It was a big weekend for awards, the first of three such weekends leading up to the Oscars on Sunday, April 25.
Three guilds, the Society of Camera Operators and the EE British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) were announced over this past weekend with much recognition for Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland, Pixar Animation‘s Soul, Emerald Fennell‘s Promising Young Woman, and George C. Wolfe‘s Ma Rainey‘s Black Bottom all received honors from the industry. It’s probably no coincidence that all four movies have received multiple Oscar nominations.
Camera operator Geoffrey Haley received his second SOC Camera Operator of the Year award in a row for the Apple TV+ movie, Cherry, directed by the Russo Brothers, while television camera operator Jim McConkey was presented with his first Camera Operator of the Year award for his work on the Amazon series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS) awards were quite special with touching tributes to guild co-founder and Music Supervising ground-breaker Maureen Crowe, who received the Legacy Award, as well as the Icon Award being presented to Quincy Jones with an equally star-studded presentation and tributes. Soul, Promising Young Woman and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom were the winners for Music Supervision in Film, the same weekend all three movies received acclaim from BAFTA.
Mank, Tenet, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Soul won the film awards in the 25th Annual Art Directors Guild ADG Awards on Saturday night, although Ma’s Rainey’s Black Bottom won the Production Design category at BAFTA.
You can click on the links below to see all of the weekend winners from each of the ceremonies.
Art Directors Guild (ADG) Awards
Society of Camera Operators (SOC)
Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
On Friday, just after the “End of Week Production Notes” went “to press,” it was reported by Deadline that Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge would be joining Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 5 (probably not the movie’s actual title). Lucasfilm‘s revival of the popular Harrison Ford character puts James Mangold (Ford vs. Ferrari) at the helm with previous director Steven Spielberg producing, along with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel. Composer John Williams will also be returning. Plans are to start filming over the summer to make its July 29, 2022 release date.
Some other casting news from The Hollywood Reporter that hits a little closer to home. My friend Grady Hendrix‘s 2016 book, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, is being turned into a movie with Damon Thomas from Killing Eve and Penny Dreadful directing for Endeavor Content. Eighth Grade‘s breakout star, Elsie Fisher, is leading the ensemble cast that will include Amiah Miller, Cathy Ang, and Rachel Ogechi Kanu. The adaptation was done by Jenna Lami, who previously wrote for NBC‘s Good Girls and The CW‘s 90210, and she’ll serve as associate producer. The project is expected to end up with Amazon Studios with The Gotham Group, Quirk Productions and writer-director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) producing. Fisher will play Abby while Miller plays Gretchen, two high school sophomores, whose friendship is put to the test when the latter is possessed by a demonic force. The novel was released by Quirk Books in 2016.
As expected, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures‘ Godzilla vs. Kong remained atop the box office for a second week in a row with $13.8 million, down 58% from its “pandemic best” opening weekend last week. It has grossed $69.5 million domestically — the highest gross for a movie since the pandemic began in March 2020 — but it also continues to do boffo box office overseas where it added another $24.1 million this weekend to bring its global total to $357.8 million with $288.3 million from international territories. Neil Burger‘s sci-fi thriller Voyagers didn’t fare as well, opening in fifth place with $1.35 million in 1,972 theaters for an average of $684 per theater.
Oddly, Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line chose to release its Mortal Kombat revival, produced by James Wan, into 17 overseas markets a full two weeks before its North American debut. The movie grossed $10.7 million in over 4,500 screens with Russia leading the pack with $6.1 million (10% more than Godzilla vs. Kong‘s debut a few weeks back).
There were no real trailers of note because, as mentioned above, this weekend was all about awards, but come back on Friday for this week’s “End of Week Production Notes” when we should have one or two.
