There are a lot of gay movie out there, but most get released with little fanfare or have disappeared into the mists of time, so it’s sometimes difficult find information about them, and even if you can, it’s often tough to know it they’re worth watching. I thought therefore it might be worth putting together a list of 10 gay flicks I reckon it’s worth checking out, which are entertaining but try to do something a little different from the usual. The list concentrates on those films that, unlike Milk and Philadelphia, didn’t get a major mainstream push, and which show the breadth of what gay cinema has tried to do over the years, from horror movies and musicals to roms coms and animation. So here we go… [Read more…]
Weekend (Blu-ray)
Starring: Tom Cullen, Chris New
Director: Andrew Haigh
Running Time: 96 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: March 19th, 2012
Director: Andrew Haigh
Running Time: 96 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: March 19th, 2012
A film which consists in large part of two gay blokes sitting around talking doesn’t immediately smack of something that would set the critical world alight and bag awards at the likes of the British Independent Film Awards, The Evening Standard British Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards. Weekend did just that though, and it deserved every award and more. Indeed if the world was fair and small independent movies could compete on a level playing field with the big boys, it should have scored a fair few BAFTA noms too.
The film opens on a Friday evening with the quiet, self-effacing Russell (Tom Cullen) heading off to his straight mates’ house before pretending that he’s tired, begging his leave and going to a gay club on the pull. There he meets the louder, brasher Glen (Chris New) and the two end up in bed together. The next morning, Glen gets out his tape recorder as Russell has drunkenly promised to be part of his art project, where he gets people to record their thoughts. [Read more…]
Win Weekend On DVD!
Few British gay films have ever garnered such a great response as Weekend, which was absolutely blasted with love on its November cinema release, and went on to win awards at the likes of the British Independent Film Awards, The Evening Standard British Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards. The movie hits Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on March 19th, and we’ve got three copies of the movie to give away to three lucky winners!
On a Friday night after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a nightclub, alone and on the pull. Just before closing time he picks up Glen. Over the next 48 hours, Russell and Glen become inseparable, gradually forming a tight bond that neither of them could have predicted – one that may change their lives forever. Andrew Haigh’s celebrated Weekend depicts an unconventional love story with a raw, edifying honesty, making Haigh a refreshing new voice in British cinema.
If you’d like to try and win one of the three copies of Weekend on DVD that we’ve got to give away, answer the question below and fill in your details, then press submit! The competition closes on March 29th, so get answering and good luck!
HOW TO ENTER: Fill in the entry form below and click send. All fields need to be completed correctly for an entry to be valid. This includes your address, which will only be used if you win a prize. None of your details will be passed to any third party and will only be used for this competition (if you opt to receive a daily e-mail from Big Gay Picture Show, we will use your e-mail address to set that up, but you will be able to unsubscribe at any time), Multiple entries from the same ip address/computer risk being disqualified if we believe they break our rules on multiple/automated entries – we reserve the right to block ip addresses we believe may be engaged in trying to break the rules. This competition closes at 11.59pm on March 29th, 2012. Competition open to UK residents aged 18 or over. (For general competition terms and conditions, privacy policy and site T&Cs, CLICK HERE)
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Weekend Wins Best Screenplay At Evening Standard British Film Awards
Although the BAFTAs completely ignored it in favour of more commercial but often far less worthy fare, thankfully gay Brit-flick hit Weekend has been getting its dues at the likes of the British Independent Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards. The latest to honour the movie is the Evening Standard British Film Awards, which last night gave Weekend writer/director Andrew Haigh the Best Screenplay gong.
Andrew attended the ceremony alongside the film’s producer Tristan Goligher and Cinematographer Ula Pontikos. Andrew described the win as “amazing and unexpected; this past year has just been incredible. I just want to thank the actors, Tom [Cullen] and Chris [New], who really brought so much to the script and I share this with them.”
Haigh also won the British Breakthrough Filmmaker award at last month’s London Film Critics’ Circle Awards and the film won two British Independent Film Awards, for Achievement In Production and Most Promising Newcomer for actor Tom Cullen.
