The Best of 2015 – Half way review

In the first sixth months of 2015, we haven’t quite yet found a release worthy of the prestigious 10/10 score but there’s been no shortage of box-office goods with three films already breaching the $1 billion mark with more to come.

Worldwide:

1. Furious 7 – Director: James Wan – Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker – $1,511,636,779
2. The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson – $1,372,063,254
3. Jurassic World – Colin Trevorrow – Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard – $1,259,873,609
4. Fifty Shades of Grey – Sam Taylor Johnson – Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan – $569,651,467
5. Cinderella – Kenneth Branagh – Lily James, Cate Blanchett – $538,986,777
6. San Andreas – Peyton Reed – Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Daddario – $441,858,144
7. Kingsman: The Secret Service – Matthew Vaughn – Colin Firth, Taron Egerton – $403,788,617
8. Home – Tim Johnson – Jim Parsons, Rihanna – $367,811,449
9. Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller – Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron – $356,649,491
10. Taken 3 – Oliver Megaton – Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker – $325,771,424

US:

1. Jurassic World – Colin Trevorrow – Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard – $514,374,155
2. The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson – $452,963,254
3. Furious 7 – James Wan – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker – $351,032,910
4. Inside Out – Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen – $200,844,477
5. Cinderella – Kenneth Branagh – Lily James, Cate Blanchett – $200,286,777
6. Pitch Perfect 2 – Elizabeth Banks – Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson – $181,513,690
7. Home – Tim Johnson – Jim Parsons, Rihanna – $174,901,605
8. Fifty Shades of Grey – Sam Taylor Johnson – Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan – $166,167,230
9. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water – Paul Tibbitt – $162,994,032
10. Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller – Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron – $147,594,972

UK:

1. The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson – £49,096,981
2. Jurassic World – Colin Trevorrow – Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard – £39,216,914
3. Furious 7 – James Wan – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker – £38,399,325
4. Fifty Shades of Grey – Sam Taylor Johnson – Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan – £33,065,566
5. Home – Tim Johnson – Jim Parsons, Rihanna – £24,908,077
6. Cinderella – Kenneth Branagh – Lily James, Cate Blanchett – £20,886,693
7. The Theory of Everything – James Marsh – Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones – £20,446,079
8. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – TJ Miller, Maya Rudolph – £19.527,404
9. Pitch Perfect 2 – Elizabeth Banks – Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson – £17,466,588
10. Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller – Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron – £17,260,896

Here’s our personal top 7 for January to June. To give you a taste of our opinions, 2014’s top picks were Interstellar, Nightcrawler, Boyhood, Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

8) Into the Woods

Director: Rob Marshall
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine
Budget: $50 million
Box-office: $212.9 million

7) Tomorrowland

Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Raffey Cassidy, Pierce Gagnon, Hugh Laurie
Budget: $190 million
Box-office: $202 million

6) Minions

Director: Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
Starring: Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Geoffrey Rush
Budget: $74 million
Box-office: $141 million

5) The Theory of Everything

Director: James Marsh
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis
Budget: $15 million
Box-office: $121.2 million

4) Still Alice

Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
Starring: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Hunter Parrish, Kate Bosworth
Budget: $5 million
Box-office: $41.8 million

3) Selma

Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Oprah Winfrey, Tim Roth
Budget: $20 million
Box-office: $66.8 million

2) The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner
Budget: $280 million
Box-office: $1.3 billion

1) Jurassic World

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Vincent D’Onofrio
Budget: $150 million
Box-office: $1,2 billion

Michael Fassbender in new shots from Macbeth and new Avengers: Infinity War details

The upcoming retelling of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is already gathering the potential to be a prime Oscar candidate. The latest set of stills have been released and show what’s expected of the Scottish period drama. Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) directs the cast of Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men, Frank, 12 Years a Slave), Marion Cotillard (Inception, Rust and Bone, Two Days One Night, The Dark Knight Rises), Paddy Considine (The World’s End, Dead Man’s Shoes, Pride, The Bourne Ultimatum), Sean Harris (Harry Brown, ’71), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, The Man From UNCLE), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did, Delivery Man) and David Thewlis (Harry Potter, Kingdom of Heaven, War Horse, The Theory of Everything).

