Year, while Cats was, of course, the choice for Campy Flick of the Year...

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Dorian Awards love 'Pain and Glory,' 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' and 'Parasite'

by Murtada Elfadl

GALECA, The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced their nominations for film and TV today. The Dorian Awards - named in honor of noted queer writer Oscar Wilde - showed the most love to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite and Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with six nominations each, followed closely by Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory with five nominations. Three movies not in English, two of them from Queer filmmakers, and all three of them were nominated for best director!

Other notable nominations include Alfre Woodard in best actress for Clemency, she'll compete with Awkafina (The Farewell) Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story), Lupita Nyong’o, (Us) and of course Renee Zellweger in Judy. Here’s the full list...

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100 Most Popular Foreign-Language Films of 2019

Our year in review party . A different list each day! Here's Nathaniel R...

With Parasite sucking up so much awards oxygen, it's easy to let the good news slip by that it was hardly the only great film out there that played with subtitles. Pedro Almodóvar and Zhang Yimou's return to triumphant form (and box office success) with Pain & Glory and Shadow, respectively, were just two of many other goodies that delighted cinephiles and critics at movie theaters and festivals this year. 

Yes, it's time for our annual look back at international non-English language fare in cinemas. [For comparisons sake here are the lists from 2018, 2017 and 2016] For the purposes of the following list we skipped documentaries and animated films to keep the list more focused (and avoid arguments about dubbed versions or whatnot). Please note: This list does not include Portrait of a Lady on Fire since it's not getting a proper release until 2020. It made a very strong $118k in its Qualifying Week before getting pulled.

TOP 100 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS OF 2019
Domestic Box Office Grosses Only - Figures as of March 12th, 2020
🔺= still in theaters | ★ = TFE recommends

01 ★🔺 Parasite (Neon, South Korea, October 11th) $53.1
Bong Joon-ho's Palme D'Or winner took American arthouse theaters by storm and expanded beautifully through word of mouth and aggressive smart publicity from Neon, making it the biggest foreign hit in the States since Hero (2002/2004)...

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