In more sad streamer news, "Dangerous Liaisons" has been canceled by Starz, reversing its early season 2 renewal. According to Deadline, the remaining three episodes of the first season, which consists of eight episodes total, will air as scheduled and executive producers are actively shopping the new series around to secure another home.
The show's season 2 renewal was announced on November 1, just days before "Dangerous Liaisons" debuted on November 6. Deadline claims that Starz "continued to believe in the show creatively" but was forced to reverse their decision when the period drama "struggled to find an audience." According to live and same-day Nielsen data pulled by the outlet, "Dangerous Liaisons" premiered with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic and only 88,000 total viewers. As the series went on, the show dropped as low as a 0.02 and only raked in 52,000 total viewers for the episode that aired Thanksgiving weekend. Since then, ratings improved slightly with the December 4 episode,...
The show's season 2 renewal was announced on November 1, just days before "Dangerous Liaisons" debuted on November 6. Deadline claims that Starz "continued to believe in the show creatively" but was forced to reverse their decision when the period drama "struggled to find an audience." According to live and same-day Nielsen data pulled by the outlet, "Dangerous Liaisons" premiered with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic and only 88,000 total viewers. As the series went on, the show dropped as low as a 0.02 and only raked in 52,000 total viewers for the episode that aired Thanksgiving weekend. Since then, ratings improved slightly with the December 4 episode,...
- 12/13/2022
- by Lex Briscuso
- Slash Film
Exclusive: Dangerous Liaisons has been canceled at Starz, reversing its early Season 2 renewal. The remaining three episodes of the 8-episode first season will air as scheduled.
Executive producers are actively shopping the period drama around, Deadline hears.
Dangerous Liaisons’ Season 2 renewal was announced on Nov. 1, ahead of the series’ Nov. 6 debut. According to sources Starz brass continue to believe in the show creatively but the prequel to the famous 18th-century novel struggled to find an audience, leading to its cancellation.
On linear, Dangerous Liaisons premiered with a 0.03 rating among the 18-49 demographic and only 88,000 total viewers, according to live + same day Nielsen data. Things didn’t improve in the following weeks, with the show dropping as low as a 0.02 and 52,000 total viewers for the Thanksgiving weekend episode. Though ratings improved slightly with its Dec. 4 airing, the show has yet to crack a six-figure L+Sd audience thus far. Starz has...
Executive producers are actively shopping the period drama around, Deadline hears.
Dangerous Liaisons’ Season 2 renewal was announced on Nov. 1, ahead of the series’ Nov. 6 debut. According to sources Starz brass continue to believe in the show creatively but the prequel to the famous 18th-century novel struggled to find an audience, leading to its cancellation.
On linear, Dangerous Liaisons premiered with a 0.03 rating among the 18-49 demographic and only 88,000 total viewers, according to live + same day Nielsen data. Things didn’t improve in the following weeks, with the show dropping as low as a 0.02 and 52,000 total viewers for the Thanksgiving weekend episode. Though ratings improved slightly with its Dec. 4 airing, the show has yet to crack a six-figure L+Sd audience thus far. Starz has...
- 12/12/2022
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps are among the writers aiming to win consecutive prizes at this year’s Awgie Awards.
Grant, who won the adaptation prize with Cripps for Penguin Bloom in 2020 and for the True History of the Kelly Gang in 2019, is nominated this year for his work on Nitram, against the Here Out West writing team of Nisrine Amine, Bina Bhattacharya, Matias Bolla, Claire Cao, Arka Das, Dee Duygu Dogan, Vonne Patiag and Tien Tran; Falling for Figaro‘s Ben Lewin and Allen Palmer; and The Furnace‘s Roderick MacKay in the original feature film category.
Cripps and Robert Connolly have been recognised for The Dry, which is one of two nominees for the feature film adaptation award alongside Babyteeth, written for the screen by the original playwright Rita Kalnejais.
In the television categories, Tony McNamara’s The Great is pitted against Wakefield, Five Bedrooms and Wentworth for...
Grant, who won the adaptation prize with Cripps for Penguin Bloom in 2020 and for the True History of the Kelly Gang in 2019, is nominated this year for his work on Nitram, against the Here Out West writing team of Nisrine Amine, Bina Bhattacharya, Matias Bolla, Claire Cao, Arka Das, Dee Duygu Dogan, Vonne Patiag and Tien Tran; Falling for Figaro‘s Ben Lewin and Allen Palmer; and The Furnace‘s Roderick MacKay in the original feature film category.
Cripps and Robert Connolly have been recognised for The Dry, which is one of two nominees for the feature film adaptation award alongside Babyteeth, written for the screen by the original playwright Rita Kalnejais.
In the television categories, Tony McNamara’s The Great is pitted against Wakefield, Five Bedrooms and Wentworth for...
- 10/26/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Emmy nominee Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones), Paloma Faith (Youth) and Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones) and BAFTA nominee Kosar Ali (Rocks) are among 14 cast in Starz’s original series Dangerous Liaisons, a reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel. Also joining leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the prequel series are Nathanael Saleh (Mary Poppins Returns), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Godzilla vs. Kong), Hilton Pelser (Moffie), Mia Threapleton (A Little Chaos), Colette Dalal Tchantcho (The Witcher), Lucy Cohu (The Queen’s Sister), Fisayo Akinade (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Maria Friedman (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Clare Higgins (Ready Player One). The series hails from Lionsgate TV, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures.
Dangerous Liaisons tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet...
Dangerous Liaisons tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet...
- 6/16/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
The “Dangerous Liaisons” series at Starz has added over a dozen actors to its cast.
Lesley Manville, Carice van Houten, Michael McElhatton, Paloma Faith, Koshar Ali, Nathanael Saleh, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Hilton Pelser, Mia Threapleton, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Lucy Cohu, Fisayo Akinade, Maria Friedman, and Clare Higgins will all appear in the series. They join previously announced series leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the reimagining on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book of the same name.
Full character descriptions for the new cast members can be found below.
The series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and...
Lesley Manville, Carice van Houten, Michael McElhatton, Paloma Faith, Koshar Ali, Nathanael Saleh, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Hilton Pelser, Mia Threapleton, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Lucy Cohu, Fisayo Akinade, Maria Friedman, and Clare Higgins will all appear in the series. They join previously announced series leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the reimagining on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book of the same name.
Full character descriptions for the new cast members can be found below.
The series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and...
- 6/16/2021
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Surge Trailer — Aneil Karia‘s Surge (2020) UK movie trailer has been released by BritFlicks. The Surge trailer stars Ben Whishaw, Ellie Haddington, Jasmine Jobson, Laurence Spellman, Ryan McKen, Stacha Hicks, Bradley Taylor, Muna Otaru, Ray Calleja, Bogdan Kominowski, and Lucy Thackeray. Crew Rupert Jones, Rita Kalnejais, and Aneil Karia wrote the screenplay for Surge. Tujiko [...]
Continue reading: Surge (2020) UK Movie Trailer: Ben Whishaw Descends into Manic Madness in Aneil Karia’s Thriller Film...
