It’s that time of the year, the weather is bitter and the sunlight is gone by five pm.  We want inside entertainment.  It is also the time of year, when the “serious” movies come out. 

First of all, I love movies.  I studied film at NYU and even though I mainly write for the stage now, I still love sitting through a great film. I am a bit old fashioned and still prefer to watch films in a movie theater and if I can’t watch them in a theater, I watch them uninterrupted.  I often don’t answer the phone if I am watching a DVD at home. 

I am a bit of an Oscar trivia whiz as well and was recently distressed to learn that the Academy is changing their policy to allow ten best picture nominees instead of five.  Are they kidding?  There are barely enough good Hollywood films made to get five best picture nominations let alone ten.  The last time there were ten best picture nominees the year was 1943, a year when Hollywood was making great movies.  Now most of the challenging and original films are independently made outside of the studios and Hollywood films are dishearteningly formulaic.

Best Picture winner 1943:

It’s obvious publicity stint to try and get more interest in the Academy Awards and more specifically viewers for the annual Awards Broadcast, which is losing viewers every year. The addition of five more best picture nominees will do nothing to the broadcast or the Academy’s reputation to pick “great films.” The Academy is struggling with award show viewer burnout due to a basket full of televised award ceremonies that never existed when the granddaddy of them all first handed out awards in 1928. By the way, there were only three best picture nominees that first year.

The Golden Globe Awards and SAG awards are big award shows that air before the Academy Awards every winter.

In an effort to combat the lack of interest in the Academy Awards broadcast, the Academy moved their award show up an entire month.  The Awards used to telecast at the end of March, even as early as April, and on a Monday.  Now the Awards air late February and on a Sunday. Incidentally the move from a Monday to a Sunday was also a strategy to entice more television viewers; more people watch TV on Sunday night than Monday night. The Academy awards were originally telecast on Monday nights because that was traditionally the night when movie box office sales were the lowest. It was also the night that most Broadway Theaters were dark and if an Actor or Actress was nominated for an Oscar they could still make it back to New York in time for a performance on Tuesday night.  Of course this was only possible in the jet age. Traffic is also lighter on Sunday and that might seem like a frivolous reason to television viewers who watch the Awards in North Dakota, but to Angelenos it is a very big deal.  I lived in Los Angeles for nine years and Oscar Monday was considered an unofficial holiday if you worked in “the business.”  There was always an Oscar Party to go to, and if you had a nice boss you would be allowed to leave the office between 2 and 3pm.  If you left later than four pm you ran into massive traffic and would be late for the 5pm (PST) opening of the show and you would probably miss the first award which is usually Best Supporting Actor or Best Supporting Actress. 

This useless, but fun information aside, I am happy to say that the Cape Vincent Film Festival is getting ready to kick off for another year. It starts Tuesday, November 17th at 7pm and runs every two weeks – that is every other Tuesday.

First film will be: Married Life (2007) PG-13, starring Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper. This marks the 6th  year for the  film series which has brought a wide variety of independent and foreign films to the public through the sponsorship of the Cape Vincent Community Library. This season’s line-up includes such  critically acclaimed films as Doubt, starring Merle Streep, Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard and The Lucky Ones , chronicling the return of three wounded veterans of the Iraq war.

The Series has a new home this year as all the films will be shown in the meeting room of the library located at 157 N. Real Street in the Cape. There will be no admission charged, however donations to the library are always appreciated.

Due to the subject matter and ratings of the movies, this is an adults only event. A list of all the upcoming films and dates is available at the library or may be requested online at cavlib13618@gmail.com. Come in from the cold and partake of this delightful winter event being held at your public library!

This is one of the few places to see independent and foreign films on a regular basis in the tri-county area.  Actually outside one of the colleges, it may be the only place to see them.  I love this series.  Here is the schedule for the rest of the season:

Cape Vincent Film Festival 2009- 2010 at the Library

Nov. 17: Married Life (2007) PG-13 : When unhappily married Harry (Chris Cooper) decides to kill his wife (Patricia Clarkson) to be with his beautiful mistress (Rachel McAdams), his playboy friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) tries to talk Harry out of it. But Richard's motives are hardly pure, and his hidden agenda soon comes to light. Directed by Ira Sachs, this taut atmospheric drama set in the 1940s also stars Erin Boyes and David Wenham.