The second instalment of the Avengers film franchise, Age of Ultron, debuted recently and plans for the third are already underway. Infinity War will release in two parts of 2018 and 2019 and the details of the filming has emerged. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (who replace Joss Whedon after impressing with The Winter Soldier, the films will shoot back to back over a course of nine months starting in late 2016.

We have no idea which characters will actually survive Phase 3 but we can expect the cast list to include Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin) as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island) as Hulk, Scarlett Johansson (Her) as Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth (Rush) as Thor, Jeremy Renner (The Town) as Hawkeye, Chris Evans (Snowpiercer) as Captain America, Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla) as Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) as Vision, Don Cheadle (Crash) as War Machine, Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) as Falcon, Karen Gillan (Oculus) as Nebula, Paul Rudd (Anchorman) as Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly (Lost) as Wasp, Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up) as Black Panther, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Doctor Strange, Tom Hiddleston (Crimson Peak) as Loki and Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) as Thanos.

Macbeth – 2015

The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 – April 27th 2018

The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 – April 29th 2019

Jenkins is Wonder Woman director, Gosling in Blade Runner and Cannes lineup revealed: Woody Allen! Pixar! Mad Max?

Warner Bros suffered a major setback on their highly anticipated fantasy reboot of the DC hero Winder Woman. Director Michelle MacLaren, behind some of the best episodes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, pulled out of the film leaving a gap to fill but the replacement has been announced as Patty Jenkins (Monster) is hired. Jenkins was in fact connected to Marvel’s superhero sequel Thor: The Dark World, long before the Edgar Wright/Ant–Man split, and left based on creative differences. Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious) is the Israeli star who’ll bring the new Wonder Woman to the screen.

Gladiator’s Ridley Scott sadly passed on the new Blade Runner sequel but BAFTA nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Incendies, Prisoners) is taking his place. Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, The Fugitive) is confirmed to be reprising his role as the futuristic detective Rick Deckard but some new castings are now poised to be made. The latest report shows that Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love, Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) is in talks for a a so far unspecified role but you can’t deny some likeness to the original’s Rutger Hauer.

Festivals like Cannes are now major platforms for indie films to get the platform they need to campaign their way to the Oscars and the following list might show some early awards favourites, considering last year the films included Foxcatcher, Mr Turner, Two Days One Night, Maps to the Stars, Leviathan, The Homesman, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Force Majeure but also included the massive flop Grace of Monaco. Here’s this years selection, which’ll each be scrutinised by the jury (led by Fargo and No Country For Old Men directors Joel and Ethan Cohen) for the prestigious prize of Palme D’Or.

Film: Dheepan
Director: Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone)
Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga
Premise: The story of a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.
Nation: France

Film: Marguerite et Julien
Director: Valerie Donzelli (Declaration of War)
Starring: Anais Demoustier, Frederic Pierrot
Nation: France

Film: The Tale of Tales
Director: Matteo Garrone (Gamorra)
Starring: Salma Hayek (Frida), Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Nation: Italy

Film: Carol
Director: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There)
Starring: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Rooney Mara (The Social Network), Kyle Chandler (Super 8), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), Cory Michael Smith (Gotham)
Premise: Set in 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.
Nation: United States

Film: Nie yin niang (The Assassin)
Director: Hsiao Hsien Hou (Three Times)
Starring: Qi Shu, Chen Chang, Satoshi Tsumbuki
Nation: Taiwan

Film: Shan He Gu Ren (Mountains May Depart
Director: Zhangke Jia (Still Life, A Touch of Sin)
Starring: Tao Zhao
Nation: China

Film: Out Little Sister
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking)
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa
Nation: Japan

Film: Macbeth
Director: Justin Kurzel (Snowtown)
Starring: Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave), Marion Cotillard (Inception), David Thewlis (The Theory of Everything), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby), Sean Harris (Prometheus), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Paddy Considine (The World’s End)
Premise: Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Nation: United Kingdom, France, United States

Film: The Lobster
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth)
Starring: Colin Farrell (Minority Report), Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Olivia Colman (Tyranasour)
Premise: In a dystopian near future, single people are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days or are transformed into animals and released into the woods.
Nation: Greece

