by Juan Carlos Ojano

CITIZEN KANE (1941) was the top-placer in both editions.

I ended my 2025 by watching the remaining films from the AFI 100 Years… 100 Movies, both from the 1997 and the 2007 editions. From the egregiously racist The Birth of a Nation (1915) to the broodingly dark Blade Runner (1982), it was fulfilling to finally finish these films, an endeavor that I started back when I was in high school and just finished now in my 30s.

So this reminded me that AFI was supposed to do the 100 Movies list every ten years, but they only revisited it once, with 2017 marking its supposed update but crickets from the institute. While it is probably a longshot, 2027 marks another chance for the AFI to release an updated version of the list. For the 2007 version, the most recent films they considered were three films from 2005: Brokeback Mountain, Crash, and Good Night, and Good Luck.

 So with 2025 now over, let’s do an exercise: which films from 2006 to 2025 would most likely be considered to be added to an updated list should it happen soon? Let’s go…

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by Juan Carlos Ojano

Nora Aunor in MIRACLE (1982)

World cinema has lost an acting legend. Yesterday, the passing of the Philippines’ Superstar - a multi-hyphenate performer across film, television, radio, theater - was announced by her family. With a career that spans seven decades, 180 films, 260 singles, multiple genres, and hundreds of awards, Nora Aunor’s impact as an artist transcends the boundaries of Philippine cinema. Her longevity is not only astounding in quantity - she starred in 18 films in 1970 alone! - but she has been a central figure in some of the best works Philippine cinema has ever created.

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By Juan Carlos Ojano

An unpredictable awards season ended in an ANORA near-sweep at the Oscars.

It's been a week now since the Oscars.

The winners have celebrated, the losers have extended their congratulations (hopefully), the dust has settled, and the noise is slowly fading out. As we collectively move on from the recently concluded awards season, let me pose this question: what was the first film you watched post-Oscars?

Whether it be a leftover from the previous year, a new release from this current film year, or a good old classic, the first film one watches post-Oscars is fascinating to me because I do wonder if other cinephiles - especially those who intentionally subject themselves to the grueling roller-coaster ride of awards season - have a ritual of sorts on how to move forward with the recently concluded season...

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By Juan Carlos Ojano

To continue celebrating Robert Atman’s centennial anniversary, I have decided to finally take care of a longtime cinematic blind spot: his seminal 1975 opus Nashville. Released during the heyday of New Hollywood, the film tracks the lives of twenty-four main characters — singers, dreamers, and others — as they navigate their lives in the titular city within five days as the presidential campaign of a populist candidate is set to mount a political rally cum concert. 

For my first encounter with this film, I decided to watch this film twice within a three-day period. And how powerful the experience is...

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In the Split Decision series, two (or three) of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, Nick Taylor, Lynn Lee, and Juan Carlos Ojano discuss Emilia Pérez...

NICK TAYLOR: Hello, Lynn and Juan Carlos! I’m really excited to start our conversation on Emilia Pérez, surely the most divisive of this year’s Oscar contenders. I am entering this talk as our resident hater - I admire the nutty swings this movie is taking, though very little of that admiration extends to how those nutty swings are executed by Jacques Audiard and his collaborators. Still, I wanna hear what makes the movie work for you guys, or at least makes these experiments worthwhile. Lynn, as the person in this conversation who likes Emilia Pérez the most, do you wanna take the baton?

LYNN LEE: Haha, is it even safe to admit you like Emilia Pérez these days?...

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