Cannes at Home: Days 7 & 8 – The Grand Tour of Europe

by Cláudio Alves

Victor Erice's "Close Your Eyes"

The last few days of the Cannes Film Festival have been a whirlwind. The titles premiering out of the main competition have given audiences reason to talk. Why on earth would Thierry Frémaux doom them to less prestigious sections? Victor Érice's grand return to feature filmmaking after a 30 years absence is the most glaring example. The director spoke out in an open letter about being blindsided by the programmer, having been persuaded to present Close Your Eyes at the Croisette under false pretenses. Less controversial is the announcement of a Fists in the Pocket English-language remake which will star Josh O'Connor, Kristen Stewart, and Elle Fanning. The director will be none other than Karim Aïnouz who is currently in competition against the original Fists in the Pocket director, Marco Bellocchio...

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Oscar Volley: Can anything dethrone 'Dune' in Best Production Design?

With just over a week until nominations are announced Cláudio Alves, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Nathaniel Rogers discuss the Best Production Design race…

DUNE is in it to win it.

CLÁUDIO: The Art Directors Guild of America recently announced their nominees, and I'm in love with the Period Feature lineup. The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and West Side Story offer such a varied approach to the matter of scenography, either swinging towards hyper-stylization or aiming for immersive historical accuracy. Honestly, I'd be OK if AMPAS just copied the guild's picks, though that's not likely to happen. Not with Dune in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it'd be a massive surprise if Patrice Vermette's conception of a dilapidated future doesn't end up winning it all. The scale of the achievement is undeniable, the sense of monumentality and balance between Villeneuve's sense of severe sci-fi and Frank Herbert's Baroque descriptions.

The question, then, is which of the period nominees will get the chop and if there are other outside contenders to consider. Examining the history of AMPAS' relationship to Paul Thomas Anderson's flicks, my guess is that Licorice Pizza is the most vulnerable. What do you think, Mark? 

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WGA Nominations -- But don't expect these lists when Oscar nominations are announced!

by Nathaniel R

The French Dispatch, a movie about writers is honored for its writing

The Writer Guild have announced their nominations for the 2021 film year. Unlike the DGA and the PGA, the WGA aren't abundantly prophetic when it comes to Oscar nominations since their rules are so different. But the nominees and some notes are after the jump...

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ADG Nominations - Good news and bad news for presumed Oscar Contenders

by Nathaniel R

Adam Stockhausen scored a double nomination at the ADG (French Dispatch and West Side Story)

The Art Directors Guild of America has released its nominations for the 2021 film (and television) year offering some surprise omissions (no Power of the Dog in period) and some delightful inclusions (In the Heights and The Green Knight for contemporary and fantasy respectively). The nominations for guild awards (any kind of guild awards) generally suggest as much about what the industry is watching as they do about whatever craft the awards are for. This is particularly true in "contemporary" categories, where we see year in and year out that the films are usually the ones with buzz in Best Picture, whereas in the Period of Fantasy category that's less important presumably because the work is so much more noticeable.

Their nominations plus punditry notes after the jump... 

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Critics Prizes, Round 6

by Nathaniel R

We had quite a lull of no new awards during the holidays but it's started up again so it's time to update the scorecard. Though sometimes we see a galling conformity in Best Picture prizes this year groups have been a smidgeon (a tiny smidgeon) more 'spread the wealth' adventurous with a total of 13 films winning at least 1 top prize from 30 groups announcing thus far.  That's a much wider spread of favourites than we're seeing in the depressingly conformist read of the other "top" categories...

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