16th Italian Cinema Festival . News, 7th April 2023

 

Composed of excellent films, about Dante, Pirandello, Umberto Deco, Sergio Leone, Massimo Troisi and even the Pope! This was also a good retrospective on the non-conformist Maestro of Italian cinema, Elio Petri.

A theatrical show of "The voices of Dante", with Toni Servillo, which we had the pleasure to meet. He is one of the greatest actors of Italy! Among the 50 films, we stand out: LA STRANEZZA - with Toni Servillo in the role of one of the greatest playwrights, poet, novelist Luigi Pirandello-1867- Agrigento-1936- Rome (Nobel prize). One of the most famous and well-known plays is "Six Characters in Search of the Author". He was a great renovator of modern theatre, full of humour.

The film with the title in Portuguese: "The Strange Comedy of Life" by Roberto Andò is also a masterpiece, which reminded us of Visconti's influence, for the beauty of photography and interpretation! Pirandello (Servillo) moves throughout the film, watching and listening to comments from the wealthy bourgeoisie, comments that are somewhat ridiculous! This old movie, at the première, were not well received by the public, given the shock of its originality, but it would become very shortly after, famous all over the world!

Other film it is "September" by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, a comedy with full of sensitivity, which reminds us of the golden age of Italian neorealism! We can recomend also more films: Seca, Astolfo, Le Otto Montagnhe (this one about the Italian Alps and a story of friendship). Let's fill our chat with good cinema!

LE VOCI DI DANTE by Giuseppe Montesano Monologue interpreted by the famous actor Toni Servillo It was with great emotion and with the Maria Matos Theater sold out, that we watched a monologue spoken and read by the great Acto On a journey for the actor, under the sign of Dante and the unique cultural heritage that is "The Divine Comedy" and the Picollo Teatro in Milano, they approach Dante's work through an original reading, by one of the most important contemporary Italian authors. For more than an hour, with Toni Servillo's excellent voice, he recited a text by the novelist, literary critic and translator Giuseppe Montesano, awarded several novels, who has collaborated with Servillo for a decade, as author and translator. At the end, the audience gave a standing ovation!

Oscar nominations 2023: The full list. News, 1st February 2023
Here is the full list of the nominees of the 95th Academy Awards, which will be handed out at the ceremony in Los Angeles on 12 March. LIST
 
 
Cannes Film Festival divides opinion with Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness. News, 29th May 2022
The Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Saturday not with a whimper but with a primal scream. Ruben Östlund, picking up his second Palme d’Or for the satirical Triangle of Sadness, enjoined the assembled audience to accompany him in a roar of triumph. It echoed similar scenes in 2017 when the Swedish director accepted the same award for his previous film, The Square. - FT

Fittingly for an edition of Cannes where consensus proved elusive, the choice of the jury, led this year by French actor Vincent Lindon, divided opinion. For me, Triangle of Sadness hit its easy targets — the rich, the beautiful, the greedy — a little too squarely and, unlike The Square, wasn’t sufficiently uncomfortable viewing unless you happen to be an arms dealer or oligarch, but it did at least succeed in provoking debate.

Many had expected the top prize to go to Lukas Dhont’s quietly affecting tale of male unbonding, Close, in which the intimate friendship between two schoolboys is ruptured by peer pressure and self-doubt. In the end, the Belgian film shared the runner-up Grand Prix with Claire Denis’s romantic thriller Stars At Noon, which screened at the end of the festival when many of us had already left and which had a mixed reception from critics.

 
 
2022 Oscar nominations announced. News, 10th February 2022
Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst in "The Power of the Dog" (Netflix)

BEST PICTURE

"Belfast"
"CODA"
"Don't Look Up"
"Drive My Car"
"Dune"
"King Richard"
"Licorice Pizza"
"Nightmare Alley"
"The Power of the Dog"
"West Side Story"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jessie Buckley, "The Lost Daughter"
Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story"
Judi Dench, "Belfast"
Kirsten Dunst, "The Power of the Dog"
Aunjanue Ellis, "King Richard"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Ciaran Hinds, "Belfast"
Troy Kotsur, "CODA"
Jesse Plemons, "The Power of the Dog"
J.K. Simmons, "Being the Ricardos"
Kodi Smit-McPhee, "The Power of the Dog"

