Well, let me follow to this data too.

 

Awards Nominations for Better Man by far:

 

Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) 2024

- Best Original Song - Feature Film (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Music Themed Film, Biopic or Musical (Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Craig McMahon, Coco Xiaolu, MaJules Daly)

 

Rolling Stone UK Awards 2024

- The Film Award (Better Man) -

Winner

 

Golden Globes 2025

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

 

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards 2025

- Best Film

- Best Direction in Film

- Best Screenplay in Film

- Best Lead Actor in Film

- Best Supporting Actress in Film

- Best Supporting Actor in Film

- Best Cinematography in Film

- Best Sound in Film

- Best Original Score in Film

- Best Soundtrack

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Visual Effects or Animation

- Best Editing in Film presented by Spectrum Films

- Best Production Design in Film

- Best Costume Design in Film

- Best Casting in Film presented by Casting Networks

 

Really lovely movie review from RWfanfest

 

Click on link below

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/RWfanfest

Yes, unfortunately there are no any other nominations on GG.

I thought there could be also Screenplay and possibly Best Musical, Comedy.

Actually GG is about media, not about critics while not many media had a possibility to watch the movie.

Anyway, this movie season looks much stronger than few last years before so it's OK.

 

---

 

Regarding persprectivies for another awards I have a great feelings Better Man will get some good awards.

Have you heard about The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards 2025 news? :)

 

Thanks Alex

 

AACTA awards nominations are amazing. B-)

Well, let me follow to this data too.

 

Awards Nominations for Better Man by far:

 

Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) 2024

- Best Original Song - Feature Film (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Music Themed Film, Biopic or Musical (Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Craig McMahon, Coco Xiaolu, MaJules Daly)

 

Rolling Stone UK Awards 2024

- The Film Award (Better Man) -

Winner

 

Golden Globes 2025

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

 

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards 2025

- Best Film

- Best Direction in Film

- Best Screenplay in Film

- Best Lead Actor in Film

- Best Supporting Actress in Film

- Best Supporting Actor in Film

- Best Cinematography in Film

- Best Sound in Film

- Best Original Score in Film

- Best Soundtrack

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Visual Effects or Animation

- Best Editing in Film presented by Spectrum Films

- Best Production Design in Film

- Best Costume Design in Film

- Best Casting in Film presented by Casting Networks

 

 

 

This is a really great start. Fingers crossed for more down the line .

In his biopic "Better Man", Robbie Williams decided to be an ape

A performer who has always put the body at the centre of his career, giving blood and soul

 

 

For the biopic Better Man, which revisits his personal and musical life, Robbie Williams chose to be portrayed as a monkey. An animal that had already appeared in his career, recalling some of the live performances from the 2003 Escapology tour in Knebworth, where the montage alternates animated inserts with footage of the singer literally hanging by his feet and lowered onto the stage—as also seen in the film—alongside imagery with an entirely early-2000s aesthetic, questionable yet representative of the era's first decades. The fans numbered 375,000, making it the most-attended event in British history. A concert conquered with the cry of "For the next two hours your ass is mine!" and one that cemented the pop star as an undisputed musical icon. But how much effort did it take to get there? And why is Robbie Williams a monkey in Better Man? “I’ve never felt evolved,” admits the singer, as he also confesses in the film. Always lagging behind, always making mistakes, always chasing fame that served only one purpose: to feel loved. If the “born entertainer,” as he calls himself, has so far only shown the surface, after Michael Gracey’s film (The Greatest Showman), it will no longer be possible to avoid questioning his vulnerability. Even though hairy and primitive, the figure in the work offers an intimate and painful portrayal of a child with the dream of pleasing his father, only to be abandoned by him in favor of small performances in local pubs. Become famous or be no one. Hence Robbie Williams becomes a monkey. To be noticed by people, to be noticed by his father.

