INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY AWARDS: ELLE, MOONLIGHT & SILENCE LEAD

A corrective to the tedium of the majority of other awards groups' nominations, here are the International Cinephile Society's picks for 2016. Eight mentions is the maximum, with three films claiming the lead - Paul Verhoeven's Elle, Barry Jenkins' Moonlight and Martin Scorsese's Silence. See what happens when you leave it a little longer to make your year-end choices? And see what happens when you poll the opinions of people with taste and intelligence? Winners will be announced on the 19th of February.

Best Picture

Cemetery of Splendour

Certain Women

Elle

Jackie

Julieta

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Silence

Things to Come

Toni Erdmann

Best Director

Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann)

Pedro Almodovar (Julieta)

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Martin Scorsese (Silence)

Paul Verhoeven (Elle)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Cemetery of Splendour)

Best Actress

Sonia Braga (Aquarius)

Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Sandra Huller (Toni Erdmann)

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Zhao Tao (Mountains May Depart)

Best Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Adam Driver (Paterson)

Colin Farrell (The Lobster)

Andrew Garfield (Silence)

Jeong Jae Yeong (Right Now, Wrong Then)

Peter Simonischek (Toni Erdmann)

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis (Fences)

Lily Gladstone (Certain Women)

Sandrine Kiberlain (Being 17)

Nicole Kidman (Lion)

Nagasawa Masami (Our Little Sister)

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Tom Bennett (Love & Friendship)

Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!)

Andre Holland (Moonlight)

Ogata Issei (Silence)

Best Original Screenplay

Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann)

Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)

Mia Hansen-Love (Things to Come)

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Cemetery of Splendour)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Pedro Almodovar (Julieta)

David Birke (Elle)

Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese (Silence)

Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)

Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women)

Whit Stillman (Love & Friendship)

Best Cinematography

Manuel Dacosse (Evolution)

Stephane Fontaine (Jackie)

David Gallego (Embrace of the Serpent)

James Laxton (Moonlight)

Rodrigo Prieto (Silence)

Best Editing

Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders (Moonlight)

Thelma Schoonmaker (Silence)

Sebastian Sepulveda (Jackie)

Job ter Burg (Elle)

Joe Walker (Arrival)

Best Production Design

Dante Ferretti (Silence)

Antxon Gomez (Julieta)

Jess Gonchor (Hail, Caesar!)

Ryu Seong Hee (The Handmaiden)

David Wasco (La La Land)

Best Score

Anne Dudley (Elle)

Alberto Iglesias (Julieta)

Mica Levi (Jackie)

Cliff Martinez (The Neon Demon)

Laurent Perez del Mar (The Red Turtle)

Best Ensemble

Certain Women

Elle

Julieta

The Lobster

Moonlight

Best Animated Film

Kubo and the Two Strings

My Life as a Courgette

The Red Turtle

Your Name.

Zootopia

Best Documentary

Cameraperson
Fire at Sea

Francofonia

No Home Movie

O.J.: Made in America

Best Film Not in the English Language

Aquarius

Being 17

Cemetery of Splendour

Cosmos

Elle

Embrace of the Serpent

The Handmaiden

Julieta

Mountains May Depart

Things to Come

Toni Erdmann

Best Picture Not Released in 2016

Brothers of the Night

The Death of Louis XIV

Despite the Night

Happy Times Will Come Soon

The Lost City of Z

Nocturama

The Ornithologist

Personal Shopper

A Quiet Passion

Sieranevada

Slack Bay

The Son of Joseph

Staying Vertical

Sweet Dreams

Yourself and Yours

REVIEW - GOLD (STEPHEN GAGHAN)

