Critical Week: It's party time

The 68th BFI London Film Festival kicked off this week, just as my two-month stint on a television series wrapped, so there's been no time to kill! But I'm taking the festival more lightly this year, with just one or two films per day. I'll catch up with other movies later. Meanwhile, awards season is fully underway in London, with Q&A screenings most evenings. And over the next week many of these are also in the festival. This week's screenings included Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora, a lively romantic comedy that spins into something even more interesting as it goes along. It's a proper stunner.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Transformers One
We Live in Time
ALL REVIEWS >

LFF opened with Steve McQueen's Blitz, a gorgeously produced recreation of 1940 London under attack, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan. The story doesn't quite work, but it looks astonishing. Ralph Fiennes leads a strong cast in Conclave, Edward Berger's drama about the selection of a new Pope. It's smart, nuanced and riveting. John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler lead an adaptation of August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson, which is beefy and intense, but remains rather stagebound. Mike Leigh is back with Hard Truths, an edgy family drama starring the terrific Marianne Jean-Baptists and Michele Austin. And apart from LFF/awards season, the lively Hong Kong action movie Stuntman pays playful and sometimes melodramatic homage to the stunt performing community. I also caught Chicos Mambo's amusing live show Tutu at the Peacock. 

Most films I'm watching this coming week are also screening at LFF, including the animated adventure The Wild Robot, the SNL romp Saturday Night, Angelina Jolie in Maria, Amy Adams in Nightbitch, Thomasin McKenzie in Joy, Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain, the Indian comedy Superboys of Malegaon and the psychic doc Look Into My Eye. There's also Alex Wolff in The Line, Mark Cousins' A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things and the doc Studio One Forever, plus Fillibuster at Jackson's Lane. 

Critical Week: Grandma's got a gun!

Summertime always brings a slow-down in press screenings, which is a relief after the flurry of London film festivals in June. But there are some great movies out there, plus blockbusters that aren't always quite as great but are good fun to watch on a big screen that's been packed out with cynical critics and gung-ho influencers. The mix of groaning and cheering is a lot of fun. The best I saw this week was the action comedy Thelma, starring June Squibb as a sparky 93-year-old (take that, Joe Biden!) who takes matters in her own hands when she's scammed out of some cash. Fred Hechinger is terrific as her worried grandson. And then there's Twisters, the thinly written almost 30-years-later sequel that's tangentially connected to the rather forgettable 1996 hit. Glen Powell is even more magnetic than the impressive tornadoes, with solid sidekicks Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Crossing • Thelma
Scala!!! • Shayda
ALL REVIEWS >

More arthouse offerings included The Outrun, a kaleidoscopically immersive memoir about addiction starring the always excellent Saoirse Ronan and set in gorgeous Orkney Isles landscapes. Hayley Bennett stars as Widow Cliquot in a lavishly produced but rather stilted biopic about the early 19th century Champagne innovator. And Louise Brealey brings an engaging edge to the offbeat Welsh drama Chuck Chuck Baby, which is wonderfully infused with pop tunes. I also saw two shows live on-stage: National Youth Dance Company's Wall at Sadler's Wells and Jack Tucker's Comedy Standup Hour at Soho Theatre.

Things are still quieter than usual coming week, but I'll be watching Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine, Zachary Levi in Harold and the Purple Crayon, New Zealand drama Mysterious Ways, Swedish drama Paradise Is Burning, Mexican doc The Echo and Palestine doc No Other Land.

LFF: Smile for the camera

Into the second week of the 67th London Film Festival, the star-free red carpets continue to play out every night in front of the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. The paparazzi look rather bored, so I've been chatting to them as I go by, finding out which of the film's crew members are in town, and perhaps some B-list celebs as well. Then I spot an Oscar-nominated A-lister incognito in the crowd and say hi; she's been enjoying movies as an audience member, adeptly honouring the actors strike by avoiding the cameras. Word has it that most stars have a bag packed so that once the strike is over they can rush off to support their movie projects. But in the meantime, we still have the movies. Here are a few more highlights...

