What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 21st January 2021.

The 30th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were held on 11th January 2021 in New York City. Originally scheduled to take place on 20th November 2020, the ceremony was pushed back by two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Independent Film Project Gotham Awards, selected by distinguished juries, are the first honours of the film awards season. This public showcase honours the filmmaking community, expands the audience for independent films, and supports the work that IFP does behind the scenes throughout the year to bring such films to fruition.

To be eligible for the film awards, the films must be over seventy minutes in length, have a budget of under US$35M and must have been Written, Directed, and Produced by a United States citizen (except for films qualifying for the Best International Feature category). Actors Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis, Director Steve McQueen, Writer Ryan Murphy and the cast of 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' all received Gotham Tribute Awards.

In the feature film and documentary categories, the winners are as follows :-

* Best Feature - awarded to 'Nomadland', beating out 'The Assistant', 'First Cow', 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' and 'Relic'.

* Best Documentary - awarded to 'A Thousand Cuts' tied with 'Time', beating out '76 Days', 'City Hall' and 'Our Time Machine'. 

* Best International Feature - awarded to 'Identifying Features' beating out 'Bacurau', 'Beanpole', 'Cuties', 'Martin Eden' and 'Wolfwalkers'. 

* Best Actor - awarded to Riz Ahmed for 'Sound of Metal' beating out Chadwick Boseman (posthumously) for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Jude Law for 'The Nest', John Magaro for 'First Cow' and Jesse Plemons for 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things'.

* Best Actress - awarded to Nicole Beharie for 'Miss Juneteenth', beating out Jessie Buckley for 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things', Carrie Coon for 'The Nest', Frances McDormand for 'Nomadland' and Yuh-jung Youn for 'Minari'.

* Best Screenplay - awarded to Radha Blank for 'The Forty-Year-Old Version' tied with Dan Sallitt for 'Fourteen' beating out Mike Makowsky for 'Bad Education', Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for 'First Cow' and James Montague and Craig W. Sander for 'The Vast of Night'.

* Breakthrough Actor - awarded to Kingsley Ben-Adir for 'One Night in Miami' beating out Jasmine Batchelor for 'The Surrogate', Sidney Flanigan for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always', Orion Lee for 'First Cow' and Kelly O'Sullivan for 'Saint Frances'.

* Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award - presented to Andrew Patterson for 'The Vast of Night' beating out Radha Blank for 'The Forty-Year-Old Version', Channing Godfrey Peoples for 'Miss Juneteenth', Carlo Mirabella-Davis for 'Swallow' and Alex Thompson for 'Saint Frances'.

* Audience Award - presented to 'Nomadland'.

For the complete synopsis of the 30th IFP Gotham Awards, you can go to the official website at : https://awards.thegotham.org/

This week there are four latest release new movies coming to an Odeon near you, and we kick off with a true story of a Sydney dwelling family who encounter a tragedy while holidaying abroad that sees the mother paralysed from the waist down, only to find her path to recovery aided by an injured baby bird that ultimately has a long lasting impact on the family's healing process. We then turn to an American film that sees a man with a very particular set of skills go head to head with a Mexican drug cartel while trying to escort an orphaned young lad back to his family in Chicago. Next up is a French mystery drama surrounding five individuals all of whom share a connection and secrets over the disappearance of a woman on a remote plateau. And wrapping up the week we have a doco about a famed New Zealand record label that from humble beginning in South Auckland hit the big time both at home and overseas. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 week ahead.

'PENGUIN BLOOM' (Rated PG) - Directed by Glendyn Ivin in only his second feature film outing following 'Last Ride' in 2009 although he has directed a number of TV series and mini-series including 'Puberty Blues', 'Gallipoli', 'Safe Harbour' and 'The Cry' most recently. This Australian family drama film is based on the 2016 book of the same name by Cameron Bloom and Bradley Trevor Greive, saw its World Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, and is released theatrically this week in Australia and in the US, UK, France and a number of Asian countries on 27th January on Netflix. 

'Penguin Bloom' tells the true story of Sam Bloom (Naomi Watts, who also Co-Produces here) a young mother whose world is turned upside down after a near-fatal accident while holidaying in Thailand with her family leaving her unable to walk. Sam’s husband Cameron (Andrew Lincoln), her three young boys Noah, Rueben and Oli (Griffin Murray-Johnston, Felix Cameron and Abe Clifford-Barr respectively) and her mother Jan (Jacki Weaver), are struggling to adjust to their new situation when an unlikely ally enters their world in the form of an injured baby magpie they name Penguin. The bird’s arrival is a welcome distraction for the Bloom family, eventually making a profound difference in the family’s life.

'THE MARKSMAN' (Rated M) - is an American action thriller Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Robert Lorenz who has twenty-seven credits to his name as Second Unit Director or Assistant Director, seventeen as Producer and four as Director, with this film being only his second film making outing in his own right after 2012's 'Trouble with the Curve'. Here retired U.S. Marine Jim Hanson (Liam Neeson) lives along the Arizona-Mexico border, reporting attempted illegal crossings. One day while on patrol he encounters Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) and her son Miguel (Jacob Perez), Mexican citizens on the run from a drug cartel. After a shootout with several cartel members led by Maurico (Juan Pablo Raba), Rosa is killed and Hanson reluctantly agrees to take Miguel to his family in Chicago. Also starring Katheryn Winnick, the film has garnered mixed or average Reviews thus far.  

'ONLY THE ANIMALS' (Rated M) - here this French mystery crime drama film is Directed by Dominik Moll whose previous film making credits take in 'Harry, He's Here to Help' in 2000, 'Lemming' in 2005, 'The Monk' in 2011 and 'News from Planet Mars' in 2015, and is based on the novel 'Seules les betes' by Colin Niel. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival way back in late August 2019, and only now does it go on release in Australia. A woman is missing. Following a snowstorm, her car is found on the road up to a plateau where a few isolated farms barely manage to survive. While the local Police have no leads, five people know that they are linked to this disappearance. They all have their secrets, but no one suspects that the whole story began far from this mountain swept by winter winds, on another continent where the sun beats down and where poverty does not prevent desire from dictating its laws. The film has generated mostly positive Press so far. Starring Laure Calamy, Denis Menochet, Damien Bonnard and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. 

'DAWN RAID' (Rated M) - this New Zealand biographical film is Directed by Oscar Kightley in his debut feature film and tells the extraordinary untold story of acclaimed New Zealand music label Dawn Raid Entertainment and its two founders, Andy Murnane and Brotha D. From humble beginnings selling T-shirts on the streets of South Auckland, this unlikely duo formed a legendary partnership that would defy the odds and become music royalty both at home and across the world. The film explores the incredible challenges and struggles that were buried deep beneath the glamour of chart-topping hits with the hottest local and international talent – rifts between artists, unpaid tax debts, feelings of failure and betrayal – and the immeasurable musical legacy that was created in spite of this. Featuring some of New Zealand’s biggest hip-hop and RnB artists including Savage, Mareko, Adeaze and Aaradhna, this is an inspirational, heart pounding celebration of local home grown talent who not only gave a voice to their local community, but paved the way for a future generation of artists.

With four new release films 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 coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-