Monday, April 23, 2012

The Oscar Calendar Weekly Watchlist for April 22 to 29, 2012

I’m back with another edition of the Oscar Calendar’s Weekly Watchlist.

As I predicted last week, the big news was that the Cannes Film Festival announced its lineup. My friend Bonjour Tristesse has published some amazing analysis of this, including descriptions and trailers for many of the films that will be in the Official Competiton and Un Certain Regard. You can even learn more about the Palme d’Or history and previous winners.

But before we all zip off to France, we should remember that there are some film festivals already going on! Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet won at Istanbul International Film Festival; Jaffe Zinn’s Magic Valley and David Fines’ Salaam Dunk won at Florida Film Festival; Nick Murphy’s The Awakening won at Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival; while the Dallas International Film Festival awarded Faith Love And Whiskey, Tchoupitoulas, Wolf, Dirty Energy and The Invisible War. The Athens International Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival also concluded, but I have not been able to find a list of winners online yet. And if you’re tired of reading about dramas and documentaries, don’t forget to check out the winners of Action Fest: The Film Festival With A Body Count.

This week the two big festivals going on are the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival. For coverage of Tribeca, I recommend following I Luv Cinema, who is sending out news and pictures on the ground there, and Life Between Films, who already has several reviews up from the festival. For more information on Hot Docs, I recommend Ryan McNeil’s LAMMY-Winning coverage at The Matinee.

Other film festivals beginning this week include USA Film Festival, Independent Film Festival Boston, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, and the Jeonju International Film Festival. Plus, you can still catch the end of Chicago Latino Film Festival, City Of Lights, City Of Angels Film Festival (Col-Coa), Tiburon International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Riverside International Film Festival  Torino GLBT Film Festival, and goEast Festival Of Central And Eastern European films in Wiesbaden.


Those who follow the Oscar shorts races will note the following directors have qualified for next year’s Oscar consideration.

1. Laurie Thomas for Prima Donna
2. Ornana for (Notes On) Biology (Animated)

While the documentary shorts don’t technically allow for qualification through festivals, it is worth noting that Patrick Kack-Brice’s Maurice won best documentary short in Florida.


At the commercial theaters, the wide and limited releases include: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits, The Raven, Sound Of My Voice, Restless City, 96 Minutes, Bernie, The Broken Tower, Citizen Gangster, Elles, Headhunters, Safe, The Five-Year Engagement, Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale, The Giant Mechanical Man, Mamitas, Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment.

For more on what is coming up in the world of movies, be sure to check out the full Oscar Calendar, and let me know in the comments which of these films you are most looking forward to seeing!
.

10 comments:

  1. Brilliant update, and many thanks for the links.

    Lots of cool news to catch up with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I'm really looking forward to Cannes this year, as it seems like there are a lot of great films in competition and out of competition too!

      Delete
  2. Any of those movies being released going to make you next predictions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Pirates!: Band Of Misfits is already in my animated predictions, but the other wide and limited release films probably won't show up very high in my lists.

      Of Course, all the films from Cannes will get a big bump.

      Delete
    2. Ah... I would have liked to have Jack Black (Bernie) get some consideration for Best Actor.

      Delete
    3. I admit that I hadn't really considered Bernie that seriously Maybe he can sneak into the Golden Globe comedy section, but even there I think that the early release date may hurt him.

      Delete
  3. There's never a shortage of award shows aren't they? :D Man I wish I could attend some of these like Tribeca or Cannes, that'd be awesome. Thanks for the thorough info, David.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ruth. It is so true that the hands on the clocks just keep ticking away. I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out victorious at Cannes.

      Delete