Priscilla
dir-scr Sofia Coppola; with Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi 23/US ***.
Maintaining a sharp perspective from start to finish, Sofia Coppola explores the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley with strikingly intimacy. The film digs under the surface to explore much more than the familiar story of a teenager who married the world's most famous singer. The anecdotal structure sometimes feels a bit jarring, and the ending is abrupt, but the narrative offers a remarkably involving exploration of gender politics... FULL REVIEW >

Nyad
dir Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin; with Annette Bening, Jodie Foster 23/US ****
Powerfully involving, this true drama is shot in a riveting documentary style with the addition of real-life footage. It also features fabulous roles that Annette Bening and Jodie Foster can properly sink their talented teeth into. Without over-egging the story's inherent adventure elements too much, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin let the events play out authentically, and the engaging characters make it both gripping and unmissable.

Foe
dir Garth Davis; with Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal 23/Aus ***
Beautifully shot, this lightly futuristic romantic thriller centres tightly on three characters who are skilfully played with intense emotionality. But filmmaker Garth Davis tries to be tricky with a plot that simply doesn't hold water. Explanations come far too late to put anything that happens into context, so watching the film is an exercise in frustration. Even so, it has some important things to say about curiosity and compassion... FULL REVIEW >

The Lost Boys [Le Paradis]
dir Zeno Graton; with Khalil Gharbia, Julien De Saint Jean 23/Bel ****
Set in a juvenile detention facility, this sensitive Belgian drama traces a romance between two teen boys with hushed sensitivity. It's a beautifully observed story that unfolds in earthy and sometimes tender interaction, skilfully directed by Zeno Graton to put us into the mindset of a powerfully engaging central character. And it manages to be authentic, hopeful and even occasionally grim without ever resorting to prison movie cliches.

Totem
dir-scr Lila Aviles; with Naima Senties, Montserrat Maranon 23/Mex ****
Loose and authentically chaotic, this Mexican drama features refreshing rhythms of family life over a pivotal day. Filmmaker Lila Aviles is an expert observer of human behaviour, filling the house with fully formed characters who have their own preoccupations and little sense of allowing others their personal space. The wonderfully open-handed filmmaking constantly reveals things about people who are both connected and disconnected at the same time.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
dir Elene Naveriani; with Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chichinadze 23/Geo ****
With deadpan charm, this Georgian film opens with a woman picking blackberries on the edge of a riverbank when a blackbird distracts her and she falls, imagining her death below. Filmmaker Elene Naveriani maintains a quiet, slow-burning vibe that ripples with underlying humour and tensions. The characters are wonderfully real, while the film has a colourful, sardonic Kaurismaki-like quality that's thoroughly winning. And the underlying message is hugely empowering.

All full festival reviews will be linked to Shadows' LFF PAGE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

In addition to lots of festival films, this week I also saw Laura Linney, Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates in the engaging and pointed Irish comedy-drama The Miracle Club, the quirky and dark British comedy Mind-Set, and enjoyably cheesy voyeurism nastiness in 15 Cameras. Films this coming week include several more LFF films, the animated musical sequel Trolls Band Together. the girls' comedy Bottoms, and Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie in Eileen. Then I'll be on a plane to visit family in California for a couple of weeks.

Critical Week: Movie night

I've started off the new year catching up on things I had hoped to see last year, including three acclaimed foreign-language titles that have been in this year's awards conversation. From Spain, Alcarras is a lively, remarkably authentic drama about a family facing a big change. From Pakistan, Joyland is a proper stunner about a young couple straining against a society full of expectations and restrictions. From Brazil, Mars One is a lovely, loose drama about four family members who have their own distinct dreams.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Till • Piggy • Alcarras
Mars One • Women Talking
ALL REVIEWS >

Two films coming out this week are The Enforcer, a skilfully made thriller with an under-developed plot, anchored by a terrific Antonio Banderas as a growly mob heavy. And the mystery thriller Exploited is enjoyably lurid even if it's awkwardly assembled.

