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Who would have thought that a ’90s ‘slacker’ independent filmmaker would make such a strong romantic statement? Well, it’s not all romance in the old sense. In what must be a project of love, Richard Linklater examines the ongoing love life of Jesse & Céline, in three movies spread across eighteen years. The conversations are as free- flowing as are the cameras roaming through European back streets. Thanks to the commitment of Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, the in-depth relationship seems real.

The ‘Before’ Trilogy

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 856

1995, 2004, 2013 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101, 80, 109 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 28, 2017 / 79.96

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Cinematography: Lee Daniel; Lee Daniel; Christos Voudouris

Film Editor: Sandra Adair (3)

Original Music: Fred Frith; none; Graham Reynolds

Written by Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan; Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan; Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan.

Produced by Anne Walker-McBay...

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced the nominees for its eighth-annual Eda Awards.

Birdman leads the pack with 10 nominations. Boyhood and Gone Girl got five each and The Grand Budapest Hotel four.

In the best film category, the nominees are Boyhood, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive and Selma.

The nominees for the Female Icon of the Year, to honour a woman whose work in film and/or in life made a difference, are Selma director Ava DuVernay, Unbroken director Angelina Jolie and Citizenfour director Laura Poitras.

The full list of nominees is below, in categories for both men and women, and some women-only awards as well.

Awfj Best Of Awards (presented to men and women)

Best Film

Boyhood

Birdman

Grand Budapest Hotel

Only Lovers Left Alive

Selma

Best Director

Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ava DuVernay for Selma

Alejandro G Inarritu for Birdman

Jim Jarmusch for Only Lovers Left Alive

[link...

For casting director Beth Sepko, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” was a project unlike any other she’d done in the past. Knowing she needed actors for years at a time made the task particularly challenging. “There were times I would get an email saying, ‘We’re going to do this next fall’ or I’d get an email saying, ‘Hey, next month we’re going to shoot a segment,’ ” Sepko told Backstage earlier this month. “And Rick [Linklater] would give me a call and say, ‘I need a teacher, I need a boyfriend, a new neighborhood kid.’ ” Taking over after the film was initially cast by Anne Walker-McBay, Sepko worked tirelessly to create a troupe of supporting characters. But it wasn’t just Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia Arquette who gathered together year after year to film the 12-years-in-the-making movie. As any actor knows, there’s no part too small,...

Boyhood

Director: Richard Linklater

Writer: Linklater

Producers: Cathleen Sutherland and Anne Walker-McBay

U.S. Distributor: IFC Films

Cast: Ellar Salmon, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette

A nod to Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel creation and a wink to 7-up series from a filmmaker who arguably might have given us his career best just last year with the third chapter in Celine and Jesse saga, perhaps in some parallel manner, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight might have been the test run for what might be one hell of an anthropological dozen year film experiment. Production commenced way back in 2002, so as much as we look forward in seeing three people age before our eyes, and before its unveiling at Sundance, what we were most curious in seeing was how Linklater might have embraced different technologies and how he framed, shifted positions narratively speaking. According to Hawke, the acting is in a league of its own,...

According to IMDb, Ben Stiller has (to include the Boxing Day release of his re-imagining of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) 14 credited stints as a director, six of which have come in the last 10 years. Of course, at 48 years of age Stiller's transition from front to back is hardly surprising; and as the 'crop' of comic icons Jerry Stiller (who zany-connoisseurs will know as Maury Ballstein, aka Derek's agent in Zoolander) and Anne Meara (herself a much-respected comedienne) there's no questioning the man's humorous genes. And yet, despite the man's jocular being, a modern day retelling of a comic that originally appeared in The New Yorker circa 1939 is...well, brave.

As a basic synopsis, try this: Ben Stiller is Walter Mitty, an extraordinarily bland individual prone to delusions of grandeur. A day-dreamer of sorts, Mitty has lived a life so sheltered that these 'trips' to...

For fans and avid television viewers, this summer has offered an abundance of riches. From the break-out alien sensation Falling Skies to the addictive Teen Wolf to teenage crushes on The Nine Lives Of Chloe King to the creepy medical mysteries of Torchwood, no matter what one could possibly be looking for, this summer had it on TV. It is said that ‘it is good to be king.’ But on TV, it is better to be the most talked about summer hits of the season. The following is a quick round up of shows that you may already be watching, but if you have not yet discovered these shows, you are invited to check them out and become as enamored as everyone else.

Sunday

Sunday nights have been brutal for viewers with no less than eight competing shows: Falling Skies, Leverage, Drop Dead Diva, True Blood, In Plain Sight, The...

AFTRA on Sunday tendered a counterproposal to Stanley Brooks' take-it-or-leave-it offer to settle unpaid residuals on the 2008 Logo TV series "Sordid Lives."

The move comes in the face of a threat by Brooks that if his offer isn't accepted, he almost immediately will file for bankruptcy on behalf of his main company, Once Upon a Time Films, and Sordid Lives Prods., a special-purpose company formed for the show.

Brooks said Friday in a passionate letter to performers owed money that if he files bankruptcy, creditors will get even less than the $500,000 he is offering to settle about $1.5 million in debt.

AFTRA held meetings and conference calls Friday and during the weekend to discuss the offer. Among the actors in the production are Bonnie Bedelia; the late Rue McClanahan, who is represented by her estate; and Anne Walker, who was seen in a YouTube video confronting Brooks about the unpaid...

SXSW Film Announces 2010 Award Winners

Complete Coverage of SXSW 2010

Austin, Texas – March 16, 2010 – The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas. Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories. Films in these categories, as well as the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second categories were also eligible for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight. Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Monday, March 22.

SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking, and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards, including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award.

Austin, Texas – March 16, 2010 – The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas. Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories. Films in these categories, as well as the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second categories were also eligible for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight. Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Monday, March 22. SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking, and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards, including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award. Details can be found at www.

Though SXSW 2010 is only at the halfway point, the music portion is about to kick into high gear and many film folks are leaving town. The awards ceremony was held last night, and Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol and Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture won jury awards for best feature-length documentary and narrative, respectively.

Audience awards went to For Once in My Life (documentary) and Brotherhood (narrative). As if often the case, I haven't seen any of the winners, so can't comment further on them, but we do have a review for Marwencol up on the site, which is linked below.

Here's the announcement provided by the festival:

Austin, Texas - March 16, 2010 - The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival's closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas.  Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were...

• The toast of the town is Diablo Cody and the gift she gave to Jason Reitman. Juno picks up a trio of awards and trailing with two awards each is another Fox Searchlight flick The Savages and the Cannes Julian Schnabel and his cinematographer were well rewarded for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's aesthetic brilliance. Here is the complete list of noms and winners below. Best Feature: Juno         Best Director: Julian Schnabel         Best First Feature: The Lookout           Best Documentary: Crazy Love         Best Foreign Film: Once         Best Female Lead: Ellen Page           Best Male Lead: Philip Seymour Hoffman         Best Supporting Female: Cate Blanchett         Best Supporting Male: Chiwetel Ejiofor Best Screenplay: The Savages         Best First Screenplay: Juno           Best Cinematography: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly           John Cassavetes Award: August Evening         August Evening Writer/Director: Chris Eska Producers: Connie Hill, Jason Wehling Owl and the Sparrow Writer/Director: Stephane Gauger Producers: Nguyen Van Quan,

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