WINNERS FROM THE 2018 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

“Touch Me Not”, the debut feature from experimental film maker, Adina Pintilie which explores intimacy and challenges our ideas of beauty, received the top prize of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.  Set in Germany, this pseudo-documentary follows a mature English woman (Laura Benson) as she seeks to find sexual pleasure and satisfaction through a variety of different avenues. The film also won Ms Pintilie the Best First Feature Prize.



Wes Anderson, who has been greatly admired by Berlinale in the past, was given the Silver Bear Best Director Prize for his latest work, “Isle of Dogs”. This animated film features his eccentric wit and reliable charm about a future Japan that has outlawed dogs.

“The Heiresses”, a film from Paraguay by director, Marcelo Martinessi, took the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize, named after the fest’s founder to honor a film that “opens new perspectives on cinematic art”. This tells the story of a wealthy lesbian couple (Margarita Irin and Ana Brun, who took the Silver Bear Best Actress Prize) who run in to financial hard times and the toll it takes on their lives and relationship.



“Museum”, a drama inspired by the real life 1985 robbery of Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology, received the Silver Bear Best Screenplay Prize for the director, Alonso Ruizpalacios and his co-writer, Manuel Alcalá. Gael García Bernal stars as a petty thief who steals precious Mayan artifacts and how his actions end up affecting the entire nation.

Here is a partial list of the winners of the 2018 Berlin Film Festival:

Golden Bear for Best Film: “Touch Me Not“
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: “Twarz (Mug)”
Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize: “Las Herederas (The Heiresses)”
Silver Bear for Best Director: Wes Anderson, ”Isle Of Dogs“
Silver Bear for Best Actress: Ana Brun, “The Heiresses”
Silver Bear for Best Actor: Anthony Bajon, “La Prière (The Prayer)”
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Manuel Alcalá and Alonso Ruizpalacios, "Museo (Museum)”
Glashutte Original Documentary: ”Waldheims Walzer”
Best First Feature: “Touch Me Not”
Best First Feature (Special Mention): “An Elephant Standing Still“
Golden Bear for Best Short Film: “The Men Behind The Wall”

THE OSCARS AT 90

For all you Oscar junkies out there, Entertainment Weekly has put together a special look at the Academy Awards which has reached its ninetieth year of presenting the most coveted prize in cinema. The issue looks back from the very beginning when the first year was simply a fifteen minute ceremony held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and covers all the bigger and more glamorous presentations that would follow to honor the best of movie magic. What makes this issue particularly intriguing is that it reveals plenty of untold stories that went on behind the scenes of the Oscars. We have Jane Fonda and writer/director, James L. Brooks telling fascinating stories about each of the times they were nominated; a look at Luise Rainer, a premier actress in the 1930's who won back-to-back Best Actress Oscars but after all this great success, her career came to sudden end; a brief look back on Robert Opel who famously streaked during the 1974 telecast; the mania that followed the release of the 1997 Best Picture winner, "Titanic" which lead to the highest rated show in Oscar history plus much, much more.

This issue of "Entertainment Weekly" is on newsstands (remember them?) now or however you read your magazines these days. For a preview, click below:

Oscar's Greatest Untold Stories of the Past 90 Years

WINCHESTER (2018)

Written by Tom Vaughan and Peter & Michael Spierig


Directed by The Spierig Brothers


Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. February 5, 2018, 5:00 PM


"Winchester", the latest from the Aussie film making team, the Spierig brothers, is probably the first haunted house, ghost story with a pro-gun control message. While I personally found the idea admirable, the rest of the film I had more difficulty getting behind. Based very loosely on the life of Sarah Lockwood Winchester, the widow of an owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who invested some of her incredible, inherited wealth in to the continuous construction on her mansion in San Jose, California. It had been rumored that Mrs. Winchester apparently believed that she was cursed and haunted by spirits, with the endless work on her home as an attempt keep them at bay. It is certainly an intriguing concept to build a horror film around but the plot here is flimsy and the creepy frights never rise beyond obvious.

Six years in to the twentieth century, Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is approached by a representative from Winchester Repeating Arms about evaluating the widow (Helen Mirren) to see if she is mentally fit to continue running the rifle company.  Drug addled, in debit and grieving over the recent loss of his wife, Dr. Price reluctantly accepts the offer, clearly understanding the outcome they expect to be determined.

