Nicole Kidman Honored by Los Cabos & Glamour Magazine

By Ilich Mejia

As if being Australian wasn't celebratory enough, this past week has forced Nicole Kidman to vacate two more spots on her already-crowded mantel.

First, she was honored at Los Cabos' 6th Annual Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. There representing Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Kidman accepted her award on behalf of all the filmmakers and film festivals that have supported her career. While in Cabos, Kidman also lamented the industry's dearth of working female directors and joked about how some certain Mexican directors keep turning her down (the nerve!). This is only the second year the Mexican festival gives out a Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor was first given out last year, during the festival's fifth celebration, to Italian actress Monica Bellucci.

Only a day after picking up her silver whale at Cabos, Kidman was off to New York to receive her next shiny thing... 

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European Film Nominations: "The Square" and "On Body and Soul" lead

by Nathaniel R

Hungary's weird and wonderful ON BODY AND SOUL keeps collecting kudosOne of our favorite undersung awards bodies is back. The European Film Awards, a hodgepodge of vastly different cinemas that sometimes has surprising results, have released their nominations for 2017. As per usual they're the awards body with the most in common with Oscar's Foreign Language Film race with many of their nominees being submissions this year from their respective countries. As such it's worth noting that Hungary's dreamscape slaughterhouse romantic oddity On Body and Soul and the Palme D'or winning Swedish satire The Square are both looking strong heading into the Oscar race; they lead the field here, each with four nominations. Russia's Loveless and the latest Yorgos Lanthimos provocation The Killing of a Sacred Deer are just behind them with three nominations, though the latter was a miss in the top category for Best European Film where France's masterful ACT UP drama BPM (Beats Per Minute --  currently in release in the US -- why is noone seeing it? It's brilliant! --  struck instead. 

The ceremony moves each year and this time it will be hosted in Berlin, Germany on December 9th. Full set of nominees (links go to our reviews) including a France heavy Best Actress list are after the jump...

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London Film Festival: Roundup and Oscar Chances

Pivotally positioned in October, the BFI London Film Festival boasts the distinction of having some of the most feted films of the year, champions newcomers and not without its stalwart festival curiosities. On the ground this year was Film Experience contributor Seán McGovern who saw only a fraction of the films on offer, but nonetheless a taste of potential Oscar contenders.

Call Me By Your Name
Worried that I would be tranquillised by the hype, I nonetheless could not resist it. Yes, it's a film about gorgeous people of immense privilege, but who can dismiss how hard it is to successfully capture the furtive horniness and confused intensity of young love? Timothée Chalamet's Elio teeters between brazenness and vulnerability, and Armie Hammer captures a strange aloofness that is hard to do on screen. It actually made me want to have children - just so I could grow up and be Micheal Stuhlbarg.

Oscar chances: Director, Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet), Supporting Actor(s) (Hammer, Stuhlbarg), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score. Whether Academy voters embrace two LGBT films in a row is another thing.

 Six more films after the jump...

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Box Office Weekend: Madea Rules, Snowman Drools

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (October 20th-22nd)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. 🔺 BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN  $21.6 new	1.🔺 GOLMAAL AGAIN $1.0 on 265 screens new
2. 🔺 GEOSTORM $13.3 new	2. THE FLORIDA PROJECT $636k on 112 screens (cum. $1.3) REVIEW 1, REVIEW 2
3. HAPPY DEATH DAY  $9.3 (cum. $40.6)	3.🔺 LOVING VINCENT $391k on 114 screens (cum. $1.3)
4. BLADE RUNNER 2049  $7.1 (cum. $74) REVIEW | SHORTS | "BESTS"	4. MARK FELT $192k on 332 screens (cum. $491k)
5. 🔺  ONLY THE BRAVE $6 new	5. 🔺 BREATHE $155k on 311 screens (cum. $187k)
6. THE FOREIGNER  $5.4 (cum. $22.8)	6. GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN  $153k on 61 screens (cum. $232k)
7. IT  $3.5 (cum. $320.2) REVIEW | 5 TAKEAWAYS	7.THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER $114k on 4 screens new REVIEW

Another weekend that few studios will be celebrating, partially because there was so much competition with five new wide releases and five new platform releases...

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TIFF: The Greek Theatre of "Sacred Deer"

by Chris Feil

Is it better to have good friends or a large number of friends? It’s a question asked casually in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer that hosts some of its more loaded themes: social connection, the difference between acquiring and appreciating, the futile pursuit of a nuclear unit. As discussed between odd teenager Martin and adult Steven, played by Barry Keoghan and Colin Farrell, it carries even more terrifying subtext for their unsettling relationship.

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