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Industry News

2018 Georgia Film Critics Picks

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The Georgia Film Critics Association (GAFCA) has announced its slate of nominees for the 2018 GAFCA Awards. Founded in 2011, this year marks the 8th annual awards program for the critics group. GAFCA is made up of 32 film critics from around the state, representing print, television, radio and online media. Nominations in all 17 categories have been released, as well as the shortlist for the Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema—a special prize for a film made in Georgia. Winners will be announced on Friday, January 11, 2019. Three films lead the nomination count, with A Star is Born, The Favourite and If Beale Street Could Talk each earning nine nominations. Black Panther and Roma each received seven nominations while BlacKkKlansman and First Man received six nods apiece. Eighth Grade earned four nominations; Leave No Trace and First Reformed received three each.

Full List of GAFCA Nominations:
Best Picture
BlacKkKlansman
Eighth Grade
The Favourite
First Man
First Reformed
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Quiet Place
Roma
WINNER – A Star is Born
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Best Director
BlacKkKlansman – Spike Lee
The Favourite – Yorgos Lanthimos
If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins
WINNER – Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
A Star is Born – Bradley Cooper
Best Actor
Christian Bale (Vice)
Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born)
WINNER – Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman)
Best Actress
Yalatza Aparicio (Roma)
WINNER – Toni Collette (Hereditary)
Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)
Lady Gaga (A Star is Born)
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy)
Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman)
WINNER – Sam Elliott (A Star is Born)
Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Best Supporting Actress
Adam Adams (Vice)
Claire Foy (First Man)
Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Leave No Trace)
WINNER – Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
Best Original Screenplay
WINNER – Eighth Grade – Bo Burnham
The Favourite – Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara
First Reformed – Paul Schrader
A Quiet Place – Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and John Krasinski
Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
Best Adapted Screenplay
WINNER – BlacKkKlansman – Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott
Black Panther – Joe Robert Cole and Ryan Coogler
If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins
Leave No Trace– Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
A Star is Born – Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters and Eric Roth
Best Cinematography
Black Panther – Rachel Morrison
The Favourite – Robbie Ryan
First Man – Linus Sandgren
If Beale Street Could Talk – James Laxton
WINNER – Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
Best Production Design
Black Panther – Hannah Beachler, Jay Hart
WINNER – The Favourite – Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
First Man – Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
If Beale Street Could Talk – Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
Ready Player One – Adam Stockhausen, Mark Scruton
Best Original Score
Annihilation – Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury BlacKkKlansman – Terence Blanchard
Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson
WINNER – First Man – Justin Hurwitz
If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell
Isle of Dogs – Alexandre Desplat
Best Original Song
“All the Stars” – Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Mark Spears, Al Shuckburgh, Anthony Tiffith (Black Panther)
“Girl in the Movies” – Dolly Parton and Linda Perry (Dumplin’)
“Maybe It’s Time” – Jason Isbell (A Star is Born)
“The Place Where the Lost Things Go” – Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Mary Poppins Returns)
WINNER – “Shallow” – Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt (A Star is Born)
“Suspirium” – Thom Yorke (Suspiria)
“Trip A Little Light Fantastic” – Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Mary Poppins Returns)
Best Ensemble
Black Panther
Crazy Rich Asians
WINNER – The Favourite
If Beale Street Could Talk
Widows
Best Foreign Film
Burning
Cold War
The Guilty
WINNER – Roma
Shoplifters
Breakthrough Award
Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)
WINNER – Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)
Lady Gaga (A Star is Born)
KiKi Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Leave No Trace)
Best Animated Film
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
WINNER – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary Film
Free Solo
Minding The Gap
RBG
Three Identical Strangers
WINNER – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema

Avengers: Infinity War

WINNER – Black Panther

Boy Erased

The Emissary (short)

First Man

Game Night

The Hate U Give

Love, Simon

Poor Jane

Still

Industry News

NBR Top Films of 2018

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The National Board of Review (NBR) announced its winners, including a list of 2018’s Top Ten Films, to be formally awarded January 8, 2019, in NYC. The inspirational ’60s race relations dramedy Green Book (first prize as best picture and for one of its leading men) and the music-filled romance remake A Star Is Born (three of the top acting prizes) have been crowned the new frontrunners of awards season, with Alfonso Cuarón’s deeply personal black and white foreign language film Roma a distant third place in terms of awards season momentum.

Many films’ Academy Awards chances are boosted by these accolades, but don’t count out buzzy royalty fantasia The Favourite, Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Vice, Steve McQueen’s struggling but spectacular heist drama Widows, Spike Lee’s neglected but brilliant BlacKkKlansman or late-year entry The Mule (not screened for NBR voters, and director/lead actor Clint Eastwood has had late-breaking films enter the fray before) to score nominations come Oscar time.

Faring well in today’s NBR nominations is popular streaming service Netflix, home of both The Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Roma. Both are now screening in select cities theatrically, and Buster Scruggs can be streamed right now. Little-seen indies from the first half of the year, First Reformed and Eighth Grade, plus blockbuster popular and critical hits from early this year, Black Panther and A Quiet Place, just picked up lots of momentum. Emily Blunt appears to be a factor in upcoming awards as love for both her films, A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins Returns, seems apparent in these votes.

I’ve hyperlinked to movies reviewed on this site. Let the awards season begin!

Best Film: Green Book

Best Director: Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Best Actress: Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born

Best Supporting Actor: Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Original Screenplay: Paul Schrader, First Reformed
Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Animated Feature: Incredibles 2
Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
Best Directorial Debut: Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Best Foreign Language Film: Cold War
Best Documentary: RBG
Best Ensemble: Crazy Rich Asians
William K. Everson Film History Award: The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: 22 July
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: On Her Shoulders

Top Films of 2018 (alphabetical, I presume we see these as the ten movies nipping at the heels of Green Book)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Eighth Grade
First Reformed
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mary Poppins Returns
A Quiet Place
Roma
A Star Is Born

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Burning
Custody
The Guilty
Happy as Lazzaro
Shoplifters

Top 5 Documentaries 
Crime + Punishment
Free Solo
Minding the Gap
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Top 10 Independent Films 
The Death of Stalin
Lean on Pete
Leave No Trace
Mid90s
The Old Man & the Gun
The Ride
Searching
Sorry to Bother You
We the Animals
You Were Never Really Here