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The Italian director Ettore Scola is renowned for his ability to explore themes that might initially seem simple or mundane, yet he transforms them into deeply human and emotionally resonant narratives. His unique talent lies in portraying the emotions of his characters with such authenticity that audiences can easily relate to them and see reflections of their own lives. Scola achieves this by choosing to tell straightforward yet profoundly real and tangible stories.

Examples of this storytelling approach can be seen throughout his filmography, such as “The Family”(1987), where he chronicles the life of a family over three generations, or “We All Loved Each Other So Much” (1974), which follows the friendship of three friends over thirty years. These films share a common trait: they are simple in premise but rich in emotional depth. “Che ora è” (translated as “What Time Is It?”) is perhaps the clearest embodiment of this concept.

Since the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930, 73 people have received acting Oscar nominations for their debut film performances, yielding a total of 15 breakout wins. Conversely, the list of actors who have earned recognition for their final movie appearances is much smaller, featuring only 18 general and two successful examples. Those who belong to this club gained entry in a variety of ways, with some having voluntarily quit acting altogether, others having specifically stepped away from film performing, and a few having sadly not lived long enough to bask in the glory of their farewell nominations.

Since film acting retirement can never be absolutely permanent while a performer is still alive, only deceased individuals can correctly be counted as official members of this group. Although most currently living retired actors did not pick up Oscar nominations for their latest films anyway, the academy did smile upon one – Daniel Day-Lewis – on his declared way out.

Mubi Podcast: Voci Italiane Contemporanee is the debut podcast from Mubi Italia, produced in collaboration with Chora Media. Written and hosted by journalist Gianmaria Tammaro, it is inspired by the series Italian Voices of Today, now showing on Mubi Italia. This week’s episode, “The Great Beauty,” features:Isabella Rossellini: In this special episode of Mubi Podcast: Italian Voices of Today, recorded in the marvelous Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Isabella Rossellini runs through her life and career, sharing unedited anecdotes, stories that left a mark on her life, and encounters that guided her along her journey. Her memories span from making one of her first films with the Taviani brothers to her directorial debut; from her collaboration with Renzo Arbore and Gianni Minà to her friendship with Oriana Fallaci. And so on, to working with Massimo Troisi and Lucio Dalla, to her great adventures in fashion, and to...

Veteran auteur Mario Martone, whose Naples-set drama “Nostalgia” launched last year from Cannes, has quite a lot in common with Massimo Troisi, Italy’s beloved late comic actor-director who is best known internationally as the star of Oscar-winning film “Il Postino.”

Which is why Martone was well-suited to direct the multi-layered doc about Troisi’s legacy “Somebody Down There Likes Me” that is screening in the Berlinale Special sidebar.

For starters, they are both Neapolitan, and were born only a few years a part. Troisi – who in “Il Postino” played the simple postman who rides his bicycle on a sandy Italian island to deliver mail to his sole client, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda – died tragically of congenital heart failure at age 41 in June 1994, the day after “Il Postino” finished shooting at Rome’s Cinecittà studios.

Martone in Berlin spoke to Variety about capturing Troisi’s combination of humor,...

Exclusive: Italian director Mario Martone, who has been on the festival and awards circuit over the past year with Oscar submission and Cannes title Nostalgia, is at the Berlinale with his passion project Somebody Down There Likes Me.

The documentary pays tribute to late Italian actor and fellow Neapolitan Massimo Troisi who died tragically young at the age of 41 in 1994, just hours after filming wrapped on Michael Radford’s Il Postino (The Postman).

Selected for the Berlinale Specials sidebar, the documentary plays at a sold-out screening on Saturday, on the eve of what would have been the actor’s 70th birthday on February 19. Deadline can reveal a trailer.

Martone says he wants to shed light on the popular actor who he believes has never been properly celebrated.

“Massimo has always remained alive in the collective consciousness because he was a great actor and a great artist,” says the director.

Il Postino,...

In sharp focus: Mario Martone checks out Pierfrancesco Favino on the mini monitor during the filming of Nostalgia in Naples Photo: Film Italia The inexorable sway of his home city Naples casts a long shadow over Neapolitan filmmaker Mario Martone who found himself back on his native turf recently to make Nostalgia, based on author Ermanno Rea’s novel, and for a documentary about the revered Italian icon Massimo Troisi.

Nostalgia was shot in the bustling Sanità area in the heart of the city which has a reputation for crime and poverty but also boasts stunning churches and baroque buildings.

It emerged as Italy’s contender in the race for the best foreign film Oscar but failed to make the final mix. Pairing the director and the material seemed like a perfect match.

Martone who’s also a stage director, was asked by his producer to adapt the novel. “Up...

