A dispatch from the first full day of Fantasia 2022, including a zombie comedy remake from an Oscar winner, a celebration of John Woo, and a perverse shorts film block.
Our first video dispatch from Cannes 2022 includes coverage of the opening night screening of "Final Cut," preceded by a speech from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival kicked off with an address from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The opening movie, meanwhile, was a dismal remake.
A preview of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, which includes new films by David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Kelly Reichardt, Park Chan-wook, and many more.
A look at the many black-and-white films that are a part of this year's award season, including this week's Belfast and Passing.
A look at who could be nominated for Best Director at the upcoming Oscars.
61 films from all 28 EU nations will screen this month at the Chicago European Union Film Festival.
Matt writes: The 2017 Cannes Film Festival just came to a close on May 28th, and you can find our complete coverage of the highlights, lowlights and everything in between at RogerEbert.com. Our full roundup of written dispatches from Barbara Scharres and Ben Kenigsberg, as well our video reports from Chaz Ebert, can be located on our Cannes 2017 Table of Contents. You will find our thoughts on the latest work of filmmakers such as Noah Baumbach, Sofia Coppola, Michael Haneke, Michel Hazanavicius, Todd Haynes, Bong Joon-ho, Yorgos Lanthimos and Lynne Ramsay, as well as our coverage of the Netflix controversy that engulfed the Croisette.
Matt writes: The 2017 Cannes Film Festival is nearly here! It will run from May 17th through the 28th, and RogerEbert.com will be providing in-depth coverage every step of the way, including our annual video reports from publisher Chaz Ebert. This year's selections include the latest work from such acclaimed filmmakers as Noah Baumbach, Sofia Coppola, Michael Haneke, Michel Hazanavicius, Todd Haynes, Bong Joon Ho, Yorgos Lanthimos and Lynne Ramsay.
A video preview of this year's Cannes Film Festival!
Gaite Jansen on "Supernova"; Memories of Professor Scorsese; Bérénice Bejo on France's year of terror; "Tin Cup" Oral History; Confessions of a Pokémon Go Grinch.
Michael Oleszczyk reports on a discovery in the Quinzaine de Realisateurs section at Cannes this year: Diego Lerman's "Refugiado."
Our Cannes reporter sees critical icebergs ahead for Michel Hazanavicius' "The Search."
Hollywood has the same problem with the Oscars that the Republicans are having with their primaries. They can't seem to agree on a candidate with a broad appeal to the base. All nine Oscar finalists were, like Mitt Romney, good enough to be nominated. But none of them appealed to average multiplex moviegoers, just as it's said Romney doesn't appeal to the GOP base.
SANTA MONICA, Ca. -- "The Artist," a nearly silent film, made most of the noise here Saturday at the Independent Sprit Awards, wining for best picture, best actor, best director and its cinematography. It was the latest in a series of good omens for the surprise hit, which seems headed for victory at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.
It's a sunny, unseasonable 80 degrees as the 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicks in, but all I want is to be indoors. When you peer at a schedule listing nearly 200 films jammed into 10 days, and you just can't wait, you know you're an addict. This is my third SBIFF so I recognize the signs.
Suddenly each January, there's an extra bustle in this appealing, laid-back town. Downtown on lower State Street, trucks appear bearing vivid banners, soon to be festooned overhead. Special lights and rigging go up at 2 central venues - the precisely restored, historic Lobero and Arlington Theatres. Locals watch to see whether Festival Director Roger Durling changes his hair: one year it was spikey, another year purple. This time it's rather like Heathcliff - longer, romantic.
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that this year's Academy Awards will amount to a shootout between "Hugo," with 11 nominations, and "The Artist," with 10. Fittingly, they are two movies inspired by love of movie history, the first about the inventor of the cinema, the second about the transition from silent films to talkies.
There, that wasn't so painful, was it? After all the hype coming out of Cannes (and especially since Harvey Weinstein got his mitts on it for U.S. distribution/Oscar promotion), I'd been kind of dreading "The Artist." Like "Hugo," it just sounded too "charming and delightful" -- and, to paraphrase Lou Grant, I hate "charming and delightful." (Usually because, for me, that ends up translating into "strained and unctuous.") But "The Artist" turns out to be a fairly benign, occasionally clever little musical/romantic comedy/melodrama. (I would not consider it, strictly speaking, a "silent," since it relies on synchronized Foley effects in some scenes -- to pointedly dramatize the Invasion of the Talkies -- and even a few words of recorded dialog.)*
I can understand why it appeals so much to Academy voters: It displays great affection for actors and a nostalgic love for the lost grandeur of the movies in general; it addresses anxieties about how new technologies are once again changing the movie business; it's the only Best Picture nominee shot entirely in Los Angeles (something TWC's Oscar campaign is playing up, big-time).
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Complete list of 84th Annual Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday:
Hollywood nostalgia may be warmly embraced Tuesday morning when the 2012 Academy awards nominations are announced. Films involving the invention of the cinema, the transition from Silent to Talkies and the legend of Marilyn Monroe are among those certain to be nominated.
Marie writes: Okay, this is just plain cool. This is clearly someone using their brain, in combination with "what the hell, let's just go ahead and try it..."
Dr Julius Neubronner's Miniature Pigeon CameraIn 1903, Dr Julius Neubronner patented a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism. The invention brought him international notability after he presented it at international expositions in Dresden, Frankfurt and Paris in 1909-1911. Spectators in Dresden could watch the arrival of the camera-equipped carrier pigeons, whereupon the photos were immediately developed and turned into postcards which could be purchased. (click images to enlarge.) - from The Public Domain Review. Visit the site to see even more photos.
Great Movies
