Netflix’s nostalgia trip hits its next stop today with the release of Pee-wee’s Big Holiday. The cult character returns 25 years after the iconic Pee-wee’s Playhouse, though he has shown up throughout the years in as disparate of entertainments as Top Chef, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Saturday Night Live, and Wrestlemania. Paul Reubens (now 63 years old) puts on the gray suit and red bowtie once again in another adventure outside of his simple 1950s suburban town—this time instead of looking for a lost bicycle, Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike) advises him to live a little on holiday. Judging from the trailer, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday goes just about everywhere, hopefully recapturing what made Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure so random and fun. Unlike some of Netflix’s other resurrected properties (we’re looking at you Fuller House), Pee-wee is strange enough and self-knowing enough, that I’m not so cynical about it coming back. For all the other films new to streaming services this weekend, check out the recommendations below:

Netflix

The Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick, 2015)

Thought-provoking filmmaker Kirby Dick’s sexual assault documentary The Hunting Ground is so much more than its Best Original Song Oscar loss. A thoroughly researched and emotionally raw, the film looks at institutional cover-ups and general look-the-other-ways of many major colleges and universities that are suffering from a sexual assault problem reaching an epidemic. But unlike so many similar issues movies, The Hunting Ground also highlights a few determined survivors who are working to shine a light on the problem. For Dick, the film follows the equally extraordinary The Invisible War, which focused on the growing problem of rape in the military—an equally ignored social ill. Now on Netflix, The Hunting Ground is a must-watch film from 2015.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
10,000 Saints (Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2015)
Daredevil (Series, Season 2)
Finders Keepers (Bryan Carberry & Clay Tweel, 2015)
My Beautiful Broken Brain (Sophie Robinson & Lotje Sodderland, 2014)
Shelter (Paul Bettany, 2014)

Fandor

Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)

In this week’s “Criterion Picks,” Fandor is highlighting unforgettable scores, including Kobayashi’s Japanese samurai epic Harakiri. Though Tôru Takemitsu’s music isn’t generally included in the all-time film scores, it is a masterful use of traditional Japanese instrumentation, its string-heavy sound providing excitement to the contemplative action film. One of the best films of its genre, Harakiri is a jidaigeki film about a ronin without a lord who requests to commit the traditional suicide ritual at the palace. The film stars under-heralded star Tatsuya Nakadai, a favorite of Kurosawa and Kobayashi, in perhaps his career defining role. Also included in the Criterion Picks this week include Satyajit Ray’s The Music Room, visually stunning Mishima, Fellini farce Amarcord, Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, and more. These films are all available on Fandor until March 27.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
Beijing Taxi (Miao Wang, 2010)
Kenny (Clayton Jacobson, 2006)
Making Mishima (Kim Hendrickson, 2008)
The Square (Jehane Noujaim, 2013)
We Fun (Matthew Robinson, 2009)

MUBI

Shaolin Soccer (Stephen Chow, 2001)

Will Stephen Chow’s new film The Mermaid setting box-office records in China, his most notable film stateside is now available on MUBI. The mix of kung fu film and sports film was unlike anything else, let alone Chow’s trademark silly humor which adds a solid glue to the genre mash-up. The soccer sequences play out as a mix of The Matrix and a live-action anime, with a breakneck pace and kinetic cinematography usually only seen in its martial arts roots. Now, Chow is something of a known quantity, though he hasn’t had a hit in the U.S. since Shoalin Soccer‘s follow-up, the equally crazy and amazing Kung Fu Hustle. Hopefully The Mermaid is able to find a cult audience outside of China, but until you can see it, it’s a good time to check out the film that launched his career on MUBI until April 12.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
88:88 (Isiah Medina, 2015)
The Great Flood (Bill Morrison, 2012)
The Miner’s Hymns (Bill Morrison, 2011)
Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)
You and the Night (Yann Gonzalez, 2013)

iTunes & Video On-Demand

Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, 2015)

For his sophomore film Charlie Kaufman teamed up with animator Duke Johnson (Community) for a sad, funny, absurd, wonderful puppet show, Anomalisa. The film follows a emotionally troubled customer service expert as he is shacked up in a Cincinnati hotel to give a seminar to his adoring fans. Completely out-of-touch with reality, the film shows his fractured state by filling every other voice performance (man, woman and child) with Tom Noonan, until Michael meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whose voice stands out. The three voice actors, including David Thewlis who plays Michael, are all outstandingly superb—Noonan’s monotone and slight variations make the hook fun while JJL delivers so much sympathy and emotional damage with Lisa. Visually, Anomalisa is stunning, with maybe the most realistic puppet animation in cinema history. Altogether, Anomalisa is a complex and rich experience, full of deep thoughts and an offbeat sensibility—the perfect mixture of what makes Kaufman such a fantastic filmmaker.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
The Program (Stephen Frears, 2015)

This year, instead of filling out that annual Oscar ballot for your office pool—which, lets face it, is always won by the person who never watches any of the movies—you should convince your co-workers to fill out an Independent Spirit Awards ballot. Your office will be the hippest on the block, and with my guide of winner predictions, you’ll finally be able to beat Henry from accounting. Plus, watching the Spirit Awards is infinitely more entertaining than the Academy Awards due to its layed back atmosphere and unstuffy attitude. In addition to my predictions below, I detail my reasoning for each category winner and also who to watch out for as a potential sleeper.

