Critical Week: You're going to be just fine

It seems that awards season is arriving early this year, as screenings have already begun for many of this year's festival favourites, who are jostling for attention in the awards conversation. What's nice about this is that, at many of these screenings, we get a chance to meet the actors and filmmakers. And I particularly like getting a bit ahead of the buzz - making up my own mind without reading reviews. One of my most anticipated this year was Harris Dickinson's writing-directing debut Urchin, starring Frank Dillane (above). It's a stunner, authentic and artistic, and profoundly moving.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Plainclothes • Solo • Steve
The Lost Bus • Happyend
Tape • Peacock • Megadoc
ALL REVIEWS >

The starriest event, attended by the cast and crew, was for Steve, which stars Cillian Murphy as headmaster of an English reform school. It's another remarkably artful, skilfully shot and acted drama with a powerful kick. Paul Greengrass' riveting, immersive true story The Lost Bus stars Matthew McConaughey and American Ferrera as a pair of everyday heroes trying to save young kids during a horrific California wildfire. And Emma Thompson is terrific in the snowy and very gritty thriller Dead of Winter.

I also caught up with three festival favourites: The Love That Remains is an unusually nuanced collage of complex family life from Iceland, Two Prosecutors is a wryly ironic drama set in Soviet-era Russia as a young lawyer tries to take on the system and, from Spain, Romeria is an involving look at identity as a young woman seeks answers about her heritage. I also loved Mike Figgis' making-of-Megalopolis documentary Megadoc, which is a gorgeous portrait of Francis Ford Coppola. Finally, I attended two offbeat live performances that mix dance, music and spoken word: How to Be a Dancer in Seventy-two Thousand Easy Lessons at Sadler's Wells East and Vlaemsch (Chez Moi) at Sadler's Wells.

Films to watch this coming week include Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine, Channing Tatum in Roofman, Sam Claflin in All the Devils Are Here and Brett Goldstein in All of You, plus Acosta Danza's A Decade in Motion on stage at Sadler's Wells. I'm also hosting a Q&A with director Sophie Dupuis and actor Felix Maritaud tomorrow following their new film Solo.