While we still have a month to go until the Oscars, that hardly means the awards season is over. This morning, the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma unveiled its nominations for the César Awards aka France’s Oscars.

Leading the pack with 13 nominations each was the AIDS drama “BPM” and Albert Dupontel’s WWI drama “Au Revoir Là-Haut.” Though receiving largely rave reviews for much of the season, “BPM” is notable for not making the cut in the Best Foreign Film race at the Oscars.

Continue reading ‘BPM’ Leads 2018 César Award Nominations, ‘Dunkirk’ & ‘La La Land’ In The Race at The Playlist.

2017 might be done with us, but we’re not exactly done with it. In traditional Playlist form, it’s never quite clear if the world has moved on from the last year during the early days of January, but regardless, we seem to exhaust all possibilities examining, breaking down and parsing the previous year in film.

It might have been a shit show of a year, but movies and quality Peak TV provided us riches and escape.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2017 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

As we drag ourselves, bloodied and limping across the finish line of 2017, there’s little to celebrate at year’s end in the world outside the movie theater, except for Fyre Festival which is still the greatest and funniest thing ever. But inside the popcorny passageways of our local multiplexes and the hallowed halls of our local arthouses, it’s been a different story — one that may not have led to the kind of clear consensus winners of previous years (even awards season seems unusually open) but that points to a general breadth of quality that is, we believe, reflected here in our Best Films of the Year poll.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

There was another big event last night besides the world premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” While everyone was freaking out about porgs (or whatever), the European Film Awards were handed out in Berlin. And one film ruled them all.

Ruben Ostlund‘s comedic takedown of modern art and the ignorance of the bourgeois, “The Square,” swept the ceremony winning Best European Film, Best European Comedy, Best Actor for Claes Bang, and Best Director.

Continue reading ‘The Square’ Sweeps European Film Awards at The Playlist.

If you were up late last night, you might’ve seen a somewhat heated debated unfold on Film Twitter, about whether or not television could be considered in the category of Best Movies. On the one hand, there are some series which expand beyond the frame of conventional television and are absolutely cinematic in almost every detail of their execution. However, there is enough great television that you can put that material on a separate list, and plenty of fantastic movies that equally deserve the space on their own list, with lots of foreign and small films that could use the love, without being bounced for TV series.

Continue reading Sight & Sound’s Best Films Of 2017 Features ‘Get Out,’ ‘Twin Peaks,’ ‘Dunkirk’ & More at The Playlist.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association handed out their year-end awards today anointing “Call Me By Your Name “ as Best Picture and it’s director, Luca Guadagnino, Best Director in a tie with Guillermo del Toro.

The organization also awarded “Call Me’s” Timothée Chalamet as Best Actor while “Shape of Water’s” Sally Hawkins won Best Actress.  “The Florida Project” won Best Supporting Actor, Willem Dafoe, and also was the runner-up for Best Picture. 

Continue reading ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Named Best Picture By Los Angeles Film Critics at The Playlist.