You can catch the Independent Spirit Awards live on IFC on Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 2:00 PM PT and see how accurate these predictions hold up.

2016 Independent Spirit Award Predictions

(Predicted winners are highlighted in red bolded font)

Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Spotlight
Tangerine

Sean Baker – Tangerine
Cary Joji Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation
Todd Haynes – Carol
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson – Anomalisa
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
David Robert Mitchell – It Follows

Charlie Kaufman – Anomalisa
Donald Margulies – The End of the Tour
Phyllis Nagy – Carol
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer – Spotlight
S. Craig Zahler – Bone Tomahawk

Christopher Abbott – James White
Abraham Attah – Beasts of No Nation
Ben Mendelsohn – Mississippi Grind
Jason Segel – The End of the Tour
Koudous Seihon – Mediterranea

Cate Blanchett – Carol
Brie Larson – Room
Rooney Mara – Carol
Bel Powley – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez- Tangerine

Kevin Corrigan – Results
Paul Dano – Love & Mercy
Idris Elba – Beasts of No Nation
Richard Jenkins – Bone Tomahawk
Michael Shannon – 99 Homes

Robin Bartlett – H.
Marin Ireland – Glass Chin
Jennifer Jason Leigh – Anomalisa
Cynthia Nixon – James White
Mya Taylor – Tangerine

The Diary of a Teenage Girl
James White
Manos Sucia
Mediterranea
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Jesse Andrews – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jonas Carpignano – Mediterranea
Emma Donoghue – Room
Marielle Heller – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
John Magary, Russell Harbaugh, Myna Josep – The Mend

Cary Joji Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation
Ed Lachman – Carol
Joshua James Richards – Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Michael Gioulakis – It Follows
Reed Morano – Meadowland

Embrace of the Serpent
Girlhood
Mustang
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Son of Saul

Best of Enemies
Heart of a Dog
The Look of Silence
Meru
The Russian Woodpecker
(T)ERROR

Beasts of No Nation
Heaven Knows What
It Follows
Room
Spotlight

Advantageous
Christmas, Again
Heaven Knows What
Krisha
Out of My Hand

In a week where the Golden Globes proved once again how much of a navel gazing joke and an obvious excuse for televised drunkenness it is, one has to look at this morning’s freshly announced Academy Award nominations and hope Academy voters will renew a little faith in the practice of picking out the best and brightest of the year in cinema.

The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road—both a bit more action-oriented than we’re used to seeing in Oscar forerunners—were the favorites with 12 and 10 nominations given to the two films respectively. And if suffering for your art earns you an Oscar these days, Leonardo DiCaprio might just finally take home a little gold dude. Fifth time’s the charm, Leo!

This year we have eight films vying for Best Picture and not a single person of color nominated in a lead or supporting role, which likely has more to do with the lack of diverse films being greenlit and less to do with biased voters, but still an unfortunate truth. Those who so dutifully championed Tangerine this past year are likely feeling the sting of rejection.

Despite nabbing Lead and Supporting nominations, Carol was shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director categories. Ridley Scott was also noticeably absent from the Best Director list for The Martian (which, in case there’s been confusion, is NOT a comedy). Quentin Tarantino might also be feeling a bit overlooked this morning, with only three nominations for The Hateful Eight, but, at least, one is for cinematography, supporting Tarantino’s decision to shoot on 70mm. Star Wars: The Force Awakens asserts itself plenty in technical categories, another unsurprising feat for this box office behemoth.

All in all, it’s not an especially unpredictable list of nominations, but the real fun comes in guessing the winners. The 88th Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 28th and will air at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PST on ABC. Check back for our continued 2016 Academy Awards coverage and read on for the full list of nominees.

List of 2016 Oscar Nominations

Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Actress in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Director
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Visual Effects
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia
Mustang, France
Son of Saul, Hungary
Theeb, Jordan
A War,Denmark

Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun The Sheep
When Marnie Was There

Best Screenplay
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room

Best Documentary
Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

Editing
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Production Design
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant

Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Original Song
“Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey
“Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction
“Simple Song No. 3” from Youth
“Til It Happens To You” from The Hunting Ground
“Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Mad Max Fury Road
The 100-Year Old Men Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared
The Revenant

Best Cinematography
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Hateful Eight
The Revenant
Sicario

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Achievement in Sound Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Costume Design
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant

Best Live Action Short Film
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok
Stutterer

Best Documentary Short Subject
Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom

Best Animated Short Film
Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

Bernard and CJ kick off 2016 by looking back at Way Too Indie’s Best Films of 2015 list as well as looking at the big releases that are in theaters right now. From The Hateful Eight, to Joy, Anomalisa, The Revenant and more, they’ve got you covered as you brave the winter cold to see the latest movies at your local cinema. You’ve seen our Best of 2015 feature already, but do the boys agree with how things ultimately shook out on the staff-voted list? Considering CJ’s infamously dissentious nature, things could get interesting. Plus…INDIE PICKS OF THE WEEEEEEEK!!!