I also caught up with Disney's latest animated adventure Strange World, an enjoyably colourful romp that feels a bit simplistic in its themes. A sequel to the guilty-pleasure hit Enchanted, Disenchanted has lots of great songs but a story that feels rushed and, well, all wrong. The British period whodunit See How They Run creates an enjoyably witty vibe but strains to engage the audience. The animated romance Entergalactic looks fantastic, and has some nice underlying themes, but ultimately sticks too close to the genre rules. And then there was The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a throwback to those vintage TV specials. It's nutty and entertaining, and offers some terrific scenes with favourite characters, but it's never quite as bonkers as we hope it will be.

Movies I'll be watching this coming week include the horror thriller M3gan, Jim Parsons in Spoiler Alert, Nicolas Cage in The Old Way, Gillian Jacobs in The Seven Faces of Jane, and catch-up screenings of Cha Cha Real Smooth, Broker, The Swimmers and others.

LFF: Make history

Well, that was a first and hopefully a last as well: the 64th BFI London Film Festival was an almost entirely virtual event, with a few in-person screenings just to keep the atmosphere alive for the lucky few who managed to get tickets. For me it was an intense two weeks of watching movies at home on my computer - but they're some of my favourites so far this year. Going through this makes me long even more for a time when things can return to normal, even if that's hard to imagine at the moment. Will the world still even exist a year from now? The signs aren't good, but there's still some hope. Here are my last two highlights, plus my best of the fest...

Ammonite

dir-scr Francis Lee; with Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan 20/UK ****

With a remarkable attention to detail, this beautifully observed drama recounts an unexpected relationship that crosses various boundaries in 19th century England. Writer-director Francis Lee takes an elemental approach, underscoring a low-key narrative with passion, earth and grit. At its core, this may be a moving love story, but it also carries with it a range of ideas that are strongly resonant nearly two centuries later... FULL REVIEW >

Lovers Rock

dir Steve McQueen; with Amarah-Jae St Aubyn, Micheal Ward 20/UK ****

Bristling with energy and colour, this 1980-set drama unfolds to the beats of the eponymous musical genre. Without a pushy narrative, this is pure cinematic bliss, a blast of happiness in a safe space away from the racism and riots in the streets. Steve McQueen, with cowriter Courttia Newland and ace cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, skilfully depicts one Saturday night, and into Sunday morning, when the world belongs to hopeful youth... FULL REVIEW >

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M Y   B E S T   O F   T H E   F E S T

1. 
   Mangrove
2. Nomadland
3. After Love
4. One Night in Miami...
5. Notturno
6. Never Gonna Snow Again
7. The Salt in Our Waters
8. Time
9. Ammonite
10. The Reason I Jump

Special mention: Lovers Rock, Another Round, Possessor, Limbo, African Apocalypse, David Byrne's American Utopia, The Painter and the Thief, Supernova, I Am Samuel, Wolfwalkers. 

ALL REVIEWS >

NB. My anchor page for the LFF is HERE and full reviews are all linked there, with winners of the audience awards to come soon.

Critical Week: Great American hero

This week's screenings featured rather a lot of strong women, starting with Harriet, in which Cynthia Erivo plays the tough-minded slave rescuer Harriet Tubman. The film's a bit too reverent for its own good, but Erivo is terrific. Frozen II reunites sisters Elsa and Anna for an even more thrilling adventure that has huge action beats and some properly developed emotion too. Greta Gerwig offers a new adaptation of Little Women, with a strikingly good cast (Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep) and a refreshingly sharp tone, although the structure is a bit problematic. And then there was the haunting Appalachian drama Them That Follow, starring Alice Englert and Olivia Colman as members of a freaky snake-handling church.

Further afield, there was the offbeat British comedy-thriller Kill Ben Lyk, which amusingly combines a whodunit with a slasher horror romp. The dark British drama Into the Mirror is an involving, internalised exploration of identity and gender. From Hong Kong, Adonis is a fascinating and somewhat over-sexed exploration of fate and art. And Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words creates a strikingly inventive new genre, moving the ballet into real-world sets to recount Shakespeare's timeless story with physicality and music rather than dialog. It's beautiful.

