Over the weekend, the International Cinephile Society, for which I am a voting member, revealed its nominees for the best in cinema of 2018. Members skew art house, so it was no surprise Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born, a film I reviewed (A Star is Born is dated classical Hollywood cinema with overly enthusiastic camera work) were both shut out despite their favorite status at the Oscars. Also, Glen Close, who has been winning seemingly every nomination for The Wife that she has received, was missing, which was a slight surprise. Still, the crossover favorite of Roma appeared in categories it has been winning across the film coronations of 2018. Same goes for Olivia Colman for The Favourite.
Though it has been ignored during the non-critic awards, Zama, another film I reviewed last year (Zama offers raw, sometimes hallucinatory critique of colonialism in 17th century Argentina) is in the race for Best Picture. Considering members of ICS include critics, some who write for Film Comment (who chose Zama as their best film of 2018) it’s inclusion was not unexpected. The fact that it appeared nine times, however, is an accomplishment. Zama wasn’t the only movie that got nine nominations. Another critics’ darling of 2018 appeared nine times: Burning, a film I reviewed in the Miami New Times.
But there were some surprises. Annihilation got at least one nomination, for its music score. Readers should already know where I stand on that movie, so of course I would have preferred to see it in more categories. But a sci-fi movie distributed by Paramount Pictures has little chance with a group like ICS. Composers Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, however, will have to fend off Radiohead’s Thom Yorke for Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino re-imagines Suspiria with mixed results) and Jonny Greenwood’s stronger, but lower key score for You Were Never Really Here (You Were Never Really Here presents dark, taut thriller that never trivializes violence). Finally, worth noting is Nicholas Britell’s superb work for If Beale Street Could Talk, the only score I found worth listening to all the way through without the movie. Barrow and Salisbury are in for some stiff competition.
Other surprise nominations include a A Bread Factory, a film you all probably haven’t heard much about, but I have been meaning to catch up with. Many years ago, I reviewed the director Patrick Wang’s earlier work, (In the Family: most powerful indie drama so far this year), but have found it hard to schedule the time to watch this four-hour movie (released in two parts). Also nominated and have yet to see, though I have heard good things, are Western and The Wild Boys, the latter appeared in five categories. As you can imagine, I have some 2018 movie-watching-catch-up duties ahead of me. Below you will see a list of all the nominees and a link to the ICS website for an article with more thoughts on the nominees.
PICTURE
• A Bread Factory
• Burning
• The Favourite
• First Reformed
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Madeline’s Madeline
• The Other Side of the Wind
• The Rider
• Roma
• Shoplifters
• The Wild Boys
• Zama
DIRECTOR
• Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
• Lee Chang-dong – Burning
• Bertrand Mandico – The Wild Boys
• Lucrecia Martel – Zama
• Alice Rohrwacher – Happy as Lazzaro
• Chloé Zhao – The Rider
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• Burning
• Cold War
• Happy as Lazzaro
• A Paris Education
• Roma
• Shoplifters
• Sicilian Ghost Story
• Western
• The Wild Boys
• Zama
Honorable Mentions: The Day After, Lover for a Day, 24 Frames, Let the Sunshine In, Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, On Body and Soul, Claire’s Camera, Border, Museo, Mrs. Hyde.
ACTOR
• Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
• Daniel Giménez Cacho – Zama
• Ethan Hawke – First Reformed
• Meinhard Neumann – Western
• Lakeith Stanfield – Sorry to Bother You
• Yoo Ah-in – Burning
ACTRESS
• Sakura Andô – Shoplifters
• Juliette Binoche – Let the Sunshine In
• Olivia Colman – The Favourite
• Tyne Daly – A Bread Factory
• Helena Howard – Madeline’s Madeline
• Joanna Kulig – Cold War
SUPPORTING ACTOR
• Hugh Grant – Paddington 2
• Brian Tyree Henry – If Beale Street Could Talk
• Russell Hornsby – The Hate U Give
• Juan Minujín – Zama
• Steven Yeun – Burning
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• Isabelle Adjani – The World is Yours
• Lola Dueñas – Zama
• Jeon Jong-seo – Burning
• Kirin Kiki – Shoplifters
• Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
• Rachel Weisz – The Favourite
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• A Bread Factory – Patrick Wang
• The Favourite – Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
• First Reformed – Paul Schrader
• Happy as Lazzaro – Alice Rohrwacher
• Shoplifters – Hirokazu Koreeda
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• Burning – Oh Jung-mi, Lee Chang-dong
• The Death of Stalin – Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin
• If Beale Street Could Talk – Barry Jenkins
• Leave No Trace – Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini
• Zama – Lucrecia Martel
CINEMATOGRAPHY
• Burning – Hong Kyung-pyo
• Cold War – Lukasz Zal
• Madeline’s Madeline – Ashley Connor
• Roma – Alfonso Cuarón
• Zama – Rui Poças
EDITING
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening – RaMell Ross
• Madeline’s Madeline – Harrison Atkins, Josephine Decker, Elizabeth Rao
• The Other Side of the Wind – Bob Murawski, Orson Welles
• Roma – Alfonso Cuarón, Adam Gough
• You Were Never Really Here – Joe Bini
PRODUCTION DESIGN
• The Favourite – Fiona Crombie
• Isle of Dogs – Paul Harrod, Adam Stockhausen
• Roma – Eugenio Caballero, Barbara Enriquez
• The Wild Boys – Astrid Tonnelier
• Zama – Renata Pinheiro
SCORE
• Annihilation – Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
• Burning – Mowg
• First Man – Justin Hurwitz
• If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell
• Suspiria – Thom Yorke
• You Were Never Really Here – Jonny Greenwood
ENSEMBLE
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• A Bread Factory
• The Favourite
• A Paris Education
• Shoplifters
ANIMATED FILM
• Have a Nice Day
• Isle of Dogs
• Mary and the Witch’s Flower
• Mirai no Mirai
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
DOCUMENTARY
• Dead Souls
• El mar la mar
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
• Minding the Gap
• Shirkers
BEST PICTURE NOT RELEASED IN 2018
• 3 Faces
• Asako I & II
• Ash is Purest White
• Birds of Passage
• Climax
• Diamantino
• Diane
• Dogman
• An Elephant Sitting Still
• Grass
• High Life
• The Image Book
• Joy
• Knife + Heart
• La Flor
• Leto
• Long Day’s Journey Into Night
• Manta Ray
• Memories of My Body
• Ray & Liz
• Real Love
• Rojo
• Transit
• What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?
• The Wild Pear Tree
You can read much more about the nominees over at the ICS website.
