European Film Awards honor Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, and The Favourite

True giants of cinema gathered in Berlin today for the annual European Film Awards. It was honestly a bit overwhelming to see Wim Wenders, Juliette Binoche, Claire Denis, and Pedro Almodóvar all sitting side by side in the front row. How to even imagine the cinema without them? 

In a surreal sort of way, what was happening on stage was even more overwhelming... but for its inexplicable surreality (more on that in a bit) and its time travelling nature.Regarding the latter due to the indifferent nature of release dates across borders the overall champ was The Favourite which had its American awards run a full year ago. 

The winners and more commentary follows.

Costuming goddess Sandy Powell and the producers of The Favourite

FILM The Favourite
COMEDY The Favourite...

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"Pain and Glory" leads the European Film Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The European Film Awards will be held in Berlin in just one month (December 7th) and big names are nominated: Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Roman Polanski, and more. But the question is who will actually attend and who will win? The Oscar submitted titles from Spain (Pain and Glory) and Italy (The Traitor) lead the nominations along with Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy from France. Almodóvar is of course an old favourite of the EFAs. With the Pain & Glory nominations he's now up to 22 EFA nominations (he's won 6 times plus received a special honor). His movies have won the top prize twice (All About My Mother and Talk To Her) while Volver won an "audience" version of Best Film, too. 

A full list of nominations with more comments is after the jump...

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French finalists on fire...

by Nathaniel R

Last year's international film Oscar race was one of its all-time most popular years with all of the pictures turning into arthouse hits (that never happens. Usually one is a flop). 2019's competition might be just as exciting. If countries choose well and the Academy follows suit, that is. Spain's Pain & Glory and South Korea's Parasite are the two highest profile international films in the race (both opening in early October in the US) and are likely to be successful in theaters, the former due to the consistent sales of Almodóvar imports and the latter due to its buzz and accessibility as entertainment. The third most high profile contender MIGHT be Portrait of a Lady on Fire from France. But France has yet to choose a film. UPDATE 9/20/19: THEY HAVE CHOSEN "LES MISERABLES"

They have however narrowed it down to three...

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TIFF Jury of One - Chris Feil

Chris here, giving my own quick rundown of TIFF! Overall, I was able to see 33 films in total, including some under-the-radar thrills and more Midnight Madness films than ever before. As ever, closing out the festival is always quite bittersweet - but I'll have a little pick me up sharing what I loved most (and a few misses). Climb in my fur, and recap TIFF with me...

Best Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Director: Marielle Heller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

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TIFF Jury of One - Nathaniel R

by Nathaniel R

We've given TIFF two days to settle and it's time to pass out awards (they're invisible but real to us) as we are prone to do and because we must move on --though we have two reviews in progress so they'll pop up soon and we'll be sure to return to some of these films soon as they emerge in movie theaters. Herewith personal favourite things from the 29 films devoured at TIFF. I got sick during the last few days so as medicinal comfort I'm allowing myself ties (gasp!) and lots and lots of categories. Ready? Here we go.

Best Film: Parasite (second runner up for the People's Choice prize)
Best Director: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
 

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