Cannes Daily: Audiences Mad for 'Furiosa'
Did a George Miller-Denis Villeneuve Oscar showdown just begin? Plus: the Screen International Jury Grid begins today!
Welcome to our The Ankler x Screen International Cannes daily. Gregg Kilday and Claire Atkinson are on the ground at the fest for The Ankler, where their reporting is shared with the best of Screen’s pre-eminent coverage from its newsroom at The Majestic.
The setting is a burnt-orange desert landscape. The young protagonist, out to avenge the death of a parent, is caught between warring clans before growing into a fearsome warrior. The film culminates in a mano-a-mano duel to the death. Sound familiar? No, I’m not talking about Dune: Part Two. I’m talking about George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, his new prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which premiered Wednesday night at the Cannes Film Festival. But the two films — Dune is the more contemplative, Furiosa, the more bone-rattling — could find themselves squaring off come Oscar time.
Warner Bros.’ Furiosa, in which Anya Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of the bad-ass Furiosa (the character Charlize Theron played in the previous film), met with a predictably rapturous reception and a standing ovation that was variously clocked at seven-to-eight minutes long.
Looking like a modern-day Grace Kelly — her blonde hair pulled back into an elegant chignon — Taylor-Joy embraced Miller, who was also flanked by the movie’s other star, Chris Hemsworth. Miller’s fellow Aussie director Baz Luhrmann rushed up to offer his congratulations.
While there were a few holdouts among major critics who carped that the new movie’s non-stop action isn’t quite up to the impossible standards set by its predecessor, there were still plenty of near-raves. Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri called it “a slow-burn epic,” while the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis praised Miller as “a wildly inventive myth-maker.”
But now, here’s where it gets interesting — at least in terms of Furiosa’s awards potential.
In 2015, Fury Road was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director, and won six of them — film editing, production design, costume design, make-up and hairstyling, sound mixing and sound editing.
But this year, if Furiosa hopes to rack up a similar score, it will have to do so by facing off against another Warner’s release, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. That movie will be following in the wake of Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune, which was also nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture, and won six — cinematography, music, film editing, production design, sound and visual effects.
So, at least in the technical categories, Furiosa and Dune: Part Two could find themselves battling it out, head to head, which in turn could mean quite a juggling act for Warners if it’s to fully support the two contenders — and that’s even before a couple of other Warner releases that could become Oscar players are unveiled. There’s Kevin Costner’s return to the Western in Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1, which will make its Cannes debut on Sunday night, and Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie a Deux, set for release Oct. 4.
So let the battle begin.
From our Partners at Screen International
First a quick snapshot from our Claire Atkinson outside the Majestic, home of the Screen newsroom during Cannes.
News
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Israeli film professionals are “open to dialogue” at Cannes despite a reported reluctance to engage with them by some in the international industry due to the ongoing war in Gaza, according to Osnat Bukofzer, director of the Israeli Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. Continue reading
Festival Circuit Sets Meeting to Deal With Controversies
A planned symposium in Amsterdam is inviting international film festival figures to discuss how fests can appropriately accommodate and work with protests and debates. Continue reading
Deal News
Danny Trejo Thriller ‘Wages of Sin’ Set in L.A.
Victor Rios will make his directorial debut for 333 Pictures and Boatyard Productions. Continue reading
Juliette Binoche to Make Screenwriting/Directing Debut
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Stalin’s Reign of Terror to Get Dramatic Treatment
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa is preparing to shoot his next fiction film Two Prosecutors in October, based on a novel by little-known Russian writer Georgy Demidov. Continue reading
Reviews
Furiosa: ‘High-Octane Revenge Thriller’
Screen’s Nikki Baughan says Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth put pedal to the metal in George Miller’s blistering return to his Mad Max universe. Continue reading
Director Magnus von Horn Makes Competition Debut
Horrific true events inspire The Girl with the Needle, a murderous black-and-white drama. Continue reading
Features
The Making of ‘a Dark Fairy Tale’
Magnus von Horn tells Screen about finding contemporary relevance in the Competition title The Girl With The Needle, inspired by the true story of unspeakable crimes in 19th-century Denmark. Continue reading
Competition Entry Wild Diamond Explores ‘Extreme Femininity’
The only debut filmmaker in this year’s Competition, Agathe Riedinger examines the global obsession with beauty and fame and the omnipresence of social media. Continue reading
Today’s Screen Jury at Cannes
The long-running Screen International Jury Grid is a critical ranking of competition films in Cannes, according to an assembled jury of at least 10 international film critics, including Screen's reviewers. During the course of the festival, Screen keeps a closely-followed scorecard in which 11 international critics rate the competition films on a scale of one to four stars. The grid kicks off today as the first judgments come in, with Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond receiving an average score of 2.1.
