CinéFemme - Annakarinaland

Zac Ephron Nicole Kidman and Matthew McConaughey in Lee Daniel's The Paperboy (2012) I was on the Queer Palm jury in 2012, an extraordinary life experience that included being on the Red Carpet at Cannes. The feature film Queer Palm went to  Lawrence Anyways  by Xavier Dolan- not my choice. With all respect to my esteemed and beloved colleagues, I had wanted this special award to go to Lee Daniel's Paperboy that brilliantly shows the intersectionality of racism, sexism and homosexuality.  Matthew McConaughey (David Ward) plays a closeted gay journalist who along with Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo) is hired by Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) to help exonerate her client. She has fallen in love with death row inmate Hillary von Etter (John Cusack). The jury was given a special screening of this film on the last day of the Cannes festival, a memorable farewell to our film troupe that was fun, lively, outrageous and visionary. What happened after our decisi...

Olivia Coleman as Queen Anne, Rachel Weisz, (footmen) and director Yorgos Lanthimos Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos has won multiple prizes at A – list film festivals with dark comedies on language and gender. His latest film The Favourite  is perhaps his most conventional film using the form of the historical drama. It premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival taking home the Grand Jury Prize, and a Volpi Cup awarded to Elizabeth Colman. The film is based on a radio play "Balance of Power" by Deborah Davis produced by the BBC in 2008 (script written in 1998) and the film producers sought out Lantimos to put it on screen. He revealed at Venice that he had to wait until Emma Stone was done with La La Land to make it. The Greek director found Davis’ play “too political” and hired Tony McNamara to give it a Lanthimos twist with focus on the female trio of lovers. Davis concern was to illustrate how these intimate relationships with the Queen affected political power dur...