What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 15th April 2021.

The 74th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA's, were held on 10th and 11th April at London's Royal Albert Hall, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2020 and early 2021. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, awards were presented for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2020 and early 2021.

The winners and grinners in the main award categories, are as given below :-

Best Film

* Presented to 'NOMADLAND', beating out 'The Father', 'The Mauritanian', 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' and 'Promising Young Woman'.

Best Direction

* Presented to CHLOE ZHAO for 'Nomadland', beating out Jasmila Zbanic for 'Quo Vadis, Aida?', Lee Isaac Chung for 'Minari', Sarah Gavron for 'Rocks', Shannon Murphy for 'Babyteeth' and Thomas Vinterberg for 'Another Round'.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

* Presented to ANTHONY HOPKINS for 'The Father', beating out Adarsh Gourav for 'The White Tiger', Chadwick Boseman for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Mads Mikkelsen for 'Another Round', Riz Ahmed for 'Sound of Metal' and Tahar Rahim for 'The Mauritanian'.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

* Presented to FRANCES MCDORMAND for 'Nomadland', beating out Alfre Woodard for 'Clemency', Bukky Bakray for 'Rocks', Radha Blank for 'The 40-Year-Old Version', Vanessa Kirby for 'Pieces of a Woman' and Wunmi Mosaku for 'His House'.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

* Presented to DANIEL KALUUYA for 'Judas and the Black Messiah', beating out Alan Kim for 'Minari', Barry Keoghan for 'Calm with Horses', Clarke Peters for 'Da 5 Bloods', Leslie Odom Jr. for 'One Night in Miami...' and Paul Raci for 'Sound of Metal'.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

* Presented to YOUN YUH-JUNG for 'Minari', beating out Ashley Madekwe for 'County Lines', Dominique Fishback for 'Judas and the Black Messiah', Kosar Ali for 'Rocks', Maria Bakalova for 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' and Niamh Algar for 'Calm with Horses'.

Best Original Screenplay

* Presented to 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN', beating out 'Another Round', 'Mank', 'Rocks' and 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.

Best Adapted Screenplay

* Presented to 'THE FATHER', beating out 'The Dig', 'The Mauritanian', 'The White Tiger' and 'Nomadland'. 

Best Animated Film

* Presented to 'SOUL', beating out 'Onward' and 'Wolfwalkers'.

Best Documentary

* Presented to 'MY OCTOPUS TEACHER', beating out 'Collective', 'David Attenborough : A Life on Our Planet', 'The Dissident' and 'The Social Dilemma'.

Best Film Not in the English Language

* Presented to 'ANOTHER ROUND', beating out 'Dear Comrades!', 'Minari', 'Les Miserables' and 'Quo Vadis, Aida?'.

Outstanding British Film

* Presented to 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN', beating out 'Calm with Horses', 'The Dig', 'The Father', 'The Mauritanian', 'His House', 'Limbo', 'Mogul Mowgli', 'Rocks' and 'Saint Maud'. 

Best Cinematography

* Presented to JOSHUA JAMES RICHARDS for 'Nomadland', beating out Sean Bobbitt for 'Judas and the Black Messiah', Erik Messerschmidt for 'Mank', Alwin H. Kuchler for 'The Mauritanian' and Dariusz Wolski for 'News of the World'.

Best Original Music

* Presented to JON BATISTE, TRENT REZNOR and ATTICUS ROSS for 'Soul', beating out Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for 'Mank', Emile Mosseri for 'Minari', James Newton Howard for 'News of the World' and Anthony Willis for 'Promising Young Woman'.

Best Sound

* Presented to 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out 'Greyhound', 'News of the World', 'Nomadland' and 'Soul'.

Best Editing

* Presented to 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out 'The Father', 'Nomadland', 'Promising Young Woman' and 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.  

Best Casting

* Presented to 'ROCKS', beating out 'Calm with Horses', 'Judas and the Black Messiah', 'Minari' and 'Promising Young Woman'.

Best Special Visual Effects

* Presented to 'TENET', beating out 'Greyhound', 'The Midnight Sky', 'Mulan' and 'The One and Only Ivan'. 

