The Watchers

The Watchers

Sunday 29 January 2023

The Watchers Film Show Blog is 11 today!



Just a quick update today; get out the jelly and ice-cream, it's our 11th birthday! (or anniversary... I'm never sure which one it is)

Yep, 11 years ago on this very day, The Watchers Film Show Blog was founded. If this blog were a person, it'd be getting ready to go to secondary school in September. Man, they grow up so fast... *wipes away a tear*

As always, a massive THANK YOU to everyone who reads and supports us, especially as content has been a bit lacking of late. We are going to try our damndest to improve that this year. (Hope springs eternal...)

With lots of love and good wishes,

The Watchers
(Rhys, Matt & Tez)








Tuesday 24 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: Academy Award Nominations


As announced earlier this afternoon, here are some of the official nominations for the 95th Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE
All Quiet On The Western Front
Avatar: The Way Of Water
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle Of Sadness
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR
Todd Field (Tár)
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Ruben Östlund (Triangle Of Sadness)
Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Bill Nighy (Living)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)
Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)
Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)


A full list of nominees can be found here

If I've done my maths right, we are looking at 29/35 (83%). Better than last year, so that's a plus. 

A couple of big surprises, namely the Best Picture/Director nods for Triangle Of Sadness, and British actress Andrea Riseborough's shock (in the best possible way) Best Actress nomination for To Leslie. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance, but the film has had increased awareness over the last few weeks, as it's being signal boosted by several high-profile actresses. 

A couple of interesting little facts: all five of the Best Actor nominees are first-time nominees. The German-language version of All Quiet On The Western Front has nine nods, as opposed to the four given to the 1930 English-language version (which won Best Picture and Best Director). Angela Bassett's nod is the first acting nomination for any Marvel film, and Judd Hirsch receives his second Oscar nomination after a whoppping 42 years (he was previously nominated for Ordinary People in 1981).

Everything Everywhere All At Once has 11 nominations to lead the field, with All Quiet On The Western Front and The Banshees Of Inisherin tying for second place with nine apiece. 

Congratulations to all nominees!


The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 12th March 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to host for the third time, after his consecutive appearances MCing the 89th and 90th Oscars.

For those not interested in the awards season circus, you'll be glad to know there's going to be a brief hiatus in the proceedings; our next awards season stop on the road to the 95th Academy Awards will be the weekend of 18th/19th February. 

Monday 23 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

 

Tomorrow morning (5:30AM PT/8:30AM ET/1:30PM GMT), the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced. This year, they will be announced by Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal, Rogue One, Four Lions) and Allison Williams (Get Out, M3gan, Girls).

Since 2003, I have tried to predict who will be nominated in several of the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). Below is my list of who I think will be named tomorrow.

BEST PICTURE
All Quiet On The Western Front
Avatar: The Way Of Water
Babylon
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR
Todd Field (Tár)
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Sarah Polley (Women Talking)
Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Bill Nighy (Living)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Viola Davis (The Woman King)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Danielle Deadwyler (Till)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Dano (The Fabelmans)
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)


As we now have 10 Best Picture nominees (in addition to the 20 for acting and 5 for directing), I will be happy with any score over 20. Last year, it was 26/35 (74%)

I'm confident of seven (maybe eight) of the Best Picture nominees; Babylon and/or All Quiet On The Western Front may well be replaced by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and/or Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. 

With Best Director, there's been a core of four [well, technically five] consistent names (the Daniels, Field, McDonagh and Spielberg) so it's working out who would join them. I went for Sarah Polley in a rather optimistic mood that they'd continue the streak of female directors, but it's far from definite. We could easily see James Cameron (Avatar: The Way Of Water) or Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) get a nod, with Kosinski nominated at the DGAs.

Given the Academy's form over the previous couple of years, a nomination for a foreign-language film director- potentially S.S. Rajamouli (RRR), Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave), or Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)- might not be out of the question. Hell, they may still nominate a female director: Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King). 