Film: Mon Roi
Director: Maiwenn (Polisse)
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel
Nation: France

Film: Mia Madre
Director: Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room)
Starring: Margherita Buy (The Caiman), John Turturro (Barton Fink)
Nation: Italy

Film: La giovinezza (The Early Years)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino (This Must Be the Place)
Starring: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Michael Caine (Batman Begins), Jane Fonda (Coming Home), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs)
Premise: Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps.
Nation: Italy

Film: Louder Than Bombs
Director: Joaquim Trier (Oslo August 31st)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Amy Ryan (Birdman), Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards), David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck)
Nation: Norway, France, Denmark, United States

Film: The Sea of Trees
Director: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting)
Starring: Matthew MacConaughey (Interstellar), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Ken Watanabe (Letters Form Iwo Jima)
Premise: A suicidal American befriends a Japanese man lost in a forest near Mt. Fuji and the two search for a way out.
Nation: United States

Film: Sicario
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies)
Starring: Emily Blunt (Looper), Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men), Jon Beranthal (Fury), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic)
Premise: A young female FBI agent joins a secret CIA operation to take down a Mexican cartel boss, a job that ends up pushing her ethical and moral values to the limit.
Nation: United States

Films not competing:

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller (The Road Warrior)
Starring: Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Charlize Theron (Prometheus), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class)
Premise: In a post-apocalyptic world, in which people fight to the death, Max teams up with a mysterious woman, Furiousa, to try and survive.
Nation: Australian, United States

Film: Irrational Man
Director: Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris, Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Starring: Emma Stone (The Help), Joaquin Phoenix (Her)
Premise: On a small town college campus, a philosophy professor in existential crisis gives his life new purpose when he enters into a relationship with his student.
Nation: United States

Film: The Little Prince
Director: Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda)
Starring: Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Mackenzie Foy (Interstellar), Paul Giamatti (Saving Mr Banks), James Franco (127 Hours), Marion Cotillard (Inception), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo), Ricky Gervais (The Office)
Premise: A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a little boy from a distant planet.
Nation: France

The Theory of Everything review

Director: James Marsh

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, David Thewlis, Simon McBurney, Harry Lloyd, Maxine Peake, Emily Watson

Stephen Hawking not only the most iconic scientist but likely the most recognisable British figure of the past fifty years. A filmed adaptation of his life was always inevitable and it was hot stuff during this year’s awards race and its arrival leaves us poised to speculate if it was worth the hype.

Cambridge – early 1960s. Students Jane Wilde (Jones) and Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) meet and fall in love but their relationship is soon tested to the limits as Stephen is diagnosed with, seemingly fatal, motor neurone disease. With his body gradually ceasing to function, Stephen is obsessed in his mind achieving its full potential for the sake of science, putting an unbearable strain on his family.

Most disappointingly, the film never outlives is obvious tailor-made-for-the-Oscars roots. While they’re not quite the pet projects of The Grand Budapest Hotel or Boyhood, films such as The Imitation Game and Selma at least protest their own political purpose. This does little besides reiterating a already well publicised story but that doesn’t prevent it from being a surprisingly intimate relationship analysation and character study.

By charting their relationship from conception to the bitter end we gain a beautiful narrative depicting an family in their insurmountable search for normality through their struggles. Helming this wonderfully are the two central performances. Redmayne superbly portrays Hawking’s physical descent – masterfully conveying the disease’s horrific effects – while still maintaining a naive optimism. His Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe are all well deserved.

Jones, who is still a relative newcomer following the subdued successes of Like Crazy and The Invisible Woman, gives a performance that is never quite as impressive as her opposite number but is equally powerful and engaging. Still, later on in the film, she gets sidelined as the typical struggling wife and unintentionally unempathable in her involvement with Charlie Cox’s mild mannered choirmaster in a painfully blatant romantic subplot. Her presence in the aforementioned awards’ spot for Leading Actress is a pleasing sign for British talent however.

The film’s supporting cast do not let up either: both David Thewlis (Harry Potter’s Lupin) and Simon McBurney (Rev’s Archdeacon) are excellent as Hawking’s mentor and father respectively. Confusingly, the two time Oscar nominated star of War Horse, The Book Thief and Breaking the Waves Emily Watson receives a high billing only to be given an almost cameo like appearance as Jane’s mother.

