Those two films are among the standouts in a career that has also seen her serve as director of photography on “Fruitvale Station,” “Dope” and “Seberg,” and that has now expanded to include her feature directorial debut, “The Fire Inside.” The Amazon MGM Studios release stars Ryan Destiny as real-lifebOlympic boxer Claressa Shields, the first woman to win a gold medal for the U.S. and the only American boxer to take the gold in successive games. Written and produced by Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight,” “The Underground Railroad”), the film costars Brian Tyree Henry as Shields’ coach, Jason Crutchfield, and is as concerned with Shields’ life outside the ring after the gold as it is with her pugilistic exploits.

A month after the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Morrison served as the filmmaker spotlight conversation at TheWrap’s annual business conference, TheGrill — and offstage, she spoke about her days at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied photography and film, and at the American Film Institute, where she received a Masters of Fine Arts in cinematography.

At what point did you decide you wanted to get into film? And why?
For me, it started in photography, and it was early. I think I was 6, 7, 8 years old. My mom had an old Olympus camera, and half the pictures of the family are from the point of view of a 7-year-old. (Laughs)

As early as high school, I would shut myself up in the darkroom, listen to my brooding teen-angst music and print photographs. So when I was applying to colleges, I applied to all the safe schools — ambitious but safe in terms of not being art schools — but I also applied to RISD and Tisch and some art schools. When I got into Tisch for photo, that was a no-brainer for me. And then, quickly, I got interested in cinematography, but at the time, there wasn’t a cinematography undergrad (program).

But you did study film at NYU.
Yeah, I ended up convincing everybody to let me double major in photo and film, which they said was crazy. (Laughs) They were maybe a little bit right. I managed it, but I was spread really thin.

And did you come out of those four years thinking that your future was in film more than photography?
No. Interestingly, I was taking my photo portfolio around by day and sending out my film reel by night. I loved it all and took any and every job that had anything to do with the camera. And at some point, maybe a few years down the line, the advice I was given was, “You really have to pick a career.” They are incredibly different. The type of photography I was interested in was very much photojournalism, even conflict photography. It was very documentary-style. I loved Robert Capa and Mary Ellen Mark and I was inspired by a lot of the Farm Security Administration photographers.

One of the things that I loved about film was the power of the story to build empathy and to have this entirely transformative experience. I would come out of the movie theater after a potent film and feel like I had lived another life. And as much as I loved photography, it still felt a little bit like I was looking at something, I wasn’t living it.

I think the secondary but maybe even more powerful thing was that I love to collaborate. The type of photography I was interested in was a very individualist and probably lonely career. And by choosing film, I was choosing a life of collaboration. I think, ultimately, I chose film because I wanted to be able to make things with other people.

Between NYU and AFI, you worked as a cinematographer for a while, didn’t you?
Yeah. For a minute, I was doing really interesting documentaries. I shot a documentary about an orphanage in Odessa in Ukraine. I shot in Argentina. I was getting to travel and shoot. I was living the dream. And then that first internet bubble burst, and anybody who wasn’t firmly planted in the space was out of work. To make a living, I started to get pulled into reality television, and I knew that if I didn’t do something drastic, I was gonna end up there. It was so close to the thing I loved, and yet so not what I wanted to do. So I applied to AFI, which was this mecca for cinematography. I figured if I got in, it would shake things up.

Cinematography is a famously male environment. Were there a lot of other women in the program?
No. There were six of us, I think, in a class of 28. That’s still statistically higher than our percentage in (Hollywood), but it’s obviously quite low. Even in photography, women have always been the exception to the rule, which never made any sense to me. Our currency is human emotion. If you think of what women do particularly well, it’s empathy and emotion. And so I think we’re quite predisposed to be good as storytellers and filmmakers and cinematographers.

How did AFI transform your career?
AFI is and was incredibly technical in all the best possible ways. I had some technical know-how going in, but it really bolstered my confidence. Especially as a woman in this industry, you have to be confident. This is a medium that’s entirely subjective. There are no actual rights and wrongs. So you have to let your gut drive the machine, and then people will follow. It’s a sad double standard: The second a woman second-guesses herself even for a millisecond, she’s quick to be labeled indecisive. So for me to come out of AFI with confidence was huge.

How did you get that confidence?
I guess through the process of making things, failing, picking yourself up, making more things, getting better. From a technical perspective, I experimented with every type of camera, every type of lens, every type of process. Really trying to throw all the different techniques at the wall and see what stuck. We would light for each other, we would gaff for each other, we would grip for each other. You have that experience of kind of playing every role on set, which I think is quite helpful later on because you understand what the team is comprised of and what each person is responsible for.

Did you get out and then think, Oh wow, I really have to go to work now to…
To pay for it? Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing. It’s a huge caveat. I came out with a good amount of debt, as did many of my friends. A lot of people fell back into the thing that they were trying to get away from ’cause that’s the quickest way to pay off that debt. I fell back into reality television for two, maybe two-and-a-half years after graduating, because I had to get out from under the crippling debt. The moment I’d paid off the private loans, I said to myself, “I’m never doing this again.” And I picked up a film camera again.

But, you know, when I went to school, that was one of the only ways you could get hands-on experience making movies. And I don’t think that’s true anymore. I think film school is great for some people, especially people who need accountability, like homework assignments. Or people who want to cut out all the other noise and say, “I’m gonna focus on this for two years.” But it’s not a necessity in the same way it used to be.

I mean, look at what Sean Baker did with an iPhone for Tangerine. And a step up from an iPhone, there are $6,000 cam- eras that can make beautiful films now. So there’s a whole other path that wasn’t avail- able to me when I was coming up. That’s to spend the money you were gonna spend on film school and buy yourself a camera and some lights and just go make lots of movies. I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all solution, but I think for some people, it’s amazing.

When you left reality TV for good and focused on film, did you have trouble being taken seriously because of your gender?
I mean, on the one hand, you never know why your phone doesn’t ring. I only actually know my own successes, I guess. But I know that I’ve definitely had no short- age of stories like when we were doing the pickups for “Black Panther,” the first AD and I were in a minivan, and the Teamster wasn’t leaving for the set. I looked at him like, “We’ve got to go.” And he’s like, “I’m waiting for the first AD and the DP.” We’re like, “That’s us, dude.” That’s basically still a day in my life, but you have to not take that personally and keep pushing through.

You’ve now directed your first feature. Did you direct at all when you were in school?
No, no. I was very focused on cinematography. I’m an anomaly, I’m sure, but I never set out to direct. I’ve never liked having the attention on me. It took every director I ever shot for telling me that I should be directing to finally let it percolate to where I would consider it for myself.

You turned to directing after you received American Society of Cinematographers and Oscar nominations for “Mudbound” and after you shot “Black Panther.” Was there a reason for that timing?
I spent a year after the nomination and after “Black Panther” reading scripts to shoot that weren’t as good as either “Black Panther” or “Mudbound.” Basically, every script I read felt like a step backwards. And so I figured it was better to start from scratch and try something new than to go backwards.

What was it about the story of “The Fire Inside” that made you think it was the film to launch your feature-directing career?
“The Fire Inside” is the story of an incredible female boxer named Claressa Shields. Nobody knows who she is. She’s one of the greatest female athletes ever and I had no idea who she was, and Barry (Jenkins) didn’t know who she was. I think there was something wrong about that. Also, as a female boxer, she’s by definition the exception to the rule — which, as we were just speaking about, I’m quite used to being as well. The idea that it’s not enough to be good at your craft, you also have to know how to look, how to act, how to fit other people’s perception of you. I’ve had to walk that line, too, so I saw some of myself in that story.

Were there moments making the movie where you thought, Nothing I’ve done or studied has prepared me for this?
To be honest, it wasn’t in the making of the film. When we were making the film, we got caught in a pandemic and some other things, but the making went incredibly smoothly and was really just a joy. There was so much respect and love for one another, and we all had a great time making the film. It was more the idea that directing can be a lonely profession. You’re the one carrying this boulder up a hill for years sometimes — the singular person championing a project from beginning to end. That was new to me.