Additionally, accolades were also awarded to ANG LEE for lifetime achievement in the form of the BAFTA Fellowship; to NOEL CLARKE for his Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema; and the Rising Star Award was presented to BUKKY BAKRAY. 

For the full list of all category winners and nominees you can visit the official BAFTA website at : https://www.bafta.org

And so to tease you out to your local Odeon on a balmy Autumnal evening there are four new release films kicking off with a British drama about a gay couple, one being a musician, the other a novelist, who set out on a road trip as dementia starts to take hold of one of them. This is followed by a supernatural horror offering telling the story of terror when a disgraced journalist investigates a girl who seemingly has suddenly been granted the inexplicable power to heal the sick. Next up is the unforgettable tale of the infamous head of a record label and of how one written-off young Glaswegian upstart rose to irrevocably change the face of British music culture in the late '80's and throughout the '90's. And closing out this weeks new releases we have an acclaimed documentary looking at the daily life of a pig and its farm animal companions - two cows and a one-legged chicken filmed in glorious black and white and without any dialogue. 

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.

'SUPERNOVA' (Rated M) - this British drama film is Written and Directed by the English Actor, Writer and Director Harry Macqueen in only his second film making outing following 2014's 'Hinterland'. This film had its World Premiere showcasing at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2020 and played as one of only twelve physical screenings at the 2020 London Film Festival. It was the opening film of The Dublin International Film Festival in 2021. It has generated widespread critical acclaim, opened in the US in late January, in the UK in early March and this week arrives in Australian cinemas having so far taken US$383K at the Box Office and collected two award wins and four other nominations from around the awards and festival circuit. 

Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci), partners of twenty years, one a musician the other a novelist, are traveling across England to the Lake District in their old camper van visiting friends, family and places from their past. Following a life-changing prognosis in which Tusker was diagnosed with early onset dementia two years ago, their time together has become more important than ever until secret plans test their love like never before. Also starring James Dreyfus, Pippa Haywood and Sarah Woodward. 

'THE UNHOLY' (Rated M) - is an American supernatural horror film Written for the screen, Co-Produced, and Directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos in his film making debut and is based on the 1983 novel 'Shrine' by the acclaimed British horror author James Herbert. Released in the US earlier this month, the film has so far grossed US$3.5M and has generated mostly negative Reviews so far. Here then, Alice (Cricket Brown) is a young hearing-impaired girl who, after an alleged visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak, and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, disgraced journalist Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more macabre. Also starring William Sadler, Cary Elwes, Katie Aselton and Diogo Morgado. 

'CREATION STORIES' (Rated MA15+) - is a British biographical film Directed and starring the English Actor, Producer, Writer and film maker Nick Moran and is about the Scottish businessman and music industry executive, Alan McGee who formed Creation Records in 1983 and ran it until it closed down in 1999. The film was adapted from McGee's 2013 autobiography of the same name, by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh, saw its Premier at the Glasgow Film Festival in late February and went on general release in the UK in late March. The films charts music impresario Alan McGee's (Ewen Bremner) journey from his native Glasgow in which he was written off as a young upstart into the heyday of '90s British rock music, intercut with an older version of himself recounting these events to an interviewer. Also starring Suki Waterhouse, Jason Isaacs, Jason Flemyng, Steven Berkoff, Irvine Welsh, Danny John-Jules, Paul Kaye and Thomas Turgoose. 

'GUNDA' (Rated G) - this American-Norwegian documentary film is Directed, Co-Written and Co-Edited by the Russian documentary film maker Viktor Kossakovsky. Joaquin Phoenix serves as an Executive Producer on this film, which has so far picked up four award wins and another twenty-one nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit and has garnered universal critical acclaim. The film had its World Premiere screening at the Berlin International Film Festival back in February 2020 and it went on to screen at the New York Film Festival in September 2020 and at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2020. Gunda chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of chickens, and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using stark, transcendent black and white cinematography and the farm's ambient soundtrack without any dialogue, the Director here invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective.

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-