Dear Gossips,
The Sundance Institute yesterday announced that three filmmakers will be honoured at this year’s opening night film festival gala: Christopher Nolan, Celine Song, Maite Alberdi.
Christopher Nolan doesn’t make independent films anymore, but Memento was a big moment for him in 2001 and he will be the inaugural recipient of the Sundance Trailblazer Award. This works well for him in the present, since Oppenheimer is probably, at this point, the frontrunner for Best Picture Oscar in what looks like a pretty competitive year. We could see a Barbenheimer sequel during award season, and then there’s also Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Maestro, and Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, winner of the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, that will start picking up steam soon.
Celine Song and Maite Alberdi are the recipients of the annual Vanguard Award for their respective films, Past Lives and The Eternal Memory. This is a big boost for Past Lives which already, as I posted about last week, is an award season contender. Celine may not get in for a Best Director nomination considering some of the heavy-hitters who are in the race this year: Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Yorgos Lanthimos, Bradley Cooper. But Past Lives is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, and she has a great shot at a Best Original Screenplay nomination. Also the star of her film, Greta Lee, is also in the conversation right now.
Greta was just in London last night promoting the film – because Past Lives has an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA which means she can campaign while the others have to wait it out until the strike is over.
Here’s Greta with JW Anderson, currently the creative director of Loewe, who came out to support her:
As I mentioned last week, Greta was front row at the Loewe a few weeks ago during Paris Fashion Week and is one of the faces of the Spring 2024 campaign:
Her looks this season are going to be amazing. Check out her fit last week at the Savannah Film Festival:
Greta is not afraid to take it a little offbeat on the carpet. Can’t wait to see more of her as we get deeper into the season. And we SHOULD see more of her. She SHOULD be included. She should be getting just as much play as Margot Robbie and Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone for her work in Past Lives. If you’ve seen it, you know. If you haven’t seen it, it’s streaming now.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