Coming up this next week, we have Chadwick Boseman in 21 Bridges, Aaron Eckhart in Line of Duty, Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn, Patrick Schwarzenegger in Daniel Isn't Real, and The Amazing Johnathan Documentary. I'm also chasing several year-end awards-worthy titles before voting deadlines, which are looming less than a month away now...

Critical Week: Level the playing field

As the critics groups start handing out their awards, it's clear that we're well into the prestige movie season. And indeed, many of my screenings have been awards-consideration screenings aiming to get my votes as I participate in four awards over the coming months. This week's highest profile films included Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer (above) in the clever, involving Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex, Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen in the rightfully acclaimed true road movie Green Book, and Elsie Fisher in Bo Burnham's astonishingly realistic adolescent drama Eighth Grade.

Others are both aiming at popular audiences and awards voters. Mary Poppins Returns strains to match the 1964 classic, and at times manages that nearly impossible feat, thanks to Emily Blunt. Ralph Breaks the Internet is as messy but feels even funnier than Wreck-it Ralph. Andy Serkis does a nice job keeping Mowgli faithful to Kipling's The Jungle Book, although it also looks a little cartoonish.

Saoirse Ronan is fierce in Mary Queen of Scots, a slightly over-produced historical drama costarring Margot Robbie as the pox-ridden Queen Elizabeth I. Alicia Vikander leads the all-star cast of another true historical drama, Tulip Fever, which is intriguing but awkwardly edited. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's epic Turkish drama The Wild Pear Tree is a riveting exploration of existence and connection. And Chilean drama Cola de Mono is a strikingly bold exploration of brotherhood and sexuality.

This coming week, we have screenings of the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Hugh Jackman in The Front Runner,  Nicole Kidman in Boy Erased, Jacques Audiard's Western The Sisters Brothers, the indie black comedy Newly Single, Milo Gibson in the British thriller All the Devil's Men, Jason Mitchell in the American indie thriller Tyrel, and the Kosovo drama The Marriage.

Critical Week: A family portrait

I'm missing being in Venice this year for the festival, but it's been a busy week for screenings in London. This week we've caught up with the Sundance hit Wildlife, Paul Dano's riveting, moving directing debut starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal as a couple coming apart in 1960 Montana. It's powerfully told from the perspective of a teen boy (Ed Oxenbould), as is Eli Roth's offbeat horror movie The House With a Clock in its Walls. Its main stars are Jack Black and Cate Blanchett as magical neighbours who take in a teen boy (Owen Vaccaro) with scary/comical results.

The most fun at the movies this week was the screening of US box office hit Crazy Rich Asians, a fairly standard rom-com plot packed with massively entertaining characters. The all-star true heist story King of Thieves features Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent and Tom Courtenay, and is more fascinating than thrilling. The all-star adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull features Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan and Elisabeth Moss, and is involving but perhaps over-ambitious. And Jeremy Irons has a great time chomping on scenery alongside Jack Huston in the engaging comedy-drama road movie An Actor Prepares.

And there were two less-starry offerings: Five Fingers for Marseilles is a gorgeously shot modern-day Western from South Africa about childhood friends facing off over the future of their struggling hometown. It's seriously powerful. And the Raindance documentary I Hate New York is the eye-opening profile of four trans icons who have changed the fabric of the city they love (yes, the title is ironic).

This coming week I'll be distracted from the goings-on in Venice and Toronto by Mark Wahlberg in Mile 22, Bella Thorne in Assassination Nation, Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky, Omari Hardwick in A Boy A Girl A Dream, Blaxploitation remake Superfly, the mystery thriller Lost Child, the British drama Sodom, the Palestinian drama Wajib, the Guatemalan drama José and the immigration doc Bisbee '17.

