SEATTLE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY ANNOUNCES 2016 NOMINATIONS

We are always in safe hands with the Seattle Film Critics Society. Their slate of 2016 nominations is easily among the finest of awards season so far, and will undoubtedly remain that way as the industry side of the race takes over in 2017. With 13th, Elle, The Handmaiden and The Witch adding extra colour and quality to the Best Picture list, you can be sure that the SFCS will pick some highly deserving winners on the 5th of January. All the details for now are right here:

Best Picture of the Year

13th

Arrival

Elle

The Handmaiden

Hell or High Water

Jackie

La La Land

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

The Witch

Best Director

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Robert Eggers (The Witch)

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Paul Verhoeven (Elle)

Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Amy Adams (Arrival)

Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship)

Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Emma Stone (La La Land)

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Logan Lerman (Indignation)

Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)

Denzel Washington (Fences)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Viola Davis (Fences)

Lily Gladstone (Certain Women)

Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters)

Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)

Kyle Chandler (Manchester by the Sea)

John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Screenplay

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Eric Heisserer (Arrival)

Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water)

Best Cinematography

Jarin Blaschke (The Witch)

Stephane Fontaine (Jackie)

James Laxton (Moonlight)

Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

Bradford Young (Arrival)

Best Film Editing

Nels Bangerter and David Teague (Cameraperson)

Tom Cross (La La Land)

Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders (Moonlight)

Jake Roberts (Hell or High Water)

Joe Walker (Arrival)

Best Production Design

Doug Chiang, Neil Lamont and Lee Sandales (Rogue One)

Paul Hotte and Patrice Vermette (Arrival)

Veronique Melery and Jean Rabasse (Jackie)

Sandy Reynolds-Wasco and David Wasco (La La Land)

Ryu Seong Hee (The Handmaiden)

Best Costume Design

Madeline Fontaine (Jackie)

Jo Sang Gyeong (The Handmaiden)

Linda Muir (The Witch)

Eimer ni Mhaoldomhnaigh (Love & Friendship)

Mary Zophres (La La Land)

Best Visual Effects

Richard Bluff, Stephane Ceretti, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould (Doctor Strange)

Neil Corbould, Hal T. Hickel, John Knoll and Mohen Leo (Rogue One)

Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Greg Steele and Daniel Sudick (Captain America: Civil War)

Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Dan Lemmon and Adam Valdez (The Jungle Book)

Louis Morin (Arrival)

Best Original Score

Nicholas Britell (Moonlight)

Andy Hull and Robert McDowell (Swiss Army Man)

Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Johann Johannsson (Arrival)

Mica Levi (Jackie)

Best Ensemble Cast

Captain Fantastic

Fences

Hell or High Water

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Animated Feature

Finding Dory (Angus MacLane and Andrew Stanton)

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)

Moana (Ron Clements and John Musker)

Tower (Keith Maitland)

Zootopia (Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Rich Moore)

Best Documentary Feature

13th (Ava DuVernay)

Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)

Tickled (David Farrier and Dylan Reeve)

Weiner (Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg)

Best Foreign Language Film

Elle (Paul Verhoeven)

The Handmaiden (Park Chan Wook)

The Innocents (Anne Fontaine)

Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)

The Wailing (Na Hong Jin)

Best Youth Performance

Alex R. Hibbert (Moonlight)

Royalty Hightower (The Fits)

Sunny Pawar (Lion)

Harvey Scrimshaw (The Witch)

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch)

Best Villain

Charlie and Wahab Chaudary (The Witch)

John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Stephen Lang (Don't Breathe)

Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One)

Patrick Stewart (Green Room)

REVIEW OF 2015 - BEST FILM

1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien)

2. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

3. Carol (Todd Haynes)

4. Park Lanes (Kevin Jerome Everson)

5. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

6. The Forbidden Room (Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin)

7. The Blue Room (Mathieu Amalric)

8. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

9. The Witch (Robert Eggers)

10. Inside Out (Ronnie del Carmen and Pete Docter)

11. World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt)

12. Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Peter Greenaway)

13. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh)

14. The Salt of the Earth (Juliano Ribeiro Salgado)

15. Chi-Raq (Spike Lee)

16. Son of Saul (Nemes Laszlo)

17. By the Sea (Angelina Jolie)

18. The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher)

19. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

20. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick)

21. Tangerine (Sean Baker)

22. Sherpa (Jennifer Peedom)

23. Under Electric Clouds (Aleksey German)

24. A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)

25. Innocence of Memories (Grant Gee)

26. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming Liang)

27. My Nazi Legacy (David Evans)

28. Stinking Heaven (Nathan Silver)

29. Aferim! (Radu Jude)

30. Wild Tales (Damian Szifron)

REVIEW OF 2015 - BEST SOUND

1. The Walk

2. Knight of Cups

3. Goodnight Mommy

4. The Assassin

5. The Witch

6. The Revenant

7. Sicario

8. Mad Max: Fury Road

9. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

10. The Nightmare

REVIEW OF 2015 - BEST SCREENPLAY

1. Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

2. Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (Chi-Raq)

3. Peter Greenaway (Eisenstein in Guanajuato)

4. Andrew Haigh (45 Years)

5. Don Hertzfeldt (World of Tomorrow)

6. Mathieu Amalric and Stephane Cleau (The Blue Room)

7. Radu Jude and Florin Lazarescu (Aferim!)

8. Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk and Guy Maddin (The Forbidden Room)

9. Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch (Tangerine)

10. Robert Eggers (The Witch)

REVIEW OF 2015 - BEST MAKEUP

1. Mr. Holmes

2. Mad Max: Fury Road

3. Tale of Tales

4. Bone Tomahawk

5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

6. The Revenant

7. Black Mass

8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

9. The Witch

10. Crimson Peak

REVIEW OF 2015 - BEST SHOT

 

1. The Assassin (DP: Lee Ping Bin, Dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien)

2. Mad Max: Fury Road (DP: John Seale, Dir: George Miller)

3. The Assassin (DP: Lee Ping Bin, Dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien)

4. The Walk (DP: Dariusz Wolski, Dir: Robert Zemeckis)

5. The Assassin (DP: Lee Ping Bin, Dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien)

6. The Witch (DP: Jarin Blaschke, Dir: Robert Eggers)

7. The Assassin (DP: Lee Ping Bin, Dir: Hou Hsiao Hsien)

8. Carol (DP: Edward Lachman, Dir: Todd Haynes)

9. The Boy Next Door (DP: David McFarland, Dir: Rob Cohen)

10. Love (DP: Benoit Debie, Dir: Gaspar Noe)

INDIEWIRE'S 2015 CRITICS POLL RESULTS - MAD MAX: FURY ROAD IS FILM OF THE YEAR

Who'd have guessed that Mad Max: Fury Road would top another critics poll? Everybody. The many, many journalists on the IndieWire network have named George Miller's new film the best of 2015, and Miller the best director of the year too. Have a look at their picks below, with Best Film above the cut and other categories after:

Best Film

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Carol

3. Spotlight

4. Inside Out

5. Phoenix

6. Brooklyn

7. Anomalisa

8. The Assassin

9. The Look of Silence

10. Son of Saul

11. Ex Machina

12. Clouds of Sils Maria

13. Tangerine

14. 45 Years

15. Room

16. The Duke of Burgundy

17. Timbuktu

18. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One

19. Creed

20. Hard to Be a God

21. Taxi

22. Heaven Knows What

23. It Follows

24. The Tribe

25. Sicario

26. The Forbidden Room

27. In Jackson Heights

28. The Martian

29. Mistress America

30. Steve Jobs

31. The Mend

32. Jauja

33. The Diary of a Teenage Girl

34. Chi-Raq

35. Heart of a Dog

36. Horse Money

37. Magic Mike XXL

38. Amy

39. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

40. The Big Short

41. Eden

42. Experimenter

43. About Elly

44. The Revenant

45. The End of the Tour

46. Bridge of Spies

47. Queen of Earth

48. Li'l Quinquin

49. Mustang

50. Love & Mercy

CHEVALIER WINS LFF TOP PRIZE AS WOMEN DOMINATE AWARDS

Saturday was a triumphant occasion for female filmmakers as the BFI London Film Festival (remember that?) wrapped up its official competition, one day prior to Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs closing the festival. Of the four competitive awards, only one was received by a man (whose film's lead is a woman anyway), and the other four winners were all female. To boot, the BFI Fellowship recipient, who was confirmed prior to the festival, was a woman as well: Cate Blanchett, who had been in attendance for the American Express gala premiere of Carol on Wednesday and was also present for Saturday's special presentation premiere of Truth. The success of women at the awards ceremony aligned perfectly with the 59th BFI LFF's theme of strong women. Details below:

Best Film - Official Competition

Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

Sutherland Award for Best First Feature

The Witch (Robert Eggers)

Grierson Award for Best Documentary

Sherpa (Jennifer Peedom)

Best Film - Short Film Competition

An Old Dog's Diary (Shumona Goel and Shai Heredia)

BFI Fellowship

Cate Blanchett

LFF REVIEW - THE WITCH (ROBERT EGGERS)

Life is a trial for all living things, but for what purpose is at our individual discretion. Those who refuse the autonomy to choose that purpose for themselves, who subscribe to the often corrupt theologies of others, may find the prospect of a reward at the end of their life especially appealing, but the trial of life itself all the more gruelling. The oppression of religious faith hangs over its followers, and the pagan hypocrisies of The Witch's characters lead them to hang themselves in the futile process of adherence to that faith. This is a bleak film, one with a suitably spoilt impression of spirituality and the manners by which we allow it to bear influence on our lives, and the manners by which we thus fail to adequately understand it. A soundtrack of primal sounds both diegetic and non-diegetic engenders a fear of the unseen and a mistrust of what we do see, the film's overall structure and style serving both as a surprisingly thorough thesis on the dangers of blind faith and as a horror film, in which danger is appropriately always at hand. Robert Eggers crafts out of The Witch a harrowing family drama foremost, and draws much of the film's most directly distressing material from the emotional intimacy therein. The drama is no less effective for his liberal incursions into overt horror (this is a horror film, after all), not least since Eggers employs these genre elements as narrative and thematic tools. Regardless, The Witch is an extremely effective genre film, immaculately conceived, designed and executed. It's a trial for one's nerves.

TRAILER FOR ROBERT EGGERS' THE WITCH

Robert Eggers' debut film as director has received better reviews out of Sundance than most directors achieve at any point in their careers. The film won Eggers the Best Director award at the festival. The Witch has only festival releases currently on the slate, but no doubt A24 will mount a typically effective marketing campaign in the US when they take it to theatres.