The average American man invests in the American dream - toil only fails him, yet luck yields him far greater rewards... until it too is unmasked as a grand sham. Gold is literally the story of striking the good stuff on the dream of such an average American man, and there's much to be mined in this sensational semi-true story, whose penchant for excessive dramatic liberty is as thematically appropriate as it is promising. So it is with dismay that Stephen Gaghan's film is too unmasked as a hollow sham, brimming with potential but offering only the most ephemeral pleasures, whose impact wears thin long before this trite quasi-biopic has reached its predictable conclusion. A vague, juvenile screenplay inspires little greater than a vanity vehicle for lead Matthew McConaughey, though his grandstanding is its opposite only in its brute force, and its equal in its insight. McConaughey's appeal burns out quickly, bringing the film down with it, since Gaghan doesn't seem to know what's good for either him or his film. Gold harbours its fair share of quiet pleasures, in fact, overwhelmed by an unfortunate tendency toward loudness - there are brief moments of curious contemplation sporadically interwoven into the film's otherwise garish fabric, and a number of thoughtful compositions stands out; credit where it's due, then, to DP Robert Elswit and to Edgar Ramirez, whose enigmatic performance is a striking tonic to McConaughey's. Yet, fatally, this isn't Ramirez's story. It's an average American story of an average American man, and an average film as a result.

EIGHT CHLOTRUDIS NOMINATIONS FOR MOONLIGHT

Trust the Chlotrudis Society to champion diversity once again, as representation remains the buzzword among awards groups. Films from around the world crop up in every one of the independent film society's categories, though it is Barry Jenkins' multi-Oscar-nominated LGBT+ drama Moonlight which leads the field with an impressive eight mentions. The 19th of March is the date for the announcement of Chlotrudis' awards.

Best Movie
The Handmaiden
Little Men
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Mountains May Depart
Our Little Sister

Best Director
Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Jia Zhang Ke (Mountains May Depart)
Koreeda Hirokazu (Our Little Sister)
Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Cemetery of Splendour)

Best Actress
Annette Bening (20th Century Women)
Sonia Braga (Aquarius)
Imajyn Cardinal (The Saver)
Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
Ruth Negga (Loving)
Zhao Tao (Mountains May Depart)

Best Actor
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Joel Edgerton (Loving)
Vincent Lindon (The Measure of a Man)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
Theo Taplitz (Little Men)

Best Supporting Actress
Paulina Garcia (Little Men)
Lily Gladstone (Certain Women)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Margo Martindale (The Hollars)
Rima Te Wiata (Hunt for the Wilderpeople)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Michael Barbieri (Little Men)
Ralph Fiennes (A Bigger Splash)
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Luis Silva (From Afar)

Best Original Screenplay
Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)
Grimur Hakonarson (Rams)
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Kleber Mendonca Filho (Aquarius)
Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic)
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias (Little Men)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Nikolaj Arcel - based on the novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith)
Hannes Holm - based on the novel by Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
Koreeda Hirokazu - based on the manga by Yoshida Akimi - (Our Little Sister)
Kelly Reichardt - based on stories by Maile Meloy (Certain Women)
Whit Stillman - based on a novella by Jane Austen (Love & Friendship)
Wiebke von Carolsfeld - based on the novel by Edeet Ravel (The Saver)

Best Cinematography
Caroline Champetier (The Innocents)
Chung Chung Hoon (The Handmaiden)
Rodrigo Garcia (Cemetery of Splendour)
James Laxton (Moonlight)
Marius Panduru (Aferim!)
Paul Yee (The Fits)

Best Editing
Lee Chatametikool (Cemetery of Splendour)
Matthieu Laclau (Mountains May Depart)
Elmer Leupen (Eisenstein in Guanajuato)
Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders (Moonlight)
Jose Salcedo (Julieta)

Best Production Design
Cemetery of Splendour
The Handmaiden
High-Rise
Julieta
Love & Friendship
Microbe & Gasoline

Best Use of Music in a Film
American Honey
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Everybody Wants Some!!
Green Room
Moonlight
Sing Street

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
Certain Women
Don't Think Twice
Little Men
Moonlight
Our Little Sister

Best Documentary
13th
City of Gold
Miss Sharon Jones!
Tickled
Where to Invade Next
Wiener

Buried Treasure Award
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...
The Fits
Free in Deed
Neon Bull
Take Me to the River
Under the Shadow

REVIEW - TOWER (KEITH MAITLAND)