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

"Drive My Car"
"Flee"
"The Hand of God"
"Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom"
"The Worst Person in the World"

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)

"Audible"
"Lead Me Home"
"The Queen of Basketball"
"Three Songs for Benazir"
"When We Were Bullies"

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"Ascension"
"Attica"
"Flee"
"Summer of Soul"
Writing with Fire"

ORIGINAL SONG

"King Richard"
"Encanto"
"Belfast"
"No Time to Die"
"Four Good Days"

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

"Encanto"
"Flee"
"Luca"
"The Mitchells vs. The Machine"
"Raya and the Last Dragon"

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"CODA"
"Drive My Car"
"Dune"
"The Lost Daughter"
"The Power of the Dog"

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Belfast"
"Don't Look Up"
"King Richard"
"Licorice Pizza"
"The Worst Person in the World"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Javier Bardem, "Being the Ricardos"
Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Power of the Dog"
Andrew Garfield, "Tick, Tick... Boom!"
Will Smith, "King Richard"
Denzel Washington, "The Tragedy of Macbeth"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Jessica Chastain, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
Olivia Colman, "The Lost Daughter"
Penelope Cruz, "Parallel Mothers"
Nicole Kidman, "Being the Ricardos"
Kristen Stewart, "Spencer"

DIRECTOR

Kenneth Branagh, "Belfast"
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, "Drive My Car"
Paul Thomas Anderson, "Licorice Pizza"
Jane Campion, "The Power of the Dog"
Steven Spielberg, "West Side Story"

PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Dune"
"Nightmare Alley"
"The Power of the Dog"
"The Tragedy of Macbeth"
"West Side Story"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"Dune"
"Nightmare Alley"
"The Power of the Dog"
"The Tragedy of Macbeth"
"West Side Story"

COSTUME DESIGN

"Cruella"
"Cyrano"
"Dune"
"Nightmare Alley"
"Westside Story"

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND

"Belfast"
"Dune"
"No Time to Die"
"The Power of the Dog"
"Westside Story"

ANIMATED SHORT FILE

"Affairs of the Art"
"Bestia"
"Boxballet"
"Robin Robin"
"The Windshield Wiper"

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

"Ala Kachuu — Take and Run"
"The Dress"
"The Long Goodbye"
"On My Mind"
"Please Hold"

ORIGINAL SCORE

"Don't Look Up"
"Dune"
"Encanto"
"Parallel Mothers"
"The Power of the Dog"

VISUAL EFFECTS

"Dune"
"Free Guy"
"No Time to Die"
"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
"Spider-Man: No Way Home"

FILM EDITING

"Don't Look Up"
"Dune"
"King Richard"
"The Power of the Dog"
"Tick, Tick... Boom!"

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

"Coming 2 America"
"Cruella"
"Dune"
    "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
    "House of Gucci"
    Oscar winners 2022: See the list. News, 29th March 2022

    BEST PICTURE

      "Belfast"
        "CODA" *WINNER
        "Don't Look Up"
        "Drive My Car"
          "Dune"
          "King Richard"
          "Licorice Pizza"
          "Nightmare Alley"
          "The Power of the Dog"
          "West Side Story"

          ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

          Jessie Buckley, "The Lost Daughter"
          Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story" *WINNER
          Judi Dench, "Belfast"
          Kirsten Dunst, "The Power of the Dog"
          Aunjanue Ellis, "King Richard"

          ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

          Ciaran Hinds, "Belfast"
          Troy Kotsur, "CODA" *WINNER
          Jesse Plemons, "The Power of the Dog"
          J.K. Simmons, "Being the Ricardos"
          Kodi Smit-McPhee, "The Power of the Dog"

          INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

          "Drive My Car" *WINNER
          "Flee"
          "The Hand of God"
          "Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom"
          "The Worst Person in the World"

          DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)

          "Audible"
          "Lead Me Home"
          "The Queen of Basketball" *WINNER
          "Three Songs for Benazir"
          "When We Were Bullies"

          DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

          "Ascension"
          "Attica"
          "Flee"
          "Summer of Soul" *WINNER
          "Writing with Fire"