Topics

• Indie Picks (5:54)
• Best Films of 2015 (16:50)
• Winter Movie Guide (52:45)

Articles Referenced

The Hateful Eight Review
Joy Review
Anomalisa Review
The Revenant Review
Sisters Review
Tangerine Review

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

Charlie Kaufman’s inventive, solipsistic narratives have consistently left cinephiles spellbound since he collaborated with Spike Jonze to reify Being John Malkovich in 1999. Through his screenplays for both Jonze and French filmmaker Michel Gondry, Kaufman earned a reputation few screenwriters attain. His distinct voice leapt off the page and manifested itself as a palpable entity onscreen. It has been seven years since Kaufman tried his hand at directing with Synecdoche, New York, and now he has discovered yet another fresh method through which to present his meditations on the intricacies and significance of human interaction.

Anomalisa is a claustrophobic stop-motion adventure that echoes much of the text present in Synecdoche, but funnels it through a decidedly less convoluted portal of expression. The great majority of the film takes place in a hotel, cleverly and relevantly titled “The Fregoli,” in which businessman Michael Stone (exceptionally voiced by David Thewlis) spends the night before giving a speech about the customer service industry. Like all of Kaufman’s protagonists, he is insatiably dissatisfied with his life, which he feels is despairingly mundane. The city of Cincinnati, in which the imaginary hotel is located, reverberates with blandness. Everyone Michael encounters seems to be repeating the same tired taglines. They insist he try the famous chili and proclaim he absolutely must see the zoo. Unsurprisingly, Michael has zero interest in either suggestion.

In terms of design, Kaufman, in collaboration with Duke Johnson, has cultivated an ability to frame his material so it’s both creative and digestible. With Anomalisa, Kaufman finds inspiration on a smaller scale, but manages to maintain an active imagination within the boundaries of his aesthetic. He and Johnson meticulously craft the architecture of The Fregoli to sculpt the oppressive impression of isolation in the mind of their audience. One paranoid dream sequence in the film’s second half is particularly impressive. Like past projects, his recent venture into animation once again ruminates on how banal and unfulfilling our lives are. Anomalisa, perhaps even more so than Synecdoche, is obsessed with the idea that nothing in life is truly concrete outside of one’s intrinsic awareness of the self. Nothing occurring within our lives is obtainable outside of the fact that we are able to think and perceive. Labeling Kaufman as a nihilist would be inaccurate. He affirms that life can be meaningful, but only in fleeting moments. If anything, he’s a miserablist, creatively trapped in his bleak interpretation of human existence.

Many viewers will relate to his desolate conclusion and find solace in his art, but the thesis that long-term happiness is essentially unachievable registers as unforgiving as opposed to illuminating. The brief moment of joy shared between Michael and a woman he encounters at the hotel, Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is undermined by a final lament that deconstructs the daunting image of its true value. These fleeting moments Kaufman illustrates become memories, and they, in navigating a dark and inhospitable world, are what we must cling to. Our survival is ensured not by genuine satisfaction, but by an image of it. After all, isn’t a memory just an image of a prior experience? According to Anomalisa, the experiences that form these memories are few and far between, and the majority of days we walk the earth, we will inevitably fail to encounter such happiness. In a world where aging couples can maintain a romance that began a half-century earlier, and where parents can lovingly watch their children develop into young men and women, the ideas underneath Michael’s existential crisis register as possessing little truth in the grand scheme of things. It’s not times of happiness that are ephemeral, but times of sorrow. Kaufman does sporadically use dry wit to assuage the misery of his conceit, and the intricacies of his aesthetic exhibit remarkable craftsmanship. But anyone with a generally positive disposition toward life will find very little insight in Anomalisa’s pervasive cloud of existential darkness.

Originally published on November 17th, 2015 as part of our AFI Festival coverage.

Standing in defiance of the techie takeover that’s been wiping clean San Francisco’s weird, colorful corners and pockets, the 100-year-old New Mission Theater—following a $10 million renovation by Alamo Drafthouse—opens its doors tomorrow, inviting us to dine on high-end finger food as we watch movies of all shapes and sizes within its historic walls.

