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.

We all know the big, starry prestige pictures that are elbowing each other for Oscars this year, but as the clock winds down on 2017, it’s always worth remembering the smaller pictures that might be overlooked. This year’s nominees for the British Independent Film Awards certainly provided more than a few choices to add to your catch-up list.

Leading the pack is William Oldroyd‘s “Lady Macbeth,” which snapped up 15 nominations, while Armando Ianucci‘s “The Death Of Stalin” and Rungano Nyoni‘s “I Am Not A Witch” came close behind with 13 nods each.

Continue reading ‘Lady Macbeth’ & ‘The Death Of Stalin’ Lead British Independent Film Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

Any discussion featuring Werner Herzog describing his filmmaking process is going to be interesting, and The Hollywood Reporter’s documentary roundtable was no exception. In addition to Herzog discussing his two most recent documentaries “Into The Inferno” and “Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World,” filmmakers Ezra Edelman (“O.J.: Made In America“), Kirsten Johnson (“Cameraperson”), Josh Kriegman (“Weiner”), Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”), and Roger Ross Williams (“Life, Animated”) also provided insight into their cinematic approach.

Continue reading 66-Minute Documentary Director Roundtable Talk With Werner Herzog, Ezra Edelman, Kirsten Johnson & More at The Playlist.

Another year, and another Berlin Film Festival has wrapped up. It was bit quieter on the ground in 2017 than past years, but as always, a handful of movies shined brightly and are flying home from the prestigious festival with some serious hardware to put on the shelf.

READ MORE: ‘The Other Side Of Hope’ Is The Aki Kaurismaki Movie We Need Right Now

One movie we missed, and that we’ll certainly have to catch up with the down the line, is Ildikó Enyedi‘s “On Body And Soul” which won the Golden Bear.

Continue reading Berlin Film Festival Winners Include ‘The Other Side Of Hope,’ ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ And More at The Playlist.

With most of the country getting their living rooms ready for game day, and Hollywood serving up some lukewarm fare at the multiplex, it’s not a surprise that one of January’s biggest hits is holding on strong in February.

M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split” topped the box office for the third straight week, taking in $14.5 million. It brings the domestic haul to just a shade under $100 million, and it’s the first time the director has had a movie top the charts for three weeks since “The Sixth Sense.” Again, if there’s any doubt, Shyamalan is back.

Continue reading ‘Split’ Slices The Competition In Third Straight Week, ‘Space Between Us’ Flops [Box Office] at The Playlist.

Though February is typically slow at best for new movie releases, the month is actually looking pretty solid this year. Right at the top, the first entry February’s column is an Oscar nominated documentary whose prescience and importance has only been bested by the near unanimous wave of critical adoration for the film as it made its way through the festival circuit and finally to arthouses this month.

You’ll notice a few other Oscar contenders on this month’s final list, one animated and the other a foreign language nominee, and both rather obscure.

Continue reading 10 Films To See In February at The Playlist.

So as of this morning at 08:18 ET (and seriously, what a weirdly specific time slot — does it have numerological significance?), the weeks of speculation about what the 2017 Oscar nominations would be came to an end. The weeks of speculation about what the 2017 Oscar nominations mean can now begin.

READ MORE: Analysis: Wonderfully Progressive Oscar Nods Won’t Slow The ‘La La Land’ Train

There is, firstly, considerable good news especially if you or your fave film professional is listed under the “surprise” portion of this feature and not under “snubs.” In a more general sense, the 2017 nominee list also resoundingly addresses a fear some had expressed in the lead-up: namely that, while there were several black filmmakers, black-issues films and a lot of actors and actresses of color in the running, those films — specifically “Moonlight,” “Hidden Figures” and “Fences” — could end up cannibalizing each other’s votes.

Continue reading It’s #OscarsNotSoWhite But Still #OscarsSoMale In 2017 at The Playlist.

The 2017 Cinema Eye Honors were handed out in Astoria, Queens on Wednesday night and the top prize did not go to the doc that has dominated awards season so far, “O.J.: Made in America.” Instead, Kristen Johnson’s “Cameraperson” took the award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. “Cameraperson” also won the Cinematography and Editing prizes. Ezra Edelman‘s “O.J.” took key awards in Direction and Outstanding Production which is awarded to the producers.

Continue reading ‘Cameraperson’ Beats ‘O.J.: Made In America’ For Top Award At 10th Annual Cinema Eye Honors at The Playlist.