The permanence of fact is challenged by the impermanence of emotion, memory and expression, reaching an ideal conclusion in artistic representation. Can justice truly be done in retrospect? And to what extent is it the duty of art to exploit its innate potential for an appropriately accurate representation? Keith Maitland's Tower functions beautifully as a most thorough document of a most neglected American tragedy, arguably as relevant today as it was upon occurring, more than 50 years ago. It is, however, in that very beauty that it assumes a role beyond mere documentation, in the inherently contradictory space occupied by something crafted out of present and past, immediacy and nostalgia, permanent fact and impermanent interpretation alike. Tower is the probing, incisive account of one specific event, yet equally the deeper-still exploration of the ability and the responsibility of cinema in serving such a purpose. Maitland and his subjects collectively reconstruct and reconsider, and seem, in their stimulating uncertainty, to argue as much for as against this earnestly-assumed role. Maitland's approach is fundamentally sympathetic, and his artistic devices thus expressive in a highly affecting manner - they're central to establishing Tower's crucial correlative between what it says explicitly and implicitly, between what it implies and what its viewer infers. And the film's lack of clarity in its implications, though formed resolutely through compassion and honesty, is in fact its most provocative attribute, and its most ripe for inference on our part.

ZOOTOPIA DOMINATES ANNIE AWARDS

Zootopia works its way closer to the Animated Feature Oscar with victory at the Annie Awards. It led November's nominations and leads the awards, winning six out of eleven nods. Disney's box office behemoth remains voters' favourite among animated titles this awards season, and seems to be sailing its way towards the Academy Award later this month. Check out all the details below:

Best Animated Feature
Zootopia (Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Outstanding Achievement: Directing in an Animated Production
Byron Howard and Rich Moore (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Jason Bateman (Zootopia)
Auli'i Cravalho (Moana)

Outstanding Achievement: Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Jared Bush and Phil Johnston (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Dean Wellins (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Editorial in an Animated Feature Production
Christopher Murrie (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Achievement: Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Trevor Dalmer, August Hall, Nelson Lowry and Ean McNamara (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in an Animated Production
Ian J. Coony, John M. Kosnik, Blair Pierpont, Erin V. Ramos and Marlon West (Moana)

Outstanding Achievement: Music in an Animated Feature Production
Camille, Richard Harvey and Hans Zimmer (The Little Prince)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Cory Loftis (Zootopia)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Feature Production
Jan Maas (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Best Animated Feature - Independent
The Red Turtle (Studio Ghibli, Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch)

Best Animated Short Subject
Piper (Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Animated Special Production
Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Massive Swerve Studios and Passion Pictures Animation)

Best Student Film
Citipati (Andreas Feix)

Outstanding Achievement: Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
Thomas Bevan, Andrew Graham, Georg Kaltenbrunner, Michael Marcuzzi and Yoon Ji Hyun - Mirror dimension (Doctor Strange)

Outstanding Achievement: Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Peta Bayley, Benjamin Jones, Andrew R. Jones and Gabriele Zucchelli (The Jungle Book)

June Foray Award
Bill Kroyer and Sue Kroyer

Winsor McCay Award
Dale Baer
Caroline Leaf and Oshii Mamoru

UB Iwerks Award
Google Spotlight's virtual reality platform

Certificate of Merit
Leslie Ezah
Gary Perkovac

Special Achievement Award
Life, Animated

ASC AWARDS GREIG FRASER IN SURPRISE RESULT

It was all going La La Land's way this awards season en route to Oscar glory, until the American Society of Cinematographers rang in. Long-underappreciated DP Greig Fraser wins the ASC's top award for Lion in a remarkable coup - many thought he wouldn't even be nominated - as Garth Davis' debut feature film continues to pick up goodwill with awards voters and audiences alike. Don't expect him to surprise at Oscar - that's probably still La La Land's - but this is a pleasant victory for Fraser and his film nonetheless. And an excellent choice in the Spotlight category too. Check out the ASC's nominations at this link.

