Annette Bening Shines in ’20th Century Women’ trailer

“I think that, you know, having your heart broken is a tremendous way to learn about the world.”

Ain’t that the truth.

Is it just me or does it feel like it’s been forever since we’ve seen Annette Bening? Since 2010’s The Kids Are All Right her film profile has been pretty low, starring or co-starring in small, underseen (or just plain unseen) indies. Now, with 20th Century Women, it feels like Bening is back.

Writer/director Mike Mills (Beginners) goes back to his roots once again, weaving the stories of three women who explore love and freedom in Southern California during the late 1970s. The look of this first teaser trailer almost instantly feels like 90s era Paul Thomas Anderson; the locale, the push-in dollies, the random visuals.

This also puts Bening back in the Oscar race once again and once again with Natalie Portman, who beat her in 2011. Still, this looks to be the best role she’s had since that match-up and in a year of lead actress performances overflowing in number, it should be a fun race. The great cast is filled out by Greta Gerwig (who looks to have some juicy material here, possible Supporting Actress contender), Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup and newcomer Lucas Jaden Zumann.

20th Century Women is set for this year’s New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece Film. A24 will roll it out on Christmas Day in limited release and wider on January 20th.

Here is the teaser trailer:

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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