December 2 2024
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Amman’s Oscar Sundays to screen award-nominated cinematic gems
Israa Radydeh, Jordan News
last updated:
Feb 19,2023
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The Academy of Film Sciences and Arts has announced its
nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, with the winners set to be revealed on
March 12. اضافة اعلان
This year, 10 films compete for Best Picture, while global
interest is growing in the Best International Film Award category, including
five nominations for 2023.
Local audiences will
be able to view four selected films from the nominations list at the Oscar
Sundays event in Amman, organized by the Royal Film Commission, which kicks off
today at Rainbow Theater in Jabal Amman.
“Triangle of Sadness” by Ruben Östlund Screening: February 19
Nominations: Best
Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best
Picture
After The Square
(2017), which tackled the contemporary art milieu, Ruben Östlund directs his
lens toward the material overflow of the great bourgeois. “Triangle of Sadness”
is divided into three acts, all quite distinct. The first takes us inside the
dynamics of a couple of young models: Carl and Yaya. An argument over money and
feminism makes us feel the surface tension that connects these two.
In the second act, we
follow the couple on a luxurious cruise, offered in return for the photographs
that the beautiful Yaya must post as an influencer. With controversies over
yachts and the watering of golf courses, this act sounds the alarm on the role
played by the exploiting class in the destruction of life, and the social distribution
of the effects of global warming, fueling the sticky chasm of social
inequalities.
In the third act,
Östlund proposes to anchor the carnival of social roles within contemporary
societal issues. Following a shipwreck, the cruise’s masters become slaves, and
the slaves the masters. And in addition to the shift in the class relationship,
the survivors witness the establishment of a matriarchy.
Concerted, the staging
deliberately amplifies the grotesque of certain situations by resorting to
unusual — even outrageous — camera angles. Hence, the title stems from the idea
that the spectacle of human nature is distressing, no matter the angle from
which it is considered. So better laugh it off.
“EO” by Jerzy
SkolimowskiScreening: February 26
Nominations: Best International
Feature
A dreamlike road
movie, a visual poem, and an indictment against animal abuse, Skolimowski 's
film is as disturbing in its subject as it is audacious in its form.
The donkey Eo is
separated from his mistress following the closure of the circus where they had
their act. Transported to a stud farm, surrounded by racehorses, Eo gets tired
of waiting for his beauty to return, and takes to his heels. We then follow his
odyssey through Poland and beyond, as spectators to his encounters with more-
or less-well-meaning humans.
Faced with the world
of men, it is most often misunderstanding that predominates for Eo. An
unintelligibility contaminates even the viewer. Examples come in a nocturnal
hunt with mysterious laser beams or even in a cleaning scene which remains
undefined as either a mother-son shouting match or a quarrel between lovers. In
the end, the donkey, an offbeat figure, has nothing to do with the verbiage of
these two and continues on his way.
In fact, it is the
pitfall of language — of communication — that the film points out: a trucker
and a migrant who do not understand each other, an indebted priest confessing
to the donkey who cannot comprehend his words.
“Living” by Oliver
HermanusScreening: March 5
Nominations: Best
Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay
At 73, the masterful
British actor Bill Nighy delivers in “Living” the best performance of his
career, nominated for the Golden Globes for his portrayal of Mr Williams, a
public works official in London condemned by a cancer giving him only six
months to live. But how do you learn to live at the end of a life?
After backing down
from a suicide attempt, Mr Williams decides to carry out the restoration of a
children's play area. The film, an adaptation of the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru directed by Akira
Kurosawa, overwhelms us both with
its delicate interpretation and the quality of its staging.
Nighy's performance is
such a marvel of quiet strength and internalized complexity that, while viewers
never doubt how Mr Williams will struggle to live up to his tragic news (a pub
crawl, a flighty relationship, a decision to step in and help), events always
seem spontaneous rather than wired.
Lit by powerfully
aesthetic slow-motion and sharply detailed scenes about the social constraints
that suffocate us, Oliver Hermanus' film reveals an emotional depth reminiscent
of the moral intensity in James Ivory's “Remains of the Day”. For viewers, the
effect is to make one simply want to live.
“The Quiet Girl” by
Colm BairéadScreening: March 19
Nominations: Best International
Feature
It is Ireland, 1981.
Silent and introverted, Cáit is a nine-year-old girl who is suppressed and
neglected by her family. In school, where she struggles with reading, she learns
not to be noticed, almost disappearing from the eyes of those around her. As
summer vacation rolls around, Cáit is sent to live with distant relatives on
their farm for the summer. Entrusted without explanation to these
fifty-something strangers, she finally begins to benefit from the attention that
every child needs to grow up serenely: company, benevolence, care, clean
clothes, regular meals, and hot baths.
While the wife,
Eibhlín, is warm and gentle, her husband, Seán, initially keeps his distance
from Cáit, who does the same. Over time, the distance gradually lessens and the
two begin to weave a bond as Cáit discovers more and more of life on the farm
and takes part in it with curiosity and desire.
Behind the minimalism
of “The Quiet Girl”, which prefers to suggest rather than say, the beautiful
restraint shown by Irish filmmaker Colm Bairéad results in a tender adaptation
of the novel “Foster” by Claire Keegan.
As close as possible
to its young protagonist, who is embodied with grace by Catherine Clinch,
Bairéad's camera incorporates here and there how the life of this child is
transformed far from neglectful parents, when distant cousins show her a
kindness and affection that she previously lacked.
The simplicity of The
Quiet Girl is ultimately what gives it such emotional power. The feature film
captivates with its delicacy and fragility to convey the simple idea that a
child needs love and devotion to grow and flourish.