versiunea 1.3. redux (incl. ROCKLAND & alinland)
all winers here
Palme d'or |
FJORD Kudos !!! next on I guess the Oscars ! |
...when in Rome...just landed and in the taxi I hear the news, celelbrissimo attore Robert Duvall, etc..surely I get it. Gone. I mean he was 95, lived a great and long life and his films are immortal.
But why everytime I go somewhere this kind of news get heavier and harder?
Last year was just tough and brutal: Gene Hackman in Barcelona (also at 95, also in February), Brian Wilson when we were at night in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, Michael Madsen when I was to see Iron Maiden in Belfort, Remo Girone in Tramonti, Rob Reiner in Porto...Just when Ozzy left I was in Brasov...
all nominations here.
watching them live on Voyo for the 1st time, interesting to see the breaks without commercials, really, some candid scenes. Even saw Sean Penn smoking at the table !!! And monsieur Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, talking cordially to Guillermo Del Toro ! And later on to Sean Penn.
the Big winners:
#OneBattleAfterAnother #sinners #Hamnet #Adolescence #ThePitt/#TheStudio
1st film I saw on 2026 it's one of the best of 2025 and one of Park Chan-wook's best. No Other Choice aka Eojjeolsuga eobsda. It's also the offical Korean Submission for Best International film at the Oscars and it's nominated for 3 Golden Globes Awards. No Other Choice premiered in the 2025 Venice Film Fest Competition. It won Best Director in Sitges FF.
It's limited in Romanian Cinemas now, so try to see it on the big screen, it's worthy. Just peropeare for slower development, the film has 2h19 mins.
I follow the Korean director for 25 years, ever since he came to Bucharest with his 1st feature, JSA (Joint Security Area) at the 1st Festasia fest edition. That was before Oldboy, Mr. and Mrs. Vengeance, Thirst, Handmaiden and Stoker. Saw most of his oeuvre, also the HBO series The Sympathiser, so I can say that this one it's one of his best.
The Sirat Bridge, in Islamic belief, is a narrow and perilous bridge that every person must cross on the Day of Judgment to enter Paradise (Jannah). It is described as being thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, with the faithful crossing it swiftly, while sinners may fall into Hell below.
(from imdb trivia)
SIRAT is one of the best films of 2025, and definitely the most interesting, visually and thematically. Jury Prize in Cannes and Golden Globe nominated for best foreign film (Spain's entry) and surely Oscar nod in the same category. Sergi Lopez leads a cast of unknown and unprofessional actors into the Morrocan -here unanmed-desert in a Jodorowskian take on Sorcerer (Friedkin's best !!!) in Burning Man territory. Existentialism follows upwards and downwards spiral ;)
Director and co-writer Oliver Laxe says Sirat it's a mix of Mad Max, Easy Rider and Stalker.
Also there are one armless man, one legless man (Freak show, /Freaks t shirt), another hint at some Jodorowski. And a pun on a Boris Vian poem and song, more existentialism and surrealism mix.
Stellar Techno electronic soundtrack by French artist Kangding Ray. Would deserve the Oscar and the Globe for best score.It won Cannes Soundtrack Award.
Kleber Mendonça Filho's follow-up to Bacurau is O Agente secreto. 2025's Cannes award winner for best actor -Walter Moura !and best director, Golden Globe nominated and soon Oscar nominated-Brazil's entry for best foreign film.
Also Udo Kier's last part as Hans, a great on screen goodbye.
All nominations out, Awards on Jan. 11th 2026.
https://celebmix.com/the-2026-golden-globe-nominations-are-here-see-the-full-list/#google_vignette
Tops, Sinners, One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, The Secret Agent, and Sirat, mostly Sirat ;)
Sentimental Value, Hamnet, Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice remain to be seen.
I guess The Voice of Hind Rajab as the Panahi, not my faved at all, due to their own political agenda that is not Cinema for some of us.
I was about to write RIP Annie Hall...
