Alternative Film Guide

The Metro Manila Film Festival, which comes to a close on Jan. 5, 2008, has had its usual share of controversy. Last year, actress Celia Rodriguez accused the festival of placing commercialism above art. This year, the issues have been the excessive number of sequels (sounds just like Hollywood) and the fact that in [...]

Jack Mathews‘ "Next Up in Oscar Race: Voters Who Matter" in the New York Daily News:
"It’s been fun watching the evolution of the awards, as critics’ groups narrowed the field with their collective awards while breaking the hearts of many of the individual members. Movies that will end up on many top 10 lists didn’t [...]

"Much like Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life in American culture," writes Peter Finn in the Washington Post, "the Soviet film The Irony of Fate has a permanent home in Russian hearts — and on TV screens every holiday season."
Finn describes Eldar Ryazanov’s 184-minute 1975 romantic comedy-drama as "a sweet, witty romance that also took [...]

Mike Kaplan’s "Kubrick: a marketing odyssey" in The Guardian:
"I was the resident longhair in the publicity department of MGM when I first met Stanley Kubrick, in April 1968. I had spent the previous four days canvassing the befuddled media, who were trying to grasp his new film, a non-verbal epic called 2001: A Space Odyssey, [...]

11th Online Film Critics Society Awards - 2007
The 11th Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) award nominations were announced on January 3, 2008.
The 11th OFCS award winners will be announced on January 8, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
* No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
* The Diving Bell and the [...]

At Filmcritic.com, Chris Cabin has a highly eclectic list of the top unreleased (in the US, that is) films of 2007, ranging from Catherine Breillat’s The Old Mistress (left) to Mamoru Oshii’s The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters. Some of these titles will get a US release in 2008.
A sample commentary:
"For those [...]

The 2008 Nashville Film Festival (NaFF), reportedly the longest-running film festival in the American South, will take place between April 17–24 at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16.
Earlier this year, the festival was attended by more than 20,000 filmgoers and entertainment professionals from around the globe. About 240 films from 44 countries were screened, in [...]

Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern’s Darfur documentary The Devil Came on Horseback is currently available via Netflix.
In the documentary, former American Marine Capt. Brian Steidle attempts to spread the word to the U.S. government and public about the atrocities he witnessed in Sudan’s Darfur region. Estimates about the number of dead — black Africans [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that three hundred and six feature films are eligible for the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2007, announced today.
As per the Academy’s press release, "to be eligible for 80th Academy Awards consideration, feature films have until midnight, December 31, to open in a commercial [...]

Today, nomination ballots for the 80th Academy Awards were mailed to the 5,829 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 12, 2008. Ballots received after the deadline will be discarded.
According to the Academy’s press release, "prior to mailing, [...]

I’ve made no secret of the fact that my Mike Taylor/Tony Solantro novels are very much influenced by the movies. The classic films of the ’30s and ’40s, mostly. That said, no other films influenced the style of my book series more than the Road comedies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and the girl forever [...]

National Treasure: Book of Secrets topped the North American box office this past three-day weekend with an estimated US$45.5 million.
The Jon Turteltaub-directed sequel to the 2004 smash hit National Treasure opened at 3,832 theatres on Friday, beating the opening weekend gross of its predecessor by $10 million. Starring Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris and Helen [...]

2nd Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards - 2007
The 2nd Oklahoma Film Critics Circle award winners were announced on December 23, 2007.
 

 
Best Film of 2007: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-up:
Juno
Zodiac
Atonement
Michael Clayton
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Gone Baby Gone
Once
Eastern Promises
Best Foreign Film: The Diving [...]

Via indieWIRE — "The Critics Speak: Best, Worst, the Auteurs and the Underrated." Below are a couple of sample quotes:
"More people in our world will see Juno than 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. More will see 300 than Offside. More will see Saw IV than There Will Be Blood [right, Daniel Day-Lewis]. [...]

3rd St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards - 2007
The 3rd St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association award nominations were announced on December 17, 2007.
The 3rd St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association award winners were announced at Schlafly Bottleworks on December 21, 2007.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
BEST PICTURE
The Assassination of Jesse James by [...]

Utah Film Critics Association Awards - 2007
The 2007 Utah Film Critics Association award winners were announced on December 21, 2007.
 

 
Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runner-up: Juno by Jason Reitman
Other runners-up (in alphabetical order): The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I’m Not There, Into [...]

12th Florida Film Critics Circle Awards - 2007
The 12th Florida Film Critics Circle Award winners were announced on December 21, 2007.
 

 
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Foreign-Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel
Best Documentary: No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson
Best Directors: Joel [...]

Erica Abeel interviews Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud at indieWIRE, where they discuss family, politics, non-politics, and cartoon voices.
Satrapi and Paronnaud’s Persepolis will be screened in the US in a dubbed version — though I do hope that a print with the original French-dialogue track will be available somewhere here in Los Angeles. Catherine Deneuve, [...]

Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE:
"Still unseen by the general public as the year comes to a close, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood dominated indieWIRE’s annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics. Set for a limited U.S. release starting next week, the exceptional fifth feature by P.T. Anderson was named best film [...]

Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE:
"What is it about Korean auteurs that have critics salivating and distributors running for the exits? Last year, Hong Sang-soo’s Woman on the Beach topped indieWIRE’s best undistributed films list for 2007. This year, Hong compatriot Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine was far-and-way the winner of the honor. Thirty-four of the 106 critics [...]

1st Detroit Film Critics Society Awards - 2007
The 1st Detroit Film Critics Society award nominees were announced on December 14, 2007.
The 1st Detroit Film Critics Society award winners were announced on December 19, 2007.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
Best Film
* No Country for Old Men
Juno
Into the Wild
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There Will Be [...]

11th Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards - 2007
The 11th Las Vegas Film Critics Society award winners were announced on December 20, 2007.
 

 
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-Up:
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
3:10 to Yuma
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Zodiac
Into the Wild
Juno
Eastern [...]

Louis J. Horvitz will return early next year to direct the 80th Academy Awards telecast, producer Gil Cates has announced.
This will be Horvitz’s 12th time directing the Academy Awards show. For his Oscar ceremony efforts, he has received eight Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards.
Horvitz has also directed countless "Primetime Emmy Awards," "Kennedy Center [...]

3rd Austin Film Critics Association Awards - 2007
The 3rd Austin Film Critics Association award winners were announced on December 18, 2007.
 

 
Best Film: There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson
Runners-up:
No Country For Old Men
Juno
Into the Wild
3:10 to Yuma
Knocked Up
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Atonement
American Gangster
Eastern Promises
Best Foreign Film: Black Book by Paul Verhoeven
Best Documentary: [...]

Via Tim Drake’s "U.S. Bishops Withdraw Controversial Movie Review" in the National Catholic Register:
"’The aggressively anti-religious, anti-Christian undercurrent in The Golden Compass is unmistakable and at times undisguised,’ [Denver Archbishop Charles] Chaput wrote in a column in the Dec. 12 issue of the Denver Catholic Register. ‘The wicked Mrs. Coulter [above] alludes approvingly to a [...]