'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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FYC: Claire Mathon for Best Cinematography

by Cláudio Alves

Two years ago, Rachel Morrison made history when she became the first woman to be nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. By no means does that imply Mudbound's wondrous DP is a pioneer. There are many awards-worthy female DPs working in cinema, past and present, and the Academy's sketchy record should be understood as nothing more than the industry's  internalized sexism and biases. Where were the nominations for Maryse Alberti, Agnès Godard, and Ellen Kuras, among others?

This year, critics have been united in their praise of a particular DP whose double dose of photographic genius could make History, just as Morrison did in 2018. However, Claire Mathon is fighting against even more of the Academy's treacherous biases, including their disinterest in African cinema, LGBTQ stories, and non-English speaking narratives…

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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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"The Irishman" leads the nominations from the Online Film Critics Society

The OFCS was founded back in 1997 just as film criticism was exploding on the web but still disrespected by old media. Since their founding 22 years ago there is less reason for their existence (all critics are primarily "online film critics" these days) but we've always liked them because the taste level is consistent. Let's start with their nominees and move on to other winners from other associations, at home and abroad.

OFCS
(Online Film Critics Society)

Best Picture

• 1917 
• The Irishman 
• Jojo Rabbit 
• Knives Out 
• Marriage Story 
• Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood
• Parasite
• Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
• Uncut Gems 
• Us

Best Animated Feature...

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French Cinema and the Oscars: A Love Story

by Cláudio Alves

France is the most-nominated country in the History of the Best International Feature Oscar, having conquered 39 nods over the decades. They'll probably up that number soon with Ladj Ly's Les Misérables. The likeliness of a nomination doesn't mean the selection of the country's Oscar submission was without controversy. Many a cinephile thinks Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire was more deserving. Without the benefit of being in the race for that particular trophy, the much-lauded period lesbian romance is likely to receive no Oscar love, even though it's eligible for most other categories

While it's rare for French films to be recognized outside the Best International Feature race, it's not unheard of. Since the beginning of the Academy Awards, 53 films have done so. That's not including documentaries or short films (or the number would be yet more inflated) . The Oscars may be very local in their tastes, but they've always shown a bit of Francophilia…

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