Films festivals often allow watching great films months before their regular releases. Here are the five films screened at the Brighton Film Festival that may be really hot during the awards season.
The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos’s move to Hollywood with Lobster was one of the most exciting transfers of filmmakers across the pond over the last years. With The Favourite the Greek director presents his most accessible film to date. Luckily, it is also one of his most stylistically disciplined works, which wasn’t the case with his earlier film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Lanthimos still manages to maintain the trademark tone of his Greek films.His film worlds always seem like nightmarish dystopias in which humans are completely devoid of any feelings. In The Favourite this is counterpointed with loads of brilliant dark humour and satire. If that does not convince you, then the great trio of Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman should.
Watch the trailer here.
Shoplifters
The Japanese director’s Hirokazu Kore-eda latest flick won Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes. He continues his great streak of tender family comedy-dramas after Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister and After the Storm. Psychological depth is Kore-eda’s middle name, and in Shoplifters he adds to it a more socially conscious narrative.
Watch the trailer here.
Suspiria
Luca Guadagnino became a household name after last year’s Call me by Your Name. Yet, this time he moves away from the warm, sunny and sexy Italy, and moves to East Berlin in the middle of Cold War. It is a dividing remake of Dario Argento’s classic giallo horror. It is much more understated than the campy craziness of the original, with a much bigger stress put on the trance and tone, rather then on the actual scaring.
Watch the traier here.
The Old Man and the Gun
In a supposedly final acting performance of his career Robert Redford turns into Forrest Tucker, an ageing bank robber. The film is directed by David Lowery who’s made brilliant Ain’t Them Bodies Saint and A Ghost Story. Here he turns to a project with a significantly larger budget. Will he cope with such pressure? Initial reviews are very positive and praise Redford for his performance. This heist comedy should be one of the most upbeat stories Brighton Film Festival has to offer.
Watch the trailer here.
Green Book
Actors Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen seem like a brilliant match that no one would really come up with. But Peter Farrelly (man who brought Dumb and Dumber to this world) did exactly that, and his film was awarded the top prize at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. The film tells a story of an unlikely transracial friendship in the 1960s USA. Don Shirley is an African-American pianist who hires Tony Lip as a chauffeur for his tour in the South. Whoever watched Mississippi Burning knows that it wasn’t the most welcoming area for the African-Americans at the time. The film initially went under the radar, but after recent successes it soon may become considered as one of the frontrunners in the next year’s Oscar race.
Watch the trailer here.
The festival takes place between 09.11 and 25.11 in cinema in Brighton. You can find more information about it here
Image source: Universal Pictures
