'Another Round': a spirited Oscar-winning ode to life
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish film "Another Round", which won an Oscar on Sunday for best international feature film, is a dark existential comedy about the joys and dangers of being drunk, and letting go to embrace life.
It is the fourth Danish film to win an Oscar for best non-English language film, after "In A Better World" in 2011, "Pelle the Conqueror" in 1989 and "Babette's Feast" in 1988.
Filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, who is also nominated for best director, gave a moving, tearful speech, paying tribute to his daughter Ida, who was killed in a car accident four days after shooting began in May 2019.
"We ended up making this movie for her, as her monument," Vinterberg said at the gala in Los Angeles.
"So, Ida, this is a miracle that just happened, and you're a part of this miracle. Maybe you've been pulling some strings somewhere, I don't know. But this one is for you."
The movie is set around four old friends, all teachers at a high school near Copenhagen. Martin, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is a history teacher going through a midlife crisis, depressed about his monotone life.
To spice things up, the quartet decides to test an obscure theory that humans are born with a small deficit of alcohol in their blood, resolving to keep their blood alcohol level at a constant 0.05 percent from morning till night.
At first, they experience the liberating joys of inebriation, before things quickly go from bad to worse.
But the film refrains from passing moral judgement or glorifying alcohol.
"'Another Round' is imagined as a tribute to life. As a reclaiming of the irrational wisdom that casts off all anxious common sense and looks down into the very delight of lust for life ... although often with deadly consequences," Vinterberg said when the movie came out last year.
Not 'just about drinking anymore'
Vinterberg was devastated by the loss of his daughter, and production on the movie was briefly halted, but he soon resumed shooting.
He said he was spurred on by a letter she had written about her enthusiasm for the project, in which she was to have had a role.
But the film took on a new dimension.
"The film wasn't going to be just about drinking anymore. It had to be about being brought back to life," Vinterberg said in the only in-depth interview he has given about her death, in June 2020 to Danish daily Politiken.
Selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival which ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic, "Another Round" has already won several awards, including a BAFTA for best film not in the English language, and a Cesar in France for best foreign film.
The film is carried by Mikkelsen, who previously teamed up with Vinterberg in the 2012 psychological thriller "The Hunt".
In one of the most talked-about scenes in "Another Round", Mikkelsen even shows off his dance talent -- the former Bond villain was a professional contemporary dancer before becoming an actor.
A unique pandemic-era Oscars kicked off in Los Angeles on Sunday with a movie-style opening credits sequence as actor-director Regina King walked into the ceremony's train station venue clutching a gold statuette.
The Academy Awards are being held in-person — shifted to a glammed-up Union Station to enable strict Covid-19 protocols — at a ceremony that reunites Hollywood A-listers for the first time in over a year.
"Live TV, here we go. Welcome to the 93rd Oscars!" said King. — AFP
This year's Oscars audience plummeted by more than half to a record low 9.85 million viewers, broadcaster ABC says Monday — a staggering if widely expected drop for a ceremony that many viewers found short on humor and star power.
The whopping 58% tumble from last year's previous 23.6 million nadir had been anticipated for Hollywood's biggest night, after other award shows held during the pandemic also suffered precipitous declines.
With movie theaters shut for most of the year, many viewers had not seen or even heard of nominees such as Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland," which was the night's big winner with three prizes but which has taken just over $2 million at the domestic box office. — AFP
Anthony Hopkins wins the Oscar for best actor for his acclaimed role as a dementia patient in the film "The Father."
Hopkins, who at 83 is the oldest actor to win a competitive Oscar, bested the late Chadwick Boseman, whose poignant role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" had won him praise and a Golden Globe just months after he died of cancer at age 43.
Other nominees included Riz Ahmed ("Sound of Metal"), Gary Oldman ("Mank") and Steven Yeun ("Minari"). — AFP
Frances McDormand joins an elite Hollywood club with her third acting Oscar, for her wrenching role as Fern in the acclaimed film "Nomadland."
Her best actress win came over fellow nominees Viola Davis ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Vanessa Kirby ("Pieces of a Woman"), Andra Day ("The United States vs Billie Holiday") and Carey Mulligan ("Promising Young Woman"). — AFP
The critically acclaimed "Nomadland" — about a marginalized, older generation of Americans roaming the West in rundown vans — wins the coveted Oscar for best picture.
The much-celebrated film from Beijing-born director Chloe Zhao bested "The Father," "Judas and the Black Messiah," "Mank," "Minari," "Promising Young Woman," "Sound of Metal" and "The Trial of the Chicago 7." — AFP
Youn Yuh-jung wins the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as feisty grandmother Soonja in the family drama "Minari."
The veteran South Korean actress bested a pack of nominees including Maria Bakalova ("Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"), Glenn Close ("Hillbilly Elegy"), Olivia Colman ("The Father") and Amanda Seyfried ("Mank"). — AFP
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