For its grand opening, the theater will be playing Star Wars: The Force Awakens on all five of its screens. Moviegoers are offered assigned seating and can order food and drink throughout the movie via a silent ordering system involving pencils, paper, ninja-like servers and a whole lot of nervous hand gesturing. Not a perfect system by any means, but all the scrambling adds to the Alamo ambiance.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain was founded by Tim League in 1997 and has since expanded to 20 locations across the U.S., the New Mission being the latest addition. League’s hired former Roxie Director of Programming Mike Keegan to run the theater and, considering the man’s prior accomplishments (he’s helped program many of SF Indiefests wild and weird events and once organized a cat video film festival), San Franciscans are in for a treat. Helping Mike ensure the theater is an active contributor to the Mission District community is Private and Community Events Director Elizabeth Duran.

The theater’s adjoining bar, Bear Vs. Bull, will act as a separate entity; you can grab drinks before or after a movie or simply stop by and hang without purchasing a ticket at all. Beverage Director Isaac Shumway and Chef Ronnie New will be sure to keep your belly happy as you enjoy a night out with your buddies and/or significant other.

Sitting in front of one of the theater’s beautiful screens, I spoke with League and Keegan about the future of the New Mission and the journey that got them to this point. For more info, visit drafthouse.com/sf

As far as magnitude goes, there’s no bigger way to open this theater than on this weekend, with this movie.
Mike: We like to live by the seat of our pants, and there’s nothing more terrifying than opening a giant project, years in the making, with unrealistically high expectations!

I think the both of you have done countless cool things for the film community, kind of keeping the game off-balance with your ideas. Talk about coming together to work on this particular project.
Tim: We’ve known each other for a little while. I think we met through a mutual friend—it’s a really small world of people who do this type of programming. Our friend said, “You guys should meet—Mike’s nice!” And this guy will tell you if a guy’s not nice. [laughs] We chatted and Mike had left the Roxie and was out doing cat fancier tours or whatever it was. [laughs] It wasn’t really a formal process. It’s cool in this world because you’re kind of judged by your past work. We liked what he had been doing and thought it would be a good cultural fit for Drafthouse.

I’ve enjoyed your work at the Roxie very much over the years, Mike. This is a great, big new platform for you. What can we expect from you in the future?
Mike: The cool thing is, it’s five screens. You have flexibility because you have everything from a 320-seat room to a 34-seat room. You can basically show the best version of whatever should play in each room. You could play a masterpiece gem in a 34-seat room and do great, and you can have a four-quadrant Marvel movie in the big room. Everyone’s psyched and everyone’s happy. You hope that the audience will get to a point where they’d want to see all five things and that they feel like this is their place.

Tim: That sense is what’s pretty unique about our company, in a way. We’re doing some pretty interesting, almost subversive advertising for people who are watching some pretty down-the-middle movies. It’s like, “You like movies? How about these movies you may not have heard of?” It’s a way of converting a lot of people who may not know a lot about film history to come check out some other stuff after they’ve watched something like Star Wars, for example.

Mike: I feel like, over the past fifteen years or so, there’s been much less of a divide between high and low art. “Content” is a big word going around—people are just open to things that interest them. Whether it’s a stuffy art movie, a crass action movie or anywhere in between. It’s the right time to open a place like this.

With The Hateful Eight, particlarly the road show version, Quentin Tarantino is trying to give people a movie experience they can’t replicate at home. Your company does that kind of work as well. Talk about the importance of watching movies in wild, weird ways.
Tim: We look at ourselves as not necessarily competing against home video. We look at ourselves as an option for people deciding on what to do when they’re outside the house. This experience, from beginning to end, has to be compelling enough for people to choose it over going to a comedy club or going out for drinks. It’s an out-of-the-house entertainment option. Sometimes it’s more over-the-top for us. But I just like watching a movie. The technical aspects, the food and beverage—that’s all a part of just watching a movie.

A lot of the new companies that have popped up in San Francisco have sort of taken over and farmed new money without giving back to the community. It seems like this theater will play a big part in preserving the integrity and authenticity of our city.
Mike: We have a Community Director, Liz Duran, who’s from KQED, Sketchfest and the San Francisco Film Society. She’s on the ground, letting neighborhood organizations know that we’re here and we want to work with them. Kids can come watch movies on the weekend for a dollar. We’re here for everything.

The queso’s still on the menu!
Tim: That’s the only holdout. It’s a brand new menu except for the queso. If you’ve lived in Austin, that’s the number one question me and Mike have been fielding. “You’re bringing the queso, right?” People who aren’t from Austin have no idea what you’re talking about. [laughs]

So this is the first theater in the Alamo chain to have a unique menu?
Tim: Yeah. What we normally do is, we have a core menu, and we hire a local chef in the market and they change about 25% of it or so. Then they work on rotating specials once a quarter. If Hateful Eight is coming out, they’ll make a special menu for it. That kind of stuff. For this one…so many things are unique about this facility. I wanted the San Francisco theater to be very special, so we spent a long time trying to find a chef that we liked and was also a big movie fan. I wanted this to be a dream job for that person.

