Tag Archives: Justice Smith

The Substance Wins In Indiana

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Indiana Film Journalists Association have announced their picks for the best of 2024!  The winners are in bold.
BEST FILM
Anora
The Brutalist
Challengers
Civil War
Conclave
A Different Man
Dune: Part Two
His Three Daughters
I Saw the TV Glow
In a Violent Nature
Longlegs
Mars Express
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
The People’s Joker
A Real Pain
Rebel Ridge
Sing Sing
The Substance
Wicked

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Look Back
Mars Express
Memoir of a Snail
The Wild Robot

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Aattam
All We Imagine as Light
Emilia Pérez
Evil Does Not Exist
Los Frikis
Look Back
Mars Express
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Daughters
Ennio
Girls State
No Other Land
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
The Sixth
The Speedway Murders
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David – September 5
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Alex Garland – Civil War
Azazel Jacobs – His Three Daughters
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Aaron Schimberg – A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw the TV Glow
Julio Torres – Problemista

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield – Sing Sing
Jay Cocks and James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes – Nickel Boys
Chris Sanders – The Wild Robot
Peter Straughan – Conclave
Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts – Dune: Part Two
Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington – The Piano Lesson

BEST DIRECTOR
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Alex Garland – Civil War
Luca Guadagnino – Challengers
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Aaron Schimberg – A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Daniel Craig – Queer
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Kirsten Dunst – Civil War
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Demi Moore – The Substance
Aaron Pierre – Rebel Ridge
Justice Smith – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Nicolas Cage – Longlegs
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin – Sing Sing
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Adam Pearson – A Different Man
Dennis Quaid – The Substance
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Bill Skarsgård – Nosferatu
Tilda Swinton – Problemista
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

BEST VOCAL / MOTION-CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Tom Hardy – Venom: The Last Dance
Maya Hawke – Inside Out 2
Lupita Nyong’o – The Wild Robot
Pedro Pascal – The Wild Robot
Amy Poehler – Inside Out 2
Sarah Snook – Memoir of a Snail
Owen Teague – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Robbie Williams – Better Man

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Civil War
Conclave
A Different Man
Dune: Part Two
His Three Daughters
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
A Real Pain
Saturday Night
Sing Sing

BEST EDITING
Sean Baker – Anora
Marco Costa – Challengers
Jérôme Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat and Valentin Feron – The Substance
Nick Emerson – Conclave
Louise Ford – Nosferatu
Dávid Jancsó – The Brutalist
Nicholas Monsour – Nickel Boys
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Terilyn A. Shropshire – Twisters
Joe Walker – Dune: Part Two

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu
Lol Crawley – The Brutalist
Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys
Rob Hardy – Civil War
Benjamin Kračun – The Substance
Dan Mindel – Twisters
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Challengers
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Queer
Eric Yue – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
Raffertie – The Substance
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Challengers
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Queer
Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow – Civil War
Alex Somers and Scott Alario – Nickel Boys
Umberto Smerilli – A Different Man
Benjamin Wallfisch – Twisters

BEST STUNT / MOVEMENT CHOREOGRAPHY
Bren Foster (action designer / fight choreographer) and Jaylan Foster, Jimmy Foster, Nick Harding, Jordan Petersen, Matthew Murgola and Mike Duncan (stunt team) – Life After Fighting
Muhammad Irfan (stunt coordinator / fight choreographer) – The Shadow Strays
Jeremy Marinas (fight coordinator and choreographer / second-unit director) – The Beekeeper
Lee Morrison (supervising stunt coordinator), Roger Yuan (fight coordinator / stunt coordinator) and Tanya Lapointe (second-unit director) – Dune: Part Two
Saifuddin Mubdy (stunt coordinator) and Brahim Chab (fight coordinator) – Monkey Man
Guy Norris (action designer / supervising stunt coordinator / second-unit director) and Richard Norton (fight choreographer / coordinator) – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Chris O’Hara (stunt coordinator and stunt designer) – The Fall Guy
Christopher Scott (choreographer) and Jo McLaren (stunt coordinator) – Wicked
Ashley Wallen (dance choreographer), Nicholas Daines (stunt coordinator), Slavisa Ivanovic (stunt coordinator), Tim Wong (fight choreographer) and Spencer Susser (second-unit director) – Better Man
Keith Woulard and Cory DeMeyers (stunt coordinators) – Rebel Ridge

