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European Film Awards 2009: Nominations

Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); Dev Patel, Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire (middle); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (bottom)

Six films are vying for the top prize at the 2009 European Film Awards. They are:

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, about a teenager (best actress nominee Katie Jarvis) upset that her mother has found herself a new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender)
Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, a melodrama starring Kate Winslet as a former Nazi guard who believes that being illiterate is worse than being an accomplice to mass murder
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, a prison drama about a toughie (best actor nominee Tahar Rahim) fighting his way to the top of the world behind bars
Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, about a young man (best actor [...]

London 2009: Gemma Arterton, Nick Park, Jacques Audiard

Gemma Arterton arrives for the premiere of J Blakeson’s The Disappearance of Alice Creed, in which two men (Martin Compston, Eddie Marsan) kidnap a woman (Arterton is the unlucky one) and tie her to a bed, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 24. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Screenwriter Abdel Raouf Dafri and Director Jacques Audiard attend the photocall for the gritty prison drama A Prophet, winner of the London Film Festival’s best film prize and a strong contender for the 2010 best foreign language film Academy Award, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Mayfair Hotel on October 24. (Photo [...]

London Film Festival Awards 2009

Star of London for Best Film: Jacques Audiard’s A PROPHET
On behalf of the London Film Festival jury, Anjelica Huston stated: “A masterpiece: Un prohète has the ambition, purity of vision and clarity of purpose to make it an instant classic. With seamless and imaginative story-telling, superb performances and universal themes, Jacques Audiard has made a perfect film.” In A Prophet, Tahar Rahim stars as a prison newcomer who learns how to become that realm’s top dog.

Special mention: John Hillcoat’s THE ROAD

Best British Newcomer: Jack Thorne, screenwriter of the film THE SCOUTING BOOK FOR BOYS

Sutherland Award for most original and imaginative first feature: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani for AJAMI

Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Yoav Shamir for [...]

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Foreign Language Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
An autobiographical tale set in the director’s Sicilian hometown

Forever Enthralled, Chen Kaige (China)
Biopic chronicling the life of Mei Lanfang, China’s greatest opera star.

I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan (Canada)
A young gay man has some serious issues with his mother.

A Prophet, Jacques Audiard (France)
Prison drama in which a young hood learns what it takes to reach the top of that small (and nasty) world.

The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke (Germany)
As a prelude to both World War I and World War II, a German village unexpectedly becomes the setting of numerous acts of cruelty.

Quality (much like fairness) is in the brain of the judge. (Of course, if we’re lucky enough to have a judge [...]

Cannes 2009 Winners

One of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival’s clear favorites, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, a stark tale about a small northern German town beset by strange happenings right before the beginning of World War I, took the Palme d’Or for best film. (Cannes 2009 winners list.)
"Happiness is very rare," said Haneke upon accepting his prize. "This is one moment in my life in which I’m very happy, and so are you, I believe," he added, speaking to his wife.
The White Ribbon also won the International Film Critics’ FIPRESCI Prize for best film in the official competition. And it’ll surely be Austria’s submission for the 2010 best foreign-language film Academy Award.

Another festival favorite, Jacques Audiard’s tough drama A [...]

Cannes 2009: Best Director Favorites

Best Director
Pedro Almodóvar for Broken Embraces
Jacques Audiard for A Prophet
Jane Campion for Bright Star
Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon
Alain Resnais for Wild Grass
 
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: Ken Loach, Ang Lee, Andrea Arnold, Jacques Audiard

Derek Elley on Looking for Eric (above, Ken Loach and Eric Cantona) in Variety:
"… helmer Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty’s ninth feature together is a curious hybrid: Three movies — boilerplate, socially aware Loach; personal fantasy; romantic comedy — wrap around a central core of a hopeless soccer fanatic who’s given a second chance to sort out his life. As in many of Laverty’s scripts, problems of overall tone and character development aren’t solved by Loach’s easygoing direction, though when it works, Eric has many incidental pleasures."
***

Anthony Kaufman on A Prophet at indieWIRE:
"If James Toback’s petty-criminal tale Fingers inspired Jacques Audiard’s previous The Beat That My Heart Skipped, it’s Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas [...]

César 2006 Winners

Romain Duris, Linh Dan Pham in The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Jacques Audiard’s curious but uninvolving psychological drama De battre, mon coeur s’est arrêté / The Beat That My Heart Skipped — a remake of James Toback’s Fingers (1978) — won eight César awards, including best film, best director, best adapted screenplay (Audiard with Tonino Benacquista), and best supporting actor (Niels Arestrup) at the 2006 César Awards ceremony.

Michel Bouquet, Jalil Lespert in Le Promeneur du champ de Mars (top); Nathalie Baye in Le Petit Lieutenant (bottom)

Two veterans took home the top acting prizes: Eighty-year-old Michel Bouquet – whose career spans more than fifty years — was chosen best actor for his star turn as former French president [...]

César 2006

2006 César Awards
2006 César du Cinéma winners: Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on February 25, 2006
2006 César Nominations
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Romain Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped
 

Meilleur film français / Best French Film
* De battre, mon coeur s’est arrêté / The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard)
Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas (Christian Carion)
Le Petit lieutenant (Xavier Beauvois)
L’Enfant / The Child (Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
Va, vis et deviens / Go, See and Become (Radu Mihaileanu)
Meilleur film étranger / Best Foreign Film
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
Mar adentro / The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenabar)
Match Point (Woody Allen)
* Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
Walk on Water (Eytan Fox)
Meilleur [...]

César 2006: Nominees

Romain Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (top); Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl, Alex Ferns in Merry Christmas (middle); Roni Hadar in Go, See and Become (bottom)

This year’s winners of the French equivalent to the Oscars, the Prix César, will be announced on Feb. 25 at a ceremony held at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Best actress nominee Valérie Lemercier (for Palais royal!) will act as Mistress of Ceremony.
The best French film nominees are Jacques Audiard’s Bafta-winning psychological drama De battre, mon coeur s’est arrêté / The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which garnered nine other nominations, including best actor (Romain Duris); Christian Carion’s Academy Award-nominated war drama Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas, with a total [...]

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