Are you now thinking about directing more movies, or do you want to go back to being a cinematographer for a bit?
I had such a great first experience making the film, I probably do have the directing bug. Ask me again after the second film — but right now, I think the focus is probably going to be on directing long form. I still love shooting, and so my hope is to keep shooting commercials, because then I can keep playing with gear. It’s still such a part of who I am, but I think I’ll be dipping in and out of it, as opposed to doing longer-form projects that would take me out of directing for too long.

Read more of TheWrap’s College Issue here.

The post Rachel Morrison Charts Her Journey From Film School to Oscar History appeared first on TheWrap.

The 85 films make up the smallest field in the category in nine years. Last year saw 88 qualifying films, after the total number of eligible films had topped 90 in five of the previous six years. The record was 93, set in 2000.

In late September, all prospective voters in the category received emails inviting them to vote in the international category and telling them that those who opted in would receive emails with their assigned viewing on Friday, Nov. 1. But those emails came a week early, going to prospective voters on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25, and separating the members into seven separate groups.

Each group was given a list of 12 or 13 films to view, either in the Academy’s members-only screening platform devoted to the category or in theaters. Voters must see every film in the group for their vote to count, but they are also encouraged to see as many films as they want outside their group.

Films were not separated randomly into the groups but were chosen to create a mixture of regions, genres and running times. Group 1, for instance, is the only group with 13 entries and contains five films from Europe (Albania, Estonia, Norway, Italy and Switzerland), three from South and Central America (Bolivia, Paraguay and Costa Rica), one from Africa (Algeria), three from Asia (Armenia, Cambodia and Malaysia) and one from the Middle East (Iraq).

The list of films that were assigned to voters is not necessarily the same as the final list of qualifying films, which the Academy will release at a later date. Occasionally, an assigned film will later be determined to be ineligible under the category’s rules, though in most cases there is no difference between the list of assigned films and the final list.

Four films that were publicized as being their country’s submissions are missing from the list of assigned films. Three of those were documentaries: China’s “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru,” Jordan’s “My Sweet Land” and Uruguay’s “The Door Is There.” Haiti’s “Kidnapping Inc.” was the fourth film announced as its country’s submission but that did not end up on any assignment lists.

First-round voting will take place from Dec. 9-13, with a shortlist of 15 films announced on Dec. 17. A second round of voting will narrow the 15 down to the final five nominees.

All of the eligible films will be placed in the Academy Screening Room devoted to the category, with new additions made every Friday. At the time the group assignments were made, 41 of the 85 titles were available in the screening room, though it did not contain such high-profile films as France’s “Emilia Perez,” Brazil’s “I’m Still Here,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Italy’s “Vermiglio,” Mexico’s “Sujo,” Norway’s “Armand,” Portugal’s “Grand Tour,” Senegal’s “Dahomey” and the United Kingdom’s “Santosh.”

The highest-profile films that are available for voters to stream include Austria’s “The Devil’s Bath,” Belgium’s “Julie Keeps Quiet,” Bosnia and Herzegovina’s “My Late Summer,” Cambodia’s “Meeting With Pol Pot,” Canada’s “Universal Language,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Japan’s “Cloud,” Morocco’s “Everybody Loves Touda,” Latvia’s animated “Flow” and Palestine’s “From Ground Zero,” which is made up of 22 short films by directors who live in Gaza.

The available films are spread unevenly among the seven groups. Voters in Group 6, for example, only have two films available to them in the screening room, while voters in Group 3 and 4 have eight.

This year’s international race has fewer obvious favorites than in other recent years. Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” is the highest-profile entry and the default frontrunner, followed by “I’m Still Here” from director Walter Salles and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from Mohammad Rasoulof.  

TheWrap has a full list of the qualifying films here, with descriptions of every film and links to trailers when available.

Here is the list of films that have been assigned to voters in the Best International Feature Film category:

• Albania: “Waterdrop,” Robert Budina              
• Algeria: “Algiers,” Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
• Argentina: “Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega
• Armenia: “Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev,” Edgar Baghdasaryan
• Austria: “The Devil’s Bath,” Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala               
• Bangladesh: “The Wrestler,” Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury
• Belgium: “Julie Keeps Quiet,” Leonardo Van Dijl
• Bolivia: “Own Hand,” Rodrigo Gory Patino
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: “My Late Summer,” Danis Tanovic
• Brazil: “I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles
• Bulgaria: “Triumph,” Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov             
• Cambodia: “Meeting With Pol Pot,” Rithy Panh
• Cameroon: “Kismet,” Ngang Romanus         
• Canada: “Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin
• Chile: “In Her Place,” Maite Alberdi
• Colombia: “La Suprema,” Felipe Holguin Caro
• Costa Rica: “Memories of a Burning Body,” Antonella Sudasassi
• Croatia: “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day,” Ivona Juka
• Czech Republic: “Waves,” Jiri Madl 
• Denmark: “The Girl with the Needle,” Magnus von Horn
• Dominican Republic: “Aire: Just Breathe,” Letitia Tonos
• Ecuador: “Behind the Mist,” Sebastian Cordero
• Egypt: “Flight 404,” Hani Khalifa         
• Estonia: “8 Views of Lake Biwa,” Marko Raat             
• Finland: “Family Time,” Tia Kouvo
• France: “Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard
• Georgia: “The Antique,” Rusudan Glurjidze                 
• Germany: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof
• Greece: “Murderess,” Eva Nathena
• Guatemala: “Rita,” Jayro Bustamante            
• Hong Kong: “Twight of the Warriors: Walled In,” Soi Cheang           
• Hungary: “Semmelweis,” Lajos Koltai            
• Iceland: “Touch,” Baltasar Kormakur              
• India: “Lost Ladies,” Kiran Rao            
• Indonesia: “Women From Rote Island,” Jeremias Nyangoen          
• Iran: “In the Arms of the Tree,” Babak Lotfi Khajepasha
• Iraq: “Baghdad Messi,” Sahim Omar Kalifa
• Ireland: “Kneecap,” Rich Peppiatt
• Israel: “Come Closer,” Tom Nesher
• Italy: “Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero
• Japan: “Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi
• Kazakhstan: “Bauryna Salu,” Askhat Kuchinchirekov          
• Kenya: “Nawi,” Vallentine Chelluget, Apuu Mourine, Kevin & Toby Schmutzler    
• Kyrgyzstan: “Paradise at Mother’s Feet,” Rusian Akun         
• Latvia: “Flow,” Gints Zilbalodis            
• Lebanon: “Arze,” Mira Shaib
• Lithuania: “Drowning Dry,” Laurynas Bareisa            
• Malaysia: “Abang Adik,” Jin Ong         
• Malta: “Castillo,” Abigail Mallia           
• Mexico: “Sujo,” Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez
• Mongolia: “If Only I Could Hibernate,” Zoljargal Purvedash              
• Montenegro: “Supermarket,” Nemanja Becanovic
• Morocco: “Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch
• Nepal: “Shambhakam,” Min Bahadur Bham               
• Netherlands: “Memory Lane,” Jelle de Jonge
• Nigeria: “Mai Martaba”             
• Norway: “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel
• Pakistan: “The Glassworker,” Usman Riaz
• Palestine: “From Ground Zero,” Aws Al-Banna…
• Panama: “Wake Up Mom,” Arianne Benedetti          
• Paraguay: “The Last,” Sebastian Pena Escobar
• Peru: “Yana-Wara,” Oscar Catacora and Tito Catacora
• Philippines: “And So It Begins,” Ramona S. Diaz
• Poland: “Under the Volcano,” Damian Kocur
• Portugal: “Grand Tour,” Miguel Gomes           
• Romania : “Three Kilometres to the End of the World,”  Emanuel Parvu
• Senegal: “Dahomey,” Mati Diop         
• Serbia: “Russian Consul,” Miroslav Lekic
• Singapore: “La Luna,” M. Raihan Halim        
• Slovakia: “The Hungarian Dressmaker,” Iveta Grofova
• Slovenia: “Family Therapy,” Sonja Prosenc
• South Africa: “Old Righteous Blues,” Muneera Sallies         
• South Korea: “12.12: The Day,” Kim Sung-su              
• Spain: “Saturn Return,” Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodriguez                
• Sweden: “The Last Journey,” Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson          
• Switzerland: “Queens,” Klaudia Reynicke
• Taiwan: “Old Fox,” Hsiao Ya-chuan
• Tajikistan: “Melody,” Behrous Sebt Rasoul
• Thailand: “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies,” Pat Boonnitipat
• Tunisia: “Take My Breath,” Nada Mezni Hafaiedh
• Turkey: “Life,” Zeki Demirkubuz          
• Ukraine: “La Palisiada,” Philip Sotnychenko               
• United Kingdom: “Santosh,” Sandhya Suri
• Venezuela: “Back to Life,” Luis Carlo Hueck and Alfredo Hueck
• Vietnam: “Peach Blossom, Pho and Piano,” Phi Tien Son