Best Actor seems fairly secure, although you might see Jeremy Pope (The Inspection) or even potentially Hugh Jackman (The Son) in place of Paul Mescal. Best Actress has been a wide field this year, with a lot of superb performances getting nominated across the various awards bodies. I went with the five SAG Awards nominees, although the Academy could seek to honour Olivia Colman (Empire Of Light), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), or Margot Robbie (Babylon) instead.

With Best Supporting Actor, I'm confident of three at the very least- Gleeson, Keoghan, and Quan. Dano seems fairly secure, but there's been a lot of good supporting performances which might sneak in, including Brad Pitt (Babylon), Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway), and Dano's co-star in The Fabelmans, Judd Hirsch. Ben Whishaw could get a nod for his turn in Women Talking.

As for Best Supporting Actress, Hsu is the only one I'm not very sure of. You could easily see Carey Mulligan (She Said), Janelle Monáe (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), Dolly de Leon (Triangle Of Sadness) or Jessie Buckley and/or Claire Foy from Women Talking


We'll see what the Academy comes up with tomorrow afternoon. There'll be a post up as soon as I can afterwards with the official nominations.

So what do you think of my predictions? Pretty solid or way off the mark? Who do you think will (or should) get a nomination tomorrow? Let me know by commenting below.

Awards Season 2023: Razzies Nominations

 

Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We can therefore deduce from this that the Golden Raspberries (which dishonour the cinematic bilge of the previous year) are the equal and opposite reaction to the Oscars. Who says this blog can't be entertaining and educational at the same time?

So here are the full nominations for the 43rd Annual Razzie Awards, and there's a rather surprising film in the lead.

WORST PICTURE
Blonde
Disney’s Pinocchio
Good Mourning     
The King’s Daughter
Morbius 

WORST ACTRESS
Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Firestarter)
Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic Park: Dominion)
Diane Keaton (Mack & Rita)
Kaya Scodelario (The King’s Daughter)
Alicia Silverstone (The Requin)

WORST ACTOR
Colson Baker (Good Mourning)
Pete Davidson (Voice Only) (Marmaduke)
Tom Hanks (Disney’s Pinocchio)
Jared Leto (Morbius)
Sylvester Stallone (Samaritan)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Pete Davidson (Good Mourning)
Tom Hanks (Elvis)
Xavier Samuel (Blonde)
Mod Sun (Good Mourning)
Evan Williams (Blonde)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adria Arjona (Morbius)
Lorraine Bracco (Voice Only) (Disney’s Pinocchio)
Penélope Cruz (The 355)
Fan Bingbing (The 355 and The King’s Daughter)
Mira Sorvino (Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend

WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Colson Baker & Mod Sun (Good Mourning)
Both Real Life Characters in the Fallacious White House Bedroom Scene (Blonde)
Tom Hanks & His Latex-Laden Face (and Ludicrous Accent) (Elvis)
Andrew Dominik & His Issues with Women (Blonde)
The Two 365 Days Sequels 

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
Blonde
Both 365 Days Sequels (365 Days: This Day and The Next 365 Days)
Disney’s Pinocchio 
Firestarter
Jurassic World: Dominion

WORST DIRECTOR
Judd Apatow (The Bubble)
Colson Baker & Mod Sun (Good Mourning)
Andrew Dominik (Blonde)
Daniel Espinosa (Morbius)
Robert Zemeckis (Disney’s Pinocchio)

WORST SCREENPLAY
Blonde
Disney’s Pinocchio
Good Mourning
Jurassic World: Dominion
Morbius


Blonde leads the pack with eight nods, with stoner "comedy" Good Mourning (written by, co-directed by and starring Colson Baker [a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly]) in second place with seven. Disney's Pinocchio gets six nominations, while Morbius gets five. I'm surprised, I was expecting Morbius to maybe get a few more. 

Blonde is the film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' novel based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It's not a biopic in the strictest sense, because it's based on Oates' novel and not a biography or autobiography. It's come in for some flack- as a film which criticises the exploitation of Marilyn Monroe by... exploiting the very same persona- but Ana de Armas' performance has been widely praised. She has remained unscathed with today's announcement; director Andrew Dominik, not so much. 

