Late yesterday morning (Sunday, 2.9) SBIFF honcho Roger Durling moderated an international directors panel at the Arlington theatre. The honorees were I’m Still Here‘s Walter Salles, Emilia Perez‘s Jacques Audiard (who also wrote and produced), The Seed of the Sacred Pig‘s Mohammad Rasoulof and Flow‘s Gints Zilbalodis (who also wrote and produced).

The combination of Durling’s questions and his guests’ thoughtful, open-hearted answers created an atmosphere of inquisitive calm and introspection. It felt very nourishing…a good-vibe thing.

Here’s my Cannes ’24 review of The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

In his Audiard chat Durling focused on the craft-and-transformation aspects of Emilia Perez. It follows that Durling behaved like a kind and gracious host by sidestepping the recent Emila Perez p.r. catastrophe, or more specifically the Karla Sofia Gascon nightmare about resurfaced tweets.

Stand-out quote #1: “My goal is to create an experience. Music is closer to filmmaking than any other art. It transcends culture. Filmmaking is a language in itself. Images are a language…they are not foreign. I’m not interested in manufacturing emotion.” (Zilbalodis)

Stand-out quote #2: “I’m Still Here is about overcoming loss…The real life Eunice refused to be seen as the victim. I would never embrace melodrama for the sake of theatricality. I would never betray her story. Trust the spectator. The film embraces the fact that we can overcome.” (Salles)

Stand-out quote #3: “When you live in a system of repression and dictatorship then being yourself becomes a challenge. When I started making films the first question I had was, how do I maintain being myself? So I used metaphors to express myself. But after my third film, I realized that metaphors in itself were a form of censorship. I had to turn limitations into solutions. The story began when I was in prison, when one of the officers told me he questioned his life and his job. This story and this chasm highlights the issue between tradition and identity.” (Rasoulof)

Stand-out quote #4: “I have this nostalgia for silent film. Films where there is purely acting and light. What I mean is that I try to escape from spoken dialogue.” (Audiard)

Stand-out quote #5: “I’m more of a literary fellow than a cinephile. I can do without images but I can’t do without words.” (Audiard)

SBIFF Virtuoso headliners, in alphabetical order: A Complete Unknown‘s Monica Barbaro, Emilia Perez‘s Selena Gomez, Wicked‘s Ariana Grande, Sing Sing‘s Clarence Maclin, Anora‘s Mikey Madison, September 5‘s John Magaro, I’m Still Here‘s Fernanda Torres, The Apprentice‘s Sebastian Stan.

I hereby apologize for expressing disappointment that A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin and Babygirl’s Harris Dickinson didn’t show up. I really wanted to sample Dickinson’s vibe, but another time. What was important was that SBIFF honcho Roger Durling managed to lasso eight seriously live-wire movie people — seven of them youngish and popping like well-oiled corn kernels over a flame, and the eighth (the attractively-seasoned Torres) was arguably the most ebullient of the lot.

The annual Virtuosos gathering is an elegant, time-honored showcase for this and that brand of talent and charisma, but it’s also a competitive event because when it’s over people always say “who won?” Well, nobody really knocked it out of the park but if you ask me the two standouts were Stan and Gomez.

Stan is currently shooting Fjord, a Romanian-language film for director Cristian Mungiu, and at one point moderator Dave Karger asked him to speak a little Romanian, and Stan passed with flying colors. Plus he amusingly dissected the coarseness and fraudulence of the Trump persona.

Gomez made a vivid impression because of her superior leg sculpture. Before last night I had never really thought of the Emilia Perez costar as a gal with great gams — now I can’t think of anything else.

Sidenote: Ariana Grande‘s Wicked performance as Glinda has landed a Best Supporting Actress nomination. In the film Grande’s wind-up-doll, pretty-in-pink mannerisms are offered as a satire of self-obsessed femininity, but last night….how do I say this tactfully?…she seemed to be playing Glinda as herself. (Or vice versa.) Grande is certainly not a “let it all hang out” fuck-all type. Her way of speaking, her body language…it’s all been carefully rehearsed.

Plus when Karger asked her to recommend a relatively unsung film for people to seek out and watch, Grande either (a) couldn’t come up with one or (b) chose not to for…I don’t know, possibly out of fear of sounding divisive or something. She said that people should watch “everything…all the movies” or words to that effect. She basically chickened out.

Why did Taylor Swift get booed again? Because she’s rich? Because she’s “friends” with the increasingly toxic Blake Lively?

Are we to presume that Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd are…what? Hood ornaments?