Critical Week: Family time

I've caught up with a few films while I've been out here in Los Angeles, in between binging on food at Thanksgiving time with the family. The best so far is Pixar's Coco, another triumph in both animation and storytelling. It's a riveting adventure with properly pungent emotional undertones and a fantastic sense of Latino culture.

And the other two this week were good as well. Based on the bestselling novel, Wonder is a beautifully made film that grapples with how it feels to be an outsider - a must see for school kids and everyone else too. It features a terrific cast of kids, including Jacob Tremblay and Noah Jupe. And Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird is one of the most honest coming-of-age movies in recent memory, a messy, lively, funny, wrenching tale of a teen (the superb Saoirse Ronan) flexing her wings for the first time. Particularly strong support from Laurie Metcalf.

I'm heading back to London this week, so am not sure what films are in store. Am hoping to catch an early screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, as well as James Franco's The Disaster Artist and the holiday horror Better Watch Out.

LFF: See the wonder on Day 6

Another busy day at the 61st BFI London Film Festival, with some extra colour in the middle as I attended a meet-the-filmmakers event and got a chance to visit with Takashi Miike (Blade of the Immortals), Anne Fontaine (Reinventing Marvin) and David Batty (My Generation), among others. Here are some more highlights from the festival - note that full reviews will be up on the site as soon as I can get them there. Finding time to write in between films can be a bit tricky...

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
dir-scr Angela Robinson; with Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall 17/US ****
If you've never read about how the Wonder Woman comics were created, you might need to brace yourself for this film. Because in exploring the lives of the Harvard brainiacs behind the first and most popular female superhero, the filmmakers dip into a counterculture lifestyle that would probably have tongues wagging now, let alone in the 1940s. It's also a sharply well written and directed film, with a solid cast that brings depth to the characters.

Thoroughbred
dir-scr Cory Finley; with Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke 17/US ***.
Brittle and very bleak, this black comedy takes a rather unnecessary swipe at the vacuous life of privileged teens, as if there's anything else to say on the topic. Even so, it's strikingly written and directed by newcomer Corey Finley, while rising stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke make the most of the twisted dialog. It also explores an aspect of Millennial culture that's rarely depicted on-screen.

Call Me By Your Name
dir Luca Guadagnino; with Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet 17/It ****.
With a sunny dose of nostalgia, this drama traces a pivotal summer in a young man's life. Characters and situations are complex, challenging the viewer to share the experience. And while this may seem to be a film about sexuality, it's actually more potently an exploration of how important it is to embrace our emotions, even the ones that hurt.

Loving Vincent
dir Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman; with Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan 17/UK ***.
Like Richard Linklater's Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, this film was hand animated frame-by-frame from live-action footage, although in this case it was done by some 100 artists working with oil paints. A look into the final days of Vincent van Gogh, the exquisitely rendered imagery is a swirling odyssey through his work, echoing characters and settings while exploring his tragic and mysterious death at age 37 in 1890.

Funny Cow
dir Adrian Shergold; with Maxine Peake, Paddy Considine 17/UK ***
This is a sharply well-made drama about a woman going against the current in her culture. It's beautifully filmed and performed with energy and attitude. On the other hand, for a movie about a stand-up comic, it's relentlessly dour. There are some riotous moments along the way, and the acting is riveting enough to hold the interest all the way through, but the overall tone is seriously grim.

A Prayer Before Dawn
dir Jean-Stephane Sauvaire; with Joe Cole, Pornchanok Mabklang 17/UK ****
Based on Billy Moore's memoir, this is a harrowing true account of a young British man's experience in a Thai prison. There isn't much context, actually no background at all, and therefore no real sense of any of the characters. Still, the film is utterly riveting, as director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire takes the audience on a jarring, unforgettable odyssey that leaves us with some big themes to chew on.

LFF: Visit the seaside on Day 5

It's been another busy day at the 61st BFI London Film Festival, with a range of unexpected movies. I'm thoroughly enjoying the chance to catch up with both some big titles as well as some smaller films from around the world. Although there are so many mainstream movies in this particular festival that it's sometimes difficult to find time to visit out-of-the-way ones. Anyway, here are some more highlights, including a double dose of the great Isabelle Huppert...