Continue reading: Surge (2020) UK Movie Trailer: Ben Whishaw Descends into Manic Madness in Aneil Karia’s Thriller Film...
- 6/1/2021
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
The Disney title will aim to shift ‘Peter Rabbit 2’ from the top spot.
Disney’s Cruella becomes the first title to debut in over 500 locations since UK cinemas reopened, as the number of releases grows following last weekend’s strong box office showing.
There are 10 new films debuting in UK cinemas today, plus an additional one which opened on Wednesday. This is up on the five that opened last Friday; at least 11 films did come out on Monday 17 when cinemas reopened, although several of these had previously been released on VoD during the shutdown.
Cruella will be available on...
Disney’s Cruella becomes the first title to debut in over 500 locations since UK cinemas reopened, as the number of releases grows following last weekend’s strong box office showing.
There are 10 new films debuting in UK cinemas today, plus an additional one which opened on Wednesday. This is up on the five that opened last Friday; at least 11 films did come out on Monday 17 when cinemas reopened, although several of these had previously been released on VoD during the shutdown.
Cruella will be available on...
- 5/28/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Alice Englert (“Beautiful Creatures,” “Ratched”) and Nicholas Denton (“Glitch,” “Pillars”) will star as Merteuil and Valmont in Starz’s “Dangerous Liaisons” TV series, the pay TV channel said Thursday, describing the show as “the story of a young woman who negotiates love, sex, class and power to navigate an oppressive, unjust establishment on the brink of collapse.”
Per Starz, “Dangerous Liaisons” is a bold reimagining of the iconic characters from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel and tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert stars as Camille, a...
Per Starz, “Dangerous Liaisons” is a bold reimagining of the iconic characters from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel and tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert stars as Camille, a...
- 5/20/2021
- by Jennifer Maas
- The Wrap
The “Dangerous Liaisons” series at Starz has cast Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the two lead roles, Variety has learned.
A reimagining on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book of the same name, the series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert recently appeared in shows like “The Serpent” and “Ratched.” She is also known for “Top of the Lake,” “Beautiful Creatures,” and “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.” Denton, meanwhile, is known for projects such as “Glitch” and “Pillars.”
Denton is repped by United, Megan Silverman Management,...
A reimagining on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book of the same name, the series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert recently appeared in shows like “The Serpent” and “Ratched.” She is also known for “Top of the Lake,” “Beautiful Creatures,” and “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.” Denton, meanwhile, is known for projects such as “Glitch” and “Pillars.”
Denton is repped by United, Megan Silverman Management,...
- 5/20/2021
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Alice Englert (Ratched) and Nicholas Denton (Glitch) have been cast as the notorious lovers Merteuil and Valmont in Starz’s original series Dangerous Liaisons, a reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel, from Lionsgate TV, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures.
The series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, the couple rises from the slums of Paris and scales the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert’s Camille is a beautiful young woman from nowhere with a mysterious past who seeks revenge on the wealthy aristocrats who led her to ruin. Betrayed by her lover, Valmont, she turns heartbreak into empowerment...
The series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, the couple rises from the slums of Paris and scales the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.
Englert’s Camille is a beautiful young woman from nowhere with a mysterious past who seeks revenge on the wealthy aristocrats who led her to ruin. Betrayed by her lover, Valmont, she turns heartbreak into empowerment...
- 5/20/2021
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Shannon Murphy has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for best direction for her debut feature, Babyteeth.
Murphy is in good company, with fellow nominees for the prize including Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round; Lee Issac Chung for Minari; Chloé Zhao for Nomadland; Jasmila Žbanić for Quo Vadis, Aida? and Sarah Gavron for Rocks.
It is the first time in BAFTA history that four women have been nominated in the director category.
These are the first edition of nominations to follow BAFTA’s seven-month diversity review, which came about after it faced significant backlash one year ago for a lack of diversity among nominees – including an all-male director category. Three of the nominated directors are also up for best film not in the English language.
The BAFTA nod is yet another accolade for Babyteeth and Murphy’s work, following on from the film’s premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. There,...
Murphy is in good company, with fellow nominees for the prize including Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round; Lee Issac Chung for Minari; Chloé Zhao for Nomadland; Jasmila Žbanić for Quo Vadis, Aida? and Sarah Gavron for Rocks.
It is the first time in BAFTA history that four women have been nominated in the director category.
These are the first edition of nominations to follow BAFTA’s seven-month diversity review, which came about after it faced significant backlash one year ago for a lack of diversity among nominees – including an all-male director category. Three of the nominated directors are also up for best film not in the English language.
The BAFTA nod is yet another accolade for Babyteeth and Murphy’s work, following on from the film’s premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. There,...
- 3/9/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
In an online ceremony hosted by Tom Felton, the winners of the 2020 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were announced yesterday with Sarah Gavron’s ‘Rocks’ taking home five awards.
Best British Independent Film was awarded to coming-of-age drama Rocks by Zendaya with actress Kosar Ali also taking home the awards for both Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer with her young co-star D’Angelou Osei Kissiedu winning Best Supporting Actor. The four awards on the night took the film’s BIFA tally to five with Lucy Pardee winning the award for Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society of America and Spotlight when the craft award winners were announced in January.
British horror His House was awarded two BIFAs on the night with Remi Weekes winning Best Director and Wunmi Mosaku winning Best Actress. Anthony Hopkins’ poignant portrayal of an ageing man in The Father won him Best Actor amongst three wins.
Best British Independent Film was awarded to coming-of-age drama Rocks by Zendaya with actress Kosar Ali also taking home the awards for both Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer with her young co-star D’Angelou Osei Kissiedu winning Best Supporting Actor. The four awards on the night took the film’s BIFA tally to five with Lucy Pardee winning the award for Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society of America and Spotlight when the craft award winners were announced in January.
British horror His House was awarded two BIFAs on the night with Remi Weekes winning Best Director and Wunmi Mosaku winning Best Actress. Anthony Hopkins’ poignant portrayal of an ageing man in The Father won him Best Actor amongst three wins.
- 2/19/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Watch the ceremony live here.
The British Independent Film Awards for 2020 are taking place online tonight (February 18), hosted by Tom Felton.
Screen will be posting all the winners below on this page and on Twitter as they are announced; you can watch the live-streamed ceremony via YouTube below.
Scroll down for the winners.
The ceremony starts at 20.00 UK time and finishes at approximately 20.50.
Winners in the nine craft categories were revealed last month, with His House and Misbehaviour receiving two prizes each.
Saint Maud set a record total of 17 when nominations were announced in December, followed by His House with...
The British Independent Film Awards for 2020 are taking place online tonight (February 18), hosted by Tom Felton.
Screen will be posting all the winners below on this page and on Twitter as they are announced; you can watch the live-streamed ceremony via YouTube below.
Scroll down for the winners.
The ceremony starts at 20.00 UK time and finishes at approximately 20.50.
Winners in the nine craft categories were revealed last month, with His House and Misbehaviour receiving two prizes each.
Saint Maud set a record total of 17 when nominations were announced in December, followed by His House with...
- 2/18/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Watch the ceremony live here.
