BIFA worships "Aftersun". Do you?

by Nathaniel R

Aftersun

The British Independent Film Awards were not in much of a sharing mood this season, showering most of their awards upon Charlotte Wells critically-acclaimed memoir Aftersun. The beautiful mood piece took seven of their prizes in total. Its fans are truly passionate. Do you count yourself among them? And if you haven't seen it yet, make sure to do so if it's playing in a theater near you. Despite its dominance, three other films managed multiple wins with the lesbian school drama Blue Jean picking up both main acting prizes and casting, the documentary about Sinéad O'Connor, Nothing Compares, receiving two awards, and the UK's current Oscar submission Winners also nabbing prizes. (Nothing Compares is streaming on Showtime and Blue Jean will be released next year in the US by Magnolia. There's no word yet on a US release for Winners)

Though Aftersun also took prizes for its cinematography and editing, it didn't win all the craft prizes making room for a few other films to emerge as winners, too. Complete winners list after the jump. Links to go our coverage of the films...

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Atlanta Film Critics Circle loves the multiverse

by Nathaniel R

The Atlanta Film Critics have announced their winners for the 2022 film year with Everything Everywhere All At Once the big takeaway with 3 prizes (Film, Director, Supporting Actor). They agreed with the venerable NYFCC on 3 of the 4 performance awards though it's far too soon into the season to know if we have "critical sweeps" on our hands with Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, or Ke Huy Quan. The AFCC winners are after the jump...

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International Feature Race - Part 2: The Auteurs

by Nathaniel R

To broaden your appreciation of this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar race we already looked at some overall trivia. Now let's look at some stats involving the artists behind the camera. We'll highlight 14 of the directors in the mix this year from legends, to debuts, to queer artists, to a handful of filmmakers that we've interviewed already....

LEGENDS & MASTERS

Park Chan-wook. Photographed by Oh Suk Kuhn

• Park Chan Wook (South Korea's Decision to Leave) 
Remarkably this 59 year-old auteur and Academy member has never been submitted by South Korea before despite a rich filmography with classics like The Handmaiden, Thirst, Lady Vengeance, Oldboy and Joint Security Area behind him...

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Oscar Volleys: The Worldbuilding of Production Design

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Eurocheese and Nick Taylor... 

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

EUROCHEESE: Hi Nick! We have an exciting group of larger-than-life worlds to conquer for Production Design, but maybe it would be best to start with the elephant in the room: Despite some mixed reviews on Babylon, I have to imagine if nothing else it will make its coked-up presence known here, as homage to Hollywood's glory days. Then we have two blockbuster sequels to previous Best Production Design winners, with Black Panther Wakanda Forever and Avatar The Way of Water both asking similar questions: will the branch be excited enough for an encore nomination? I'm actually leaning towards no, now that we've seen the CGI-heavy worlds. Both might make more sense in other craft categories.  I'm curious to hear your thoughts though...

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Best International Film Reviews: Croatia, Italy, and Portugal

by Cláudio Alves

Let's continue our travels through the Best International Film Oscar submissions, with a focus on Southern European cinema this time. Specifically, today's subjects are the films from Italy, Croatia, and my beloved Portugal. This is a tale of one victor and two persevering losers who still manage to send in new films for consideration every year. While Italy is the category's reigning champion with eleven wins, Croatia and Portugal have yet to be nominated. They've never even made it into the shortlists. In the latter case, the country holds the record for the most submissions without a single nod. With great sadness in my heart, I must say that Portugal's Oscar fate is unlikely to change this season…

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