Actor Michelle Williams will receive a Performer Tribute at the 32nd annual Gotham Awards ceremony, taking place in-person on Monday, November 28, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Williams stars in Steven Spielberg’s new film, The Fabelmans.
A four-time Academy Award® nominee, Williams has had starring roles in such films as My Week With Marilyn and Blue Valentine, Best Picture Oscar nominee Manchester by the Sea, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, and Best Picture Oscar nominee Brokeback Mountain directed by Ang Lee.
Williams earned Primetime Emmy®, Golden Globe®, Critics Choice® and Screen Actors Guild® awards for her portrayal of Gwen Verdon in the critically acclaimed FX limited series Fosse/Verdon.
In 2018, Williams made her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Venom and returned to her role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Together the films grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide at the global box office. Her other performances include her starring roles in Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World, which earned her a Golden Globe® nomination, and the blockbuster musical The Greatest Showman, plus Shutter Island directed by Martin Scorsese, I’m Not There, The Station Agent and Synecdoche, New York.
Jeffrey Sharp, executive director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute, stated, “We are exceptionally proud to honor Michelle Williams, whose iconic performances in collaboration with our most renowned directors have defined her as a leading talent of her generation. Since bursting onto the scene as a teenager, Michelle has consistently raised the bar of her craft while pushing the boundaries of her roles. Michelle is a true New Yorker and we are thrilled to claim her as one of our own by recognizing her with a Performer Tribute at this year’s Gotham Awards.”
Williams’ fourth film with writer-director Kelly Reichardt, A24’s Showing Up, premiered in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Her first collaboration with Reichardt was the critically acclaimed independent film Wendy and Lucy, which earned Williams a Toronto Film Critics Award for “Best Actress” in 2009. Her second, 2010’s Meek’s Cutoff, won the Producers Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards as well as the SIGNIS Award at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Her third, Certain Women, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, and was released by IFC Films. Certain Women received the BFI London Film Festival’s best film award.
Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, for Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, is based on Spielberg’s own childhood and is written by Spielberg and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner. Williams stars as Mitzi Fabelman, the artistic mother of an aspiring young filmmaker. The film also stars Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, Seth Rogen and Judd Hirsch. Winner of the coveted People’s Choice audience award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, The Fabelmans arrives in theaters beginning November 11 and expands nationwide November 23.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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