What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 26th December 2019.

The 32nd European Film Awards were presented in Berlin, Germany on Saturday 7th December by the European Film Academy - an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. The Academy, under the name of European Cinema Society, was officially founded by its first President, the Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman, as well as 40 filmmakers from all over Europe. The European Film Awards takes place every second year in Berlin, while they are presented every other year in another European city. In 1996, German film maker Wim Wenders took over the presidency from Ingmar Bergman. With the awards the Academy actively pursues attracting the interest of the audience in European cinema, promoting its cultural and artistic qualities, and regaining the public's confidence in its entertainment value.

This years winners and grinners at the 32nd European Film Awards were as follows :-

* Best Film 
Awarded to 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out 'Les Miserables', 'An Officer and a Spy', 'Pain and Glory', 'System Crasher' and 'The Traitor'.
* Best European Comedy
Awarded to 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out 'Tel Aviv on Fire' and 'Ditte & Louise'.
* Best Director
Awarded to YORGOS LANTHIMOS for 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out Roman Polanski for 'An Officer and a Spy', Pedro Almodovar for 'Pain and Glory', Celine Sciamma for 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' and Marco Bellocchio for 'The Traitor'.
* Best Actress
Awarded to OLIVIA COLEMAN for 'THE FAVOURITE'.
* Best Actor
Awarded to ANTONIO BANDERAS for 'PAIN AND GLORY'.
* Best Documentary
Awarded to 'FOR SAMA', Directed by Edward Watts and Ward el-Kateab.
* Best Animated Feature
Awarded to 'BUNUEL IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE TURTLES' Directed by Salvador Simo.
* Best Screenwriter
Awarded to CELINE SCIAMMA for 'PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE'.
* Best Cinematographer
Awarded to ROBBIE RYAN for 'THE FAVOURITE'.
* Best Editor
Awarded to YORGOS MAVROPSARIDIS for 'THE FAVOURITE'.
* Best Costume Designer
Awarded to SANDY POWELL for 'THE FAVOURITE'.
* Best Make-Up and Hairstyling
Awarded to NADIA STACEY for 'THE FAVOURITE'.
* Best Production Designer
Awarded to ANTXON GOMEZ for 'PAIN AND GLORY'.
* Best Composer
Awarded to JOHN GURTLER for 'SYSTEM CRASHER'.
Best Sound Designer
Awarded to EDUARDO ESQUIDE, NACHO ROYO-VILLANOVA, and LAURENT CHASSAIGNE for 'A TWELVE-YEAR NIGHT'.
* Best Visual Effects
Awarded to 'ABOUT ENDLESSNESS'.

* The European Discovery Critics Award
Presented to 'LES MISERABLES' Directed by Ladj Ly.
* The Peoples Choice Audience Award
Presented to 'COLD WAR' Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.
* The University Award
Presented to 'PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE' Directed by Celine Sciamma.
* The European Achievement in World Cinema Honorary Award
Presented to JULIETTE BINOCHE, the Fresh Actress, artist and dancer.
* The Lifetime Achievement Honorary Award
Presented to WERNER HERZOG, the German Director of film and opera, Producer, Actor, Author and Screenwriter.

For the full low down on all the glitz and glamour of the 32nd European Film Awards, you can visit the official website at : https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu

Turning to Christmas week, we have six latest release new movies gracing your local Odeon on Boxing Day. We kick start the filmic festive season with this black comedy satire on Nazi Germany during WWII brought to us by New Zealand's finest and funniest film maker working today. Then we turn to a sequel of a 2017 film that was a sequel to a 1995 film featuring a group of teenage kids thrust into a video game and emerging as avatars of themselves destined to locate a pair of aged lost friends and escape the game back to their own reality. We then join a whole bunch of felines based on a long running and hugely successful stage play of the same name, featuring an A-list cast made to look like said felines with a specific mission in mind . . . sounds puuurrrrrr-fect! Next up is a British story from an acclaimed Director about a family struggling with life in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, but just as some light at the end of the tunnel emerges so too is there a risk that the tunnel is going to cave in at any moment. This is followed up by a French historical drama about two women on a remote island - one about to enter an arranged marriage and the other sent over to paint her portrait - and the relationship that develops between the pair over time. And we close out the week with another French offering about a famed cinema Actress living in Paris and the publication of her memoir, her Screenwriter daughter with whom she has a somewhat fractured relationship, and the truths that emerge when the daughter visits her mother from the US.   

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week. 

'JOJO RABBIT' (Rated M) - judging by the trailers for this American satirical black comedy that is a send up of Nazi Germany during WWII, this film looks hilarious. Directed, Co-Produced, Written and starring New Zealand's very own Taika Waititi, whose last film outing was the highly acclaimed 'Thor : Ragnarok' and before that 'The Hunt for the Wilderpeople'. This film is based on Christine Leunens's 2008 novel 'Caging Skies', and had its world Premiere showing at TIFF in early September where it won the top prize, the 'Grolsch People's Choice Award' before its wider release in the US in mid-October and in New Zealand in late October. The film has divided Critics, however, most seem to be praising the performances, the humour, the screenplay and the heart-warming story. Made for US$14M the film has so far grossed US$26M.

