Posted by Larry Gleeson
There are no winners or losers at AFI AWARDS. Instead, AFI recognizes all of the creative ensembles behind the year’s most outstanding storytelling in film and television. The talented members of these teams gathered in Beverly Hills yesterday to be honored at the AFI AWARDS 2016 luncheon. Guests at the event included the best of the best in the entertainment community, such as Clint Eastwood, Ryan Gosling, Naomie Harris, Chris Pine, Michelle Williams and more.
(Source: afi.com)
Living a picture-perfect life while in the fog of heartbreak, successful Mexican-American obstetrician Clara is on the verge of letting love back into her life just as her ex, Daniel, unexpectedly reappears, forcing a major life reappraisal in this funny and bittersweet bilingual romantic comedy.
Quebecois filmmaker Chloé Robichaud arrives with her anticipated sophomore feature after 2013’s acclaimed Sarah Prefers to Run. An ambitious feminist political satire, Boundaries follows three women as they negotiate a deal that will allow foreign companies access to natural resources on a tiny Canadian island.
In Canada, Colombia and Mexico, three young migrants undergo familiar struggles with anguish, displacement and violence in this visually stunning sophomore film from acclaimed writer/director Juan Andrés Arango (La Playa DC).
This inventive, non-linear biopic explores the life and work of the French Canadian author and former sex worker Nelly Arcan in explicit, sometimes erotic, sometimes anguished detail. “A movie every bit as racy, rough-edged and conflicted as the woman whose story it tells.” Montreal Gazette
A smart and sophisticated movie about smart and sophisticated (but flawed and unfulfilled) people, this sensitive adaptation of Brian Morton’s novel about an over-the-hill writer, his ex and his fragile daughter is buoyed by beautifully calibrated performances from a terrific cast led by Holly Hunter and Tony Shalhoub.
When a viral outbreak transforms millions of people into flesh-eating predators, could the fate of civilization rest on the slender shoulders of Melanie, a young “hungry” who’s retained her genius-level IQ? Stylish and sophisticated, Colm McCarthy’s impeccably cast, post-apocalyptic thriller is calibrated for maximum tension.
our friend Chef Hector Salvatierra at Bonta Restaurant & Bar, is offering a special discount to those attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
On May 25th, 2014, 13-year-old Malavath Poorna became the youngest woman to scale Everest. An adivasi (indigenous) teen, Poorna was selected as a champion of welfare schools, and Rahul Bose puts her accomplishment in the context of female empowerment while delivering the spectacle you would expect.
In this inquisitive biopic about artistry and competition, musician Soko gives a raw performance as Loïe Fuller, an American dancer who’s the toast of Paris in the early 20th century-until she’s swept aside by a rising talent named Isadora Duncan (a luminous Lily-Rose Depp).
A daring, disturbing and erotically charged sci-fi from the acclaimed director of Heli. A sexually omnivorous alien is holed up in a farmhouse in Guanajuato, and given her brutish, homophobic husband is cheating on her with her brother, Ale’s ready to take a walk on the wild side… Winner: Best Director, Venice.
A young man’s suicide is the springboard for an epic battle between the two women who loved him: his punk girlfriend and his patrician mother. First-time director Amber Tamblyn’s ferocious and flamboyant adaptation of the Janet Fitch novel is a real gothic shocker.
The failed 1976 Nigerian coup serves as the real-life backdrop for Izu Ojukwu’s taut “Nollywood” love story between an army captain (Ramsey Nouah, excellent), who falls under suspicion after refusing to conspire with the plotters, and his wife (Rita Dominic), who is heavily pregnant.
Japanese horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa switches gears for this atmospheric, French-made quasi-ghost story. Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) works for a photographer (Dardenne regular Gourmet) given to visions of his dead wife and obsessed with photographing his daughter (Rousseau). Love blossoms and a deadly scam unfolds…
Belated festive fare (sort of)… Set on Christmas Eve, 1994, Smith’s knotty-but-nice indie drama gives a welcome spotlight to veteran thesps John Larroquette and John Rhys Davies as two embittered camera-store clerks, railing against the dying of the light and venting entertainingly against their prison-like lot in life.
five nominees will be announced 
its 21st-century triumphs. The entire series will be aired on ABC, a breakthrough for network television.
