Overall, “The Last Daughter” was a great directorial debut for Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film, an adaptation of an Elena Ferrante novel, debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year and got a four-minute standing ovation. Critics lauded Maggie’s direction, and the movie made a couple of year-end top 10 lists and nabbed a few Oscar noms. And it also made Maggie a screenwriter and director to look out for on top of her acting.

Continue reading Jake Gyllenhaal Says He’s Working On A Secretive New Project With Maggie Gyllenhaal at The Playlist.

Like many other awards shows, the DGA Awards returned to an in-person event for 2022. This year’s event was hosted by Judd Apatow and featured a number of minor upsets. There was no big surprise with the top honor, however, as Jane Campion won her first DGA Award for “The Power of the Dog.”

READ MORE: Director Jane Campion says feature filmmaking is “Not As Daring As Series-Making”

Campion became just the third woman to win the category after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker” and Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” last year.

Continue reading Jane Campion Wins Top Prize At 2022 DGA Awards at The Playlist.

Oscar season rolled on as the 37th Independent Spirit Awards took place tonight on IFC and AMC+. Hosted by comedy’s power couple, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, this year’s ceremony served as a bit of a departure from recent years. Typically held the night before the Oscars, the show was moved ahead a few weeks offering viewers (and stars) a nice break from the all encompassing shadow of the big show.

Continue reading The 2022 Spirit Awards Winners: Maggie Gyllenhaal and ‘The Lost Daughter’ Win Big at The Playlist.

In an online ceremony, the USC libraries announced the winners of their 2022 USC Scripter Awards, an honor that rewards not only the screenwriter, but the author of the original adapted work. On the film side, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Elena Ferrante won for “The Lost Daughter.” The television award went to Danny Strong and Beth Macy for “Dopesick,” based on the latter’s nonfiction book “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.”

READ MORE: Oscars 2022: “The Power of the Dog” leads with 12 nominations [Full List]

The Scripter Award winners are selected by a group of industry professionals and have rarely lined up with their equivalent Oscar or Emmy categories.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’ & ‘Dopesick’ Take 2022 USC Scripter Awards at The Playlist.

The Oscar nominations are just a few days away, but early this morning BAFTA revealed their nominees for the 2022 British Academy Film Awards. And, as in recent years, they served as an indicator of where AMPAS members may throw their ballots. In something of a surprise, “Dune” lead all films with 11 nominations including Best Film.

READ MORE: “Belfast,” “Only Murders In The Building” and “Succession” lead 2022 SAG Awards nominations

Other nominees for Best Film included “Belfast” (6 noms), “Don’t Look Up” (4 noms), “Licorice Pizza” (5 noms) and “The Power of the Dog” (8 noms).

Continue reading ‘Dune’ Leads 2022 BAFTA Awards With 11 Nominations at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

Our first disc and streaming guide of the new year brings you a handful of fall theatrical releases, a couple of old favorites on 4K, and several catalog titles from here and abroad.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘The Lost Daughter,’ ‘Antlers,’ ‘Dune’ & More at The Playlist.

Here we are again — another year that somehow felt both five seconds and twelve eons long has come to a close. For me, a big highlight was definitely getting to see movies in theaters again (post-vaccination and with a mask on, of course). My first venture back was for “A Quiet Place Part II,” and soon after that I got to live my high school theater kid dream by seeing “In the Heights” on the big screen.

Continue reading Lena Wilson’s Top 10 Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Based on Elena Ferrante‘s book of the same name, Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s terrific directorial debut, the Gotham Award-winning film “The Lost Daughter” is about a woman’s beach vacation in Greece, which takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront the secrets of her past. The movie uncovers the complex notions of guilt and resentment that can build up when confronting how motherhood is all-consuming.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Brooding Adaptation Features A Terrific Ensemble [Video Exclusive] at The Playlist.

After a pandemic hiatus, the Film Independent Spirt Awards will be back on the beach this year. They may not be the day before the Oscars or an afternoon affair, as has been the tradition, but judging on this year’s nominations they will be more irreverent than ever. Just look at the Best Feature nominees which include “Zola,” “C’Mon, C’Mon,” “The Lost Daughter” and two unexpected selections, “A Chiara” and “The Novice.”

READ MORE: “West Side Story” and “Belfast” lead 2022 Critics Choice Awards nominations

Janicza Bravo’s “Zola,” which originally debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, landed seven nominations including Best Director, Best Female Lead (Taylour Paige), and Best Supporting Male (Colman Domingo).