Italian director Daniele Luchetti, who most recently helmed the third season of Rai/HBO’s Elena Ferrante series “My Brilliant Friend,” is working on a new film titled “Confidenza” (“Trust”) toplining Elio Germano.

Luchetti previously directed Germano in the drama “Our Life” in a role that in 2015 won the actor top honors in Cannes.

Vision Distribution is launching sales on “Trust” at the European Film Market.

In “Trust” Germano plays a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student, is totally taken with him and his lessons. Then, a few years later, they meet up again and get romantically entangled. Teresa insists they must share their deepest secrets to bond for life. But as soon as Pietro really opens up, the relationship ends.

“Trust...

The death far too young of Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, on January 12 at age 54 came as a shock. She had attended the Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 10 along with her mother Priscilla to cheer on Austin Butler, who won the Best Film Drama Actor trophy for his portrayal of Lisa Marie’s father and Priscilla’s onetime husband in Baz Luhrmann‘s musical biopic “Elvis.” At the Globes, Butler concluded his acceptance speech with a shout-out to the two women “for opening your hearts, your memories, your home to me.” Just two days later, Lisa Marie would be gone, the exact cause of death not yet determined.

Butler has been nominated for a SAG Award for Best Actor and is an overwhelming favorite to earn a bid at the Academy Awards when nominations are announced next Tuesday. At present, Butler is the third choice...

Berlinale Special strand adds eight titles.

Guy Nattiv’s Golda, in which Helen Mirren plays former Israeli prime minister Golda Weir, will have its world premiere as a Berlinale Special Gala at next month’s Berlin Film Festival (February 16-26).

The film is one of eight additions to the Berlinale Special section, seven of which are world premieres.

Scroll down for the full list of new Special titles

Produced by Michael Kuhn for the UK’s Qwerty Films, Jane Hooks and Nattiv’s New Native Pictures, Golda focuses on the responsibilities and decisions of Meir faced during the Yom Kippur...

Italian auteur Mario Martone, who was recently in Cannes with “Nostalgia,” is set to direct a high-profile doc about the late Massimo Troisi, one of Italy’s most beloved comic actors who starred in the Oscar-winning film “Il Postino.”

Troisi, who played the simple postman who rides his bicycle on the sandy terrain of an Italian island to deliver mail to his sole client, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, died tragically of congenital heart failure at age 41 in June 1994, the day after “Il Postino” finished shooting at Rome’s Cinecittà studios.

The film directed by Michael Radford, which also starred Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Philippe Noiret, became an arthouse sensation one year later when it opened in the U.S. distributed by Miramax.

“Il Postino” went on to win an Oscar in 1996 for best dramatic score, having earned five nominations, including for best film, as well as best director for Radford,...

Film

Netflix is teaming with the Larraín brothers’ indie production outfit Fabula to produce its second Chilean original, a feature-length adaptation of Antonio Skármeta’s “Burning Patience,” sometimes referred to as “The Postman,” adapted by one of Chile’s highest-profile screenwriters in Guillermo Calderón and helmed by “Sex With Love” director Boris Quercia. According to Fabula, a wide casting call will be announced soon, with shooting set for next year.

The book tells the fictional story of Mario, a young fisherman who dreams of becoming a poet. To that end, the young man gets a job as the postman to Pablo Neruda when the legendary writer, poet and diplomat moves there after being exiled from Chile. The Netflix adaptation has big shoes to fil. In 1996, Michael Radford’s adaptation of the story was nominated for five Academy Awards including best picture, best actor (Massimo Troisi), best director and best adapted screenplay,...

A new state-of the-art movie theatre called Cinema Troisi is set to open in a Fascist-era building in central Rome on September 30, an event rife with symbolic significance.

The projector is latest generation 4K; the sound Dolby 7.1 surround; the bar/bistro will serve gourmet food; and the venue’s plush 300 seats are the same shade of maroon as T-shirts worn by members of the collective of activists and film buffs known as “the Cinema America kids” who are running it. In 2019 they were attacked by neo-fascists, prompting an outpour of support from, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Keanu Reeves, Guillermo del Toro, and Spike Lee.

In 2012 the kids occupied the Cinema America movie theater in Rome’s trendy Trastevere hood that developers wanted to demolish and turn into a parking lot and an apartment block. They were evicted by police in 2014 and subsequently started running outdoor summer arenas...

The 2021 Oscar nominees for Best Actor are Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), Gary Oldman (“Mank”), and Steven Yeun (“Minari”). Boseman (31/10) is favored to win by our odds, followed in order by Hopkins (39/10), Ahmed (4/1), Yeun (9/2), and Oldman (9/2).