There's a couple of films which can count their lucky stars not to be included on this list- Death On The Nile and Halloween Ends, I'm looking at you. 

As is tradition, the Razzies will be handed out the day before the Oscars, meaning that we'll see which of these stinkers walks away with the prizes on Saturday 11th March 2023.



As is also tradition, I'll be posting my predictions for the main six categories for the 95th Academy Awards a little later today, ahead of the announcement tomorrow afternoon.

Thursday 19 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations


The nominations for the 76th British Academy (BAFTA) Film Awards were announced this afternoon, by Hayley Atwell (
Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Robin) and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso, The French Dispatch). Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM
All Quiet On The Western Front
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Tár

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Aftersun
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Brian And Charles
Empire Of Light
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
Living
Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical
See How They Run
The Swimmers
The Wonder

LEADING ACTOR
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Daryl McCormack (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Bill Nighy (Living)

LEADING ACTRESS 
Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Viola Davis (The Woman King)
Danielle Deadwyler (Till)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Emma Thompson (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)
Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet On The Western Front)
Micheal Ward (Empire Of Light)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Dolly de Leon (Triangle Of Sadness)
Carey Mulligan (She Said)

DIRECTOR
Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)
Todd Field (Tár)
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave)
Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King)


A full list of nominees in all categories can be found here.

BAFTA previously announced longlists for all categories, so you can see what was in contention for nominations here.

All Quiet On The Western Front received a record-equalling 14 nominations across the board (it ties with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), whilst The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once got ten apiece. 

Very interesting to note that, whilst The Fabelmans was longlisted in several categories (including Best Film, and Best Actress [although not for Best Director]), it only received one nomination: Best Original Screenplay. I think it may fare better when the Oscar nominations are announced next week. I was also surprised not to see Olivia Colman's name in the Best Actress category for Empire Of Light - BAFTA always tend to skew towards British talent, so I thought she may be included. There was also nothing for Sarah Polley's Women Talking.

The nominees for the 2023 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: this year's nominees are Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Emma Mackey, Daryl McCormack, and Aimee Lou Wood. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here.

The 76th BAFTA Film Awards will be handed out in just a month's time (on Sunday 19th February) in a ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated actor Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Withnail & I) will be hosting. 

Congratulations to all nominees!


We are getting to the sharp end of the awards nominations now, with the Razzies due to announce theirs on Monday (23rd January) and the Oscars on Tuesday (24th January). As has become tradition, my Oscar nomination predictions will follow sometime on Monday.

Monday 16 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: Critics Choice Awards Winners


Yesterday (15th January 2023) saw the 28th Critics Choice Awards. Hosted by Chelsea Handler, they honoured the best of film and TV in 2022 across 37 categories. 

Here are a full list of the Critics' Choice Awards movie winners: 


Best Picture: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actor: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Best Acting Ensemble: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Original Screenplay: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Adapted Screenplay: Women Talking

Best Comedy: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Foreign Language Film: RRR

Best Animated Feature: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Best Score: Tár

Best Song: "Naatu Naatu" (RRR)

Best Production Design: Babylon

Best Editing: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Costume Design: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Hair & Makeup: Elvis

Best Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way Of Water

Best Cinematography: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Young Actor/Actress: Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans)


Everything Everywhere All At Once was the runaway winner of the evening, with five awards. Tár, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and RRR were the next big winners with each film taking home two awards apiece. 

Congratulations to all winners!

There's a few days off from awards stuff, with the BAFTA Film Awards nominations our next event, coming on Thursday (19th January).

Thursday 12 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: Producers Guild Awards (PGA) Nominations


Just a quick one today (as the actress said to the bishop) as the nominations for the 34th Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards were announced earlier.

