With the amount of positive buzz that Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” is receiving, Sony Pictures Classics can do no wrong in their eventual release of what should be the tent-pole art-house film of the fall/winter sched. A critic’s poll at IndieWIRE (in which we participated in) confirms that Audiard’s latest is a standout film the most mentions/points in all four major categories: Best Film, Director, Screenplay & Acting Performance.
A Prophet beat out Lars von Trier‘s Antichrist and another favorite of mine, Police, Adjective and The White Ribbon for Best Film. Paradoxically, winner for Best Director at the festival (Brillante Mendoza) was the top vote getter for Worst Film. I’m glad to see that despite a mostly negative reaction from the masses that the roundup of critics found that the top three Best Directors include von Trier and his deft cinematic prose in the Dafoe/Gainsbourg starrer and Gaspar Noe with his voracious experimentally-driven journey into drug addiction and birth and death themes. See below for the tally.
FILM
1) “A Prophet” – 14 pts (6 mentions)
– “Antichrist” – 11 pts (5 mentions)
– “Police, Adjective” – 10 pts (5 mentions); The White Ribbon – 10 (5 mentions)
DIRECTOR
1) Jacques Audiard – 15 pts (6 mentions)
– Gaspar Noe – 14 pts (5 mentions)
– Lars von Trier – 12 pts (5 mentions)
SCREENPLAY
1) “A Prophet” – 11 pts (7 mentions)
– “Up” – 8 pts (3 mentions); “The White Ribbon” – 8 pts (3 mentions)
ACTING PERFORMANCE
1) Tahar Rahim, “A Prophet” – 16 pts (6 mentions)
– Giovanni Mezzogiorno, “Vincere” – 10 pts (4 mentions)
– Ronnie Bronstein, “Go Get Some Rosemary” – 8 pts (6 mentions); Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds” – 8 pts (4 mentions)
WORST FILM
1) “Kinatay” – 12 pts (5 mentions)
– “Antichrist” – 8 pts (4 mentions)
– “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo” – 7 pts (4 mentions)
– “Tetro” – 7 (3 mentions)