I’ve never once listened to anything by Ice Spice — should I have?

“…except Mrs. Manny Davis.”

Autumn Russell (who plays Linda James) is still with us at age 95. Born on 1.3.30, she was 27 during the filming of Sweet Smell of Success. She also played a slave girl in Spartacus (’60).

I sat down with Noree Victoria‘s An Arrangement last night, and it didn’t do the thing. Not by my standards.

Co-written by Helen Shang and lead actress Bel Delia, it’s an odd three-hander about the wife of a gubernatorial candidate in rehab, and how her husband’s sexual interest in the assertive nurse threatens to disrupt the whole apple cart.

I immediately decided that I didn’t want to hang with Matt Dellapina‘s Lucas (smart and obsessive, but no charm or charisma — he’s certainly no Gavin Newsom) and Delia’s character, Violet (anxious, pissed off, weakened, downish).

I was intrigued by Jessica Damouni‘s Hannah, but at the same time I couldn’t figure her out. She exuded professional integrity, and didn’t seem like a woman who would consider fucking the husband of a patient.

The scene that tore it for me was when Dellapina begins to vaguely flirt with Hannah within earshot of his wife. Any guy who’s even thinking about possibly cheating on his wife always plays it carefully by making his move as far away from the wife as possible, and certainly out of earshot. But there Violet is, listening in from the other side of the door.

That was when I said “sorry but I don’t believe this movie, and I don’t like the characters enough to stick it out.” So I picked up my leather computer bag and slipped out of the theatre. Very sorry. Best of luck to everyone concerned with future endeavors. Cheers and respect.

It was a big deal at the RKO Pantages theatre when Vincente Minnelli‘s An American in Paris (’51) won the Best Picture Oscar on 3.20.52. It was also a surprise as it was widely presumed that A Streetcar Named Desire or A Place in the Sun would win.

Has any 21st Century film fanatic even thought about An American in Paris recently, much less seen it? The answer is no.

Nearly everyone, on the other hand, has seen Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s All About Eve (’50), which won the Best Picture Oscar at the same location on 3.29.51. They also regard it quite highly.

Which recent Best Picture winners will be unseen and/or barely remembered 60 or 70 years hence? One such film is Everything Everywhere All At Once…guaranteed. Nobody wants to even think about it now. It was a huge embarassment when it won two years ago, and the shame will persist. The most merciful legacy will be for EEAAO to be forgotten entirely.

Who’s going to die in Joseph Kosinski‘s F1?

Whoever buys the farm (it almost certainly won’t be Damson Idris because black guys have to prevail these days), there’s no ambiguity about the fact that F1 is a total “guy movie.”

Brad Pitt, Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem, etc.

Opening on 6.27.25, or a bit less than five months hence.

…for the obstinate “This Is Heavy, Doc” types and others who’ve been somehow unable to really see or feel Sean Baker’s film…

In the wake of Anora‘s two big wins last night…this is how that feels to me right now.

I used to routinely go boogie-boarding off the beach in Santa Monica in the ’80s and ’90s, but for some reason I stopped this ritual when the column got rolling in the late ’90s. I splashed around in the balmy Mediterranean when I visited Marina di Campo a quarter-century ago. Before today the last time I swam in the sea anywhere was at Jones Beach in ’06 or thereabouts.

An hour ago I strolled into the Pacific Ocean for the first time in decades, and the water was a shock to my system. Aaagghh! But it felt wonderful all the same. Because there I was, and the cold sensations were as real as it gets.

Every last Gold Derby handicapper but one picked The Brutalist‘s Brady Corbet to win the DGA top prize tonight, and he hasn’t! The GD know-it-alls were all wrong because Anora‘s Sean Baker has won it!

10:06 pm update: Anora has also won the Producers Guild Daryl F. Zanuck award….amazing! Pop the champagne!!

This means, of course, that Baker will almost certainly take the Best Director Oscar, and that Anora is now very well positioned to take the Best Picture Oscar as well.

On top of Anora‘s Critics Choice win last night, this is truly glorious news!

Brady Corbet is almost certainly wearing a long face right now. The pot-bellied director of HE’s least favorite film of the year has come up short, and all the angels in heaven are singing a joyful hymn composed by Miklos Rozsa.

Every HE commenter who’s been shitting on Anora and/or its Oscar chances needs to drop to his or her knees right now and kiss HE’s ass. You know who you are. Admit you were wrong…don’t hide your faces.

