All posts by Carlos Aguilar
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Stay Sad: Babis Makridis on Writing Pity With Oscar-Nominated Efthymis Filippou, Why There’s No “Greek Wave”
Drastic measures taken to attain a dangerous objective are a defining element in both of Babis Makridis’ feature-length auteur productions. For his 2012 debut L, the...
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Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2018: Academy Award-Nominated Directors Get Candid About Their Films
With three titans of cinema and two of the most acclaimed and promising debutants in years in attendance, it was impossible not to be dazzled...
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Trojan Horse: Sebastián Lelio on the Music and Writing of His Oscar-Nominated Movie About Movies, A Fantastic Woman
In using his power to uncover explosive strength in previously vulnerable individuals, Chilean auteur Sebastián Lelio has dedicated himself to exalting triumphant beauty born out...
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“I Dug In My Heels”: Damon Cardasis on Capturing LGBTQ Youth in Saturday Church and Shooting a Scene in 15 Minutes
Equipped with untested knowledge and the earnest belief that a story must be told, a first-time moviemaker venturing into a feature project is ambition personified....
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Foreign Contenders: Ziad Doueiri on Adapting American Courtroom Drama Tropes Into Lebanon’s The Insult
Divisiveness is universal. That ironic truth is the key that allows people to understand and relate to geographically distant conflicts. Similarities carry more weight than...
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Foreign Contenders: John Trengove on Surviving the Controversy Surrounding South Africa’s The Wound
Conceived to forge men via traditional practices, the rite of passage in South Africa’s Xhosa community is grounded on the endurance of pain and the...
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Foreign Contenders: Ildikó Enyedi Aligns Framing and Sound for the Dreamy Romance in Hungary’s On Body and Soul
Involuntarily stoic and permanently immaculate, but with a diligent willingness to forge bonds with others around her, Mária (Alexandra Borbély) joins a slaughterhouse as the new...
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Foreign Contenders: Fatih Akin Used Distinct Lenses and Sound Techniques for Each Section of Germany’s In the Fade
Segmented into three distinct parts to accommodate the ravaging ebbs and flows of its protagonist’s emotional state in the aftermath of tragedy, Fatih Akin’s Oscar-shortlisted...
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A Bird in the Hand: The Journey of Birdboy: The Forgotten Children From Personal Graphic Novel to Hand-Drawn Feature
Adorably macabre and philosophically stimulating, Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero’s Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (known in Spanish as Psiconautas, los niños olvidados) exists in an...
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Foreign Contenders: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson Confronts Neighborly Conflicts with Under the Tree
Not unlike an alchemist, Icelandic Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson has mastered the improbable formula to produce amalgamations of universality with specificity. His relatable confections transcend homegrown...
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Winter 2019
Guide 2019
Summer 2018
Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Acting
Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker: Richard Dreyfuss
American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stand By Me, Mr. Holland’s Opus… even while reading like a what’s what of cinema, those titles are just a handful...
1Inside the Issue: Directing
Cold Piece of Work: Richard Linklater Braves Greenland Hurricanes for Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette opens with the answer to its titular question. In an impressively executed overhead shot, the camera gazes down onto placid Antarctic waters as...
Inside the Issue: How To
How They Did It: The Farewell Writer-Director Lulu Wang Shares Secrets to Turning Your Life Story into a Memoir Movie
The week before production started on The Farewell—my sophomore feature about a young woman (Billi, played by Awkwafina) and her family’s attempts to keep their grandmother’s cancer diagnosis hidden...