On Chesil Beach
dir Dominic Cooke; with Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle 17/UK ***.
Author Ian McEwan adapts his own award-winning novel for the big screen, turning it into another beautifully produced story about those things that the English prefer not to talk about. Namely, class and sex. The film is both provocative and moving as it traces a relationship to a pivotal moment, and the two central characters are performed with raw honesty by Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle.

Last Flag Flying
dir Richard Linklater; with Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston 17/US ****
Richard Linklater pays his respects to The Last Detail in a funny and sensitive road movie that hits the emotions without forcing them. It's neither a sequel nor remake to Hal Ashby's 1973 classic, but there are loud echoes. As the central trio, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne create vivid characters, middle-aged war veterans who have something important to say about patriotism and what it means to be a hero.

Pickups
dir Jamie Thraves; with Aidan Gillen, Antonia Campbell-Hughes 17/UK ***
A third improvisational collaboration between Jamie Thraves and Aidan Gillen, this is a playful comedy about a television star who dives into a dark role in an effort to get over his divorce. It's a meandering, relaxed story assembled from a series of lively, witty scenes, some of which tap into some surprisingly disturbing emotions. Parts of the film feel random or indulgently stretched out, but it gets under the skin... FULL REVIEW >

Happy End
dir-scr Michael Haneke; with Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant 17/Fr ****
This may be as close as we'll ever get to Michael Haneke lightening up. Although even if it's packed with offbeat wit and characters who verge on farce, there's no escaping that this is essentially a comedy about suicidal and murderous urges. Families don't get much more dysfunctional than the one depicted on-screen, and the film also taps into the current economic divide, being a story of the very wealthy in a place known for its population of desperate refugees.

Reinventing Marvin
dir Anne Fontaine; with Finnegan Oldfield, Catherine Salee 17/Fr ***.
The thoughtful story of a young artist's journey to self-expression, this film is sometimes brutally honest about the tension between so-called provincial attitudes and enlightened liberal sensibilities. The film may be in need of some judicial editing, but the material here is resonant and important. And it's also beautifully played by an intriguingly eclectic cast that includes Isabelle Huppert in a witty role as herself... FULL REVIEW >

Blade of the Immortal
dir Takashi Miike; with Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki 17/Jpn ***.
With his tongue firmly in his cheek, Japanese master Takashi Miike brings Hiroaki Samura's manga to life, using a heavy dose of sharp humour to undercut the nonstop grisliness. It's also a remarkably involving story that blurs the lines between good and evil by adding layers of complexity to the characters. It may essentially be a story of revenge with a hint of redemption thrown in, but it's also a classic tale very well told.

Critical Week: The need for speed

There were two late press screenings for London-based critics of movies coming out this week. Doug Liman's American Made is a lively odyssey starring Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise - no, as real-life smuggler Barry Seal, who got was running arms for the CIA and White House and drugs for the Colombian cartels in the 1980s. It's entertaining, but overwhelmed by Cruise's presence. Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky is a scruffy heist comedy with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and a scene-stealing, against-type Daniel Craig. There's not much to it, but it's a lot of fun.

Rather more serious, Taylor Sheridan's Wind River stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in a mystery thriller set on a native American reservation in snowy Wyoming. It looks amazing and has a strong emotional kick. And then there's the goofy comedy Unleashed, which lacks discipline but has a certain charm as a dog and cat are transformed into their owner's idea of boyfriend material. Finally, Loving Vincent is the extraordinary Vincent van Gogh drama made using hand-painted animation. It looks simply dazzling, and features strong, recognisable performances from Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan, Chris O'Dowd and Helen McCrory.

This weekend I am catching up on some screeners at home before heading off to Venice for the 74th edition of the film festival on the Lido. Films on offer there include Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Darren Aronofsky's Mother!, George Clooney's Suburbicon, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete, S Craig Zahler's Brawl in Cell Block 99, Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and many, many more. I'll be updating the blog regularly...