Here they are:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
The Whale

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Minions: The Rise of Gru
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 
(previously announced)
All That Breathes
Descendant
Fire Of Love
Navalny
Nothing Compares
Retrograde
The Territory

A couple of interesting additions for Best Picture: I'm pleased to see both Glass Onion and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever mentioned, with The Whale also a surprise nominee. I think a lot of people were surprised by the omission of Women Talking and Babylon. Whether the Academy will follow suit, who knows? That's all part of the fun.

When the Documentary nominees were announced just before Christmas, there was some surprise that two highly-regarded documentaries, both hyped up for Oscar nominations, were not on the list: they are Moonage Daydream (about David Bowie) and All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (about photographer Nan Goldin and her fight to hold a major pharmaceuticals company accountable for the opioid epidemic). It has, however, been noted that the PGA is not always the best prognosticator of the Documentary Feature category at the Oscars, so both may still get a nod come 24th January. 

The PGAs will be given out on Saturday 25th February 2023

Congratulations to all nominees!

Next stop on the awards season hype-train is the Critics Choice Awards, which will be handed out on Sunday (15th January). 

Wednesday 11 January 2023

Awards Season 2023: Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) Awards and Directors Guild Awards (DGA) Nominations

 

So we've got a 2-4-1 on awards news today, with two major guilds announcing their nominations. I can see you're all positively besides yourselves waiting to find out who's been mentioned, so without further ado, here we go!


SCREEN ACTORS' GUILD (SAG) AWARDS


This afternoon (Wednesday 11th January), the nominations for the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced. Again, they were announced via Instagram Live, with Ashley Park (Emily In Paris, Tales Of The City) and Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus, Split) doing the honours. 

Below is the list of film nominations:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Babylon
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Fabelmans
Women Talking

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Bill Nighy (Living)
Adam Sandler (Hustle)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Viola Davis (The Woman King)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Danielle Deadwyler (Till)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Paul Dano (The Fabelmans)
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
Avatar: The Way Of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Top Gun: Maverick
The Woman King

Both The Banshees Of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once have a staggering five nominations apiece. 

A couple of surprises here: Adam Sandler making up the Best Actor category, for one. This is the first time his name has been mentioned this awards season. There's also some interesting choices with Best Actress, with Michelle Williams absent for The Fabelmans. That said, there's a whole bunch of superb lead actress performances this year that someone isn't going to make the cut. A pleasant surprise to see Stephanie Hsu also mentioned in Best Supporting Actress, as her role is certainly more integral to the plot (as good as Jamie Lee Curtis is). 

Another surprise was the omission of Everything Everywhere All At Once in the Stunt Ensemble category; given the dizzying action sequences in that film, it seemed a safe bet. 

The SAG Awards will be handed out on Sunday 26th February 2022. At present, the ceremony will be broadcast online (via Netflix's YouTube page) with the show airing on Netflix from next year. 

============

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS (DGA)


Were the SAG Awards not excitement enough for one day, we also have the rest of the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) nominees announced today as well. And here they are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film
Todd Field (Tár)
Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick)
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)
Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film
Alice Diop (Saint Omer)
Audrey Diwan (Happening)
John Patton Ford (Emily The Criminal)
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (Murina)
Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary 
(previously announced)
Sara Dosa (Fire of Love)
Matthew Heinman (Retrograde)
Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed)
Daniel Roher (Navalny)
Shaunak Sen (All That Breathes)

Well, now, this is interesting... Joseph Kosinski gets a mention instead of James Cameron or Baz Luhrmann. I've got a feeling in my waters that at least three (or four) of these names will be part of the Academy's choices- a nomination for the Daniels, Spielberg, and McDonagh feels incredibly likely. I'd have liked to have seen either Sarah Polley or Gina Prince-Bythewood get a nod but (much like with the Best Actress race) there's such a breadth and depth of breathtaking directorial work this year that not all of them are going to be recognised as much as they perhaps should.   

The winners will be announced at the 75th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday 18th February 2023.



Congratulations to all nominees!


It's that time of year when there's lots of awards buzz. Tomorrow (Thursday 12th January) sees this year's Producers Guild Awards (PGA) nominations so there'll be a short post about that at some point. 