Dec. 1: The Heart of the Game(2005) PG-13: Attending predominantly white Roosevelt High because her mother thinks she'll have better opportunities under the school's successful coach, gifted black hoopster Darnellia Russell puts herself -- and her coach -- through the wringer. Shot in a suburban Seattle high school over a seven-year period, director Ward Serrill's stirring documentary explores the complicated relationship between gender, race and organized sports.

Dec. 15: The Lucky Ones(2008) R: Three soldiers injured in the Iraq War return to native soil, only to find that their tour of duty has taken its toll on the home front. Hoping to repair their tattered lives, Colee (Rachel McAdams), Cheaver (Tim Robbins) and T.K (Michael Peña) set off on an impromptu cross-country road trip. While Colee seeks to repay her dead boyfriend's family, Cheaver dreams of a big win in LasVegas, and T.K. tries to regain his confidence.

Jan. 5: Brick Lane(2007) PG-13: Set in the 1980s, this cross-cultural drama follows young Nazneem (Tannishtha Chatterjee), a Bangladeshi woman who's immigrated to London for an arranged marriage to a middle-aged man, leaving her beloved family, including her sister Hasina, behind. While Hasina leads a life of adventure back home, Nazneem struggles to accept the isolation and unhappiness in her new life, until an unexpected visitor comes along and changes everything.

Jan. 20: Doubt(2008) PG-13: In this Oscar-nominated adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Tony-winning play, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) begins to have doubts about doting priest Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who seems to have become overly involved in the life of a young African American pupil. But Flynn isn't the only one she doubts. Is she overreacting to the situation, or is there truth behind her convictions?

Feb. 2: Frost/Nixon(2008) R: Ron Howard directs this Oscar-nominated adaptation of Peter Morgan's popular Broadway play, a drama centering on a series of revelatory television interviews between British talk show host David Frost and former President Richard Nixon.

Feb. 16: PierrepointThe Last Hangman(2005) R: Following in his father's footsteps, Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall) becomes one of Britain's most prolific executioners, hiding his identity by working as a grocery deliveryman. But when his ambition to be the best inadvertently exposes his gruesome secret, he becomes a minor celebrity and faces a public outcry against the practice of hanging. Juliet Stevenson plays Pierrepoint's oblivious wife in this fascinating biopic based on real events.

Mar. 2::  The Great Buck Howard(2008) PG: Colin Hanks stars in this offbeat comedy as a law student who quits school against his father's wishes to become the apprentice of cantankerous illusionist the Great Buck Howard (John Malkovich). Looking to regain the magic of his once-successful career, Howard takes his show on the road, where he and his new assistant endure a series of hilarious misadventures.

Mar. 16: Tulpan(2008) NR: Freshly discharged from the Russian navy, young Asa (Askhat Kuchencherekov) returns to the arid Kazakh steppe to find a bride and become a shepherd. But his plans go awry when Tulpan, the only eligible bachelorette around, rejects him because his ears are too big. What's more, Asa turns out to be a lousy shepherd. Can his persistence win Tulpan's love, the respect of his flock and the life he dreams of?

Apr. 6: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas(2008) PG-13: When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno (Asa Butterfield) befriends Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a boy who lives on the other side of the fence, where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Apr. 20: A Man Named Pearl(2006) G: Angered by white residents' racist comments that he wouldn't "keep up his yard," Pearl Fryar teaches himself topiary sculpture and becomes the first African American in his Bishopville, S.C., neighborhood to win the coveted "yard of the month" award. This acclaimed documentary traces Fryar's inspiring story, as he grows into a legendary horticulturist, welcoming thousands of tourists eager to catch a glimpse of his stunning works of art.

May 4: The Visitor(2007) PG-13: Widowed professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins, in an Oscar-nominated role) finds himself drawn to a different rhythm when he discovers an immigrant couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), squatting in his Manhattan flat and becomes wrapped up in their lives. Hiam Abbass co-stars as Tarek's mother, who forges an unlikely connection with Walter when Tarek is thrown into a detention center.