For the fifth time in 10 years, the Best Actor lineup includes more newcomers than veterans. Ahmed, Boseman, and Yeun not only share the commonality of being first-timers, but also represent the most diverse group in the history of this category. Boseman follows Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Daniel Kaluuya as the fourth Black man to vie for this award over the last decade. After Ben Kingsley, Ahmed is only the second actor of South Asian descent ever recognized here, while Yeun is the very first East Asian nominee.

The late Boseman has also made history as the fifth actor to posthumously compete for this prize.

The Venice Film Festival will honor Oscar-winning Italian actor/director Roberto Benigni with its 2021 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Benigni, whose “Life Is Beautiful” – which he co-wrote, directed and starred in – won three Oscars in 1999, including best actor, recently returned to the big screen playing Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio.”

“Pinocchio,” which was a box office champ in Italy in 2019, has been recently released in the U.S. by Roadside Attractions and is nominated for 2021 Oscars in the best costume design and makeup and hairstyling categories.

Benigni’s last directorial effort is “The Tiger and the Snow,” in 2005, in which he also starred. In recent years the beloved Italian showman has been active with his stage adaptation of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” which toured in Italy and around the world.

In praising Benigni Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera noted that “few artists have equaled his ability to combine explosive comic timing,...

Before his life and budding career were cut short by cancer in August 2020, Chadwick Boseman achieved screen immortality by bringing the superhero Black Panther to life across four Marvel films. Although his superstar status did not translate to much awards attention during his lifetime, his final lead role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” has been earning him plenty. He is now the eighth actor to posthumously compete for an Oscar and the first in the Best Actor category since Massimo Troisi (“The Postman”) in 1996.

At the upcoming Academy Awards, Boseman faces off against Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), Gary Oldman (“Mank”), and Steven Yeun (“Minari”) in the race for Best Actor. Ahmed and Yeun are also first-timers, while Hopkins and Oldman have each won the award once before, for “The Silence of the Lambs” (1992) and “Darkest Hour” (2018), respectively.

Set in 1927 and based on the August Wilson play of the same name,...

The Screen Actors Guild and academy roster of Best Actor nominees have aligned 90% of the time over the last decade and 85% overall since the SAG Awards started in 1995. This year’s roster of contenders at the SAG Awards includes all five Oscar nominees: Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), Gary Oldman (“Mank”), and Steven Yeun (“Minari”).

Our odds currently have Boseman (31/10) favored to win the prize, followed in order by Hopkins (4/1), Ahmed (4/1), Yeun (9/2), and Oldman (9/2).

Oldman is the only member of the lineup to have previously won an individual award. He brought home a Best Actor trophy for “Darkest Hour” three years ago. Hopkins has five past nominations to his name, including one in this category for “Nixon” (1996).

Both would be the oldest winner in the category’s history by eclipsing the record set by Denzel Washington, who was 62 when he...

Chadwick Boseman was officially nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards this year for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Along with the announcement marking Boseman's first-ever Oscar nomination, this also makes the late actor the seventh performer to be posthumously nominated in either the Best Actor or Supporting Actor categories in Academy Award history.

In the past, Peter Finch posthumously won the Best Actor award for his role in the 1976 movie Network. The Dark Knight star Heath Ledger also posthumously won Best Supporting Actor for his memorable performance as the Joker. Finch had previously been nominated for Sunday Bloody Sunday while Ledger was up for Brokeback Mountain, but neither had took in the win on those occasions.

Hollywood legend James Dean was also nominated twice for Best Actor following his death in 1955, with one for East of Eden and another for Giant. Two-time Oscar winner Spencer Tracy...

Chadwick Boseman’s Best Actor Oscar nomination this morning for Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps the seventh time that an actor has received such a posthumous honor in either the Best Actor or Supporting Actor category from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Boseman’s turn as ambitious cornet player Levee, who raises tensions with the white record label management and spars with his fellow jazz band members in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps his first Oscar nomination. Boseman’s nom today was one of five received by the George C. Wolfe directed feature.

Boseman, who made a huge splash as T’Challa in Disney/Marvel’s three-time Oscar winning $1.34 billion grossing feature Black Panther in 2018, died at 43 on Aug. 28, 2020, after a long, quiet battle with colon cancer. His death left the industry shocked and in despair. Not only did the actor play notable Black...

Before Monday morning, the late actor Chadwick Boseman had somehow never been nominated for an Academy Award, despite his astonishing performances as Jackie Robinson in 2013’s “42” and as James Brown in 2014’s “Get on Up” — not to mention his iconic role as the superhero T’Challa in 2018’s “Black Panther.”