Would you say you created a dream job for yourself?
Tim: That’s exactly what I did. I was an engineer and I didn’t like it at all. I got there right on time, left right at five and took an abnormally long lunch break. I would leave my door open, you know? [laughs] When I was 21-years-old I immediately leapt into the middle class, but it wasn’t how I wanted to retire. My satisfaction came after 5 o’clock. Now, I love what I do.

I think what’s cool about you guys is that you’re a chain but you don’t feel like a chain. You’ve grown and done it the right way. How big can the company get? How big do you want it to get?
Tim: I set a goal to be at 50 locations by 2018, and then we were going to assess it and see how we did. If it still felt right, we could go bigger. I don’t know. I’m focused on that 2018 number. It’s already gotten really interesting. We were talking to the VP of Disney because they like what we’re doing. We can find smaller movies and open a movie across our circuit. That’s how we started our distribution company. Anomalisa is Paramount, but it’s also a challenging film. It’s going to be hard for that film to find an audience if it doesn’t get an Academy Award. That’s a movie where everyone on the team loves it and we’re going to collectively dive in and do everything we can. We worked directly with the studio. We said, “We’re going to post some numbers because this movie is extremely special.” We want to share it with as many people as possible. You can’t do that as a single-screen theater. Now that we’re bigger, we can make some noise for a movie like that.

Sometimes I go to the theater and I look around, and no one looks like they’re actually present. Their mind is somewhere else, their hands are itching to grab at their phones.
Tim: I think that speaks to why our no talking/no texting policy is so important. Not to sound pretentious or old-fashioned, but it’s so crazy to me what’s happened to people throughout their day. You could be having a conversation with somebody and it feels like they’ve gotten bored with what you’re saying and they pick up their phone and multi-task. Going to see a movie and making this mandatory situation happen where you have to put your phone away and focus on something that’s longer than a minute is actually kind of important, to shut down for 90 minutes and dissolve into a movie.

Somebody asked me, “What do you think about the future of movies? What will movies be like in 25 years?” I want it to be exactly what it is today, which is exactly what it was in the ’40s. I want the lights to go down and you just lose yourself in a story. No bells, no whistles. I don’t want anything more.

Moments ago, actors John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) announced the official list (which leaked on their site earlier for the second year in a row) of nominees for the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards. Todd Haynes‘ Carol hauled in the most nominations with a total of six, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and two Best Female Lead nominations. Close behind were Beasts of No Nation (which debuted on Netflix) and Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight each with five nods in major categories.

The most surprising snubs this year were Rick Famuyiwa‘s Sundance hit Dope, Grandma which got rave reviews due to Lily Tomlin’s performance, and Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America, all which failed to earn a single nomination. Distributor Fox Searchlight had to feel the most disappointed, seeing just one nomination for their recording-breaking Sundance pickup Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and even more shocking, coming up empty-handed for Brooklyn, Mistress America, and Youth.

On the flip side, we were happy to see Sean Baker’s Tangerine so well represented, grabbing four nominations including one for Best Feature. Other pleasant inclusions in this year’s list were the indie horror film It Follows, the foreign coming-of-age drama Mustang, and Benny and Joshua Safdie’s Heaven Knows What.

As with last year’s show, the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be broadcast live exclusively on February 27, 2016 on IFC at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET.

Coming Soon: Our 2016 Spirit Award predictions.

2016 Independent Spirit Award Nominations:

Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Spotlight
Tangerine

Sean Baker – Tangerine
Cary Joji Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation
Todd Haynes – Carol
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson – Anomalisa
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
David Robert Mitchell – It Follows

Charlie Kaufman – Anomalisa
Donald Margulies – The End of the Tour
Phyllis Nagy – Carol
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer – Spotlight
S. Craig Zahler – Bone Tomahawk

Christopher Abbott – James White
Abraham Attah – Beasts of No Nation
Ben Mendelsohn – Mississippi Grind
Jason Segel – The End of the Tour
Koudous Seihon – Mediterranea

Cate Blanchett – Carol
Brie Larson – Room
Rooney Mara – Carol
Bel Powley – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez – Tangerine

Kevin Corrigan – Results
Paul Dano – Love & Mercy
Idris Elba – Beasts of No Nation
Richard Jenkins – Bone Tomahawk
Michael Shannon – 99 Homes

Robin Bartlett – H.
Marin Ireland – Glass Chin
Jennifer Jason Leigh – Anomalisa
Cynthia Nixon – James White
Mya Taylor – Tangerine

The Diary of a Teenage Girl
James White
Manos Sucias
Mediterranea
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Jesse Andrews – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jonas Carpignano – Mediterranea
Emma Donoghue – Room
Marielle Heller – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
John Magary, Russell Harbaugh, Myna Joseph – The Mend