 

Although the choice to represent himself through a primate may seem like a mere mannerism, within the narrative of the singer’s life, it takes on a higher and broader meaning. It is the performer’s body being questioned and removed to don a more fitting costume, once again reflecting on the significance that flesh and blood have had in achieving the career of the boy from Stoke-on-Trent. A young man who joined the Take That at fifteen, was immediately exposed to the vices and myriad ways of inflicting harm upon his body. First came media exposure. Initially captivating queer nightclubs later transformed into idols for teenage girls, the five boys at the height of their fame in the early 1990s were elevated to the quintessential boy band. Their resonance was further fueled by the explicit sexualization of their personas, an image that had to matter as much, if not more, than their vocal performances. Robbie Williams quickly succumbed to depression and the haze of alcohol and, even more so, drugs, finding in these islands of refuge an escape from the unease that pursued him every time he stepped on stage—a recurring theme in many scenes of Better Man.

 

Then there is the body of the individual, the one who broke away from the machine perfected by Take That, now too damaged to continue. And in exposing himself, another mask. The more he strips down, the more he covers up. It’s ironic to think that, even in its animalistic version, the monkey in the film is more clothed than Robbie Williams has ever been in his life. The body repeatedly resurfaces in the singer’s musical and performative career. A body subjected to substance addiction and an ongoing battle with dysmorphia (still unresolved even after losing around thirteen kilos two years ago, not shying away from the help of a few injections). A persistent stripping, as if to reveal his deepest self. It’s astounding how, by googling Robbie Williams’ name alongside the words “nude” or “naked,” the possibilities offered by the web are endless. It’s not just *that* album, photo, video, or cover. It’s *those* albums, photos, videos, and covers. He even makes songs about the body, like Bodies in 2009 and earlier, in 2002, Come Undone, which brings him back to the seminal fluid that, one day, would make him a person (“Because I'm scum and I'm your son, I come undone”). “The body has always been my outlet for my mental health,” explains Williams during the film's promotion in Italy. “I’ve always been prone to all sorts of addictions, including food. I’ve quit alcohol, I’ve quit drugs, I’ve even quit sex” (he laughs, ironically—or perhaps not, editor’s note), “but I’m still at war with my body. It’s a neurosis that’s still with me today. My weight issues and the battle between me and my body have never ended, remaining a source of so much suffering and pain for me.”

And even though today he says, “I’m damn sexy,” he insists, his self-loathing and constant search for acceptance is precisely what Better Man puts on display, and it’s evident even when meeting him in person. Transforming the biopic into an example of superior exploration and entertainment beyond the conventional scope of such works, laying bare not just his physicality but reshaping it to reinforce the idea of performance with which he has always used it, Robbie Williams hopes to be “seen” through Better Man. Being portrayed as an animal is not dehumanizing but rather deeply empathetic. He is a child who sang with his father and continues to do so to reconnect with him. He is a boy who feared being nobody and dreamed of performing before 375,000 people to confirm that yes, I exist. He is a man who, to feel something (“I just wanna feel”, he sings in one of his most famous tracks), had to expose himself. He did so with Better Man too. And perhaps this is the truth of wanting to be someone: not just having that “something” but being willing to give everything. To put your soul into it completely and, above all, your body.

 

https://www.nssmag.com/en/lifestyle/39156/r...tter-man-review

Edited December 11, 2024Dec 11 by Sydney11

Robbie Williams is played by a monkey, 'but film about his life is more real than biopics about Queen and Whitney Houston'

 

Michiel van Renselaar December 11, 2024 12:03

 

Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll are no strangers to British pop star Robbie Williams. We certainly don't get to see a nice family man in the new film about his life. Fortunately, because according to film journalist René Mioch, Better Man is good, in contrast to the sugary biopics about Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston.

 

"As an artist you have to suffer. Robbie Williams has been made through depth drops, largely caused by himself," says Mioch. This means that Better Man has all the ingredients for good biobic practice. "These movies always say: don't get famous! You get all the power, alcohol, drugs. You're bored to death, so you're just going to do things that normally working people don't have time for," says the film connoisseur in Good Morning Netherlands on NPO 1.

 

Narcissist

Williams (known for hits such as Angels, Feel and Rock DJ) is a narcissist pur sang, according to Mioch. "He says that himself. He has resigned himself to that. In the meantime, he says everything. Everything about him is out in the open. He may have told too much about himself."

 

Robbie Williams' open attitude only adds to the film. We get to see the truth and not a brightened up version, Mioch believes. "That's the tricky thing about the films about Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse. Their family was involved in the production. The man from Houston constantly beat her up, we know that, but in the film he is too crazy and attentive."