The post 85 Films Competing in Oscars International Race, the Smallest Field in 9 Years appeared first on TheWrap.

“Girls State” was nominated in the Broadcast Film category and also for its editing and cinematography. “Ren Faire” was also nominated in those last two categories, as well as for Nonfiction Series.

Other broadcast films and series with multiple nominations included Netflix’s “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Apple’s “The Enfield Poltergeist,” HBO’s “Telemarketers” and National Geographic’s “Photographer.”

At its annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles, the New York-based organization also announced the Audience Choice Award Long List, 16 films that will compete for the audience-voted award; 11 semi-finalists in the short doc category; and “The Unforgettables,” its annual list of the year’s most interesting documentary subjects.

The Audience Choice Award contenders include “Black Box Diaries,” “Daughters,” “Eno,” “Frida,” “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” “No Other Land,” “Piece by Piece,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Sugarcane,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “Will & Harper.”

The Unforgettable honorees, who will be presented with special medallions for the first time this year, include several of the subjects of those nominated films, including Shiori Ito from “Black Box Diaries,” Brian Eno from “Eno,” Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham from “No Other Land,” Lhakpa Sherpa from “Mountain Queen” and Harper Steele from “Will & Harper.”

Several of them, including Ito and Adra and Abraham are both the subjects and the filmmakers of their movies.

With the announcement of the Cinema Eye long list, three awards bodies for nonfiction film – the Cinema Eye Honors, the IDA Documentary Awards and the Critics Choice Documentary Awards – have released lists of between 10 and 20 of the year’s most notable docs, and the DOC NYC film festival has announced its “Short List” of 15 likely awards movies.

Only two films, “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” and “Sugarcane,” have appeared on all four lists. An additional four films – “Black Box Diaries,” “Daughters,” “No Other Land” and “Will & Harper” – have appeared on three lists, and “Dahomey,” “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” “Frida,” “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” “Porcelain War,” “Queendom” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” have appeared on two.

In the doc-shorts category, only three films appeared on both the Cinema Eye and IDA lists: the New York Times Op-Docs films “Instruments of a Beating Heart” by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and “A Move” by Elahe Esmaili and the New Yorker film “The Medallion” by Ruth Hunduma.

The Cinema Eye Honors were established in 2007 to award all facets of nonfiction filmmaking. It will announce the rest of its nominations, including all its feature-film categories, on Nov. 14, with the 18th annual Cinema Eye honors ceremony taking place on Jan. 9, 2025 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem.

The full list of nominees and honorees:

Broadcast Film Nominees          
“Bread & Roses,” Sahra Mani (Apple TV+)
“Girls State,” Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Apple TV+)
“Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets,” Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson (HBO)
“The Lady Bird Diaries,” Dawn Porter (Hulu)
“Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.” Jeremy O. Harris (HBO)
“Spermworld,” Lance Oppenheim (FX)

Nonfiction Series Nominees
“America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Greg Whiteley and Chelsea Yarnell (Netflix)
“Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court,” Dawn Porter (Showtime)
“The Enfield Poltergeist,” Jerry Rothwell (Apple TV+)
“The Luckiest Guy in the World,” Steve James (ESPN)
“Ren Faire,” Lance Oppenheim (HBO)
“Telemarketers,” Adam Bhala Lough and Sam Lipman-Stern (HBO)

Anthology Series Nominees
“Conan O’Brien Must Go,’ Executive Producers Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross (HBO)
“De La Calle,” Executive Producers Nick Barili, Jared Andrukanis, Picky Talarico, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Amanda Culkowski, Bruce Gillmer, Craig H. Shepherd (Paramount+)
“God Save Texas,” Executive Producers Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Elizabeth Rogers, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller (HBO)
“High on the Hog Season 2,” Executive Producers Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Craig Piligian, Sarba Das, Fabienne Toback, Karis Jagger, Jessica B. Harris, Stephen Satterfield, Michele Barnwell (Netflix)
“How To with John Wilson Season 3,” Executive Producers Nathan Fielder, John Wilson, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking (HBO)
“Photographer,” Executive Producers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhely, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman, Betsy Forhan (National Geographic)

Broadcast Editing Nominees
“Girls State,” Edited by Amy Foote (Apple TV+)
“The Greatest Night in Pop,” Edited by Nic Zimmerman, Will Znidaric, David Brodie (Netflix)
“Ren Faire,” Edited by Max Allman, Nicholas Nazmi (HBO)
“The Saint of Second Chances.” Edited by Alan Lowe, Jeff Malmberg, Miles Wilkerson (Netflix)
“Telemarketers,” Edited by Christopher Passig (HBO)
“Time Bomb Y2K,” Edited by Marley McDonald, Maya Mumma (HBO)

Broadcast Cinematography Nominees
“America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Director of Photography Jonathan Nicholas (Netflix)
“The Enfield Poltergeist,” Director of Photography Ruben Woodin Deschamps, Carmen Pellon Brussosa, David Katznelson (Apple TV+)
“Girls State,” Director of Photography – Nominees to be Determined (Apple TV+)
“Photographer,” Director of Photography Michael Crommett, Rita Baghdadi, Peter Hutchens, Melissa Langer, Pauline Maroun (National Geographic)
“Ren Faire,” Director of Photography Nate Hurtsellers (HBO)
“You Were My First Boyfriend,” Director of Photography Brennan Vance, J. Bennett (HBO)

Shorts List Semifinalists
“Contractions,” Lynne Sachs / NY Times Op-Docs
“Eternal Father,” Ömer Sami / New Yorker
“I Am Ready, Warden,” Smriti Mundhra / MTV Documentary Films
“Incident,” Bill Morrison / New Yorker
“Instruments of a Beating Heart,” Ema Ryan Yamazaki / NY Times Op-Docs
“Love in the Time of Migration,” Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas / LA Times
“Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World,” Julio Palacio / Netflix
“The Medallion,” Ruth Hunduma / New Yorker
“A Move,” Elahe Esmaili / NY Times Op-Docs
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” Molly O’Brien / Netflix
“A Swim Lesson,” Rashida Jones and Will McCormack / POV

Audience Choice Award Long List
“Black Box Diaries,” Shiori Ito
“Copa 71,” Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine
“Daughters,” Natalie Rae and Angela Patton
“Eno,” Gary Hustwit
“Frida,” Carla Gutiérrez
“Grand Theft Hamlet,” Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
“Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” Lucy Walker
“No Other Land,” Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
“Piece by Piece,” Morgan Neville
“Porcelain War,” Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” Benjamin Ree
“Secret Mall Apartment,” Jeremy Workman
“Skywalkers: A Love Story,” Jeff Zimbalist
“Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
“Will & Harper,” Josh Greenbaum

The Unforgettables
Shiori Ito, “Black Box Diaries”
Brian Eno, “Eno”
Lhakpa Sherpa, “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa”
Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, “No Other Land”
Patrice Jetter, “Patrice: The Movie”
Jenna Marvin, “Queendom”
Chris Smalls, “Union”
Harper Steele, “Will and Harper”

The post ‘Girls State,’ ‘Ren Faire’ Lead Cinema Eye Honors Broadcast Nominations appeared first on TheWrap.