That was finally rectified with Boseman’s nomination for best actor as an ambitious jazz trumpeter in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” It also puts Boseman, who died from colon cancer in August at 43, in one of the rarest and most bittersweet Oscar categories: the posthumous acting nominee.

Deceased nominees are not all that uncommon at the Oscars; there have been 79 in total before this year. But prior to Boseman, only seven actors had ever earned Academy Award nominations after their deaths.

The first posthumous acting nominee, Jeanne Eagels, didn’t technically receive an official nomination — the second Academy Awards...

With his Best Actor Oscar nomination for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Chadwick Boseman is the first actor posthumously nominated for an Academy Award since Heath Ledger.

Ledger was nominated and won Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 ceremony for “The Dark Knight.” It’s widely anticipated Boseman will also win an Oscar at the 93rd annual Academy Awards in April for his “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” performance.

See 2021 Oscars nominations full list

Throughout Oscars history, there have been multiple people nominated for an Academy Award after their death. Before Boseman, the most recent posthumous nominee was “Fences” playwright August Wilson, who received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2017 ceremony. Before Wilson, Walt Martin received a nomination for Best Sound Mixing for “American Sniper” at the 2015 ceremony.

The last posthumous Oscar winner was producer Gil Friesen, who won Best Documentary at the 2013 ceremony for “20 Feet From Stardom.”

Boseman almost...

Although the late Chadwick Boseman did not attract much awards attention during his brief film career, his final performances in “Da 5 Bloods” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” have now brought him plenty. He is now the second man (after Jamie Foxx in 2005) to receive double SAG nominations for individual film roles. By garnering ensemble bids for both films, he has also set a record for most SAG nominations for film in a single year.

In the supporting actor category, Boseman faces off against Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Jared Leto (“The Little Things”), and Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”). All are new to the category except Leto, who brought home the award for “Dallas Buyers Club” in 2014. Baron Cohen and Odom are also up for the ensemble award this year, while Kaluuya won it two years...

Shortly before he lost his battle with cancer last August, Chadwick Boseman delivered what has been hailed by many as the greatest performance of his abbreviated career. His work in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” has now earned him the distinction of being the second person to compete for the Best Actor SAG award posthumously. With a supporting bid for “Da 5 Bloods” and ensemble nominations for both films, he has also made history as the first person to receive four SAG film nominations in one year.

At the upcoming SAG awards, Boseman faces off against Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), Gary Oldman (“Mank”) and Steven Yeun (“Minari”) in the race for Best Actor. Hopkins and Oldman have each competed for the award once before, for “Nixon” (1996) and “Darkest Hour” (2018), respectively. Oldman’s bid resulted in a win. Ahmed and Yeun are new to the category, and...

On the heels of the nominations for the Golden Globes and the release of the BAFTA longlist, the Screen Actors Guild Awards have weighed in on the best films and performances of the season. Critics awards be damned, SAG will do what they want to do.

Overall, the nominations provided not as many jaw-droppers as we’ve seen in normal years. Chadwick Boseman made history by scoring four nominations on the film side in one year — two individual noms for his performances in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Da 5 Bloods,” and the others as part of the ensembles.

Heavily male casts dominated the ensemble categories. A24’s “Minari” has the most women represented in its cast with Yeri Han, Noel Kate Cho and supporting actress nominee Yung-Jun Youn. Amazon Studios’ “One Night in Miami” from Regina King, the only female-directed film to make the lineup, has two women among its cast,...

I’ve been a professional awards journalist for more than 30 years and I often keep falling for an old, sentimental assumption. When scanning a list of nominees to make predictions and a dead body suddenly pops up – especially the ghost of someone who was beloved and respected across Hollywood – I’m tempted to pick that contender, thinking: Oh, come on! How can voters fail to give their old pal one last hug?

But beware: that kind of thinking often comes back to haunt you later. At recent Emmys, you would’ve lost your shekels if you’d bet them on two tempting posthumous nominees: Fred Willard or Carrie Fisher. The Emmy is an industry peer-group award just like the Oscar and so it sometimes holds a lesson for film-award fans.

SEELatest Oscar Best Actor predictions by 30 Experts

Now we Oscar pundits must brutally ask ourselves a tough question: Is Chadwick Boseman...

Anthony Hopkins has sat comfortably in the top spot of our Best Actor Oscar odds all season for “The Father,” but there is now someone hot on his tail. Chadwick Boseman has risen to second place for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and may overtake him very soon.

Currently, Hopkins is still ahead at 4/1 odds to Boseman’s 9/2. Both have eight Experts in their corners, but the latter has the edge with our Editors (six to three) and our top 24 users (10 to nine).

