The fall is my favorite season for several reasons: the weather, the holidays, the foliage, the movies—oh, the movies. This is when studios release their best contenders for Oscar glory, more than four months away. Every year, I aim to watch all of the Oscar hopefuls before nominations are announced (this year on January 16, 2014).
Here is my second-annual list of this year’s major contenders in various categories, along with release dates.
FRUITVALE STATION
The 51st New York Film Festival is upon us, bringing some of the world’s best film’s to New York from September 27 – October 13. And with that, the lineup for its annual NYFF Live panels has just been released. These talks are FREE and open to the public.
(Full schedule and more information after the jump.)
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
With the start of September comes the much-anticipated fall film season—the time of year when studios and independent distributors alike present their best hopes for Oscar gold and some big box office dollars. This season, keep your eye on some key dramas like Gravity,Inside Llewyn Davis, American Hustle, and The Wolf of Wall Street, among others. And following his turn in this spring’s Star Trek into Darkness, British import Benedict Cumberbatch continues to make waves this side of the Atlantic in four features (12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, August: Osage County).
Tell us in the comments which films you’re most looking forward to seeing.
Note: All non-authored pieces’ loglines are courtesy of IMDb.com.
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
Man of Steel. Star Trek into Darkness. World War Z. These are the movies we won’t be talking about in this summer movie feature. For the fourth year, Limité is taking a look beyond the standard blockbuster studio fare to bring you some of the most-anticipated independent films with a summer release date. Proving that a $100 million budget is not a necessity—and is often a hindrance—to deliver a powerful story, these 10 films masterfully transform a small budget into a big punch.
by Daniel Quitério
January 1, 2009. Oakland, CA. Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black male, was caught in a physical altercation on a train a mere two hours after celebrating the passing of the new year with his friends. Held at the Fruitvale BART station by the police, an agitated Oscar was restrained by the officers, held with his face against the ground. One officer then pulled out his gun and shot the unarmed Oscar in the back, ultimately ending his life. (The officer claims he was reaching for his stun gun.) Fruitvale Station tells the true story of Oscar’s last day alive. A conflicted young father, he was just trying to get by, and although he didn’t always make the soundest choices, he was loved dearly by his family and friends—none of whom believed he deserved his ultimate fate.
Official Logline:
Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zu2cW7AhO8]
It’s not often that I watch a movie and feel compelled to write about it (unless I have to)—that is, write beyond the 140 characters allowed by Twitter. But I recently watched Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines and instantly knew that I had to get the word out. Without knowing much about the film, I knew I wanted to see it (despite a trailer that did not interest me) for two reasons: 1. It’s Derek Cianfrance, and I LOVE Blue Valentine (which topped my annual Top 20 list in 2011), and 2. It stars Ryan Gosling, who, in my opinion, is one of the most talented actors alive today. Now, I watch a lot of movies. A LOT. And it’s hard to come by a truly great film nowadays that can compete with the purity and heart of those from the Golden Age of cinema. So rest assured that I am not half-heartedly slinging around superlatives when I say that The Place Beyond the Pines is one of my all-time favorite movies.
Continue reading THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES: The Year’s First Amazing Film
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
Dear Academy,
You get thanked an awful lot by Oscar winners, but you don’t always make the smartest choices (#justsayin). Allow us to help you along a bit so you don’t make another embarrassing blunder (Affleck, anyone?) come February 24th. Here’s who we say should win in some of the key races.
Your friends,
Dan Quitério
Limité Film Editor
Stephanie Dawson
Senior Film Contributor
Check out this clip and new poster for Noah Baumbach’s latest offering, Frances Ha, starring and co-written by Greta Gerwig. The movie made my top 20 list for 2012 (#16). The film is slated for a limited release beginning May 17.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lppZIudsPWc&feature=player_embedded]
An interactive script for Oscar Best Original Screenplay nominee Moonrise Kingdom was recently released. Check it out here. The screenplay was written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola.
(Re-posted from LimitéMagazine.com)
I recently sat down with Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes in Manhattan’s Film Forum, where his new feature Tabu will be screening as of December 26th. The film’s story begins in Lisbon where we meet Aurora, an elderly woman with a seemingly uninteresting life. Following her death, Aurora’s neighbor and maid join to find an old man with a connection to Aurora’s past. As the man begins to tell his and Aurora’s story, we are transported to a former Portuguese colony in Africa, where we witness their youthful, eccentric lives play out.
Tabu is told in two distinct parts: the first half set in Lisbon in the present day and the second set in Africa decades earlier. Both benefit from the classic mode of filmmaking that Gomes employed. His use of black-and-white imagery and a 4:3 aspect ratio hearken back to a cinema of old, honoring a long-forgotten art while emphasizing the film’s theme of lost youth.
This year, the film has screened at the New York Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Las Palmas Film Festival (Spain), and won two awards at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival.
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