Along with best picture contender Elle these 13 films may have the momentum to make the Oscar shortlist (still to be announced as this issue went to press)
BELGIUM
The Ardennes
DIRECTOR Robin Pront
TOP AWARD Film Festival Ostend award for best film
Two brothers by blood — and in crime — struggle to maintain their dual relationship in The Ardennes, a gritty pic that isn’t as Cain-and-Abel-ish as it seems. Here, unlike in the biblical tale, resentments go in both directions but are tempered by sincere brotherly love. A promising if not quite audacious debut by Pront, the film benefits from a solidly envisioned family dynamic but doesn’t really generate much heat until its final act. — JOHN DEFORE
CHILE
Neruda
DIRECTOR Pablo Larrain TOP AWARD National Board of Review award and Golden Globe nom for top foreign film Gael Garcia Bernal reteams with No director Larrain to play an obsessive detective on the trail of the famed Chilean poet-politician forced into exile in 1948. Focusing on the period in the late 1940s when the writer, then a senator for the Chilean Communist Party, was living in hiding before fleeing first to Argentina and then to France, Neruda takes its stylistic cues from the poet’s work. Guillermo Calderon’s screenplay blends surreal perspective, political anger, simmering passion, mordant humor and celebratory sensuality for an idiosyncratic contemplation of a great artist. — DAVID ROONEY
DENMARK
Land of Mine
WRITER-DIRECTOR Martin Zandvliet
This story is from the Essential Awards Playbook, Dec. 2016 edition of The Hollywood Reporter.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Essential Awards Playbook, Dec. 2016 edition of The Hollywood Reporter.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Michael Ovitz, Me And The Truce That Never Was
As a new book puts the focus back on CAA’s origins, Kim Masters recalls how the agent’s fit at The Palm and her follow-up kicked off one of Hollywood’s prickliest pas de deux.
Songs Of Innocence And Experience
How 5 writers found the music to convey their films’ tragedy, injustice, patriotism and loveA Wonderful Example of ‘What the World Loves About America’
Execs Can Boycott The Press Tour — But Not The Pressing Questions
With top programmers passing on January’s TV Critics Association panels, THR poses (and answers) the five toughest quandaries of the unfolding season
Making Of Kubo And The Two Strings
Old-fashioned stop-motion meets new-fashioned 3D printing in this directorial debut by the head of Portland, Ore.-based Laika studios — and THR was on the set.
A World Of Pioneering Talents
Along with best picture contender Elle these 13 films may have the momentum to make the Oscar shortlist (still to be announced as this issue went to press)
Iain Canning & Emile Sherman
The Brit-Aussie team behind Lion talk winning an Oscar for The King’s Speech, working with Harvey Weinstein and the upcoming biblical epic Mary Magdalene
Producer Of The Year Charles Roven
He reveals what really happened between George Clooney and David O. Russell, witnessed Richard Pryor behave (very) badly in church and fired an actor for repeatedly shouting ‘cut’ on a set. All in a day’s work for a Hollywood slugger with $2B in 2016 box office.
No Happy Endings Required
The death of satire, when to kill a scene and how to write a Trump movie (‘Let’s hope it’s not a tragedy’).
Don't Stop, Won't Stop Believing
Hulu’s The Path centers on a fringe religious movement, Meyerism, with Emmy winner Aaron Paul as a disruptive doubter — but during a visit from THR, cast, crew and showrunners all seem in perfect harmony.
Ryan Murphy: American Success Story
The prolific producer opens up about the future of American Horror Story, his plans for more Broadway and the real reason an American Crime Story season centered on Hurricane Katrina won’t be quite as depressing as it sounds.