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Mike Cheslik (visual effects) and Jerry Kurek (assistant effects artist) – Hundreds of Beavers
Bryan Jones (visual effects supervisor), Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky (visual effects producer) and Jean Miel (special effects supervisor) – The Substance
Paul Lambert (visual effects production supervisor), Gerd Nefzer (special effects supervisor), Rhys Salcombe (visual effects supervisor) and Stephen James (visual effects supervisor) – Dune: Part Two
Damien Leone (writer / director), Phil Falcone (producer), Christien Tinsley (design and creation of prosthetics and makeup effects), Brian Van Dorn (Tinsley Studios production coordinator), Ryan Ward (on-set makeup effects department head), Heather Albert (on-set makeup effects artist), Josh Petrino (visual effects supervisor), Declan Boyle (lead visual effects artist), Lincoln Smith (senior visual effects artist), John Caglione, Jr. (Virgin Mary / demon sequence prosthetics supervisor), Jason Baker (Callosum Studios on-set effects supervisor) and Jason Milstein (post-production supervisor and visual effects artist) – Terrifier 3
Luke Millar (visual effects supervisor) and Scott MacIntyre (special effects supervisor) – Better Man
Kevin Smith (visual effects supervisor), Kevin Sherwood (visual effects producer), Bruce Bright (special effects supervisor) and Michael Meinardus (special effects supervisor) – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Ben Snow (visual effects supervisor), Florian Witzel (Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor), Charles Lai (ILM associate visual effects supervisor) and Scott Fisher (special effects supervisor) – Twisters
David White (prosthetic and makeup effects design), Angela Barson (visual effects supervisor) and Pavel Sagner (special effects supervisor) – Nosferatu (2024)
Erik Winquist and Stephen Unterfranz (VFX supervisors), Paul Story (senior animation supervisor) and Rodney Burke (special FX supervisor) – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR
Joanna Arnow (director / writer / editor / performer) – The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Mike Cheslik (director / co-writer / editor / visual effects) – Hundreds of Beavers
Vera Drew (director / co-writer / editor / performer) – The People’s Joker
Mikey Madison (performer) – Anora
Chris Nash (director / writer) – In a Violent Nature
Katy M. O’Brian (performer) – Love Lies Bleeding
RaMell Ross (director / co-writer) – Nickel Boys
Maisy Stella (performer) – My Old Ass
Julio Torres (director / writer / performer) – Problemista
Malcolm Washington (director / co-writer) – The Piano Lesson

ORIGINAL VISION
Better Man
Emilia Pérez
Hundreds of Beavers
I Saw the TV Glow
In a Violent Nature
The People’s Joker
Problemista
Sasquatch Sunset
The Substance

The Indiana Film Journalists Nominate Everything

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Indiana Film Journalists Association announced their nominations for the best of 2024 today.  They kept things simple by nominating everything.  The winners will be announced on December 16th.
BEST FILM
Anora
The Brutalist
Challengers
Civil War
Conclave
A Different Man
Dune: Part Two
His Three Daughters
I Saw the TV Glow
In a Violent Nature
Longlegs
Mars Express
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
The People’s Joker
A Real Pain
Rebel Ridge
Sing Sing
The Substance
Wicked

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Look Back
Mars Express
Memoir of a Snail
The Wild Robot

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Aattam
All We Imagine as Light
Emilia Pérez
Evil Does Not Exist
Los Frikis
Look Back
Mars Express
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Daughters
Ennio
Girls State
No Other Land
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
The Sixth
The Speedway Murders
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David – September 5
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Alex Garland – Civil War
Azazel Jacobs – His Three Daughters
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Aaron Schimberg – A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw the TV Glow
Julio Torres – Problemista

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield – Sing Sing
Jay Cocks and James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes – Nickel Boys
Chris Sanders – The Wild Robot
Peter Straughan – Conclave
Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts – Dune: Part Two
Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington – The Piano Lesson

BEST DIRECTOR
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Alex Garland – Civil War
Luca Guadagnino – Challengers
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Aaron Schimberg – A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Daniel Craig – Queer
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Kirsten Dunst – Civil War
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Demi Moore – The Substance
Aaron Pierre – Rebel Ridge
Justice Smith – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Nicolas Cage – Longlegs
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin – Sing Sing
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Adam Pearson – A Different Man
Dennis Quaid – The Substance
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Bill Skarsgård – Nosferatu
Tilda Swinton – Problemista
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

BEST VOCAL / MOTION-CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Tom Hardy – Venom: The Last Dance
Maya Hawke – Inside Out 2
Lupita Nyong’o – The Wild Robot
Pedro Pascal – The Wild Robot
Amy Poehler – Inside Out 2
Sarah Snook – Memoir of a Snail
Owen Teague – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Robbie Williams – Better Man

