I wonder whether "No Other Land" will win best doc Oscar?
Posted by RaskolnikovX on March 2, 2025, 5:41 pm
I bet it won't. It STILL doesn't have a distributor in the US. How fucking pathetic is that? Free speech my knackers.
I bet you they give it to one of the Russia/Ukraine docs because of course they will after the last week or so so "Navalny" or however many days in Mariupol it will be, although "Sugarcane" is a horrific look at the abuse in Canadian schools for First Nation kids run by the Catholic Church so that has Oscar bait all over it (it's actually a good documentary but it's seriously dark).
I posted links to "No Other Land" here before, but I can create another cloud upload for it if anyone can't source it themselves. It's an incredible film and should be seen.
I will be staggered if "No Other Land" wins even though it should by a mile.The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
Happily proved wrong and "Anora" won all the biggies too.
They've actually got some right for a changeThe corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
Thank God that POS "The Brutalist" missed out on the big one.
Excellent analysis of that piece of Zionist garbage and a whole lot of other mostly second-rate contenders on this Chapo Trap House special.
The Brutalist... 7:40 (Will Menaker: "After the totally unexpected and ridiculous rape scene, Toth escapes to Israel---the one country in the world where you are not going to get raped by your boss." The Substance ... 19:00 Long Legs .... 25:00 Conclave... 26:30 A Complete Unknown... 38:00 Dune 2... 49:00 Challengers...51:00 Anora...57:00 Wicked....1:03:00 (Will: "A career worst performance for Jeff Goldblum." Hesse: "Have you seen Thor Ragnarok?" Emilia Perez... 1:11:00 ("Probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen."--Will Menaker
"The Brutalist"...gave it a go, had had enough after 20 minutes...boring zionist bollox (nm)
I've had it waiting to watch for a while but I always had the feeling there was some zionist/hasbaraish subtext to it and, having looked into a bit, it seems there is, in the second half of the film most notably (apparently).
I'll still give it a watch so I can judge for myself.
The Iranian film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is fantastic so that's a good thing to replace it with.
"Anora" was excellent but I'm a big fan of Sean Baker's films. Still quite surprised how much it dominated.
"A Complete Unknown" was good too. Excellent lead performances and captured quite well Dylan's selfish mercenary iconoclasm. Top soundtrack of course.
I thought "Conclave" was overrated by the brit-crit pack but still a decent watch; the ending is a bit ridiculous though.
"The Substance" was ok but I thought it was a big one-note and kept making the same point over and over. I expected the Osacars to fawn over that but seems they gave it a swerve.
"Long Legs" is excellent, as I've mentioned before here.The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
"The Seed of the Sacred Fig" yep, highly recommend that one...
Wasn't a fan of "Longlegs" or "The Substance" and haven't seen "Conclave" yet but will give it a go. Maybe "A Complete Unknown" too, although puts me off knowing Dylan is a bit of a ouanqueur.
My old man was onto Dylan way back in the 70s. Being a guitar nut and just learning how to pick, I was listening to Dylan a lot, especially "Don't Think Twice". Anyay, of course "Blowin'In The Wind" was a big fav too (nice bit of strumming, that one) and knowing my dad was a huge fan of Guthrie and Seeger I thought he would love it...a young naive me thinking it was the best protest song since sliced bread. However, he just said (paraphrase) "nice enough toon but don't you go thinking it's a protest song. The answers to all those things are not blowing in the wind, they're in organisation and direct action, not writing songs that put the solutions beyond us" and went back to reading his William McGonagall and Morning Star!
I was suitably chastised and it has always stayed with me.
Re: "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" yep, highly recommend that one...
Haha. That's learned ya! Good story and true enough.
I'm (still) a massive Dylan fan, even though he's clearly flawed like everyone else. When he was at his best he was peerless and he had that sequence from Highway 61 through to about Street Legal where he was operating on another level.
"A Complete Unknown" is good, just not outstanding although the two leads (playing Dylan and Joan Baez) are excellent. If they had to sing all their parts too it's even more impressive, particularly in the case of Baez.
I thought "Substance" was ok but I'm not that big on "Body Horror" and as I said above, it seemed to repeat the same points and could have done with about 15 minutes shaving off. I think they wanted to play with all the special effects a bit longer. The obvious id-pol stances probably gave it a lot of buzz with critics but it got pretty much stiffed at awards.
"Seed..." was brilliant I thought. I like Mohammad Rasoulof a lot having seen a few of his others; "Manuscripts Don't Burn" is good (hard to track down but I can upload a copy if you need it) and "There is No Evil" which won tons of prizes is up there with "Seed..". The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
Re: "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" yep, highly recommend that one...
Oh yes, I have to say, I absolutely love a lot of Dylan songs, especially the more melodic one like Desolation Row and It's All Over Now Baby Blue. One of my most played and sung songs is "My Back Pages"...haunts me for some reason.
No Other Land directors criticise US as they accept documentary Oscar: ‘US foreign policy is helping block the path’ to peace
The West Bank-based film No Other Land has won this year’s best documentary feature Oscar.