          ORIGINAL SONG

          "King Richard"
          "Encanto"
          "Belfast"
          "No Time to Die" *WINNER
          "Four Good Days"

          ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

          "Encanto" *WINNER
          "Flee"
          "Luca"
          "The Mitchells vs. The Machine"
          "Raya and the Last Dragon"

          ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

          "CODA" *WINNER
          "Drive My Car"
          "Dune"
          "The Lost Daughter"
          "The Power of the Dog"

          ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

          "Belfast" *WINNER
          "Don't Look Up"
          "King Richard"
          "Licorice Pizza"
          "The Worst Person in the World"

          ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

          "CODA" *WINNER
          "Drive My Car"
          "Dune"
          "The Lost Daughter"
          "The Power of the Dog"

          ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

          "Belfast" *WINNER
          "Don't Look Up"
          "King Richard"
          "Licorice Pizza"
          "The Worst Person in the World"

          ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

          Javier Bardem, "Being the Ricardos"
          Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Power of the Dog"
          Andrew Garfield, "Tick, Tick... Boom!"
          Will Smith, "King Richard" *WINNER
          Denzel Washington, "The Tragedy of Macbeth"

          ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

          Jessica Chastain, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" *WINNER
          Olivia Colman, "The Lost Daughter"
          Penelope Cruz, "Parallel Mothers"
          Nicole Kidman, "Being the Ricardos"
          Kristen Stewart, "Spencer"DIRECTOR
          Kenneth Branagh, "Belfast"
          Ryusuke Hamaguchi, "Drive My Car"
          Paul Thomas Anderson, "Licorice Pizza"
          Jane Campion, "The Power of the Dog" *WINNER
          Steven Spielberg, "West Side Story"

          PRODUCTION DESIGN

          "Dune" *WINNER
          "Nightmare Alley"
          "The Power of the Dog"
          "The Tragedy of Macbeth"
          "West Side Story"

          CINEMATOGRAPHY

          "Dune" *WINNER
          "Nightmare Alley"
          "The Power of the Dog"
          "The Tragedy of Macbeth"
          "West Side Story"

          COSTUME DESIGN

          "Cruella" *WINNER
          "Cyrano"
          "Dune"
          "Nightmare Alley"
          "Westside Story"

          ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND

          "Belfast"
          "Dune" *WINNER
          "No Time to Die"
          "The Power of the Dog"
          "Westside Story"

          ANIMATED SHORT FILE

          "Affairs of the Art"
          "Bestia"
          "Boxballet"
          "Robin Robin"
          "The Windshield Wiper" *WINNER

          LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

          "Ala Kachuu — Take and Run"
          "The Dress"
          "The Long Goodbye" *WINNER
          "On My Mind"
          "Please Hold"

          ORIGINAL SCORE

          "Don't Look Up"
          "Dune" *WINNER
          "Encanto"
          "Parallel Mothers"
          "The Power of the Dog"

          VISUAL EFFECTS

          "Dune" *WINNER
          "Free Guy"
          "No Time to Die"
          "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
          "Spider-Man: No Way Home"

          FILM EDITING

          "Don't Look Up"
          "Dune" *WINNER
          "King Richard"
          "The Power of the Dog"
          "Tick, Tick... Boom!"

          MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

          "Coming 2 America"
          "Cruella"
          "Dune"
            "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" *WINNER
            "House of Gucci"

            2022 Golden Globes – Film Nominees. News, 15th December 2021 
            The nominees for the 79th annual Golden Globes were announced Monday 13th December 2021 by newly elected Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) president Helen Hoehne and rapper Snoop Dogg. - FILM

            The ceremony will seemingly go ahead, despite TV network NBC dropping it from their schedule. This decision followed a controversial report about the awards that revealed that there were no black people included in the 87 members of the HFPA. This is the body of journalists that vote at the awards. This shocking lack of diversity resulted in many celebrities shunning the show, including Tom Cruise who handed back his three Golden Globes.

