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Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” led the nominations at the 43rd annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards with nine nods, with Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” close behind with eight.

Both films were nominated in the film of the year, director of the year and screenwriter of the year categories, as were Todd Field’s “Tár” and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” both of which achieved six nominations. Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wonder” also scored six nominations.

Competing in the foreign language category will be “The Quiet Girl,” “Decision to Leave,” “Saint Omer,” “Eo” and “Rrr.”

The awards are given by the 200-member film section of the Critics’ Circle, the U.K.’s longest-standing critics’ organization. The winners will be announced at London’s The May Fair Hotel on Feb. 5, 2023.

“As always, our nominees stand out from others because our members actually see all of...

Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy has nine nominations, while Charlotte Wells’ ’Aftersun’ has eight.

Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin has received the most nominations for the 43rd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, with nine, including film of the year, director of the year and screenwriter of the year.

McDonagh last triumphed at the 2018 awards, with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri winning three awards: best film, best actress for Frances McDormand and best screenwriter for McDonagh.

Scroll down for the full nominations list

The Banshees Of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and follows the unravelling...

Netflix’s masterpiece, Athena, was shot mainly on the Arri Alexa 65 by cinematographer Matias Boucard AFC. Boucard utilized this extra-large sensor to enhance motion and storytelling in long takes, and within extreme environments.

Athena BTS. Picture: Netflix Athena: Children of Men

Athena is a 2022 French epic action tragedy film directed by Romain Gavras. Starring Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, and Alexis Manenti, the film examines inequality and police violence in a French banlieue community. The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 2022, where it competed for the Golden Lion award, and was released on 23 September 2022 by Netflix.

Athena BTS. Picture: Netflix Athena BTS. Picture: Netflix

It was praised for its acting, score, direction, and technical aspects, especially regarding its cinematography. Athena’s Dp is Matias Boucard AFC, who used the extra-large sensor of the Arri Alexa 65 to enhance motion, and camera kinetics,...

This review originally ran in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

For those still under the erroneous impression that police brutality against Black people and other communities of color exists as an exclusively American form of racially motivated violence, “Athena,” an explosive drama (figuratively and literally) from French director Romain Gavras, son of legendary auteur Costa-Gavras, disproves it.

Over the course of one fateful day in the aftermath of the brutal killing of a boy of Middle Eastern descent at the hands of a group of white men — either comprised of cops, members of a far-right clan, or perhaps one and the same — chaos erupts in the disenfranchised Parisian neighborhood of Athena, as young people revolt in response to such injustice.

Almost immediately dropping us into the action, Gavras opens “Athena” with one of cinematographer Matias Boucard’s incredibly impressive one takes that carry...

Designed as something akin to a Greek tragedy for today’s moment, Venice Film Festival Competition title Athena is a torrent, an inundation, a cascade of rage, fury and frustration over the realities of life for a particular group of French families. Such conditions exist in most societies, some more dire than others, but here the wages of pent-up anger are presented with a single-minded intensity and extended duration that would be hard to exceed.

Following in the powerful wake of the 2019 Oscar-nominated sensation Les Misérables, which was also set in a teeming eastern suburb of Paris rarely seen by outsiders, director Romain Gavras and his co-writers Elias Belkeddar and Les Misérables director Ladj Ly use undiluted adrenalin and immersive you-are-there camerawork to plunge you into the middle of a classical drama for modern times. The Netflix-backed film grabs you by the throat and barely allows you a moment for a gasp of air.

Pardon my French, but the first shot of Romain Gavras’ “Athena” — a sketch of a Greek tragedy transplanted into a housing project on the outskirts of Paris — is absolutely fucking insane. Even in a digital age where dazzling long-takes have become a dime a dozen (and all too easy to fake), the oner that ignites this roman candle of a movie about a police siege on a poor neighborhood is something else. It stands out for its fiery violence, for the ground that it covers, and for the incandescent energy that explodes off the screen like the molotov cocktail that Karim (Sami Slimane) hurls into a crowd of cops and reporters who’ve gathered for a press conference at the local precinct.

The news of the day is personal for the young agitator: Karim’s 13-year-old brother has been murdered, and a video of police officers beating him to death has gone viral.

