Retrospective 2019- A Year in Film

May

Pre-Summer Promise

Image source: Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Paramount & Curzon

As always May proved to be a busy month for the industry and a packed period for UK releases, throwing up plenty of solid big-ticket films in the form of animations, sequels and reboots like Disney’s lucrative live action re-imagining of ‘Aladdin’ and head-shooting all-action sequel ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum‘, as well as the latest installment of the Warner Bros. ‘Monsterverse’ ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters‘ and beloved Japanese gaming empire adaptation ‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu‘. They were balanced out by smaller studio releases and indie fare including memorably unconventional Elton John biopic ‘Rocketman‘ and critically beloved female-centric coming-of-age comedy ‘Booksmart‘, plus some sterling indies from other parts of the world including tribal Colombian crime family drama ‘Birds of Passage‘ and quirky Icelandic Eco-warrior dramedy ‘Woman at War‘.

And the Award Goes To…

The Riviera Calls

Another year another late spring visit to the French riviera, where the great and the good of the global film industry, and the world’s press, converged on the 14th of May to mark the beginning of twelve days of film celebration and promotion at the world’s biggest and most prestigious film festival, the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. Once again filmmakers & shakers from across the globe unleashed the results of their hard work and passions unto the world, giving us an array of likely award-contending films to be released throughout the rest of 2019 and well into 2020. And of course there was also the small matter of awarding Cannes’ own prestigious prizes, the pinnacle of which the Palme d’Or went to Bong Joon-ho’s socially conscious tragic comedy ‘Parasite’. You can check out our full festival recap here.

Image source: Getty Images

This year’s jury for the main competition—which awarded the Palme d’Or among other prizes—was an eclectic, director-heavy international selection of filmmakers, presided over by multiple Oscar-winning Mexican writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu and included French author/artist Enki Bilal, American actress Elle Fanning, French writer/director Robin Campillo, Senegalese actress Maimouna N’Diaye, Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, American writer/director Kelly Reichardt, Polish writer/director Paweł Pawlikowski, and Italian writer/director Alice Rohrwacher.

Competition 2019

Palme d’Or

‘Parasite’ (Gisaengchung) by Bong Joon-ho (South Korea)

Grand Prix

‘Atlantics’ (Atlantique) by Mati Diop (France, Senegal)

Best Director

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for ‘Young Ahmed’ (Le Jeune Ahmed) (Belgium)

Best Screenplay

Céline Sciamma for ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu) (France)

Best Actress

Emily Beecham for ‘Little Joe’ (Austria, Germany, UK)

Best Actor

Antonio Banderas for ‘Pain and Glory’ (Dolor y Gloria) (Spain)

Jury Prize

‘Bacurau’ by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles (Brazil), and ‘Les Misérables’ by Ladj Ly (France)

Those We Lost

Image Source: Getty, Warner Bros. & ABC

May brought with it among others the passing of Oscar-winning American screenwriter Alvin Sargent (92) (Ordinary People, Spider-Man 2) and part-time film star but full-time wild British comedy legend Freddie Starr (76) (The Squeeze, The Freddie Starr Show), plus American TV stars Peggy Lipton (72) (Mod Squad, Twin Peaks) and Tim Conway (85) (Rango, The Carol Burnett Show). We also lost a true Hollywood great in May, as triple-threat Golden Age screen legend Doris Day (Calamity Jane, Pillow Talk) left us at the impressive age of 97.

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