Category Archives: Awards
March 4, 2013 Monoglot Movie Club: The Guldbagge Variations
Part of an occasional series in which Spank The Monkey travels to foreign countries, watches films in unfamiliar languages, and then complains about not understanding them
A Guldbagge Award, yesterday
Sweden! Land of Bergman, Garbo and Abba The Movie. There are some countries where I struggle to find local films in the cinemas, but not here. Stockholm in January 2013 was packed full of ‘em: from the family-friendly fun of Sune i Grekland, to a theatrical outing for a Wallander that’ll probably be on BBC Four by 2014. All I needed was a way to filter out the good stuff from the bad.
By chance, I found that way on my first night in the country, as I turned on the telly to discover live coverage of the Guldbaggen, Sweden’s own film awards. (That golden bug thingy at the top of the page is the actual award itself.) Perfect! All I needed to do was grab the list of winners, pick the most interesting-looking ones, and get myself down to a cinema to see them. Unfortunately, everyone else in Stockholm appeared to be doing the same thing in the week after the Guldbaggen, with screenings of Swedish movies selling out all over the place. As a result, I couldn’t always see my first choice of film. Continue reading this article ›
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- Posted under Awards, Gonzo, New Releases
February 11, 2013 The MostlyFilm Best of 2012
Hello. We sometimes mention that MostlyFilm is built on a forum, and every so often that forum’s bones poke above the smooth, silky skin of the blog. Since the year 2000, we’ve voted for our favourite films released January-December in the UK, and this year we thought we would share the results with you. Why are we doing this in February? Because we give people a sensible amount of time to catch up on possible contenders and vote with consideration. So up yours, everyone who published their best of results in January.
After the jump are the results, some comments from the forum and, eh why not, the results from previous years. All of this data is compiled and collated by one dedicated forum user, nac1. We applaud his effort.
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Tags: Best of 2012, Dardenne Brothers, Listmania, Lists, Lots of lists, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson
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- Posted under Awards, Best of 2012, MF Recommends
March 12, 2012 Yesterday’s Men
by FIONA PLEASANCE
The gorgeous Georges.
I know what you’re thinking. You’ve clicked on a link, and now there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. “Oh no,” you sigh, “not another bloody article about those retro-juggernauts, The Artist (2011) and Hugo (2011) and what it all means for Hollywood. That’s so last month!”
Well, perhaps. But as a teacher of film history, I hope that I can offer a slightly different perspective on the films as far as their historical accuracy and their contemporary significance are concerned.
Let’s start with The Artist which, having fictional characters at its heart, brings fewer concerns with it. George Valentin, Peppy Miller and Kinograph Studios never existed, but the film takes place at one of the most interesting and extensively documented periods in cinema history. The conversion process from silent to sound cinema made – and, yes, broke – a number of careers, so it encompasses many elements which Hollywood itself loves so much, particularly meteoric rises and dramatic falls from grace.
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Tags: ben kingsley, hugo, jean dujardin, martin scorcese, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
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- Posted under Actors, Awards, Classic Films, Film Making, History, The Oscars
February 27, 2012 Mostly Frocks – the ceremony
We’re back again with the Mostly Film liveblog and the 84th Oscars ceremony is just about to begin. You can read our coverage of the red carpet here.
1.35am
Concetta: Boom! First Kodak joke of the evening. Fact: 7 of the 9 best pic nominees were made on Kodak film.
1.40am
Concetta: He’s singing!
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- Posted under Awards, Live blog, The Oscars
February 26, 2012 Mostly Frocks – the red carpet
Good evening! Welcome to the MostlyFilm liveblog of the 84th Academy Awards: the red carpet.
Mostly Film’s Oscar Livebloggers:
Tindara Sidoti-McNary is an art and film geek and fatshionista. Special interests include artist filmmakers and lipstick. She tweets as @Tindara
Concetta Sidoti is a journalist who tweets as @concettasidoti
Laura Morgan blogs at Glad All Over and tweets as @elsie_em
11.25pm
Laura: Good evening. I’ve installed myself on the sofa with the laptop, the iPad, a bottle of cola flavoured branded soft drink and a mountain of snacks. I’m playing red carpet bingo and I’m looking out for one of each of the following:
A dress that makes the wearer look naked from a distance
A flashed nipple (male or female)
A gravitationally improbable hairstyle
A nominee being effortlessly outshone on the red carpet by their other half (Brad Pitt is the obvious candidate here, but I’m always open to surprises)
A dress that in any other context would be a wedding dress
Please shout in the comments if you spot one or more of these before I do.
Tindara: Evening all. The washing’s on, I too have snacks and caramel flavoured beverages.
Red carpet news so far is that Berenice Bejo and Milla Jovovich will both be wearing Elie Saab, I’ve seen Jovovich, a fishtail one (exaggerated) shoulder number, with a subtle white/metallic sequin sparkle.
Penelope Ann Miller is in halter neck pastel pink with subtle sparkle too. So far bang on trend, with metallic shimmer and pastels.
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Tags: 84th Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2012, Oscars, Oscars 2012
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- Posted under Awards, Live blog, The Oscars
February 26, 2012 Mostly Frocks – the Mostly Film Academy Awards 2012 liveblog
Tonight Mostly Film goes live-action, and our all-women team will be commenting on the red carpet action and the Oscars ceremony.
The red carpet coverage will start from 11.30pm GMT and the Oscars ceremony from 1.30am GMT.
The MostlyFilm Oscars livebloggers are Laura Morgan, Concetta Sidoti and Tindara Sidoti-McNary. Editing, updating, and making virtual cups of tea (or, since the ceremony starts at one-thirty London time, maybe something stronger) is Josephine Grahl.
Before our live coverage starts, you can check out the MostlyFilm Oscar predictions here, or Laura’s predictions (both the pre-BAFTAS and post-BAFTAS versions.)
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Tags: Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2012, Oscars, Oscars 2012, red carpet
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- Posted under Awards, Live blog, The Oscars
February 24, 2012 Mostly Oscar Predictions
With the Oscars appearing on maybe half a dozen Sky HD TVs this weekend, two of our writers look at the prospects for this weekend’s 84th Academy Awards. Warning: contains a spoiler for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:
The weeks between the Oscar nominations and the awards have always been the highlight of my cinema year. Each year (with a small-child-inflicted gap) I do my best to see as many of the main nominees as possible before the big day. In the past this would involve a final dogged trip to London on the last weekend to sweep up the last 2 (or one year, 3) films which hadn’t come to the sticks but which were always available at the Odeon Panton Street.
Some years this was great, others, well, watching House of Sand and Fog, Mystic River and 21 Grams in a single day doesn’t make for a cheery coach ride back to Oxford. The actual night is usually a complete letdown, hours of frocks, excruciating musical numbers, plodding delivery of bland jokes* and the wrong winner in most categories. And last year’s inexplicable juggernaut shut-out by The King’s Speech made the actual telecast pretty tedious. But I’ve never before had a year where I just can’t be bothered to see so very many of the nominated films. Looking through the lists again is a weary, weary prospect, but here’s my view on the big four:
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- Posted under Awards, The Oscars
