'We Need to Talk About Kevin' tops field of nine finalists
By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) --The beautiful, terrifying domestic drama “We Need to Talk About Kevin” won the London Film Festival’s best-picture prize Wednesday.
Lynne Ramsay’s film stars Tilda Swinton as a mother grappling with grief and guilt after her teenage son carries out a high-school massacre.
“Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden, who chaired the judging panel, called it “a sublime, uncompromising tale of the torment that can stand in the place of love.”
The 55-year-old London festival introduced a best-film prize two years ago as part of a bid to boost its profile and compete with better-known events in Berlin, Venice and Toronto.
“Kevin” beat eight other finalists, including French silent movie “The Artist,” Aleksandr Sokurov’s Venice Film festival winner “Faust” and British director Steve McQueen’s body- and soul-baring “Shame.”
Nineteen-year-old actress Candese Reid was named best British newcomer for her role in gritty drama “Junkhearts,” her first professional acting role.
Argentinean director Pablo Giorgelli won the festival’s best first feature prize for his Latin American road movie “Las Acacias,” which picked up the same award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The best documentary trophy went to German auteur Werner Herzog for his death row portrait “Into the Abyss.”
Actor Ralph Fiennes and director David Cronenberg received lifetime achievement awards during the black-tie ceremony at the 18th-century St. Luke’s church in London.
Fiennes was awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship in recognition of “a singular career” that has blended arthouse dramas and mainstream hits.
Cronenberg, the director of “Videodrome,” ”The Fly” and “Crash,” received the same honor for a body of films “exploring the darker impulses and inner lives of his characters.”
Both men had films in the two-week festival of more than 300 features and shorts from 55 countries — Fiennes’ directorial debut “Coriolanus” and Cronenberg’s psychoanalytic drama “A Dangerous Method.”
“Overnight Success” Has Been More Than A Decade In The Making For Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson
Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit "The Perfect Couple," have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of "Gossip Girl." Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's "This Must Be the Place." They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles — "The White Lotus" for Fahy and "Bad Sisters" for Hewson — that have led to new frontiers of opportunity.
Susanne Bier, who directed "The Perfect Couple," says both Fahy and Hewson are "going to be big stars."
"They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways," Bier says. "Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do."
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of "Bad Sisters, " out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called "Sirens," written by Molly Smith Metzler ("Maid") for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor ("The Crown," "Challengers") and Brandon Sklenar ("It Ends With Us").
The two actors spoke candidly about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and... Read More