NOMINATED for eight 2023 Oscars, including Motion Picture of the Year, Elvis tracks the life of Elvis Presley from his childhood to becoming the undisputed “King of Rock and Roll” in the 1950s. As Elvis, Austin Butler was nominated for the Oscar and won at the BAFTA, Golden Globes and People’s Choice Awards, among other accolades.
Oscar winner Tom Hanks plays his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, with Olivia DeJonge as his wife, Priscillla. The cast includes Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), BAFTA nominee Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Cyrano, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Critics Choice Award winner David Wenham (Faramir in The Lord of the Rings films), and multi-award winner Richard Roxburgh (Catherine the Great, Moulin Rouge!), with multiple-Grammy nominee Yola as the “godmother of rock n roll”, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and four-time Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup.
Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby, Romeo + Juliet), Elvis is the second-highest-grossing music biopic of all time – and the 16th biggest blockbuster globally last year.
The third-highest-grossing movie of 2022 globally, Jurassic World: Dominion is set four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed. Dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
Dominion unites two generations of Jurassic stars for the first time: Teen Choice winners Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are joined by Oscar winner Laura Dern, Oscar nominee Jeff Goldblum and Emmy nominee Sam Neill.
From director Colin Trevorrow (who smashed seven Guinness World Records with Jurassic World) and Oscar-winning franchise creator and executive producer Steven Spielberg, Dominion was nominated for the People’s Choice Movie of 2022 and was up for Favourite Movie and Actor (Pratt) at the 2023 Kids’ Choice Awards, as well as Visual Effects Society and Annie Awards this year.
Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunite in Ticket To Paradise as exes who find themselves on a shared mission to Bali to stop their lovestruck daughter (Emmy nominee Kaitlyn Dever from Unbelievable) from making the same mistake they once made.
A romantic comedy about the sweet surprise of second chances, Ticket To Paradise was the 28th biggest box office hit of 2022. As Independent (UK) puts it, “It’s a joy to watch Julia Roberts and George Clooney fall in love. It’s an even greater joy to watch them bicker.”
Ticket To Paradise is directed and co-written by BAFTA nominee Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, writer of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films).
In Emily the Criminal, Golden Globe nominee Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus: Sicily, Parks and Recreation) stars as Emily, a young woman down on her luck and saddled with debt, who gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles.
John Patton Ford won Best First Screenplay at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for the debut director award at the 2023 Directors Guild of America Awards. Emily the Criminal also picked up eight other international prizes, including being named one of the National Board of Review’s Top Ten Independent Films of 2022.
Emily the Criminal has a 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “A taut thriller that contains a wealth of social commentary, Emily the Criminal is stolen by Aubrey Plaza’s terrific work in the title role.” L.A. Times calls it “gripping”; Collider “Intense”; and The Hollywood Reporter “nail-biting”.
South African actress and model Charlbi Dean stars in Triangle of Sadness (May 22), in what many believe would have been her breakout role had she not tragically passed away shortly before the film’s international release late last year. Previously known for her roles in the Spud films and the series Black Lightning, Dean plays Yaya, one half of a celebrity model couple who join a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged captain.
Triangle of Sadness was up for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay at this year’s Oscars, as well as Best Comedy at this year’s Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes. The wickedly funny satirical black comedy has already won 21 awards, including the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
BAFTA nominee Harris Dickinson (Where the Crawdads Sing, The King’s Man) co-stars alongside Dean, with three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Natural Born Killers) as the captain. As Dimitri, Zlatko Burić won Best European Actor at the European Film Awards, while Dolly de Leon became the first Filipino actor to be nominated at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, for her supporting role as Abigail.
Hailed by Empire as “hilariously, breathlessly entertaining,” Triangle of Sadness is the English-language feature film debut of Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure, winner of the Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar-nominated The Square, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes).
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (May 25) stars two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson (Love, Actually, Saving Mr. Banks) in a 2023 BAFTA- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Nancy Stokes, a retired school teacher yearning for some adventure, who hires a young sex worker named Leo Grande.
The sex comedy was nominated for four BAFTAs, including for Outstanding British Film of the Year, Outstanding Debut by a British Writer (for Katy Brand), and Best Leading Actor (Daryl McCormack from Bad Sisters and Peaky Blinders). Helmed by Sundance-winning Australian director Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays), Good Luck to You, Leo Grande also earned “Best Female Orgasm” at the Girls on Film Awards, among other accolades.
The film has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “sex positive and positively sexy.”
Based on Delia Owens’s best-selling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing (May 29) tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina.
For years, rumours of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect.
The 33rd biggest box office hit of 2022, Where the Crawdads Sing stars BAFTA nominees Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) as Kya and Chase, with Taylor John Smith (Sharp Objects) as Tate. Nominated as The Drama Movie of 2022 at The People’s Choice Awards, Where The Crawdads Sing is produced by Reese Witherspoon (Big Little Lies) and features Carolina, Taylor Swift’s song that was nominated for 2023 Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards.