After Netflix confirmed last month that Boseman will be campaigned in lead, the late star climbed from eighth to fourth place in our odds. He started his ascent to second after “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the film adaptation of August Wilson‘s play, screened for press on Nov. 14 to rapturous praise for Boseman’s monologue-heavy turn as hotheaded trumpeter Levee in blues legend Ma Rainey’s (Viola Davis) band.

Original

“Da 5 Bloods”

(Netflix)

Written by: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

Lee and Willmott won the

Oscar for adapted screenplay for 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman” and their examination of Ptsd and the aftermath of the fallen from Vietnam in “Da 5 Bloods,” encompassing the final performance of Chadwick Boseman, was deeply felt. Netflix is positioning the film to be a strong awards player and Lee is one of those familiar names that the branch will rec-

ognize and likely check off.

“Judas and the Black Messiah”

(Warner Bros.)

Written by: Will Berson and Shaka King (screenplay); Keith Lucas and Kenneth Lucas (story by)

The script’s narrative digs into government corruption and betrayal in such an acute way that has not been portrayed on screen before. While Black Lives Matter and civil unrest are still prominent in the news media and on the streets of our cities,...

Only eight actors in history have been nominated for Oscars posthumously. Only 12 actors have been nominated twice in the same year. Chadwick Boseman, sadly, could make history this Oscar season by winding up on both of those lists.

The actor, who died in August of this year after a battle with colon cancer that he hadn’t publicly disclosed, has been considered a solid Best Supporting Actor contender for months for his role in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” And with initial press screenings of George C. Wolfe’s Broadway adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” taking place this week, Boseman makes a formidable case for Best Actor attention as well.

The role he plays in “Ma Rainey,” a volatile trumpet player named Levee, led to a 1985 Tony Award nomination for Charles S. Dutton in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. That category is the Tonys...

Oscar watchers weren’t sure for a while whether Chadwick Boseman would be campaigned as a lead or supporting actor for the Netflix film adaptation of August Wilson‘s play “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” But it was recently confirmed that he’ll be pushed for Best Actor consideration. Since then he has risen into the top five in our odds for the lead-acting prize. Can he rise all the way to number-one?

See‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ trailer spotlights tension between Viola Davis’ veteran blues singer and Chadwick Boseman’s ambitious trumpeter

On October 20, the day before his lead campaign was confirmed, Boseman ranked eighth in our Best Actor forecasts with 25/1 odds based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. As of this writing, he has climbed all the way to fourth place with 7/1 odds. The film doesn’t open until December 18, and the Oscar...

Though his career was tragically cut short, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman had already proven his exceptional talent time and again. Well, Netflix is planning to have his talents recognized by campaigning the late actor for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role category for his role in the upcoming drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

The movie is an adaptation of the play of the same name by August Wilson. The official synopsis from Netflix reads; "Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey (Academy Award winner Viola Davis).

Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio's claustrophobic rehearsal room,...

As the Oscar season continues to unfold, a new question has been answered for the upcoming awards circuit. Netflix has confirmed to Variety that it will campaign the late Chadwick Boseman in the lead actor category for his role in the upcoming “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson, the film takes place in 1927 Chicago, where tensions rise between Ma Rainey, her ambitious trumpeter Levee, and the white management determined to control her music.

Academy Award winner Viola Davis (“Fences”) plays the “Mother of the Blues” and will also campaign for best actress. The rest of the cast, including Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts and Taylour Paige, will all campaign in the supporting categories. There has only been one film in Oscar history to manage more than two Black acting nominations from a film: 1985’s “The Color Purple.”

The 1984 original Broadway production,...

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to leave Hollywood studios in flux, there are still key decisions being discussed internally about the Oscars, such as actors’ placements in the acting categories. With six months until the Academy Awards, there are several factors needed in order to set a film up for awards season success. Without events to campaign and (metaphorically) kiss babies, the performances and films will be speaking for themselves.

Like the industry, Oscar predictions are in flux, but the biggest unknown is in the male acting categories, which are showing a real fluidity and will continue to do so throughout the season. One of the major questions regards the late Chadwick Boseman and where Netflix will campaign him for his upcoming work in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” While many pundits and prognosticators assume he will ultimately fall within the supporting actor category, there are rumblings that he could be campaigned as a lead actor.

By Abdul Rahman Shah

“Poetry doesn’t belong to those who write it, but those who need it.”

– Mario Ruoppolo in Il Postino.

It’s not easy to read a film. One can over-read, under-read, or even misread it; but all readings are important towards building discourse, which is the first step towards appreciating any form of art. Although lately in film discourse, we’re bogged down by a new type of reading. Born from the womb of social media and raised by pedants – film reviews and/or criticism tend to over-focus on perceived cinematographic mistakes, plot-holes, or even misunderstanding intertextual tropes based on how “real” the scene or moment is to the point of rejecting the symbolic. “Realness” is being constructed as the line between a good and a bad film. We are living in an age where metaphors are dying, being killed by literal reading.