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Civil War
Conclave
A Different Man
Dune: Part Two
His Three Daughters
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
A Real Pain
Saturday Night
Sing Sing

BEST EDITING
Sean Baker – Anora
Marco Costa – Challengers
Jérôme Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat and Valentin Feron – The Substance
Nick Emerson – Conclave
Louise Ford – Nosferatu
Dávid Jancsó – The Brutalist
Nicholas Monsour – Nickel Boys
Jeremy Saulnier – Rebel Ridge
Terilyn A. Shropshire – Twisters
Joe Walker – Dune: Part Two

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu
Lol Crawley – The Brutalist
Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys
Rob Hardy – Civil War
Benjamin Kračun – The Substance
Dan Mindel – Twisters
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Challengers
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Queer
Eric Yue – I Saw the TV Glow

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
Raffertie – The Substance
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Challengers
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Queer
Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow – Civil War
Alex Somers and Scott Alario – Nickel Boys
Umberto Smerilli – A Different Man
Benjamin Wallfisch – Twisters

BEST STUNT / MOVEMENT CHOREOGRAPHY
Bren Foster (action designer / fight choreographer) and Jaylan Foster, Jimmy Foster, Nick Harding, Jordan Petersen, Matthew Murgola and Mike Duncan (stunt team) – Life After Fighting
Muhammad Irfan (stunt coordinator / fight choreographer) – The Shadow Strays
Jeremy Marinas (fight coordinator and choreographer / second-unit director) – The Beekeeper
Lee Morrison (supervising stunt coordinator), Roger Yuan (fight coordinator / stunt coordinator) and Tanya Lapointe (second-unit director) – Dune: Part Two
Saifuddin Mubdy (stunt coordinator) and Brahim Chab (fight coordinator) – Monkey Man
Guy Norris (action designer / supervising stunt coordinator / second-unit director) and Richard Norton (fight choreographer / coordinator) – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Chris O’Hara (stunt coordinator and stunt designer) – The Fall Guy
Christopher Scott (choreographer) and Jo McLaren (stunt coordinator) – Wicked
Ashley Wallen (dance choreographer), Nicholas Daines (stunt coordinator), Slavisa Ivanovic (stunt coordinator), Tim Wong (fight choreographer) and Spencer Susser (second-unit director) – Better Man
Keith Woulard and Cory DeMeyers (stunt coordinators) – Rebel Ridge

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Mike Cheslik (visual effects) and Jerry Kurek (assistant effects artist) – Hundreds of Beavers
Bryan Jones (visual effects supervisor), Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky (visual effects producer) and Jean Miel (special effects supervisor) – The Substance
Paul Lambert (visual effects production supervisor), Gerd Nefzer (special effects supervisor), Rhys Salcombe (visual effects supervisor) and Stephen James (visual effects supervisor) – Dune: Part Two
Damien Leone (writer / director), Phil Falcone (producer), Christien Tinsley (design and creation of prosthetics and makeup effects), Brian Van Dorn (Tinsley Studios production coordinator), Ryan Ward (on-set makeup effects department head), Heather Albert (on-set makeup effects artist), Josh Petrino (visual effects supervisor), Declan Boyle (lead visual effects artist), Lincoln Smith (senior visual effects artist), John Caglione, Jr. (Virgin Mary / demon sequence prosthetics supervisor), Jason Baker (Callosum Studios on-set effects supervisor) and Jason Milstein (post-production supervisor and visual effects artist) – Terrifier 3
Luke Millar (visual effects supervisor) and Scott MacIntyre (special effects supervisor) – Better Man
Kevin Smith (visual effects supervisor), Kevin Sherwood (visual effects producer), Bruce Bright (special effects supervisor) and Michael Meinardus (special effects supervisor) – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Ben Snow (visual effects supervisor), Florian Witzel (Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor), Charles Lai (ILM associate visual effects supervisor) and Scott Fisher (special effects supervisor) – Twisters
David White (prosthetic and makeup effects design), Angela Barson (visual effects supervisor) and Pavel Sagner (special effects supervisor) – Nosferatu (2024)
Erik Winquist and Stephen Unterfranz (VFX supervisors), Paul Story (senior animation supervisor) and Rodney Burke (special FX supervisor) – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR
Joanna Arnow (director / writer / editor / performer) – The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Mike Cheslik (director / co-writer / editor / visual effects) – Hundreds of Beavers
Vera Drew (director / co-writer / editor / performer) – The People’s Joker
Mikey Madison (performer) – Anora
Chris Nash (director / writer) – In a Violent Nature
Katy M. O’Brian (performer) – Love Lies Bleeding
RaMell Ross (director / co-writer) – Nickel Boys
Maisy Stella (performer) – My Old Ass
Julio Torres (director / writer / performer) – Problemista
Malcolm Washington (director / co-writer) – The Piano Lesson

