Hello from Savannah! I’m David Canfield, soaking up the end of a gorgeous week at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which has brought out both a ton of stars—more on them in a minute—as well as dozens of great, under-the-radar films. I served on the festival’s jury this year, and having blazed through countless Oscar contenders these last few months, got to take in and deliberate the competition’s narrative features, documentaries, and shorts. It’s a fascinating group of 20 or so titles, with a few Oscar-qualifying entrants—including North Star, P.J. Palmer’s stunning 30-minute rural queer drama starring Colman Domingo, which we awarded best short—that deserve to be real contenders. (That is, if they can withstand the hype machines around the likes of Taylor Swiftand Kendrick Lamar, who are also in the shorts race.)
This festival, which packs eager arts students into its theaters—I’ve moderated a few Q&As here this week, and have never met a more spirited audience—has grown in scope in recent years. It’s perfectly timed to those few weeks where the season’s biggest titles, fresh off of flashy world premieres in Italy or Telluride or Toronto, start making the smaller but still pivotal stops in regional markets across the world. My colleague Katey Rich gave us the rundown on her local Film Fest 919 for this week’s Little Gold Men, while stars including Eddie Redmayne and Adam Sandler have been traveling up and down the California coast, from Santa Barbara to Newport, to pick up tribute awards and try revving up their on-the-bubble campaigns.
Here in Savannah, I joined a small dinner with Netflix and Janelle Monáe, whom the festival honored—sidenote: the Glass Onion scene-stealer’s mother, seated beside her at the dinner, is easily Netflix’s greatest campaign asset here—while catching the likes of Top Gun: Maverick’s Miles Teller and The Menu’s Nicholas Hoult roaming around my hotel. (Also: Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, currently shooting Todd Haynes’s new movie in Savannah.) Those two relatively commercial films are actually the ones I’ve heard the most about here. Just about every student barista around the historic district seems giddy about The Menu, while once more, several industry folks were proudly calling Mavericktheir favorite movie of the year. (The topic of it as a best-picture winner was broached repeatedly. Never say never?)
Yet within this beautiful small town, omens of the month ahead—that is, the huge movies still on their way—kept creeping in. There’s Avatar: The Way of Water’s cast finally getting out there as that blockbuster sequel’s promo tour begins—be sure to listen to our Little Gold Men interview with Sigourney Weaver if you missed it—while a different blockbuster sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, premiered to positive reactions in Hollywood, as did that song. (Rebecca Ford was in attendance and teased “some pretty special surprises.”) Plus, anticipation for screenings of Babylon and Emancipationseemed to grow this week; expect those mysterious late-breakers to start making waves before too long.
So enjoy the small movies while you can—watch those Gotham nominees!—because it’s about to get loud around here.
.jpg?format=original)
No comments:
Post a Comment