 

Bohemian Rhapsody, the film about Queen and especially Freddie Mercury, suffers from the same problem. Critics stated after the premiere that the life story of the famous lead singer has been portrayed in Hollywood. Mioch: "You don't see Freddie stuffing his nose with drugs, but that was part of it. That is part of his image."

 

Monkey

Yet we don't get to see the real Robbie Williams in the film. The British pop icon is played by a monkey. "After a few minutes you forget that," assures the film journalist. "It's a nice choice. He wanted to be famous, but during his time in the boy band Take That, he had to do a trick devised by managers every time. I can imagine that he felt like a kind of circus attraction.

 

https://wnl.tv/2024/12/11/robbie-williams-w...whitney-houston

Edited December 11, 2024Dec 11 by Sydney11

EYE FOR FILM

 

Better Man - Reviewed by: Andrew Robertson

 

3/5

 

 

Despite the clear indicators of interventions, supported detoxification, and the depiction of group counselling, there's little doubt that we can add this to the list of things men will do rather than get therapy. Robbie Williams became famous early, and depending on where you stand on the great man theory of history at a confluence of significant changes in the music industry. More importantly to his story, at a point before significant changes in him as a person. He outlines in one of those sessions that there's a theory that you stop developing as a person at the age you become famous. Joining Take That at about 15, he describes as "stunted", but 'stunt' is a fair descriptor of Better Man.

 

That's in part because of its central conceit, achieving a degree of remove in an autobiopic by replacing Robbie's likeness with an ape. The 'auto' is because Robbie, Robert, "youth", provides his own voice as narrator and narratee, joined in his production credits by several others under a mixture of prosthetic makeup and digital wizardry. Technically so, Weta Workshop provided measures of each. That means that while teams were working on assets for a siege in animation The War Of The Rohirrim someone down the hall was helping with a battle at Knebworth.

 

That's one of several moments where film's ability to change scale and scope turns Better Man from a jukebox musical into something at once more and less personal. The lines between figurative and literal are more blurred than the action in a fight between an artist and his demons. A massive montage with almost as many costume changes as dancers brings a taste of the big top to the stretch of Regent Street between Oxford and Piccadilly Circuses.

 

Among the many dancers, several faces just on the right side of familiar are recognisable as his Take That team-mates. They include Damon Herriman as pop-impresario Nigel Martin Smith. Herriman may be a familiar face, he's got a list of credits long enough to defy easy synthesis, but it's possibly not an accident that he's played Charles Manson twice, once for Quentin Tarantino. Others might recognise him from his work in the sterling Mr Inbetween, which expands on the story of Ray Shoesmith first told in The Magician.

 

His description is one of the places where the film's metatextuality comes to the fore. Or more specifically to the four-letter word, as it's the first of I think seven times where what's commonly held to be the worst swear word in English is used. I say "worst", but it regularly appeared in place and street names for years. Better Man uses it enough to fill a map, though it's got plenty of other synonyms for routing and rooting.

 

Call it another stunt. I didn't expect this to have as much swearing as Kneecap, never mind more. I think it's part of an effort to achieve the gloss of something serious and adult. It's not quite following Ronald Reagan's Bedtime For Bonzo with a series of graphs that show lines rapidly changing direction during his presidency. It's more like finding a different body part near the leg to rhyme with 'dock'.

 

The two make for interesting comparisons. Kneecap is a directorial debut, Michael Gracey helmed a differently smashing musical in The Greatest Showman. They both take liberties, all saints, and indeed run all over the shop with their depictions of real events, drug taking, and darker elements. Using its first expletive in perhaps the third line, it ends with text and the URL for 988Lifeline. That's a project of the US-governmental Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and it's a weirdly American focus given, you know, everything else.

 

Among the many songs are covers, some by Sinatra and some of songs he made popular. Even the Take That songs are ones they didn't write, at least as far as I can tell. The presence of the Rat Pack in the menagerie isn't too closely examined, but runs through from Stoke-On-Trent to the Albert Hall. The sands of time might now be demolished but this is more of psyche than geography. At the very end of the credits there's a note saying "viewer discretion is advised" but even if those were the first words discretion was never on the cards.

