In today’s Movie News Rundown: Mank leads in the Golden Globe nominations; the emotional crowd-pleaser Coda wins big at Sundance; and we talk with Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall about their movie about a witch hunt.
Golden Globes Nominations: David Fincher’s Mank, starring Gary Oldman as the writer of Citizen Kane, leads with six Golden Globe nominations, while Aaron Sorkin’s Trial of the Chicago 7 racked up five. The Father, Nomadland and Promising Young Woman all had four. And all five of these films are up for Best Motion Picture — Drama.
Where’s the Complete List of Nominees? Here. Congratulations to all!
Notable: This is the first time female directors make up the majority of the nominees in the Best Director category, thanks to Regina King (One Night in Miami), Emerald Fennel (Promising Young Woman) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland). Here’s our new cover story on King, and feel free to click the links for stories about the other nominees.
Sundance Awards: Coda, a drama written and directed by Sian Heder, won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, directing award for Heder, U.S. Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic, and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Best Ensemble. The film follows a hearing teenage girl (Emilia Jones) who is a CODA, or child of deaf adults — and dreams of becoming a singer. Here are all the winners.
Also: Apple Studios bought Coda for a record-breaking $25 million at the start of Sundance. Variety has the details.
Witch Hunt: Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall, who have gotten lots of press attention in the last couple of years, would like to be judged by their films again — starting with the witch-hunt drama The Reckoning. On the latest MovieMaker podcast, they say the film is only subliminally about the recent events that they’re eager to put behind them. You can listen on Apple or Spotify or here:
https://shows.acast.com/moviemaker-interviews/episodes/charlotte-kirk-and-neil-marshall-the-reckoning
Bicoastal Globes: Can 3,000 miles reduce the dazzling comic chemistry between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler? We’ll soon see. Fey will host this year’s Golden Globes from Manhattan’s Rainbow Room (which just happens to be very close to 30 Rock) while Poehler will host from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Variety has more details.
What a Film-Out Is: If you’re just hearing the expression “film-out,” read this terrific piece by MovieMaker managing editor Caleb Hammond. It explains that a film-out is a process in which digital is transferred to film. The technique was used on the Sundance film Strawberry Mansion to give the film a “sort of nostalgic, timeless quality,” co-director Kentucker Audley told MovieMaker.
Lil Peep: Caleb also wrote about why SoundCloud rapper Lil Peep, who died of a drug overdose in 2017, is such a strong presence in the documentary Cusp, about three Texas teenage girls.
Main image, above: Emilia Jones in Coda.