Despite the glossy sheen of James Marsh’s direction, there is the odd gaping hole in the narrative. Harry Lloyd’s character, Stephen’s roomate Brian, is fictional and was created entirely for the purposes of the film, suspending the belief of the “true story”. Also, the passage of time is conveyed very poorly. For those, somehow, unaware of the story it’d be unclear is this is taking place of five or twenty years. The film’s conclusion is also confusing as it puts focus onto their children, characters who have barely had a single comprehensible line of dialogue despite having an equally intriguing story to tell.

The Theory of Everything makes the poor mistake of portraying both its leads as saints but it’s undoubtedly one of Britain’s most engaging, thoughtful and excellently acted films in years. While morally unsatisfying, it’s still a worthy contender as one of the finest entries of the 2014/15 awards season.

8/10

“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”

68th British Academy Film Awards Live

Welcome to our BAFTA hub for 2015. Tonight is the biggest night of the British film calender as the esteemed academy elects its triumphant films, directors and stars. Keep on refreshing the page for the latest updates.

If you’re not preoccupied before the ceremony, try out our prediction game. Rank the nominees for Best Film, Director, Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, Cinematography, British Film and Rising Star from 1-5. If your number one pick is correct you receive five points, number two gets four, number three gets three and so on. Comment your score from a maximum of 59. Unsure where to start? Try our own predictions as a primer. Get the full nominations list here.

The red carpet lineup is amassing: Benedict Cumberbatch! Eddie Redmayne! Keira Knightley! Steve Carell! Ralph Fiennes! Ethan Hawke! Mike Leigh! Jack O’Connell! Michael Keaton! Mark Strong!

Here we go!

Stephen Fry begins his annual interrogation of the esteemed audience members. Rosamund Pike! Julie Walters! Edward Norton!

Outstanding British Film:

The Theory of Everything
Pride
Under the Skin
The Imitation Game
’71
Paddington

Beckham awards the first win of the night. Does that put Theory in the front seat for Best Film?

Special Visual Effects:

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Guardians of the Galaxy

It missed out on the main categories but it made up here. Jones and Hawking’s humour shining through again.

Supporting Actor:

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Edward Norton – Birdman
Ethawn Hawke – Boyhood
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Witherspoon on her way to Leading Actress as she awards J Jonah Jameson a BAFTA.

Next two British greats award a third.

Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema:

BBC Films (Revolutionary Road, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Jane Eyre, Made in Deganham, Notes on a Scandal, Billy Elliott, Coriolanus, Pride, An Education, Quartet, In the Loop, Philomena, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa)

The Butler’s Cuba Gooding Jr dishes out the second acting category.

Supporting Actress:

Rene Russo – Nightcrawler
Emma Stone – Birdman
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Imelda Staunton – Pride

A rising star and Bilbo himself award Birdman’s first win.

Cinematography:

Mr Turner (Dick Pope)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Robert Yeoman)
Interstellar (Hoyte Van Hoytema)
Ida (Lukasz Zal)
Birdman (Emmanuel Lubezki)

The ever sharply suited Loki and MI6 Head celebrate a great career beginning.

British Debut:

’71
Northern Soul
Lilting
Kajaki
Pride

A fitting tribute to a true great, Lord Richard Attenborough, from Prince William and Robert Downey Jr.

Best Actress favourite Julianne Moore arrives.

Best Original Screenplay:

Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro Gonalez Inarritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone, Armando Bo -Birdman
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Two JJ Abrams collaborators on stage. Shared universe? It’s all a conspiracy!

Foreign Language:

Leviathan
The Lunchbox
Two Days, One Night
Ida
Trash

He’s semi-bald! Future Lex Luthor Jesse Eisenberg and Noomi Rapace turn up.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game
Jason Dean Hall – American Sniper
Paul King – Paddington

We taking a minute off to honour the In Memoriam section.

X-Men’s James McAvoy arrives – we forgot he was Scottish again.

