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• Michael Cieply reports from the “W.E.” press conference in Toronto, where Madonna is doing slightly better than she did over in Venice. [Arts Beat] • Speaking of Toronto, Tilda Swinton keeps hitting the press rounds at the fest. [Speakeasy] • Pete Hammond hears that Sony Classics wanted to lay the groundwork for a Michael [...]
9/13 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Madonna in Toronto, SPC’s would-be ‘Shame’ plan, Clooney overexposed?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:12 am · September 13th, 2011
Filed in: Daily
OFF THE CARPET: Strong year for double-dippers
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:58 am · September 12th, 2011
We find ourselves right in the middle of the big Toronto press junket, er, film festival, where 200-plus films are landing, many of them as world premieres, and the landscape of this year’s Oscar race is really beginning to take shape. As I looked out at the various films in play this year, it suddenly [...]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
Venice awards make a stand
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:05 am · September 11th, 2011
To judge from the press reaction to yesterday’s Venice Film Festival awards, you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael Fassbender won every single one of them, plus an extra certificate for full attendance. That’d hardly be surprising in any circumstances, given Fassbender’s growing celebrity and the media’s reliable aversion to world cinema. Best Actor [...]
Filed in: Daily
VENICE: ‘Faust’ wins Golden Lion, Fassbender takes Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:53 am · September 10th, 2011
Guy is currently in transit from Venice (where, once again, he offered some bang-up coverage throughout — much appreciated). I’ll let him address the bulk of this when he touches down, but for now, a big win out of the festival for “Shame” in Michael Fassbender’s Volpi Cup victory. In accepting the award, Fassbender tipped [...]
Filed in: Daily
Fox Searchlight picks up McQueen’s ‘Shame’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:35 pm · September 9th, 2011
I would say “Toldja!,” but I think that’s trademarked elsewhere. Nevertheless, as indicated here a few times, Fox Searchlight Pictures was pretty serious about “Shame” after the film bowed at Venice and Telluride on the same day over the weekend. It’s set to screen Sunday in Toronto, but ahead of that, the dependent has bravely [...]
Filed in: Daily
VENICE: What will win… and what should
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:13 pm · September 9th, 2011
This year’s Competition strand of the Venice Film comprised 23 films — a large-ish number by major festival standards, and yet it still feels remarkably thin. Admittedly, I’m viewing the field with a slight eyepatch on, having only seen 17 of the 23 films. Yet compared to last year’s lineup — where the successes ranged [...]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR TALK: Ep. 60 — A sprint Telluride recap, ‘Descendants,’ ‘Albert Nobbs,’ disagreeing on ‘Dangerous Method,’ thoughts on Eddie Murphy, Toronto preview (ish)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:07 am · September 9th, 2011
Welcome to Oscar Talk. In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty [...]
Filed in: Oscar Talk
‘Shame’ igniting pre-Toronto bidding war?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:04 pm · September 7th, 2011
I first reported out of Telluride that Fox Searchlight was looking like a good possibility to pick up Steve McQueen’s brilliant, stirring — and naughty — “Shame,” and expanded my thoughts on that possibility in Tuesday’s Off the Carpet column. Well, it looks like Deadline’s Mike Fleming is hearing similar things, and not just that [...]
Filed in: Daily
Oscar hopes for Venice flicks
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:01 pm · September 6th, 2011
I had asked Guy for a quick one-off on each of the Oscar-contending films he’s seen at Venice so far. I was going to use it for today’s Off the Carpet column, but I published before he got around to it. Nevertheless, it’s worth boiling things down (from his perspective), so here’s what he’s thinking [...]
Filed in: Daily
OFF THE CARPET: And we’re off!
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:09 pm · September 6th, 2011
This morning’s interview with “Into the Abyss” director Werner Herzog represented my last Telluride communique (though I guess I was already home) from this year’s 38th annual festivities. Five days, 18 posts, nine movies and three interviews. It was a dense sprint to start the race, and now, with Venice still in-progress and Toronto set [...]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
TELLURIDE: Michael Fassbender and a tale of two movies
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:54 pm · September 4th, 2011
Today’s screening of “Shame” was the big note of anticipation for me at this year’s Telluride fest. After bowing in Venice earlier this morning to generally positive praise, my hopes were still high that Steve McQueen made good on the promise of “Hunger” three years ago. And did he ever. I’m tired, at the end [...]
REVIEW: “Shame” (***1/2)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:36 am · September 4th, 2011
Venice Film Festival If “Hunger,” artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen’s remarkable debut feature, was a study of a body strenuously denied its fundamental needs, his satisfyingly rigorous, explicit follow-up, “Shame,” traces the very different damage done by a body over-gifted with wants. A sternly formalist parable on the pruning and stunting of relationships both familial and carnal [...]
Filed in: Reviews
TELLURIDE: Settling in for the 38th annual
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:42 pm · September 1st, 2011
So here I sit in Telluride, a nice view of the mountainside gondolas out the window, a swift flight and gorgeous shuttle ride later. As always, we were greeted with the festival program upon boarding the charter this morning, which also carried filmmakers Werner Herzog and Alexander Payne, actress Tilda Swinton, etc., their presence at [...]
Filed in: Daily
VENICE: Follow the Lido — a festival preview
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:14 am · August 30th, 2011
“Why Venice and not Toronto?” a colleague asked when I mentioned I was heading to the Lido for the world’s oldest film festival for the third straight year. Given the North American bent of this site, it was a fair question, but also one I found easy to answer — and not just for the [...]
Filed in: Daily
THE LISTS: Top 10 most anticipated films of the 2011-2012 Oscar season
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:11 am · August 30th, 2011
If you haven’t noticed, this week has pretty much launched our 2011-2012 Oscar season coverage in earnest. Since it has been ages since we dusted of our lists feature here at In Contention, it seemed a good way to peek into the season was offering up a personal list of anticipations. I’ve seen a few [...]
Filed in: The Lists
OFF THE CARPET: Fall fests look to boost early Oscar hopes
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:00 am · August 29th, 2011
On a warm Saturday afternoon in Telluride last year, I sat in the crowded Chuck Jones Cinema and felt the warmth in the room as Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” screened for its first audience of the year. Six months later, at the end of a road with plenty of twists and turns, the film’s [...]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
Venice competition includes Polanski, Cronenberg, Alfredson
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:07 am · July 28th, 2011
These days, so much media speculation precedes the announcement of any major festival lineup that the eventual unveiling comes almost as an anti-climax — or at least it would do if the long-expected films weren’t so appetizing in the first place. As was the case with the Toronto lineup on Tuesday, the just-revealed programme for [...]
Filed in: Daily
Fassbender’s 2011 gets busier with McQueen’s ‘Shame’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:47 am · November 11th, 2010
I’m lousy at keeping track of pre-production news, so if you’d asked me an hour ago what British artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen was tackling for his sophomore feature, I’d have answered, “Oh, I know — that Fela Kuti biopic starring Chiwetel Ejiofor.” And I’d have been wrong. The more clued-up folks at The Playlist report that [...]
Filed in: Daily