36th London Critics' Circle Film Awards: in words and pictures

The UK's top film critics held their annual awards ceremony on Sunday night at The May Fair Hotel in London, with a superb lineup of red carpet guests. I happen to be the chair of the 36th London Critics' Circle Film Awards, which we started organising back in June, so it was great to see the evening unfold in such a joyous, celebratory way. The most memorable moment (pictured above) was when Kate Winslet led the audience into a spontaneous standing ovation for beloved actor-filmmaker Alan Rickman, who died on Thursday.

The ceremony was hosted by comic Robin Ince (left), who stepped in at the last minute due to the sudden illness of one of our planned host. He balanced the mood perfectly, with a witty look at movies that included a number of hilarious Brian Blessed anecdotes. On the right are nominated writer Emma Donoghue (Room) and the Critics' Circle Film Section Chair Anna Smith.

We had a new award this year. First, we handed out our inaugural prize for British/Irish Short Film of the Year, which went to Ben Cleary (left) and his lovely, and now Oscar-nominated, short Stutterer. And we rebranded our British/Irish Breakthrough Filmmaker prize as The Philip French Award, in honour of our esteemed colleague who passed away this year. It went to John Maclean (right) for Slow West.

Of course, Kate Winslet was one of the brightest stars on our red carpet, and she also took home the award for Supporting Actress of the Year for Steve Jobs. She also had a mini reunion with Judi Dench - they both played Iris Murdoch in Iris.

Maisie Williams won the Young British/Irish Performer of the Year award, and livened up the red carpet in her Mexican-wrestler themed dress, accompanied by fellow nominee Florence Pugh (left), her costar in The Falling. Along for the party were actor Blake Harrison and his fiancee Kerry (right).

Producer Sygne Byrge Sorensen (left) collected the Foreign-Language Film of the Year award for Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Look of Silence, while top producer Stephen Woolley (right) accepted the Technical Achievement Award for Ed Lachman's cinematography in Carol.

Two directors accepted awards on behalf of their actors. Rufus Norris (left) read a thank you message from Tom Hardy, who was named British/Irish Actor of the Year for his body of work in 2015, including Norris' London Road, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road and Legend. And Brooklyn director John Crowley (right) relayed a hilarious thank you from Saoirse Ronan as British/Irish Actress of the Year.

Andrew Haigh (left) sent a video thank you for British/Irish Film of the Year for 45 Years. Producer Tristan Goligher took to the stage to grab the trophy. Meanwhile, Asif Kapadia (right) was on hand to collect the Documentary of the Year award for Amy.

Mark Rylance sent a surreal video to accept Supporting Actor of the Year, performed in character (left) from the set of the play he's doing in Boston. His Wolf Hall costar Thomas Brodie-Sangster (right) accepted the award for him.

And then there was George Miller, who sent two witty videos to gratefully accept the top awards for Director of the Year and Film of the Year for Mad Max: Fury Road.

And the ceremony wrapped up with the main event of the night, as Judi Dench took to the stage to present the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film to Kenneth Branagh. Both gave smart, gracious speeches that had the audience laughing and sighing.

Of course, I also have to shamelessly include two collages of photos that I appear in. As chair, one of my many jobs is to welcome all of our guests at the top of the red carpet, so I had a chance to talk with each of them before the event started. Below is a rather ridiculous photobombing session with Dame Judi and Sir Ken.

And I also feel I should share this series of photographs taken while I was chatting to Kate Winslet about the last time I saw her (when she was about to pop with her third child) and her next movie, Triple 9 - I saw it last week but she hasn't seen it yet. Of course she's awesome in it.

And to drop one more name, as I made my way home following the after-party, I received a lovely email from Tom Hardy, who was deeply apologetic that he had been unable to turn up to accept his award and join the party. He's shooting a film in London at the moment, and production ran over. Hopefully he'll make it next year.