ORIGINAL VISION
Better Man
Emilia Pérez
Hundreds of Beavers
I Saw the TV Glow
In a Violent Nature
The People’s Joker
Problemista
Sasquatch Sunset
The Substance

Here Are The Independent Spirit Nominations!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, most awards watchers will be devoting most of their attention to the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.  That said, the Independent Spirit nominations were still announced earlier today and Anora had a strong showing.  Meanwhile, The Brutalist, which did so well with the New York Film Critics Circle, picked up a nomination for Best Director but not Best Picture.

Here are the Spirit Nominations.  While looking at the nominations, keep in mind that a lot of potential Oscar nominees were not eligible for a nomination.  As a result, the Spirit nominations aren’t exactly the strongest predictive tool when it comes to guessing what will eventually be nominated by the Academy.

Still, it never hurts to be mentioned!

Best Feature

Anora
Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow
Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall

Nickel Boys
Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine

Sing Sing
Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton

The Substance
Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner

Best First Feature

Dìdi
Director/Producer: Sean Wang
Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters

In the Summers

Director: Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio
Producers: Janek Ambros, Lynette Coll, Alexander Dinelaris, Cynthia Fernandez De La Cruz, Cristóbal Güell, Sergio Alberto Lira, Rob Quadrino, Jan Suter, Daniel Tantalean, Nando Vila, Slava Vladimirov, Stephanie Yankwitt

Janet Planet
Director/Producer: Annie Baker
Producers: Andrew Goldman, Dan Janvey, Derrick Tseng

The Piano Lesson
Director: Malcolm Washington
Producers: Todd Black, Denzel Washington

Problemista
Director/Producer: Julio Torres
Producers: Ali Herting, Dave McCary, Emma Stone

John Cassavetes Award

Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000

Big Boys
Writer/Director/Producer: Corey Sherman
Producer: Allison Tate

Ghostlight
Writer/Director: Kelly O’Sullivan
Director/Producer: Alex Thompson
Producers: Pierce Cravens, Ian Keiser, Chelsea Krant, Eddie Linker, Alex Wilson

Girls Will Be Girls
Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati
Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne

Jazzy
Writer/Director/Producer: Morrisa Maltz
Writer/Producer: Lainey Shangreaux
Writers: Andrew Hajek, Vanara Taing
Producers: Miranda Bailey, Tommy Heitkamp, John Way, Natalie Whalen, Elliott Whitton

The People’s Joker
Writer/Director: Vera Drew
Writer: Bri LeRose
Producer: Joey Lyons

BEST DIRECTOR

Ali Abbasi
The Apprentice

Sean Baker
Anora

Brady Corbet
The Brutalist

Alonso Ruizpalacios
La Cocina

Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow

BEST SCREENPLAY

Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Heretic

Jesse Eisenberg
A Real Pain

Megan Park
My Old Ass

Aaron Schimberg
A Different Man

Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Joanna Arnow
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Annie Baker
Janet Planet

India Donaldson
Good One

Julio Torres
Problemista

Sean Wang
Dìdi

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

Amy Adams
Nightbitch

Ryan Destiny
The Fire Inside

Colman Domingo
Sing Sing

Keith Kupferer
Ghostlight

Mikey Madison
Anora

Demi Moore
The Substance

Hunter Schafer
Cuckoo

Justice Smith
I Saw the TV Glow

June Squibb
Thelma

Sebastian Stan
The Apprentice

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Yura Borisov
Anora

Joan Chen
Dìdi

Kieran Culkin
A Real Pain

Danielle Deadwyler
The Piano Lesson

Carol Kane
Between the Temples

Karren Karagulian
Anora

Kani Kusruti
Girls Will Be Girls

Brigette Lundy-Paine
I Saw the TV Glow

Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin
Sing Sing

Adam Pearson
A Different Man

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Isaac Krasner
Big Boys

Katy O’Brian
Love Lies Bleeding

Mason Alexander Park
National Anthem

René Pérez Joglar
In the Summers

Maisy Stella
My Old Ass

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Dinh Duy Hung
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Jomo Fray
Nickel Boys

