olansamuelle (also BlueSky) 💗💜💙 she/her

Who tells your story? #LaBolaNegra

Now playing in theaters nationwide, LA BOLA NEGRA is “an epic beating heart of a movie.” From directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Winner of the most audience awards this year. Get tickets now👇 fandan.co/LaBolaNegra

Ticket acquired. Tonight 🙂 #Wildwood

London is calling. BLUE EYE SAMURAI returns JANUARY 19 2027.

Gris Jordana wins Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for La Bola Negra at the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival. 🏆

Hey guys! So our new game Secret Santa by Dave Matalon is launching on @kickstarter mid November! If you never know what to buy or do at Christmas, this is for you! It's a fast funny game of making terrible guests and buying them even worse gifts. kickstarter.com/projects/398…

Introducing a new identity for Apple Music, physically shaped by an original composition from @fredagainagain1 and NEST Acoustics.

Hey guys! So excited to announce our new Christmas themed card game Secret Santa is almost ready to go live on @Kickstarter - Build a guest to bring to your Christmas Party then get people the funniest/craziest/worst presents you can to win Christmas! kickstarter.com/projects/398…

La Bola Negra (🌟🌟🌟🌟) is absolutely good enough to win the Oscar for Best Picture & flip this year’s awards season on its head. This is an outstanding film. Somewhere around the halfway point of this movie, it dawned on me that I had never before truly understood what people meant when they call a film “devastatingly beautiful”. Because make no mistake, this is a heavy film. There are few happy endings, few happy beginnings, and precious little happiness in between. And yet, the film will take your breath away consistently for a multitude of reasons. Whether it be the incredible cinematography that transports you a century into the past, the shattering script that repeatedly washes over you, or the absolutely stunning performances that guide us along the way, this film is a remarkable achievement. I consider myself extremely lucky to have seen this film in a packed theater during a limited theatrical run.  The story here follows three queer Spanish men at different points throughout history and slowly reveals their intertwined connections. In 1932, Carlos is a closeted man who is being denied membership in the village’s exclusive social club due to suspicions surrounding his sexuality. In 1937, Sebastian is a lone survivor of a bombing on his village amidst the Spanish Civil War. Forced to join the Nationalists to survive, he is assigned to watch over and interrogate a prisoner of war, with whom he slowly becomes infatuated. In 2017, Alberto is researching historical queer art from decades past when he is suddenly left an inheritance by an estranged grandfather he did not know was still living. As he unravels the story of his grandfather’s life, he realizes he has been given an important mission to accomplish from beyond the grave.  This three-headed story unfolds like a map, piece by piece. Instead of dumping too much information on us all at once from one plotline, the film brilliantly interweaves them all together; so much so that, for the first third of the movie, you really have no idea how they all connect to one another. Further still, once two of the pieces fit together, the third still hangs in uncertainty for quite a bit longer. It’s a testament to how wonderfully told the story is that this confusion does not detract from the film whatsoever. Instead, it enhances it, imbuing the already great story with a greater sense of unspoken tension, as we wait for the individual pieces to build to a beautiful crescendo. And crescendo it does.  This film has an ending that packs such an emotional wallop, because it takes a very specific story about a very specific lived experience and zooms out to make it universal. As each of the queer men at the center of this film battle their inner truth in one way or another, the film beautifully lays out a message about what we as people lose out on when we deny our true selves. It argues that so much of life is spent hiding some part of yourself, big or small, and that the effort expended in keeping things hidden is a tragic misuse of the precious little time we have. The film is haunted by the sudden abruptness of death, as we are constantly reminded how life can be snuffed out in an instant, leaving so much permanently unsaid and undone. By not living fully, we rob ourselves of the chance to live at all. Life is full of people who will try to stop you from being you. What a tragedy it would be to become another obstacle in our own way.  Simply one of the best films of 2026.

“And finally I would like, if I may, to dedicate this Oscar to the heroism and the courage of women, and to hope that it inspires the creation of more true screen heroines to represent them.” In 1996, Emma Thompson became the only person in history to win Oscars for both acting and writing. At the 65th Oscars, she won Best Actress for her performance as Margaret Schlegel in HOWARDS END. Three years later, she won Adapted Screenplay for SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.