Posts Tagged ‘Oscar Nominations’
Filmdogs Interview | The Director of Columbia’s official Oscar selection “The Colors of the Mountain””
Colors of the Mountain is the first film from Columbian director Carlos César Arbeláez, and it’s also the country’s official Oscar selection for 2012. It tells the story of three young boys caught in the middle of political conflict, while trying to retain some sense of their youth. I recently had the chance to talk with Arbeláez about his journey making the film, here’s what he had to say.
Carlos: [There was no film school in my country, I was self-taught.] I learned the craft by doing documentaries for ten years. I learned different crafts within the field, how to work a camera…I also belonged to various cine-clubs. In 1998 I began to do short films, fiction shorts. In 2002 I began to do my first feature film, long reel. I wrote the script for The Colors of the Mountain therefore I’m a screenwriter and director. This film The Colors of the Mountain took me almost ten years to do.
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Filmdogs Interview | The Director of Spain’s official Oscar selection “Black Bread”
I recently had the opportunity to talk with director Agustí Villaronga about his latest film Black Bread, which also happens to be Spain’s Official Oscar selection for 2012. The film concerns a young boy’s coming to terms with the harsh realities of the post-Spanish Civil War landscape. Here’s some of his thoughts on the film, and his approach to storytelling.
Filmdogs: Tell me a little bit about your background in Cinema.
Agustí: This is my fifth film, my first film was In a Glass Cage. It’s [set] in 1945 and after that I made five films more. I work as an actor also, sometimes in the beginning as a production designer and costumes. I never starred in movies I just worked as a position on a team. In the end I decided to make my own films.
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Filmdogs Interview | The Director of Iceland’s official Oscar selection “Volcano”
I recently had the opportunity to talk with Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson about his first feature film, and the countries’ official Oscar selection for 2012, Volcano. The drama about an older man trying to make amends with his family, has been well received around the world. Rúnar was recently nominated for the Golden Camera Award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what Rúnar had to say about the film and his approach to filmmaking.
Filmdogs: First of all congrats.
Rúnar: Yeah, thank you.
Filmdogs: What can you tell us about your background in the film industry?
Rúnar: When I was a kid, I was taking photographs, making ugly sculptures and paintings from pictures, and when I was 17 there was a buddy of mine who got a VHS camera, and we made our first short together. It first was then that all this different media was coming, that I had been unsuccessful [with] came together in one medium, so to say. After that I starting making a lot of shorts, and then when I was like 20 or something like that I started to work on other peoples films. So, I was doing maybe, I think, [several] films as a continuity girl, Gaffer, Best Boy, etc.. And I just got infected. I got the disease. Of course wanted my films to evolve to get a little bit better, and I got a little bit better at what I was doing. It was 2003 that I got the first little bit of money to do a short film which became The Last Farm.
Filmdogs: And that film was nominated for an Oscar correct?
Rúnar: Yeah, and that film helped me into the National Film School of Denmark. That was my entry film. So, that was exactly what I needed at that time. There are limitations on how far you can develop yourself with no money, and it was being in heaven to me to be in film school, to have a budget to play with, to have all the equipment and to be in this program for four years with people who are interested in the same things as you and basically not do anything else…
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Filmdogs Interview | Oscar Nominated Writer/Director Luke Matheny talks about his short “God of Love”
Writer/Director Luke Matheny has had a pretty good year. Not only did he graduate from NYU’s prestigious film program, but his thesis film God of Love won the Student Academy Award last May. The good tidings don’t stop there however, as winning that award led his film receiving an Academy Award nomination this year in the live action short category. Word on the street is that he has a pretty good shot at taking home that statue as well…A few days ago I had the opportunity to talk to Luke the movie, which concerns the romantic misadventures of a lounge singer turned cupid, and discuss what it’s like to be an Oscar Nominee.
The Filmdogs Podcast: Episode 36 – Exit Through the Podcast Shop
Episode 36 of the Filmdogs Podcast is here and just in time for awards season! This week in the News we discuss the recent casting/character announcements for The Dark Knight Rises with Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, and Tom Hardy as Bane. We also try to decipher if Kevin Smith has truly gone off the deep end with his recent controversy at Sundance. In both our In Defense of and One Liner of the Week segments we chat up the underrated?, sequel Back to the Future: Part III. Plus, in our Featured Topic we weed through the recent Oscar Nominations and issue verdicts as to what the Academy got right and what they got terribly wrong. To not listen in could have grave effects on the space time continuum. Heavy.
Email us with you podcast feedback or segment suggestions at filmdogspodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the podcast here, or listen in you browser. Also, you may download an enhanced AAC feed with chapter markers and artwork from iTunes on your computer or straight to your iPhone/iPod touches now! If you like what you hear be sure to write a quick review on iTunes as well. It helps us out. Thanks!
Review/Score Your Week | Animal Kingdom
In this edition of Score Your Week not only will I be featuring music from one of my favorite films of 2010, I will be offering a mini-review in hopes of encouraging as many people as possible to seek it out. The film is David Michôd’s Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom is the type of film that sneaks up on you. Watching the slow burn thriller unfold before your eyes, keeps the mind going and the heart pounding. Once the final image smash cuts to black and composer Antony Partos‘ score pours out, the greatness becomes apparent. Continue on for a taste of that greatness and why Partos’ music adds to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Movie Night | Theme: Scary Movies – “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte”
Oh my god, the pace is terrible!
Movie Night is a column about the films I watch with my friends and family. We try to get together every week or every other week for a new movie to watch. We’ve started basing our movie choices by theme and with Halloween swiftly approaching; scary movies are the current theme. Read on, if you dare!
Oscar Winners
Overall, this years awards went down as expected and were kind of bland. I kept hoping for an upset, but the biggest one I got was Geoffrey Fletcher winning Best Adapated Screeplay for Precious over Jason Reitman’s script for Up in the Air. It was cool seeing Kathryn Bigelow become the first woman to win in the directing category. Dito, as for seeing “The Dude” himself, Jeff Bridges, win for Crazy Heart. The Hurt Locker had a big night sweeping all the major awards including Best Picture. For me though the best part of the entire show was the cutting of the Best Original Song performances from the telecast. Here’s hoping that change is here to stay. See all the winners below in bold.
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The Pack’s Oscar Picks
Here are some of the Pack’s Oscar picks. Each individual writer’s choices for who they think will win are indicated by their name in Bold to the right of a nominee. See how our staff’s picks stand up against our own and leave your thoughts below in the comments. Also follow the sites official twitter for live updates during the show. Read the rest of this entry »
The Filmdogs Podcast: Episode 5 – The Podcast Strikes Back
The fifth installment of The Filmdogs Podcast is up with special guest host, Filmdogs writer Maxx La Bella!! This week we talk about Chris Nolan’s little brother directing Superman, and the impressive box office takes of Avatar and Shutter Island. We’re going to the mattresses in this weeks Vs. with Goodfellas vs. The Godfather, plus we discuss the biggest mistakes the Oscars have ever made in our Featured Topic of the week. If you don’t listen you’ll be sleeping with the fishes!
Email us with you podcast feedback or segment suggestions at filmdogspodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the podcast here, or listen in you browser. Also, you may download an enhanced AAC feed with chapter markers and artwork from iTunes on your computer or straight to your iPhone/iPod touches now!