 

This is startlingly confessional. To the extent that Robbie is helped to shed his burdens by several others. That's mostly Jonno Davies, not in his first film role but moving on from roles in UK TV staples like Holby and Hollyoaks. If it's his motion that's been captured he's done a tremendous job, there are countless forms of swinging here and everything that should be is caught. As the even younger Robbie(s) Carter J Murphy makes a film début and Asmara Feik adds another to her list of bold re-tellings of true stories, having been the young Maggie Kelly in the True History.

 

The warnings shouldn't just include language, and emotional outpourings, but strobes. The paparazzi of the era didn't yet have Spencer's blood on their hands, and have yet to show any sign of it on a conscience. The flashbulbs are blinding, catching a moment in time very specifically.

 

Take That were part of a wave of British cultural resurgence, but they were eclipsed critically by some acts and commercially by others. That clearly weighs more on some than others. In another of the film's slightly odd repetitions, Leo Harvey Elledge has played Liam Gallagher before, and he's one of several presences who haunt Williams, even typographically. Take that were still part of the fabric of the era, woven through with other artists, buoyed by a generational shift in buying habits and a last hurrah for record labels. The tail end of an era where music magazines made money and the charts had more meaning than lists of sausage rolls. Plenty of artists mine their trauma but revisiting these seams seems to risk collapse.

 

Co-written by Simon Gleeson, a star of stage including musicals, frequent Michael Gracey collaborator Oliver Cole, it does entertain. That said, I'm not sure by how much if you're not familiar with its star and subject. I did wonder a few times if this was a pitch for a theatre production, maybe something involving puppets. In the same neck of the woods as that London song and dance you can grab (but not touch) Magic Mike, go back to Back To The Future, roam with The Lion King. All three of those have features in their productions that Better Man might later borrow.

 

It borrows plenty itself. Trainspotting and 24 Hour Party People are literally of the era. I felt that period detail sometimes aimed more for a feeling than accuracy, especially with cars. Some of those sequences seem to borrow from George Miller's work and in terms of acceleration Gracey's involvement with Rocketman has possibly fuelled this as much as any drugs or alcohol.

 

There are other movies with monkeys, with flying monkeys, with battles at concerts and artists exorcising their demons on-screen. None of those have a Workington AFC away kit, or a bit of innuendo based on merchandise in the form of a nesting doll. There are other films that allude to off-screen agreements involving lawyers but none I can think of that mix references to sun-tan lotion below the waist and Hamley's. Better Man is definitely singular, undeniably personal, but perhaps not unique. There's a suspicion that watching this might leave you coming away knowing its subject slightly better than he knows himself. Except that's part of the performance, cinema is literally projection but this takes it to fresh extremes. Though its subject chooses to portray himself as an animal for those who don't bear any fondness for him the zoological parallel is perhaps a curate's egg.

 

 

https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/better-...ndrew-robertson

Edited December 11, 2024Dec 11 by Sydney11

Some videos from Cologne premiere last week, "because why not?" :)

 

 

 

Really positive review! Well, one more!

 

Better Man Review

A Biopic Gone Bananas

 

Shakyl Lambert | December 12, 2024

 

 

On paper, the concept of Better Man reads like a drug-induced fever dream: a biopic about British pop megastar Robbie Williams, where Robbie is entirely portrayed on-screen by a CGI monkey voiced by himself. No one else in the movie acknowledges it—it’s all played completely straight. Born from Williams likening being on stage to being a performing monkey, it’s an odd gamble for Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey to make it into an entire film. After watching it, I can say that not only did the gamble pay off, but Better Man hit the jackpot by being the most refreshing biopic I’ve seen in years.

 

Growing up in the town of Stoke-on-Trent with his mother and grandmother, Robbie dreamed of being a singer-songwriter, boasting a love for Sinatra gained through his father, Peter (Steve Pemberton). Although Peter would abandon him and his family at a young age, at 15, Robbie auditioned and became a member of the boy band Take That, becoming a sensation throughout the early ’90s. However, clashes with his bandmates and management—as well as his new hard-partying lifestyle—propelled him to leave the group and pursue a solo career. His career skyrocketed even higher from there, but his addictions and demons threatened to destroy both his relationships and himself.

