Tag Archive for 'Emily Blunt'

Tanya Seghatchian has just been appointed head of the UK’s film council film fund.  She is responsible for distributing 15 million pounds per year to film projects in England.

She has a producing background having been instrumental in developing big budget films like the Harry Potter series as well as the wonderful indie My Summer of Love, which introduced most of us to Emily Blunt.

Here’s what she said when she was appointed:

It’s a huge privilege to have been asked to take on this new role,” Seghatchian said. “Our filmmakers are currently among the very best in the world, but the challenging financial climate and the speed of technological change mean that now more than ever they need a supportive and reliable home which invests in creative excellence and encourages boldness.

We need a film council here in the US desperately.

Tanya Seghatchian to head UK Film Council film fund (The Guardian)

The Hollywood Reporter’s Steven Zeitchik has a recent piece about how small the pool is this year for Best Actress.

He talks about how the top three potential nominees are Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), with other contenders being Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces), Hilary Swank (Amelia) and god forbid Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side).  Bullock’s potential inclusion to Zeitchik is indicative of the shallow pool.  (Let’s remember that Julia Roberts had never done anything remotely like Erin Brockovich before she hit that one out of the park.)

The piece goes on to say that there are many men jostling for those top five slots and if there were 10 nominations some would still be left out.

No shit.  Most movies, even the awards movies are made by guys for guys.

Here’s Zeitchik’s reasoning as to why women are so woefully underrepresented:

It’s axiomatic that older actresses who want to play strong lead roles often have to abandon features for venues like cable TV. Awards season has a way of reinforcing the point. During the 1980s, three women older than 50 won the best actress Oscar, while a fourth (Shirley MacLaine) was about to turn 50.

During the past 20 years, on the other hand, exactly one fiftysomething woman has taken the prize (Helen Mirren, for “The Queen”).

That’s far from a comment on this generation’s talent or even on the preferences of voters. But it does say plenty about the roles women are offered.

But it also highlights that, for all the strides made by the women behind the camera, the women in front of them can still be subject to the old prejudices. Indeed, the more cynical in town — including at least one actress awards-contender — say that the director and actress trends are hardly a coincidence. Many female directors, they argue, can feel pressure to cast a preponderance of strong male leads to negate the perception that theirs is a female-oriented film.

Yes, this is a good year for women directors as I have written about many times, but I don’t want the conversation to be that, just because we have several potential contenders for year-end awards, our work is done.  Women directors have a harder time getting traction.  Let’s remember that.

But what this story reminded me of is all the strong female Oscar-worthy performances that don’t ever make it onto the Oscar radar screen because they don’t have wide enough distribution or get killed by the mostly male critical establishment.  Movies that star guys get distributed more widely than movies by and about women.  That said, it makes sense to look beyond all the films getting the buzz to some films whose distributors can’t afford to mount Oscar campaigns or maybe even send out screeners.

Just because a film or a performance doesn’t get included in the “buzz” doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be.

Here are some performances worthy of being considered:

Amy Adams- Sunshine Cleaning

Michelle Pfeiffer- Cheri

Nicole Beharie – American Violet

Shohreh Aghdashloo – The Stoning of Soraya M.

Tilda Swinton- Julia

Audrey Tatou- Coco Before Chanel

Michelle Monaghan- Trucker

Yolande Moreau- Seraphine

Catalina Saavedra- The Maid

Sophie Okondeo- Skin

Robin Wright- The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Charlize Theron – The Burning Plain

Update: Forgot One: Kerry Fox- Storm

Shallow Pool for Oscar’s Actress Contenders (Hollywood Reporter)

Tonight in Hollywood Elle Magazine will host the annual salute to women in Hollywood.  I am looking forward to the day when we don’t need to highlight women because they will have as much power as men, but in reality, women are nowhere near as powerful as the guys.

The women being ackowledged tonight include: Katie Holmes, Zoe Saldana, Emily Blunt, Renee Zellweger, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Andrews, Julianne Moore, and Bonnie Timmerman. (How come there is no link to the Julie Andrews and Bonnie Timmerman pieces?)

The highlight of the issue includes the most powerful women in Hollywood according to Nikki Finke the feared blogger who writes Deadline Hollywood.

Here’s the intro:

Last year I was on ELLE’s Women in Hollywood power list; this year I was asked to write it. That’s ironic, because I hate power lists more than one-size-fits-all spa robes. These influential jobs are not necessarily comparable. Are the casting directors I included more important than the cinematographers and film editors I didn’t? So what I have is a very subjective roster of women I deem essential to a town run by alpha males who don’t play well with others. Women in general do. In case you’re wondering, 2009 was a lousy year for female producers because the Industry has contracted, so they’re MIA here. But there are still some movie moguls standing, and, even better, TV execs are thriving. My favorite category, however, is the “coaches.” The trick in Hollywood is not just getting power, it’s keeping it, and if women need psychic intuition or telephone therapy or wise advice from showbiz legends for an edge, who am I to judge? Well, I am the judge. It’s my list!

Here are some of the categories on THE LIST.

THE TALENT

Tyra Banks, mogulette
So much more than that model show, she seems the likely successor to Oprah both in talk and in other TV programming her production company has cooking.