Awards Season 2023: Golden Globes Winners

 

Last night (Tuesday 10th January 2023), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced the winners of the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards, for both television and film.

Last year's ceremony was not broadcast, due to NBC declining to air the show in support of the various boycotts of the HFPA (which came from the lack of diversity of the membership, and its financial malfeasance). However, a one-year contract was struck to bring the ceremony back on air, with Jerrod Carmichael (Bad Neighbours, The Carmichael Show, Rothaniel) acting as MC for the first time. 


Here is the full list of film winners.


Best Motion Picture (Drama): The Fabelmans

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): The Banshees Of Inisherin

Best Director: Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

Best Actor (Drama): Austin Butler (Elvis)

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Best Actress (Drama): Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Best Screenplay: Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Best Original Score: Justin Hurwitz (Babylon)

Best Original Song: "Naatu Naatu" (RRR)

Best Foreign Language Film: Argentina, 1985

Best Animated Feature Film: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Cecil B. DeMille Award: Eddie Murphy


The Banshees Of Inisherin takes away the most awards, with three. The Fabelmans and Everything Everywhere All At Once have two. 

The Golden Globes have always been a more rough-and-ready affair, so it's no surprise that the ceremony was a bit less slick than one may expect. That said, there was an annoying habit of starting to play acceptance speeches off far too early, which led to several winners mentioning it (with Michelle Yeoh's "Shut up, please. I can beat you up" being the funniest quip). 

Carmichael was OK as host, addressing the HFPA's woes in his opening monologue (Carmichael was the first solo Black host of the Golden Globes, and that point was made) but he often struggled to keep control of events, and some of his jokes really failed to land (such as the jab about using Tom Cruise's three Globes- which he returned- to free the notoriously absent wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige). There was also far too many jokes about Will Smith which started to grate a little.  

Onto the awards. A couple of surprises, namely: Austin Butler's win (over the highly-favoured Brendan Fraser who [like several nominees and winners] was absent from the event); Argentina, 1985 taking the Best Foreign Language Film over Decision To Leave and All Quiet On The Western Front; and "Naatu Naatu" from Bollywood action drama RRR taking Best Original Song over "Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick (which went home empty-handed) or "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (although the MCU sequel did take home one award, for Angela Bassett's stoic supporting turn as the grieving Queen Ramonda). 

Personally, I'm happy to see the love for The Banshees Of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once

Congratulations to all winners!


As if all of this awards excitement wasn't enough for you, today (Wednesday 11th January) sees the announcement of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards AND the Directors Guild (DGA) Awards nominations. I'd very much expect to see a lot of the names featured here in those as well.  

Monday 9 January 2023

The Watchers Film Show Review Of 2022


Our Review of 2022 is here!

In our twelfth (twelfth!) annual review of the year, we discuss what made our nice lists and our naughty lists- with one film from someone's nice list made the naughty list of another! But what was it? 

Could it be Thor: Love & Thunder? Death On The Nile? Or maybe it was Morbius? (Just kidding, it definitely wasn't Morbius)

Documentaries, awards fodder, horror movies, whodunits and comic book movies all get a mention - we are nothing if not diverse! Take a listen and let us know your best (and worst) films of 2022.

Enjoy! 
 

Sunday 1 January 2023

Happy New Year From The Watchers!


This is just a quick note from us to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Wherever you are, and however you spent it, we hope this festive season has been as joyous and as wonderful as possible and that 2023 has started on the right foot for y'all. 

Cinematically speaking, there's a lot to look forward to this year: The Fabelmans, Tár, Cocaine Bear, Elemental, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III, Scream 6, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Wick: Chapter 4, Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods, Fast X, The Little Mermaid, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Knock At The Cabin, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destony, Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer, The Marvels, Kraven The Hunter, Dune: Part Two, Killers Of The Flower Moon, The Expendables 4, and Blue Beetle, amongst many others. 

We wish you all the very best. Here's hoping 2023 is a superb year for everyone!

The Watchers
(Rhys, Matt & Tez)