Netflix has been struggling lately against competitors like Redbox, OnDemand services, and the reluctance of major studios to license their films to the streaming service.  However, The Weinstein Company are (thankfully) going against the grain by licensing some of their latest movies to Netflix over U.S. pay TV services.  According to THR, The Artist, Coriolanus, Undefeated, as well as foreign-language, documentary, and other films will be exclusively available for Netflix streaming in the U.S.

It’s obviously a great deal for Netflix and its streaming subscribers, especially since a lot of folks probably missed some of TWC’s limited-release movies like Coriolanus and Sarah’s Key.  No date has been announced for when these movies will roll out, but since The Artist is due out on DVD and Blu-ray on April 24th, we can presumably expect it by then.

As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of sitting down with bestselling author Tatiana de Rosnay to speak about her novel Sarah’s Key being adapted into the Kristin Scott Thomas feature film that is expanding over the next few months. She went on a press tour to promote the movie, and as she mentions in my exclusive interview, she wouldn’t be doing it if she wasn’t proud of the film. Of course, there is a lot to be proud of as I thought the film was incredibly well-made and affecting. The film and the book interweave story lines of a modern day journalist investigating the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup for an article and a young Jewish girl in the 1940s that lives through the experience. Those stories intersect in a morose way that changes the journalist’s life forever. Among the topics de Rosnay and I discussed were her involvement in the film, whether she likes to read the book before seeing a film, the different boldness in the novel that sets Sarah and Julia’s stories apart, when she realized the book had become a hit, and a touching case of life imitating art. For the audio and full transcript, hit the jump.

Mixing historical realities with a fictional modern discovery is a difficult combination to pull off. Writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner is helped along by thrilling source material that is based around a little known event in France’s grim times under the occupation of Nazi control in the heat of World War II. Sarah’s Key is bolstered by an engrossing turn by Kristen Scott Thomas and a swift kick of an ending that will leave audiences with sincere emotion. The film also keeps much of what made Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel so alluring with the back and forth between the present and the past, and the result is pulled off with absolute confidence. Hit the jump for my full review.

We’ve barely dipped our toes into the first weekend of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and we’re already bringing you news in regards to film purchases.  Yesterday, The Weinstein Company preemptively bought all U.S. rights to the French film Sarah’s Key (or Elle s’appelait Sarah) starring Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient).  Helmed by co-writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things), the film is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by Tatiana De Rosnay.

According to the press release, Sarah’s Key spans a period of almost seventy years and tells the story of an American journalist (Kristin Scott Thomas) who is investigating the 1942 Vel’d'Hiv’ Roundup of Jewish families in Paris.  For more details on the buy, hit the jump for the full press release and a synopsis for the film.  Sarah’s Key will screen in Toronto on three separate occasions beginning next Thursday, September 16th.