            Additionally, a report by the L.A. Times implied corruption within the association and suggested that voters were often bribed by production companies. The example given was when voters were flown to Paris by Netflix to coincide with the release of the streaming service’s series ‘Emily in Paris’. Despite the show’s mixed reviews, ‘Emily in Paris’ received two nominations including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

            Following the controversy, the HFPA have recruited 21 new members that are predominately diverse and made its existing members take diversity and equality training. A chief diversity officer has been appointed in addition to a partnership with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to ensure an awards ceremony more representative of the diverse talent that makes up the film industry.

            Typically the Golden Globes mark the beginning of awards season, being the second biggest ceremony behind the Oscars. However, it remains to be seen what impact the upcoming event will have with no network to air on and likely little fanfare from the nominated talent.

            The nominations themselves seek to highlight the top films of the year. The most nominated films for the 2022 ceremony are Sir Kenneth Branagh’s drama Belfast and Jane Campion’s gripping western The Power of the Dog. Both films are nominated for 7 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director. Belfast has already picked up some significant awards including the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Power of The Dog meanwhile continues Netflix’s trend of releasing award show juggernauts, with previous efforts including The Irishman and Roma. 

            Behind these two are the star-studded Don’t Look Up, Will Smith vehicle King Richard, Paul Thomas Anderson’s love letter to 1970s L.A., Licorice Pizza, and Steven Spielberg’s first ever musical, West Side Story. Each have been nominated for 4 awards.

            The winners will be announced on the 9th January 2022.

            The nominees in film for the 2022 Golden Globes are:

            BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
            Belfast
            Coda
            Dune
            King Richard
            The Power of the Dog

            BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
            Cyrano
            Don’t Look Up
            Licorice Pizza
            Tick, Tick … Boom!
            West Side Story

            BEST DIRECTOR
            Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
            Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
            Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)
            Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
            Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

            ADVERT

            BEST ACTOR – DRAMA
            Mahershala Ali (Swan Song)
            Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
            Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
            Will Smith (King Richard)
            Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

            BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA
            Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
            Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
            Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
            Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
            Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

            BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
            Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t Look Up)
            Peter Dinklage (Cyrano)
            Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!)
            Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza)
            Anthony Ramos (In the Heights)

            BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
            Marion Cotillard (Annette)
            Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)
            Jennifer Lawrence (Don’t Look Up)
            Emma Stone (Cruella)
            Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)

            BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOTON PICTURE
            Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar)
            Jamie Dornan (Belfast)
            Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
            Troy Kotsur (CODA)
            Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

            BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOTON PICTURE
            Caitríona Balfe (Belfast)
            Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
            Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
            Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
            Ruth Negga (Passing)

            BEST SCREENPLAY
            Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
            Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
            Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
            Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up)
            Aaron Sorkin (Being the Ricardos)

            BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
            The French Dispatch (Alexandre Desplat)
            Encanto (Germaine Franco)
            The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)
            Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias)
            Dune (Hans Zimmer)

            BEST ORIGINAL SONG 
            “Be Alive” (King Richard)
            “Dos Orugitas” (Encanto)
            “Down to Joy” (Belfast)
            “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” (Respect)
            “No Time to Die” (No Time to Die)

            BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED
            Encanto
            Flee
            Luca
            My Sunny Maad
            Raya and the Last Dragon

            BEST MOTION PICTURE – FOREIGN LANGUAGE
            Compartment No. 6 (Finland)
            Drive My Car (Japan)
            The Hand of God (Italy)
            A Hero (Iran)
            Parallel Mothers (Spain)
            The Good Boss, starring Bardem, breaks Goya Awards record with 20 nominations. News, 15th December 2021 
            PRIS AUDIOVISUAIS
            Spanish comedy film The Good Boss, directed by Fernando León de Aranoa and starring Javier Bardem, has been nominated for a record 20 Goya Awards, the organizing committee announced Monday in a ceremony unveiling the list of finalists for the 28 different categories. - LIL

            The comedy has been nominated for the main categories including Best Film, Best Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Special Effects and Costume, among others.

            Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, a drama starring the director’s muse Penelope Cruz, will also compete for the Best Film Award after receiving eight nominations.

            Icíar Bollaín’s Maixabel, Marcel Barrena’s Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea and Clara Roquet’s Libertad are also in the running for Best Film.

