London 2009: Ben Whishaw, Jane Campion, Andy Serkis

Composer Mark Bradshaw, Producers Caroline Hewitt, Jan Chapman, Samuel Roukin, Edie Martin (front), Director Jane Campion, Ben Whishaw and Antonia Campbell-Hughes pose at the premiere of potential Oscar 2010 contender Bright Star during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19.

Andy Serkis, Lorraine Ashbourne

Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox
Photos: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

London 2009: Jane Campion, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox

Jane Campion attends the premiere of Bright Star, a potential Oscar 2010 best picture contender, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19.

Kerry Fox

Ben Whishaw
Photos: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

London 2009: Ben Whishaw, Catherine Breillat, Mary McCartney

Catherine Breillat attends the premiere of Bluebeard during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 19. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Ben Whishaw, Jane Campion at the premiere of potential Oscar 2010 contender Bright Star during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Mary McCartney arrives for the premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon West End on October 19. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Actor

BEST ACTOR

George Clooney, Up in the Air
A professional downsizer finds the frequent-flying love of his life while having to come to terms with his long-lost humanity.

Matt Damon, The Informant!
A pathological liar helps the FBI nab his employer, a dishonest agribusiness conglomerate.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine (with Marion Cotillard)
In this musicalized remake of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2, Daniel Day-Lewis plays the old Marcello Mastroianni role of the Italian film director trying to cope with the women in his life.

Colin Firth, A Single Man
In 1960s Los Angeles, a gay college professor is determined to kill himself after learning that his lover has died in an accident.

Viggo Mortensen, The Road
A man and his son struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

I’d say that four [...]

Cannes 2009: Best Actor Favorites

Best Actor
Tahar Rahim as a young man behind bars in A Prophet.
Ben Whishaw as John Keats in Bright Star.
André Dussollier as the elderly hero in Wild Grass.
François Cluzet as a con man in In the Beginning.
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Palme d’Or Favorites

Palme d’Or 2009, Grand Prix, Special Jury Prize:
Alain Resnais‘ romantic fantasy Wild Grass (adapted by Alex Reval and Laurent Herbiet from Christian Gailly’s novel), about a man who becomes intrigued by a younger woman
Jacques Audiard’s tough prison drama A Prophet (written by Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri, and Nicolas Peufaillit)
Writer-director Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, about a northern German community enmeshed in a series of nasty events right before the beginning of World War I
Writer-director Jane Campion’s Bright Star, about the doomed love affair between British poet John Keats and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Brillante Mendoza, Johnnie To, Lou Ye

Peter Bradshaw on Bright Star (with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, above) in The Guardian:
"Jane Campion has put herself in line for her second Palme d’Or here at the Cannes film festival with a film which I think could be the best of her career; an affecting and deeply considered study of the last years in the short life of John Keats, and the ecstasy of loss which suffuses his love affair with Fanny Brawne – a love thwarted not due to illness, but to a pernicious web of money worries, social scruples and irrelevant male loyalties."
***

Maggie Lee on Kinatay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Festival darling Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is a long night’s journey into the [...]

2007 Bavarian Film Award Winners

Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tot / Grave Decisions. Photo: Christian Hartmann / Roxy Film

The winners of the 2007 Bavarian Film Awards — the most important German film prize after the German Academy’s Lolas — were announced yesterday at a gala ceremony in Munich.
The Porcelain Pierrot (worth €200,000) for best film — or best production — went to a local effort, Marcus H. Rosenmüller’s feel-good dark comedy Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tot / Grave Decisions (top photo). Spoken in one of the local Bavarian dialects, Rosenmüller’s feature-film debut became a surprise hit in Germany, earning more than 10 million euros at the box office. Rosenmüller also took home the prize for best young director.
Wer [...]