Maria von Hausswolff
Janet Planet

Juan Pablo Ramírez
La Cocina

Rina Yang
The Fire Inside

 BEST EDITING

Laura Colwell, Vanara Taing
Jazzy

Olivier Bugge Coutté, Olivia Neergaard-Holm
The Apprentice

Anne McCabe
Nightbitch

Hansjörg Weissbrich
September 5

Arielle Zakowski
Dìdi

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast

His Three Daughters
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Casting Director: Nicole Arbusto
Ensemble Cast: Jovan Adepo, Jasmine Bracey, Carrie Coon, Jose Febus, Rudy Galvan, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Randy Ramos Jr., Jay O. Sanders

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

Gaucho Gaucho
Directors/Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Producers: Christos Konstantakopoulos, Cameron O’Reilly, Matthew Perniciaro

Hummingbirds
Directors: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras
Co-Directors/Producers: Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco, Jillian Schlesinger
Producers: Leslie Benavides, Rivkah Beth Medow

No Other Land
Directors/Producers: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning

Patrice: The Movie
Director: Ted Passon
Producers: Kyla Harris, Innbo Shim, Emily Spivack

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Director: Johan Grimonprez
Producers: Rémi Grellety, Daan Milius

 BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

All We Imagine as Light
France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg
Director: Payal Kapadia

Black Dog
China
Director: Guan Hu

Flow
Latvia, France, Belgium
Director: Gints Zilbalodis

Green Border
Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium
Director: Agnieszka Holland

Hard Truths
United Kingdom
Director: Mike Leigh

PRODUCERS AWARD  presented by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey – The Producers Award, now in its 28th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films.

Alex Coco

Sarah Winshall

Zoë Worth

 SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD  – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 31st year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.

Nicholas Colia
Director of Griffin in Summer

Sarah Friedland
Director of Familiar Touch

Pham Thien An
Director of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 30th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.

Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie
Directors of Sugarcane

Carla Gutiérrez
Director of Frida

Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Director of A Photographic Memory

Here Are The 2024 Gotham Nominations

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Awards season began this morning, with the announcement of the Gotham nominations!

Now, to be clear, the Gotham Awards are not exactly the best precursor when it comes to predicting the Oscars.  The Gothams are designed to honor independent films and, as a result, a lot of Oscar contenders are not even eligible for the Gothams.  Dune 2, for instance, is definitely not a Gotham film.

That said, every little bit helps and, since we’ve got a whole month before the rest of precursors start weighing in, the producers of Anora have to be happy that today’s headlines have all basically been a variation of “ANORA LEADS THE GOTHAMS.”  If you’re going to build momentum on the way to the Oscars, it’s important to stay in the conversation.  Today, Anora is dominating that conversation.

Here are the Gotham nominations!

Best Feature

Anora
Sean Baker, director; Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, producers (NEON)

Babygirl
Halina Reijn, director; David Hinojosa, Julia Oh, Halina Reijn, producers (A24)

Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, director; Luca Guadagnino, Rachel O’Connor, Amy Pascal, Zendaya, producers (Amazon MGM Studios)

A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, director; Gabriel Mayers, Vanessa McDonnell, Christine Vachon, producers (A24)

Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, producers (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Best International Feature

All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia, director; Julien Graff, Thomas Hakim, producers (Sideshow and Janus Films)

Green Border
Agnieszka Holland, director; Fred Bernstein, Agnieszka Holland, Marcin Wierzchoslawski, producers (Kino Lorber)

Hard Truths
Mike Leigh, director; Georgina Lowe, producer (Bleecker Street)

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Thien An Pham, director; Jeremy Chua, Tran Van Thi, producers (Kino Lorber)

Vermiglio
Maura Delpero, director; Francesca Andreoli, Maura Delpero, Santiago Fondevila Sance, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, producers (Sideshow and Janus Films)

Best Documentary Feature

Dahomey
Mati Diop, director; Mati Diop, Judith Lou Lévy, Eve Robin, producers (MUBI)

Intercepted
Oksana Karpovych, director; Darya Bassel, Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Rocío B. Fuentes, Giacomo Nudi, Lucie Rego Pauline Tran Van Lieu, producers (Grasshopper Film)

No Other Land
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, directors; Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, producers (Antipode Films)

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Johan Grimonprez, director; Rémi Grellety, Daan Milius, producers (Kino Lorber)

Sugarcane
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, directors; Emily Kassie, Kellen Quinn, producers (National Geographic Documentary Films)

Union
Stephen Maing, Brett Story, directors; Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, producers (Self-Distributed)

