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The 2010 Academy Award Nominated Short Films

by M. Faust
Once upon a time, when you went to the movies you got more for your buck than just a single movie. You got a newsreel, a cartoon, a short subject, and a second feature. Now we get the news and the cartoons at home, and double features are unlikely to make a comeback at a time when theaters are desperate to cram as many shows as possible into a day. But I just don’t see why some smart theater chain doesn’t bring back the practice of showing short films before features. There are thousands of short films made every year, generally by young filmmakers trying to break into the business, and I’m sure they’d be thrilled to have the chance for people to see their work.

Biutiful

by George Sax
In his previous films, the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu spun out multiple story lines with disparate characters experiencing apparently unconnected events in diverse circumstances. Their lives eventually connect in unexpected fashions.

Orlando

by Lizzie Finnegan
The Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender opens its 15th annual International Women’s Film Festival Thursday, February 17, offering a diversity of feature and short films—fiction, documentary, and animation—by women. Festival programmer Ruth Goldman comments, “Despite women’s tremendous creativity, talent, perseverance and success, they still have trouble getting consistent funding. Our intention is to highlight the depth and breadth that independent women filmmakers offer.”

The Company Men

by George Sax
John Wells’ The Company Men attempts to offer a sympathetic and very timely dramatic depiction of the plight of Americans who have lost their livelihoods during the current widespread economic difficulties. The men of the title are three executives at a Northeast conglomerate that grew out of a shipbuilding concern. The company’s stock is being hammered because of the shrinking market for its products and it’s becoming vulnerable to a takeover by a marauding investor. Inevitably, this results in the closing of divisions and personnel layoffs.



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