The Watchers Film Show Blog is 8 today!

Time to celebrate, as The Watchers Film Show Blog turns 8 today!

In the eight years the blog has been running, we've had over 360,000 page views from all across the world: from the US to Italy, Canada to South Korea, and Algeria to Ukraine. 

We say this every year, but it bears repeating: Thank You! To everyone who reads and listens to our ramblings on film, your support is very much appreciated. 

With much love to you all,

The Watchers

(Rhys, Matt, & Tez)

Awards Season 2020: Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) Winners

A quick awards update as this past weekend (Saturday 25th January), the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) were handed out. The film winners are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films: Sam Mendes (1917)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director: Alma Har'el (Honey Boy)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries: Johan Renck (Chernobyl)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (American Factory)

Congratulations to all winners!

This coming weekend, more awards stuff with the Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) on Saturday 1st February and the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday 2nd February.

Awards Season 2020: Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) Awards Winners

More awards season news today. What? I hear you cry. Awards news? Today? Inconceivable! Well, as it turns out, I was a week late regarding the Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) Awards - as they were actually handed out last night (Sunday 19th January). Ah, the perils of a truncated awards season. Nonetheless, here are the film winners:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: 

Parasite

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: 

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: 

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: 

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: 

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Film:

Avengers: Endgame

Parasite has made history by being the first foreign-language film to take the Outstanding Cast award. The same four acting winners have popped up again (following the Golden Globes and the Critics' Choice Awards), so it seems as if the acting Oscars are pretty much sewn up. Still, surprises could happen... 

Congratulations to all winners!

Assuming I haven't fudged anything else with the awards season calendar, the next update will be this coming weekend, with the Directors Guild Awards (DGA) on Saturday 25th. 

Awards Season 2020: Producers' Guild Awards (PGA) Winners

Just a quick awards update today, to share the winners from last night's Producers Guild Awards (PGA). The film winners are:

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: 1917

Documentary Film: Apollo 11

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: Toy Story 4

A review of 1917 is forthcoming, so I won't say much, except for this win is very well-deserved (and this bodes well for the film taking the Best Picture Oscar in a few weeks' time). I haven't seen the other films so can't comment. 

Congratulations to all winners!

More awards stuff next weekend, as the Directors Guild Awards (DGA) are on Saturday (25th January) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards are on Sunday (26th January).

Awards Season 2020: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier today, here is a selection of the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

1917

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Le Mans '66 [a.k.a. Ford V Ferrari]

Little Women

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood

Parasite

BEST DIRECTOR

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Todd Phillips (Joker)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST ACTOR

Antonio Banderas (Pain And Glory)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes)

BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kathy Bates (Richard Jewell)

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

So, I make that 30/34 (88%). Pretty happy with that. Hell, I didn't mind being wrong to see Jonathan Pryce get nominated for The Two Popes. I'm not surprised to see Todd Phillips get a Best Director nod, but it certainly wouldn't have been my choice. 

Fun fact: Scarlett Johansson is the first actor since 2007 to be nominated in both Lead and Supporting acting categories (the last one to do so was Cate Blanchett). 

By my reckoning, Joker leads the nominations with 11, whilst 1917, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, and The Irishman all get 10 apiece. 

Congratulations to all nominees!


The 92nd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 9th February 2020. As was reported this week, there'll be no main host again for this year's ceremony. I personally felt that it worked well with no host, so I'll be interested to see if it works again. 

Awards Season 2020: Critics' Choice Movie Award Winners

A big day for awards season fans with the Oscar nominations out later, but there's more awards news before then as yesterday (Sunday 12th January) this year's Critics' Choice Awards were handed out. 

Here's a full list of film winners:

Best Picture: Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Best Actress: Renée Zellweger (Judy)

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Best Acting Ensemble: The Irishman

Best Director: Sam Mendes (1917) and Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) (tie)

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 4

Best Original Screenplay: Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood 

Best Adapted Screenplay: Little Women

Best Comedy: Dolemite Is My Name

Best Action Movie: Avengers: Endgame

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie: Us

Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite

Best Score: Joker

Best Song: 'Glasgow (No Place Like Home)' (Wild Rose) and '(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again' (Rocketman) (tie)

Best Production Design: Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Best Editing: 1917

Best Costume Design: Dolemite Is My Name

Best Hair & Makeup: Bombshell

Best Visual Effects: Avengers: Endgame

Best Cinematography: 1917

Best Young Actor/Actress: Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit)


Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood was the big winner of the night with four awards, with 1917 taking home three. 

Congratulations to all winners!

Awards Season 2020: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

Tomorrow morning, the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced. This year, they will be announced by John Cho (Star Trek Beyond, Searching) and Issa Rae (The Hate U Give, Insecure). 

