St Louis Film Critics Association Announce 2022 Awards Nominations

St Louis Film Critics Association Announce 2022 Awards Nominations

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ leads with 11 nominations, followed by ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ with 10; ‘Women Talking’ and ‘The Fabelmans’ earn 8 each

Special Merit recognition to Jafar Panahi, Ashley Judd and David Bowie

The St. Louis Film Critics Association have announced nominations for its annual awards, to be presented on Dec. 18.

In addition to determining nominations in 23 categories, the regional critics’ group recognized three people for special merit: imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi, whistleblower actress Ashley Judd and posthumously, influential musician-actor David Bowie.

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy about two lifelong friends at an impasse, was nominated for film, director, actor, supporting actor and actress, ensemble cast, original screenplay, cinematography, editing, music score and production design.

The multiverse mind-bender, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” garnered nominations for film, directors, actress, supporting actor, ensemble, original screenplay, editing, visual effects, comedy, and action film.

Two dramas, “Women Talking” and “The Fabelmans,” were recognized with eight nominations apiece, while the “Elvis” biopic had seven, and sequels “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” earned six.

See below for a complete list of nominations.

Regarding the Special Merit nods, SLFCA President Jim Tudor said the group wanted to recognize filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced to six years in prison by the Iranian government for inquiring about the arrests of his fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad.

The international film community has denounced his imprisonment as unjust. His latest work, “No Bears,” was shown at the Venice Film Festival and New York Film Festival this fall.

The SLFCA statements on the three Special Merits:

Jafar Panahi

“In recognition of the courage of imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi and all those film professionals confronting political oppression in the pursuit of free speech, human rights, and artistic expression.”

Ashley Judd

“We recognize Ashley Judd for the bravery and courage she demonstrated in portraying herself in ‘She Said.’”

David Bowie

“After nominating the experimental documentary “Moonage Daydream,” we want to also honor the expansive and continuing cinematic presence of singer-songwriter and actor David Bowie, whose life and music continues to permeate and enrich the cinema landscape.”

Founded in 2004, the St. Louis Film Critics Association is a nonprofit organization of professional film reviewers who regularly publish current and timely film criticism, support local productions and festivals, and enhance public education, awareness, and appreciation of films. Vetted members are affiliated with qualifying media outlets in the St. Louis metropolitan region.

For the awards, eligible films are those that opened in the greater St. Louis area or had an online premiere during the 2022 calendar year – including those film that were given awards-qualifying runs in 2021 but were not available to all SLFCA members until 2022. Films slated for release in early in 2023 are also eligible if a press screening, DVD screener, or screening link was provided to all SLFCA members.

For more information, visit the site: www.stlfilmcritics.com

The complete list of nominations are as follows:

She Said

BEST FILM

The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
She Said
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

The Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley – Women Talking
Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler – Elvis
Daniel Craig – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Paul Mescal – Aftersun

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett – Tár
Danielle Deadwyler – Till
Mia Goth – Pearl
Emma Thompson – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Andre Braugher – She Said
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Ben Whishaw – Women Talking

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Claire Foy – Women Talking

Janelle Monae – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Carey Mulligan – She Said

Glass Onion

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Women Talking

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rian Johnson; based on characters created by him

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale; Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins (story); based on the novel by Carlo Collodi

She Said – Rebecca Lenkiewicz; based on the book She Said by Jodi Cantor and Megan Twohey, and on the New York Times investigation by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey, and Rebecca Corbett

White Noise – Noah Baumbach; based on the novel by Don DeLillo

Women Talking – Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews; based on the novel by Miriam Toews

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh
Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook and Gong Seo-kyeong
Everything Everywhere All at Once – The Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)
The Fabelmans – Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
The Menu – Seth Reiss & Will Tracy
Tár – Todd Field

The Menu


BEST EDITING

The Banshees of Inisherin – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Elvis – Jonathan Redmond and Matt Villa
Everywhere Everywhere All at Once – Paul Rogers
Tár – Monika Willi
Top Gun: Maverick – Eddie Hamilton

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Banshees of Inisherin – Ben Davis
The Batman – Greig Fraser
Nope – Hoyte Van Hoytema
Top Gun: Maverick – Claudio Miranda
Women Talking – Luck Montpellier

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Avatar: The Way of Water – Dylan Cole and Ben Procter
The Banshees of Inisherin – Mark Tinldesley
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Hannah Beachler
Elvis – Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rick Heinrichs

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Ruth E. Carter
Elvis – Catherine Martin
The Fabelmans – Mark Bridges
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – Jenny Beavan
The Woman King – Gersha Phillips

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar: The Way of Water – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett

Everything Everywhere All at Once – Zak Stoltz (Visual Effects Supervisor); Ethan Feldbau and Benjamin Brewer (Visual Effects Lead Artists); Jeff Desom (Visual Effects Artist)

Nope – Guillaume Rocheron (Visual Effects Supervisor); Jeremy Robert (Visual Effets Supervisor); Sreejith Venugopalan (DFX Supervisor); Scott R. Risher (Special Effects Coordinator)

RRR – V. Srinivas Mohan (VFX Supervisor)

Top Gun: Maverick – Ryan Tudhope (Visual Effects Supevisor); Scott R. Fisher (Special Effects Coordinator); Seth Hill (Visual Effects Supervisor) Bryan Litton (Visual Effects Supervisor)

