At Sunday night’s Baftas, film stars, royals and the viewing public were reminded that the Syrian people should not be forgotten – as airstrikes and barrel bombs still rain down on Idlib province, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee (Report, 4 February).
As she accepted the award for best documentary, the director and narrator of For Sama, Waad Al-Kateab, told the world that the “people of Idlib should hear your voice now”.
Continue reading...Actor’s speech addressing issues of diversity and reputation meets with ‘uncomfortable silence’ – and much praise
Joaquin Phoenix’s powerful broadside against the body that awarded him the best actor prize on Sunday night has met with a chorus of praise across the film industry.
In his speech, Phoenix said he felt conflicted by his victory “because so many of my fellow actors who are deserving don’t have that same privilege”.
Continue reading...The Baftas awards frontrunner joins protestors on Tower Bridge in London to campaign for a meat-free world
Oscar and Bafta nominee Joaquin Phoenix has made a plea for people to “go vegan” as he led an animal equality protest in central London.
The actor gathered activists for a protest where he dropped a 390-square-foot banner from Tower Bridge that declared: “Factory farming destroys our planet. Go vegan.”
Continue reading...From Little Women and Bombshell on one side and The Irishman and The Two Popes on the other, the Academy will have to tread a careful line picking this year’s nominations
British politicians are not the only people preparing for the campaign trail; Hollywood’s awards-season schmooze offensive has also begun. Gala ball dates are being added to diaries, academy voters are being targeted and a clutch of frontrunners is emerging. Trends – most of them worrying – are also appearing.
In summary, this year it is “boy films” v “girl films”. A gaping gender divide seems to have split the field. On the girls’ side, we have two well-received titles: Bombshell, dramatising the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. Both are stories of female defiance at the male-dominated status quo, and are cast with an embarrassment of awards-bait: Little Women features Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Laura Dern; Bombshell has Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney.
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