 

My frustrations with musical biopics in general (especially the ones I’ve reviewed this year) stem from the avoidance of addressing the subjects’ rougher edges for the sake of maintaining a sanitized image. Right off the bat, Better Man sets itself apart not just with the CGI monkey gimmick but by being a true warts-and-all telling of Williams’ story. He is brash, hilarious and refreshingly candid about the ugly parts of himself—from his frequent struggles with drugs and alcohol to his tumultuous relationship with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Rachaelle Banno).

“Right off the bat, Better Man sets itself apart not just with the CGI monkey gimmick but by being a true warts-and-all telling of Williams’ story.”

It’s not often a biopic starts with the artist directly calling himself a “narcissistic, s***-eating t***.” As for the monkey gimmick, you get used to it surprisingly quickly, thanks to the highly detailed effects from WETA and the impressive mo-cap performance by Jonno Davies and Williams himself (who narrates and sings in the film’s musical numbers). Gracey also uses the gimmick as a baseline to deliver some jaw-dropping musical set pieces, like a huge night on the town set to “Rock DJ,” a duet/dance between Williams and Appleton set to “She’s The One,” and a performance at the Knebworth festival that turns into a literal fight with the demons of his younger self. It’s a more insane ape fight than the actual Planet of the Apes movie we got this year.

 

At its core, Williams is someone who was suffering from serious self-loathing and abandonment issues, and it manifested in harsh ways. Even as Better Man goes through the same rise-and-fall-and-rise-again formula as all biopics, it’s the rawest depiction of these events I’ve seen in a while. Making this film was clearly therapeutic for Williams, and even if the ending is telegraphed from five miles away, it still got me to well up a bit.

 

I’m still in shock that Better Man became one of my favourite movies of the year. It’s every bit the movie Bohemian Rhapsody should have been: it’s wild, it’s unflinching, and I walked out feeling like it captured more of who Robbie Williams truly is as a person outside of being a musical icon. Even if you know little to nothing about Robbie Williams beforehand (which would be fair, as he sadly never reached major popularity in North America), there’s a good chance you’ll walk out wanting to go through his entire discography by the end of it.

 

Final Thoughts

Better Man’s insane monkey gimmick, inventive setpieces and brutal honesty elevates a standard musical biopic to one of the biggest surprises of the year.

 

9/10

 

https://www.cgmagonline.com/review/movie/better-man-review/

‘Better Man’ Review: A Simian Is Born

 

When is a pop star biopic not a pop star biopic?

By Henry WongPublished: 11 December 2024

 

 

In July, a pygmy hippopotamus was born at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Moo Deng – her name translates to bouncy pork – became a star overnight. You will have seen the memes while doom-scrolling or else a co-worker will have shown you pictures of the irresistible, endangered animal. There is currently a livestream set up in the hippopotamus section of the zoo; at the time of writing, Moo Deng appears to be sleeping soundly. Is it tough being a famous animal? She’s not spiralling in a hotel suite or clubbing until 5AM, but then again, visitor numbers have skyrocketed and time limits have been imposed on visiting her enclosure. Here to shed some light on exactly that is Better Man, a Robbie Williams biopic from director Michael Gracey, in which the singer appears not as a handsome Englishman but a chimpanzee. Imagine the pub trip that led to that idea.

 

Chimp Robbie is played and voiced by Jonno Davies. Everyone else is a human, including long-suffering mother Janet (Kate Mulvany), largely absent comedian father Peter (Steve Pemberton) and grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman). All the greatest hits are here: Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) creating Take That; Robbie’s rivalry with songwriting superstar Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance); the turbulent love story with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno). The insecurity, the solo career. The drink, the drugs, the downfall. And through it all, we get Robbie: cheeky (that adjective is used a lot in this film), self-sabotaging, lost. There’s some intrigue in all this – the ‘90s are presented like ancient history, and that doesn’t feel misplaced – but it’s a very familiar story (Netflix released a docuseries about Williams last year).

