Friday Awards Wrap-Up: BIFA, AFI, and more!

by Cláudio Alves

With the awards race heating up, there's much to discuss. Maybe too much. Da'Vine Joy Randolph is proving a sweeper in Best Supporting Actress, taking every single one of those awards so far. Her The Holdovers costar, Paul Giamatti, is also doing well for himself, somehow scoring better results than some of the supposed Oscar frontrunners. Then there's Lily Gladstone taking the lead in Best Actress, while Killers of the Flower Moon adds some more victories to go alongside its NYFCC wins. The Color Purple has struggled to make an impression, but that might be due to late screenings, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is making a good case for itself as a Best Picture contender. 

In any case, here's a small compendium of prizes and top ten announcements from this week, plus some additional commentary…

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

ICYMI - "Aftersun" led the British Independent Film Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

"Aftersun" has been a hit with 'indie' awards groups like BIFA and Gotham.

The title here is a bit of a goof. You probably didn't miss the BIFA award nominations on Friday but we did. Apologizes for the delay in reporting them. The BIFAs use juries to come up with their nominations and if those juries like something they go ALL in.... 16 nominations for Aftersun (now playing in select theaters) sounds like a gargantuan amount of nominations and at first glance it lools like it was nominated for every category for which it was eligible. But therunner up Blue Jean, scored 13 nominations so, again, they go all in if they like something. What that means is that there isn't much variation from category to category. For instance Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay are all interchangeable. After the jump some notes on the nominations...

Click to read more ...

Linkin' along

Today's must read: Megan Garber at The Atlantic has a fascinating piece on sexual dignity and freedom (in current pop culture like Good Luck To You Leo Grande, Grace & Frankie, and Hacks) and the fall of Roe v Wade (in current reality)

More after the jump including BIFA awards changes, Todd Haynes long banned Superstar, Steven Yeun's role in Nope, Jodie Foster's new role, and the Pride cover for British Vogue featuring actresses Cynthia Erivo, Cara Delivingne, and Ariana DeBose...

Click to read more ...

BIFA Nominations: Is "Belfast" a David or a Goliath?

by Nathaniel R

In extremely good news for presumed Oscar frontrunner Belfast, they're still running as a "David" rather than a "Goliath" in the Oscar race. That's by way of a leading the British Independent Film Award nominations without truly hogging the spotlight since Kenneth Branagh's charming memoir film missed in the big categories like Film and Director. It still leads the nominations by way of across the board love in the craft categories. It's funny because we initially thought it might have the opposite problem at the Oscar. Yes, it's a period drama but it's not particularly flashy about its craft elements (beyond the black & white cinematography and the Van Morrison songscape). Tying it for most nominations, 9, is a continuous shot movie called Boiling Point by Philip Barantini.

Five other films also scored six or more nominations suggesting the juries had a small pool to choose from or only loved seven films. The Souvenir Part II, Censor, Ali & Ava, The Nest, and After Love were all obviously well regarded, too. A complete list of nominations and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...