The British Independent Film Awards for 2020 are taking place online tonight (February 18), hosted by Tom Felton.
Screen will be posting all the winners below on this page and on Twitter as they are announced; you can watch the live-streamed ceremony via YouTube below.
Scroll down for the winners.
The ceremony starts at 20.00 UK time and finishes at approximately 20.50.
Winners in the nine craft categories were revealed last month, with His House and Misbehaviour receiving two prizes each.
Saint Maud set a record total of 17 when nominations were announced in December, followed by His House with...
The British Independent Film Awards for 2020 are taking place online tonight (February 18), hosted by Tom Felton.
Screen will be posting all the winners below on this page and on Twitter as they are announced; you can watch the live-streamed ceremony via YouTube below.
Scroll down for the winners.
The ceremony starts at 20.00 UK time and finishes at approximately 20.50.
Winners in the nine craft categories were revealed last month, with His House and Misbehaviour receiving two prizes each.
Saint Maud set a record total of 17 when nominations were announced in December, followed by His House with...
- 2/18/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Daniel Gordon’s Adam Goodes documentary The Australian Dream may all end up in contention at this year’s BAFTA Awards.
The British Academy announced the longlist for its annual film awards on Friday, ahead of the nominations to be announced on March 9.
Babyteeth has been longlisted in the direction, adapted screenplay and casting categories, which means potential nods for Murphy, writer Rita Kalnejais and casting director Kirsty McGregor respectively.
Starring Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis, Babyteeth was Murphy’s debut feature, with Kalnejais adapting her 2012 Belvoir St stageplay for the screen. Dubbed a “bittersweet comedy”, the film produced by Alex White and EP’d by Jan Chapman premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, going on to win acclaim and a slew of awards, including nine AACTAs.
Australian Kitty Green, who helmed #MeToo drama The Assistant,...
The British Academy announced the longlist for its annual film awards on Friday, ahead of the nominations to be announced on March 9.
Babyteeth has been longlisted in the direction, adapted screenplay and casting categories, which means potential nods for Murphy, writer Rita Kalnejais and casting director Kirsty McGregor respectively.
Starring Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis, Babyteeth was Murphy’s debut feature, with Kalnejais adapting her 2012 Belvoir St stageplay for the screen. Dubbed a “bittersweet comedy”, the film produced by Alex White and EP’d by Jan Chapman premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, going on to win acclaim and a slew of awards, including nine AACTAs.
Australian Kitty Green, who helmed #MeToo drama The Assistant,...
- 2/8/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Ben Whishaw stars in Aneil Karia’s feature debut.
Vertigo Releasing has acquired UK and Ireland rights to thriller Surge, starring Ben Whishaw, from Protagonist Pictures.
The distributor hopes to release the film theatrically this Spring, dependent on the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Surge premiered at Sundance last year, where Whishaw won a special jury prize for his performance. It also marks the feature directorial debut of Aneil Karia, a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2014, who more recently directed The Long Goodbye, a powerful short starring Riz Ahmed, which has been nominated for a BIFA and London Critics’ Circle award.
Vertigo Releasing has acquired UK and Ireland rights to thriller Surge, starring Ben Whishaw, from Protagonist Pictures.
The distributor hopes to release the film theatrically this Spring, dependent on the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Surge premiered at Sundance last year, where Whishaw won a special jury prize for his performance. It also marks the feature directorial debut of Aneil Karia, a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2014, who more recently directed The Long Goodbye, a powerful short starring Riz Ahmed, which has been nominated for a BIFA and London Critics’ Circle award.
- 1/20/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2020. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions—a selection of those personal lists will be shared in the coming days—and after tallying votes, a top 50 has been assembled.
It should be noted that, unlike our other year-end features, we placed no requirement on a selection being a U.S theatrical release, so you may see some repeats from last year and a few we’ll certainly discuss more over the next twelve months. So: without further ado, check out our rundown of 2020 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2021.
50. The Metamorphosis of Birds (Catarina Vasconcelos)
The most purely, incandescently beautiful movie of the year is a...
It should be noted that, unlike our other year-end features, we placed no requirement on a selection being a U.S theatrical release, so you may see some repeats from last year and a few we’ll certainly discuss more over the next twelve months. So: without further ado, check out our rundown of 2020 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2021.
50. The Metamorphosis of Birds (Catarina Vasconcelos)
The most purely, incandescently beautiful movie of the year is a...
- 12/24/2020
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
It’s never been easy for a filmmaker with zero track record to launch a first feature into the world, but 2020 really deepened the challenge. With distributors scrambling for new release plans and film festivals wandering into the unknown terrain of virtual events, the last few months have made it harder than ever for newcomers to make a mark.
Fortunately, there were no shortage of debuts worthy of celebration, and many of them did find their way to audiences. This year’s best first films tackled a wide range of subjects and styles, introducing filmmakers that we know we’ll be tracking in the years to come. But no matter what the future brings, their legacies are secure thanks to these stellar achievements.
When it comes to the concept of the directorial debut, we like to take a purist approach. It’s certainly commendable when filmmakers who make documentaries venture into the narrative realm,...
Fortunately, there were no shortage of debuts worthy of celebration, and many of them did find their way to audiences. This year’s best first films tackled a wide range of subjects and styles, introducing filmmakers that we know we’ll be tracking in the years to come. But no matter what the future brings, their legacies are secure thanks to these stellar achievements.
When it comes to the concept of the directorial debut, we like to take a purist approach. It’s certainly commendable when filmmakers who make documentaries venture into the narrative realm,...
- 12/12/2020
- by Eric Kohn, Kate Erbland and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
‘Babyteeth’ is the feature debut of established theatre and TV director Shannon Murphy.
Shannon Murphy’s drama Babyteeth has swept the board at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards, winning nine prizes including best film and all four acting awards.
The Australian title – which premiered in Competition at the Venice Fil Festival in 2019 – was nominated for 13 awards, also taking home best direction for Murphy, best screenplay for Rita Kalnejais, best original score for Amanda Brown and best casting for Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray.
Other film winners included Universal Pictures’ The Invisible Man, which picked up best cinematography,...
Shannon Murphy’s drama Babyteeth has swept the board at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards, winning nine prizes including best film and all four acting awards.
The Australian title – which premiered in Competition at the Venice Fil Festival in 2019 – was nominated for 13 awards, also taking home best direction for Murphy, best screenplay for Rita Kalnejais, best original score for Amanda Brown and best casting for Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray.
Other film winners included Universal Pictures’ The Invisible Man, which picked up best cinematography,...
- 11/30/2020
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) crowned the winners from its 2020 awards ceremony today, with Babyteeh and Stateless dominating the film and TV categories respectively.
Shannon Murphy’s tragi-comedy Babyteeth was the big winner on the film side, scooping Best Film, Best Direction, Screenplay (Rita Kalnejais), Actor (Toby Wallace), Actress (Eliza Scanlen), Supporting Actor (Ben Mendelsohn) and Supporting Actress (Essie Davis).