EE Rising Star:

Gugu Mbatha Raw
Miles Teller
Shailene Woodley
Jack O’Connell
Margot Robbie

Your new one to watch is Jack O’Connell, one of the many protogee’s of E4’s Skins who’s starred in the acclaimed likes of Starred Up, Unbroken and ’71.

Brick is back.

Director:

Alejandro Gonzale Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
James Marsh – The Theory of Everything
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Only God Forgive’s Kristen Scott Thomas compliments her opposite number.

Leading Actor:

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Another crossover in the work: Superman V Captain America!

Leading Actress:

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

That was a surprise: Tom Cruise!

Film:

The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Boyhood
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Fellowship:

Mike Leigh (Mr Turner, Life is Sweet, High Hopes, Career Girls, Abigail’s Party, All or Nothing, Topsy Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked, Vera Drake, Happy Go Lucky, Another Year)

Here comes the quickfire awards.

Original Music:

Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Documentary:

Citizenfour

Makeup and Hair:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Production Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

British Short Film:

Boogaloo and Graham

British Short Animation:

The Bigger Picture

Editing:

Whiplash

Sound:

Whiplash

Animated Film:

The Lego Movie

Costume Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

We managed 53/59 so comment how you did. Here’s the winners leaderboard.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – 5
Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash – 3
Ida, Interstellar, The Lego Movie, Pride, Citizenfour, Still Alice, Birdman – 1

BIFA 2013 wins and new Sherlock series 3 trailer

We reported for you about a month ago the 2013 nominations for the British Independent Film Awards, or BIFA. Now the winners have come in and Metro Manila is the victorious film in this celebration of this country’s indie cinema. The 16th BIFAs were sponsored by Moet and, just in case you think this is a minor ceremony, remember that proud supporters of the group include Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen and David Thewlis.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

Sponsored by Moët & Chandon 

Metro Manila

BEST DIRECTOR

Sponsored by AllCity & Intermission

Sean Ellis – Metro Manila

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR] 

Sponsored by 3 Mills Studios

Paul Wright – For Those in Peril

BEST SCREENPLAY

Steven Knight – Locke

BEST ACTRESS  

Sponsored by M.A.C Cosmetics

Lindsay Duncan – Le Week-end

BEST ACTOR 

Sponsored by BBC Films  

James McAvoy – Filth

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

Imogen Poots – The Look Of Love

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

Sponsored by Sanderson & St Martins Lane 

Ben Mendelsohn – Starred Up

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER

Sponsored by Studiocanal

Chloe Pirrie – Shell

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION 

Sponsored by Company3

Metro Manila

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT 

Sponsored by LightBrigade Media

Amy Hubbard – Casting – The Selfish Giant

BEST DOCUMENTARY

A Punk Prayer

BEST BRITISH SHORT 

Supported by BFI NET.WORK

Z1

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM 

Blue is the Warmest Colour

THE RAINDANCE AWARD 

Sponsored by Wentworth Media and Arts 

The Machine

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution by an actor to British Film)

Julie Walters

THE VARIETY AWARD 

Paul Greengrass

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE 

Sixteen Films & Friends (AKA Team Loach)

It’s great to see Paul Greengrass being honoured as one of the most forward British directors of our age, alongside Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle, Sam Mendes, Joe Wright, Guy Ritchie, Lynne Ramsay, Kenneth Branagh, and Rupert Wyatt, but we move swiftly on to the new trailer for the third season Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are the key stars of the acclaimed detective thriller which’ll will hopefully tie up the loose ends of 2012’s season finale. Here at Tourhoth Movies, we can’t wait.

Sherlock series 3 – January 1st 2014 on BBC One

Monty Python to reunite in stage show plus Insidious: Chapter 3 and Dumb and Dumber To grab release dates

Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and John Cleese were the creators and stars of the comedy TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. That led to the brilliant films Monty Python and the Holy Grail (ranked on IMDB as the 98th greatest film of all time), The Meaning of Life and Life of Brian (ranked 170th). Sadly, the legendary sextet lost one of their members, Graham Chapman, in 1989. Since then it’s been difficult for a reunion.

