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Launching A Film Festival—In Style

Events Journal
2438

It takes a lot of work to run, let alone launch, a film festival, but this past weekend the Coronado Island Film Festival made its debut and scored a remarkable home run. I was asked to be honorary jury chair, but my actual role was host/figurehead and while I worked hard I had a great time, as did my wife. There is a lot of hometown pride in this community, just across the bay from San Diego, and with good reason. It’s an idyllic place with lovely weather and a lot of history. The locals sponsored events, volunteered, and turned out for screenings and panels in large numbers. You could feel the enthusiasm in the air. Film buffs may know Coronado best as the location of…

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Launching A Film Festival—In Style

Blogs
2560

Launching A Film Festival—In Style

The Oscars Always Offer a Surprise or Two

Events Journal
2469

I studiously avoid the word “shoo-in” when asked to predict the nominees, although I might have caved this year when it came to Leonardo DiCaprio. (I started hearing that he was “a lock” for Best Actor back in June. Is that just aggressive p.r. or did someone on high determine that “this was his year?”) But I never dreamt that after the success and rightful acclaim heaped upon The Martian Ridley Scott wouldn’t be one of the Best Director nominees. I’m happy for relative newcomer Lenny Abrahamson, who did such a fine job with Room, but I wish they both could have been recognized. With its weighted, preferential voting system, the Academy only filled eight of its potential ten slots for Best Picture. That meant…

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The Oscars Always Offer a Surprise or Two

Blogs
2623

The Oscars Always Offer a Surprise or Two

Another Starry Weekend

Events Journal
3497

Yes, the Golden Globes has a corner on super-glitz and glamour, but I was fortunate enough to attend two smaller-scale events this weekend that offer their fair share of star-power—and credibility. As a member of the jury, I’m privileged to attend the annual AFI Awards luncheon, where A-list filmmakers and actors brush against the top creators of high-end television. Then Saturday night I joined my fellow members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for our annual awards banquet, where the winners don’t flee the moment it’s over, because they enjoy the opportunity to commune with people who, they realize, love movies just as much as they do. Here are some of my souvenir snapshots. Master and disciple: Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams clearly admire…

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Another Starry Weekend

Blogs
2694

Another Starry Weekend

‘Mustang’ and Other Weekend Discoveries

Film In Theaters Movie Reviews
2584

Holed up over a long holiday weekend I had the rare luxury of time to catch up with reading and screenings. My primary discovery was the French-Turkish import Mustang, which has made the short-list for this year’s foreign-language Academy Awards. It marks a notable feature debut for director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, who also wrote the screenplay with Alice Winocour…but you don’t need to read the credits to intuit that this story is told from a female perspective. It’s not just a matter of empathy with the five young sisters who dominate the story, but the intimacy Ergüven achieves with her (mostly non-professional) actresses. This is one of those rare movies that doesn’t seem to have been scripted or rehearsed: everything about it seems utterly genuine…

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