Best Director

Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light (Sideshow and Janus Films)
Sean Baker, Anora (NEON)
Guan Hu, Black Dog (The Forge)
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Screenplay

Between the Temples, Nathan Silver, C. Mason Wells (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evil Does Not Exist, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Sideshow and Janus Films)
Femme, Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Utopia)
His Three Daughters, Azazel Jacobs (Netflix)
Janet Planet, Annie Baker (A24)

Breakthrough Director

Shuchi Talati, Girls Will Be Girls (Juno Films, Inc)
India Donaldson, Good One (Metrograph Pictures)
Alessandra Lacorazza, In the Summers (Music Box Films)
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker (Altered Innocence)
Mahdi Fleifel, To a Land Unknown (Watermelon Pictures)

Outstanding Lead Performance

Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl (Roadside Attractions)
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist (A24)
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing (A24)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths (Bleecker Street)
Nicole Kidman, Babygirl (A24)
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight (IFC Films)
Mikey Madison, Anora (NEON)
Demi Moore, The Substance (MUBI)
Saoirse Ronan, Outrun (Sony Pictures Classics)
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)

Outstanding Supporting Performance

Yura Borisov, Anora (NEON)
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson (Netflix)
Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters (Netflix)
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing (A24)
Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist (A24)
Adam Pearson, A Different Man (A24)
Brian Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios)

Breakthrough Performer

Lily Collias, Good One (Metrograph Pictures)
Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios)
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass (Amazon MGM Studios)
Izaac Wang, Dìdi Y(Focus Features)
Brandon Wilson, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Guilty Pleasure No. 57: The Voyeurs (dir by Michael Mohan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Voyeurs premiered on Amazon in 2021 and I have to say that I’m a little bit angry that I didn’t bother to watch the movie until last week.  Seriously, someone should have alerted me about this film because this is exactly the type of shamelessly sordid, narratively nonsensical film that I always end up enjoying.  Seriously, I expect better from my friends.

The film opens with Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) trying on lingerie in a chic shop, just to suddenly realize that anyone looking through the shop’s front window would be able to see her.  Pippa glares reproachfully at both the window and, presumably, the people watching this movie.  That’s right, the film opens with the lead character judging you for watching.  However, as we soon discover, Pippa is a bit of a hypocrite.

Pippa was buying the lingerie as a way to celebrate moving into a new studio apartment with her boyfriend, Thomas (Justice Smith).  Unfortunately, Thomas is kind of a lame-o and he ends up falling asleep as soon as they move in and before Pippa can show him what she’s bought.  When Thomas does eventually wake up, he and Pippa discover that they can stare straight into the the apartment across the street from them.  That apartment is inhabited by a handsome and sexy photographer (Ben Hardy) and his beautiful wife (Natasha Liu Bordizzo).  Pippa and Thomas find themselves obsessively watching as Thomas and Pippa make love in the kitchen and basically everywhere else in their apartment.  (Meanwhile, Thomas is still complaining about how much he hates his job.)  Eventually, Pippa and Thomas even figure out a way to capture the vibrations of the other apartment’s windows so that they can “hear” what the photographer and his wife are saying to each other.   While Thomas worries that Pippa is becoming too obsessed with the neighbors, Pippa is busy fantasizing about the photographer and befriending his wife.  When Pippa discovers that the photographer is cheating on his wife and cruelly gaslighting away her concerns, Pippa makes a decision that leads to….

Well, it leads to a lot and I certainly won’t spoil it.  I will say that it’s all wonderfully melodramatic and silly.  The Voyeurs has multiple twists, none of which make much sense.  Indeed, it’s best not to think too much about any of the twists or the film’s rather macabre conclusion.  Instead, watch it for the sex, the glamour, the spacious apartments, and the beautiful people.  Don’t worry about logic.  Instead, just accept The Voyeurs as a dream.  Sydney Sweeney brings some much-needed sincerity to her role while Hardy and Bordizzo both appear to understand exactly the type of film in which they’ve found themselves and, wisely, they fully embrace the sordidness of it all.  At times, Justice Smith seems to almost be taking the movie too seriously but even that adds to The Voyeurs off-center charm.  Someone always takes things too seriously in a film like this.

