'Everything Everywhere All At Once' triumphs at the Saturn Awards in a strong year for Asian talent

by Nathaniel R

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE won four prizes at the Saturn Awards

The 47th annual Saturn Awards, which are actually their 50th anniversary (it's confusing but mostly blame the pandemic) were held Tuesday night. Their calendar of eligibility runs summer to summer and they honor genre films and genre tv though they fudge a bit in some categories (kicking sci-fi fantasy and horror to the curb every once in a while for a drama or comedy or even musical they love). Though The Batman (2022) and Nightmare Alley (2021) led the nominations and both won a couple things, the night's big winner was A24's leggy hit and Oscar hopeful Everything Everywhere All At Once which took four prizes: Fantasy Feature, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, and 4K Special Edition Release. On the TV side of the equation Better Call Saul was the top series with four prizes (three of which were for its actors)

It was a landmark year for Asian films and performers in general with RRR nabbing International Film (the fifth consecutive Asian film to win this prize after The Handmaiden, Baahubali 2, Burning, and Parasite), EEAAO's overall dominance, and six of the acting prizes going to actors of Asian descent (Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Ming-Na Wen, Awkwafina, Iman Vellani, and Jennifer Tilly). The list of winners and a few comments after the jump...

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Who will be nominated for Production Design?

by Nathaniel R

As we did with Costume Design, let's look at the most likely Oscar contenders in its sister Eye Candy category (i.e. the "Moulin Rouge!" categories), Best Production Design. The following nine films are not ranked but grouped in 'types'-- in fact I don't think the last two have much of a prayer but in a just world, they would! Oscar voters vote solely on the category achievement itself (as they should) but on all sorts of things first and foremost being whether they like the film itself. It also helps to belong to the right genre and, in the case of craft categories, to have a showy "Most" feeling... 

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"Elvis" maxes out on nominations from the AACTA

by Travis Cragg

Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic Elvis has thoroughly dominated the film categories of the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) scoring a nod in every category for which it was eligible. The grand total is 15 nominations! Not too far behind, with 13 nods each, are George Miller’s fairytale 3000 Years Of Longing and Leah Purcell’s revisionist Western The Drover’s Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson. In recent times, the big movie of the nominations tends to sweep the wins as well (see Nitram, Babyteeth, Lion, and Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby for evidence), so if you’re wanting to make predictions, the Presley biopic is the best bet for all. 

After the jump a list of nominations, where you can stream them in the US, and a few comments. In case Elvis leaves the building, we offer a few alternatives as to what might win...

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"TÁR" and "Aftersun" lead the 2022 Gotham Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The Gotham Awards, the East Coast indie prizes that pair nicely with the West Coast's much-later Spirit Awards, have announced their nominations for the 2022 film year so we're officially off! Todd Field & Cate Blanchett's collaboration TÁR and Charlotte Wells' debut film Aftersun (both fairly new in theaters) most impressed the various juries that the Gothams assign to categories each year. They led the way with four nominations each across the 8 film categories. Other films that have reason to celebrate today include but are not limited to Everything Everywhere All At Once and two films that have not yet opened for moviegoers, the gay military drama The Inspection (Nov 18th) and Sarah Polley's return with Women Talking (Dec 2nd).  Finally we've got a double acting nominee this year despite so few categories with Ben Whishaw nominated for both film  (Women Talking) and television work (This is Going to Hurt). 

Full list of nominees after the jump...

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Movie Stars Ruled the Weekend's Box Office

By Ben Miller

Don't let the haters tell you that movie stars don't matter.  The Dwayne Johnson led DC entry Black Adam easily won the weekend with $67 million.  That's Johnson's biggest opening for a film without the words Fast, Furious, or Mummy.  George Clooney & Julia Roberts counterprogramming rom-com Ticket to Paradise did just fine for itself with a $16.5 million opening.  Those two films expect to have some legs as there are no big openings release until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on November 11th. And there are only 8 movies in wide release at that. The theaters need more movies...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) October 21st-23rd 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
BLACK ADAM	TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
1 🔺 BLACK ADAM $67 *NEW*	1 TERRIFIER 2 $1.76 (cum. $5.1) 755 screens
2 🔺 TICKET TO PARADISE $16.5 *NEW*	2 🔺 ★ TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (sweden/uk) $601k (cum. $1.4) 280 screens

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