I find it hilarious that “This Is Heavy, Doc”, the pushiest, most full-of-toxic-conviction anti-Anora commenter in HE-land, hasn’t said a word so far. He’s hiding! He’s in shock!

Sean Baker, recipient of the DGA Award for Best Theatrical Feature Film (‘Anora’) | #DGAAwards pic.twitter.com/qPeAFKqrEM

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) February 9, 2025

Gold Derby wrongos!!

From Michael Schulman‘s “How the Oscar Race Got as Messy as Conclave” (The New Yorker, 2.6.25). Subhead: As in the movie, a succession of mini-scandals has threatened to derail one Best Picture contender after another.

“Stop me if you’ve seen this one. A committee of august personages convenes, with much pomp and circumstance, to choose the best of their lot. Time-honored rituals are observed. Fancy outfits are donned. The ogling public is kept at bay. The contenders, some representing progress, others tradition, jockey for supporters, though outright campaigning is frowned upon—and negative campaigning is taboo, although it happens in whispers. Unflattering rumors swirl, and the contestants are made to atone for their past sins. Secret ballots are cast and counted, in an arcane tallying system, and a victor is announced, to great fanfare.

“This is, roughly, the plot of Conclave, in which the College of Cardinals meets at the Vatican, after the death of the Pope, to choose his successor. But it’s also the plot of this year’s Oscar race, in which Conclave is nominated in eight categories, including Best Picture.

“When I first saw it, last fall, the film immediately reminded me of awards season, with its ceremonial customs, its flair, and the pettiness of its esteemed voting body. (For the red robes and skullcaps, sub in the red carpet.) Just as Oscar nominees go on endless press rounds to talk about their artistic process without evincing a hunger for the little gold man, the film’s papal hopefuls profess that their aspirations are spiritual. Still, ‘every cardinal, deep down, has already chosen the name by which he would like his papacy to be known,’ one character says in Conclave — just as every actor has, admittedly or not, delivered an Oscar speech in the shower.

“It wasn’t until the Oscar nominations were announced, two weeks ago, that awards season started to resemble Conclave where it counts: in sheer, soapy drama.

“As in the movie, a succession of mini-scandals has threatened to derail one Best Picture contender after another, amounting to one of the messiest campaign seasons in recent memory. In Conclave, the calculus shifts each time a disgraced cardinal drops out of the running. In the awards race, the question looms: Will any of the nominees make it to the ceremony untainted?”

HE answer: Yes….Anora! Anora is Cardinal Benitez!

Late this morning I attended a screenwriters panel discussion inside Santa Barbara’s Arlington theatre, which was moderated by IndieWire‘s Anne Thompson.

The honored screenwriters were Sing Sing‘s Clint Bentley, Nickel Boys‘ Joslyn Barnes, A Real Pain‘s Jessie Eisenberg, The Brutalist‘s Mona Fastvold, September 5‘s Tim Fehlbaum and Conclave‘s Peter Straughn.

The Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar should absolutely go to Conclave and to Mr. Straughn — easily the most eloquent, moving and memorable script.

Alas, nothing of real substance — artistically, politically, culturally — was discussed today. Thompson is no Bill Maher, and so she asked her usual boilerplate blah-blah questions, and the screenwriters answered them in a mild-mannered, “this is who I am and how I work and yaddah-yaddah” fashion, and it was basically a pleasant flatline experience.

I eventually decided that the only way to write about the panel with any intrigue was to discuss fashion choices. Because at the very least, the writers’ sartorial choices held my attention.

What Mr. Straughn wore was fine. Subdued blues, grays, blacks. No hiccups.

Mr. Bentley’s green-and-white pullover was chosen because he’s a flaming ginger and green blends well with red hair, but the splotchy white design was, for me, problematic. I recoiled the instant he walked on stage.

HE is opposed to The Brutalist, but Fastvold’s midnight blue pantsuit was perfect; ditto her shiny black pumps.

Ms. Barnes wore the very best pants (bright orange plaid).

Mr. Fehlbaum’s attire caused no problems, certainly not by my sights.

Cardinal Benitez’s speech to all the cardinals following the bomb blast: “I carried out my ministry in the Congo, in Baghdad and Kabul. I’ve seen the lines of the dead and wounded, Christian and Muslim.

“When you say we have to fight, what is it you think we’re fighting? You think it’s those deluded men who had carried out these terrible acts today? No, my brother. They’re small and petty. They’re only interested in themselves, in Rome, in the election and power. And those things are not the Church.

“The Church is not tradition. The Church is not the past. The Church is what we do in the future.”