            Best Actor nominees include Javier Bardem for his role in The Good Boss, Javier Gutiérrez for his role in The Daughter, Luis Tosar in Maixabel and Eduard Fernández, for his role in Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea.

            Goya’s Best Actress will be disputed between Penélope Cruz for her role in Parallel Mothers, Emma Suárez for her role in Josefina, Blanca Portillo for Maixabel and Petra Martínez for her role in That Was Life.

            The 36th edition of the Goya Awards, Spain’s annual film awards festival established in 1987, will take place in Valencia on February 12, 2022. EFE

            Finally the cinema! Arts, images and shows in France (1833-1907). News, 10th December 2021  
            Léonce cinematographer, May 1913
            © Léonce Perret (1880-1935)
            No sudden rupture or violent revolution however, minds and bodies had been largely prepared. The first projections of “animated photographs” by the Lumière brothers in Paris in 1895 were in fact the latest in a long succession of visual devices and attractions (from the panorama to the wax museums, including the morgue, the aquariums and fairs) which reached its peak during the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. Stemming from a tradition of the circulation of images, these first films, still imperfect, are also the heirs of many practices, artistic or scientific, learned or vulgar. There are many propositions or questions formulated by 19th century artists.century that preceded their advent - foremost among which is the fantasy of “integral realism” - that cinema prolongs, recycles, questions, and soon surpasses. The evidence of the mobility of the world or the flow of time is questioned and analyzed through the prism of certain cultural reasons such as the agitation of the city or the perpetual backwash of the waves. In this sense, Godard was right to remind that cinema was invented by the XIX th century.

            Not seeking to present a chronology of inventions, the exhibition “Finally the cinema! Is deliberately synchronic and thematic. It creates a dialogue between French film production from 1895-1907 with the history of the arts, from the invention of photography to the early years of the 20th century.century, over the course of several major subjects such as the fascination with the spectacle of the city, the desire to record the rhythms of nature, the desire to test and exhibit bodies, the dream of a reality "augmented" by the restitution of color, sound and relief or by immersion, and finally a taste for history. It ends around 1906-1907 when the duration of the films lengthens, the screenings become sedentary in theaters and the speeches become institutionalized. The cinematograph becomes the cinema, both a place and a mass leisure.

            The exhibition brings together nearly 300 works, objects and films, both anonymous and signed by names well known to the general public, from Pierre Bonnard to Auguste Rodin, including Gustave Caillebotte, Loïe Fuller, Léon Gaumont, Jean Léon Gérôme, Alice Guy, Auguste and Louis Lumière, Jules Etienne Marey, Georges Méliès, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Charles Pathé or Henri Rivière.
            American Independent Cinema LISBON. News, 10th December 2021  
            FLAD’s first edition of Outsiders – The Outsiders - American Independent Cinema runs from November 30 to December 8 , at Cinema São Jorge in Lisbon , and it is the opportunity to meet 22 independent film production of 18 directors, with unprecedented display in Portuguese rooms.

            Highlighting independent American films and filling some gaps in terms of showing these films in Portugal is the objective of the Luso-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) with the first edition of the cycle Outsiders – American Independent Cinema, which features a selection of 22 films by independent directors, produced in the USA between 2006 and 2020, some of them awarded and never shown before in Portugal. Outsiders – a FLAD initiative co-produced by Cinema São Jorge – includes 14 feature films and 8 short films that mostly involve low-cost productions, digital video recording or improvised dialogues, presenting a different perspective on the contemporary life of young American adults.

            Outsiders – American Independent Cinema comprises classic genres and narratives, films premiered (and some awarded) at festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca or Berlin and which, for various reasons, have passed by the programming and distribution circuits in Portugal.

            The cycle opens on November 30 with the screening of Tiny Furniture , by Lena Dunham , director, producer and actress, author of the HBO series Girls , of which the film seems to have been the matrix. The closing session will take place on December 8th, with The Rider , Chloe Zhao's film , immediately preceding its acknowledgment at last year's Oscars. Both cases are now presented for the first time in Portugal.

            In between, outstanding films will be shown (several first works) by directors — Robert Greene, Rick Alverson, Eliza Hittman, Amy Seimetz, Khalik Allah, James N. Kienitz Wilkins — with other projects already known in our country.