Ceci n’est...

“The Hate U Give” screenwriter Audrey Wells took on an especially challenging task, adapting a bestselling young adult novel for the screen and addressing subjects like police brutality, crime and poverty in ways that would be accessible to teen viewers as well as an adult audience. Sadly, Wells didn’t live to see the film reach its audience. She died of cancer on October 4, 2018. The film opened the following day. Will she be commemorated with an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay? She would be the 10th writer to be nominated posthumously.

A nomination for Wells wouldn’t just be a sentimental choice. The film earned rave reviews with a MetaCritic score of 82 and a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 97%. She has already won prizes from critics in Indiana and Philadelphia, as well as online critics in Los Angeles. And she has been nominated by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists and critics from Utah.

‘At Massimo’s funeral, his film double walked behind the coffin in homage – and all the Neapolitans thought it was his ghost’

Massimo Troisi was a huge star in Italy. He loved a film I’d made called Another Time, Another Place, about Italian PoWs in Scotland. We looked at various projects to do together, and he’d bought the rights to this Chilean novel called Burning Patience, about the death of Pablo Neruda and his friendship with a 17-year-old fisherman.

Since 1929, the year of the 2nd Academy Awards, seven performers have earned posthumous Oscar nominations for their work. This year, a legend of the silver screen may join the list of actors recognized for roles following their passing. More than three decades since his death in 1987, John Huston is poised for a posthumous Oscar return with his leading turn in Orson Welles‘ final film, “The Other Side of the Wind.”

This actor, writer, producer and director was no stranger to the Oscars over his illustrious five-decade career in cinema. Between 1940 and 1985, he garnered a total of 15 nominations, including bids in Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. His pair of victories came in 1948, as he triumphed for his direction and screenwriting on “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

In “The Other Side of the Wind,” which premiered to warm notices at this year’s Venice Film Festival,...

Over his remarkable career in film, Orson Welles was the recipient of a trio of Oscar nominations, all for “Citizen Kane” (1941). That marked his feature film debut and is widely considered one of the greatest motion pictures ever produced. He, alongside Herman J. Mankiewicz, triumphed in Best Original Screenplay on the big night and, nearly three decades later, Welles earned an Honorary Oscar for his contributions to cinema.

Though Welles died in 1985, the filmmaker once again finds himself the talk of Oscar season, this time posthumously, with his final picture, “The Other Side of the Wind.”

The film, which made its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, stars two-time Oscar winner John Huston (who died in 1987) as Jake Hannaford, a washed-up, hard-drinking Hollywood director who vies to revive his career with an experimental film, full of sex and violence. Shot over several years in the 1970s, “The Other Side of the Wind...

2016 movies Things to Come (pictured) and Elle have earned French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert her – surprisingly – first National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award. 2016 Movies: Isabelle Huppert & 'Moonlight' among National Society of Film Critics' top picks Earlier today (Jan. 7), the National Society of Film Critics announced their top 2016 movies and performances. Somewhat surprisingly, this year's Nsfc list – which generally contains more offbeat entries than those of other U.S.-based critics groups – is quite similar to their counterparts', most of which came out last December. No, that doesn't mean the National Society of Film Critics has opted for the crowd-pleasing route. Instead, this awards season U.S. critics have not infrequently gone for even less mainstream entries than usual. Examples, among either the Nsfc winners or runners-up, include Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Moonlight, Toni Erdmann, Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, and Lily Gladstone in Certain Women. French...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

With the addition of Marion Cotillard’s lead actress nomination for the Belgian film Two Days, One Night, 32 actors and actresses have been nominated for their performances in foreign-language films. Cotillard was nominated for her role as a young mother and wife struggling to salvage her job in Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’ film, which was chosen as Belgium’s submission to the foreign-language category but failed to secure a spot on the Oscar shortist.

Though her performance did land a Critics’ Choice Award nomination, the Oscar nomination did come as a surprise for many pundits.

Cotillard was previously nominated for the French foreign-language film La Vie En Rose (2007) and won. She is one of six actors or actresses to win for a non-English role and is also the most recent winner.

The first acting nomination for a foreign-language performance went to Sophia Loren in 1962 for...