Weekend follows the relationship between Russell (Cullen) and Glen (New), over the course of a weekend. On a Friday night after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a nightclub, alone and on the pull. Just before closing time he picks up Glen. Over the next 48 hours, Russell and Glen become inseparable, gradually forming a tight bond that neither of them could have predicted – one that may change their lives forever. The film has currently grossed over £200,000 at the UK box office and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in Britain on March 19th, 2012.
Aside from Weekend, other more than worthy Evening Standard British Film Award winners include the Best Actor going to Michael Fassbender for Shame & Jane Eyre, and Olivia Colman getting Best Actress for her astonishing performance in Tyrannosaur.
London Film Critics Circle Gives Breakthrough Award To Weekend’s Andrew Haigh
Although BAFTA should be hanging its head in shame for not even including Weekend on the longlist for any of its awards, the movie can take some solace from the fact the London Film Critics Circle has better taste, giving the film’s director, Andrew Haigh, the Breakthough British Film-maker award at its ceremony.
Weekend’s star, Tom Cullen, was nominated for Actor Of The Year, but lost out to Jean Dujardin in the night’s big winner, The Artist, which picked up three awards, getting Film Of The Year and Director Of The Year too. Weekend, about a one-night stand between two men that turns into something longer, may be getting shut out of the major awards, but those bodies with more discerning tastes are certainly giving the film its due.
Take a look below for all the 2012 London Film Critics Circle Awards winner.
32nd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards winners in full:
FILM OF THE YEAR
The Artist (Entertainment)
CRITICS’ CIRCLE TOP 10 FILMS of 2011
1. The Artist
2. A Separation
3. Drive
4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
5. The Tree of Life
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin
7. Melancholia
8. Shame
9. Margaret
10. The Descendants
The Attenborough Award: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Artificial Eye)
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
A Separation (Artificial Eye)
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
Senna (Universal)
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist (Entertainment)
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation (Artificial Eye)
The Virgin Atlantic Award: BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER
Andrew Haigh – Weekend (Peccadillo)
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Jean Dujardin – The Artist (Entertainment)
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR (Tied)
Anna Paquin – Margaret (Fox)
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady (Fox/Pathé)
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn (Entertainment)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Sareh Bayat – A Separation (Artificial Eye)
BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method (Lionsgate), Shame (Momentum)
The Moët & Chandon Award: BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Olivia Colman – The Iron Lady (Fox/Pathé), Tyrannosaur (StudioCanal)
YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Craig Roberts – Submarine (StudioCanal)
The Sky 3D Award: TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Maria Djurkovic, production design – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (StudioCanal)
The Dilys Powell Award: EXCELLENCE IN FILM
Nicolas Roeg
Weekend Picks Up Best Film At Gay and Lesbian Critics Awards
GALECA, the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, has announced the winners of its Dorian Awards, giving Best Film Of The Year to the more than deserving Weekend. As everyone loves the movies but it’s getting shut out by bigger movies at other award ceremonies (it’s still shocking it didn’t make it onto the BAFTA longlist in any category), it’s great GALECA has recognised it.
Other winners include Meryl Streep for Film Performance of the Year for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (perhaps if the critics knew more about Maggie’s record on gay rights they wouldn’t have been as kind), as well as Michael Fassbender, who picked up the ‘We’re Wilde About You Rising Star of the Year’ award.
The excellent We Were Here, about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, won both Best Documentary and Best LGBT-Themed Documentary Of The Year. Another great choice was 50/50, which was given Unsung Film of the year.
On the TV side, the LGBT friendly American Horror Story and Modern Family won in the Best TV drama and comedy categories, while Modern Family picked up LGBT-themed TV show of the year as well. GALECA also gave out gongs for Campy (Intentional Or Not) Film and TV show of the year, with The Muppets and Revenge getting the awards.
The may like quirky categories, but GALECA seems to make a lot more sensible choices than most awards bodies! For more info about GALECA, head to their website.