The shortlisted features come from 21 different countries and include works by Mati Diop (“Dahomey”), Raoul Peck (“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”).  The IDA’s feature shortlist is typically idiosyncratic in that it doesn’t include several of the most acclaimed and highest-profile nonfiction films of the year, including “Will & Harper,” “Daughters,” “Piece by Piece,” “Mountain Queen” and “Union.”

Of the 20 films on the IDA shortlist, eight also appeared on the DOC NYC list of likely awards titles: “Black Box Diaries,” “Dahomey,” “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” “No Other Land,” Queendom,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” and “Sugarcane.”

The IDA’s  shortlist for short docs is also international, with 14 different countries represented. The New York Times Op-Docs has four of shortlisted shorts: “A Move,” “Instruments of a Beating Heart,” “Modern Goose” and “The Sparkle.” The New Yorker has three: “Squid Fleet,” “The Medallion” and “The Passing.”

The shortlisted films were chosen by IDA committees, with IDA members able to view the shortlisted films on their viewing platform beginning Nov. 4. The two shortlists will be narrowed down to 10 nominees each, with nominations announced on Nov. 19. The  IDA Documentary Awards will take place on Dec. 5 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

The shortlists:

Best Feature Documentary
“Agent of Happiness,” Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
“Black Box Diaries,” Shiori Ito
“Brisa,” Nick Nanton
“Dahomey,” Mati Diop
“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,”  Raoul Peck
“Hollywoodgate,” Ibrahim Nash’at
“Igualada,” Juan Mejía Botero
“Kamay,” Ilyas Yourish
“The Last Journey,” Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
“Mediha,” Hasan Oswald
“Motherboard,” Victoria Mapplebeck
“My Sweet Land,” Sareen Hairabedian
“No Other Land,” Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham
“Queendom,” Agniia Galdanova
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” Benjamin Ree
“Seeking Mavis Beacon,” Jazmin Renée Jones
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” Johan Grimonprez
“Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie
“Tell Them You Love Me,” Nick August-Perna
“Water For Life” / “Agua Es Vida,” Will Parrinello

Best Short Documentary
“A Move,” Elahe Esmaili
“A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas,” Esy Casey
“Amma ki Katha,” Nehal Vyas
“Bad Hostage,” Mimi Wilcox
“ENCHUNKUNOTO (The Return),” Laissa Malih
“Gaza Diaries,” Namak Khoshnaw
“Here We Are,” Chanasorn Chaikitiporn
“In Flanders Fields,” Sachin, Victor Candelas
“Instruments of a Beating Heart,” Ema Ryan Yamazaki
“The Medallion,” Ruth Hunduma
“Modern Goose,” Karsten Wall
“Nine Easy Dances,” Nora Rosenthal
“Old Lesbians,” Meghan McDonough
“OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage,” Clare Major
“The Passing,” Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan
“The Poem We Sang,” Annie Sakkab
“The Sparkle,” Isabelle Grignon-Francke
“Squid Fleet,” Ed Ou and Will N. Miller
“Ted & Noel,” Julia Alcamo
“Until He’s Back,” Jacqueline Baylon

The post ‘Dahomey,’ ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’ Make Shortlist for IDA Documentary Awards appeared first on TheWrap.

The documentary by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie explores the network of boarding schools that existed for indigenous peoples in Canada and the abuse therein; it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by National Geographic Documentary Films.

The films “Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story,” “Daughters” and “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” received six nominations each.

Other nominees in the Best Documentary Feature category are “The Greatest Night in Pop,” “Jim Henson Idea Man,” “Music by John Williams,” “Piece by Piece,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” and “Will and Harper.”

Nominees in the Best Director category are NoiseCat and Kassie for “Sugarcane,” Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui for “Super/Man,” Josh Greenbaum for “Will & Harper,” Ron Howard for “Jim Henson Idea Man,” Natalie Rae and Angela Patton for “Daughters” and Benjamin Ree” for “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.”

Because the Critics Choice Documentary Awards do not separate film and television documentaries into different categories, the nominations are a mixture of nonfiction films that received theatrical releases and ones that went straight to broadcast or streaming platforms.

The nominations are made by committees of members from the Critics Choice Association. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the CCA but do not participate in nomination-round voting for the doc awards.) Over the eight years of the CCDA’s existence, 60% of the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature have first received Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature, a modest level of agreement considering that the CCDA nominate between 10 and 16 films in its top category and the Oscars only nominate five. 

If you compare the Critics Choice feature nominees  with the Oscars’ 15-film documentary shortlists, a little less than half of the Critics Choice doc nominees go on to make the Oscar shortlist, and about a quarter of them become Oscar nominees.

The two groups have agreed on the year’s best doc twice, with “O.J.: Made in America” in 2016 and “Summer of Soul” in 2021.

The Critics Choice Documentary Awards will take place on Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Edison Ballroom in New York City. Actor Erich Bergen will host.

The full list of nominees:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
Daughters (Netflix)
The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix)
Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
Music by John Williams (Walt Disney Studios)
Piece by Piece (Focus Features)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)
Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)
Will & Harper (Netflix)

BEST DIRECTOR
Ian Bonhôte & Peter Ettedgui – Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros.Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)
Josh Greenbaum – Will & Harper (Netflix)
Ron Howard – Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie – Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Natalie Rae & Angela Patton – Daughters (Netflix)
Benjamin Ree – The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER(S) 
Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev – Porcelain War (Picturehouse)
Carla Gutiérrez – Frida (Amazon MGM Studios)
Charlie Hamilton James – Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
Sue Kim – The Last of the Sea Women (Apple TV+)
Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie – Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Natalie Rae & Angela Patton – Daughters (Netflix)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Michael Cambio Fernandez – Daughters (Netflix)
Charlie Hamilton James, Johnny Rolt, Bertie Gregory – Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
Christopher LaMarca, Emily Kassie – Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Iris Ng, Eunsoo Cho, Justin Turkowski – The Last of the Sea Women (Apple TV+)
Zoë White – Will & Harper (Netflix)
Jessica Young – The Blue Angels (Amazon MGM Studios)

BEST EDITING
Otto Burnham – Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)
Rik Chaubet – Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Kino Lorber)
Paul Crowder – Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
Troy Lewis, Adelina Bichiș – Daughters (Netflix)
Nathan Punwar, Maya Daisy Hawke – Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Robert Stengård – The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)

BEST SCORE
Erland Cooper – Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
Ilan Eshkeri – Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)
Nathan Halpern – Will & Harper (Netflix)
Uno Helmersson – The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)
Kelsey Lu – Daughters (Netflix)
Marc Shaiman – Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (HBO | Max) 

BEST NARRATION
Bad River (50 Eggs Films)
  Written by Mary Mazzio
  Performed by Quannah ChasingHorse & Edward Norton

Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
   Written by Charlie Hamilton James
   Performed by Billy Mail & Susan Mail

Dahomey (Mubi)
  Written by Makenzy Orcel
   Performed by Lucrece Houegbelo, Parfait Viayinon, Didier Sedoha Nassegande, and Sabine Badjogoumin

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (Cohen Media Group)
  Written and performed by Martin Scorsese

Queens (National Geographic)
   Written by Chloë Sarosh
   Performed by Angela Bassett

Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces (Apple TV+) 
   Written and performed by Steve Martin

BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu/Onyx Collective)
The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix)
Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (Cohen Media Group)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Kino Lorber)
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)

BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
Bad River (50 Eggs Films)
Dahomey (Mubi)
The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix)
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (Cohen Media Group)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Kino Lorber)
Sugarcane (National Geographic)

