What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 18th March 2021.

The 10th annual AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) International Awards were held on Friday 5th March. Typically the awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles, but this year the awards were presented via a highlights package of acceptance speeches, debuting on AACTA’s YouTube channel. The AACTA International Awards honour achievements in screen excellence, regardless of geography, across seven feature film categories and for the first time this year across four television series categories too. The Awards add a uniquely Australian voice to the international awards season alongside the Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmy’s and Golden Globes.

In the feature film category this year, the winners and nominees are as listed below :-

AACTA International Award for Best Film

* Awarded to 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN', beating out 'The Father', 'Minari', 'Nomadland' and 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.

AACTA International Award for Best Director

* Awarded to CHLOE ZHAO for 'Nomadland', beating out Pete Docter for 'Soul', Emerald Fennell for 'Promising Young Woman', David Fincher for 'Mank' and Aaron Sorkin for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.

AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay

* Awarded to 'THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7' written by Aaron Sorkin, beating out 'The Father', 'Mank', 'Promising Young Woman' and 'Nomadland'. 

AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actor

* Awarded to CHADWICK BOSEMAN for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', beating out Riz Ahmed for 'Sound of Metal', Adarsh Gourav for 'The White Tiger', Anthony Hopkins for 'The Father' and Gary Oldman for 'Mank'.

AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actress

* Awarded to CAREY MULLIGAN for 'Promising Young Woman', beating out Viola Davis for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Vanessa Kirby for 'Pieces of a Woman', Frances McDormand for 'Nomadland' and Eliza Scanlen for 'Babyteeth'.

AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actor

* Awarded to SACHA BARON COHEN for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7', beating out Chadwick Boseman for 'Da 5 Bloods', Ben Mendelsohn for 'Babyteeth', Mark Rylance for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' and David Strathairn for 'Nomadland'.

AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actress

* Awarded to OLIVIA COLEMAN for 'The Father', beating out Maria Bakalova for 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm', Saoirse Ronan for 'Ammonite', Amanda Seyfried for 'Mank' and Swankie for 'Nomadland'.

For the complete run down of this years 10th AACTA International Awards plus a whole lot more, you can visit the official website at : https://www.aacta.org/

This week we have five latest release new films coming to your local Odeon, kicking off with a movie about a drug trafficker who organises a smuggling operation while a recovering addict seeks the truth behind her son's disappearance. Next up is a story about a widowed New York socialite and her aimless son who move to Paris after she spends the last of her husband's inheritance. And this is followed up by the story of a vital national protest movement - Rock Against Racism, formed in 1976 when a group of music artists united to take on the National Front across the UK. Then we turn to a sports drama offering about the game of Lacrosse and how it transforms the lives of Inuit students when they learn how to play the game; and we wrap up the week with an Aussie doco about professional surfer Laura Enever who departs from the WSL Championship Tour to explore the unpredictable world of big-wave surfing.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five 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 coming week.

'CRISIS' (Rated MA15+) - this crime thriller is Directed, Produced, Written and also stars Nicholas Jarecki in only his second feature film making outing following 2012's 'Arbitrage'. The film was released in the US in late February, and in Canada and Australia this week, having gained mixed or average Reviews along the way and so far grossing US$387K at the Box Office. Featuring an ensemble cast that takes in the likes of Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Greg Kinnear, Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez, Lily-Rose Depp, Indira Varma, Kid Cudi and Martin Donovan.

Centring around three stories about the world of opioids and how these are on a collision course that sees a drug trafficker arranging a multi-cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation between Canada and the US, an architect recovering from an OxyContin addiction who tracks down the truth behind her son's involvement with narcotics, and a university professor who battles unexpected revelations about his research employer - a drug company with deep government influence bringing a new supposedly 'non-addictive' painkiller to market.

'FRENCH EXIT' (Rated M) - is a surreal comedy Directed by Azazel Jacobs whose previous film making credits include 'The GoodTimesKid' in 2005, 'Momma's Man' in 2008, 'Terri' in 2011 and 'The Lovers' in 2017. This film is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt, who also wrote the Screenplay. Here a widowed New York socialite, Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her aimless son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) move to Paris with their cat in tow (who also happens to be her reincarnated husband Franklin, voiced by Tracy Letts) after she spends the last of her husband's inheritance. The film saw its World Premier screening at the New York Film Festival back in mid-October last year, was released in Canada in mid-February and gets its wide released in the US in early April. It has generated mixed or average Reviews so far although Michelle Pfeiffer's performance has been critically acclaimed and she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Satellite award. Also starring Imogen Poots, Danielle Macdonald, Susan Coyne and Valerie Mahaffey.  

'WHITE RIOT' (Rated MA15+) - Written and Directed by Rubika Shah in her first full length documentary and based upon her 2017 nine minute short doco 'White Riot : London', this documentary music film charts the rise of 'Rock Against Racism' which was formed in the UK in 1976, prompted by Eric Clapton to unite punk, ska, reggae and new wave against the National Front in the latter years of the '70's culminating in a glorious and massive free concert in Victoria Park, east London. It blends fresh interviews with archive footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. With neo-Nazis recruiting the nation's youth, RAR's multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. Featuring the music of X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse, The Clash, The Tom Robinson Band, Sham 69, The Specials and more.

'THE GRIZZLIES' (Rated M) - this Canadian sports drama offering is Directed and Co-Produced by Miranda de Pencier in her feature film making debut, saw its World Premier showcasing way back at TIFF in October 2018, was released in its native Canada in April 2019, has garnered generally favourable Reviews, has so far taken US$520K at the Box Office and now gets a limited release in Australia. Based on a true story and set in the small Arctic community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut on Coronation Gulf, southwest of Victoria Island, it is the westernmost community in Nunavut, near the border with the Northwest Territories. Here, struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse. Starring Ben Schnetzer, Paul Nutarariaq, Booboo Stewart, Anna Lambe and Emerald Macdonald. 

'UNDONE' (Rated PG) - Directed by Steve Wall and Emily O'Connell this is a remarkable story of personal endeavour following Australian female professional surfer, Laura Enever who leaves a comfortable place on the WSL Championship Tour to explore the unpredictable world of big-wave surfing. In a life altering change of course, Laura spends the southern winter breaking into a male dominated sport by pursuing some of the most dangerous and remote waves on the planet.

With five 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 week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-