BAFTA Awards Longlist Revealed
It’s just over a month until the BAFTA Film Awards are handed out on Sunday February 12th, and a couple weeks until the nominations are announced on January 17th. Ahead of that, BAFTA has released the longlist of potential nominees in each category.
The list has already sparked controversy for including the likes of the tepidly received Iron Lady and My Week With Marilyn in Best Film, while missing out Shame. Much acclaimed gay indie hit Weekend wasn’t longlisted in any category. Apparently Arthur Christmas was one of the 15 Best British movies of the year, but Weekend wasn’t, despite winning several film festival awards and ending up on a slew on critics best of 2011 lists.
Weekend’s snub is undoubtedly a result of the fact that while major awards ceremony like to pat themselves on the back for recognising smaller films, they’re actually heavily weighted towards the mainstream, irrespective of the quality of the actual movies. Without the weight of a major (studio-backed) distributor who has big pockets to launch an expensive campaign for a movie, it’s very tough to get a look in (and let’s not forgot most of those voting are heavily tied into the mainstream Brit filmmaking community).
So how is the longlist produced? According to BAFTA, ‘The Longlist is the result of Round One voting by members of the Academy. With 285 films entered this year, the first round of voting reduced the list of eligible films to 15 in each category. Round Two voting, which opens today, will reduce these 15 contenders down to the five nominations in each category. Appearing on the Longlist does not constitute a nomination.
‘Over 6300 members of the Academy vote in three rounds to decide the Longlist, Nominations and Winners. All members vote in the first two rounds for all categories barring Documentary, Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film, which are voted for by Chapters. The asterisks in the Longlist denote the top five selection of the relevant Chapter. In the final round, winners are voted for by specialist Chapters in all categories except for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Documentary and Film Not in the English Language and the four performance categories, which are voted for by all members.’
We’ve included the longlists for Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Film below, but if you want to see all the categories, you can get them in PDF form by clicking here.
Best Film
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
The Iron Lady
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Leading Actor
Antonio Banderas (Robert Ledgard) – The Skin I Live In
Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball
Brendan Gleeson (Gerry Boyle) – The Guard
Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Eddie Redmayne (Colin Clark) – My Week with Marilyn
Gary Oldman (George Smiley) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist
Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar Hoover) – J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame
Owen Wilson (Gil) – Midnight in Paris
Peter Mullan (Joseph) – Tyrannosaur
Ralph Fiennes (Caius Martius Coriolanus) – Coriolanus
Ryan Gosling (Driver) – Drive
Ryan Gosling (Stephen Meyers) – The Ides of March
Leading Actress
Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist
Carey Mulligan (Sissy) – Shame
Charlize Theron (Mavis Gary) – Young Adult
Emma Stone (Skeeter Phelan) – The Help
Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) – The Debt
Jodie Foster (Penelope Longstreet) – Carnage
Kate Winslet (Nancy Cowan) – Carnage
Kristen Wiig (Annie) – Bridesmaids
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) – Jane Eyre
Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn
Olivia Colman (Hannah) – Tyrannosaur
Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Weekend Gets Two London Critics’ Circle Film Awards Nominations
The people behind Weekend should be smiling today, as the little film that could not only hit £200k at the UK box office over the weekend but it’s just picked up two nominations from the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.
Director Andrew Haigh is up for Breakthrough British Filmmaker while Tom Cullen is in the mix for British Actor Of The Year. It’s a great shame the film missed out in the British Film Of The Year category, but that’s more testament to what a good year it’s been for UK film than anything about the wonderful movie.
Other LGBT allied nominations include Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In in the Foreign-Language Film Of The Year category, and Christopher Plummer up for Best Supporting Actor for playing an elderly gay man in Beginners.
You can find the full list of nominations here.
Weekend Picks Up Two British Independent Film Awards
After charming audiences for the last few weeks at cinemas and gaining loads of fans in the process, the people behind Weekend had plenty to cheer about yesterday when they won two gongs at the British Independent Film Awards.
The film, which is undoubtedly a gay classic in the making, picked up Most Promising Newcomer for the film’s star, Tom Cullen, as well as Best Achievement In Production. And considering it was only nominated in those categories, that’s a 100% success rate!