Diane Keaton was 79. Except Woody Allen's muse, friend (and girlfriend) and confidante (eight films together, from 1972's Play It Again Sam, ending with Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993), she was Al Pacino's Michael Corleone's wife Kay in the three Godfathers, from fiancee to divorcee (also his girlfriend in real life), and exceptionally radicalist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty's 1981's Reds. A very smart, intellectual. witty woman, personified best in Annie Hall (1977), character that used Keaton's manierisms, also her true family name is Hall, film that brought her an Oscar for best actress. She was also a feminist and an avant garde personality. And a great protograper (book Reservations). She never married and had two adopted kids.
I think the last time I saw her was in Something's Gotta Give, the 2003 Nicholson weaker comedy... She was in a lot of romantic comedies (Father of the Bride), heartfelt films (The First Wives Club), dramas (Marvin's Room). But for me she will always be The Little Drummer Girl, in the excellent George Roy Hill film from 1984, based on the John le Carré book (not the 2018 series), where she plays a wannabe groupie terrorist, ideologically brainwashed and used, in a film that is more actualt today than Woody Allen's NY fantasies or the politics of Reds.
She as also great in Richard Brooks’ audacious drama with a sex twist, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).
Diane Hall / Keaton was also a director, most famously for Be Unstrung Heroes (1995), she also directed Belinda Carlisle's hit video Heaven is a Place on Earth. She also produced Gus Van Sant's Elephant. She wrote memoirs thrice: “Then Again” (2011), “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty” (2015) and “Brother and Sister” (2020).
Claudia Cardinale...born in Tunis, died in France...Icon of Italian and International Cinema, beauty and elegance.
The princess from The Pink Panther. a princess in Il Gatopardo,
8 1/2, Rocco e sui fratelli, Fitzcarraldo. Fellini, Visconti, Herzog.
Great part in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the only woman persona in his westerns.
She was honored at TIFF Cluj in 2009...
Mouring one of the greatest British Icons, made big by Italian cinema and American popcorn (und more). Terence Stamp was 87. He was Toby Dammitt in Fellini's sketch of Poe's omnibus Histoires Extrraordinaires/ Spirits of the Dead. He was in Pasolini's Teorema, as he was general Zod ;).
He won best actor in Cannes in 1965 for The Collector.
From his film debut in Billy Budd (1962, where he received his onbly Oscar nomination) to his last bit in Last Night in Soho (2021) he was a cool, silent, sometimes very menacing presence.
For me it was at most fun as the perverted host of the short-lived series The Hunger (1997-98).
Other highlights: Modesty Blaise, The Hit, The Limey (featuring Poor Cow).
1st ime I saw him as a kid as the badguy Wazir in the Clive Donner's Thief of Baghdad (1978, actually a made for TV film).
Stand-out, Australian The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), which can be seen streaming now on HBO Max.
Far from the Madding Crowd indeed...
I've seen I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui in the cinema, now after the Oscar win. A well deserved award ! Have forgoten all about Walter Salles (his last film was in 2012, On the Road, saw that in Cannes then), and I got that this was a very personal project for him.
Ainda Estou Aqui was nominated for best picture and Fernanda Torres for best actress (she got the Golden Globe tho). "I'm Still Here" (not to be confused with the Joaquin Phoenix/Cassey Affleck mockumentary with the same name ;) won also best screenplay in last year's Venice Film Festival. It's a powerful film, about family and predestination, and surviving against all odds in adverse situation. It's also a true story that in Brazil it's well known and publicized, now up to be seen and heard by the whole world. These events that happened in all the other dictatorrships, being right or left wing, it's told through the eyes of Eunice Paiva (Torres), the wife of Rubens Paiva, arrested and vanished during the Brazilian dictatorship of 1970's. Mother of 4, later on a strong advocate for Human rights.
A bit overlong (2h17!-could've been at least 15 mins. shorter), but act 3 redeems the film and uppers its value. On imdb it went straight to "Top rated movie #133"! Ola for Brasil !
Stay for the end credits !
the Show -my notes:
23 awards to go til 6.10 am ;)
It starts with Somewhere over the Rainbow, it goes into the Wicked songs with the freakish Cynthia and Grande.
Conan O'Brian (hosting for the 1st time), is actually very good, natural with a good sense of pacing. With a little help of Adam Sandler and John Lithgow. Then surprise, he sings s a song, “I won't waste time”, featuring dancers, the sandworm from "Dune" on piano doing “chopsticks” and Deadpool.
