2014 British Independent Film Award Nominations

Another awards body has weighed in with noms today, and that's the BIFA's, where certain British independent films have gotten a boost, like Mr. Turner and The Imitation Game. Their favorite film seemed to be '71 though, which led the pack with 9 nominations:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
'71
Calvary
Mr. Turner
Pride
The Imitation Game

BEST DIRECTOR
John Michael McDonagh for Calvary
Lenny Abrahamson for Frank
Matthew Warchus for Pride
Mike Leigh for Mr. Turner
Yann Demange for '71

THE DOUGLAS HICOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Daniel Wolfe & Matthew Wolfe for Catch Me Daddy
Hong Khaou for Lilting
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard for 20,000 Days on Earth
Morgan Matthews for X+Y
Yann Demange for '71

BEST SCREENPLAY
The Imitation Game (Graham Moore)
'71 (Gregory Burke)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)
Frank (Jon Ronson & Peter Straughan)
Pride (Stephen Beresford)

BEST ACTRESS
Alicia Vikander for Testament of Youth
Cheng Pei Pei for Lilting
Gugu Mbatha-Raw for Belle
Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game
Sameena Jabeen Ahmed for Catch Me Daddy

BEST ACTOR
Asa Butterfield for X+Y
Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game
Brendan Gleeson for Calvary
Jack O'Connell for '71
Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Dorothy Atkinson for Mr. Turner
Imelda Staunton for Pride
Maggie Gyllenhaal for Frank
Sally Hawkins for X+Y
Sienna Guillory for The Goob

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Andrew Scott for Pride
Ben Schnetzer for Pride
Michael Fassbender for Frank
Rafe Spall for X+Y
Sean Harris for '71

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Ben Schnetzer for Pride
Cara Delevigne for The Face of an Angel
Gugu Mbatha-Raw for Belle
Liam Walpole for The Goob
Sameena Jabeen Ahmed for Catch Me Daddy

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
'71
20,000 Days on Earth
Catch Me Daddy
Lilting
The Goob

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
'71 (Editing - Chris Wyatt)
Mr. Turner (Cinematography - Dick Pope)
Catch Me Daddy (Cinematography - Robbie Ryan)
Frank (Music - Stephen Rennicks)
'71 (Cinematography - Tat Radcliffe)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
20,000 Days on Earth
Next Goal Wins
Night Will Fall
The Possibilities Are Endless
Virunga

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
Blue Ruin
Boyhood
Fruitvale Station
Ida
The Babadook

I'm happy to see the love for Calvary in there, which I thought was a really good movie, but I guess I need to check out this film '71, which stars former Skins alum Jack O'Connell. Still, these are like the British version of the Indie Spirits I suppose- not a lot of influence for bigger awards groups yet.

TRAILER: "A Most Violent Year"

Thursday marks the start of the AFI Film Festival and with it comes the premiere of J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year, one of the last remaining Oscar hopefuls to be seen this season. We really don't know anything about this movie, other than the fact that its star Oscar Isaac was nominated for a Gotham award a couple of weeks ago for it, so clearly at least a handful of critics have seen it already. It wouldn't surprise me if he was great in this, given how terrific he was in last year's Inside Llewyn Davis. Here's hoping the movie lives up to this trailer, which makes it look pretty good, at least in my opinion. It's coming out on Dec 31st.

BOX OFFICE 10/31-11/02: 'Nightcrawler' Tops a Slow Halloween Weekend

When Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday it traditionally means a sluggish weekend at the box office, and that's exactly what happened here, as Jake Gyllenhaal's thriller Nightcrawler came in at No. 1, with just $10 million to show for it. It also got a "B-" Cinemascore despite fantastic reviews, so who knows how well it will actually hold on, but this one was made on a pretty small budget ($8.5 million), so in light of that, it is a modest success. Another movie having a successful run is Ouija, which almost nudged out Nightcrawler from the top position, with nearly $11 million itself, although most of that came on Friday night, unsurprisingly, seeing as it was the only horror movie out this week.

Holdovers Fury and Gone Girl came in third and fourth, respectively, with the former having earned $60 million in its run so far, while the Ben Affleck thriller has become a major success, with over $135 million in the pot, and likely to finish between $150 and $160 million. In fifth place was the animated Book of Life, with just under $9 million, as the top five films all earned very similar amounts this week, crowding together into the finish line.

Top 5:

Nightcrawler- $10.91 million
Ouija- $10.9 million
Fury- $9.1 million
Gone Girl- $8.8 million
The Book of Life- $8.3 million

In limited release, St. Vincent earned another $7 million, essentially staying flat with its expansion numers from last week and amassing a total of almost $20 million so far. That's actually a pretty successful number and may mean that Bill Murray's still in the conversation for an Oscar nod after all. Meanwhile, the Nicole Kidman thriller Before I Go to Sleep bombed with just $3 million, and Birdman expanded into 231 theaters and earned $2.5 million, with its wider expansion still to come around Thanksgiving. Next week, get ready for the box office to be obliterated when Interstellar and Big Hero 6 come out and battle each other for No. 1- should be a big weekend for blockbusters after the quiet fall it's been so far.

Movie of the Day: "Let the Right One In" (2008)

So finally, we get to the number one choice in our picks for great vampire films this week, and this one is quite a doozy. If you've never seen it, you have to check out this Swedish horror movie from just a few years ago, as I think it's simultaneously a terrific thriller as well as one of the best movies ever made about kids (but intended for an adult audience). Yeah, it's that good. A 12-year-old boy in the late 1970's is approached by a mysterious, somewhat androgynous girl in his apartment complex, and being a lonely, bullied, child of divorce, he immediately cottons on to her attentions, which eventually reveal themselves to be rather dubious. She's a vampire and she needs what's known as a familiar, and though their blossoming relationship is affectionate and heartwarming, there's a terrifying and tragic layer to it that the movie doesn't shy away from. The film is coded with an atmosphere of dread and longing, and shows you all that can be seductive, romantic and threatening about the vampire, in whatever form it comes in. An instant classic (and the American remake from 2010 is quite good too, but this one couldn't be topped). Happy Halloween, everyone!

