BIFA crowns Renée and "For Sama" makes history!

by Cláudio Alves

Renée's coming for that Oscar.The nitty-gritty of awards season is upon us. The same names and films are bound to be repeated over and over again until the high holy night of the Oscars. Thankfully, not all awards organizations follow the party line when it comes to rewarding cinematic excellence. In other words, not everyone wants to predict the Oscars. Some still have originality, a sense of variety and the desire to shine a light on films far from the Academy’s radar. Such is the case of the British Independent Film Awards, which were given out today in London.

However, as you can see by this piece's title, it’s not all out of left-field choices. Renée Zellweger just won her first big award for Judy and many more are sure to come. Even so, the biggest winner of the night is the sort of film that (as much as it saddens us) will probably never come close to a Best Picture Oscar. We’re talking about a foreign-language documentary directed by a woman…

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Musings from SAG screenings (Pt 2): Judy, Bombshell, Little Women, and Dolemite

renee's first SAG winsIf you missed part one, we've invited a longtime SAG member to share this thoughts from SAG Nominating Committee screenings of the would be contenders... 

JUDY:  This one definitely got the most lackluster response.  When the movie was over, there was only a smattering of applause—though I had the feeling that had something to do with the way it ends.  It kind of ends with a whimper. But people got on their feet for Renee Zellweger—who appeared along with Finn Wittrock. They gushed about her performance—the acting, the singing, all of it.  And she had some interesting things to say about the research she did—particularly in regard to addiction. It’s an engaging performance, I think—but is it really as much of a “transformation” as people say?  I feel like you see a lot of Renee Zellweger in there—like, it’s as much Judy Garland playing Renee Zellweger as it is Renee Zellweger playing Judy Garland. Does that make any sense? And for what it’s worth, I hated the Oz stuff.  Was Louis B. Mayer a sexual predator?  You can’t just drop that suggestion into all the other horrible stuff and move on.  It all felt very undefined.

BOMBSHELL:  With no disrespect to Ms. Zellweger, the “transformation of the year” has got to be Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly...

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BIFA loves "Wild Rose" and "David Copperfield"

British Independent Film Awards, or BIFA for short, have announced their nominations for the 2019 film year. Like the Gothams and Spirits they are juried which means a small group of people decide various categories before the entire membership votes on the winners. Strangely, despite that they focused on a small pool of films (the leaders, Wild Rose and The Personal History of David Copperfield have a staggering 21 nominations between them. Yikes! 

Our friend and sometimes Smackdown guest Guy Lodge was on the panel this year and here are their choices.

Best British Independent Film

• Bait, Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite

• For Sama, Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield, Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, Kevin Loader The Souvenir Joanna Hogg, Luke Schiller

• The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg, Luke Schiller

• Wild Rose, Tom Harper, Nicole Taylor, Faye Ward

Bait and David Copperfield have not yet arrived stateside. The latter is coming in 2020 and with lots of name actors it will get some attention (plus it's quite funny) but we had to look up Bait to see what it was. We must keep an eye out due to the BIFA love...

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The costumes of “Judy”: Fantasy vs Reality

by Cláudio Alves

When dressing a real-life story, there’s always a complicated relationship going on between a designer and History. The balance of fact and fiction, raw reality and cinematic fantasy, must be achieved and thought through. Depending on the project, the scales might tip towards one or the other, but both are always dancing hand-in-hand. Such sartorial dynamics might reflect the production’s relationship with fact or even contradict that preoccupation, either supporting an idea of History or silently challenging it.

For Judy, costume designer Jany Temime helped transform Renée Zellweger into Judy Garland, a process that was much more complex than simply looking at archival material and reproducing past fashions…

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Podcast: Judy's Pain & Glory

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R

 

Index (58 minutes)
00:01 Pain and Glory - Pedro Almodóvar's career, the moment we fell for the picture, and Antonio Banderas tender dazzling homage/star turn.
14:50 Oscar's Best International Feature competition. How they vote, movies we love, and what might get nominated.
27:27 Renée Zellweger as 'The World's Greatest Entertainer' in Judy. The performance and the film.
43:11 The Best Actress Race: Scarlett, Cynthia, Renee, Alfre, and more...

Related Reading/Listening
Murtada's Pain & Glory Review
Nathaniel's episodes of Las Culturistas
Foreign Submissions you can stream right now

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Pain and Glory, Judy