It’s a great result for a movie that many thought might get completely ignored outside Gay Film Festivals simply because of its subject matter, but which has been embraced by far more than just a core gay audience.If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out as soon as possible (it’ll be on DVD and Blu-ray in March).
Click here to see the rest of the BIFA winners
Image: photography-factory.co.uk
British Independent Film Awards Announced
The British Independent Film Awards were held last night, celebrating the best of the UK indie scene. This year in particular they really were a showcase of the strengths of British film and what an immense amount of talent there is out there.
Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur picked up Best Film, with the film also seeing Olivia Colman win as Best Actress and Considine pick up The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. However there was a fairly ecumenical spread of awards across some of the best UK indie flicks, including Lynn Ramsay picking up Best Director for We Need To Talk About Kevin and Richard Ayoade getting Best Screeplay for Submarine.
Michael Fassbender contined to be lauded for Shame, winning Best Actor. The excellent Weekend was a double winner, getting Most Promising Newcomer for Tom Cullen and Best Achievment In Production.
Take a look below for all this year’s BIFA winner.
BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
SENNA
SHAME
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
TYRANNOSAUR – Winner
BEST DIRECTOR
Ben Wheatley – KILL LIST
Steve McQueen – SHAME
Tomas Alfredson – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR
Lynne Ramsay – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN – Winner
THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Joe Cornish – ATTACK THE BLOCK
Ralph Fiennes – CORIOLANUS
John Michael McDonagh – THE GUARD
Richard Ayoade – SUBMARINE
Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR – Winner
BEST SCREENPLAY
John Michael McDonagh – THE GUARD
Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump – KILL LIST
Abi Morgan, Steve McQueen – SHAME
Lynne Ramsay, Rory Kinnear – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Richard Ayoade – SUBMARINE – Winner
BEST ACTRESS
Rebecca Hall – THE AWAKENING
Mia Wasikowska – JANE EYRE
MyAnna Buring – KILL LIST
Tilda Swinton – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Olivia Colman – TYRANNOSAUR – Winner
BEST ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson – THE GUARD
Neil Maskell – KILL LIST
Gary Oldman – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Peter Mullan – TYRANNOSAUR
Michael Fassbender – SHAME – Winner
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Felicity Jones – ALBATROSS
Carey Mulligan – SHAME
Sally Hawkins – SUBMARINE
Kathy Burke – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Vanessa Redgrave – CORIOLANUS – Winner
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tom Hardy – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Benedict Cumberbatch – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Eddie Marsan – TYRANNOSAUR
Ezra Miller – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Michael Smiley – KILL LIST – Winner
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Jessica Brown Findlay – ALBATROSS
John Boyega – ATTACK THE BLOCK
Craig Roberts – SUBMARINE
Yasmin Paige – SUBMARINE
Tom Cullen – WEEKEND – Winner
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
KILL LIST
TYRANNOSAUR
WILD BILL
YOU INSTEAD
WEEKEND – Winner
THE RAINDANCE AWARD
ACTS OF GODFREY
BLACK POND
HOLLOW
A THOUSAND KISSES DEEP
LEAVING BAGHDAD – Winner
BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Chris King, Gregers Sall – Editing – SENNA
Sean Bobbitt – Cinematography – SHAME
Joe Walker – Editing – SHAME
Seamus McGarvey – Cinematography – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Maria Djurkovic – Production Design – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY – Winner
BEST DOCUMENTARY
HELL AND BACK AGAIN
LIFE IN A DAY
PROJECT NIM
TT3D: CLOSER TO THE EDGE
SENNA – Winner
BEST BRITISH SHORT
0507
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
RITE
ROUGH SKIN
CHALK – Winner
BEST FOREIGN INDEPENDENT FILM
ANIMAL KINGDOM
DRIVE
PINA
THE SKIN I LIVE IN
A SEPARATION – Winner
THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution by an actor to British Film)
Ralph Fiennes
THE VARIETY AWARD
Kenneth Branagh
THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Graham Easton
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser