International Cinephile Society Nominees

The gayer, alien-body-snatching, delinquent-teenage-son, vampiric, in 3-D alternative to the Academy Awards.  The chilling, Hitchcockian penis-filled French film Stranger by the Lake led the field with 9 nomination, while Xavier Dolan's Mommy (which I loved) followed with 8 nominations.

To enhance the mood while reading this list.

PICTURE
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Goodbye to Language
The Immigrant
Inherent Vice
Mommy
Mr. Turner
Only Lovers Left Alive
Strangers by the Lake
Two Days, One Night
Under the Skin

DIRECTOR
Xavier Dolan, Mommy
Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin
Jean-Luc Godard, Goodbye to Language
Alain Guiraudie, Stranger by the Lake
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

ACTOR
Pierre Deladonchamps, Stranger by the Lake
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo, Selma
Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Mommy
Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner

ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Anne Dorval, Mommy
Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Tilda Swinton, Only Lovers Left Alive   

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Patrick d'Assumçao, Stranger by the Lake
Timur Magomedgadzhiev, Two Days, One Nigiht
Edward Norton, Birdman
Christophe Paou, Stranger by the Lake
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Suzanne Clément, Mommy
Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars
Rene Russo, Nightcrawler
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

César Award Winners

PICTURE: Me, Myself and Mum (Les Garçons et Guillaume, Á Table!)
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski, Venus In Fur
ACTOR: Guillaume Gallienne, Me, Myself and Mum
ACTRESS: Sandrine Kiberlain, Nine Month Stretch
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Niels Arestrup, Quai d'Orsay
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Adéle Haenel, Suzanne
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Nine Month Stretch- Albert Dupontel
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Me, Myself and Mum
FOREIGN FILM: The Broken Circle Breakdown
DOCUMENTARY: On the Way to School
ANIMATED FEATURE: Loulou L'Incroyable Secret
DEBUT FEATURE: Me, Myself and Mum
CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Young and Prodigious Mr. Spivet- Thomas Hardmeier
ART DIRECTION: Mood Indigo- Stéphane Rozenbaum
COSTUME DESIGN: Renoir- Pascaline Chavanne
ORIGINAL SCORE: Michael Kohlhaas- Martin Wheeler
EDITING: Me, Myself and Mum- Valérie Deseine
SOUND: Michael Kohlhass
SHORT FILM: Just Before Losing You
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: Mademoiselle Kiki et Les Montparnos

The French equivalent of the Academy Awards have announced and if U.S. audiences haven't heard of any these films, don't fret-- none of the top prize winners have really had widespread American releases and none of these films really have much of a way of factoring into the Oscars this Sunday.  The novelty of Roman Polanski being named Best Director for Venus Is Fur (which premiered at Cannes last year, but hasn't had a stateside release yet) is probably the biggest story.  Outside of the that Foreign Film Oscar contender The Broken Circle Breakdown won as did AMPAS-approved short film Just Before Losing You (which is incredible and an absolutely must see as an aside.)

France's hot newcomers.

MALE NEWCOMER: Pierre Deladonchamps, Stranger By the Lake
FEMALE NEWCOMER: Adéle Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color

The more interesting César choices (or at least choices made for films that have a bit of an exposure in the United States, to varying degrees) came in their breakthrough acting categories where a pair of fine (and very naked-- physically and emotionally) performances won.  There's an interesting dichotomy in honoring Deladonchamps and Exarchopoulos, both performers broke through in two separate, yet equally controversial queer titles that have gotten film critics and cinephiles all hot and bothered since they both premiered at last years Cannes Film Festival.  Stranger By the Lake is a gripping, beautifully filmed and distilled study of behaviors at a bucolic gay cruising site-- it's a slow burner of a film-- one that likely features a record number of shots of male full frontal for a legit movie-- until it morphs into a creepy, Hitchcockian thriller.  It's a beautifully terse film...I've been meaning to do a proper write-up on it (let me know if there's interest in that.)  Blue Is the Warmest Color, on the other hand is the buzzier title and the 2013 Palme D'Or winner. 

HONORARY CÉSAR: Scarlett Johansson

Hollywood made one big impression at the Césars with Johansson and her great recent movie revival (Her, Don Jon, the upcoming Under the Skin) receiving an honorary prize.  She seems a bit young for this type of thing, but hell, the Oscars aren't embracing her talents, so why not?

César Award Nominations

France's equivalent of the Oscars.

PICTURE
9 Mois Ferme
Blue is the Warmest Color
Jimmy P
Les Garcons et Guillame, A Table!
The Past
Stranger by the Lake
Venus in Fur

DIRECTOR
Arnaud Desplechin, Jimmy P
Albert Dupontel, 9 Mois Ferme
Asghar Farhadi, The Past
Guillaume Gallienne, Les Garcons et Guillaume, A Table!
Alain Guiraudie, Stranger by the Lake  
Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color
Roman Polanski, Venus in Fur

ACTOR
Mathieu Amalric, Venus in Fur
Michel Bouquet, Renoir
Albert Depontel, 9 Mois Ferme
Grégory Gadebois, Mon Ame Par Toi Guérie
Guillaume Gallienne, Les Garcons et Guillaume, A Table!
Fabrice Luchine, Alceste a Bicyclette
Mads Mikkelsen, Michael Kohlhass

ACTRESS
Fanny Ardant, Les Beaux Jours
Bérénice Bejo, The Past
Catherine Deneuve, Elle S'En Va
Sara Forestier, Suzanne
Sandrine Kiberlaine, 9 Mois Ferme
Emmanuelle Seigner, Venus in Fur
Léa Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color

Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 of 2013

Promising a riskier top ten list than anyone else, the Cahiers du Cinéma have announced their picks for the best of the year.  This might be the only group brave enough to put some of friskiest (and in the cases of #1 and #3 the gay sexiest) films of the year in their top three.

The controversial French gay cruising drama Stranger by the Lake

1. Stranger by the Lake- directed b Alain Guiraudie 
2. Spring Breakers- directed by Harmony Korine 
3. Blue is the Warmest Color- directed by Abdellatif Kechiche 
4. Gravity- directed by Alfonso Cuarón 
5. A Touch of Sin- directed by Zhangke Jia 
6. Lincoln- directed by Steven Spielberg 
7. La Jalousie- directed by Philippe Garrel 
8. Nobody's Daughter Haewon- directed by Sang-soo Hong 
9. You & the Night- directed by Yann Gonzalez 
10. Age of Panic- directed by Justine Triet

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.