Over the past few days, Idle has been dropping twitter hints about a reunion. “We’re getting together and putting on a show – it’s real,” Jones told the BBC. “I’m quite excited about it. I hope it makes us a lot of money. I hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!” This isn’t the first attempt at a Monty Python stage show. Spamalot, a loving rip-off of MP and the Holy Grail, was the hilarious smash hit musical written by Eric Idle that’s toured the world to critical acclaim. If you really can’t wait to get your hands on Python related material then you’ll be excited for The Zero Theorem. It’s directed by Twelve Monkeys, Time Bandits, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Python’s Terry Gilliam and stars Christoph Waltz, David Thewlis, Melanie Thierry, Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton and Ben Whishaw.

Get ready to pencil in a few more releases on your movie calender. The first is Dumb and Dumber To. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels will reprise their roles as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne respectively. They’ll join Jennifer Lawrence, Kathleen Turner and Laurie Holden as well as directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly in this comedy sequel set, and released, 20 years on from the original.

Next is Insidious: Chapter 3. The first two chapters of James Wan’s horror trilogy received great box-office success so a third has been commissioned. The films chronicle the bewildered and possessed Lambert family, played by Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Ty Simpkins and Andrew Astor. It’s unclear if Wan (director of Saw and The Conjuring) will return due to his commitments to the Fast and Furious franchise.

Dumb and Dumber To – December 19th 2014

Insidious: Chapter 3 – April 5th 2015

Fast and Furious 7 – July 25th 2014

Untitled Monty Python stage show – UK theatres in 2014?

The Zero Theorem – March 14th 2014

Ford talks Blade Runner 2, Doug Liman in talks for new thriller and Watson and Thewlis join Theory of Everything

Blade Runner is rightly appreciated as one of the science-fiction greats. In all the talk of him reviving the role of Han Solo for Star Wars: Episode VII, Harrison Ford (who was on a promotion tour for his latest feature Ender’s Game when IGN asked him about Blade Runner) has told us more about the possibilities of a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 futuristic thriller.

“I remember it with complication, but I’m not there to generate nostalgic moments, I’m there to do a job of work. I quite understand that everybody has an ambition when they come and do a film, and everyone’s ambition may not be focused on the same thing. I truly admire Ridley as a man and as a director, and I would be very happy to engage with him again in the further telling of this story.” Thanks to IGN for the eye-opening interview. If Ridley Scott is returning as a director, there’ll certainly be an effort to improve from his latest work, Prometheus (a reboot/prequel of his own sci-fi classic Alien), Robin Hood (Scott and Russell Crowe’s dull retelling of the English legend) or Hannibal, and give more of the quality we’ve seen from him in American Gangster and Gladiator. He’ll probably get back on track with the upcoming thriller The Counsellor (starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem – out November 15th) and biblical epic Exodus (with Aaron Paul, Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro and Maria Valverde – December 12th 2014).

Doug Liman should be hard at work completing his current project Edge of Tomorrow. The Jumper, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity director has Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton starring in his sci-fi action adventure but he’s now in talks for a different project.

Last year’s tragic death of beloved director Tony Scott left a huge amount of projects unfinished. One of them was the story of the drug smuggling ship Narco Sub shifting cocaine up from South America into the US. David Guggenheim (writer of Nick Cage’s action-packed Stolen and 2012’s crime mystery Safe House with stars Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington and director Daniel Espinosa) is currently polishing a script for the feature, alongside his potential Safe House 2, and the aforementioned Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free producing the thriller.

Finally, we’ve got two major castings for Theory of Everything. Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, Birdsong. My Week With Marilyn), Felicity Jones (The Tempest, Like Crazy) were already set to star in the Stephen Hawking biopic under the direction of James Marsh (Oscar winner from Man on Wire, Project Nim and Shadow Dancer). Emily Watson (4 time Oscar nominee from Breaking Waves, War Horse and many others) and David Thewlis (BAFTA nominee from Harry Potter and Kingdom of Heaven, and also War Horse and Watson’s landlord) are now confirmed castings in unspecific roles in the telling of Britain’s most iconic scientist who struggles through motor neurone disease (he was predicted to die aged 23 but he’s still living now at 71!) and two divorces. We’re expecting these two castings to add a bit more award contention to the film

Blade Runner 2 – 2016?

Edge of Tomorrow – May 30th 2014

Narco Sub – 2016?

Theory of Everything – 2015