Cary Joji Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation
Ed Lachman – Carol
Joshua James Richards – Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Michael Gioulakis – It Follows
Reed Morano – Meadowland

Embrace of the Serpent
Girlhood
Mustang
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Son of Saul

Best of Enemies
Heart of a Dog
The Look of Silence
Meru
The Russian Woodpecker
(T)ERROR

Beasts of No Nation
Heaven Knows What
It Follows
Room
Spotlight

Advantageous – Jacqueline Kim and Jennifer Phang
Christmas, Again – Charles Poekel
Heaven Knows What – Ronald Bronstein, Arielle Holmes, and Joshua Safdie
Krisha – Trey Edward Shults
Out of My Hand – Takeshi Fukunaga and Donari Braxton

Spotlight

Mohammed Ali & Hemal Trivedi – Among The Believers
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – Incorruptible
Elizabeth Giamatti & Alex Sichel – A Woman Like Me

Darren Dean
Mel Eslyn
Rebecca Green & Laura D. Smith

Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck – God Bless The Child
Felix Thompson – King Jack
Chloe Zhoa – Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Is it even possible to whittle down TIFF’s line-up to 15? This year TIFF has 399 shorts and features playing the festival, an insane number that has us asking questions like “Why are there so many movies?” and “Why couldn’t the 400th movie be Carol?” among many others.

Every year at TIFF is an embarrassment of riches, and this year is no different, so we had a tough time narrowing our choices down to what we consider the essentials (even crueler: it’s unlikely we’ll catch all of these at the festival, meaning we’re praying some of these get released soon or get some sort of distribution deal). But we did manage to come up with a list, and it’s a varied one. There are some films we missed at festivals earlier this year, some brand spanking new ones by directors we love, a return from a master of the cinema, and one film from a newbie that looks like it could be one of the most unforgettable experiences of this year’s festival.

Read on to see our picks below, and be sure to keep reading the site for our coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival for the rest of the month.

Anomalisa

Charlie Kaufman. A name that, for those familiar with the man’s work, justifies the length of a paragraph to be all but two words on this list. Kaufman’s screenplays—Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind–-burst people’s notions of original comedy, with plots, settings, characters, and dialogue that turned the ordinary into the fascinatingly unique. It’s easy to get lost in Kaufman’s eccentricities, but there’s profound stuff underneath his squiggly surface (especially evident with his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York). His latest effort is a stop-motion animation feature, co-directed by Duke Johnson, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Thewlis, and Kaufman regular Tom Noonan providing the voice talent, about a misanthrope travelling to Cincinnati to give a keynote speech about his bestselling book on customer service. From the purportedly fantastic look of the film, to the much welcomed return of Kaufman’s sui generis imagination, everything about Anomalisa so far (including early raves from Telluride) fills this film to the gills with promise. [Nik]

Arabian Nights

Miguel Gomes has been popping his head out from the subterranean levels of arthouse since 2008’s Our Beloved Month of August, but it was his sensational and half-silent 2012 film Tabu that wrote him on the proverbial map with permanent ink. Now he’s back with what is his most ambitious effort to date, a sprawling 6-hour epic split into three volumes based on the infamous Middle Eastern and Asian stories, 1001 Nights. Going by the popular English title of the collection, Arabian Nights pushes the boundaries of narrative with its three volumes—titled The Restless One, The Desolate One, The Enchanted One respectively—and sets events in Portugal, elucidating on the country’s socioeconomic issues through allegory and Gomes’ signature vigor for cinematic storytelling. Using a mesh of satire and fantasy, fiction and non-fiction, the film has been hailed as a genuinely stirring cinematic experience in all respects since it premiered in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight, and we are beyond excited to see it at TIFF. [Nik]

The Assassin

Gestating in development for over ten years, and scaling a mountain of budgetary hurdles all while learning to adjust to the ever-changing climate of film production, Hou Hisao-Hisen’s latest film is finally here. For a film that’s been anticipated this long, directed by a beloved legend of Taiwanese arthouse cinema, the hype for The Assassin was strained with a mix of excitement and slight trepidation before it premiered at Cannes. The film turned out to be a critical hit, and Hou was commemorated with a Best Director prize (many believed it would walk away with the Palme). This wuxia tale follows a trained killer (Shu Qi) who is forced to choose between her heart and her profession when she gets her latest assignment. Yeah, it’s a synopsis bland enough to fit the description of the worst kind of Steven Segal movie, but its plot is not why The Assassin has already been hailed as a masterpiece by many. With a master filmmaker at the helm, the film’s qualities are found in its aesthetics, mood, composition, and a refined kind of slow-burning mystery that seems to cast a spell on all who see it. Yummy. [Nik]

