The New York Film Festival winds down this weekend, and what a wonderful, strange trip its been. We've been to late '90s Britain, modern day Korea and the rural area outside Madrid, but still have yet to wing our way to pre-revolutionary France and fascist Spain. Thrilling, n'est pas? Here's a few thoughts on some of the films from the 44th annual that we've sampled. more ›

Forget hiring some young, enthusiastic fresh-faced college graduate - the new trend in hiring nannies seems to be looking for ones that speak Mandarin. The BBC reported that more families are looking for Chinese nannies who might be able to give their kids an edge in the future when China is expected to become an even bigger superpower. And two families were bidding over a nanny that the final salary rose to $70,000! If only Gothamist knew Mandarin - then we'd have another backup job option. Reader Alex, who passed along the link to us, wonders if this is similar to the 1980s trend of parents teaching their kids Japanese (just look at Sofia Coppola!). Gothamist suspects another important reason: To be able to order off the menu at Chinese restaurants. But what's daunting is the Chinese character system - although a 6 month old apparently read a thousand of them (that's about 950 more characters than Gothamist knows). more ›

The Post reports that the New York City Marketing Development Corporation is recruiting different celebrities and NYC notables to explain why they love the city in order to develop ways to drum up tourism. A recent poll that the NYC MDC conducted says that "crime is still the No. 1 reason why tourists stay away," prompting the MDC to go to people like Russell Simmons (Phat), Sofia Coppola, Mark Messier, Dick Wolf, and Ric Burns (documentarian), as well as George Steinbrenner (Yankees), Danny Goldberg, David Stern (NBA), Nick Jones (SoHo House), Deputy Mayor Patti Harris and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and draw out what they love about NYC. The interviews are expected to be a part of a global advertising campaign that may include TV, outdoor, and tie-in books. Burns told the Post, "New York City is about as big a brand as you're going to get. The richness, the denseness of New York's intellectual, spiritual capital is so strong. New York's greatness is not that it is better, but that everyone comes here. Everyone is us." Gothamist agrees that NYC is great, but we hope that the voices of regular New Yorkers are captured, because a lot of NYers we know have great suggestions on what tourists should really see in NY. Then again, some may want to keep those at least semi-secret. But the least the NYC MDC can do is tell tourists to visit the other boroughs, the Noguchi Museum or Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. more ›

Gawker on the Sofia-n-Quentin matchup: It's Officialish and The Plot Thickens. And we still love Lost in Translation.
more ›

Wendy Mitchell, indieWIRE more ›

Join in the discussion about books turned movies on the Gothamist Forums. more ›

The Biennial runs through May 30. more ›

Gothamist on the Oscars 2004. more ›

Also, doesn't it feel like Barbara Walters is scraping the bottom of the barrel with this year's special? Matt LeBlanc, Diane Keaton, Billy Crystal? Gothamist can read about Matt, who is the LEAST controversial of all Friends with Lisa Kudrow (where's the Percoset addiction? Pregnancy woes? Marriage to Brad Pitt?), in People and US and In Touch. Diane Keaton, she's cool, but we knows she's walks to the beat of her own drummer with wacky fashion sense. And Billy Crystal...wouldn't it have been more apropos to interview him while he was pimping 61*? more ›

Gothamist on this year's Oscar nominations, why the show will suck and Plus our commentary from last year's Oscars and this year's Golden Globes.
more ›

Yay for surprises. The announcement of the 76th Academy Awards nominations were not the snoozefest we thought they would be, thanks to some shockers. Some thoughts on the categories: more ›

Air will be in New York on April 13, at the Hammerstein Ballroom. more ›

Will third time be a charm for Peter Jackson? Jackson's work for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, along with Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, Clint Eastwood for Mystic River, Gary Ross for Seabiscuit, and Peter Weir for Master and Commander, is nominated for the Directors' Guild Award. The DGA nominees are very similar to the Golden Globe nominees, except Anthony Minghella was nominated instead of Ross. Guess the Cold Mountain machine doesn't fly with the directors, huh, Miramax (the Daily News is shocked that Minghella was not nominated). What this year's DGA nominees tell us is that Sofia Coppola and the momentum behind Lost in Translation are no joke and that Hollywood loves a well made studio movie like Seabiscuit, even if it's 40 minutes too long. more ›

Many wonder what is the use of following these critics' awards, since they are only directionally useful in wondering who will win the Oscars, an imperfect process also. Gothamist ventures to say that when things move us, we want to talk about it, think about it, tell others about it. Movies are a reflection of who we are and become calling cards of ideas and dreams to other places, whether it's to a rural farm town in Nebraska or an emerging metropolis like Shanghai. Sure, there's an amount of unspeakable crap, but it's also nice to see that some exceptional work is being recognized. more ›

Gothamist's pick for any kind of moviegoing this weekend is by far, Lost in Translation, the best movie we've seen in a very long time. We were struck by it when we first saw it, and may have to see it again soon as it opens today. It has a brilliant performance from Bill Murray, who is being talked up for an Oscar nod at the very least (let's hope, unlike when he was last mentioned in the same breath as Oscar during Rushmore, the Academy actually nominates him). more ›

Lost in Translation, the upcoming film directed by Sofia Coppola, might be one of the loveliest movies you see this year - it certainly is for Gothamist. Also written by Coppola, Lost in Translation is the Tokyo story of the new friendship between two Americans; Bill Murray plays an American movie star shilling for Japanese products and Scarlett Johanssen is the lonely young wife who tagged along on her photographer husband's business trip. A valentine to frenetic modern Tokyo (cinematographer Lance Acord manages to make the city shimmer at some moments, dull at others, but always interesting), Lost also has a wonderful Bill Murray performance that is at times physically hilarious and at others very tender. Imagine Herman Blume less beleagured and more joyful, karaokeing to Elvis Costello. The film just unfolds before you, inviting you to get to know the characters better and then you are practically participating in their lives. There is also a fabulous soundtrack (Air, My Bloody Valentine). more ›