DVD Release Update - 21 July

Of the releases below, it's worth noting that TLA has started announcing DVDs again after this news came out a few months ago. It's also nice to know that Criterion won't be wasting their time on a Chasing Amy Blu-ray, as Miramax has just set a date for it.

DVD

- Classic Educational Shorts, Vols. 1 and 2: How to Be a Man / How to Be a Woman, 1948-1982, d. Various, Kino, 6 October
- The Gate, 1987, d. Tibor Takács, Lionsgate, "Monstrous Special Edition," 6 October, w. Stephen Dorff
- Mirageman, 2007, d. Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Magnet Releasing/Magnolia, 6 October
- My Fair Lady, 1964, d. George Cukor, Paramount, 6 October
- Happy Birthday to Me, 1981, d. J. Lee Thompson, Anchor Bay, 13 October
- The Killing Room, 2009, d. Jonathan Liebesman, The Weinstein Company, 13 October, w. Chloë Sevigny, Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton, Peter Stormare, Clea DuVall
- Love of Siam, 2007, d. Chukiat Sakveerakul, Strand Releasing, 13 October
- Shank, 2009, d. Simon Pearce, TLA Releasing, 20 October
- The Shaolin Temple, 1982, d. Zhang Xinyan, Dragon Dynasty/The Weinstein Company, 20 October, w. Jet Li
- Moonlight Serenade, 2006, d. Giancarlo Tallarico, Magnolia, 27 October, w. Amy Adams
- Perestroika [The Reconstructing], 2009, d. Slava Tsukerman (Liquid Sky), Strand Releasing, 27 October, w. F. Murray Abraham, Ally Sheedy
- Janky Promoters, 2009, d. Marcus Raboy, The Weinstein Company, 3 November, w. Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Young Jeezy
- North by Northwest, 1959, d. Alfred Hitchcock, Warner, 50th Anniversary, also on Blu-ray, 3 November
- Make the Yuletide Gay, 2009, d. Rob Williams, TLA Releasing, 10 November
- Wrecked, 2009, d. Bernard Schumanski, Harry Schumanski, TLA Releasing, 10 November
- Star Trek, 2009, d. J.J. Abrams, Paramount, also on Blu-ray, 17 November
- Three Monkeys [Üç maymun], 2008, d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Zeitgeist, 24 November
- The Redwoods, 2009, d. David Lewis, TLA Releasing, 8 December

Blu-ray

- Kurt Cobain: About a Son, 2006, d. AJ Schnack, Shout! Factory, 6 October
- Chasing Amy, 1997, d. Kevin Smith, Miramax, 3 November
- Clerks, 1994, d. Kevin Smith, Miramax, 3 November
- The Sopranos, Season 1, 1999, HBO, 23 November

Foreign Oscar Short-List for 2009: From 65 to 9

The foreign-language short-list has been officially announced, knocking the sixty-five country submissions down to nine before the official five nominees are announced on the 22nd. Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah was the big oversight this round of elimination, but if that's the only blunder they've made thusfar (remember 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Persepolis didn't even make the short-list last year), they're off to a good start. The 9 are:

Revanche - dir. Götz Spielmann - Austria (Criterion)
The Necessities of Life [Ce qu'il faut pour vivre] - dir. Benoît Pilon - Canada (No US distributor, owned by Séville Pictures in Canada)
The Class [Entre les murs] - dir. Laurent Cantet - France (Sony Pictures Classics, begins limited run 30 January)
The Baader-Meinhof Complex [Der Baader Meinhof Komplex] - dir. Uli Edel - Germany (No US distributor, owned by Momentum Pictures in the UK)
Waltz with Bashir - dir. Ari Folman - Israel (Sony Pictures Classics, in limited release now)
Departures - dir. Yojiro Takita - Japan (No US distributor)
Tear This Heart Out [Arráncame la vida] - dir. Roberto Sneider - Mexico (No US distributor)
Everlasting Moments [Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick] - dir. Jan Troell - Sweden (IFC Films, begins limited run 8 March)
3 Monkeys [Üç maymun] - dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Turkey (Apparently owned by New Yorker, but I've found no confirmation other than on the Toronto International Film Festival's website)

Other than Gomorrah, the other two big oversights didn't come as much of a surprise. No one expected Chile's Tony Manero to make it to the finalists; it's too sinister for the crusty Oscar crowd. Tulpan, Kazakhstan's submission, was also missing from the list; the film won the Un Certain Regard award at this year's Cannes. It had already been determined that Argentina made the wrong choice with Leonera as their pick, as it's been regarded as much lesser of a film than the country's other offerings from 08: The Headless Woman, Birdsong, Liverpool. After it's win at the Globes this past Sunday (a first for the Foreign Press to award a non-fiction film) and its increasing topical nature, Waltz with Bashir looks like the film to beat. Again, the Oscar nominations will be announced on 22 January.