The 34th Film Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by a fiery and funny Aubrey Plaza (that The Cold Open cold open) were held today at the Beach in Santa Monica and If Beale Street Could Talk, from director Barry Jenkins, took home the wins for Best Feature and Best Director. Two years ago Jenkins did the same thing with Moonlight, which …
Read More »
The top guilds have given us three different winners, all with historic paths to Best Picture For only the 5th time in Oscar history we have a three-way split between the winners at the PGA (Producers Guild of America, who went for Green Book), DGA (Directors Guild of America, who went for Roma) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild, who chose …
Read More »
Damien Chazelle (First Man)Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) Even though it’s probably a safe bet to say that Alfonso Cuarón (ROMA) will win his 2nd Best Director Oscar, there is a lot of potential for the nominations to give us a completely different lineup than we saw at the DGA or BAFTA. In fact, it’s historically most likely …
Read More »
From top: Debra Granik, Lynne Ramsay and Marielle Heller aren’t in the Best Director conversation. They should be. The Golden Globes have nominated Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Alfonso Cuarón (ROMA), Peter Farrelly (Green Book), Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and Adam McKay (Vice). The Critics’ Choice nominated those five plus Damien Chazelle (First Man) and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite). I …
Read More »
KiKi Layne and Stephan James in If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna) Barry Jenkins follows up his Oscar-winning Moonlight with another masterpiece; a lush, visual love story and the first English-language film adaptation of James Baldwin’s work It doesn’t take long to fall in love with Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. In the film’s opening shot, a gorgeous crane movement …
Read More »
KiKi Layne and Barry Jenkins hit the red carpet of the closing night of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival with ‘If Beale Street Could Talk‘ October 14, 2018 I first interviewed Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins before he was an Oscar winner at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October of 2016. We met up, again at the Mill Valley …
Read More »
From top: Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler could make Oscar history That might not be that unique year to year but what is unique this year is amount of black directors who top tier contenders helming a host of Best Picture hopefuls. Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (Adapted Screenplay for Best Picture winner Moonlight) is back with …
Read More »
Lakeshore Records has released a sneak peek of the original motion picture score of If Beale Street Could Talk from Oscar-nominated composer Nicholas Britell entitled “Agape.” Britell was nominated for an Academy Award for his score for Moonlight, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 2017. He’s previous work has included Oscar-winning films 12 Years a Slave and The Big Short and …
Read More »
The top 5 in Best Director this month stays the same with a bit of movement with that group. In fact, the top 10 is all the same but with slight, but important, changes. Alfonso Cuarón still holds the top spot with his personal epic ROMA but first-time director Bradley Cooper inches up in what could be the fight of …
Read More »
KiKi Layne and Barry Jenkins hit the red carpet of the closing night of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival with ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ I caught up with Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) and his If Beale Street Could Talk star KiKi Layne at the closing night of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival on October 14, 2018. …
Read More »
AwardsWatch Dissecting the 365-days-a-year awards season of film, television and music