The new Awards Journal – which includes interviews with the season’s top contenders, category-by-category analysis and think pieces – is now available for free in all Curzon cinemas. Here, we share Yasmin Omar's editor's letter, which gives a flavour of what you'll find in the issue.
Permit me, if you will, to talk shop for a minute. Our editorial team typically starts planning these magazines the first week of September, just after the Venice Film Festival. By then, the awards season has largely come into focus, and us pundits have a reasonably solid idea of who the big contenders are.
This year, by contrast, was chaotic. Some movies made more of a ripple than the expected splash at the festivals; others came out of nowhere (who can honestly say they were keeping tabs on under-the-radar crowdpleaser The Life of Chuck ahead of its Toronto People’s Choice win?). While all this uncertainty is daunting for magazine-makers like myself – our category predictions are perhaps slightly more tentative than usual – it is undeniably exciting. You too can join in the fun and cultivate your own theories on the BAFTA and Oscar ballot pages provided.
A Real Pain (2024)
As ever, we’ve spoken with a number of the filmmakers driving the 2025 awards conversation for this issue. Gabriella Geisinger sits down with actor-writer-director Jesse Eisenberg to discuss how he shaped his bittersweet A Real Pain screenplay. Fellow multihyphenate Sean Baker – who has been known to do the writing, directing, producing, casting, cinematography and sound design for his films – tells Ian Haydn Smith about his unorthodox approach to editing on Anora. You’ll also find interviews with The Piano Lesson actress Danielle Deadwyler, Nickel Boys screenwriters RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, and Conclave production designer Suzie Davies.
And as the staunchly Irish Kneecap rakes in the most nominations at the British Independent Film Awards, Guy Lodge weighs in on the perennial confusion around which films are/should be eligible for the Outstanding British Film BAFTA. To quote Martin McDonagh when he collected the prize for The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), ‘I know every Irish person in the cast and crew were going, “Best what award?!”’
Kneecap (2024)
Finally, to close out Curzon’s 90th-anniversary celebrations, I chat with staff and contributors about the evolution of our flagship cinema Curzon Mayfair from a 1930s high-society haunt to a 1940s World War II army screening room and beyond. Ryan Gilbey, for his part, considers how the British film industry has adapted alongside Curzon for the past nine decades.
We hope these articles go some way to transforming a vast, indecipherable landscape into something beautiful and inviting – much like artist Owen Gent has done with his conceptual cover illustration, which abstractly conveys the feeling of summiting the awards race in sweeps of red and gold. For further colour on the season (and indeed articles, reviews and think pieces on each week’s new releases), visit us over on curzon.com/journal. Until then, best of luck in any awards sweepstakes you’ve got planned. Something tells me you’re going to need it.
Pick up your copy of the Awards Journal in your local Curzon (for free!) while stocks last.