Baskin

After discovering Baskin’s inclusion in the Midnight Madness programme, I contacted director Can Evrenol to get a glimpse at his 2013 short film (which this film is based on). Evrenol was gracious enough to let me see his short, and the moment it ended I knew I had to catch his feature-length adaptation at TIFF. Both the short and the film have the same synopsis: a group of cops responding to a call for backup arrive at an abandoned building that turns out to be the home of some sort of horrifying dark arts ritual. By the time the cops realise they’ve stumbled into some seriously freaky, occult type stuff, all hell literally breaks loose. The short is a brief and twisted slice of fun, and Baskin looks like it’s expanding in all the right ways: gorier, nastier, and with plenty more horrifying surprises in store. Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes has gone on record saying that Baskin might rival the legendary premiere of Martyrs at TIFF in 2008, and based on what I’ve seen of Baskin, I’m inclined to believe he might turn out to be right. [C.J.]

Beasts of No Nation

Fresh off the enormous success of True Detective, Cary Fukunaga returns to the big screen with more critical clout than ever before. Beasts of No Nation marks the writer/director’s third feature, and it looks to be a work of greater intensity and visceral impact than either of his previous films. From a Mexican immigration drama (Sin Nombre) to a classic bildungsroman adaptation set in Victorian England (Jane Eyre), Fukunaga now takes us to an unnamed country in Africa where a young boy struck by tragedy is forced to become a child soldier in a ferocious civil war. Fukunaga’s versatility is truly impressive, and with this film carrying the added plus of Idris Elba (in what could potentially be his greatest role yet), I’d say it’s shaping up to be yet another feather in the cap of an exciting and steadily rising filmmaker. [Byron]

Black Mass

Scott Cooper is someone who hasn’t quite broken out yet as a “name director.” Crazy Heart was acknowledged for its performances and music despite being a solid character study with real directorial sensitivity, and while Out of the Furnace proved to be somewhat bland and predictable, it still contained glimmers of a filmmaker with a distinct vision. With his third film, Black Mass, Cooper is tackling something of significant scale. It’s the story of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger, and the project boasts a killer cast. Johnny Depp arrives in heavy makeup once again, this time in a different context, and he appears to be in rare form, exuding charisma that is terrifyingly deceptive rather than merely quirky. With such a weighty subject, there’s a lot that could go wrong, but hopefully Cooper rises to the occasion and finally takes the spotlight, delivering something more like The Departed than Killing Them Softly. [Byron]

Cemetery of Splendour

Arguably the greatest arthouse filmmaker of the 21st century, Apichatpong Weerasethakul is more beloved than the spelling of his full name is hard to memorize. Every feature he’s directed—most especially Tropical Malady, Syndromes of a Century, and Palme D’Or-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives—has been studied by cinephiles for their hypnotic power and spiritual sensations. His latest is titled Cemetery of Splendor, and if that’s not enticing enough (it should be), its Cannes premiere was met with the kind of plaudits worthy of Weerasethakul’s venerated oeuvre. The film follows a housewife who volunteers at a clinic where she befriends a soldier with a mysterious sleeping sickness and meets a medium who helps family members communicate with their comatose relatives. In typical Weerasethakul fashion, dreams, memory, and romance are weaved together to create a mystical viewing experience. We couldn’t be more ready for this. [Nik]

Evolution

Way back in January of this year, I picked Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Evolution as one of my most anticipated films of 2015. I figured it would premiere at Cannes, given it went into production last year, but Cannes came and went without her film appearing. I forgot about the film (partially to not disappoint myself again), so once it got announced at part of TIFF’s Vanguard programme this year I was ecstatic. Little was known about Evolution back when I first wrote about it, but now there’s a better idea of what to expect. The film centres on a ten-year-old boy living on an island with no adult males, only women and young boys like himself. The boys undergo various medical experiments, and Nicholas decides to investigate what’s going on. Rather than explain why Evolution is on my radar again, I’ll just quote its programmer Colin Geddes who told me it’s “a sublime, body horror, fairy tale mystery.” I don’t think it’s possible to hear a description like that and not get intrigued. [C.J.]

High-Rise

I won’t lie: I’ve been deliberately avoiding learning much about Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, which is having its world premiere this year in TIFF’s competitive Platform programme. I know it has a killer cast (Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Elisabeth Moss and Luke Evans, to name a few). I know it’s an adaptation of a J.G. Ballard novel, it involves different people living in an apartment building, and that Clint Mansell is doing the score. That’s about it. So why am I putting this down as one of my most anticipated titles of TIFF? Because Ben Wheatley is one of the more exciting names in international cinema right now, hopping between genres with ease and delivering films that are truly distinct. This looks like a return to the moodier, intense fare of Kill List along with the chamber piece quality of his terrific debut Down Terrace (which largely took place in a house). High-Rise sounds like a literal expansion for Wheatley compared to his low-budget first feature: a bigger cast, a bigger budget, a bigger location and a bigger scale. Here’s hoping Wheatley makes the most of it. [C.J.]