On the TV side, Stateless, the series starring and created by Cate Blanchett, won Best Mini Series, Lead Actor (Fayssal Bazzi), Lead Actress (Yvonne Strahovski), Supporting Actor (Darren Gilshenan), Supporting Actress (Blanchett), Screenplay (Elise McCredie), and Direction (Emma Freeman).
Further winners included Rebel Wilson, who took Best Presenter for Lol: Last One Laughing Australia, and Tim Minchin, who won Comedy Performer for Upright.
Elsewhere, Better Days took Best Asian Film, the Bryon Kennedy Award was presented to The Babadook filmmaker Jennifer Kent, and Steve Bedwell, Bryan Cockerill...
Shannon Murphy’s tragi-comedy Babyteeth was the big winner on the film side, scooping Best Film, Best Direction, Screenplay (Rita Kalnejais), Actor (Toby Wallace), Actress (Eliza Scanlen), Supporting Actor (Ben Mendelsohn) and Supporting Actress (Essie Davis).
On the TV side, Stateless, the series starring and created by Cate Blanchett, won Best Mini Series, Lead Actor (Fayssal Bazzi), Lead Actress (Yvonne Strahovski), Supporting Actor (Darren Gilshenan), Supporting Actress (Blanchett), Screenplay (Elise McCredie), and Direction (Emma Freeman).
Further winners included Rebel Wilson, who took Best Presenter for Lol: Last One Laughing Australia, and Tim Minchin, who won Comedy Performer for Upright.
Elsewhere, Better Days took Best Asian Film, the Bryon Kennedy Award was presented to The Babadook filmmaker Jennifer Kent, and Steve Bedwell, Bryan Cockerill...
- 11/30/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Cate Blanchett-produced mini series “Stateless” and Shannon Murphy’s feature film directing debut “Babyteeth” dominated proceedings at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (Aacta Awards).
At a ceremony on Monday night at The Star in Sydney, immigration drama “Stateless” grabbed 13 awards including best telefeature or miniseries, best screenplay in television and all four acting awards across television drama. Outback detective series, “Mystery Road” was named best drama. In film, “Babyteeth” received nine awards on Monday including best film and best direction for Murphy.
Neither Russell Crowe, recently named as president of Aacta, nor Nicole Kidman, appointed as VP, were able to attend. Crowe however sent a video message that encouraged ambition, spoke of green shoots both after the wildfires and the Covid crisis, and hope that the recent production sector recovery can be made sustainable.
“I want to encourage the federal government to use this time...
At a ceremony on Monday night at The Star in Sydney, immigration drama “Stateless” grabbed 13 awards including best telefeature or miniseries, best screenplay in television and all four acting awards across television drama. Outback detective series, “Mystery Road” was named best drama. In film, “Babyteeth” received nine awards on Monday including best film and best direction for Murphy.
Neither Russell Crowe, recently named as president of Aacta, nor Nicole Kidman, appointed as VP, were able to attend. Crowe however sent a video message that encouraged ambition, spoke of green shoots both after the wildfires and the Covid crisis, and hope that the recent production sector recovery can be made sustainable.
“I want to encourage the federal government to use this time...
- 11/30/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Bittersweet comedy Babyteeth has swept this year’s Aacta Awards, picking up seven prizes at Monday’s ceremony including Best Film and Best Direction for debut filmmaker Shannon Murphy.
The film’s stars Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace took home the best lead actress and actor gongs, Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn were decorated in the supporting acting categories, and scribe Rita Kalnejais, who adapted her 2012 Belvoir Street play, also won the best screenplay award.
The prizes add to the two Babyteeth already collected at the Friday industry awards, including Best Casting, presented to Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray, and Best Score, to composer Amanda Brown.
Babyteeth follows Milla (Scanlen), a seriously ill teenager who falls madly in love with smalltime drug dealer, Moses (Wallace). It’s her parents’ (Mendelsohn and Essie Davis) worst nightmare – but as Milla’s love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy...
The film’s stars Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace took home the best lead actress and actor gongs, Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn were decorated in the supporting acting categories, and scribe Rita Kalnejais, who adapted her 2012 Belvoir Street play, also won the best screenplay award.
The prizes add to the two Babyteeth already collected at the Friday industry awards, including Best Casting, presented to Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray, and Best Score, to composer Amanda Brown.
Babyteeth follows Milla (Scanlen), a seriously ill teenager who falls madly in love with smalltime drug dealer, Moses (Wallace). It’s her parents’ (Mendelsohn and Essie Davis) worst nightmare – but as Milla’s love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy...
- 11/30/2020
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Update: This story is being updated this week as the new longlists are unveiled. Today (November 20) the Best Documentary longlist has been published, see below.
Previously, November 17: Organizers of the British Independent Film Awards have confirmed their upcoming ceremony will delay from its traditional end-of-year dates to February, 2021, moving in line with this year’s major awards shows.
This week, the BIFAs will unveil its various longlists of awards, which will be whittled down to its final nominations, to be revealed on December 9.
Today, the New Talent awards longlists have been unveiled, featuring a total of 46 directors, writers and producers. Each of the below will participate in BIFA’s Springboard scheme, a tailored program of professional development and peer to peer support.
Best Documentary
The Art Of Political Murder Paul Taylor, Teddy Leifer, Regina K. Scully
The Australian Dream Daniel Gordon, Stan Grant, Sarah Thomson, Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell,...
Previously, November 17: Organizers of the British Independent Film Awards have confirmed their upcoming ceremony will delay from its traditional end-of-year dates to February, 2021, moving in line with this year’s major awards shows.
This week, the BIFAs will unveil its various longlists of awards, which will be whittled down to its final nominations, to be revealed on December 9.
Today, the New Talent awards longlists have been unveiled, featuring a total of 46 directors, writers and producers. Each of the below will participate in BIFA’s Springboard scheme, a tailored program of professional development and peer to peer support.
Best Documentary
The Art Of Political Murder Paul Taylor, Teddy Leifer, Regina K. Scully
The Australian Dream Daniel Gordon, Stan Grant, Sarah Thomson, Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell,...
- 11/20/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Shannon Murphy’s feature debut Babyteeth leads the early Aacta Awards race, scoring nods in 12 out of 13 film categories, while Mystery Road and Stateless are ahead in television.
The Australian Academy revealed the first round of nominees for the annual awards over the weekend, to be presented across two ‘reimagined’ events later this month.
Television and documentary craft nominations, visual effects and animation, casting, hair and make-up and subscription television presenter categories are yet to be announced, expected on November 12.
Despite the disrupted year for film, some 19 narrative features are nominated so far.
However, six dominate alongside the aforementioned Babyteeth: Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, with 10 nominations, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness with nine, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Unjoo Moon’s I Am Woman close behind with eight and seven nominations respectively, and Natalie Erika James’ Relic with five. Each will...
The Australian Academy revealed the first round of nominees for the annual awards over the weekend, to be presented across two ‘reimagined’ events later this month.
Television and documentary craft nominations, visual effects and animation, casting, hair and make-up and subscription television presenter categories are yet to be announced, expected on November 12.
Despite the disrupted year for film, some 19 narrative features are nominated so far.