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY
Frida (Amazon MGM Studios)
I Am: Celine Dion (Amazon MGM Studios)
Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)
Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces (Apple TV+) 
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films)

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix)
I Am: Celine Dion (Amazon MGM Studios)
Music by John Williams (Walt Disney Studios)
Piece by Piece (Focus Features)
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Hulu)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Kino Lorber)

BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
Bad River (50 Eggs Films)
Girls State (Apple TV+)
Porcelain War (Picturehouse)
Stopping the Steal (HBO | Max)
Sugarcane (National Geographic)
The Truth vs. Alex Jones (HBO | Max)

BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY
Apollo 13: Survival (Netflix)
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (National Geographic)
Blink (National Geographic)
The Last of the Sea Women (Apple TV+)
Secrets of the Octopus (National Geographic)
The Space Race (National Geographic)

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
Copa 71 (New Black Films)
The Dynasty: New England Patriots (Apple TV+)
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (Netflix)
Mr. McMahon (Netflix)
Simone Biles Rising (Netflix)
The Turnaround (Netflix)

BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY
American Nightmare (Netflix)
Black Box Diaries (MTV Documentary Films/Paramount+)
Incident (The New Yorker)
The Jinx – Part Two (HBO | Max)
Stopping the Steal (HBO | Max)
Sugarcane (National Geographic)

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
I Am Ready, Warden (MTV Documentary Films/Paramount+)
Incident (The New Yorker)
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World (Netflix)
Once Upon a Time in Ukraine (Earle Mack Productions, Storyville Films, Goldcrest Films)
The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix)
The Turnaround (Netflix)

BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Netflix)
Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu/Onyx Collective)
Mr. McMahon (Netflix)
Ren Faire (HBO | Max)
Secrets of the Octopus (National Geographic)
Simone Biles Rising (Netflix)

BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
30 for 30 (ESPN)
America’s Most Wanted (Fox Broadcasting Company)
The Food That Built America (History)
Independent Lens (PBS)
The Jinx – Part Two (HBO | Max)
POV (PBS)

The post ‘Sugarcane’ Leads Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominations appeared first on TheWrap.

But one of the points of “Disclaimer” is that viewers themselves are also upended, as the Oscar-winning, Mexican-born director of “Children of Men,” “Gravity” and “Roma” juggles present-day scenes with flashbacks, allowing viewers to discover the relationships between characters on their own. The story also shifts between a first person, second person and third person perspective depending on what character is on the screen.

It’s an approach that requires viewers to untangle a lot of narrative threads as they follow Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen as the adult Catherine and Robert Ravenscroft, Leila George and Adam El Hagar as their younger versions and Kevin Kline and Lesley Manville as Stephen and Nancy Brigstocke, whose son Jonathan died after encountering Catherine on a holiday decades earlier.

And for Blanchett, who also served as an executive producer on the series, it’s an approach that allows her to be tight-lipped and uncommunicative for much of the six-hour-plus running time. Catherine isn’t very talkative or likable, and Cuarón and Blanchett only spill her secrets reluctantly and slowly.  

“If this was a more standardized version of serialized storytelling, you would get to know the character,” Blanchett told TheWrap. “You would build bridges of empathy between the character and the audience.”

“Disclaimer,” though, isn’t terribly interested in empathy, at least not for the woman at the center of the turmoil. “In this, we are thrust into the middle of a crisis that no one fully understands,” she said with a grin. “You don’t get a chance as an audience to understand the character, and as an actor you don’t have to try to be likable.”

“Usually, you would make the character likable from the beginning, and then you’d see the journey,” added Cuarón, who said that Blanchett attacked the script with “a magnifying glass and a sledgehammer” looking for inconsistencies and making suggestions. “Cate had to use her physicality to express so many clues about who the character really is and what’s beneath that. I don’t know how she did it.”

Blanchett isn’t exactly sure, either. “The way the story was being told was quite tricky, but I love a challenge,” she said. “In a way, I had to play a tall glass of water. The tricky thing was to withhold information from the audience about who the person was — not in some manipulative way, but to play someone who had a wealth of hidden experiences buried deep within her. And to allow that to sit there, and sometimes to bubble up.

“It was quite tricky playing a character who didn’t speak her truth, to use that very strange contemporary American expression.”

She shook her head. “Your truth. I always thought, in a very Greek way, that the truth was an immutable thing. But I think what we are coming to realize is that getting to the truth of someone or getting to the truth of an event is a very messy and complicated process that’s made up from a myriad of different perspectives in a way that speaks to the identity of a person.

“And your identity is not a static thing. You are different things to different people,” Blanchett added. “I thought about the character in relation to the circumstance that she found herself in. And with a lot of events that happen to us, we either forget them, or we bury them or ignore them or polish them up and make them into little treasures that very quickly don’t resemble anything at all of the actual event.”

“Disclaimer” circles around the event at the heart of its narrative, returning to it from different perspectives and offering different versions all the way to the finale. “I think there’s a form that tends to calcify around serialized storytelling,” she said. “You have the cliffhangers, you have character arcs developed in a certain way. And Alfonso said, in the best, most open way possible, ‘I don’t know how to make television.’ And I never felt that that’s what we were making. It was a genuine investigation in seeing what would happen.”

Cuarón didn’t look at it as a TV series, either; he premiered the film at the Venice Film Festival and also played the Toronto and London festivals before its two-episode Apple TV+ debut on Friday. At those festivals, it played in its entirety, with the first four episodes playing in one program and the last three in another.

“It’s a film in chapters,” he said. “But in television and in film, I think that there’s an over-reliance on exposition. They have to explain every single thing and don’t allow the audience to put two and two together, and maybe make their own story as they’re watching. I just wanted to trust the form.”

New episodes of “Disclaimer” drop Fridays on Apple TV+.

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With the deadline for submissions in the category passing on Wednesday and Academy members invited to become voters in the category on Friday, one big question looms over this year’s race: Can anything beat “Emilia Perez”?

At the moment, the answer appears to be no. With 82 countries having announced their entries in the race, no other film has anywhere near the visibility of the French entry, Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes sex reassignment surgery. The film has U.S. distribution from Netflix and is considered a strong candidate for a Best Picture nomination, which in five of the last six years has been a ticket to victory in the international race. (In all six of those years, the director of the international winner has also been nominated for Best Director.)

Still, it’s too early to tell how much traction the unconventional and adventurous “Emilia Perez” will get during awards season, and a few of the other entries have some visibility. Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” the Brazilian entry, has won rave reviews and comes from the director of “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Central Station.”  Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” takes place in Iran and has a backstory guaranteed to get attention: Director Mohammad Rasoulof, identified as a dissident by the Iranian government, fled that country before the film’s premiere after he’d been sentenced to flogging and imprisonment. And Italy, the country with more wins than any other, has entered “Vermiglio,” which is set during World War II — a favorite era in this category.  

Other films with a good chance in the category that has gravitated toward high-profile nominees since its voting system was changed to eliminate the executive committee that would “save” adventurous films and add them to the shortlist: Argentina’s “Kill the Jockey,” Canada’s “Universal Language,” Chile’s “In Her Place,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Norway’s “Armand,” Portugal’s “Grand Tour” and Senegal’s “Dahomey.”

Notable directors in the mix include Norway’s Halfdan Ullman Tondel, the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman; Senegal’s Mati Diop, who has made the shortlist twice; Chile’s Maite Alberdi, nominated twice for Best Documentary Feature; and Cambodia’s Rithy Panh, whose “The Missing Picture” was nominated in the international category.

Wednesday, Oct. 2 was the final day films could be submitted to the Academy; 77 countries had announced their submissions by the end of that day, with another five doing so since then. (In addition, Venezuela announced a new submission, “Vuelve a la Vida,” and said their original entry, “Children of Las Brisas,” failed to qualify because it had a streaming release prior to its theatrical debut. All other entries will need to be vetted by the Academy as well.)

