By Alan Hurst The passing of Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim last Friday at the age of 91 marked the end of an era for musical theatre. Although his musicals often struggled for financial success, their impact was undeniable – both at the time of their debut and in the numerous revivals since. He…
By John H. Foote Tom Hanks is often hailed as America’s most beloved actor. Despite this, the ever-fickle Academy seems to take every opportunity it can to bring him down a notch. The Academy has a long history of ignoring talent once they have received a few nominations. Case in point, Mr. Hanks. Yes, he…
By John H. Foote The Directors Guild of America has nominated him 11 times, more than any other filmmaker in the history of the movies, and three times honoured him as the year’s Best Director. Seven times he has been nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director, winning twice, however it is clear there…
By Alan Hurst A cinephile’s dream: programming your own film festival. We’ve given ourselves a bit of a challenge here at Foote and Friends on Film to start a series of articles where we each get to program our own film festival, maybe even a few. The theme of the festival, the number of films,…
By John H. Foote What scares you might not scare me at all. In the last 15 years, I have come face to face with what definitely scares me in life. Number one was becoming a dad. But in films, though some can work dark magic on me, rarely do I emerge from a movie…
By John H. Foote With the major film festivals winding down, the candidates for the Academy Awards are becoming much clearer than they were at the end of August. More than 20 films are now being touted by the critics as good Oscar bets. Here is my look at the frontrunners and the categories they…
By Alan Hurst I don’t like using the descriptor “muse” to describe the inspired partnerships between a film director (for the purposes of this article all men) and his female lead when they’ve enjoyed a series of films together. Each of the directors on this list have enjoyed spectacular success with other leading actresses and…
By John H. Foote My two favourite categories have always been the supporting actor and actress awards. One can quite literally watch a star be born within this category, often moving on to the Best Actress award. Among the actresses who have made this leap have been Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Cate Blanchett, and Renée…
By John H. Foote Now that two women have won Oscars for direction, expect more to come. Along with the ladies, expect more Black nominees, Asian, all ethnicities including foreign language film directors. Quite often a wildcard nominee like an out-of-the-blue foreign language director will burst into the party. Expect more of this as the…
By John H. Foote Could Frances McDormand make history and tie Katherine Hepburn with her fourth Academy Award for Best Actress this year? Yes, she could, but should she? For my money, the only actress deserving of four or more Oscars is Meryl Streep, and she sits stalled at two for Best Actress and a…