Beyoncé Knowles, singer, actress
She’s come into her own as an actress (Cadillac Records, Obsessed), pitchwoman extraordinaire (L’Oréal, American Express, Pepsi), and inaugural ball star, and is worth $87 million (No. 4 on the 2009 Forbes richest entertainers list).

Kathryn Bigelow, director, producer
This veteran action director (Point Break, The Weight of Water), unafraid of shocking us, may already have a bead on the Oscar with her latest, The Hurt Locker.

Miley Cyrus, Inc.
Young and gorgeous, rich and bankable, versatile and talented, earns $25 million a year, all in one teen-tween package.

Ellen DeGeneres, comedian, talk show host
She has broken every gay barrier—even Madison Avenue is comfortable with her.

Tina Fey, actress, comedian, writer
She saved NBC’s bacon during the 2008 election with her Sarah Palin bit on SNL and with her Emmy-winning 30 Rock.

Michael Patrick King, writer-director and 2009’s honorary female
He gave us the best years of Sex and the City on TV and can be credited for reviving the chick flick in Hollywood when the movie version grossed $415 million.

Stephenie Meyer, novelist
Delivered Hollywood its hottest franchise in years, the Twilight vampire series. She’s sold 70 million books to date, and the films have grossed $383 million worldwide.

Nancy Meyers, director
One of the few women directors who constantly works (The Parent Trap, What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give) because she’s expert at defining the sexual zeitgeist.

Meryl Streep, actress
She shattered Hollywood’s ageism and sexism; at 60, she’s getting her best and showiest roles.

Continue reading ‘The Most Powerful Women in Hollywood According to Nikki Finke’

The Toronto Film Festival has added more films including Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria as the closing night film. (description from indiewire)

Set between 1836, the year before her ascension, to 1840, the year she married Prince Albert, “The Young Victoria” presents a contrasting image of the woman whose image is widely held as an elderly widow dressed in black. According to a TIFF description, in addition to being a love story and family drama, the film explores the idea of instant celebrity – one minute Victoria is living under virtual house arrest, the next she is the most famous woman in the world.

Here are some other films that focus on women or are women directed: (descriptions from Indiewire)

Cairo Time by Ruba Nadda, Canada/Ireland, World Premiere
Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine editor, arrives in Cairo to meet her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official in Gaza. When he is unavoidably delayed, Mark sends his friend and former security officer Tareq (Alexander Siddig) to show her around the city. As she gets used to the customs and rhythm of life in Cairo, Juliette finds herself falling not only for the city’s charms, but for Tareq as well.

Chloe by Atom Egoyan, France/Canada, World Premiere
Catherine (Julianne Moore), a successful doctor, suspects her husband David (Liam Neeson), a handsome music professor, is cheating on her. To lay her suspicions and fears to rest, she hires an irresistible young woman, Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), to test David’s fidelity. Chloe’s torrid tales of her encounters with David lead Catherine on a journey of sexual and sensual re-discovery. But by opening the door to temptation, she puts her family in great danger.

Cooking with Stella by Dilip Mehta, Canada, World Premiere
A warmhearted social satire about a Canadian diplomat (Lisa Ray) and her chef husband Michael (Don McKellar) who are posted to New Delhi. Upon arrival they inherit a household of Indian servants headed by the charming, totally inspiring – and wily – cook, Stella (Seema Biswas). When Stella agrees to become Michael’s cooking guru, to teach him traditional Indian dishes, little does he know that she’s cooking up a scheme of her own.

Agora
Alejandro Amenabar, Spain North American Premiere
In the fourth century, while Egypt was under the Roman Empire, violent religious upheaval in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city’s famous library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the ancient world. Among the group are the two men competing for Hypatia’s heart: the witty, privileged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia’s young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
Don Roos, USA World Premiere
Emilia Woolf (Natalie Portman) is a Harvard law school graduate and a newlywed, having just married Jack, her high-powered New York lawyer boss (Scott Cohen). Her life takes an unexpected turn when the couple loses their newborn daughter. Emilia struggles through her grief to connect with her precocious new stepson William (Charlie Tahan), overcome a rift in her relationship with her father caused by his infidelity, and cope with the constant interferences of Jack’s angry, jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow). An adaptation of an Ayelet Waldman novel, this tearful and terrific tale by writer-director Don Roos proves that even with a pursuit like love, nothing is impossible.

Mother and Child
Rodrigo Garcia, USA World Premiere
This moving drama follows the story of three women (Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington) and the power of the unbreakable bond between mother and child. From writer-director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives), executive producer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) and producers Lisa Falcone and Julie Lynn, the film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Shareeka Epps, Cherry Jones and S. Epatha Merkerson.

The Waiting City
Claire McCarthy, Australia World Premiere
An outwardly happy Australian couple (Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton) journey to Kolkata, India to collect their adopted baby, but on arrival finds that the arrangements at the agency have yet to be finalized. They have no option but to wait in this place that, to them, is chaotic and foreign. But as the intoxicating mystic powers of the Indian city pull them each in separate and unexpected directions, the vulnerability of their marriage begins to reveal itself.

and for the YUCK factor (please tell me why women are drawn to make films about misogynist creeps.)

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel by Brigitte Berman, Canada, World Premiere
An intimate look at the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire. With humour and insight, the film captures Hefner’s fierce battles with the government, the religious right and militant feminists. Rare footage and compelling interviews with a remarkable who’s who of 20th Century American pop culture, present a brilliant and entertaining snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.