Best Supporting Actor Oscar Predictions 2014 (photo: Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’) As explained in our previous Oscar 2014 predictions post, this year’s Academy Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories initially looked impossible to predict. For Best Supporting Actor, Jared Leto was the front-runner for his performance as a transsexual with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club, and Michael Fassbender was another strong possibility for his evil planter in 12 Years a Slave — but who else? (See also: "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actress: Meryl Streep Possibly to Break Another Record," "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actor: Robert Redford Possible Near-Record," "Best Supporting Actress 2014 Oscar Predictions: Jennifer Lawrence and/or Scarlett Johansson to Make Oscar History?" and "Oscar Predictions 2014: Best Picture, Best Director.") A couple of weeks ago, the SAG Award nominations helped to clarify things some, but, just as in the Best Supporting Actress category, there remains quite...

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida selected by European exhibitors.

Xavier Troussard, the European Commission’s head of Creative Europe, has called on distributors and exhibitors to propose new initiatives when the new framework - replacing the Media and Culture programmes - comes into effect on Jan 1.

Troussard was present at the Europa Cinemas 18th annual conference in Athens (Nov 21-24).

Nearly 600 professionals, mostly exhibitors but also distributors, producers and sales agents, were in attendance from from 47 countries.

Those present at the conference and the workshops included Ted Hope (Executive Director, San Francisco Film Society, USA); Michael Pierce (Cinema Nation, UK); Daniela Elstner (Doc + Film International, France); Susan Wendt (TrustNordisk, Danemark); Peter Buckingham (Sampo Media, UK); Christian Grece (European Audiovisual Observatory-Council of Europe); Isabel Franco (Eurimages); Alex Stolz (head of distribution, BFI); Clare Binns (Picturehouse Cinemas, UK); Nina Pece (Kinodvor, Slovenia); Domenico Dinoia (Cibema Massimo Troisi, Italy); Ron Styerk (md, Dutch Exhibitors Association) and Mary Nazari (Pioneer Cinema, Russia...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 17 Oct 2013 - 06:29

Here are 25 more great, unsung films - this time, from the year 1994...

Yes, 1994. The year cinemas were dominated by such whimsical wonders as The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Mask and, erm, True Lies. It was also the year Gump dominated the Academy Awards, and Four Weddings And A Funeral loomed large at the Baftas.

As ever, there was so much more to the year's cinematic landscape than Tom Hanks' park bench ramblings or Hugh Grant mithering from beneath his gorgously crafted hair. To prove it, here's a list of 25 films that, in our estimation, are among its most underappreciated. There's much horror, drama, tears and laughter, plus a couple of classic documentaries, too.

25. Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead

The Phantasm series was quite unusual, in that writer and director Don Coscarelli made all four of them. This means that,...

Italian director to receive the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2013 prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival (Aug 28 - Sept 7).

The Venice Biennale has announced that Italian director Ettore Scola is to receive this year’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2013 prize, “dedicated to a personality who has brought major innovation to contemporary cinema”.

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera said: “Scola has earned recognition as one of the most important authors of Italian cinema. He has contributed significantly to its greatness and to the appreciation it enjoys around the world, first as a screenwriter and then as a director.

“This prize is a way to acknowledge our debt for the many gifts he has given us over the course of a lengthy and exemplary artistic career”.

The director, aged 82, will receive the prize at an awards ceremony held on Sept 6 in the Sala Grande.

The prize has previously been awarded to Takeshi Kitano (2007), Abbas Kiarostami (2008), Agnès Varda...

Italian screenwriter, novelist and poet who formed a successful partnership with the film director Roberto Benigni

Although he was a respected novelist and poet, Vincenzo Cerami, who has died aged 72 after a long illness, was perhaps best known as a screenwriter, thanks to his long partnership with the director Roberto Benigni. The pair co-wrote six films and had their greatest success with La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful, 1997), which starred Benigni as a Jewish internee in a concentration camp, desperately pretending to his young son that it is all a game. The film won three Oscars and had a further four nominations, including for best screenplay. "Knowing Vincenzo was a gift," said Benigni, "because he taught people's hearts to beat."

On their early films together, Cerami was not able to totally sublimate Benigni's excesses as an actor. Nevertheless, Il Piccolo Diavolo (The Little Devil, 1988), Johnny Stecchino (1991) and Il Mostro (The Monster,...

Her father, Marcello Mastroianni, was Italy's biggest film star, while her mother, Catherine Deneuve, was the queen of French cinema. As her latest film is released, Chiara Mastroianni reveals the artistic secrets she inherited from Europe's golden couple

When you've grown up as the daughter of not one but two screen icons, you might be fed up with talking about how great your parents are. Especially when you're in the same business. Not so with Chiara Mastroianni. "I hate talking about myself," the actor tells me very early into our interview. "So, you know, I can just bury all that quite easily. If someone wants to know about my mother and father, I tell them – everyone thinks they know them better than I do anyway."

