Through Her Lens: 2013 (The 86th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Introduction / Explanation

Steve McQueen became the first Black director to helm a Best Picture winner for 12 Years a Slave (2013), telling the harrowing story of African-American freeman Solomon Northup who was kidnapped in 1841 and was sold to slavery. McQueen also became the first Black producer to receive a Best Picture award. Meanwhile, the film’s biggest competition was Gravity, a science fiction-thriller film set in space. Winning seven Oscars, the film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, becoming the first Latin American to win the Best Director Oscar.

While having these two films as frontrunners is a win for representation at the Oscars,  female directors were still left out of the conversation for majority of the awards season.  Out of the 289 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2013 (86th Academy Awards), only 32* (11.1%) were directed/co-directed by women...

Click to read more ...

In Defense of "The Bling Ring"

by Matt St Clair

After first making her mark as a director with her one-two punch of The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and became the third woman in history to be a Best Director nominee, Sofia Coppola’s work has been met with rather mixed reception. Thankfully, the response to her latest feature On the Rocks, which premiered at NYFF, has leaned positive. But this post is dedicated to what is a rather misunderstood masterpiece from the auteur and that is 2013’s The Bling Ring. A fictionalized account of a series of real-life burglaries, The Bling Ring  unexpectedly served as a prelude to our recent renaissance of “eat the rich” pictures...

Click to read more ...

"No, that's mine. Mine!"

...green doesn't look good on you. You know it doesn't look good on you"

Sofia Coppola's Filmography Thus Far

By Spencer Coile 

Sofia Coppola's films belong inside a dream. Her unique blend of warm (yet vibrant) colors, stunning cinematography, and complicated characters, were on display from her debut feature onward. Although many cite Lost in Translation as her magnum opus, to ignore the rest of her stellar filmography would be a disservice to one of the most eloquent contemporary filmmakers. 

Since The Beguiled opens wide next week (it's now playing in LA and NYC) and with her historic Best Director victory at Cannes this year fresh in their mirror let's look at the filmography...

Click to read more ...

On This Day: The Bling Ring, Bambi, Prizzi's Honor...

Okay, let's get back on track with a robust daily blogging schedule here at TFE. Happy Wednesday y'all. Here are your 5 assignments for the day.

5 Ways to Honor This Day (June 14th) in History

2013 The Bling Ring opens in movie theaters. By and large people fail to recognize its brilliance immediately. This is the same thing that happens to almost every Sofia Coppola movie.

In its honor: Take all early reactions to The Beguiled, good bad or indifferent, with a huge grain of salt. It opens very soon but first impressions are not likely to last. Her movies are sticky.

1985 John Huston's penultimate movie Prizzi's Honor starring Jack Nicholson, Katheen Turner, and eventual Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, opens in theaters. It's not even the earliest release for a Best Picture nominee that year! Get this statistic...

Click to read more ...