 

As far as metaphors go, pop star as zoo animal is not exactly new. If you Google “celebrities feel like zoo animals”, you will find quotations from Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Justin Bieber in seconds. Cara Delevingne, Kim Kardashian, and more. No doubt many famous people feel the exact same way even if they do not express it publicly. Better Man gets some juice out of visualising this. When chimp Robbie is younger, it’s clear he doesn’t fit in. He’s not like the other boys in Stoke: he’s charming and destined to be a star (and you know, he is a chimp). When chimp Robbie is struggling to lay down vocals in the studio, we stare at him behind the booth glass, like it’s feeding time at London Zoo. When chimp Robbie goes off the rails, and his then-girlfriend Nicole finds him doing heroin in their North London flat… well, that’s when the metaphor stretches awfully thin. Sometimes a chimp doing heroin is just a chimp doing heroin.

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a62...ter-man-review/

A new nomination at the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards

 

Best Motion Capture

Eka Darville – “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

Jonno Davies – “Better Man”

Kevin Durand – “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

Owen Teague – “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” - Winner

Peter Macon – “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

 

https://wafca.com/2024-wafca-award-winners/

 

Another nomination! Now it's at the Critics Choice Awards 2025.

 

(Los Angeles, CA – December 12, 2024) – The Critics Choice Association (CCA) announced today the film category nominees for the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards. The winners will be revealed at the star-studded Critics Choice Awards gala hosted by Chelsea Handler, which will broadcast LIVE on E! on Sunday, January 12, 2025 (7:00 – 10:00pm ET / PT) from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The show will also be available to stream the next day on Peacock.

 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Mark Bakowski, Pietro Ponti, Nikki Penny, Neil Corbould – Gladiator II

Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould, David Shirk – Wicked

Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe, Gerd Nefzer – Dune: Part Two

Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft, Peter Stubbs – Better Man

Visual Effects Team – The Substance

Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story, Rodney Burke – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

 

https://www.criticschoice.com/2024/12/12/fi...helsea-handler/

 

13.12.24 update

 

Awards Nominations (22) for Better Man by far:

 

Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) 2024

- Best Original Song - Feature Film (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Music Themed Film, Biopic or Musical (Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Craig McMahon, Coco Xiaolu, MaJules Daly)

 

Rolling Stone UK Awards 2024

- The Film Award (Better Man) -

Winner

 

Golden Globes 2025

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

 

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards 2025

- Best Film

- Best Direction in Film

- Best Screenplay in Film

- Best Lead Actor in Film

- Best Supporting Actress in Film

- Best Supporting Actor in Film

- Best Cinematography in Film

- Best Sound in Film

- Best Original Score in Film

- Best Soundtrack

- Best Original Song (Robbie Williams - Forbidden Road)

- Best Visual Effects or Animation

- Best Editing in Film presented by Spectrum Films

- Best Production Design in Film

- Best Costume Design in Film

- Best Casting in Film presented by Casting Networks

 

Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards

- Best Motion Capture (Jonno Davies)

 

Critics Choice Awards 2025

- Best Visual Effects (Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft, Peter Stubbs)

 

I hope the movie gets one of these awards -it would be a nice achievement for all of them. :cheer:

Met with my nephew tonight over dinner & I had to educate him about tthe Better Man movie, he had no idea that a movie had been made about Robbie ( whom he has been to see several times ) but will now watch out for it over the Xmas period, we will all go together as a gang to the cinema. I cannot wait 😊

Will AI-Supported De-Aging Figure in the VFX Oscar Race !

 

The visual effects branch of the Motion Picture Academy recently narrowed its list of VFX Oscar contenders down to 20 films, from which 10 will be shortlisted. They range from the bold Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man" to Ridley Scott's epic "Gladiator II," the dramatic "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" and Jon M. Chu's hit musical "Wicked."

 

The branch's executive committee will next select the shortlist, which will be announced on Dec. 17, and from there branch members will vote on the five films that will earn Oscar nominations. Already, the long list underscores the state of the art and the science.

 

One general trend is the large volume of legacy franchises in the mix, though that isn't necessarily a consideration for voters. Movies that are sequels (or prequels) to films that previously won or were nominated for the VFX Oscar include "Alien: Romulus," "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," "Dune: Part 2," "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire," "Gladiator II," "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," "Mufasa: The Lion King" and "Twisters."

