01/12/2011

Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] has been awarded Best Film of the Year and Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle. The film has thus struck an important victory in the nomination race for the 2012 Oscars, which will be awarded on February 26 of next year, after the nominations are announced on January 24.

Launched last week by The Weinstein Company in four New York theatres (a small “test” print-run which will be increased gradually), the silent, black-and-white French film, produced by Thomas Langmann, raked in $204,000 in takings in its first three days on release, which is by far the best per-screen average at the US box office. Above all, it has garnered praise from the local press, who have tipped Jean Dujardin (winner of Best Actor at Cannes) as a favourite for the 2012 Best Actor Oscar.

In France, where it is distributed by Warner, The Artist has attracted nearly 1.5m viewers in seven weeks. Showing in the Netherlands since November 24, the film will be released in December in Italy (December 9), in Spain (December 16), in Greece (December 22) and in the UK (December 30). It will then be released in Germany on January 26, followed by Denmark and Sweden on February 9 and 10.

(Translated from French)