Biggest Oscar Snubs #3c: 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS

Laura Vasiliu, Anamaria Marinca in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (IFC First Take)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Biggest Oscar Snubs #3b: Pedro Almodóvar’s VOLVER
A harrowing drama about a young woman (Laura Vasiliu) trying to get an abortion with the help of her friend (Anamaria Marinca) in Nicolae Ceausescu’s Communist Romania, Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It was as much a shoo-in for the best foreign language film Oscar as a film has the right to be.
"First, this movie should be enjoyed. Later, marveled at," wrote Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. "And then, once the excitement has faded, 4 [...]

THE WHITE RIBBON, STORM: German Film Critics’ 2010 Nominations

The White Ribbon (Films du Losange / Sony Pictures Classics) (top); Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca in Storm (Zentropa) (bottom)

Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon is one of the nominees for the German Film Critics Association’s best picture award. Set in a small German town prior to the outbreak of World War I, Haneke’s stark drama received four nominations: best picture, actor (Burghardt Klaussner), screenplay, and cinematography. The 2009 Palme d’Or and European Film Award winner has been well-received in the United States, though it has surprisingly failed to win many awards from American critics’ groups. The White Ribbon is German’s submission for the 2010 best foreign language film Academy Award.
The German critics’ other top nominee is Hans-Christian Schmid’s [...]

Palm Springs Film Festival Awards 2008

2008 Palm Springs Film Festival Awards
2008 Palm Springs Film Festival: January 3-14, 2008
 

In Ognjen Svilicic’s Armin, a father and son travel to the big city where they encounter myriad temptations. Armin is Croatia’s entry for the 2008 best foreign-language film Oscar.

FIPRESCI Awards
Best Foreign Language Film: Armin (Croatia) directed by Ognjen Svilicic
Best Actor: Song Gang-ho for Secret Sunshine (South Korea) directed by Lee Chang-dong
Best Actress: Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania) directed by Cristian Mungiu.
 

Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, Then She Found Me, which opens in the U.S. in May 2008, was the opening gala presentation at the 2008 Palm Springs Film Festival. The romantic comedy follows a woman [...]

Best Films of 2007: VILLAGE VOICE/LA WEEKLY Film Poll

J. Hoberman, discussing the results of a "best of the year" poll of 56 American critics, in the Village Voice:
"Why shouldn’t we be preoccupied with homicidal sociopaths? America’s been at war for the past four and a half years — with, to cite the top-polling documentary, No End in Sight (#29). War makes you wonder what exactly defines murder and who is enabled to commit it. The morally ambiguous mode known as film noir was born during World War II and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum observed at the time, the national obsession with the cannibal genius Hannibal Lecter coincided with our first Iraq adventure, Operation Desert Storm. Where do these current killers come from? It’s suggestive that both There Will Be [...]