I had the great opportunity of attending the AFi Dallas Film Festival this week. here is a small overview.

the best film i saw was Guillermo Arriaga's "The Burning Plain." i got to meet and chat with arriaga afterwards. he truly is a humble and amazing artist. he spoke about his influences making the film (which were based on some of his real life experiences including a near-death situation). the film was beautiful and i am placing it on my list of possible contenders. i spoke with one of the representatives of the film and he said it has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures and 2929 Entertainment with a release in September to gain good oscar momentum. he said he also felt confident in arriaga's possible nomination chances because he seems to have not been overlooked much by the academy. charlize theron and kim basinger gave amazing performances. if the cards are played right, i would say basinger is destined for a supporting actress nod. she plays a breast cancer survivor having an affair with a mexican man played by joaquin de almeida (who also gave a great performance). i would also be on the lookout for an actor named jose maria yazpik, whose performance was great and really helped shape the film's plot.

i also saw a documentary called Rock Prophecies which I feel could gain momentum in the doc category. it is about robert marshall knight, one of the most famous rock photographers in the world. he was the first to photograph jimi hendrix, led zeppelin and the rolling stones, as well as the last person to ever shoot stevie ray vaughn just days before his untimely death. the doc was amazing.

The Hurt Locker was another great film. Although it gets its American release in July, i wonder if it is still eligible despite nominations at last yr's indie spirit awards becaue of its premeire in venice. if it is eligible, i'd look out for jeremy renner, whose performance was the best in the film. i had the chance to speak with director kathryn bigelow, jeremy renner and screenwriter mark boal afterwards.

and last but not least, i am attending journalism school to be a film critic, therefore i have a new blog online for news and reviews. i would truly appreciate if you guys could give a look and check in from time to time, if you have a google/g-mail account and would like to scubscribe to it, that would be amazing. i would really appreciate it. i am building it up, adding reviews of the Fest daily, so feel free to check in from time to time.

the link to my blog is...

adamk483.blogspot.com

thanks and enjoy!

-Adam

These days it's who doesn't have a blog ? I have had one for two years, and I put an extreme amount of study and try to make it different from the literally millions of them that look the same. I think that movie sites in general should go back to actual websites. It would weed out the millions that are already there that you can tell plain as day ripping eachother off. I'm looking into doing an actual legit movie website as I think people tend to take those more serious than general blogs from every Tom, Dick and Harry. But good luck with it and I will visit it.