3rd-Annual Limité Honors – Celebrating Careers in Film, Television, Music, and Lifestyle

(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)

July 12, 2012

If you know anything about Limité, you know that we don’t follow the norm, nor do we care what the “others” glorify. Awards and recognition are usually given out to those who’ve sold a certain amount of music albums or for their performance in a big budget movie in the last fiscal year, but what about celebrating someone’s entire career and being recognized? That’s what we’ve done in our 3rd Annual Limité Honors. The individuals below have entertained us on more than one occasion and we deem it necessary to give respect when respect is due. Enjoy!

Jessica Chastain

by Daniel Quitério

Don’t tell Jessica Chastain that Rome wasn’t built in a day, because you’d be speaking to the one person who proved that all wrong in 2011. Chastain’s list of film credits and honors that one year surpasses most actors’ entire careers.

Born Jessica Howard, the would-be actress grew up in Northern California. She began as a dancer in her early teens before acting in local Shakespeare productions. The entertainer eventually enrolled at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York as a drama major, where during her last year, she was offered a holding deal by TV producer John Wells (ERThe West Wing) and worked on three of his shows.

Film was a logical next step. Chastain went on to debut as the title character in Jolene (2008). A few years later, moviegoers were watching the blossoming-yet-seasoned actress in an astonishing seven films in 2011, including The DebtTake Shelter, and The Tree of Life. She went on to receive multiple breakthrough artist awards and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Help, in which she played a sympathetic and domestically challenged housewife. Thanks to her meteoric rise, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

This year, Chastain’s credits threaten to nearly trump her 2011 filmography. She’s set to star in six more films, including a second collaboration with Malick (To the Wonder) and a film about Navy SEAL Team 6—the soldiers that killed Osama bin Laden—entitled Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker).

Chastain may very well be the most prolific actress in the movies today, but let’s not forget that film is just one of the media in which she has proven herself. With a background in theatre and television, Chastain’s versatility makes her an actor among actors.

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On My DVR: Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012)

Synopsis (courtesy of IMDb):
A drama centered on the romance between Ernest Hemingway and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s inspiration for For Whom the Bell Tolls and the only woman who ever asked for a divorce from the writer.

Premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival out of competition, Hemingway & Gellhorn began its run on HBO this past May. Following Rabbit Hole (2010), this appears to be another film in the newest string of good Nicole Kidman movies. Since her series of great movies and performances in the early 2000s (culminating in an Oscar win for her performance in The Hours, 2002), I’ve long held that Kidman is one of the best actresses around today. Unfortunately, a slew of bad movies took her out of favor with some people, but she seems to be back and stronger than ever.

Director: Philip Kaufman
Screenwriters: Jerry Stahl, Barbara Turner
Cast: Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, Parker Posey, Tony Shalhoub, David Strathairn
Genres: Drama, Romance
Distributor: HBO
Runtime: 155 min.

Thinking of Submitting Your Film to a Festival? Read This.

I’m not going to profess to be an expert in this matter, but I have worked as a festival screener for a few notable and well-respected New York-based film festivals over the last couple of years. I’ve picked up a few things along the way—some things perhaps obvious, others maybe not so much. I spend hours upon hours watching terrible films of all types, including features, shorts, narratives, documentaries, live action, animation, drama, comedy, and experimental. There are the occasional good films, which act as a welcome palate cleanser, but often even those films don’t make the cut. Seems unfair, but it’s the reality of festivals. There is no silver bullet—no road to take that will guarantee acceptance into a festival, but there are a few things worth considering—things that we screeners and programmers look for—that can only help your chances. But before I spill these pearls, let me give you a brief description of who we screeners are and what role we play.

Continue reading Thinking of Submitting Your Film to a Festival? Read This.