FIPRESCI GRAND PRIX 2015-16: TONI ERDMANN WINS

Midway through each year, the International Federation of Film Critics, or FIPRESCI, hands out its Grand Prix for the preceding 12 months. An estimable organization that attends dozens of film festivals every year and doles out fest-specific awards for each, this is the highest honour which FIPRESCI can give. This year's winner is Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, a comedy which screened in competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Ade becomes the first woman to win the Grand Prix. She won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes for the official selection, having attracted enormous acclaim from critics though failing to win any official jury awards. Ade will receive the award at the opening night gala for the 2016 San Sebastian Film Festival on the 16th of September. The 475 voters chose the film over two other nominees: Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa and Jim Jarmusch's Paterson.

REVIEW - ANOMALISA (DUKE JOHNSON AND CHARLIE KAUFMAN)

Have you ever felt different? Not a little bit different, but profoundly different, aberrant, so wholly unrelated to the rest of society that you feel you'll truly never fit in? That's nice; you're probably wrong. You're probably not actually that different, so stop worrying. Anomalisa is the fear of what it means to be different, the isolation of it, the pleasure of it. It's about disconnect from a society which you identify as rotten and stultifying, invasive in the wrong ways and detached in the wrong ways. Charlie Kaufman is a very perceptive person - he pens characters and dialogue that seem lifted straight out of reality - but in Anomalisa he shows none of that perceptiveness in how to place these characters. This is plain old middle-class white male ennui, the mid-life crisis that's, yes, brought on by society's stultifying strictures, but also only by a rigid adherence to them. The problem that resides at the very core of this film: it's a portrait of a man who considers himself deeply different from the rest of the world, when in fact he is its archetypal figure. And if that only increases the ennui, don't come crying to me; try living a life of genuine, inescapable difference, and then tell me how you feel. Anomalisa proceeds from this flawed notion to engage with several more - the supposedly life-changing mini-relationship at its centre is too banal to truly convince as the intense encounter it's designed to be, and is largely predatory and horribly sad - and, in so doing, betrays Kaufman's brilliance as a filmmaker. He's capable of extraordinary things, and the way in which he handles the tone and pacing of the film's final few scenes is a clear sign of this. But he's yet to grow out of his man-child phase, which seems to only burgeon with each new feature. Time for a little difference from yourself, Charlie.

VFCC VOTES SPOTLIGHT BEST FILM OF 2015

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle has spoken, and chimed in with their counterparts across North America by declaring Spotlight the Best Film of 2015. Their uncontroversial choices include a Best Actor win for Steve Jobs' Michael Fassbender and a Best Actress win for Brie Larson in Room; Lenny Abrahamson's film is nominated in six categories with the VFCC's Canadian awards, the winners of which are due to be revealed at a ceremony on the 6th of January. For the group's nominations, click here, and for their international award winners, see below:

Best Film

Spotlight

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Best Actress

Brie Larson (Room)

Best Supporting Actor

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Best Supporting Actress

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Best Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa)

Best Documentary

Amy

Best Foreign Language Film

The Assassin

TRAILER #1 FOR ANOMALISA

Charlie Kaufman returns with Anomalisa, a stop-motion animation film that is the Oscar-winning writer's second film as director after 2008's Synecdoche, New York. He co-directs with Duke Johnson, whose first feature-length project this is. After a premiere at Telluride in September, Anomalisa went on to secure a prolific festival schedule due to outstanding reviews, including screenings at Toronto and at Venice, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize from Alfonso Cuaron's jury. The much-anticipated film, which features voice work from David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan, opens in the US on the 30th of December in limited release (with an expansion planned for January 2016) and in the UK on the 11th of March.

VENICE 2015: FROM AFAR IS FIRST LATIN AMERICAN FILM TO WIN GOLDEN LION

History was made yesterday at the prize-giving gala of Venezia 72, as a Latin American jury president handed the Golden Lion out to the first Latin American film in history to win the prestigious title. Lorenzo Vigas' From Afar beat a competition slate that was packed with heavy-hitters, including fellow Latin American title The Clan by Pablo Trapero, upon whom Alfonso Cuaron's jury bestowed the Silver Lion for Best Director. English language titles were not ignored, however, as there were awards for the new films from Cary Fukunaga and Charlie Kaufman. All the details below:

Venezia 72

Golden Lion

From Afar (Lorenzo Vigas)

Grand Jury Prize

Anomalisa (Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman)

Silver Lion for Best Director

Pablo Trapero (The Clan)

Volpi Cup for Best Actor

Fabrice Luchini (L'Hermine)

Volpi Cup for Best Actress

Valeria Golino (Per Amor Vostro)

Best Screenplay

Christian Vincent (L'Hermine)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation)

Special Jury Prize

Frenzy (Emin Alper)

Orizzonti

Best Film

Free in Deed (Jake Mahaffy)

Special Jury Prize

Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro)

Best Director

Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader)

Special Prize for Best Actor or Actress

Dominique Leborne (Tempete)

Luigi de Laurentiis Lion of the Future

The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet)

Best Short Film

Belladonna (Dubravka Turic)

Venice Days

Venice Days Award

Early Winter (Michael Rowe)

Europa Cinemas Label Award

As I Open My Eyes (Leyla Bouzid)

Laguna Sud Prize for Best Film

Lolo (Julie Delpy)

Laguna Sud Prize for Best Italian Discovery

Arianna (Carlo Lavagna)

BNL People's Choice Award

As I Open My Eyes (Leyla Bouzid)

Venice Classics

Best Documentary on Cinema

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Maddin (Yves Montmayeur)

Best Restoration

Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

FEDEORA Prizes

Best European Film: Venezia 72

Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov)

Best Film: Venice Days

Underground Fragrance (Peng Fei)

Best Young Director: Venice Days

Ruchika Oberoi (Island City)

Best Young Actress: Venice Days

Ondina Quadri (Arianna)

Best Film: Critics' Week

Kalo Pothi (Bahadur Bham Min)

Best Director of Photography: Critics' Week

Benthey Dean (Tanna)

Queer Lion
The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper)