The National Board of Review has once again ushered in the Oscar season with the surprise announcement of George Miller's highly acclaimed reboot MAD MAX: FURY ROAD as the 2015 Best Film of the Year. Some of the buzziest films of the season like "Carol", "Brooklyn", "Steve Jobs" and "The Revenant" did not receive any mention at all but "Straight Outta Compton", "Creed" and "Sicario" - three of my favorites this year - made the list alongside "Room", "Bridge of Spies", "The Hateful Eight", "Inside Out", "Spotlight" and "The Martian".
Below is the full list of the awards given by the National Board of Review:
Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Director: Ridley Scott – The Martian
Best Actor: Matt Damon – The Martian
Best Actress: Brie Larson – Room
Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone – Creed
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino – The Hateful Eight
Best Adapted Screenplay: Drew Goddard – The Martian
Best Animated Feature: Inside Out
Breakthrough Performance: Abraham Attah – Beasts of No Nation & Jacob Tremblay – Room
Best Directorial Debut: Jonas Carpignano – Mediterranea
Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul
Best Documentary: Amy
William K. Everson Film History Award: Cecilia De Mille Presley
Best Ensemble: The Big Short
Spotlight Award: Sicario, for Outstanding Collaborative Vision
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Beasts of No Nation & Mustang
Top Films
Bridge of Spies
Creed
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Spotlight
The Martian
Room
Sicario
Straight Outta Compton
Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Goodnight Mommy
Mediterranea
Phoenix
The Second Mother
The Tribe
Top 5 Documentaries
Best of Enemies
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
The Diplomat
Listen to Me Marlon
The Look of Silence
Top 10 Independent Films
’71
45 Years
Cop Car
Ex Machina
Grandma
It Follows
James White
Mississippi Grind
Welcome to Me
While We’re Young
NBR President Annie Schulhof said, “2015 has been a banner year for popular cinema. We are thrilled to be awarding George Miller and Ridley Scott, two iconic filmmakers at the top of their game, while also celebrating the next generation of talent.”
The 2015 Gala will be held on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 and will be hosted by Willie Geist.
The films have been announced!! There are 49 films selected and 8 of them are first films! More films will be announced later. I may have missed some of the english titles and their directors. I beg your forgiveness... Good night... MAIN COMPETITION
Dheepan | Jacques Audiard | France
A Simple Man | France
Marguerite and Juliene | Valérie Donzelli | France
The Tale of Tales | Matteo Garronne | Italy
Carol | Todd Haynes | USA
The Assassin | Hou Hsiao Hsien | Taiwan
Mountains May Depart | Jia Zhang-ke | China
Our Little Sister | Hirokazu Kore-eda | Japan
Macbeth | Justin Kurzel | Australia
The Lobster | Yorgos Lanthimos | Greece
My Mother | Nanni Morreti | Italy
Saul Fia (Son of Saul) | László Nemes | Hungary (First-time filmmaker)
Youth | Paolo Sorrentino | Italy
Louder Than Bombs | Joaquim Trier film | Norway
The Sea of Trees | Gus Van Sant | USA
Sicario | Denis Villanueve | Canada
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Madonna, dir: Shin Suwon | Korea
Maryland, dir: Anna Winocour | USA
The Fourth Direction, dir: Gurvinder Singh | India
Masaan (Fly Away Solo), dir: Neeraj Ghaywan | India
Hruter (Rams), dir: Grimur Hakonarson | Iceland
Kishibe No Tabi (Journey to the Shore), dir: Kurosawa Kiyoshi | Japan
Je Suis Un Soldat (I Am a Soldier), dir: Laurent Larivere | France
Zvizdan (The High Sun), dir: Dalibor Matanic | Croatia
The Other Side, dir: Roberto Minervini | Italy
One Floor Below, dir: Radu Muntean | Romania
Shameless, dir: Oh Seung-Uk | Korea
The Chosen Ones, dir: David Pablos | Mexico
Nahid, dir: Ida Panahandeh | Iran
The Treasure, dir: Corneliu Porumboiu | France
OUT-OF-COMPETITION
La Tete haute (Head Held High) | France
Mad Max: Fury Road | Australia | George Miller
An Irrational Man | USA | Woody Allen
Inside Out | USA | Pete Docter
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) | France
The Opening Night film was announced yesterday... Emmanuelle Bercot's "La Tete haute" will open the most prestigious film festival in the world on May 13!
La Tête haute tells the story of Malony, and his upbringing from six to eighteen years, as a children's judge and social worker try to save him. It was filmed in the Nord-Pas de Calais, Rhône-Alpes and Paris area regions, with the participation of Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel, Sara Forestier and Rod Paradot, who plays the main character.
The world première of La Tête haute will be shown in the Grand Théâtre Lumière in the Palais des Festivals, and will be released in French cinemas the same day, on Wednesday 13 May. The film has already been sold in multiple countries.
Emmanuelle Bercot is a film director, screenwriter and actress. She studied dance at Cours Florent before attending La Fémis film school. Her talent was discovered at the 1997 Festival de Cannes, where her short film, Les Vacances, received the Jury Prize. This was confirmed two years later with a second Cinéfondation Prize for La Puce, her final-year student film. In 2001, her first feature film, Clement (Clément), in which she plays the main character, made the Un Certain Regard Official Selection. Since then, she has directed several films, including On my Way (Elle s'en va) in 2014, in which Catherine Deneuve gave one of her best performances.
Emmanuelle Bercot also co-wrote the script for Maïwenn's Polis (Polisse), which earned her the main role in her latest film, Mon Roi.
La Tête haute was written by Emmanuelle Bercot and Marcia Romano, with Guillaume Schiffman as director of photography. It is produced by Les Films du Kiosque, and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, Wild Bunch, Rhône-Alpes Cinema and Pictanovo with the participation of Nord-Pas de Calais Region. It is sold by Elle Driver and distributed in France by Wild Bunch.
The 68th edition of the Festival de Cannes will take place from 13 to 24 May 2015. The Jury of the Competition will be chaired by American directors Joel and Ethan Coen, the Un Certain Regard Jury by the Italian-American actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, and the Cinéfondation and Short Film Jury by Mauritian Film Director Abderrahmane Sissako.
Earlier, George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" was also announced as one of the Official Selection Out-of-Competition films and will screen May 14!
After a gap of 30 years, the hero of the legendary saga returns, this time played by Tom Hardy after his first epoch-making appearance courtesy of Mel Gibson.
Mad Max: Fury Road transports us to a post-apocalyptic world in which gangs clash over scare petrol and water resources. Max Rockatansky, played by Tom Hardy, comes face to face with the Empress Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who is fleeing a gang in hot pursuit…
It also marks the long-awaited return of Georges Miller to the realm of action and science fiction films. The Australian writer launched the series in 1979 before filming Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
Produced by the Kennedy Miller Mitchell Company, Mad Max: Fury Road is distributed internationally by Warner Bros Pictures, and in certain regions by Village Roadshow Pictures.
The film will go on release worldwide following its Cannes preview, on 14th May.