In mainland Europe that may be true, though they are perhaps less revered in modern-day Britain. Mastroianni's parents are Catherine Deneuve, still the grande dame of the French screen,...

Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Il Postino Pablo Neruda's body may be exhumed in Chile following an investigation to reveal whether or not the left-wing poet and author was poisoned by agents of right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet, reports the Los Angeles Times. Neruda officially died of prostate cancer in 1973, though there have been conflicting reports about the cause of his death. Last month, the Chilean government ordered the exhumation of the body of former president Salvador Allende. Authorities want to find out whether or not the Marxist Allende committed suicide (the official story) or was murdered by Pinochet and his cohorts in the 1973 [...]...

Bernardo Bertolucci, London

In his early career, which forms the first half of this two-month retrospective, Bertolucci seems to have lived for danger. He was fascinated by eroticism and politics and the connections between them, which, combined with his fluid visual moves, made his films pulse with life. Even before the scandalous Last Tango In Paris, he'd dealt with fascism, murder, terrorism, incest and other hot potatoes in films like The Conformist, La Luna, The Spider's Stratagem and Before The Revolution. His career went widescreen and international, with the star-studded 1900, Oscar triumph The Last Emperor and so on, but the visual mastery never deserted him. Bertolucci himself is in conversation next Saturday and curator David Thompson gives a talk on 14 Apr.

BFI Southbank, SE1, Thu to 30 Apr

Radiophonic Weekend, Bristol

The BBC's unlikely incubator of British electronica gets an aptly boffinish-yet-uber-cool tribute, with films, music, talks and cosmic oscillations from...

Massimo Troisi collapsed due to a serious heart condition three days into filming Il Postino. It came down to me whether he should continue

It is almost 17 years since the death of Massimo Troisi, the star of my film Il Postino, yet he is as present in my life as he was when he lived. There was nothing overtly Neapolitan about him, except for his accent, which was so thick it took me months to understand. That amused him a lot.

Practically his entire life was marked by illness. He'd contracted rheumatic fever, the illness of the poor, when he was young, and it had damaged his heart. After a quadruple bypass when he was 19, he knew that sooner or later he was going to need a heart transplant. He bore it without complaint. But it gave him a profundity at a young age that gave his humour a real meaning.

A 'ballet who?' ballyhoo flares up over Portman's Oscar-winning Black Swan performance, just as the DVD comes out in the Us

The big story

Our journalistic colleagues in home news and business are used to juggling with conflicting sets of figures: crime statistics that arrive in the morning and are turned on their head by mid-afternoon; rival measures of inflation, house price indices and the like. We on the film desk don't feel quite so at home in these number-flinging fact fights, especially when half of the argument seems to be taking place in French. Our heads hurt. What's it to be? First of all we had Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman's choreographer partner for her Oscar-winning performance in the weird ballet film Black Swan, responding to accusations that she had taken undue credit for her dance double's work: "Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie." The double, according to Millepied,...

One of Italy's leading screenwriters, he worked on 140 films

One of Italy's most respected and prolific screenwriters, Furio Scarpelli, who has died aged 90, worked on the scripts of about 140 films, sometimes without a credit, and received three shared Oscar nominations, for I Compagni (The Organiser, 1963), Casanova '70 (1965) and Il Postino (1994). Scarpelli enjoyed a lengthy writing partnership, from 1949 until 1985, with Agenore Incrocci, also known as Age. The pair collaborated on the 1958 film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), about a team of makeshift thieves, which owed much of its success to the brilliant comic characterisations. The film, starring Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, helped to launch the genre of commedia all'italiana ("comedy Italian-style").

Scarpelli was born in Rome. His Neapolitan father, Filiberto, was a satirical writer who founded a humorous magazine, Il Travaso delle Idee. Furio began his own career as a cartoonist. It was after the second world war,...

Hey, where's Robert "Rob L" Licuria? He hasn't responded to my challenge to take on fellow forums moderator Chris "Boomer" Beachum in a new matchup to predict who'll win the Screen Actors Guild Awards this Sunday night. Recently, Boomer whacked Rob in a clash over predicting the most Oscar nominations, but, hey, he was just evening the score. Back in September Rob crushed Boomer when they went at it over who'd win the Primetime Emmys. Hey, Rob — you finally battle weary?

Ok, I'll take ya on, Boomer! Unfortunately, for the sake of drama — and isn't that what showbiz is all about? — we don't disagree on many categories, but I'll come out swinging where I see a weak spot. We must, after all, keep Derbyites entertained as well as informed.

See a list of gutsy SAG Awards predix from other top pundits who shared their views with Gold Derby. Also, check...