Academy-authorized selection committees were required to choose a film and submit entry materials to AMPAS by 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, but they’re under no obligation to announce those submissions — so the current list of 82 submissions is likely to be increased by a handful of additional films that will bring the total close to last year’s 88 eligible films. (The record is 93, but that seems unlikely.)

To date, more than a dozen countries that submitted films last year have yet to announce submissions for 2024. That includes Australia, Luxembourg, Nigeria, North Macedonia (which announced that it had no eligible films to choose from), Paraguay, Singapore and South Africa.

Only one of this year’s entries, Ireland’s “Kneecap,” is currently available to be viewed in the members-only Academy Screening Room, but a second screening room devoted to the international category will open on Friday, Oct. 18 and will eventually contain all the eligible films. Academy members received an email on Friday inviting them to opt in as voters in the international and animated feature categories.

A previous email went out last week and told prospective voters that if they opted in, they’d be required to view 12 or 13 films, the same number as last year. The email added that viewing assignments will be made on Nov. 1 and preliminary voting will run from Dec. 9-13, with the 15-film shortlist announced on Dec. 17.  

The International Feature Film Award Executive Committee, which oversees the category, will be chaired this year by Rajendra Roy, who has served as co-chair for the last three years, and Ngozi Onwurah, a filmmaker from the Short Films Branch who is replacing director Susanne Bier as a co-chair.

Click here to see TheWrap’s list of all the submissions announced so far, with descriptions and links to trailers when available.

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At this point, it also has no real frontrunners.

So far, 2024 has been a down year at the box office and a confusing year on the film festival circuit. Before the fall festivals, the Oscar race was something of a waiting game, with everybody curious about the potential contenders that would be unveiled in Venice, Telluride and Toronto.

And now that those festivals have run their course, it’s a different kind of waiting game: waiting to see which films can start feeling like serious contenders rather than long-to-medium shots.

There’s no big commercial movie out there with the clout that “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” showed last year. And no indie film that seems to have the buzz to become this year’s “CODA” or “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Instead, the race is a whole bunch of maybes: maybe this movie will catch on with awards bodies, maybe that yet-unseen movie will be a no-doubter, maybe the international voters that have transformed Academy membership over the last six years will make bold choices …

It’s October, Oscar voting begins in a little more than three months, and the big show will take place in about five. So here’s a look at the components of this year’s race so far.

Big sequels

Apart from “The Godfather Part II” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” sequels don’t win Best Picture. And more often than not, they don’t get nominated, either: Since the Best Picture roster was expanded from five to 10 in 2009, only four of the 136 nominees have been sequels. (Those four were “Toy Story,” “Mad Max,” “Top Gun” and “Avatar” sequels.)

But four massive sequels are hitting screens in 2024, three of them already out. Of those three, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” seems to be the best bet, considering that its predecessor received 10 nominations and led all films with six wins in 2021. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Story” seemed to have less of an impact when it was released after the Cannes Film Festival, while “Joker: Folie à Deux” received wildly mixed reviews in Venice and could be a tough sell to voters as it shifts in and out of fantasy and in and out of musical numbers set to classic pop songs, all within the framework of what is essentially a courtroom drama for its second hour.

“Gladiator II,” the long-delayed sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 Best Picture winner, hasn’t screened yet but has to be considered a strong contender. But it’s worth noting that Scott has made 18 movies in the 24 years since the first “Gladiator,” and only one of them, 2015’s “The Martian,” was nominated for Best Picture. “Gladiator II” will need to recapture some of that “Gladiator I”/”Martian” mojo rather than remind viewers of his last two films, “House of Gucci” and “Napoleon.”

Cannes movies and international films

Two movies came out of the Cannes Film Festival with a seemingly clear path to Best Picture nominations. Sean Baker’s “Anora,” the Palme d’Or winner, is the raucous, very funny and unexpectedly moving story of a sex worker who gets involved with the son of a Russian oligarch. It might have been too wild and too sexual for the old Academy, but it shouldn’t be a problem for the current membership. And with the organization now increasingly international, things also look good for French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language “Emilia Perez,” a full-fledged musical about a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes sex reassignment surgery.

A couple of other films – like “Emilia Perez,” their home countries’ entries in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film race – also premiered at festivals and have an outside chance of picking up some Best Picture heat. “I’m Still Here,”  a wrenching family story set in Brazil during the military dictatorship in the 1970s, is the first film in more than a decade from “Central Station” and “The Motorcycle Diaries” director Walter Salles, and it won raves in Venice and Toronto. Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which focuses on an Iranian judge whose promotion puts him in an ethical quandary, is a dark horse. But the director’s own story may give it a boost. Identified by the state as a dissident, he was sentenced to be flogged and imprisoned, and fled the country ahead of his film’s Cannes premiere.

Other festival movies

Of the other films that premiered in Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the one with the most buzz is probably Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half-hour epic (with built-in intermission) starring Adrien Brody as a European architect who comes to the U.S. after fleeing the Holocaust. “The Brutalist” may be more of a movie for critics than voters, but it’s probably impressive enough to be in the mix all season.

Another bold vision is RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of the book by Colson Whitehead. The film tells the story of brutality in a Florida reform school, filmed from the point of view of the protagonist in a style that can be lyrical but also disorienting. It’s told in images as much as in dialogue — a dramatic contrast to Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson,” in which an all-star cast grabs hold of the 1987 August Wilson play, and to Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, “The Room Next Door,” which is structured around lengthy conversations between characters played by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” which stars Angelina Jolie as diva Maria Callas, is strong in both words and images; perhaps the strongest of Larraín’s three English-language movies about iconic women (the first two being “Jackie” and “Spencer”). It will certainly get Jolie lots of Best Actress attention but could also get recognition for the film.

The sleeper among other festival movies may be Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5,” a drama about the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis that sets the action almost entirely inside the building where an ABC news crew is trying to cover the story. The novelty of having a thriller where the action is taking place somewhere else could make the film feel fresh to voters.

Finally, Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” debuted at Sundance way back in January, a festival that doesn’t often place films into the Best Picture category, “CODA” notwithstanding.

Directors with Oscar pedigree

More than a dozen films are in contention from directors who’ve had films in the Best Picture race in the past — not just “Dune: Part Two,” “Gladiator II,” “Joker: Folie a Deux” and “Furiosa,” but also new work from Steve McQueen, Mike Leigh, Luca Guadagnino, Edward Berger, Jason Reitman, James Mangold, Richard Linklater and John Crowley.

We’ll cover Mangold and Linklater’s movies elsewhere in this piece. Leigh’s “Hard Truths” is corrosive and brilliant, with a scorching lead performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who starred in Leigh’s Best Picture nominee “Secrets and Lies” in 1995. But it will take some serious work to get this tough but understated gem on voters’ radar. The two 2024 films from “Call Me by Your Name” director Guadagnino, “Challengers” and “Queer,” might be even tougher sells, though both have their fans.

McQueen’s “Blitz” and Berger’s “Conclave,” though, are strong contenders. The former finds the “12 Years a Slave” director mounting a muscular World War II story in which a young mother (Saoirse Ronan) searches a ravished London for her lost son. The latter, which comes two years after Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” won numerous Oscars, is a stylish thriller set inside the conclave to select a new pope. Both have the feel of likely nominees.

Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” meanwhile, might be a more obvious choice for the Golden Globes or Critics Choice Awards’ comedy categories, but the breakneck pace and infectious energy of his look at the prelude to the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” could easily sway Oscar voters as well. And don’t rule out “We Live in Time,” a romantic comedy of sorts from “Brooklyn” director Crowley, which benefits from a stellar central couple in Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield and manages to be moving when you think it might get sappy.

Indies that won raves earlier this year

The year has already seen a handful of releases that could end up on an array of Top 10 lists. But the success of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” notwithstanding, it’s not easy for small films from earlier in the year to make a mark in awards season. Greg Kwedar’s “Sing Sing,” with a powerhouse performance by Colman Domingo in a film about a theater production inside a prison, has played very well in front of industry audiences and probably has the best shot at being an awards player.