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With his incendiary 2019 debut feature, Les Misérables, director Ladj Ly brought the urban unrest, the police brutality and the festering social and racial inequality of the Paris banlieue drama La Haine hurtling into the 21st century, its belly aflame with righteous anger and indignation. Ly serves as a writer and producer on Romain Gavras’ Athena, which is both a companion piece to those films and a thundering amplification of their themes. Where the earlier works built to stunning crescendos of violence, Athena is a live grenade, beginning in full ignition mode and dialing up its intensity throughout with virtuoso technique.

That latter factor will surprise no one familiar with the output of Gavras, son of renowned Greek director Costa-Gavras, who made a mark with his dynamic music videos for artists including Kanye West, Jay-Z and M.I.A. His third feature is a...

Justice will be served as anarchy erupts following a murder at the hands of a rogue police officer.

Romain Gavras’ “Athena” tells an all-too-timely tale of cop corruption, militant protests, and the intersection between nationalism and personal duty. The film premieres at the 2022 Venice Film Festival on September 2, followed by a September 23 Netflix release.

Per the official synopsis, after the death of his youngest brother following an alleged police altercation, Abdel (Dali Benssalah) is called back from the frontline to find his family torn apart. Caught between his younger brother Karim’s (Sami Slimane) desire for revenge and the criminal dealings of his older brother Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), he struggles to calm the rising tensions. As the situation escalates, their community Athena is transformed into a fortress under siege, becoming a scene of tragedy for both the family and beyond.

Gavras directed, produced, and co-wrote the feature along with Ladj Ly...

Martin Bourboulon, whose credits include divorce comedy-dramas Mummy Or Daddy and Divorce French Style, will direct.

Emma Mackey, the breakout star of Netflix’s hit show Sex Education, will make her French-language debut opposite Romain Duris in Pathé’s upcoming €22m ($20m) production Eiffel, revolving around the untold love story behind the creation of the Eiffel Tower.

The project is currently in pre-production for an August 2019 shoot. Pathé International kicks off sales at Cannes with Pathé retaining French and Swiss rights.

Mackey will play Adrienne Bourgès, a mysterious, high-born woman linked to celebrated engineer Gustave Eiffel’s past.

Sex Education...

Jérôme Salle on Lambert Wilson as Jacques-Yves Cousteau: "It helps when you ask a very nice person to be a very tough person."

Once again, inside the Furman Gallery at Lincoln Center during the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema exhibition of Paul Ronald's color photographs from Federico Fellini's 81/2, where I met Christophe Honoré for a conversation on Les Malheurs De Sophie, The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) director Jérôme Salle spoke with me on the performances of Lambert Wilson and Audrey Tautou. Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, composer Alexandre Desplat, Calypso captain Albert Falco (Vincent Heneine), nicknamed Bébert (which recalls for me the cat featured in Emmanuel Bourdieu's Louis-Ferdinand Céline), were also washed ashore.

Jérôme Salle at Paul Ronald's 81/2 circus photos: "Audrey is wonderful." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Odyssey (shot by Matias Boucard, screenplay, co-written with Laurent Turner) is...

Stars Adam Sandler, Josh Gad, Denis Akayama and director Chris Columbus take fans behind-the-scenes of Pixels in our exclusive preview for the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD arriving today from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. These cast members and the director show us how they managed to "pixelate" cars, with Chris Columbus revealing that this particular scene in New York City was one of the most "satisfying scenes" he's ever done in his storied career. We also hear from Josh Gad, who jokes about being Chris Hemsworth's "fat body double" on Rush, and Adam Sandler who reveals how much fun they're having on the set, with Pac-Man chasing him.

From Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and Director Chris Columbus comes the visually spectacular action-adventure Pixels, debuting on Digital HD Oct. 6, and on Two-Disc Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-ray and DVD October 27 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Last week, we got our first look at the main cast in the upcoming retro video game character invasion film Pixels. That cast consists of Peter Dinklage, Adam Sandler, Josh Gad, and Michelle Monaghan. The movie is based on a short film of the same name, and it has the potential to make for an incredibly entertaining feature film.

