Food for the Soul: Academy Awards Season 2024/25

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout

And they’re off…. Hundreds of movies are now in competition for numerous awards from critics associations, film industry guilds, academies, industry organizations, and, of course, the most important one: the Motion Picture Association of America that votes for the Academy Awards, popularly called Oscars. Here are some interesting entries for various category awards—films that you might miss if not for the buzz generated by the awards season.

CONCLAVE (US/UK)

In the U.S., this movie was shown in specialty theaters and it played at film festivals in the fall, but only an Oscar campaign will give it a chance to be seen by larger audiences. Because Ralph Fiennes plays faultlessly his lifetime role of Cardinal Lawrence, the Vatican’s official designated to oversee the papal transition, he is a likely candidate for acting nominations and perhaps such a nomination could carry the movie to greater visibility, which it amply deserves.

The story is based on Robert Harris’s 2016 novel of the same title. After the death of a pope, cardinals from all over the world assemble to elect a new leader of the Catholic Church. During the conclave, the elaborate transition rituals mask the intense politicking, intrigues, backstabbing, evil deeds, and lies that accompany the secret vote. While the successive rounds of voting take place, Cardinal Lawrence must unravel the secrets and misdeeds that threaten both the process of the conclave and the stability of the Church itself. Racked with doubts about the institution he serves, he accomplishes his task…until the most surprising end. Far from being just a movie about a religious event, this is a parable of any political fight, any crisis of faith in an organization or group, and any collapse of ideology. Lavishly filmed on Italian locations and sets (including an impeccable recreation of the Sistine Chapel—a set design masterpiece), the visuals are breathtaking.

THERE’S STILL TOMORROW /C’E ANCORA DOMANI (ITALY)

Although this is a winner of two dozen international awards, this film is not an official Italian entry for the Oscars international feature category (a more traditional Vermiglio is), but it is definitely a movie to catch. Paola Cortellesi both directed and stars  in the movie as a housewife in post-war Rome who is trying to make ends meet while being battered by her traditionally “macho” husband. Shot in black and white in the style of the Italian neorealism movies of the 1940s and 1950s, the movie has a deceptively straightforward narrative about a woman abused and constrained in the male-dominated world…until the narrative changes to something more profound and modern. The amazing ending makes the audience revise everything they assumed previously, upending both cinematic and social stereotypes. A gem of a movie and a great conversation starter.

THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO (FRANCE)

If you are just looking for two hours of entertainment while viewing a classic tale, this new French retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s famous rags-to-riches adventure could fit the bill. Starring Pierre Niney (who played Yves Saint Laurent in a 2014 biopic), this version slightly changes the ending to make it psychologically more plausible but mostly follows the familiar plot of a young sailor, unjustly accused. After spending years in a dungeon hoping for vengeance, fate brings him the extraordinary means to do so. This is a French movie (as opposed to the well-known 2002 version with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce), which meant unlimited access to lush French château locations, perfectly designed period costumes, and a more authentic feel, especially in the scenes on the Mediterranean coast, than non-French renditions of Dumas’s novels.

BLITZ (UK)

The period of intense nightly German bombings of London in 1940-41 was known as “the Blitz,” and it resulted in the destruction of large portions of the city and the deaths of tens of thousands of the capital’s inhabitants. The very talented and versatile British director Steve McQueen has taken this period under his creative lens to tell the story of a single mother (Saoirse Ronan) who tries to send her nine-year-old boy to safety in the countryside. Her son George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan) is half-Black and, taunted with racist remarks by other children, decides to jump off the train and make his way back to the city. His long journey through streets strafed with explosions becomes a story of the city under attack, as seen through the eyes of a child. While this storyline has been explored by numerous British TV shows (e.g., Foyle’s War or Home Fires), this is a theme that has not been shown recently on the big screen. McQueen uses his cinematic prowess to create memorable sequences, especially of the flooding of the London Underground and the infamous destruction of Café de Paris, a nightclub at the West End.

FLOW (LATVIA, BELGIUM, FRANCE)

This animated movie has a universal appeal, not only because it has not a word of dialogue but above all because the medium of animation has allowed the filmmakers to create an emotional fantasy tale that is captivating for both adults and children. The main protagonist is Cat, a wide-eyed feline who until recently had loving owners but who now has to manage in a world suddenly devoid of humans, in a strange landscape of rising flood waters, exotic flora, and fantasy architecture. This mysterious deluge forces Cat to shelter with some other animal survivors—a phlegmatic capybara, a majestic secretary bird, a friendly Golden Retriever, and a hoarder lemur—on a rickety sailboat that meanders in the lush landscape. Words are not necessary—this tale of cooperation, danger, and lucky escapes can be discerned through the animals’ facial expressions and body language in the same way that we decipher the needs of our domestic pets. Ordinarily, the animated film genre is dominated by verbose animal comedies and energetic superhero comics, so this is a welcome respite of just visuals that let the medium speak for itself.

MARIA (ITALY, GERMANY, U.S.)

It is probably right that one star, chastised by the press for everything from being too pretty or too haughty to being dumped in a celebrity divorce, should be portrayed by another star with a similar biography. The mid-century opera soprano Maria Callas—famous for her roles of tragic heroines, her tantrums, and for being replaced in Aristotle Onassis’s favor by Mrs. Kennedy—is played here by Angelina Jolie, an equally iconic film star, whose screen persona is also sometimes aloof and whose fame and complicated celebrity life are often scrutinized in a similar way by fans and press alike. The film, directed by Pablo Larraín (who previously directed Spencer about Princess Diana and Jackie about Jacqueline Kennedy), examines the nadir of Callas’s career, when she was no longer performing but living her days out in 1970s Paris. Other than documentary footage, famous arias are performed as a digital blend of the diva’s singing with Jolie’s work (she trained for months for the role). It is a long-overdue biography of an outstanding woman and an artist whose recordings still bring joy to generations after her passing almost half a century ago.