Sadly, Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” and Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” which were released in May and June, respectively, are both longshots, albeit richly deserving ones. And Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is the biggest hit of the group, with a worldwide gross of more than $120 million that puts it second only to “Everything Everywhere” among A24 films.

By the way, “Hit Man” and “The Bikeriders” are among the 36 films currently available to Oscar voters in the members-only screening platform known as the Academy Screening Room. Other notable films in the room, which adds new films every Friday, include “His Three Daughters,” “Kinds of Kindness,” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Thelma.”

Yet to be seen

Here’s a rule of thumb for potential awards contenders that have yet to screen for voters or at film festivals heading into October: Most of them will not be nominated for Best Picture. Sure, one or two latecomers usually slip in, but the majority fizzle out. So at this point, it’s hard to be optimistic about the chances for what appears to be a strong lineup of yet-unseen contenders that includes James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” and Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked,” among others. (“Gladiator II” is also on this list, of course.)

Can “Wicked” overcome the fact that “West Side Story” is the only adaptation of a Broadway musical to be nominated for Best Picture in the last decade, a period that included film versions of “The Color Purple,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “In the Heights,” “Tick, Tick … Boom” and “Cats,” among others?

Can Timothee Chalamet be a convincing Bob Dylan in Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” a biopic of a guy who seems spectacularly ill-suited to biopics? (Todd Haynes used six different actors to play Dylan in “I’m Not There,” and Martin Scorsese’s last “documentary” about the singer pretty much made everything up.)

Can Eggers get a horror movie into the Best Picture lineup for the first time since “The Exorcist?” Can Eastwood, who perfected the art of an 11th-hour Oscar surprise with “Million Dollar Baby,” drop another bomb into the race with the courtroom drama “Juror #2?” Can Zemeckis finally get his second Best Picture nomination on the 30th anniversary of his first one for “Forrest Gump?”

My guess is that the answer to most of those questions is No, though “A Complete Unknown” and “Gladiator II” might have the best shot. But like everybody else, I’m flying blind here.

Animated contenders

Every year, people wonder if any animated films will manage to crash the Best Picture race. And every year since 2010, none has. (The same question is asked about documentaries, which never make the jump.) As long as there’s a separate category for animated features, voters just don’t seem inclined to include them in the best-pic vote.

This year there are two strong contenders trying to buck that trend. Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” has the added burden of being the sequel to a movie that won Best Animated Feature but wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. But at least its filmmakers can remind themselves that one of the three animated films to be nominated in the category, 2010’s“Toy Story 3,” was also a Pixar sequel. And then there’s Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” with wildly laudatory reviews but a tougher road to Oscar, given voters’ longstanding love for Disney/Pixar.

Too much?

Finally, let’s look at a group of films that may simply be too tough, too dark or too weird even for a more adventurous Academy. The Cannes sensation “The Substance” likely falls in this group, though the long and graphic body-horror film will no doubt bring lots of heat for lead actress Demi Moore. But will voters outside the Actors Branch get through the first hour of the film on the screening platform? I’d be very curious to see those stats — though even if the Academy keeps track, it would never spill the beans.

Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” and Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” are two other films in which attention is likely to go to the lead actresses — Nicole Kidman and Amy Adams, respectively — while the films themselves may be a bit extreme for voters. And while Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice” is pretty restrained for the director who brought us troll sex in “Border,” the story of the making of Donald Trump will either seem wildly timely or just too off-putting. Let’s just say that if Kamala Harris wins the election, voters may want to move on.

And then there’s Francis Coppola’s enormous and unwieldy passion project, “Megalopolis,” which divided audiences in Cannes and dropped like a lead balloon at the box office last weekend. Maybe you can’t rule out Coppola, but his film pretty much defines the term too much.

So what gets in?

The short answer: I don’t know. Nobody does, really.

But in a year that is still struggling to figure out where it’s going, here are my best early-October guesses – a top 10 followed by five additional films:

“Emilia Perez” (Neflix)
“Anora” (Neon)
“Conclave” (Focus)
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films)
“The Brutalist” (A24)
“Sing Sing” (A24)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount)
“A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight)
“Saturday Night” (Sony)

“September 5” (Paramount)
“I’m Still Here” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Maria” (Netflix)
“Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)
“We Live in Time” (A24)

The post Early Oscar Best Picture Predictions: Where Are the Frontrunners? appeared first on TheWrap.

The dinners cost a stunning $70,000 and consist of “a panel conversation with contending talent followed by an upscale dining experience with a guest list of 30-40 voters,” according to a sales deck obtained by TheWrap. 

“I think it’s insane – as does everyone else, I am sure,” one consultant who handles awards campaigns for both large companies and indies told TheWrap. In fact, multiple campaigners who spoke to TheWrap used that same word — “insane” — to describe the offer that Variety calls “a smart, sophisticated and elegant way to put your film foremost in the minds of the voters.”

“Good God,” texted another consultant when asked what he thought of the dinners.

The expressions of shock are because of the trade’s naked offer to sell access to Globes voters, whose attendance Variety can guarantee because Penske Media owns both Variety and the Golden Globes. Globes voters are contracted to the awards, a new structure that was meant to end corruption in the then-nonprofit organization.

“Variety is not selling any stand-alone dinners as part of the Golden Globes,” a spokesperson for Penske Media Corporation said in a statement to TheWrap. “The information shared in previous articles on this subject was done without any request for comment by Variety or any verification that the deck was veritable. This is a misappropriated deck, not in circulation, and was published by competitive websites portraying journalistic intent with an intent to mislead and misinform.”

Richard Rushfield, who published the deck on The Ankler newsletter, told TheWrap that he obtained it from a client who had received it from Variety as part of sales outreach.

In a separate statement to TheWrap, Variety said, “Stories recently published by the Ankler and Puck are nothing more than reckless virtue signaling from niche newsletters that contain significant inaccuracies and were not fact checked with Variety. Variety hosts a wide range of events every year involving awards voters from across the industry. The sudden scrutiny of our sales activities is coming from outlets that have tried and failed to replicate our award season coverage and events.”

The industry criticism comes as Variety faces a lawsuit from director Francis Ford Coppola for libel over an article that claimed he inappropriately touched women on the set of his new, self-financed film “Megalopolis.” Coppola, 85, said the trade humiliated him deliberately and denied the allegations.

News of the dinner offerings broke last week, along with the info that the Globes  would require films to be hosted on its own streaming platform for that $5,000 “administration fee,” among other new charges. But while the mandatory new costs annoyed studios, the dinners struck some as the kind of ethically dubious territory that caused Hollywood to boycott the Globes in 2022 over the makeup of its voters and the perception that they could be wined, dined and flattered into handing out statues.  

At that time there were fewer than 100 voters for the Golden Globes, so even a small number of votes could mean the difference between winning and losing. (According to the organization’s website, there are now 334, which also means just a few votes can sway a category.)

In the aftermath of that boycott, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was dissolved, though many of its members continued to be Globes voters, along with about 250 foreign-based critics and journalists recruited to give the organization more credibility. Last year, the Globes were acquired by Dick Clark Productions, whose ownership includes Eldridge Industries and the Penske Media Corporation. Penske and Eldridge also own the Hollywood trade publications Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.  

According to a strategist who has worked frequently with Globes voters since the show was run by the now-defunct HFPA – and who, like all the reps who will be working with the Globes and their voters this year, declined to be identified – Golden Globe members themselves were unaware that their presence was being hawked by Variety.

“For that particular group to experience what it did, only to be told by the company that bought them, ‘We’re going to do the same thing you guys got blasted for,  but it’s OK because we’re going to do it under the auspices of Penske and Variety’ – it makes literally no sense,” the consultant said.

The offer given to studios says that potential locations for these dinners include Los Angeles, Toronto, London and New York. But is the cost worth it if you’re only sitting down with 30 voters out of 334 – and can Variety even supply that many voters in a city besides Los Angeles?