However, six dominate alongside the aforementioned Babyteeth: Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, with 10 nominations, John Sheedy’s H is for Happiness with nine, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Unjoo Moon’s I Am Woman close behind with eight and seven nominations respectively, and Natalie Erika James’ Relic with five. Each will...
- 11/2/2020
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Indie titles hoping to capitalise on blockbuster absence.
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 14
Picturehouse Entertainment heads the new titles this weekend with Shannon Murphy’s Australian comedy-drama Babyteeth in 140 locations.
The debut feature of theatre and TV drama director Murphy played in Competition at Venice last year, where Toby Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni award for emerging actor/actress. It most recently won the top prize at the 19th Transylvania International Film Festival last weekend.
Adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play of the same name, the film centres on Milla (Eliza Scanlen), a seriously ill teenager, who falls in...
UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 14
Picturehouse Entertainment heads the new titles this weekend with Shannon Murphy’s Australian comedy-drama Babyteeth in 140 locations.
The debut feature of theatre and TV drama director Murphy played in Competition at Venice last year, where Toby Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni award for emerging actor/actress. It most recently won the top prize at the 19th Transylvania International Film Festival last weekend.
Adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play of the same name, the film centres on Milla (Eliza Scanlen), a seriously ill teenager, who falls in...
- 8/14/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦¬1101325¦Gabriele Niola¦35¦
- ScreenDaily
Eliza Scanlen and Ben Mendelsohn lead a terrific ensemble cast in Shannon Murphy’s classy debut about an unlikely high-school romance
This debut feature by the Australian film-maker Shannon Murphy, adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play, is well acted, heartfelt, beautifully filmed. It’s a coming-of-age story of first love and family dysfunction with something of abstinence-adjacent Ya tragedies such as The Fault in Our Stars and Midnight Sun. And however unfashionable Sam Mendes’s ’burb-dramedy American Beauty has become, Babyteeth shows the influence of that movie, with all its alienation and sexual anxiety experienced within the fraught family unit by teens and boomers. Babyteeth is watchable and emotionally forthright, though it has a fairly picturesque idea of what dying from cancer in your teens looks like. You might call it Insta-oncology.
Eliza Scanlen is excellent as Milla, a 16-year-old in remission from cancer, wearing a wig to school to conceal her baldness.
This debut feature by the Australian film-maker Shannon Murphy, adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play, is well acted, heartfelt, beautifully filmed. It’s a coming-of-age story of first love and family dysfunction with something of abstinence-adjacent Ya tragedies such as The Fault in Our Stars and Midnight Sun. And however unfashionable Sam Mendes’s ’burb-dramedy American Beauty has become, Babyteeth shows the influence of that movie, with all its alienation and sexual anxiety experienced within the fraught family unit by teens and boomers. Babyteeth is watchable and emotionally forthright, though it has a fairly picturesque idea of what dying from cancer in your teens looks like. You might call it Insta-oncology.
Eliza Scanlen is excellent as Milla, a 16-year-old in remission from cancer, wearing a wig to school to conceal her baldness.
- 8/12/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
‘Babyteeth.’
Universal Pictures’ dramedy The King of Staten Island continued its reign at Australian cinemas last weekend as ticket sales slumped, starved of new releases.
Given the depressed state of the market, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, the bittersweet comedy adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her play, launched reasonably well on 46 screens, making $65,000.
The Universal release starring Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis registered the second highest per-screen average – $1,419 – among the top 10 titles, behind the market leader’s $1,766.
With 33 per cent of the nation’s cinemas closed and most that are still operating charging half price, the top 20 titles generated a mere $1.7 million, down 27 per cent on the previous frame, according to Numero.
The weekend takings were down 90 per cent on the same weekend last year, when The Lion King, Spider-Man: Far From Home, André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert and Toy Story 4 were raking in millions.
Sony Pictures launched The Burnt Orange Heresy,...
Universal Pictures’ dramedy The King of Staten Island continued its reign at Australian cinemas last weekend as ticket sales slumped, starved of new releases.
Given the depressed state of the market, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, the bittersweet comedy adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her play, launched reasonably well on 46 screens, making $65,000.
The Universal release starring Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis registered the second highest per-screen average – $1,419 – among the top 10 titles, behind the market leader’s $1,766.
With 33 per cent of the nation’s cinemas closed and most that are still operating charging half price, the top 20 titles generated a mere $1.7 million, down 27 per cent on the previous frame, according to Numero.
The weekend takings were down 90 per cent on the same weekend last year, when The Lion King, Spider-Man: Far From Home, André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert and Toy Story 4 were raking in millions.
Sony Pictures launched The Burnt Orange Heresy,...
- 7/27/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
One feature film in, director Shannon Murphy is already making a name for herself. The sometimes actress and filmmaker, Murphy was previously best known for her television direction, include a pair of Killing Eve episodes, but Babyteeth is changing all of that. The new movie, out now, is a tremendous calling card, suggesting a very bright future for her. Mark my words, she’s going to be an in demand name. A few weeks ago, I hopped on the phone with Murphy, shortly after having seen the flick, to discuss what attracted her to the material, her process, and building such an impressive cast. Below is an interview I recently conducted with Murphy. She gets into finding the script from Rita Kalnejais, developing the project, filling out the cast with the likes of Essie Davis, Ben Mendelsohn, Eliza Scanlen, and Toby Wallace, and much more. It’s an interesting chat,...
- 6/19/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
On June 19, 1865, slavery was abolished in Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a benchmark in Black history and is more timely now than ever as it is a day to celebrate and champion Black voices. That said, it is a good day for the debut of Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth, a film that spotlights the staple pageant associated with the day.
Directed and written by Texas native Peoples, Miss Juneteenth made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year. The film stars Nicole Beharie, Alexis Chikaeze and Kendrick Sampson and follows Turquoise Jones (Beharie), a former beauty queen turned hard-working single mom that is preparing her rebellious teenage daughter Kai (Chikaeze) for the annual Miss Juneteenth pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she made.
“I grew up with Juneteenth so it was just second nature to me,” said Peoples told Deadline at Sundance.
Directed and written by Texas native Peoples, Miss Juneteenth made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year. The film stars Nicole Beharie, Alexis Chikaeze and Kendrick Sampson and follows Turquoise Jones (Beharie), a former beauty queen turned hard-working single mom that is preparing her rebellious teenage daughter Kai (Chikaeze) for the annual Miss Juneteenth pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she made.
“I grew up with Juneteenth so it was just second nature to me,” said Peoples told Deadline at Sundance.
- 6/19/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Fifteen-year-old Milla has a baby tooth still lodged among her molars, and terminal cancer. She’s “a medical aberration,” as she calls herself, living with her parents in an unidentified corner of Australian suburbia. Babyteeth, Shannon Murphy’s arresting feature debut, chronicles the last stretch of her life. But instead of slipping into the gaudiest cliches and bucket-list tropes of so many cancer dramas that came before it, it fumbles after an adolescent grappling with her looming death while on the brink of feeling more alive than she’s ever felt. This is not the story of a dying teen fighting to make her last wishes come true: it’s the portrait of a girl struggling to remain anchored to life, and experience the intangible and mysterious force of her first love. An award-winning director of theatre, opera and TV, Murphy teamed up with Rita Kalnejais, who here adapts her 2012 play by the same name.