Mountains May Depart

To be honest, I don’t know much about Mountains May Depart, but what I do know is that Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin was one of the best movies to emerge from 2013. Brutal and depressing in equal measures, the film is an anthology that presented the deeply troubled nature of modern China through powerful allegory. Jia’s follow-up seems to cover similarly ambitious ground, spanning two generations and confronting the effects of a rapidly changing societal landscape. No matter what the story details are, Mountains May Depart is a must-see purely because it places the audience in the secure hands of a great cinematic social commentator. [Byron]

Office

Want to know how much I love Johnnie To? Whenever I see the word “musical” I tend to run in the other direction, yet I’m clearing my TIFF schedule to fit in the musical Office because he’s helming it. The film marks two firsts for To, a director who’s been working for decades with an insanely prolific and consistent output; it’s his first musical, and his first film in 3D. Seeing To tackle new areas only gets me more excited, because he’s shown multiple times that he has no problem adapting any genre to his economic and quick-paced style. Based on the hit play by Sylvia Chang (who also stars in Mountains May Depart), Office sounds like a continuation of To’s recent fixation on the corporate class and the 2008 financial crisis seen in films like Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and Life Without Principle. But this time, To has recruited big names like Chang and Chow Yun-Fat, along with (what sounds like) full-blown song and dance numbers. Early word on Office has been great, and I can’t wait to see what will surely be To’s unique take on the musical. [C.J.]

Sunset Song

Suffused with rich feeling and evocative melancholia, Terence Davies’ movies are like a vintage wine that sentimentality has rendered priceless; only to be uncorked for a momentous occasion. Which is exactly what the world premiere of his latest picture, Sunset Song, already feels like. Coming off the heels of The Deep Blue Sea, probably the most underrated and misunderstood film of its year, Sunset Song is a period piece set in the cinegenic Scottish countryside of the 1930s, and based on a book by Lewis Grassic Gibon that’s been called the most important Scottish novel of the 20th century. Other than a few gorgeous-looking stills, and the announcement of the cast which includes the brilliant Peter Mullan, mum’s been the word on the details behind Davies’ adaptation. But if he sticks close to Gibbon’s story, we’ll be following the hard life of young Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn), a woman growing up in a dysfunctional household, on a farm in Scotland. We expect nothing less than the same refined and lyrical cinematic precision we’ve been getting from one of Britain’s most celebrated auteurs. [Nik]

Where to Invade Next?

America’s most divisive filmmaker returns with a new documentary sure to inspire an avalanche of critical blog posts, angry tweets and bitter Fox News segments. It’s been six years since Michael Moore released Capitalism: A Love Story, and little is known about his new project outside of the vague notion that it will concern the United States’ unending condition of being at war in some capacity. I’ve always been fond of Moore’s work, despite the loudness of his mouth and the dubiousness of his specific claims. For sheer entertainment value, his films are about as hilariously satirical as documentaries get, but beneath the unabashed agenda and supposed methods of misdirection lies a sobering reality demanding our immediate attention. For this reason, I can’t wait to see Where to Invade Next? and revel in the controversy it will inevitably stir up. [Byron]

The Witch

If the reactions out of Sundance earlier this year are any indication, The Witch is the latest installment in a recent string of thoughtful indie horror pictures (such as It Follows and The Babadook) vying for “instant classic” status. The film is a period piece—something far too uncommon in the genre these days—and tells the tale of 17^th century New England settlers encountering evil forces in a nearby forest while perhaps confronting their own inner demons as well. I like my horror cinema grim and ambiguous, and the film’s brilliant trailer seems to promise a gloomy tone and ominous atmosphere, along with what might be the most malevolent on-screen goat since Drag Me to Hell (although likely not as humorous). A 2016 release date pretty much guarantees a series of sold-out shows at this year’s fest, so don’t hesitate to check it out if you get the chance. [Byron]

Yakuza Apocalypse

Back in May when Yakuza Apocalypse premiered at Cannes, it sounded like Takashi Miike was back in full-force. But then again, considering his insanely prolific output (I’ve lost track of his films, there are too many), “full-force” seems to be status quo for Miike. The image above should give you an idea of what Yakuza Apocalypse might be like: insane, bonkers, all over the place, nonsensical and yet completely entertaining to watch. The film starts out with a Yakuza boss revealed to be a vampire, and soon the entire town he rules over gets converted into vampires as they try to remove threats to their way of life. And also there’s something about a fighting alien toad, the apocalypse, and whatever else Miike could think of apparently. When it comes to Miike, I don’t ask questions anymore. He’s proven himself to be an amazing director, so when I get the chance to see one of his latest films I’ll go on blind faith. Sometimes his films don’t work out for me, but other times they work spectacularly. Yakuza Apocalypse looks like it’s going to fall more into the “spectacular” category. [C.J.]