            Some of the names are completely new in Portugal, such as the cases of Frank V. Ross, Patrick Wang, John Magary and the brothers Bill and Turner Ross , authors of works whose promotion was necessary.

            Also noteworthy was the screening of a series of short films by the Safdie brothers , purposely chosen by the directors for Outsiders, as well as the showing of two films by Joe Swanberg (one of them, Nights and Weekends , co-signed by Greta Gerwig, one of the muses from the indie cinema of the 2000s), one of the most prolific directors of recent years and the most unknown in Portugal, who will come to Lisbon to present the sessions.
            "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" had been revealed as the winner of the Berlin Film Festival. News, 16th June 2021  
            tobias schwartz/reuters
            The winner of the Golden Bear for best film, Romanian director Radu Jude for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, was among the international filmmakers who traveled to Berlin to receive their award at the Berlin International Film Festival's award ceremony held on Sunday. - DW

            The Silver Bear awards in various categories, along with the Berlinale Documentary Award, the GWFF Best First Feature Award and prizes for films in other sections of the festival, were also handed out on June 13.

            A few German works were among the Silver Bear winners. Mr. Bachmann and His Class, a documentary by Maria Speth, won the Silver Bear Jury Prize. 

            The festival awarded its first ever gender-neutral acting prize — where both male and female actor compete in the same category — to Maren Eggert for her performance in Maria Schrader's I'm Your Man.

            The event took place outdoors, on Berlin's Museum Island, where the red carpet is being rolled out for the Berlinale Summer Special, which presents 126 films from its selection in open-air cinemas for the public from June 9-20.

            The Berlinale's pandemic shake-up
            Normally, the Berlin International Film Festival's awards ceremony is an event filled with suspense for critics and film fans who closely follow the competition, as they hope that their own favorites will be crowned with the Golden Bear, or at least obtain one of the Silver Bears.

            However, things were different this year. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival's organizers divided the Berlinale into two separate events.

            The prizewinners were revealed during the first part of the festival in March, an online program restricted to film industry professionals.

            The announcement was a very low-key event, with the members of the jury reading their statements from separate hotel rooms, and the winners tuning in through a video link to react to the news.

            The prizes are now being handed out three months later during the second part of the festival, the Berlinale Summer Special. 

            The festival will conclude with the announcement of an additional Berlinale Competition Audience Award on June 20.

            Provocative Golden Bear censored in Russia
            The Golden Bear winning film, Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, is a sexually-explicit dark comedy about a school teacher who risks losing her job when a personal sex tape starts circulating online and in her school.

            The jury said in March that they had picked the film because it "captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence."

            Set in real-world Bucharest, it was the only competition film set during the COVID-19 pandemic, with all characters wearing masks.

            The film also comments on the Church, antisemitism and far-right politics.

            Even though the work found a Russian distributor, Russia's Ministry of Culture announced on June 11 that it would not issue a distribution license for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, according to reports in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  

            The ministry said that the Golden Bear-winning work violates Russian laws on pornography.

            Woody Allen is back! News, 5th October 2021  
            RIFKIN'S FESTIVAL is the name of the most recent film by Woody Allen. It tells the story of an American couple who travel to the San Sebastian Film Festival. 

            It will make yourself be engulfed by the magic of the festival, the beauty and charm of Spain and the fantasy of cinema. Rifkin's (Wallace Shawn) wife (Gina Gershon) has an affair with a brilliant French film director (Louis Garrel). Rifkin's falls in love with a beautiful Spanish woman (Elena Anaya).

            Lot 448: the dark side of auction houses. News, 10 September 2021
            Lot 448 follows Lynda Albertson, one of the world's foremost art detectives, on her quest to stop the auction of a rare Etruscan antefix, believed to be looted from a Roman archaeological site by one of Europe's most infamous trafficking rings. 

            As a young child, Albertson craved relics that represented her father's Native American heritage, which ignited her passion to protect humanity's most important art and cultural antiquities. The film follows her in a race against time as she gathers evidence to stop the auction and return the antefix to Italy, its rightful home.
            'Nomadland' is big winner, Anthony Hopkins wins best actor. News,  April 2021
            Copyright  AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
            Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland," a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman to win best director, and the first woman of color. - EURONEWS.