- 6/19/2020
- MUBI
“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” You wouldn’t expect that quote from Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who died in 1910, to apply to a hip family living in Australia in the here and now. But Tolstoy knew his stuff. And in Babyteeth, available on demand on June 19th, his truth courses through the lives of the Finlay clan.
Psychiatrist Henry Finlay (Ben Mendelsohn) and his wife Anna (Essie Davis), once a music prodigy, enjoy their posh life in Sydney. That is...
Psychiatrist Henry Finlay (Ben Mendelsohn) and his wife Anna (Essie Davis), once a music prodigy, enjoy their posh life in Sydney. That is...
- 6/18/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
If 2020 manages to match a feature film debut as electrifying, devastating, hilarious, and original as Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth,” it will mark one of the strongest years in breakout director discoveries in recent memory. However, it seems highly unlikely. The Australian director and her screenwriter, Rita Kalnejais (making her screenwriting debut with the adaptation of the play she penned in 2012) have crafted a story both supremely relatable and utterly singular.
Continue reading ‘Babyteeth’: Eliza Scanlen & Director Shannon Murphy Talk About The Vibrant Coming-Of-Age Dramedy [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Babyteeth’: Eliza Scanlen & Director Shannon Murphy Talk About The Vibrant Coming-Of-Age Dramedy [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 6/18/2020
- by Luke Hicks
- The Playlist
Although born in the U.S., Toby Wallace grew up in Australia. He’s made a splash in films such as the critically acclaimed “Boys in the Trees” and TV series “Romper Stomper.” He can been seen on Netflix’s hit supernatural thriller series “The Society,” playing the evil teen Campbell Eliot. He will be seen June 19 in IFC release “Babyteeth,” from director Shannon Murphy and writer Rita Kalnejais. In the coming-of-age drama, Wallace plays Moses, a charismatic druggie who nevertheless finds a soulmate in Milla, a teenager fighting a terminal disease. Eliza Scanlen, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis round out the dream cast. The film debuted in competition at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it won raves and Wallace earned the Marcello Mastrioanni Award for best young actor: “It was totally and completely fucking surprising. … But it felt really great on the day because it seemed like it was for the film,...
- 6/18/2020
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
There’s a version of Babyteeth that could have been made which would have overplayed the quirk and cuteness factor. Luckily, no one involved in this movie is looking to do that. There are times where that method is needed, but here, it’s all about the heart of the matter. Babyteeth has a ton of ambition, keeps you on your toes, and showcases again that not only is Ben Mendelsohn a deeply underrated actor, but that Eliza Scanlan is one of our more exciting up and coming actresses. Despite a few hiccups along the way, everyone involved makes this work something that truly stands out. Come Friday, when it release, you’ll understand why. The film is a dramedy, centered on Milla (Scanlan) a seriously ill teenager. When she meets and falls in love with drug dealer and all-around troubled Moses (Toby Wallace), it’s as equally what she...
- 6/17/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Death Comes for the Ozzie Frippet: Murphy Looks to Love Amidst Dysfunction in Cancer Melodrama
Precocious teens represent a burgeoning film subgenre all to themselves—and precocious teens with cancer (or other parameter defining diseases) seem to be a popular new mutation amongst themselves. Thankfully, Australia’s Shannon Murphy attempts to give us something bit darker (even as its overly basted in its own quirkiness) with her debut Babyteeth—a love story, a cancer story and a family-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown story.
Finer subtleties and more unpleasant physical realities may be brushed under the rug, but a script from first time scribe Rita Kalnejais allows Essie Davis to take another potentially familiar role and turn it into something pricelessly tantalizing.…...
Precocious teens represent a burgeoning film subgenre all to themselves—and precocious teens with cancer (or other parameter defining diseases) seem to be a popular new mutation amongst themselves. Thankfully, Australia’s Shannon Murphy attempts to give us something bit darker (even as its overly basted in its own quirkiness) with her debut Babyteeth—a love story, a cancer story and a family-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown story.
Finer subtleties and more unpleasant physical realities may be brushed under the rug, but a script from first time scribe Rita Kalnejais allows Essie Davis to take another potentially familiar role and turn it into something pricelessly tantalizing.…...
- 6/15/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Australian actress Eliza Scanlen made a powerful impression two years ago for her turn in the sweaty, southern gothic HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects” as Amy Adams’ rollerskating, teenaged sister. She did it again in 2019 as Beth March in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.” Finally, the 21-year-old rising star has a vehicle of her own with first-time feature director Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth” as a terminally ill young woman in love with a small-time drug dealer. “Babyteeth” broke out of the Venice Film Festival last summer, before heading off to the BFI London Film Festival and beyond. Check out the first trailer below.
Scanlen plays 16-year-old Milla, a cancer patient who’s fallen hard for raffish fellow teenager Moses on the quote-unquote wrong side of the tracks. Her infatuation comes much to the chagrin of her parents, played by Aussie power actors Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn, but it also brings...
Scanlen plays 16-year-old Milla, a cancer patient who’s fallen hard for raffish fellow teenager Moses on the quote-unquote wrong side of the tracks. Her infatuation comes much to the chagrin of her parents, played by Aussie power actors Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn, but it also brings...
- 5/9/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"You look like a different person! What have you done with my daughter?" IFC Films has debuted a new official Us trailer for the acclaimed indie film Babyteeth, marking the feature directorial debut of up-and-coming filmmaker Shannon Murphy. This originally premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, and earned rave reviews from critics (here's my review). This Australian bittersweet comedy, self-adapted from the play of the same name by Rita Kalnejais, follows a married couple who discover their seriously ill teenage daughter has fallen in love with a kooky small time drug dealer. Eliza Scanlen, who also appeared in Little Women last year, stars with Toby Wallace (he won the "Best Young Actor" award in Venice), plus Emily Barclay, Eugene Gilfedder, Essie Davis, and Ben Mendelsohn. I adore this film, it's seriously something special, and I hope people give it a look because it's a touching and heartwarming story of love.
- 5/7/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Other winners include The Painted Bird, Queen of Hearts, Father, Two of Us, Mater, Ivana the Terrible and Vienna Hallways, the new film by Serbian director Mladen Djordjević. The 48th Belgrade International Film Festival Fest (28 February-8 March) has wrapped with Karim Aïnouz's Cannes Un Certain Regard prizewinner The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (Brazil/Germany) picking up the Belgrade Victor Award for Best Film in the main competition. Václav Marhoul won the Best Director Award for The Painted Bird (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Ukraine), and Rita Kalnejais received Best Screenplay for Australian director Shannon Murphy's Babyteeth, both of which world-premiered at Venice. The acting prizes went to Trine Dyrholm for her role in May el-Toukhy's Queen of Hearts (Denmark/Sweden) and to Goran Bogdan for his performance in Srdan Golubović's Father (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia). Both films previously won Audience Awards after their world premieres at Sundance and the Berlinale,...
As Joseph (Ben Whishaw) sits at the table with his parents (Ellie Haddington and Ian Gelder), he puts his mouth to a glass. He wraps his lips around the rim as his breathing starts to heave. The others continue eating; he starts to lock his jaw. Then the glass cracks. He’s done this before a lot but never like this, and when he finds himself spitting blood into the bathroom sink with his mom screaming on the other side of the door, it seems that his tics have finally caught up with him.
That’s not to say he’s ever been a lax guy, but, to put it lightly, some things are getting to him. There are too many people, not enough manners. It’s too loud outside his apartment, too quiet inside his own head. It seems that only his job as an airport checkpoint officer grants...
That’s not to say he’s ever been a lax guy, but, to put it lightly, some things are getting to him. There are too many people, not enough manners. It’s too loud outside his apartment, too quiet inside his own head. It seems that only his job as an airport checkpoint officer grants...
- 1/29/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
There’s mannered, there’s manic, and then there’s the malfunctioning pinball-machine delirium that Ben Whishaw brings to “Surge”: a blinking, buzzing, flashing clatter of hyper-accelerated impulses, chicken-fried synapses and staggered hypnic jerks that never culminate in sleep. You wouldn’t expect stillness from a film called “Surge,” and in that respect only does Whishaw zig where you expect him to zig — to say nothing of his character, a humdrum airport worker who one day snaps in spectacularly feral fashion, embarking on the unlikeliest of London crime sprees. It’s quite a performance, sure to exhilarate some and aggravate others, and it joins the dots of Aneil Karia’s stylish if somewhat overstimulated debut feature while adding several disconnected ones of its own.
A rare shot of genuinely frenzied energy in British genre cinema, “Surge” seems likely to prompt comparisons to the recent work of Benny and Josh Safdie — in particular,...
A rare shot of genuinely frenzied energy in British genre cinema, “Surge” seems likely to prompt comparisons to the recent work of Benny and Josh Safdie — in particular,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Protagonist Pictures has boarded world sales on Sundance-bound drama-thriller Surge, starring Ben Whishaw. Here’s a first look at the buzzed-about UK film.
Whishaw stars as a man trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, he unleashes a wilder version of himself and is propelled on a reckless journey though London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.
Produced by Julia Godzinskaya and Sophie Vickers of The Witch and The Other Lamb outfit Rooks Nest and co-produced by Scott O’Donnell, the movie marks the feature debut of UK director Aneil Karia who recently shot the closing three episodes of Netflix series Top Boy.
Before that, Karia directed the opening block of Pure, produced by Drama Republic for Channel 4, and in 2016 his short Work was BAFTA and Bifa-nominated.
Also among cast are Ian Gelder...
Whishaw stars as a man trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, he unleashes a wilder version of himself and is propelled on a reckless journey though London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.
Produced by Julia Godzinskaya and Sophie Vickers of The Witch and The Other Lamb outfit Rooks Nest and co-produced by Scott O’Donnell, the movie marks the feature debut of UK director Aneil Karia who recently shot the closing three episodes of Netflix series Top Boy.
Before that, Karia directed the opening block of Pure, produced by Drama Republic for Channel 4, and in 2016 his short Work was BAFTA and Bifa-nominated.
Also among cast are Ian Gelder...
- 1/9/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The AFI Fest has been rolling out its 2019 slate for months — since announcing Melina Matsoukas’ Queen & Slim as its opening-night film in August — and now we have the full lineup. Check it out below.
The festival, which runs November 14-21 in Los Angeles, will close with with Apple’s The Banker, starring Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult and Nia Long, and will feature the world premiere of Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell.
Here is the full lineup for the 2019 AFI Fest:
New Auteurs
Adam
Samia, heavily pregnant and alone, wanders through Casablanca, seeking shelter until Abla, a single mother, reluctantly takes her in. As the women discover each other’s inner struggles, their lives are transformed. A film festival darling, Maryam Touzani’s debut feature crafts a delicate tale of love through a confident female gaze. Dir Maryan Touzani. Scr Maryan Touzani. Cast Lubna Azabal, Nisrin Erradi, Douae Belkhaouda.
The festival, which runs November 14-21 in Los Angeles, will close with with Apple’s The Banker, starring Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult and Nia Long, and will feature the world premiere of Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell.
Here is the full lineup for the 2019 AFI Fest:
New Auteurs
Adam
Samia, heavily pregnant and alone, wanders through Casablanca, seeking shelter until Abla, a single mother, reluctantly takes her in. As the women discover each other’s inner struggles, their lives are transformed. A film festival darling, Maryam Touzani’s debut feature crafts a delicate tale of love through a confident female gaze. Dir Maryan Touzani. Scr Maryan Touzani. Cast Lubna Azabal, Nisrin Erradi, Douae Belkhaouda.
- 10/29/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to the drama “Babyteeth,” starring Eliza Scanlen, Essie Davis, Ben Mendelsohn, and Toby Wallace, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film had its world premiere in competition at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival, where Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni award for best new young performer. It will be released by IFC Films in 2020.
“Babyteeth” is Shannon Murphy’s directorial debut and an adaptation of the play written by Rita Kalnejais. Scanlen plays a seriously ill teenager who falls madly in love with Wallace’s small-time drug dealer in what is her parents’ worst nightmare. But her first brush with love brings her a new lust for life.
Guy Lodge praised Scanlen in his Variety review: “She nails a tricky assignment in her big-screen debut, playing both an ethereal otherness and a yearning, immediate, only-too-recognizable adolescent want in the cancer-stricken Milla — as befits a character...
The film had its world premiere in competition at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival, where Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni award for best new young performer. It will be released by IFC Films in 2020.
“Babyteeth” is Shannon Murphy’s directorial debut and an adaptation of the play written by Rita Kalnejais. Scanlen plays a seriously ill teenager who falls madly in love with Wallace’s small-time drug dealer in what is her parents’ worst nightmare. But her first brush with love brings her a new lust for life.
Guy Lodge praised Scanlen in his Variety review: “She nails a tricky assignment in her big-screen debut, playing both an ethereal otherness and a yearning, immediate, only-too-recognizable adolescent want in the cancer-stricken Milla — as befits a character...
- 10/15/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Shannon Murphy’s debut feature has its UK launch at London Film Festival.
Picturehouse Entertainment has picked up UK rights to Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth from Celluloid Dreams. It follows the film’s world premiere in Competition at Venice last month.
Murphy’s film is making its UK premiere in the first feature competition at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, October 6.
The comedy drama stars Eliza Scanlen as a seriously ill teenager who falls in love with small-time drug dealer, played by Toby Wallace, to the horror of her parents. The Babadook star Essie Davis and...
Picturehouse Entertainment has picked up UK rights to Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth from Celluloid Dreams. It follows the film’s world premiere in Competition at Venice last month.
Murphy’s film is making its UK premiere in the first feature competition at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, October 6.
The comedy drama stars Eliza Scanlen as a seriously ill teenager who falls in love with small-time drug dealer, played by Toby Wallace, to the horror of her parents. The Babadook star Essie Davis and...