Continue reading ‘Zola’ Rules The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

We certainly have not resumed full normalcy as we continue to battle this pandemic, but at least we have movies—even more than last year. With certain reservations about how they were premiered, released, and distributed, this year in film brought back more festival favorites like Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” more massive franchise golden geese like Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time to Die,” more awards-friendly fare that had been held over, like Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their annual year-end honors, giving an awards season boost to one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s “Drive My Car.” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” took three honors including Best Director, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee). For those paying attention, it’s worth noting the NYFCC’s top pick hasn’t won the Oscar for Best Picture since “The Artist” 10 years ago, but every winner has been nominated in the category.

Continue reading New York Film Critics Circle Choose ‘Drive My Car’ As Best Film at The Playlist.

It speaks to the month’s quality that to kick things off there’s the release of Jane Campion’s beauty, “The Power of the Dog,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst on Netflix following a limited theatrical run last month. December is positively overwhelming in titles to discover both big and small, from independent darlings that have danced the festival circuit all year to the latest – and last – Marvel film of the year, the much talked about “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

We couldn’t even fit everything about to release on the below list (see reviews in each link) where applicable).

Continue reading 19 Films To See In December: ‘Nightmare Alley,’ ‘Don’t Look Up,’ ‘Tragedy Of Macbeth’ & More at The Playlist.

Awards season got into gear on Monday night as the Gotham Awards returned to an in-person ceremony for the first time in two years. And it was a massive night for Netflix as Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” took Best Feature, Breakthrough Director, Best Screenplay and tied for Outstanding Performance (Olivia Colman). That’s a big award season win for the streamer as only one Gotham’s Best Feature winner over the previous seven years hasn’t been Oscar-nominated for Best Picture (“The RIder”).

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’ Dominates the Gotham Awards Taking Best Feature at The Playlist.

As a scion of two filmmakers, it’s a bit surprising that actress Maggie Gyllenhaal hasn’t turned to film direction sooner. The star of “The Kindergarten Teacher” and HBO‘s “The Deuce” makes her directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter.” The film made its debut at the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews in September.

READ MORE: ‘The Lost Daughter’ Is A Fantastic Feature Debut For Director Maggie Gyllenhaal [Venice Review]

Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante, “The Lost Daughter” stars Oscar Best Actress-winner Olivia Colman as a woman who becomes increasingly obsessed with a young mother and daughter while on vacation.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’ Trailer: Maggie Gyllenhall’s Directorial Debut Stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley & More at The Playlist.

Are you old enough to remember when Netflix was an underdog in international film festivals? When trepidation towards the future of film distribution was enough to keep streaming titles from winning in major film competitions? With all due respect to the Cannes Film Festival, those days certainly seem to be coming to an end. The Venice Film Festival has announced its lineup of winners, and Netflix has made quite a show for itself in the major categories.

Continue reading Venice Film Festival Awards: ‘Happening,’ Jane Campion, Netflix Win Big at The Playlist.

TELLURIDE – For those of us lucky enough to attend Cannes, there was a genuine sense of euphoria about returning to an in-person film festival following the pandemic forced cancellation in 2020. Returning to Telluride, which only featured a historic “Nomadland” outdoor screening last year, due to said pandemic, warmed the heart. Obviously, it wasn’t the same. Mandatory masks in all theaters meant it was often more intrusive to speak with other festival goers about their thoughts on the selections than in previous years, but overall there was a collective sense of joy in just how lucky everyone was to return to the annual Colorado cinephile showcase

READ MORE: Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” is a stirring coming of age portrait with magnificent performances [Telluride Review]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a mainstay at Telluride, wasn’t “officially” on the ground this year due to concerns over the Delta variant, but many AMPAS members still made the trek.

Continue reading ‘Belfast’ & ‘King Richard’ Stir Oscar Season At Telluride at The Playlist.