The Voyeurs is the type of sordid daydream-turned-nightmare that we can all love.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

  1. Half-Baked
  2. Save The Last Dance
  3. Every Rose Has Its Thorns
  4. The Jeremy Kyle Show
  5. Invasion USA
  6. The Golden Child
  7. Final Destination 2
  8. Paparazzi
  9. The Principal
  10. The Substitute
  11. Terror In The Family
  12. Pandorum
  13. Lambada
  14. Fear
  15. Cocktail
  16. Keep Off The Grass
  17. Girls, Girls, Girls
  18. Class
  19. Tart
  20. King Kong vs. Godzilla
  21. Hawk the Slayer
  22. Battle Beyond the Stars
  23. Meridian
  24. Walk of Shame
  25. From Justin To Kelly
  26. Project Greenlight
  27. Sex Decoy: Love Stings
  28. Swimfan
  29. On the Line
  30. Wolfen
  31. Hail Caesar!
  32. It’s So Cold In The D
  33. In the Mix
  34. Healed By Grace
  35. Valley of the Dolls
  36. The Legend of Billie Jean
  37. Death Wish
  38. Shipping Wars
  39. Ghost Whisperer
  40. Parking Wars
  41. The Dead Are After Me
  42. Harper’s Island
  43. The Resurrection of Gavin Stone
  44. Paranormal State
  45. Utopia
  46. Bar Rescue
  47. The Powers of Matthew Star
  48. Spiker
  49. Heavenly Bodies
  50. Maid in Manhattan
  51. Rage and Honor
  52. Saved By The Bell 3. 21 “No Hope With Dope”
  53. Happy Gilmore
  54. Solarbabies
  55. The Dawn of Correction
  56. Once You Understand

Sam Neill and Laura Dern return in the Jurassic World Dominion Trailer!

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

It looks like life found a way yet again to bring us another Jurassic World film. This time around, the dinosaurs appear to be out and everywhere on the planet. It’s like someone at Universal saw Mission Impossible: Fallout and said “How about we try all of that, but with Dinosaurs?!”

Motorcycle chases? Check, now with dinos.

Issues on a flight? Check, now with dinos.

I’ll admit though that I’m excited for this one. I’ve always wanted to see a Jurassic Park scenario where Dinosaurs reached the mainland, and The Lost World was possibly the closest we had there. It’s also cool to see that Blue (everyone’s favorite Raptor) has a little one of her own!

This third film brings back both Sam Neill and Laura Dern, reprising their roles as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. Jeff Goldblum and B.D. Wong are back as well with the Jurassic World cast, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Isabella Sermon, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, and Omar Sy. Dichen Lachman (Netflix’s Altered Carbon) and Mamoudou Athie (Underwater) are new to the series.

Jurassic Park Dominion premieres in theatres June 10, with Colin Trevorrow returning as Director.

The Films of 2020: All The Bright Places (dir by Brett Haley)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nRX2bSGjMI

All The Bright Places tells the story of two teenagers in Indiana.

Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) is pretty, popular, and secretly very depressed.  She’s still recovering from the death of her sister and her friends aren’t being particularly helpful.  (At one point, her boyfriend asks how much longer she’s going to be depressed because she’s “been this way for a really long time.”)  Violet lives in a nice, comfortable home and probably has a bright future ahead of her but she can’t communicate how she’s feeling to her parents (Luke Wilson and Kelli O’Hara), who are dealing with their grief in their own ways.

Finch (Justice Smith) is a student who is viewed, by his classmates, as being something of a freak.  Unlike Violet, who holds back her emotions, Finch doesn’t hold back his feelings and, as a result, it’s gotten him in trouble.  If not for a somewhat sympathetic principal (Keegan-Michael Key), Finch probably would have been expelled a while ago.  As it is, he’s on probation and he’s running the risk of not graduating.  Finch lives with his sister (Alexandra Shipp).  Their parents are pretty much not in the picture.

One night, Finch happens to see Violet standing on a bridge and thinking about jumping.  From that moment, an unexpected relationship begins.  Though Violet is, at first, hesitant to open up to Finch (or anyone else, for that matter), Finch continues to try to talk to her.  Eventually, for a class, they’re assigned to do a report on the wonders of Indiana.  Soon, they’re going from location to location and Violet is slowly starting to enjoy life again while Finch encourage her to open up about her feelings and to once again start writing….

And, at this point, you’re probably thinking that this just a typical YA film, one that’s only distinguished by the fact that, instead of having a manic pixie dream girl, it has a manic pixie dream guy.  That was certainly how I felt during the first third of this film.  However, All The Bright Places is too smart of a film to settle for telling such a simple story and Finch is too complex of a character to be dismissed as a trope.  Even as Violet gets better, Finch’s own behavior grows more erratic.  (In fact, it could be argued that this film’s greatest contribution to the cultural discussion is its attempt to seriously explore what would cause someone to become a manic pixie dream person in the first place.)  When events conspire to cause Violet and Finch to be separated, it leads to tragedy.

