Publications
- Oliver Hermanus' film Living, Thursday, received four Bafta nominations.
- Living is the South African director's first international film and stars Bill Nighy.
- "I couldn't be happier with this reception for my first-ever film outside South Africa!" Hermanus said in a statement to News24.
Oliver Hermanus and the cast and crew of his film, Living, have cause to celebrate after the 2023 British Academy Film Award nominations were announced on Thursday.
All Quiet on the Western Front tied as the most-nominated foreign language film in British cinema history, receiving 14 nods. Elsewhere, dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin and science-fiction comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All At Once both received 10 nominations.
See the complete list of nominations HERE.
Among the nominees was Living, an adaptation of the 1952 Japanese drama Ikiru. Living was directed by Hermanus, adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro and starred Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood.
Set in London in 1952, the film follows Mr Williams (Nighy), a civil servant who has become a small cog in the bureaucracy of rebuilding post-WWII England, as he learns that he has a terminal illness. He goes on a quest to find some meaning to his dull life.
Living has generated Oscar buzz since it first premiered at the virtual Sundance Film Festival in January 2022.
It has since featured at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and it topped multiple movies of the year lists at the end of 2022.
The critically acclaimed film received four Bafta nominations, including Outstanding British Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Nighy received the Best Actor nomination, while Lou Wood was nominated in the EE Rising Star Award category, which is voted for by the public.
In a statement to News24, Hermanus said:
The Capetonian is currently filming his next project, Mary & George – a period drama series based on a true story about powerful royal family favourites Mary Villiers and her son George.
The series is Hermanus' first and stars Julianne Moore.
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