Babylon

BEST MUSIC SCORE

Babylon – Justin Hurwitz
The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell
The Batman – Michael Giacchino
The Fabelmans – John Williams
Women Talking – Hildur Guðnadóttir

BEST SOUNDTRACK

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Moonage Daydream
Top Gun: Maverick
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

BEST ACTION FILM

Avatar: The Way of Water
Everything Everywhere All at Once
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick
The Woman King

BEST COMEDY FILM

Everything Everywhere All at Once
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Jackass Forever
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

BEST HORROR FILM

Men
Nope
Pearl
Scream
X

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Turning Red
Wendell and Wild

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
Good Night Oppy
Moonage Daydream
Sr.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

All Quiet on the Western Front
Close
Decision to Leave
Happening
RRR

BEST SCENE

The Fabelmans – Sam meets one of his idols on the studio lot.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On – Marcel on 60 Minutes.
Nope – A tragic day on the set of Gordy’s Home.
RRR – Piggyback prison escape.
Tár – Lydia bullies a Julliard student.
Top Gun: Maverick – Iceman visits with Maverick.

RRR

‘She Said’ Is an Absorbing Historical Record With Lasting Impact

‘She Said’ Is an Absorbing Historical Record With Lasting Impact

By Lynn Venhaus
“She Said” is a brilliant chronicle of a watershed moment in American society — an important tipping point that helped launch the #MeToo movement and gave voice to countless victims.

In October 2017, two New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Jodi Kantor) broke the shocking story about sexual assault in Hollywood, able to get women on the record about powerful producer Harvey Weinstein’s three decades of abuse, shattering years of silence and altered American culture forever.

Framed as a scrupulous workplace account of two driven working mothers juggling their journalism careers and their young families, filmmakers infer that they helped make the world a better place for their daughters.

The absorbing narrative is as accurate as possible about journalism and the need to tell such important stories. Through vivid revelations, they show how much courage it took for people to come forward, risking their reputations and livelihoods.

With laser focus, director Maria Schrader has meticulously built a riveting drama from a sharp, incisive script by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who adapted the 2019 nonfiction bestseller “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement” by New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor.

The filmmakers’ skill and concern detailing a reporter’s process and a newspaper’s commitment to seeking the truth without any sensationalism or exploitation has resulted in a historic record that is in the same league as “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight.”

The cast is stellar across the board, with Zoe Kazan, as persistent Jodi Kantor, and Carey Mulligan, as resilient Megan Twohey, presenting each reporter’s dogged determination, integrity, and professionalism. 

As an energetic team, they pound the pavement tracking down sources who worked for Miramax and The Weinstein Company, arrange meetings and convince people to trust them with the evidence. Women who were actresses, production assistants and employees agreed to go on record, and these truth tellers caused an explosion felt from coast to coast once articles were published in 2017.

Kantor and Twohey, who are still at the Times, won Pulitzer Prizes for their work here, along with Ronan Farrow, whose work at the New Yorker was going on at the same time.

But while the aftermath is brought up as the film’s coda, this 129-minute film stresses the diligent meat-and-potatoes work that exposed the insidiousness of rampant sexual harassment in Hollywood, and how broken the system was for women.

Schrader makes sure we hear powerful men shouting at the women, trying to intimidate them, but she also uses real voice transcriptions.

While it may not be as explosive cinematically as superhero adventures, the theme of right vs. might hits hard from people not wearing capes but whose guideposts are truth and justice. Patricia Clarkson plays conscientious Times editor Rebecca Corbett and Andrew Braugher portrays no-nonsense executive editor Dean Baquet as they make crucial decisions in covering the substantial allegations.

Fine actresses portray the brave past Weinstein employees who described his predatory sexual misconduct including Jennifer Ehle as Laura Madden, Samantha Morton as Zelda Perkins, Angela Yeoh as Rowena Chiu. Ashley Judd, who broke the dam by publicly coming forward, plays herself.

Important voice work is done by Mike Houston as Weinstein, Keilly McQuail as Rose McGowan and James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump. Johnson is best known for his interpretations on “Saturday Night Live.”

As the supportive spouses, Tom Pelphrey plays Megan’s literary-agent husband Vadim “Jim” Rutman and Adam Shapiro is Kantor’s fellow Times writer, columnist Jim Lieber. They add the emotional element of how difficult life-work balance is.

Composer Nicholas Britell’s dramatic score heightens the tension as people connected to the Weinstein empire confirm information and a deadline looms.

How many women have been helped or validated because of this story? Truly astounding what happened five years ago, and what continues. After their initial probe, more than 80 women accused Weinstein of crimes. Now a convicted rapist, the disgraced mogul eventually was sentenced to 23 years in prison and is currently on trial in another case.

“She Said” is so well-made and convincingly acted that it can’t help but continue much needed conversations at work and home. It’s an information-packed procedural with lasting impact.

“She Said” is a 2022 biographical drama directed by Maria Schrader and starring Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Andre Braugher and Patricia Clarkson. Rated R for language and descriptions of sexual assault, its run time is 2 hours, 9 minutes. It is in theaters Nov. 18.
Lynn’s Grade: A