To say that America is a post-racial nation is to ignore the events that have played out in the streets of cities across the country in the past year. #OscarsSoWhite and #BlackLivesMatter may seem like reductive hashtags, but they speak to a very real concern about representation and prejudice that continues to exist in the country, and while the forthcoming documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” draws on observations made decades ago, it’s vibrantly relevant.

Continue reading Explore The History Of Race In America With James Baldwin In New Trailer For ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ at The Playlist.

Prediction used on nominees [Feb. 5]

NOMINEES
1. “O.J.: Made in America”
2. “13th”
3. “I Am Not Your Negro”
4. “Life, Animated”
5. “Fire at Sea”

PREVIOUS CONTENDERS (for historical context)
“Cameraperson”
“Command and Control”
“Fire at Sea”
“Gleason”
“Hooligan Sparrow”
“The Ivory Game”
“Tower”
“Weiner”
“The Witness”
“Zero Days”

Gregory Ellwood’s Current Oscar Predictions:
Best Picture
Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Editing
Cinematography 
Production Design
Animated Feature Film
Foreign Language Film
Documentary Feature
Original Score
Original Song
Costume Design
Makeup and Hairstyling
Visual Effects
Sound Mixing
Sound Editing

Continue reading 2017 Best Documentary Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

We’re deep into the week before Christmas and still cutting a swath through our Best/Worst/It’s Complicated Year-End coverage, most of which we hope you’ve all read and enjoyed, or at least been engaged by (it’s okay, you can disagree). This year, a few documentaries made it onto our collective 25 Best Films of the Year list; in 2016, it seems that many of the achievements in non-fiction cinema have rendered moot the notion of keeping narrative and documentary separate for evaluation.

Continue reading The 22 Best Documentaries Of 2016 at The Playlist.

We compiled an aggregated Playlist Best Films Of 2015 which you can find here. However, regular contributors were also given the chance to submit personal lists.

I think we can all agree that 2016 has been a dumpster fire on top of a pile of burning kittens and puppies kind of a year. We lost some of the greatest artists and immeasurably important pop culture icons, and got rewarded with a last minute kick in the nuts after one of the ugliest and enraging election campaigns the U.S.

Continue reading Oktay Ege Kozak’s Top 10 Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the field of 15 for the 2017 Documentary Feature Academy Award and while there were some notable snubs the only one that is cringeworthy is the absence of “Miss Sharon Jones!”

“O.J.: Made In America,” which has taken almost every major critics prize so far, made the cut as did 2016 Sundance Grand Jury prize winner “Weiner.”  The notable omissions are actually mostly from Park City debuts and include “Newtown,” “Jim” (the Audience Award winner), “Trapped,”Tickled” and “Audrie & Daisy.”

Other docs that didn’t make the list include “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,” Werner Herzog’s “Into The Inferno” and “Amanda Knox.”

105 documentaries were submitted this year and the Academy’s Documentary branch will now pick the final five nominees from the following 15 films.

Continue reading ‘O.J.: Made In America’ And ‘Weiner’ Make The 2017 Documentary Feature Oscars Cut at The Playlist.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their 2016 year-end awards and “Moonlight” won Best Picture with Barry Jenkins taking Best Director. “La La Land,” which won the top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle earlier this week, was runner-up in both categories. “Moonlight” winning LAFCA now creates an effective three-way split from the most notable critics groups, with “Manchester By The Sea” taking the Best Picture prize from the National Board of Review.

Continue reading ‘Moonlight’ Wins Best Film And Best Director From Los Angeles Film Critics Association at The Playlist.

This week’s election results have spurred countless conversations about the state of the nation, particularly when it comes to race in America. While the country has already seen an African-American serve two terms in office, we’re hardly in a post-racial world, and the upcoming documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” boldly examines these issues.

READ MORE: The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2016 So Far

Directed by Raoul Peck, the film, which won the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival, uses James Baldwin‘s unfinished novel of the same name as a jumping-off point to take a hard look at black history past and present.

Continue reading New Trailer For Acclaimed Documentary ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Examines Race In America at The Playlist.

Both Ezra Edelman‘s ‘OJ’ and Raoul Peck‘s ‘I Am Not’ earned nods for the top prize, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, alongside Kirsten Johnson‘s “Cameraperson,” Gianfranco Rosi‘s “Fire at Sea,“ and Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg‘s “Weiner.

Continue reading ‘OJ: Made in America’ Leads Nominees For 2017 Cinema Eye Honors at The Playlist.