            The "Nomadland" victory, while widely expected, nevertheless capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which — with a budget less than $5 million (€4.1 million) and featuring a cast populated by non-professional actors — ranks as one of the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood's top honour. Zhao's next film, Marvel's "Eternals," has a budget approximately 40 times that of "Nomadland." Only Kathryn Bigelow, 11 years ago for "The Hurt Locker," had previously won best director.

            But "Nomadland," as a plain-spoken meditation on solitude, grief and grit, stuck a chord in a pandemic-ravaged year. It made for an unlikely Oscar champ: A film about people who gravitate to the margins took center stage.

            "I have always found goodness in the people I've met everywhere I went in the world," said Zhao when accepting best director. "This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and to hold on the goodness in other no matter how difficult it is to do that."

            With a howl, "Nomadland" star Frances McDormand implored people to seek out her film and others on the big screen. Released by the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, "Nomadland" premiered at a drive-in and debuted in theaters, but found its largest audience on Hulu.

            "Please watch our movie on the largest screen possible and one day very, very soon, take everyone you know into a theater, shoulder to shoulder in that dark space, and watch every film that's represented here tonight," McDormand said.

            Soon after, McDormand won best actress, too. The win puts McDormand (previously a winner for "Fargo" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri") in rare company as a three-time acting winner. Only Katherine Hepburn (a four-time winner) has won best actress more times.

            In the night's biggest surprise, best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for the dementia drama "The Father." The award had been widely expected to go to Chadwick Boseman for his final performance in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Hopkins was not in attendance.

            The most ambitious award show held during the pandemic, the Oscars rolled out a red carpet and restored some glamour to the nearly century-old movie institution, but with a much-transformed — and in some ways downsized — telecast. It was a year when, to paraphrase Norma Desmond, the pictures got smaller, were overwhelmingly seen in the home, not on the big screen, during a pandemic year that forced theaters close and prompted radical change in Hollywood.

            It was also perhaps the diverse Academy Awards ever, with more women and more actors of colour nominated than ever before — and Sunday brought a litany of records and firsts across many categories, spanning everything from hairstyling to composing to acting. It was, some observers said, a sea change for an award harshly criticised as "OscarsSoWhite" in recent years, leading the film academy to greatly expand membership.

            Golden Globes 2021: See the full list of nomineesNews, 5th February 2021
            THE RECKONING. © Cinemundo Lda
            The 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced Wednesday.

            See the list of the nominees on this special edition made by USIA Review.

            Oscar nominators and nominee schedules announced. News, 12th March 2021
            Actress and producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger) and singer, actor and composer Nick Jonas (Kingdom) will announce nominations for the 23 categories of the 93rd edition of the Oscars, during a presentation that will take place in two parts, on Monday, March 15.

            The event will be broadcast live on the digital platforms of the American Film Academy, on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, at the link included below.
            The first nine categories begin to be revealed at 1:19 pm (Lisbon time).

            The remaining 14, starting at 1:31 pm (Lisbon time).  

            The winners will be announced on April 25, in a ceremony whose final format is not yet known. On the table are alternatives that may include the presence, or not, of guests, the hybrid format between virtual and face-to-face that is being used by other cinema awards, or even the move to another location that allows greater physical distance between people (a American publication made it known that the central train station in Los Angeles is a hypothesis).

            A Life Ahead, a movie with the actress Sophia Loren on netflix. News, 25th November 2020

            Sophia Loren photographed at home by her son Edoardo Ponti, who helmed her new movie.Credit...Edoardo Ponti
            With 86 years old, Sophia Loren was looking for a personal connection to a script. Then along came her director son and the Netflix drama “The Life Ahead.” 

            The Life Ahead is a 2020 drama film directed by Edoardo Ponti, from a screenplay by Ponti and Ugo Chiti, based upon the novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. It stars Sophia Loren, Ibrahima Gueye and Abril Zamora.

            It was released in a limited release on November 6, 2020, followed by digital streaming on Netflix November 13, 2020.

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