It’s a sweet-natured and poignant film, one that sensitively explores depression and mental illness.  It’s also a film that understands how, when you’re a certain age and even if you’re not also having to deal with burdens of depression and anxiety, almost anything can seem like the end of the world.  It takes its character’s seriously and it doesn’t pander to its audience with any shallow promises about how things are magically going to get better once they graduate high school and head off to college.  At the same time, it’s also a very life-affirming film, one that encourages us to celebrate life and experience it while we can.

Elle Faning and especially Justice Smith give two achingly sincere and touching performances.  I was especially impressed with the work of Smith.  Smith plays up Finch’s intelligence and his curiosity about the world while, at the same time, also showing why Finch’s attention might occasionally be a bit overwhelming.  I look forward to seeing what he does in the future.

Back to School Part II #50: Paper Towns (dir by Jake Schreier)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(For the past three weeks, Lisa Marie has been in the process of reviewing 56 back to school films!  She’s promised the rest of the TSL staff that this project will finally wrap up by the end of Monday, so that she can devote her time to helping to prepare the site for its annual October horror month!  Will she make it or will she fail, lose her administrator privileges, and end up writing listicles for Buzzfeed?  Keep reading the site to find out!)

paper-towns

Looking at the film poster above, you could be forgiven for immediately thinking of The Fault In Our Stars.  Of course, some of that is because it says, “From the author of The Fault In Our Stars” and because it features half of Nat Wolff’s face.  (Wolff had a key supporting role in Fault.)  Beyond that, though, the poster feels as if it could have just as easily been used for The Fault In Our Stars.  Check out the intensity of the stares.  Though we may only see half of their faces, both of the pictured characters appear to be daring the viewer to dismiss their concerns as being mere “teen drama.”

When Paper Towns was released in 2015, it was repeatedly advertised as being the next Fault In Our Stars.  Paper Towns does share Fault‘s unapologetic earnestness and, in a few scenes, its sense of inescapable melancholy.  (As people get older, they tend to sentimentalize the years that came before and, as a result, they often forget how coming-of-age and intense regret often go hand-in-hand.)  But ultimately, though they’re both based on novels by John Green and feature Nat Wolff, Paper Towns tells a very different story from The Fault In Our Stars.

Nat Wolff stars as Quintin, who is better known as Q.  Quintin is a student at Jefferson Park High School in Orlando.  He’s the epitome of a good kid.  He’s shy, he’s polite, and, somewhat inevitably when you consider what is currently valued in American society, he’s not particularly popular at school.  He spends most of his time hanging out with his friends, Ben (Austin Abrams) and Radar (Justice Smith).  And when he’s not hanging out with them, he’s pining for the most popular girl in school, Margo (Cara Delivingne).

Margo and Quintin have been neighbors since they were children.  When Margo’s family first moved in, she and Quintin became close friends but that friendship ended after they came across the body of a man who had committed suicide.  Traumatized, Margo drifted away from Quintin.  Now, nine years later, they are both seniors in high school.  Quintin silently loves Margo.  Margo rarely acknowledges his existence…

Or, that is, she doesn’t until the night that she suddenly climbs through Quintin’s bedroom window.  She explains that her boyfriend has been cheating on her.  She wants revenge on him and all of her friends, none of whom bothered to tell her what was going on.  A night of gleeful vandalism follows, ending with a romantic dance.

The next morning, Margo is gone.  She’s vanished and no one knows where she has gone.  However, Quintin is determined to find her and he is also convinced that she has left him a trail of clues that will lead him to her.  When he concludes that she’s gone to upstate New York, he recruits his friends (and one of Margo’s former friends) to go on a road trip with him.  Quintin is convinced that Margo will be waiting for him but, as always, the truth is a bit more complex…

While the plot description might make Paper Towns sound like a YA version of Gone Girl, it’s actually an achingly sincere and incredibly likable little film.  The entire cast has a good chemistry and their dialogue is clever without sounding artificial.  The best thing about Paper Towns is that it serves as a wonderful showcase for Nat Wolff, who is one of the best and most underrated young actors working today.  If you watch this film directly after watching Wolff convincingly play a self-destructive sociopath in Palo Alto, you’ll get a hint of Wolff’s range.

Paper Towns won’t make you cry like The Fault In Our Stars did but it’s still a pretty decent film.