In the HFPA days, all 90-odd voters were required to live in Los Angeles County, and studios used to be in the business of holding screenings and catered dinners for the entire group, which were usually well-attended. But when the HFPA was dissolved and the number of voters expanded from fewer than 100 to more than 300, the Globes recruited film critics and others from around the world.

Based on the site’s voter bios, there are likely fewer than 10 voters based in Toronto and slightly more than that in New York and London – but probably not enough to hit that 30-40 mark in either city, unless the dinner took place during an event like the Toronto Film Festival (which is already over for this year), the New York Film Festival (happening now) or the London Film Festival (which takes place in October).

As far as Los Angeles voters, the bios suggest that about 70-80 current voters are based there, which means there are enough people to hit the target if about half of them are available. (“All they have to do is boycott and not show up,” one critic suggested of the plan.)  

All of the consultants that TheWrap spoke to were adamant that the companies that they worked for would not pay for Variety’s “salon dinners.” “You can’t get a budget like that through a studio these days,” said one, who added that the only possible takers would be well-heeled streamers like Netflix.

Plans are currently underway for the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in January on CBS, with the reaction to the show owners’ new cash grabs restricted to independent voices like Puck (“Variety is now pimping for the Globes”), The Ankler and TheWrap — competitors with the Penske trades who have no stake in the Globes.

“It would be one thing if these grifters were only skimming off, say, all of the cream on top of this sector,” Rushfield wrote on The Ankler, “but now that they’re on both sides of the fence, they are leading the charge to make this whole slog so tiresome that it actually drives people away from films.”

Meanwhile, many of those on the receiving end of Variety’s sales pitch are wondering why the idea wasn’t casually floated to them in advance, the way the $5,000 streaming platform fee had been. But then again, they know exactly why it wasn’t.

“If they had asked me about it ahead of time,” one said, “I would have told them what a stupid idea it was.”

The post Studios, Awards Campaigners Appalled by Golden Globes’ New Cash Grab: ‘It’s Insane’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The Netflix film, which caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival with its story of a Mexican drug lord undergoing sex reassignment surgery, is considered one of the year’s likeliest Best Picture nominees, making it a clear favorite in the international category as well.

It was chosen on Wednesday by a selection committee that had narrowed its choices to four: “Emilia Perez,” Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” Matthieu Delaporte’s “The Count of Monte Cristo” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

Last year, that committee chose “The Taste of Things” over “Anatomy of a Fall,” going with a ravishing romance over an edgier drama that had won the top prize in Cannes. “The Taste of Things” ended up making the shortlist but not being nominated, while “Anatomy of a Fall” received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, and won in the Best Original Screenplay category.

The choice of “Emilia Perez” can partially be seen as a mea culpa from the French committee, who almost certainly lost out on a nomination by not choosing “Anatomy” last year.

France leads all countries in the number of nominations in the category, and it’s second only to Italy in the number of wins. It has made the shortlist in three of the last four years, but it wasn’t nominated any of those years. Its last nomination was for “Les Miserables” in 2019, and its last win was for “Indochine” in 1992, more than 30 years ago.

While “Emilia Perez” is by far the highest profile film in the category so far, other notable films in this year’s international race include Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” from Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran after being sentenced to flogging and nine years in prison for making the film in secret.

Also in the running: Cambodia’s “Meeting With Pol Pot” from Rithy Panh, the director who brought Cambodia its only Oscar nomination with “The Missing Picture”; Iceland’s “Touch,” from director Baltasar Kormakur; Ireland’s “Kneecap”; Morocco’s “Everybody Loves Touda” and Portugal’s “Grand Tour.”

Each country with a selection committee authorized by the Academy can submit a single film for consideration in the race. A first round of voting by volunteers from all branches of the Academy will narrow the field down to a 15-film shortlist, which will be announced in late December; a second round open to voters who watch all the films on the shortlist will choose the five nominees.

With two weeks remaining before the Oct. 2 deadline for submissions, more than 50 countries have announced their choices. This is on par with the pace of submissions last year, when 89 countries entered films and 88 were deemed eligible, five shy of the record of 93.

Here is the list of submissions so far. Inclusion on this list does not guarantee that a film will qualify, because the Academy still needs to vet each film to make sure it meets eligibility requirements ranging from the amount of non-English dialogue to the creative control exercised by the country of origin.

A list with descriptions of every entry and links to available trailers is here.

Albania: “Waterdrop,” Robert Budina

Algeria: “Algiers,” Chakib Taleb-Bendiab

Armenia: “Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev,” Edgar Baghdasaryan

Austria: “The Devil’s Bath,” Veronika Franz & Several Fiala

Belgium: “Julie Keeps Quiet,” Leonardo Van Dijl

Bolivia: “Own Hand,” Rodrigo “Gory” Patino

Bulgaria: “Triumph,” Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov

Cambodia: “Meeting With Pol Pot,” Rithy Panh

Canada: “Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin

Chile: “In Her Place,” Maite Alberdi

Colombia: “La Suprema,” Felipe Holguin Caro

Costa Rica: “Memories of a Burning Body,” Antonella Sudasassi

Croatia: “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day,” Ivona Juka

Czech Republic: “Waves,” Jiri Madi

Ecuador: “Behind the Mist,” Sebastian Cordero

Egypt: “Flight 404,” Hani Khalifa

Estonia: “8 Views of Lake Biwa,” Marko Raat

Finland: “Family Time,” Tia Kouvo

France: “Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard

Georgia: “The Antique,” Rusudan Glurjidze

Germany: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof

Greece: “Murderess,” Eva Nathena

Hungary: “Semmelweis,” Lajos Koltai

Iceland: “Touch,” Baltasar Kormakur

Indonesia: “Women From Rote Island,” Jeremias Nyangoen

Iraq: “Baghdad Messi,” Sahim Omar Kalifa

Ireland: “Kneecap,” Rich Peppiatt

Israel: “Come Closer,” Tom Nesher

Japan: “Cloud,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Kenya: “Nawi,” Vallentine Chelluget, Apuu Mourine, Kevin Schmutzler and Toby Schmutzler

Kyrgyzstan: “Heaven Is Beneath Mother’s Feet,” Rusian Akun

Latvia: “Flow,” Gints Zilbalodis

Lithuania: “Drowning Dry,” Laurynas Bareisa

Morocco: “Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch

Nepal: “Shambhala,” Min Bahadur Bham

Netherlands: “Memory Lane,” Jelle de Jonge

Palestine: “From Ground Zero,” Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi, Mustafa Al-Nabih, Muhammad Alshareef, Ala Ayob, Bashar Al Balbisi, Alaa Damo, Awad Hana, Ahmad Hassunah, Mustafa Kallab, Satoum Kareem, Mahdi Karera, Rabab Khamees, Khamees Masharawi, Wissam Moussa, Tamer Najm, Abu Hasna Nidaa, Damo Nidal, Mahmoud Reema, Etimad Weshah and Islam Al Zrieai

Panama: “Wake Up Mom,” Arianne Benedetti

Peru: “Yana-Wara,” Oscar Catacora and Tito Catacora

Poland: “Under the Volcano,” Damian Kocur

Portugal: “Grand Tour,” Miguel Gomes

Romania : “Three Kilometres to the End of the World,”  Emanuel Parvu

Senegal: “Dahomey,” Mati Diop

Serbia: “Russian Consul,” Miroslav Lekic

Slovakia: “The Hungarian Dressmaker,” Iveta Grofova

Slovenia: “Family Therapy,” Sonja Prosenc

South Korea: “12.12: The Day,” Kim Sung-su

Spain: “Saturn Return,” Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodriguez

Taiwan: “Old Fox,” Hsiao Ya-chuan

Turkey: “Life,” Zeki Demirkubuz

Ukraine: “La Palisiada,” Philip Sotnychenko

Uruguay: “The Door Is There,” Facundo Ponce de Leon and Juan Ponce de Leon

The post Oscars International Race Gets a Clear Frontrunner as France Submits ‘Emilia Perez’ appeared first on TheWrap.