With “The Lost Daughter,” director Maggie Gyllenhaal wears melancholy like a second skin. One of her generation’s most underrated actors, she moves through her films with a flicker of otherworldly woe; an organic ability that has routinely been informing the highlights of her filmography to date, from the erotically manic “Secretary” to the gritty “Sherrybaby,” and more recently, the wistful thriller, “The Kindergarten Teacher.” In other words, Gyllenhaal has always possessed an auteurial sway over the films she was in, putting on them her signature ethereal stamp.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’ Is A Fantastic Feature Debut For Director Maggie Gyllenhaal [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

Trust us when we say we hope there’s a day when the words pandemic and COVID-19 are never written on the pages of this website again, specifically in any intros to any features. However, the reality is that the collective disruption of 2020 was difficult, and it made 2021’s release schedule something of a log-jammed shitshow. That Delta variant could play havoc with things too, but we’re all starting to learn to live with a world that’s in flux. 

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2021, So Far

All that said, the delays of 2021 have had their pluses.

Continue reading Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films at The Playlist.

It’s late August, and while the leaves aren’t falling just quite yet, the Fall Film Festival season is upon us. As usual, the Venice Film Festival always starts with the Telluride Film Festival following on its heels just a day or two later. Venice’s line-up has been stellar the last few years—in part due to Netflix’s ongoing battle with Cannes and their French theatrical rules—and this year is mostly no different.

Continue reading Venice Film Festival 2021 Preview: 12 Must-See Films To Watch at The Playlist.

Every year, the New York Film Festival welcomes “the season’s most anticipated and significant films” to take part in its Spotlight section. And though 2021 has been a really odd year (much like 2020) for the film industry, the Spotlight section for this year is truly stacked with some great picks.

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Full Slate Includes ‘Benedetta’, ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ ‘Memoria’ & More

According to NYFF, this year’s Spotlight section includes highly-anticipated films such as Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle,” Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Charlotte Gainsbourg’s “Jane By Charlotte,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter,” Marco Bellocchio’s “Marx Can Wait,” Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket,” and more.

Continue reading NYFF 2021 Adds ‘Dune,’ ‘French Dispatch’ & Mike Mills’ ‘C’mon, Cmon’ With Joaquin Phoenix & More at The Playlist.

Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson starring in a film together is enough to gain the attention of most film fans. Add to that the intrigue of finding out how Maggie Gyllenhaal fares as a director, working from source material written by Elena Ferrante, and you have a feature that is at the top of many people’s most anticipated film lists. That’s the case with the upcoming Netflix feature, “The Lost Daughter.”

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Unveils New Films By Edgar Wright, Paul Schrader, Jane Campion, ‘Scenes From A Marriage’ & More [Full 2021 Lineup]

With “The Lost Daughter” expected to make its debut at Venice shortly, Netflix has gone ahead and released some first-look images of from the feature.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Daughter’ First Look: Dakota Johnson & Olivia Colman Star In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Directorial Debut For Netflix at The Playlist.

Every year is a good year to stan female directors, but 2021 has cooked us up a real feast. Acting veterans like Rebecca Hall, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, and Halle Berry are finally claiming their director’s chairs on feature films, while arthouse icon Jane Campion is returning to hers after 12 years. Foreign language directors like Lucile Hadžihalilović and Ildikó Enyedi are making their English-language debuts, and French juggernaut Mélanie Laurent is working on two releases back to back.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2021 at The Playlist.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Aside from the election result, Trashfire 2020™ was a shitty year. And a weird and disorienting year thanks to COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place, quarantine, and social distance from one another blah, blah, blah coronavirus f*cked us hard. Movies certainly took it in the teeth this year, and especially the theatrical industrial complex, which feels like it’s on its last legs. But regardless of what happens next for theaters, people are going to continue making and releasing movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Honestly, if you were to tell me that Maggie Gyllenhaal has directed a half dozen feature films, I wouldn’t be able to argue against that. Not that I’m completely oblivious to the actress’ career, but instead, she just strikes me as someone with a filmmaking maturity that would seemingly come from a great deal of experience. However, that’s not the case, as she’s still prepping work on her upcoming directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter,” of which she has just added a key member to the cast.

Continue reading ‘Normal People’ Star Paul Mescal Joins Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Directorial Debut ‘The Lost Daughter’ at The Playlist.

For decades now, Maggie Gyllenhaal has proven herself to be one of the best actresses on the planet. But for her next project, “The Lost Daughter,” she’s going to step behind the camera for the first time, and apparently, she’s got a pretty incredible cast helping her.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2020

According to Deadline, Gyllenhaal has signed on to direct a new film titled “The Lost Daughter,” marking the actress’ debut as a filmmaker.

Continue reading Maggie Gyllenhaal To Make Directorial Debut With ‘The Lost Daughter’ Starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson & More at The Playlist.