As has been my practice for the last few years (well, since 2003), I like to try and predict who will be nominated (this is done for Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). Below is my list of who I think will be named tomorrow.

NB. Since the 2010 ceremony, the Academy rules state that there could be anywhere between five and ten Best Picture nominees. I have selected ten films. If the total number of films nominated is less than ten, but one of the movies selected is named in my list of ten, I will count it as a successful prediction.

BEST PICTURE

1917

Bombshell

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Knives Out

Little Women

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood 

Parasite

BEST DIRECTOR

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

BEST ACTOR

Antonio Banderas (Pain And Glory)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Taron Egerton (Rocketman)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

Usually a score of 15 is adequate, but given the fact that there could be anywhere between 5 and 10 Best Picture awards, I’ll be happy with a prediction of 18 or higher. Last year, I got 28/33 as I tripped up on the Best Director category, and the acting nominations for Roma. 

There's a good chance that both the Director and Actor categories could contain a few curveballs. I've gone with Taika Waititi for Director (due to the DGA nod) but I won't be surprised if Todd Phillips sneaks it for Joker. There's always the chance they throw everyone for a loop and go for Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) or Greta Gerwig (Little Women).

Best Actor could see some surprises with Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes), Robert De Niro (The Irishman) and Christian Bale (Le Mans '66 [Ford V Ferrari]) all in contention at some point or another. Similarly, whilst I think Best Actress is fairly secure, Lupita Nyong'o could get a nod in place of Saiorse Ronan for her turn in Us. 

I'll be waiting with bated breath tomorrow afternoon (luckily, it's the more palatable time of 1:20pm here when they're announced) and a post will follow shortly afterwards with the official nominations.

Awards Season 2020: Producers' Guild Awards (PGA) and Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) Nominations

As if the BAFTA announcement wasn't enough awards news for one day, two of the major awards Guilds have also announced their nominations yesterday (7th January). Blimey, it's like they've got a shortened timeframe this year or something...

PRODUCERS' GUILD AWARDS (PGA)

First up, we have the Producers' Guild Awards (very handy for working out the Best Picture Oscar nominees):

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

1917

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Knives Out

Le Mans' 66 [a.k.a. Ford V Ferrari]

Little Women

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood

Parasite

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Abominable

Frozen II

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Missing Link

Toy Story 4

Documentary Film (previously announced)

Advocate

American Factory

Apollo 11

The Cave

For Sama

Honeyland

One Child Nation

The PGAs will be given out on Saturday 18th January 2020

* * * 

DIRECTORS' GUILD AWARDS (DGA)

The nominees for this year's Directors' Guild Awards were also announced as well. Here are the nominees in the Feature Film category:

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

Interesting that the DGA have nominated Taika Waititi- this is his first major awards nomination for directing Jojo Rabbit (I was expecting Todd Phillips to be named, to be honest). I wonder if the Academy will do likewise?

The DGAs will be awarded on Saturday 25th January 2020


Congratulations to all nominees!


After a couple of busy days of awards stuff, there's a few days of respite now before it all kicks off again on Sunday (12th January) which will see the winners of the Critics' Choice Awards being announced. Then Monday (13th January), this year's Oscar nominations will be revealed. 

[And if you're wondering where the Razzie nominations are in all of this (usually announced the day before the Oscars are), they're marching to the beat of their own drum this year- accelerated Oscars calendar be damned- and not announcing the NOMINATIONS until Saturday 8th February 2020.] 

Awards Season 2020: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations

Morning!

An early start today, as the nominations for the 2020 BAFTA Film Awards were announced at 7:35(ish) GMT by Ella Balinska (Charlie's Angels) and Asa Butterfield (Hugo)

Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM

1917

The Irishman

Joker

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood 

Parasite

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

1917

Bait

For Sama

Rocketman

Sorry We Missed You

The Two Popes

LEADING ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Taron Egerton (Rocketman)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes)

LEADING ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

Margot Robbie (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

DIRECTOR

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Todd Phillips (Joker)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

Joker leads the nominations with 11, whilst The Irishman and Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood have 10 apiece, and 1917 has nine. 

There's always a British slant to the BAFTAs (go figure), plus there's always the issue of film eligibility or release, so some of the choices here may seem like outliers. Personally, I'm quite chuffed to see The Two Popes feature as much as it does. Interestingly, BAFTA are the first major awards body to recognise Margot Robbie's performance in Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood; all the others have given her the nod for Bombshell instead. 

The nominees for the 2020 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: Awkwafina, Kaitlyn Dever, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Jack Lowden, and Micheal Ward. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here. 

