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BAFTA NEWS

BAFTA long list dropped last week and PTA's One Battle After Another just smashed records with 16 nominations - proper frontrunner territory that. Got the big three (film, director, adapted screenplay) plus acting nods for Chase Infiniti, Leo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn.

Chloe Zhao's Hamnet and Ryan Coogler's Sinners both nabbing a not-to-shabby 14 noms each. Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme grabbed 13, while Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein both landed 12. Sentimental Value and Wicked: For Good - eight apiece.

British films are also in the running - I Swear and Pillion snagged six nominations each, and the all-too-delightful The Ballad of Wallis Island got five.

NOT that its about numbers, guys. Because it isn’t. Unless you’re like the numbers guy, at a finance firm, then for you its about numbers.

Bit disappointing for Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident though - only managed original screenplay and foreign language. The Secret Agent matched those two, Sirāt scraped two for casting and English language film.

SUNDANCE KICKS OFF 22nd JAN

The final year in Park City, the first year without Robert Redford.

We’ll be in town with RecDek House - the question is - will you answer the call?

And the films to look out for? Here’s 5…

I Want Your Sex - Gregg Araki hasn't made a film in twelve years. Cooper Hoffman gets hired by controversial artist Olivia Wilde who turns him into her erotic inspiration. Sundance notes it interrogates misunderstandings around predation and different generations' attitudes to sexual liberation - Araki doing what he does best. Cast is ridiculous: Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, Charli XCX, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho (who starred in The Doom Generation three decades back).

Zi - Kogonada's recovering after A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, bringing back Haley Lu Richardson who seems to unlock his best work. She's a stranger in Hong Kong who transforms the life of the main character Michelle Mao plays. They're calling it a "sensitive cinematic poem" which sounds like the quietly devastating stuff he nailed in Columbus and After Yang. His gift for capturing life's beauty and heartbreak never suited blockbuster territory anyway - this feels like him getting back to what matters.

The History of Concrete - John Wilson's making his first feature, the brilliant mind behind How to with John Wilson on HBO (love this show). Goes to a workshop teaching people to write Hallmark movies, then applies those lessons to selling...a documentary about concrete. His show mixed gut-laughing moments with proper philosophical depth and real human warmth - seeing that style stretched to feature length could be special. Wilson's adventures never go where you expect.

The Gallerist - Cathy Yan's been away six years since Birds of Prey (which sent everyone back to watch her superb debut Dead Pigs). She's skewering the art world with serious star power: Natalie Portman as gallerist Polina Polinski, Zach Galifianakis as influencer Dalton Hardberry, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as rising artist Stella Burgess, Catherine Zeta-Jones as dealer Marianne Gorman. Yikes.

Chasing Summer - Josephine Decker's reached that point where you just trust whatever she's doing - new film from her, instant top priority. The director who pushed boundaries with Madeline's Madeline and Shirley is back with another story about a woman rebuilding herself. Comedian Iliza Shlesinger wrote it, produces it, and stars opposite The Summer I Turned Pretty's breakout Lola Tung. Tamar-kali's scoring again after that gut-punch work on Shirley. Decker's never made something that wasn't worth your time.

Ed

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