Film

Deepa Mehta Prepares Women-Centric ‘Get Out’ Style Horror Film

By Alice G. Collins 2 months ago

Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s next film is a “Get Out”-style supernatural thriller, she revealed on Tuesday.

Speaking at a virtual event organized by Indian socio-cultural organization, the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, Mehta said, “There’s a horror film that I’m working on, which I’m so intrigued about because it’s like ‘Get Out,’ a supernatural thriller, which actually is about women.”

Mehta is also developing Madhuri Vijay’s award-winning 2019 novel “The Far Field” as one of her next projects with Huma Qureshi, the star of her Netflix series “Leila.”

“The Far Field” traces the journey of a woman from Bengaluru to the troubled Kashmir region in quest of a lost figure from her childhood. It won the 2019 JCB Prize for literature. Mehta say the novel adaptation will take some time.

Mehta’s “Funny Boy,” based on Sri Lankan-Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 Lambda-winning coming-of-age novel explores a gay love story against the backdrop

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‘Agnes Joy’ Director Opened Film With Vomit Scene to Capture Characters’ ‘Raw’ Relationship (Video)

By Alice G. Collins 2 months ago

Silja Hauksdóttir, the director and one of the writers of “Agnes Joy,” says she opened the film with a graphic vomiting scene to capture the “raw” relationship between its characters.

The film, Iceland’s entry into the Academy Awards International Film category, explores the explosive relationship of daughter Agnes (Donna Cruz) and her mother Rannveig (Katla Þorgeirsdóttir) as Agnes seeks independence from her frustrated, dissatisfied mother’s controlling ways. Their world is upended still more when a seductive new neighbor moves into town.

“Raw” was how TheWrap’s Joe McGovern described the movie’s first scene, in which hungover teenage daughter Agnes (Donna Cruz) is shown vomiting in a bathroom, only to be broken in on by her outraged mother. Rannveig is more concerned about whether Agnes will be still able to perform on the violin than her daughter’s plight. When McGovern asked Hauksdóttir about the creative choice, she agreed with his assessment.

“The

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SAG Awards Nominations 2021: Fearless Film Predictions

By Alice G. Collins 2 months ago

Among the films leading the charge are “Da 5 Bloods,” “One Night in Miami,” “Minari,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Forget the highbrow critics groups. They’re influential, but the Screen Actors Guild Awards are more reflective of where Academy actors are heading. SAG and the Oscars don’t always line up, some of which is a matter of timing: Late-breaking movies often aren’t seen by enough of the SAG nominating committee. SAG voters tend to be more mainstream and younger than the Academy’s dominant actors branch, not to mention larger in number: Each year, SAG selects a new nominating committee of 2,500 members, about double the Academy voters.

Last year, eventual Best Picture contenders “The Irishman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” scored four nominations each, including Cast in a Motion Picture and Stunt Ensemble, while Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” was shut out. Remember the Bryan Cranston shocker for “Trumbo”?

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‘CODA,’ ‘Summer of Soul’ Win Top Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance Film Festival

By Alice G. Collins 2 months ago


a person standing in front of a crowd: CODA Summer of Soul

© TheWrap
CODA Summer of Soul

The narrative feature “CODA” and the documentary “Summer of Soul” swept the top categories at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prizes and also taking the audience awards in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competitions.

“CODA,” director Sian Heder’s coming-of-age story in which Emilia Jones plays the only hearing member of a deaf family, also won an award for its ensemble, many of them deaf actors who performed in ASL. Its wins come three days after the film set a record for the largest sale in Sundance history, a $25 million deal with Apple.

“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” which like “CODA” screened on the festival’s opening night, is a documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson built around long-unseen concert footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-weekend event that first-time director Questlove uses

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