Robert Downey jr. presents supporting actor and the least deserving guy gets it, Kieran, who is the same in life as in A Real Pain, as in Succession, kinda same part. Nice speech tho, talking to his wife.
He also looks like a young Kirk Douglas. Glowing eyes.
(commercial break #1)
The short animated category I didn't follow. “In the Shadow of the Cypress” won. The two Iranian directors are great ! They just landed in L.A. Three hours ago, they said.
(commercial break #2)
Costume design, no surprises there, Wicked, the first black person to win for costume design.
Another commercial break, # 3
Original script. Sean Baker wins his 1st Oscar for writing Anora. Adapted, Conclave. No surprises here.
Surely The Brutalist and The Substance and September 5 were better choices but I'm happy for Baker.
Commercial break, # 4, man, there's more breaks than show...
June Squibb and Scarlett Johansson present the makeup and hairstyling award to The obvious The Substance.
Then we get Halle Berry to let us know the Governer Ball's Awards (November 2024), from Quincy Jones (posthumous) to the Bond producers of EON, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (who gave a way bond to the sharks from Amazon :() -Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
and then we get a 007 tribute clip followed by a dance extravaganza with a superb Margaret Qualley (as I said before, on her way in becoming a A-lister, after OUATiH, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, The Substance, Drive-Away Dolls), in a red dress, then we get renditions of Live and Let Die with Lisa , Diamonds are Forever with Doja Cat, Skyfall with Raye, all in good taste, channeling the originals.
Commercial break, # 5
Nice joke of Cinemastreams, Conan featuring Marty Scorsese.
And a anniversary of Kill Bill puts Daryl Hannah on stage. She looks great, presents the award for best Editing. Again, Sean Baker rocks (2nd award !), Anora for editing ! Deservingly.
Divine takes the stage for the supporting actress award presentation. Zoe Saldana wins. Emilia Perez was here, will she win for International film too ?
Commercial break, # 6
Ben Stiller on stage with a joke stolen from SNL Vincent Price skit (& Peter Sellers & more), present the Production Design Award. Wicked". May the Biggest budget film win. And a film about architecture, nem...
Then on the sound of Sympathy for the...who ?, Sir Mick Jagger shows up. Best Song award. Making Bob jokes. El Mal from Emilia Perez win. Sorry, I couldn't care less. The nominations this year for song were awful.
Commercial break, # 7
Conan does the second Dune Sandworm joke, playing harp ! Sam Jackson (L.) and Selena Gomez (M.) present short documentary film. The Only Girl in the Orchestra wins. Feature: No Other Land. Political moment speech.
Commercial break, # 8
Conan & the L.A. Firemen Dpt. Firemen jokes.
Miles Teller & Miley Cyrus (in Europe Kilometer & Kilometry). Sound. Dune 2.
Gal Gadot, herself a special FX, in a red dress present the Visual Effects Award. Dune part 2 it is.
VO/announcer (in my heydays it was Peter Coyote ;) -Nick Offerman, who's voice is kinda off (booze?).
Commercial break, # 9
Ana de Armas and Sterling K. Brown present the last short award.
Morgan Freeman presents an homage to Gene Hackman. He played together in Unforgiven and Under Suspicion. That introduces the In Memoriam montage I had no clue Fred Roos and Adam Somner. died ..).
Commercial break, # 10
An actor presenter from each film nominated for Cinematography: Joe Alwyn for the Brutalist. Alba Rohrwacher salutes a Ed Lachman in a wheelchair for Maria. Willem Dafoe for Nosferatu, Zoe Saldana for Emilia Perez, Dave Bautista for Dune part 2. Lol Crawley wins for The Brutalist. Fair enuff.
Penelope Cruz presents for Best International Film. I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui wins (Walter Salles, Brazil). Another big loss for EP, due to bad PR mostly.
Commercial break, # 10
Conan makes another Russian Joke via Anora. Mark Hamill (!!!) presents the award for best Original SCORE. Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist. Well deserved for a Grand, epic score !
Whoopy and Oprah introduce a Quincy Jones musical tribute. Queen Latifah sings a song from The Wiz.
Commercial break, # 11
Conan: "If you still enjoying this show you have what it's called Stockholm Syndrome".
