I first encountered Vittorio Cottafavi back in 2011 or so – the golden age of film forums and Tumblr, where screenshots played an important role in garnering enthusiasm for a lot of underseen or somewhat misunderstood/mis-categorized filmmakers. His spectacular pepla and historical epics scratched an itch for me then for films made with actual, mechanically…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 03/03/2025 – 03/14/2025
Tag: ratings-grid
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 02/15/2025 – 02/28/2025
I am writing this from the Latin American Film Festival of Dallas offices. The festival lineup has been announced. Now there are a lot of emails, threads regarding social media strategy, files to be delivered, payments to be coordinated – very far away from the act of watching films! The films I’ve been watching lately…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 02/15/2025 – 02/28/2025
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 02/01/2025 – 02/14/2025
There is a rare pleasure to be found when encountering work that, after an unassuming first impression, reveals a center of gravity strong enough to draw other work into its orbit, even more the case when that influence is subtle, at the edge of description. I’ve been spending the weeks represented by this grid in…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 02/01/2025 – 02/14/2025
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 01/18/2025 – 01/31/2025
We recently published our Top Films of 2024 lists which has finally given us all the freedom to stop playing catchup and go back to our individual rabbit holes. There are three films on this grid that represent one of my favorites of said rabbit holes and they all belong to a long-running (early 1970s…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 01/18/2025 – 01/31/2025
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 12/7/24 – 12/20/24
This note comes directly from the Lucky Star Podcast editing suite. In our second episode we discuss the latest film from director Imtiaz Ali, Amar Singh Chamkila, a biopic of the tragically slain Punjabi singer. In the episode we discuss also some of the recent year-end lists published, such as those in Cahiers du Cinéma,…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 12/7/24 – 12/20/24
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 11/02/24-11/15/24
If you’ve been following these biweekly grids at all, you might’ve noticed that they have been distinctly devoid of American films. In the past, this has been the result of some specific rabbit hole we have gone down on or some project taking up our collective imagination but this year has just been one where…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 11/02/24-11/15/24
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 10/09/24-11/01/24
This note comes to you directly from the Latin American Film Festival of Dallas offices. As I finalize next year’s selection, I was also wrapping up the final touches on the translation of Jean-Claude Guiguet’s text, The Gift of Tears, a text that I’ve carried with me for a long time. It speaks with an…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 10/09/24-11/01/24
Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 10/05/24-10/18/24
Earlier this Summer Lucky Star published a lengthy piece by our editor Jhon Hernandez on his experience programming a festival, focused on Latin American cinema. This week, as the New York Film Festival winds down and the Morelia Film Festival begins, we published a companion of sorts, in which he attends, as an audience member…… Continue reading Lucky Star Editorial Grid – 10/05/24-10/18/24
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