Nahuel Perez Biscayart Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Starring: Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, Antoine Reinartz, Félix Maritaud
Director: Robin Campillo
Running Time: 143 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: April 6th 2018 (UK)

120 BPM has been eliciting praise ever since it debuted at Cannes last year, including winning the Grand Prix and Queer Palm at the festival. It’s gone on to win multiple other awards, including Best Film at the Cesar Awards (France’s equivalent of the Oscars). It was also France’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, although sadly it missed out on a nomination.

Written and directed by Robin Campillo (who also made the very good Eastern Boys), 120 BPM is a fictionalised take on the true story of the AIDS activist organisation, ACT UP Paris. Campillo and co-screenwriter Philippe Mangeot were involved with ACT UP themselves, helping to give the movie an authenticity and power it may otherwise have lacked. Thankfully though, despite being close to the story Campillo is objective enough to be able to acknowledge the flaws and problems within the organisation, while also having a clear-eyed view of why these things happened. This allows it to be a powerful and empathetic testament to both ACT UP and those who were/are affected by AIDS, without becoming hagiography. [Read more…]

The Golden Globes were handed out last week and the Oscars and still to come, but sandwiched between them is the Dorian Film and TV Awards, given out by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (of which yours truly is a member).

The nominations for this year’s gongs have been announced, which were unsurprisingly led by Call Me by Your Name, which scored nine nominations. That includes nods for both the film’s lead actors, Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, as well as for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director and more.

While other film awards have treated Call Me By You Name as the ony great gay-themed movie of the year, GALECA has highlighted others, most notably the excellent French movie, BPM (Beat Per Minute), about members of the activist AIDS organisation ACT UP Paris in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As well as expected nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film and LGBTQ Film Of The Year categories, it also scored nominations for Best Film, Best Actor (for Nahuel Perez Biscayart) and Unsung Film Of The Year.

It may also not be a coincidence that the other nominees for Best Film also had stories that focussed on outsiders – Lady Bird (which also features a prominent gay subplot), Get Out and The Shape of Water. Nods for LGBTQ Film Of The Year went to Battle of the Sexes, the excellent trans-themed Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman, and Britain’s gay farming flick, God’s Own Country, along with Call Me By Your Name and BPM.

Other than Call Me By Your Name, the most nominations in the film categories overall went to The Shape of Water with seven nominations, and Get Out, which scored six.

There’s also the Dorian’s more unusual categories, including Campy Film Of The Year, where Baywatch, The Disaster Artist, The Greatest Showman, I, Tonya and mother! will compete for being the most over the top. You can take a look at the nominees for all the categories across film and TV below. The winners will be announced on January 31st, ahead of the winner’s toast in LA on February 24th. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Nahuel Perez Biscayart FILMS: Call Me By Your Name, 120 Beats Per Minute (BPM) Get Out, Lady Bird, The Shape Of Water