2008 Trailer:

VIDEO CLIP: "Interstellar"

The first scene from Interstellar has debuted online, so if you can't wait until next week for every little bit of Chris Nolan's ambitious space epic, you can see some of it right here. Matthew McConaughey gets schooled in his kid's teacher's conspiracy theories in this scene from the film:

FIRST LOOK: "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

Marvel released an extended look at the trailer, but with the added scene at the beginning of the gang all trying to lift Thor's hammer at a party. Don Cheadle's Rhodey is also hanging out with the group here, and it looks like Black Widow's ever evolving hairstyle is now back to where it was in the first film. Check it out:

Movie of the Day: "Nosferatu" (1922)

That's right, our next vampire movie takes us all the way back to the silent era, when famed German director F.W. Murnau took on the Dracula legend and made it his own. The 1931 version of Dracula starred Bela Lugosi in an iconic performance of course, but this one was unauthorized, and because of that, certain names and words had to be changed (Count Dracula in this is "Count Orlok" instead, and nosferatu takes the place of the word vampire). But the story and events are the same, and Max Schreck portrays the title character as a monstrous creature, with fangs and long, curled fingers- it's one of many haunting images in this early example of what became known as expressionist cinema. It truly is the original horror film, and for that alone you can't miss it.

A scene from the film:

FINAL TRAILER: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1"

I know I said I wasn't going to post any more of these endless teasers and trailers for this movie, but since the studio itself has now promised it's the final one, I guess I'll go ahead and give in one more time. You know, it's funny- even though I thought the last movie was decent and better than the first, somehow I'm less interested in this one than I've ever been for anything about this franchise. Nothing about it looks good to me anymore, the whole thing just seems like a corporate controlled money-making machine with directors for hire who must check creativity at the door. Ugh. Don't even think I'll see it.

Movie of the Day: "Only Lovers Left Alive" (2014)

Eternal, passionate love is a continual theme in vampire mythology, and a film from just this past spring introduces one of the great movie couples in Adam and Eve (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton), who've been undead for centuries and lovingly committed to each other that entire time. Of course, because this is a Jim Jarmusch movie, he's somewhat less interested in the blood and violence that comes with the vampire and more curious and fascinated by the fact that they've simply been around a long, long time. This is a movie filled with nostalgia and a love for various mementos from different pasts, which the immortal lovers long for as they ponder all that they've seen. Hiddleston and Swinton make an impossibly cool, hipster couple here, and you want to just hang out and shoot the breeze with them as much as poor, doomed Anton Yelchin does in the movie, even if they have to drink blood to live (at least these guys do more creative things with it, like freeze blood popsicles for a casual snack).

Trailer:

Early Reviews Mixed on 'Interstellar'

Christopher Nolan may have finally bitten off more than he can chew, at least if early word on Interstellar is to be believed. The highly anticipated sci-fi epic screened for critics a few days ago, and the reaction seems to be a bit all over the place, veering on the divisive side. It may not have been helped by ski high expectations set by the studio itself, as they had screened the movie for other filmmakers, celebrities and friends of the director, who of course praised everything to the heavens on twitter, setting probably unrealistic heights for the movie, but so far the reaction is that it's visually spectacular but narratively incoherent. Frankly, to me that sounds like a lot of Nolan's other work (I've never been the biggest fan anyway), but most are still saying it's worth seeing on a big screen, just temper those expectations. This kind of response makes it a total mystery as far as awards are concerned- it will still make a huge play for technical recognition like visual effects, sound, etc. but it's more of a question mark now for major categories like picture, director, and acting, although McConaughey has gotten the most praise of the actors. We'll have to see where this one ends up compared to the other movies in the running later on:

"The story is ever-ambitious, sometimes riveting and thought-provoking, but also plodding and hokey and not as visionary as its cutting-edge special effects." (USA Today)

"Not every film need address the possibility of human extinction with the gung-ho silliness of Armageddon, but at least that was a space adventure. This is a science report." (Guardian)

"An emotional powerhouse when it isn't hokey, and a stunning spectacle when it doesn't get bogged down in plot logistics, 'Interstellar' binds its strengths and weaknesses into a riveting whole." (Screen International)

"Double-domed and defiantly serious, 'Interstellar' is a must-take ride with a few narrative bumps." (Time)

Movie of the Day: "Cronos" (1993)

Guillermo del Toro's first film and first foray into the world of vampires is something quite different than what you usually see in a vampire movie, and that's a good thing. A Mexican film (although there's quite a bit of English spoken in it), that tells the story of the cronos device, golden and insect-like (another del Toro obsession) that can give a person eternal life, in exchange for a new thirst for blood of course. The vampires in this have similar symptoms but it's a different kind of portrayal, giving del Toro license to create his own unique creatures of the night. It was a very impressive first feature and is one of the most interesting and singular films about vampires you can find.

1993 Trailer:

TRAILER: "Paddington"

Hmm. Not too sure about this one, but it does seem like the kind of material you have to be familiar with already, and I really don't know anything about the Paddington books. It's based on the bestsellers, where the character of Paddington was introduced in 1958, so I'm sure it has a devoted fanbase. The movie seems to have a great cast, but it's coming out in the UK on November 28th and not in the US until mid-January, so it looks like they're expecting it to do most of its business overseas.