Writing from Cannes in May, I broke form to issue my only concrete Oscar prediction of the year: that Oliver Schmitz’s South African AIDS-crisis drama “Life, Above All” (then competing in the Un Certain Regard strand) will be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar next year, and could even win. “Is it that […]
Keep an eye on it
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:35 am · July 13th, 2010
Filed in: Daily
Jennifer Hudson boards Winnie Mandela biopic
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:17 am · November 18th, 2009
The current vogue for South African-focused cinema continues apace. With Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman applying A-list Hollywood polish to the figure of former president Nelson Mandela, Jennifer Hudson is now set to do the same for his ex-wife. Rumors about this have been circling for some time, but yesterday Variety confirmed that Hudson has […]
Filed in: Daily
Hollywood, Johannesburg
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:36 pm · November 9th, 2009
In January 2005, exactly one week after I left my birth town of Johannesburg to study film in the brighter lights of London, Darrell James Roodt’s earnest AIDS drama “Yesterday” became South Africa’s first Oscar nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Only a month later, the rather better “uCarmen eKhayelitsha” took the Golden […]
Filed in: Daily
Speaking of South Africa…
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:59 pm · September 17th, 2009
… as I just was, my Cape Town-based friend Ed just notified me that the country has selected their official foreign-language Oscar submission. “White Wedding” is a romantic comedy from novelist-turned-filmmaker Jann Turner, and starring Jodie Whittaker of “Venus” fame. The blurb describes it as “an appealing, feel-good movie about love, commitment, intimacy and friendship […]
Filed in: Daily