Here lonely German lad Johannes 'Jojo' Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis), a Hitler Youth recruit finds out that his single mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. He must then question his beliefs, while dealing with the intervention of his imaginary friend, an idiotic version of Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi). The film also stars Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, and Sam Rockwell.

'JUMANJI : THE NEXT LEVEL' (Rated PG) - is an American fantasy adventure comedy film Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Jake Kasdan, and is the second sequel to the 1995 film 'Jumanji', following 2017's 'Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle' and the overall fourth instalment of the Jumanji franchise. Jake Kasdan also Directed 'Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle' which grossed US$962M at the worldwide Box Office off the back of a US$90M budget investment, and before that 'Sex Tape', 'Bad Teacher' and 'Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story' amongst a few others. Unknown to his friends, Spencer (Alex Wolff) kept the pieces of the Jumanji video game and one day repaired the system in the basement of his grandfather Eddie's (Danny DeVito) house. When Spencer's friends Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman), Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain), and Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner) arrive, they find Spencer missing and the game running and decide to re-enter Jumanji to save him. Spencer's grandfather Eddie and his friend Milo Walker (Danny Glover) hear the commotion and inadvertently get sucked into the game too before any of Spencer's friends can select their avatars. With a new quest offered to them by Nigel Billingsley (Rhys Darby), the teenaged friends must help Eddie and Milo get used to their in-game avatars, get them to help find Spencer and Bethany, and escape Jumanji once again and for all. Also starring and reprising their roles from the previous instalment are Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas with Awkafina and Colin Hanks also joining the castlist.

'CATS' (Rated G) - is a British and American Co-Produced musical fantasy film based on the stage musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which saw its Premier West End show in May 1981 and, which in turn was based on the 1939 poetry collection 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cat's' by T. S. Eliot. The film is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Tom Hooper—in his second musical film following 2012's 'Les Misérables', and whose other notable film credits include 'The King's Speech' and 'The Danish Girl'. Here Hooper has amassed an ensemble cast to bring to life a tribe of cats called the 'Jellicles' who over the course of a single night, must make what is known as 'the Jellicle choice' and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. With a Production Budget of US$90M the live action cast includes James Cordon, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Francesca Hayward, Ray Winstone and Les Twins. The film was released in the US last week, has so far grossed US$11M and has received generally negative press, and following many poor reviews, Universal Studios notified movie theatres on opening day that an updated Digital Cinema Package with 'some improved visual effects' would be available for download on 22nd December, urging them to replace the current print as soon as possible. Studio executives and theatre owners said that the decision to release a modified version of a film already on general release was 'unheard of'. Make of that what you will!

'SORRY WE MISSED YOU' (Rated MA15+) - this British, French and Belgian Co-Produced drama film is Directed by the acclaimed English film maker Ken Loach, who at the tender rage of 83 is still making award winning films. Some of his more noteworthy back catalogue of films include 'Kes', 'Riff-Raff', 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley', 'Looking for Eric', and 'I, Daniel Blake' most recently. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where Loach appeared to promote the film at Cannes, stating that it would be his final film to compete at the festival. It received the audience award for best European film at the 2019 San Sebastian International Film Festival in September. Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen) and his wife Abby (Debbie Honeywood) and two kids Seb (Rhys Stone) and Lisa Jane (Katie Proctor) have been fighting an uphill battle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to wrestle back some independence appears with a shiny new van and the chance to run a franchise as a self employed delivery driver. It's hard work, and his wife's job as a carer is no easier. The family unit is strong but when they are pulled in different directions everything reaches breaking point. The film has received generally positive Reviews since its release in France, Belgium and the UK at the back end of October.

'PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE' (Rated M) - here this French historical drama film is Directed and Written by Celine Sciamma. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film Directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes. The film has thus far accumulated ten award wins and another thirteen nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit and has garnered universal Critical Reviews since its release in France in mid-September. Set in France in 1760, arriving on an isolated island of the Brittany coast, Marianne (Noemie Merlant) is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Heloise (Adele Haenel), a young woman who has recently left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of a companion, observing Heloise by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women observe each other from a distance, intimacy and attraction are ignited as they share Heloise's first moments of freedom. Heloise's portrait soon becomes a testament to their love.

'THE TRUTH' (Rated PG) - this French drama offering Written and Directed by Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda is his first feature film set outside of his native Japan and not in his native language. Kore-eda is the highly acclaimed Director behind last years multi-award winning 'Shoplifters'. The film saw its world Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in late August, was released in Japan in early October, and arrives in Australian cinema's at Christmas time, having generated generally favourable Reviews along the way. Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is one of the great stars of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. However, she has a somewhat challenging relationship with her daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche), a Screenwriter. When Lumir and her husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) return to Paris with their young child, things come to a head with the release of Fabienne’s memoir, and as a consequence the reunion between mother and daughter quickly turns confrontational as truths are told, accounts are settled and love and resentment are confessed.

With six new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-