European Film Awards Finalists

The 2013 European Film Awards have announced the 46 titles that are in contention for this years ceremony.   Announced by the European Film Academy, this list is a result of a national committee selection.  The European Film Academy is comprised of 2,900 voting members who will determine the nominations; of which will be announced on November 9th.  Recent winners include Amour, Melancholia and The Ghost Writer.  Here are the 2013 finalists:

Anna Karenina (UK)- directed by Joe Wright- Winner of the Costume Design Oscar (Jacqueline Durran)
Araf/Somewhere in Between (Turkey/France/Germany)- directed by Yesim Ustaoglu- Winner of Best Actress at the 2012 Tokyo Film Festival (Neslihan Atagul)
The Best Offer (Italy)- directed by Giuseppe Tornatore- Winner of Best Film at the 2013 Donatello Awards (Italian Oscars)
Betrayal (Russia)
Blancanieves (Spain)- directed by Pablo Berger- Winner of Best Film at the 2013 Goya Awards (Spanish Oscars)
Block 12 (Cypress/Greece)

Borgman (The Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark)- directed by Alex van Warmerdam
Boy Eating the Bird's Food (Greece)- directed by Ektoras Lygizos
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)- directed by Felix Van Groeningen
Burning Bush (Czech Republic)
Child's Pose (Romania)- directed by Calin Peter Netzer- Winner of FIPRESCI Prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival; Romania's submission for the 2014 Oscars
Circles (Serbia)- directed by Srdan Golubovic- Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
The Color of the Chameleon (Bulgaria)- directed by Emil Hristow

The Congress (Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)- directed by Ari Folman
Crossing Boundaries (Austria)- directed by Florian Flicker
The Deep (Iceland/Norway)- directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Eat Sleep Die (Sweden)- directed by Gabriela Pichler- Winner of the Audience Award of Critic's Week at the 2012 Venice Film Festival
8-Ball (Finland)- directed by Aku Louhimies
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Bosnia and Herzegovina/France/Slovenia)- directed by Danis Tanovic- Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival
The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (Greece)
Fill the Void (Israel)- directed by Rama Burshtein- Winner of the Best Actress (Hadas Yaron) at the 2012 Venice Film Festival; Israel's Oscar submission for the 2013 Academy Awards
The Great Beauty (Italy)- directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Hannah Arendt (Germany/Luxembourg/France/Israel)- directed by Margarethe von Trotta
A Highjacking (Denmark)- directed by Tobias Lindholm
I Belong (Norway)- directed by Dag Johan Haugerud
Imagine (Poland/France/Portugal)- directed by Andrzej Jakimowski
The Impossible (Spain)- directed by J.A. Bayona- Naomi Watts received a Best Actress Oscar nomination

I'm So Excited (Spain)- directed by Pedro Almodóvar
In Bloom (Georgia/Germany/France)- directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon GroB
In the House (France)- directed by Francois Ozon
In the Name Of... (Poland)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)- directed by Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg- Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2013 Oscars
The Last Sentence (Sweden)- directed by Jan Troell
A Long & Happy Life (Russia)- directed by Boris Khlebnikov
My Dog Killer (Slovaka/Czech Republic)- directed by Mira Fornay
Oh Boy! (Germany)- directed by Jan Ole Gerster
Only God Forgives (Denmark/France)- directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Paradise: Faith (Austria/Germany/France)- directed by Ulrich Seidl
The Patience Stone (France/Germany/Afghanistan)- directed by Atiq Rahimi
The Priest's Children (Croatia/Serbia)- directed by Vinko Bresan
Rosie (Switzerland)
The Selfish Giant (UK)- directed by Clio Bernard
A Strange Course of Events (Israel/France)- directed by Raphael Nadjari
Stranger by the Lake (France)- directed by Alain Guiraudie- Winner of the Queer Palm at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
What Richard Did (Ireland)- directed by Lenny Abrahamson

Auspiciously absent from the list is the controversial Palme D'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Color.

Musings and Stuff's Snarky Summer Movie Part 2

Because the movies are nothing without franchises.

JUNE

June 7th, 2013

The first weekend of June will be a relatively quiet one because of the quick scheduling move on the part of Sony's After Earth moving a week earlier.  Again this might be a great weekend to catch up on (hopeful) art house pleasures like Before Midnight, Frances Ha and Stories We Tell, all of whom will likely be playing on 2,000+ screens the first weekend in May due to endless demand queries-- it could happen!  Otherwise the big attraction will come squarely from Fox's Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson buddy-dumb-dumb comedy The Internship about two loser salesmen who try to conquer the digital world of now by becoming interns at Google.  Shawn Levy, the director of the Night at the Museum franchise, helms what will surely be a compelling tale of middle aged men in competition with nerdy geniuses for future employment.  Rose Byrne, John Goodman and B.J. Novak co-star.  Trailer here.

If you want to be the cool kid in your selected city, the obvious movie-going choice for this weekend will be Joss Whedon's black and white, modern re-staging of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  Whedon shot this during a break from shooting of The Avengers and it features a collective whos-who of past Whedon players including Amy Acker (Dollhouse), Alexis Denisof (aka Mr. Willow-- Alyson Hannigan's real-life husband and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel alum), Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods) and Nathan Fillion (nearly everything.)  All which prompts a fun game of Whedon musical chairs to the tune of Shakespeare-- certainly a drinking game can arise from this somehow.  The film premiered to nice notices at last years Toronto Film Festival and this springs SXSW.  Strangely, given the popular cinematic art form of gutting the work of Shakespeare endlessly, Much Ado About Nothing has only been made into a theatrical film once before in 1993's Kenneth Branagh's version which starred Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, and, ahem, Keanu Reeves; that version is actually a beaut and worthy of checking out as well.

Also opening: Provocative documentary Dirty Wars which follows investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, while Evocatuer: The Morton Downey, Jr. Movie is another documentary which explores the divisive, chain-smoking shock jock.