The film, which is made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, won out against competition from Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War and Sugarcane. No Other Land Still Documentary, 95 min. A film by Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal & Yuval Abraham with support from Sundance Institute, IDFA Bertha Fund, NFI, Fritt Ord, IMS, Terre Solidaire, Misereor, Entreaide & Fraternité, Broederlijk and Shortcut Oslo. For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.
No Other Land premiered at the Berlin film festival last year where it won the Berlinale documentary award. The film was made between 2019 and 2023 and focuses on the steady forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces.
Speaking to a standing ovation, the film-makers thanked the Academy before co-director Basel Adra said he had recently become a father and hoped his daughter’s life would not be like his – “always fearing certain violence, home demolitions and forced displacement”.
He continued by saying his film reflected “the harsh reality” that his fellow Palestinians had endured for many years, “as we call on the world to take serious action to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.
Co-director Yuval Abraham then took to the stage to say that Palestinians and Israelis had made the film together “because together our voices are stronger. We see each other the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end.
“Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed. When I look at Basel I see my brother but we are unequal. we live in a regime where I am free under civilian law but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.
He continued: “There is a different path. A political solution. Without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.
“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
Re: Of course this bit isn't getting widely reported..
but "somehow" mysteriously was reassigned to something else at short notice (or else refused to present it to Palestinians, depending on who you believ). Haha. Suck it up zionist scum.
Russian state propagandists overjoyed at Anora’s Oscar triumph
The film’s five Academy Awards seen as act of normalisation by commentators in country still persecuting critics of its war on Ukraine
It was an unfamiliar sight for Russians watching state TV on Monday morning. For the first time since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, the Oscars made the news.
The state anchor devoted the tightly controlled news bulletin to Anora, the night’s runaway success, spotlighting its cast of Russian actors – chief among them best supporting actor nominee Yura Borisov, who earned global praise for his performance as a brutish yet unexpectedly sensitive Russian bodyguard.
“Borisov didn’t take home a personal Oscar,” the state anchor remarked, “but he earned praise for his talent and professionalism from none other than Robert Downey Jr,” referencing Downey’s speech from the stage in Los Angeles, which lauded Borisov.
Sean Baker’s Anora, a Cinderella-like fairytale of a lapdancer’s whirlwind romance with the free-spending, reckless son of a Russian oligarch, has achieved something few cultural works have managed in recent years: it has been embraced both in the west and in an increasingly nationalistic, militarised Russia.
Anora took home five Oscars on Sunday, and has won acclaim both in Hollywood and Moscow for its sharp, unflinching portrayal of power dynamics and class struggle, earning particular praise for its authentic Russian dialogue. But for some, Anora is a difficult film to celebrate.
At a time when Russian bombs continue to fall on Ukraine, a story steeped in Russian themes and set in a pre-pandemic world – untouched by the invasion – feels, to its critics, unwelcome, like a retreat into a reality where the war doesn’t exist.
“There’s a lot about this film that unsettles me … It’s the third year of full-scale war … And here … not a single word about the war. The feeling of discomfort never quite leaves,” wrote the Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky in a post on Instagram.
And perhaps more than anything, it is Borisov’s Oscar nomination that has troubled Ukrainians, who see it as a symbol of cultural normalisation amid Moscow’s aggression.
Catherine Shoard join's the full-court press:
Anora has swept the Oscars. I can’t help feeling that shouldn’t have happened
At a time when Russian bombs continue to fall on Ukraine, a story steeped in Russian themes and set in a pre-pandemic world – untouched by the invasion – feels, to its critics, unwelcome, like a retreat into a reality where the war doesn’t exist.
There’s a lot about this film that unsettles me … It’s the third year of full-scale war … And here … not a single word about the war. The feeling of discomfort never quite leaves,” wrote the Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky in a post on Instagram.
So only films set post-invastion are now acceptable? A retreat into a reality where the war doesn't exist? Every film, regardless of subject has to mention the war?
You know why there wasn't a single mention of the war? Because it had absolutely fuck all to do with the war.
This is completely demented; it's like some sort of Stalinist era criticism of a play about ancient Greece that didn't have sufficient praise for recent Soviet agricultural policy.
Anyone Russian being given any award for anything is "cultural normalisation".
They really can fuck off with this nonsense.
The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
Re: The more I read this, the more demented it gets.
"This is completely demented*; it's like some sort of Stalinist era criticism of a play about ancient Greece that didn't have sufficient praise for recent Soviet agricultural policy"
*There has indeed been a marked rise in uncertainty.
Re: The more I read this, the more demented it gets.
Good catch. Also notice how the graun hacks go out of their way to find Ukrainians to give their response. Have you ever once seen an msm report about some Israeli cultural success that felt the need to call up a Palestinian to give their interpretation and feelings of 'discomfort' and being 'unsettled' because the piece didn't mention the ongoing occupation, apartheid regime and mass slaughter committed by Israel? Of course anyone trying to make that point would immediately be shouted down as antisemitic, being fixated on Israel, having a jaundiced view of what art should be etc. The double standards in all this continue to make my head spin, and it's actually shocking to me how more people don't apparently even notice. The msm & political culture really is a mass hypnotic trance in the west currently (was it ever really all that different?)
on March 2, 2025, 5:41 pm