Theatrical Award
Greig Fraser (Lion)

Spotlight Award
Gorka Gomez Andreu (House of Others)

Vilmos Zsigmond Graduate Heritage Award
Andrew Jeric (Prisoner)

Vilmos Zsigmond Undergraduate Heritage Award
Emmett Sutherland (Closer)

Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award
Colin F. Shepherd (Into the Microscope)

Board of Governors Award
Denzel Washington

Presidents Award
Nancy Schreiber

International Award
Philippe Rousselot

Lifetime Achievement Award
Edward Lachman

DAMIEN CHAZELLE WINS DGA FOR LA LA LAND

A busy weekend on the awards scene, but a busy(-ish) weekend for me, so this is all old news to you. Damien Chazelle wins the top award from the Directors Guild of America for La La Land, and nobody is surprised. Check out the DGA nominations here, and all the film-related winners below.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
Ezra Edelman (O.J.: Made in America)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director
Garth Davis (Lion)

REVIEW - XUAN ZANG (HUO JIAN QI)

The stodgy experience of being dragged through an illustrated history textbook is compounded by sickly spirituality in Xuan Zang, a Chinese studio epic that's big on budget, small on taste. At least the illustrations are spectacular, if woefully overcooked; sometimes it's the most basic details that are also the best, and it's thus with gratitude indeed that I embraced this film's own simple embrace of colour. Beneath the heavy-handed grading and CGI, Xuan Zang's images are quite captivating, and necessarily so, for their duty is to cover up the void of interest and inspiration that otherwise pervades this tiresome historical drama. It's a journey through buddhist theology without the enlightenment, a routine exploration of select events in the famous travels of its titular monk. There's surely a limitless array of fascinating situations to be examined in this decades-long tale, yet Huo Jian Qi's film displays practically zero concern for anything of the sort, preferring instead to rhyme off theological platitudes in place of a properly stimulating interpretation. Xuan Zang ambles aimlessly along, a montage of glittery sights and glib sounds, both leading nowhere and getting nowhere. Huang Xiao Ming is a fitfully hollow presence in the lead role, as emotionally vacuous as the film around him, where the potential existed for proving the worth of its own existence, to give the film some tangible purpose. As it is, Xuan Zang's only such raison d'etre appears to be for appearance alone, as a selection of screensavers for the spiritual soul. I'll stick with my Windows ribbons tyvm.

OBIT - RICHARD PORTMAN

Academy Award winning sound mixer Richard Portman has died. He passed on the 28th of January due to complications following a fall. One of the most influential figures in sound design in the global film industry, Portman pioneered new techniques in sound re-recording mixing, and was the very first artist to mix an entire feature by himself. During his career, he won one Oscar from 11 nominations and two BAFTAs from five. Among the titles on which Portman worked are such indisputable classics as Harold and Maude, The Godfather, The Way We Were, Papillon, Young Frankenstein, 3 Women, Star Wars, The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate. A true maverick, and a great loss indeed for film. We'll value Portman's invaluable contribution to cinema for many years to come.

REVIEW - THE WHITE HELMETS (ORLANDO VON EINSIEDEL)

A worthy portrait of an exceptional group, comprised of Syria's best and bravest. The White Helmets, the volunteer civilian organization that has saved thousands of lives in the aftermaths of government attacks on its own population throughout Syria, should put the rest of us to shame in our manner of living, our baseless concerns and complacency, our trepidations and travel bans. Their boldness is matched by that of the filmmakers, accompanying this rescue crew on missions into the very heart of a war zone, capturing footage of immense political value and emotive power. Several steps beyond the objective detachment of a news report, this is close-range, intensive, integrally humanistic material with a clear purpose and in direct style - you've likely been similarly chastised before for not responding to certain content in other films, but it'd truly take a heart hard as stone not to be moved deeply by The White Helmets. Excursions to Turkey to chronicle elements of the training process for this defence team are afforded immediate relevance as the distance creates its own problems, while the massacres continue unabated. This too is strong footage, though less so than that preceding it, and thus contributes to a reduction in the film's core emotional import. Better to retrospectively regard The White Helmets in reverse, as a noble document of unsung heroes, its impact enhanced by the inclusion of some of the most extraordinary real-life sights you'll ever see on film.