Sony Pictures has announced the line-up of video games and characters that will be included in the movie, and it's actually really quite impressive. Below you'll find a press released with the story synopsis and the list of characters that you'll see in the movie:

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend, '80s video...

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that the studio has brought together an extraordinary number of iconic video game companies, whose classic characters – including Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Galaga, Frogger, Q*bert, and Space Invaders – will be featured in the highly-anticipated action comedy Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox, and directed by Chris Columbus. The film will be released on May 15, 2015.

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend, ’80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Sandler), now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Dinklage and Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet. Monaghan plays the team’s unique weapons specialist.

Your favorite 8 bit characters are back in the movie Pixels by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Pixels is based on the short film by Patrick Jean and can be seen below:

Sony released the following to the press concerning the new film:

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that the studio has brought together an extraordinary number of iconic video game companies, whose classic characters – including Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Centipede®, Galaga, Frogger, Q*bert, and Space Invaders – will be featured in the highly-anticipated action comedy Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox, and directed by Chris Columbus. The film will be released on May 15, 2015.

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend,...

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that the studio has brought together an extraordinary number of iconic video game companies, whose classic characters - including Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Centipede&#174, Galaga, Frogger, Q*bert, and Space Invaders - will be featured in the highly-anticipated action comedy Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox, and directed by Chris Columbus. The film will be released on May 15, 2015.

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (Kevin James) has to call on his childhood best friend, '80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage) to defeat the aliens and save the planet. Michelle Monaghan...

Stars: Alban Lenoir, Charlie Bruneau, Tiphaine Daviot, Ahmed Sylla, Alexandre Philip | Written by Tristan Schulmann, Marie Garel Weiss, Quoc Dang Tran, Izm, Laetitia Trapet | Directed by Benjamin Rocher, Thierry Poiraud

Well this couldn’t be better timing really could it? With the World Cup occupying TV screens and newspapers across the globe Metrodome unleash Goal of the Dead on a football-hungry UK audience. And whilst I typically avoid football movies like the proverbial plague, I couldn’t help but check out any film which also involves zombies and The Horde director Benjamin Rocher!

Like The Horde before it, the plot of Goal of the Dead is relatively simple and sees professional football team arrive at their lowly local-rivals stadium for an end of season friendly when a zombie apocalypse turns the hostile fans into flesh-eating undead hooligans.

This time round it would seem Rocher and his co-director Thierry Poiraud have...

Josh Gad and Kevin James are in early talks to join Adam Sandler in Sony's Pixels, which Chris Columbus is set to direct. Pixels was one of the Internet shorts that garnered Hollywood buzz in 2010 (the same year that The Gift and Panic Attack! made the rounds) and depicted 1980s video game characters attacking New York City. Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling worked on the script. Patrick Jean, who made the short, is executive producing, while Happy Madison’s Sandler and Jack Giarraputo are producing with One More Production's Benjamin Darras, Johnny Alves and Mathias Boucard. The talks with the

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Chris Columbus ("Mrs. Doubtfire," "Harry Potter 1 & 2") is in discussions to direct the feature adaptation of French filmmaker Patrick Jean's acclaimed film short "Pixels" for Sony Pictures and Happy Madison.

The original short, which can be watched below, features 1980s video game characters like Donkey Kong, Tetris, Space Invaders, Frogger and Pac-Man attacking New York City and turning everything they hit into pixels - with ultimately the entire planet going blocky.

The studio is aiming for a Ghostbusters-style action comedy in which characters come out of a video game to wreak havoc in the real world.

Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo, Benjamin Darras, Johnny Alves and Matias Boucard are producing

Source: Heat Vision...

French director Patrick Jean, has created the short film "Pixels", featuring old-school video game icons that take over New York (and the world), produced for the French techno-pop band Naïve New Beaters.

Classic characters featured include "Donkey Kong" on top of the Empire State building, "Space Invaders" attacking city taxi cabs, "Tetris" blocks falling down on Manhattan, "Pac-Man" eating up the subway and "Frogger" crossing the street.

Jean wrote/directed the short film, shot on location in New York with Dp Matias Boucard, for Paris-based One More Production, noted for commercials and a music video for Moby.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Pixels"...