The BAFTAs will be handed out on Sunday 2nd February 2020 in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by Graham Norton for the first time.

Congratulations to all nominees!


More awards news later today as two of the major guilds- Producers' and Directors'- announce their nominations.

Awards Season 2020: Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) Nominations

This is just a brief update to tell you about the nominees for this year's Writers' Guild Awards (WGA), which were announced earlier today. 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1917

Booksmart

Knives Out

Marriage Story

Parasite

Happy to see both Knives Out and Marriage Story included here, as they both have very strong screenplays (I haven't seen the others, but 1917 is out in the UK this weekend and it's definitely on my list).

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Little Women

Considering a lot of my issues with Joker are down to the script, I'm a little underwhelmed to see it included here. However the screenplays for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood and The Irishman are both superb (and I'll hopefully see the other two nominees shortly). 

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Citizen K

Foster

The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice Of The People

The Kingmaker

Documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi To The Dark Side) has two nods here- Citizen K and The Inventor- so he's automatically got a 40% chance of winning. 


The Writers' Guild Awards will be handed out on Saturday 1st February 2020. 

Congratulations to all nominees!


And if you thought two awards season posts in one day was excessive... I got bad news for ya, kid. There'll be another two coming tomorrow

There's a triple whammy of awards nominations happening on Tuesday: early morning, there'll be the announcement of the 2020 BAFTA Film Awards (usually around 7:30am GMT; not sure if I'll catch it live or not) whilst the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) and the Producers' Guild Awards (PGA) also announce their nominations too! I'll combine the two Guild Awards into one post (I'm nice like that)

Awards Season 2020: Golden Globes Winners

Last night (Sunday 5th January 2020), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced the winners of the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards, for both television and film, in a ceremony hosted by Ricky Gervais for the fifth (and possibly final) time.

Here is the full list of film winners.

Best Motion Picture (Drama): 1917

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Best Director: Sam Mendes (1917)

Best Actor (Drama): Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Taron Egerton (Rocketman)

Best Actress (Drama): Renée Zellweger (Judy)

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Awkwafina (The Farewell)

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Best Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

Best Original Score: Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker)

Best Original Song: 'I'm Gonna Love Me Again' (Rocketman)

Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite

Best Animated Feature Film: Missing Link

Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award: Tom Hanks


Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood was the big winner of the night with three Globes, with 1917, Rocketman and Joker with two apiece. Absolutely nothing for The Irishman, which is interesting. 

A couple of nice surprises- Missing Link winning Animated Feature over Frozen II and Toy Story 4, and Taron Egerton getting the Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for Rocketman, particularly. Acting awards for Zellweger, Pitt, and Dern shore them up nicely for a potential Oscar win, although it's never actually a guarantee. 

It was an evening of firsts: Parasite became the first Korean movie to win the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe, whilst Hildur Guðnadóttir becomes the first solo female winner of Best Score, and Awkwafina is the first actress of Asian descent to win the Best Actress (Musical/Comedy).

Congratulations to all winners!

There'll be more awards news a little later today with the announcement of this year's Writers Guild Awards. 

Watchers Productions Presents... Strange Tales: Home

Watchers Productions are delighted to announce the release of our fifth Strange Tale:

HOME

Written and directed by Terrance Marshman-Edwards

Starring: Ben Percival (Joshua Flynn), Amanda Hunt (Nina Samuels) and Isabelle Rose Burman (Emily Maitland)

A young man, dealing with a bereavement, starts to receive strange text messages. Is somebody playing a sick joke - or is there something more sinister at work ?

Watch here!

For more information about the project and the other films already released and those currently in production, please see the Watchers Productions website.

Happy New Year from The Watchers!

Happy New Year!

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new year, and a new decade! 

Hopefully 2020 has got off to a good start for you all with minimal hangovers and much cheer, and you had a brilliant and enjoyable Christmas 

So what cinematic gems do we have to look forward to this year? Well, how about Bad Boys For Life, A Quiet Place: Part II, Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn), No Time To Die, Black Widow, Fast & Furious 9, Wonder Woman 1984, Top Gun: Maverick, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Morbius, Bill & Ted Face The Music, The King's Man, Tenet, Death On The Nile, Halloween Kills, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, The Eternals, Godzilla Vs. Kong, Raya And The Last Dragon, Coming 2 America, and In The Heights to name but a few?

Could be a very busy year for us! We'll be reviewing these and many more as the months pass by, so keep your eyes on the blog and your ears on the podcast. There'll be a veritable deluge of awards stuff coming in the next week or so, so be prepared for that. 

Our very best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020

The Watchers

(Rhys, Matt & Tez)