In the couple of weeks since the last "weekly" I've been knuckling down with my homework for night classes and trying to work on my reviews. I was asked to take part in the Pandora International Film Critics Awards voting and the Filmotomy podcast. I also got press accreditation for Glasgow Film Festival - quite a lot going on! Pandora International Film Critics AwardsI was asked to participate in these new online awards run by the Filmotomy website. There's not actually a ceremony or anything but it is a collection of film critics around the world submitting their nominations then voting on the top ones. It was great to be involved and get to champion some smaller or more international films even if they didn't get through to the final rounds. Podcasting I was really honoured when Filmotomy also asked me to participate in their 97th podcast, on the theme of actress Amy Adams and director Denis Villeneuve. I have seen most of Villeneuve's films from the last decade and a fair amount of Amy Adams' but not for some time. I was with people who had very intelligent and knowledgable things to say so I was nervous about sounding dumb. So I tried to make my voice heard on the things where I had something to say and kept quiet when they discussed films I hadn't seen. Hopefully I got away with it! Glasow Film Festival Not really narrowed it down Having realised that I'll be back from Berlin Film Festival the day after Glasgow starts I applied for a press pass - and got it! Yaaayy. I am so very excited about the whole thing, it's unbelievable that I started all this 5 months ago and people are actually letting me do it! Glasgow doesn't have a separate schedule for press screenings but instead they allocate a certain number of free tickets. You have to apply for them so you need to do your homework up front and plan your schedule. It's taken hours to read the whole brochure and apply 47 tabs. Then work out which ones I can actually see. All I need to do now is prioritise where they clash. New to Streaming (UK)One of the big films arriving to Netflix recently is Uncut Gems. Some people love the intense screaming match but I really didn't like it. The main news in streaming land is that Netflix are adding a huge amount of Studio Ghibli films in batches over the coming months. The first batch is now available and you're in for a treat! The only notable absence is Grave of the Fireflies which is on Amazon right now. Hooboy that's a tough watch.
What I've Been Watching I've been able to get to the cinema a few times and have seen some great films and some clangers. The Personal History Of David Copperfield was a fantastic feast for the eyes. It mixed theatrical storytelling with amazing costumes and exceptional casting to create something very special. I haven't read David Copperfield because who reads Dickens for fun (don't come at me) so this was a great surprise. I can't fault a single one of the performances either. Bombshell was more of a miss for me. It was a very important story and managed to get across some of the reasons why workplace harrassment wouldn't be reported. But there were a lot of characters I didn't recognise, not being an American Fox news watcher. And the intersecting stories didn't help the central point. I caught up with 2018's Ash Is Purest White and The Chambermaid which were both fairly mediocre for me even though they both have great reputations. Queen & Slim and The Rhythm Section were both poor but I made up for it with a rewatch of 2012's thriller of a documentary, The Imposter, my review of that will be released in a couple of days. Night Classes Filmmaking class is loads of fun and I'm loving it! I've got my documentary planned out and am working on things like filming locations and storyboarding. I'm learning vital things in every lesson and I'm so very glad I signed up! I can't wait to show you the final product. It's going to be a 5 minute film for class but if I have enough footage I might make a longer version.
The Film Theory and Criticism is a lot more acaemic and I'm having to google words as we go along. Eek. But it's all really solid grounding which will no doubt help my understanding of film immeasurably. I'm going to opt out of the essay though just because won't be able to get an actual qualification without doing a LOTmore credit courses in the coming years. One is hard enough. Comments are closed.
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AuthorHi, I'm Caz. I live in Edinburgh and I watch a lot of films. My reviews focus mainly on women in film - female directors or how women are represented on screen. Archives
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