Cillian Murphy takes the stage for best actor award. He won last year for Oppenheimer. And...Adrian Brody wins his 2nd Oscar (22 years after 2003's The Pianist) for the part of architect László Tóth in The Brutalist !!! The most touching moment of the evening. Brody is entering a cool restricted club. Egészségedre !
Enter QT, Quentin iz in ze house ! Best director -ta-dam, Sean Baker for Anora ! His 3d Oscar, suddenly a small struggling indie director becomes a Monster Superstar in the biz. Phones will be ringing, snakes will be crawling, emails will be flowing, agents will be waltzing around & mirages will be presented to him but I have the feeling he won't sell out. Kudos !
Commercial break, # 12
Emma Stone (who won last year for Poor Things) presents Best Actress award. Aaaand surprise, Mikey Madison (Sadie in OUaTiH) wins !!! Anora's fourth Oscar ! Mikey is 25 !
Meg Ryan & Billy Crystal present Best Film. And Anora wins !!! Five Oscars out of Six ! Sean Baker is also co-producer so he gets his fifth award. Bravo !
And they even finished earlier this year ! Sorry for Demi, that was this edition surprise for me. 62 vs. 25. Baby Jane or All About Eve ? Again the SAG proof that no one guesses is perfect. The acting awards were again different from those of the guild. All in all it was a calm and cool edition with the most indie films in an Oscar race, two foreign directors, and wins for Anora 5, Brutalist 3.
That's it, folks !
All nominations here, my notes on the show here:
My predictions: guessed all except Demi and not I'm still here (which I noted tho as a possibility).
that does not mean I want all these films to win !!!
Sean Baker, “Anora”
Demi Moore, “The Substance” WRONG, Mikey Madison wins for Anora !!!
Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”
“Conclave”
“Flow” (even if Wild Robot is considered faved, Flow is a much better film)
“Emilia Perez” (France) , could be overpassed by "I'm Still Here" ! Und it was !!!!
Honestly I dont give a F*** but
“El Mal”from “Emilia Pérez”
Film Editing
"Wicked"
"Wicked"
Anora might win best pic and best director at this year's Oscars.
The Producers Guild of America named Anora the best picture of the year at the 2025 PGA Awards. The surprise win came just an hour after director Sean Baker took home the DGA’s top prize — establishing the Neon film as the official Oscars frontrunner for Best Picture. Anora also won Best Picture at last night’s Critics Choice Awards.
"The American myth is something that is not frequently undressed, especially in this 'coming to America' fable that we have seen rehashed again and again"
Brady Corbet
(best director Venice Film Festival 2024 for The Brutalist)
film nominated for 10 Oscars
Vulture: The Brutalist spans 33 years on screen and over three and a half hours of runtime, including a 15-minute intermission at its midpoint. It’s the first film in decades 9NN 61 years to be precise!) to be fully shot in VistaVision, and at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its premiere, it was projected on 70mm.
Real vs. fiction:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250206-the-brutalist-brady-corbet-and-adrien-brody-on-ww2-jewish-experience-in-the-us
TBC
a great talk between Brady Corbet and Sean Baker (Anora), about cinema, budgets, choices, passion and compromises.
The Brutalist just won 4 BAFTA awards, best director, best actor, best cinematography and best score (Daniel Blumberg), which I think deserve also the Oscar for that category.
I have seen now The Brutalist (wow!) and A Complete Unknown (bof...),
those films I wrote about will have links on their titles, very happy for Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice !!! And for the 5 nominations for The Substance ! Even tho Emilia Perez will win big ( incl. best foreign film, UPDATE , that was then, after that EP fell bigtime off the US charts), I stand by Demi Moore ! And may Flow go home to Latvia with the best animation award ! Anora rocks too !!!
(some of these films are on my Top 2024 films list here).