 

As to technique, in some years the VFX branch voters have made selections that also served to highlight advances in the field, and if that applies this year, that might include de-aging/synthetic human work created by artists with the assistance of AI-driven tools. The concept isn't totally new – "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" used machine learning as part of its process for de-aging Harrison Ford and it made the VFX shortlist a year ago – but this year there are a trio of notable contenders.

 

They include Robert Zemeckis' "Here," which deftly used techniques developed at AI startup Metaphysic (which is credited as the lead VFX studio on the movie) to create a production workflow to help age and de-age stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright over the decades of their characters' lives. The film underperformed at the box office but it will be interesting to see if branch voters give its VFX team props for its ambitious approach.

 

The VFX in "Alien: Romulus" also involved Metaphysic, though overall this film involved a wide range of practical and digital VFX techniques. Metaphysic contributed to the return of the late Ian Holm, who played an android in 1979's "Alien," and his likeness appears in "Romulus" with an AI assist.

 

As part of the range of practical and digital VFX work in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," director George Miller employed a clever use of Metaphysic's AI tech to create a resemblance between Alyla Browne, who plays the titular character as a child, and Anya Taylor Joy, who assumes the role as the story skips ahead several years. In an interview on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Taylor-Joy explained that in order to create a seamless transition, at the beginning of the movie, it's about 35% of her appearance on Browne, and by the time that Taylor Jay is about to assume the role, it's roughly 80%.

 

Should this work resonate with voters, it could be the most notable year for advancements in de-aging since 2019, when a string of contenders including "Gemini Man," "Captain Marvel" and "The Irishman" were among the movies that were shortlisted in the VFX race. (Underscoring the trend that year, VFX supervisor Robert Legato got a big laugh at the VFX contenders "bakeoff" that year when, presenting his team's work on Jon Favreau's "The Lion King," he quipped, "we de-aged Simba.")

 

Strong non-human digital characters also figure prominently in this season's long list of contenders, including Wētā FX's work on "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" and upcoming "Better Man." Both films built on advances from the previous "Apes" trilogy and "Avatar: The Way of Water," though each had very different requirements.

 

The VFX pros further evolved their work to make their photoreal cast of emotive synthetic simians in the latest "Planet of the Apes" drama. Meanwhile, Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man" stars an emotive CG monkey as the British singer songwriter. To live, believably, in the live action movie, the Robbie Williams character had to have the appearance of a photoreal chimp but otherwise be presented as a "human" character who interacts with other human characters and shows a range of human emotions.

 

The long list also includes VFX that were used to great effect to build fantasy worlds in films such as "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" (which combined a wide range of VFX techniques) and "Wicked," as well as worlds more grounded in realism, such as "Civil War" and "A Quiet Place: Day One."

 

Contenders also include films that leaned heavily into cutting edge particle simulation while creating believable worlds, such as to develop the harsh desert surface of Arrakis in "Dune Part 2" (work led by VFX studio DNEG) and to conjure the violent tornados that endanger Oklahoma residents in "Twisters" (Industrial Light & Magic).

 

Typically at least one superhero movie earns a spot on the shortlist, but this year is particularly light on such films and only "Deadpool & Wolverine" advanced to the long list of contenders. When only one such title makes the cut, it's typically the one that was best received, so that might help "Deadpool & Wolverine," which topped $1 billion worldwide.

 

When a VFX nominee is also a best picture contender, that film frequently fares well in the effects race (take for example category winners such as "Hugo," "Life of Pi" and "1917," which might have been helped along by the fact that they were widely seen and respected titles). That might potentially give added weight to best picture contenders such as "Gladiator II" (The original 2000 "Gladiator" claimed five Oscars including best picture and VFX.)

 

A final note, the blurred lines between VFX and animation could also impact this year's race. To date, the only animated features to earn VFX Oscar nominations are a pair of stop-motion movies (1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and 2016's "Kubo and the Two Strings"), and, for some, Jon Favreau's 2009 "The Lion King," though professionals are divided on whether it should be considered an animated feature (it was made using virtual production techniques). Branch members have varying views on whether to include fully CG animated movies in the VFX race. Voters will have to wait and see if Barry Jenkins' "Lion King" prequel "Mufasa" could follow in "The Lion King" footsteps.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/will-...id=BingNewsVerp

Edited December 13, 2024Dec 13 by Sydney11

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