- 10/4/2019
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦
- ScreenDaily
Toby Wallace.
Toby Wallace’s turn as a small-time drug dealer in Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth has won him the Venice Film Festival’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor.
It is the second year in a row that the prize has been won by an Australian, with last year’s gong going to Baykali Ganambarr for his debut performance in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale.
In Babyteeth, Wallace stars as Moses, the love interest of Eliza Scanlen’s Milla, a terminally ill teenager. Their relationship is a nightmare for Milla’s parents, played by Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis, but Milla teaches those in her orbit how to live like there is nothing to lose.
Produced by Alex White and based on Rita Kalnejais’ Belvoir Theatre play of the same name, the film was critically lauded after its debut in competition at Venice last week.
Variety...
Toby Wallace’s turn as a small-time drug dealer in Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth has won him the Venice Film Festival’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor.
It is the second year in a row that the prize has been won by an Australian, with last year’s gong going to Baykali Ganambarr for his debut performance in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale.
In Babyteeth, Wallace stars as Moses, the love interest of Eliza Scanlen’s Milla, a terminally ill teenager. Their relationship is a nightmare for Milla’s parents, played by Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis, but Milla teaches those in her orbit how to live like there is nothing to lose.
Produced by Alex White and based on Rita Kalnejais’ Belvoir Theatre play of the same name, the film was critically lauded after its debut in competition at Venice last week.
Variety...
- 9/9/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
And so it was that on the eighth day of the Venice Film Festival, after eighteen official lineup’s entries unveiled, I shed my first tears. They came at the end of the competition’s only directorial feature debut, Shannon Murphy’s lacerating, humorous, and achingly beautiful Babyteeth. This adaptation of a 2012 stage play by actress and playwright Rita Kalnejais—whom Murphy recruited as script writer—follows a teenage girl forced to reckon with her mortality while on the cusp of feeling more alive than she’s ever felt. In a lineup that offered few surprises, Babyteeth swept across the festival like a belated and much-needed breath of fresh air, moving me in a way few other films this year did. The girl is Milla (Eliza Scanlen), a 15-year-old with a baby tooth still lodged among her molars—a “medical aberration,” as she sardonically describes herself, living in an unidentified...
- 9/6/2019
- MUBI
(L-r) Ben Mendelsohn, Eliza Scanlen, Shannon Murphy and Toby Wallace in Venice.
Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth, a bittersweet comedy starring Ben Mendelsohn, Essie Davis, Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace, has been acclaimed by critics after its world premiere in official competition at the Venice International Film Festival.
Mendelsohn and Davis play a couple who discover their seriously ill teenage daughter Milla (Scanlen) has fallen in love with drug dealer Moses (Wallace). It’s her protective parents’ worst nightmare but Milla teaches those in her orbit how to live like there is nothing to lose.
Produced by Alex White and based on Rita Kalnejais’ play, it’s one of only two from female directors in Venice competition. However Murphy was not keen to address the gender issue, telling the media in Venice: “I think it’s a struggle to always have to answer questions about being a female filmmaker if I’m being honest.
Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth, a bittersweet comedy starring Ben Mendelsohn, Essie Davis, Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace, has been acclaimed by critics after its world premiere in official competition at the Venice International Film Festival.
Mendelsohn and Davis play a couple who discover their seriously ill teenage daughter Milla (Scanlen) has fallen in love with drug dealer Moses (Wallace). It’s her protective parents’ worst nightmare but Milla teaches those in her orbit how to live like there is nothing to lose.
Produced by Alex White and based on Rita Kalnejais’ play, it’s one of only two from female directors in Venice competition. However Murphy was not keen to address the gender issue, telling the media in Venice: “I think it’s a struggle to always have to answer questions about being a female filmmaker if I’m being honest.
- 9/5/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
“Babyteeth” is one of only two films from women directors participating in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival, and the film’s helmer Shannon Murphy thinks that’s important. Although not at the expense of the art.
While many of the questions fielded by Murphy, her cast and crew at Wednesday’s pre-premiere press conference dealt with music, themes of self-medication, appealing to young audiences and Rita Kalnejais’ screenplay adaptation of her stage play, the conversation inevitably came around to the filmmaker’s two X chromosomes and what they mean in industry terms.
“I think it’s a struggle to always have to answer questions about being a female filmmaker if I’m being honest,” she replied when asked if she’s comfortable as a woman working in the industry. “It takes away from the artistry of what we are doing and our production. The conversation is important but in the right context,...
While many of the questions fielded by Murphy, her cast and crew at Wednesday’s pre-premiere press conference dealt with music, themes of self-medication, appealing to young audiences and Rita Kalnejais’ screenplay adaptation of her stage play, the conversation inevitably came around to the filmmaker’s two X chromosomes and what they mean in industry terms.
“I think it’s a struggle to always have to answer questions about being a female filmmaker if I’m being honest,” she replied when asked if she’s comfortable as a woman working in the industry. “It takes away from the artistry of what we are doing and our production. The conversation is important but in the right context,...
- 9/4/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
You only get one flush of first love, and it tends to choose you rather than the other way round: For most of us, it’s an experiment, a flight test of the heart, a thing you can afford to get wrong. For terminally ill 16-year-old Milla, however, her first looks to be her only, and not an ideal one at that. Is it true love that draws her to older kamikaze junkie Moses, or just the assurance that his future scarcely looks brighter than hers? Emotional compromise finally begets an overwhelming torrent of feeling in “Babyteeth,” a wickedly perverse and, in time, intensely moving variation on familiar coming-of-age themes that marks an arresting feature debut for both director Shannon Murphy and screenwriter Rita Kalnejais.
The most youthful and surprising entry in this year’s Venice competition, “Babyteeth” arrives fully formed in its bite, with a balance of fluorescent stylistic...
The most youthful and surprising entry in this year’s Venice competition, “Babyteeth” arrives fully formed in its bite, with a balance of fluorescent stylistic...
- 9/4/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“Babyteeth,” to put it lightly, has a lot going on. With her feature debut and one of only two films directed by women in the Venice main competition, Australian theatre-television director Shannon Murphy swings for the fences. She whips up a candy-colored dramedy that toggles between tear-jerky terminal illness melodrama, Y.A.-friendly opposites-attract love story, and tongue-in-cheek appraisal of middle-aged malaise — all while giving the various strands the same quirky coat of paint.
Does it all work? Not quite, but you can’t fault a film for its ambition, least of all one that does manage to bring it all together for a deeply moving home stretch.
Like its bewigged main character, “Babyteeth” tries on a number of looks over its two-hour runtime. Some fit better than others, and if the film eventually settles on that which works best, it takes some time to get there.
Also Read: Venice...
Does it all work? Not quite, but you can’t fault a film for its ambition, least of all one that does manage to bring it all together for a deeply moving home stretch.
Like its bewigged main character, “Babyteeth” tries on a number of looks over its two-hour runtime. Some fit better than others, and if the film eventually settles on that which works best, it takes some time to get there.
Also Read: Venice...
- 9/4/2019
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
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