#OnTheBigScreen: 2 Oscar Best Picture nominees, Voyagers and Every Breath You Take

Nomadland

With the superb Nomadland, director Chloé Zhao and actor-producer Frances McDormand create an astounding portrait of a woman who has lost a husband and her whole former life and finds herself in the nomad community.

Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. It stars real nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells as Fern’s mentors and comrades in her exploration through the vast landscape of the American West.

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Voyagers

A bold, experiential and genre-defining space epic.

What does it feel like, to feel for the first time? What happens when our innermost nature after being long suppressed is finally unleashed? Those are some of the provocative themes explored, within the context of a space epic, in Voyagers.

With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonise a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they’re consumed by fear, lust and the insatiable hunger for power.

It stars Tye Sheridan (The X-Men franchise), Lily-Rose Depp (The King), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Chanté Adams (Roxanne, Roxanne), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones), Viveik Kalra (Blinded by the Light), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar), Quintessa Swindell (Trinkets), Madison Hu (Bizaardvark) and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen).

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Judas and the Black Messiah

An important historical film about a man searching for his own version of the American Dream.

Inspired by true events, it tells of FBI informant William O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) who infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O'Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell. Hampton's political prowess grows just as he's falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson. Meanwhile, battle wages for O'Neal's soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover commands?

The project originated with King and his writing partner, Will Berson, who co-wrote the screenplay, and Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas, who co-wrote the story with Berson and King.

Shaka King says: “It isn’t so much that these things are more relevant today, as much as they have never not been relevant, which I think is really the takeaway from 2020. I think the parallels are crazy in relation to the Panthers and their directive on educating people: in order to join the Panthers, you had to take six weeks of political education. This pandemic is claiming far more Black and Brown people than non-Black - the Panthers started free medical clinics around the country, a free ambulance service. You have the Panther’s focus on putting an end to state-sponsored brutality - you have the murder of George Floyd and the rebellions that followed.”

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Every Breath You Take

A searing psychological thriller about a psychiatrist (Casey Affleck), whose career is thrown into jeopardy when his patient takes her own life. When he invites his patient’s surviving brother (Sam Claflin) into his home to meet his wife (Michelle Monaghan) and daughter, his family life is suddenly torn apart.

Directed by Vaughn Stein, from a screenplay by David Murray.

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