Retrospective 2019- A Year in Film

September

The Seasonal Slumber

Image sources: Universal, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox & A24

As summer turns to Autumn and the festival season restarts, the industry heads towards the turn of the year and a meatier season for releases, but although an improvement over last year, this September once again offered up a mixed bag in terms of quality and scale. The UK slate raged from a forgettable last hurrah for a vengeful Vietnam vet in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ and disappointing reflective drama novel adaptation ‘The Goldfinch’, to slightly more memorable fare like true story stripper con-woman drama ‘Hustlers’ and the much anticipated ‘Downton Abbey’ movie.

The pick of the month’s releases however came in the form of the conclusion to Andy Muschietti’s solid Stephen King adaptation in ‘IT Chapter Two‘, Brad Pitt-led space odyssey of self-discovery ‘Ad Astra‘, and poignant Chinese-American end-of-life dramedy ‘The Farewell’.

Ahh, Venice…

The global film festival circuit returned early this year and straddled both August and September when the great and the glamorous of world cinema converged on the ‘Queen of the Adriatic’ for the 76th Venice International Film Festival (La Biennale). As usual the world’s press and select audiences were treated to glamorous red carpet galas, premieres and screenings for a large selection of films from across the globe, crowned by the ‘Golden Lion’ at the festival’s award ceremony—which this year went to Todd Phillips’ supervillain origin story and socially reflective portrait of a descent into madness ‘Joker‘. You can see our full recap of this year’s event here, and a brief summary below.

Image sources: Getty Images

This year’s principal jury—responsible for awarding the ‘Golden Lion’ and other prizes at festival’s end—was presided over by Argentinian writer/director Lucrecia Martel and included Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, Canadian film historian and festival director Piers Handling, French actress Stacy Martin, Canadian director Mary Harron, Italian writer/director Paolo Virzì and Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.

Here are the major Venice prize winners this year;

-Golden Lion for Best Film-

‘Joker’ by Todd Phillips (USA)

-Silver Lion for Best Director-

Roy Andersson for ‘About Endlessness’ (Sweden, Germany, Norway)

-Grand Jury Prize-

‘An Officer and a Spy’ by Roman Polanski (France)

-Coppa Volpi for Best Actor-

Luca Marinelli for ‘Martin Eden’ (Italy, France)

-Coppa Volpi for Best Actress-

Ariane Ascaride for ‘Gloria Mundi’ (France)

-Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor-

Toby Wallace for ‘Babyteeth’ (Australia)

-Award for Best Screenplay-

Yonfan for ‘No.7 Cherry Lane’ (Hong Kong, China)

-Special Jury Prize-

‘The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be’ by Franco Maresco (Italy)

You can see our full 76th Venice International Film Festival (La Biennale) recap here.

Those We Lost

Image source: 20th Century Fox, Universal, Wire, Lionsgate & Showtime

September saw the passing among others of American screen siren Carol Lynley (77) (Blue Denim, The Poseidon Adventure), veteran American actor John Wesley (72) (Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), and Armenian-American screenwriter and regular Martin Scorsese collaborator Mardik Martin (82) (Mean Streets, Raging Bull), plus indie genre and horror film favourite Sid Haig (80) (Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Devil’s Rejects) and perennial screen old lady Linda Porter (86) (Dude, Where’s My Car?, Twin Peaks).

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