When Dr. Price arrives at the massive mansion in San Jose, he is greeted by Mrs. Winchester's niece, Marion (Sarah Snook) who is dismissive of the whole idea of his presence but welcomes him in to the home. During dinner, the doctor meets Mrs. Winchester, an intense woman, tightly wound and dressed in black, mourning attire. He later begins his assessment of her which she confesses her ability to communicate with ghosts and feels she can help them move on.

The doctor is initially skeptical of her claims until he begins to see strange ghostly visions throughout the house. He also witnesses Marion's young son, Henry (Finn Scicluna-O'Prey) being possessed by a menacing spirit, forcing the boy to commit violent and dangerous acts. And when the San Francisco earthquake strikes (still considered one of the most devastating of all time), not only do Dr. Price and Mrs. Winchester have to survive the violent tremor but they also have to fight against a large number of extremely agitated ghosts that arrive to the house seeking vengeance.

Best known for their impressive sci-fi vampire thriller, "Daybreakers", Michael and Peter Spierig certainly can deliver compelling concepts and stylish visuals yet the brothers are more challenged  when it comes to creating full-blooded characters and expressive dialogue. And the only frightening moments they come up with are jump-scares which grow increasingly annoying and tiresome as they continue on throughout the film.

A friend told me he would even be happy to pay to watch Helen Mirren read the phone book. While I won't go that far, I do greatly admire the extraordinary talent of this veteran British actress. Ms Mirren uses her undeniable charisma to fill in the underdeveloped Mrs.Winchester but her real purpose here seems only to explain the motivations of the ghosts in order to move the feeble plot forward. Mr. Clarke, the fine Australian actor who has been spending a lot of time perfecting his American accent which he uses here, in last year’s “Mudbound” and for the upcoming “Chappaquiddick” in which he plays the late Senator, Ted Kennedy, injects some much needed energy to the dire proceedings.

In the end, “Winchester” is a decently executed but generic ghost story filled with too many cheap thrills and lazy scares. But the Spierig brothers were wise enough to have the heavenly gifts of Ms Mirren and Mr Clarke to not only bring a touch of class and gravitas but also help distract from the simply average spirits that haunt this film.

COMING SOON

I think some people have tried to dismiss Jennifer Lawrence due to her youth and seemingly rapid yet unearned ascent in Hollywood. But there is no denying her talent and the twenty-seven year old Oscar winner continues to move on to more mature roles with her latest, “Red Sparrow”. She has re-teamed with her "Hunger Games" director, Francis Lawrence (no relation) with an adaptation of Jason Matthews’s espionage novel about a young Russian woman forced in to a program to train as a spy. Later, she encounters a CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) that she falls in love with but discovers he could possibly be a double agent. The trailer is filled with exciting adventure, intrigue, a glimpse of the always fantastic Charlotte Rampling and plenty of wigs for perfectly disguising one’s identity. The impressive cast also features Matthias Schoenaerts, Mary-Louise Parker, Joely Richardson, Ciaran Hinds and Jeremy Irons.

"Red Sparrow" is due in U.S. theaters on March 2, 2018

2018 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

The Berlin Film Festival is the first to introduce some of the upcoming international releases of the year and the 68th edition, which will be held on February 15th through the 25th, will open with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’ latest feature, “Isle of Dogs”. This stop-motion animated film tells the story of a future Japan where all dogs have been quarantined due to a “canine flu”. The dogs are fed up with their isolated existence until a young boy arrives in search of his dog and they all help in trying to find him. “Isle of Dogs”, featuring the voices of Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Yoko Ono, marks the second time Anderson has opened this fest following “The Grand Budapest Hotel” in 2014 (which won the Silver Bear Jury Prize ) and will open in the U.S. on March 23rd.



Tom Tykwer (best known here as the German director of the 1998 international hit, “Run Lola Run”) will head this year’s jury which will select all of the prizes. The other jury members includes Belgium actress, Cécile de France; Spanish photographer, Chema Prada; American film critic, Stephanie Zacharek; Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto and American producer, Adele Romanski.

The Berlinale Classics section will present the world premieres of seven films that have been digitally restored. This includes Wim Wenders’ 1987 prize-winner, "Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin), "My 20th Century (Az én XX. századom)", the 1989 black & white, fairy tale which pays homage to silent films by Hungarian director, Ildikó Enyedi, (who is up for a Best Foreign-Language Oscar this year for her film, "On Body and Soul") and "Fail Safe", Sidney Lumet's intense Cold War drama from 1964.