Talk back on March 2nd (3d in Ro.) ;)
Picture
"A Complete Unknown"
"Conclave"
"Emilia Perez"
"Nickel Boys"
"Wicked"
Director
James Mangold, "A Complete Unknown"
Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Perez"
Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"
Actor
Timothee Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown"
Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"
Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave"
Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice"
Actress
Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked"
Karla Sofia Gascon, "Emilia Perez"
Fernanda Torres, "I'm Still Here"
Supporting Actor
Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown"
Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"
Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro, "A Complete Unknown"
Ariana Grande, "Wicked"
Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist"
Isabella Rosellini, "Conclave"
Zoe Saldana, "Emilia Perez"
Original Screenplay
"A Real Pain"
"September 5"
Adapted Screenplay
"A Complete Unknown"
"Conclave"
"Emilia Perez"
"Nickel Boys"
"Sing Sing"
Animated Feature Film
"Flow"
"Inside Out 2"
"Memoir of a Snail"
"Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"
"The Wild Robot"
International Feature Film
"The Girl With the Needle" (Denmark)
"Emilia Perez" (France)
"The Seed of the Sacred Fig" (Germany)
"Flow" (Latvia)
Documentary Feature Film
"Black Box Diaries"
"No Other Land"
"Porcelain War"
"Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat"
"Sugar King"
Documentary Short Film
"Death By Numbers"
"I Am Ready, Warden"
"Incident"
"Instruments of a Beating Heart"
"The Only Girl in the Orchestra"
Animated Short Film
"Beautiful Men"
"In the Shadow of the Cypress"
"Magic Candies"
"Wander to Wonder"
"Yuck!"
Live-Action Short Film
"A Lien"
"Anuja"
"I'm Not a Robot"
"The Last Ranger"
"The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent"
Original Song
"El Mal" from "Emilia Perez"
"The Journey" from "The Six Triple Eight"
"Like a Bird" from "Sing Sing"
"Mi Camino" from "Emilia Perez"
"Never Too Late" from "Elton John: Never Too Late"
Original Score
"Conclave"
"Emilia Perez"
"Wicked"
"The Wild Robot"
Sound
"A Complete Unknown"
"Emilia Perez"
"Wicked"
"The Wild Robot"
Visual Effects
"Alien: Romulus"
"Better Man"
"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"
"Wicked"
Film Editing
"Conclave"
"Emilia Perez"
"Wicked"
Costume Design
"A Complete Unknown"
"Conclave"
"Gladiator II"
"Wicked"
Makeup and Hairstyling
"A Different Man"
"Emilia Perez"
"Wicked"
Cinematography
"Dune: Part Two
"Emilia Perez"
"Maria" (Ed Lachman, great ! best thing in the film! he also has 4 noms. but no win...)
Production Design
"Conclave"
"Wicked"
Coraline Fargeat's second feature The Substance (after her thriller Revenge in 2017), won best screenplay in last year's Cannes Film Festival. Should've won best actress for Demi Moore but they gave that for ensemble to Emilia Perez. No comments. But now Demi has won the Golden Globe, will be nominated for an Oscar and I hope she wins, she deserves that totally and More than that.
Note on Jan. 23d: Nominated for 5 Oscars, Coraline Fargeat for Directing and original screenplay, Demi Moore for best actress, make up and hair stilling and Best Picture ! My predictions, Demi and maybe best screenplay !
Also Margaret Qualley is great in it (and stunning). You've seen her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lanthimos' Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and Drive-Away Dolls. Her future is Bright !
Dennis Quaid plays cartoonlike a caricature of a manager, Ray Liotta was supposed to play this part but he died before the film production. I think Quaid is better, 'cos he played a lot of straight characters, while Liotta was lampooning himself in a lot of his films.
Fargeat's film I found more digerable than Julia Ducournau's exploits, Grave /Raw and Titane, which are overdone and overbearing. Keep in mind, if a male director would've done this film in 2024, no festival would've touch it and he would've been "luggered" (or lapidated). Anyway, I don't think a man could've done the same kind of approach and message, it's a woman's film about women's condition in the showbiz industry, and not only, about aging and about the compromises you make in order to be noticed. It's a very superficial world and it fades out quickly, but the subject is treated with acidity, irony and black humor. And great body horror gore practical effects. The whole thing could've been summarized in the opening and closing of the film, with the story star on the Hollywood Boulevard (a great short imo).
The music is by British artist Raffertie (Benjamin but it's more like a sound design, pounding and very effective. Can't be listened separately tho.
See it in a cinema, for the sound design, set design, bright costumes (that yellow coat, that pink bodysuit), the cinematography (by Benjamin Kracun) and the visceral effect.
Also warning, not for the faint at/of heart, and sensible stomachs !!!