And Willem Dafoe, who is nominated for an Oscar this year for his performance in “The Florida Project“, will receive an Honorary Golden Bear for life-time achievement. Some of his notable films will be screened including his first major screen appearance in “To Live and Die in L.A.”, “The Last Temptation of Christ “, “Mississippi Burning”, “Shadow of a Vampire”, “Antichrist”, and “Platoon “.

28 FILMS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH

February is Black History Month and what better way to look back and explore that rich history than through cinema and the work of many important African-American film makers. Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott, film critics of the New York Times, have selected twenty-eight films that they recommend to be seen which examines the vibrant yet challenging life and history of African-Americans throughout the 20th century.

Beginning with early black film makers like Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams who made what were then called "race movies" in the 1920's and made specifically for black audiences. When African-Americans did appear on screen in Hollywood films in '30's and '40's, they were mostly assigned to the role of maids and butlers but glamorous stars did manage to emerge like Lena Horne who starred in the all-black musical, "Stormy Weather" and even appeared in mainstream Hollywood musicals although her scenes were easily removed when screened in the segregated South. By the 1960's, social issues began to take shape in films like Gordon Parks’s “The Learning Tree” and the very first black Hollywood superstar arrived; Sidney Poitier. "Blaxploitation" films began in the 1970's designed to instill pride and rage against oppression. And thrilling independent cinema came on the scene in the 1980's which spoke on the varied African-American experience in bold and artistic ways and includes such features as "Killer of Sheep" by Charles Burnett; Marlon Briggs' poetic "Tongues Untied"; Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" and Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It".

Click here to read:

28 Days, 28 films For Black History Month

WINNERS OF THE 2018 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

"The Miseducation of Cameron Post", Desiree Akhavan's moving drama which examines a gay conversion camp, took the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Based on the YA novel by Emily M. Danforth, this '90's set story looks back not so long ago when some felt that all was required was a lot of prayer and some heavy-duty brain-washing to simply make someone no longer gay. Chloë Grace Moretz stars as the title character with Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, John Gallagher Jr. and Jennifer Ehle co-starring. Sara Colangelo took the Directing Prize for her work with an American-set remake of an Israeli film, "The Kindergarten Teacher". Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a New York teacher who is convinced that one of her students is a child prodigy. There were plenty of other honors handed out with special jury awards, audience awards and prizes in world cinema and documentaries.

Here is a partial list of winners from the 2018 Sundance Film Festival:

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: "The Miseducation of Cameron Post"

Directing Award: Sara Colangelo, "The Kindergarten Teacher"



Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Christina Choe, "Nancy"

Special Jury Award – Outstanding First Feature: Reinaldo Marcus Green, "Monsters and Men"



Special Jury Award – Excellence in Filmmaking: Reed Morano, "I Think We’re Alone Now"

Special Jury Award – Acting: Benjamin Dickey, "Blaze"

Special Jury Award – Social Impact Filmmaking: "Crime + Punishment"

Special Jury Award – Creative Vision: "Hale County This Morning This Evening"

Special Jury Award – Breakthrough Filmmaking: "Minding the Gap"

Special Jury Award – Storytelling: "Three Identical Strangers"

U.S. Documentary Award: "Kailash"

U.S. Documentary Directing Award: Alexandria Bombach, "On Her Shoulders"

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

U.S. Dramatic: "Burden"

World Cinema Dramatic: "The Guilty" (Denmark)

U.S. Documentary: "The Sentence"

World Cinema Documentary: "This is Home" (U.S.A)

WORLD CINEMA COMPETITION:

Grand Jury Prize: "Butterflies" (Turkey)

Directing Prize: Isold Uggadtti, "And Breathe Normally" (Iceland, Sweden, Belgium)

Special Jury Prize – Screenwriting: Julio Chavezmontes and Sebastián Hofmann, "Tiempo Compartido (Time Share)" (Mexico, Netherlands)



Special Jury Prize – Acting: Valeria Bertuccelli, "The Queen of Fear" (Argentina, Denmark)

Special Jury Prize – Ensemble Acting: "Dead Pigs" (China)


DOCUMENTARY:

Grand Jury Prize: "Of Fathers and Sons" (Germany, Syria, Lebanon)

Directing Award: Sandi Tan, "Shirkers" (U.S.A.)