International Cinephile Society (ICS) Awards: ‘Stranger by the Lake’ is Top Film of 2014
The International Cinephile Society (ICS) has chimed in with their awards for 2014 films and have chosen Stranger by the Lake, from director Alain Guiraudie as the best film of the year. The film also won Film Not in the English Language, Best Supporting Actor for Patrick d’Assumçao and tied in Best Director. Quite a feat for a film that opened in the U.S. in January of 2014.
Under the Skin and The Grand Budapest Hotel also performed well, walking away with two and three awards, respectively. This year saw a handful of ties; Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay proved to extremely competitive categories.
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Los Angeles, CA (February 20, 2015) –The 12th International Cinephile Society Awards turned out to be one of our most competitive races ever, with 13 different films winning in 16 categories (including ties). Best Picture and Film Not in the English Language went to Stranger by the Lake, an innovative thriller by director Alain Guiraudie exploring themes of obsession, secrecy and risk-taking at a secluded beach, the film’s only setting. Patrick d’Assumçao took Supporting Actor for his poignant turn as a sad-faced outsider observing the lovers’ trysts, who finds himself drawn into the heart of darkness.
Guiraudie shared top directing honors in a tie with Jonathan Glazer for Under the Skin, a haunting feminist fable in which an alien, surgically altered to look like sexy Scarlett Johansson, lures male hitchhikers to their doom. But that’s only the surface layer of this complex, enigmatic story about flawed human connections and the emotions we all share. Mica Levi received the music prize for the film’s otherworldly Score. It also placed as runner-up in Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography.
Ralph Fiennes earned our Best Actor award as the inimitable M. Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel, also a winner for its large and lively Ensemble and for Adam Stockhausen‘s vibrant Production Design. It garnered runner-up mentions as well in Original Screenplay and Score.
Best Actress went to the unforgettable Marion Cotillard for her portrayal of a depressed woman fighting to regain her job – and her sense of self – in Two Days, One Night. And fierce, passionate competition led to a tie in Supporting Actress between Suzanne Clément’s nuanced work as a shy neighbor in Mommy and Julianne Moore’s lunatic turn as a truly desperate thespian in Maps to the Stars.
PICTURE
01. Stranger by the Lake
02. Under the Skin
03. The Grand Budapest Hotel
04. Mommy
05. Boyhood
06. Two Days, One Night
07. Only Lovers Left Alive
08. Mr. Turner
09. Inherent Vice
10. The Immigrant
11. Goodbye to Language
DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer – Under the Skin
Alain Guiraudie – Stranger by the Lake
runner-up: Xavier Dolan – Mommy
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
01. Stranger by the Lake
02. Mommy
03. Two Days, One Night
04. Goodbye to Language
05. Force Majeure
06. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
07. Winter Sleep
08. The Missing Picture
09. Stray Dogs
10. Norte, the End of History
11. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
ACTOR
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
runner-up: Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner
ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
runner-up: Julianne Moore – Still Alice
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Patrick d’Assumçao – Stranger by the Lake
runner-up: Edward Norton – Birdman
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Suzanne Clément – Mommy
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
runner-up: Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
Winter Sleep – Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
runner-up: Under the Skin – Walter Campbell, Jonathan Glazer
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mr. Turner – Dick Pope
runner-up: Under the Skin – Daniel Landin
EDITING
Whiplash – Tom Cross
runner-up: Stranger by the Lake – Jean-Christophe Hym
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Adam Stockhausen
runner-up: Mr. Turner – Suzie Davies
SCORE
Under the Skin – Mica Levi
runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat
ENSEMBLE
The Grand Budapest Hotel
runner-up: Mr. Turner
ANIMATED FILM
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
runner-up: The Congress
DOCUMENTARY
The Missing Picture
runner-up: National Gallery
BEST PICTURE NOT RELEASED IN 2014
• Amour Fou
• Bande de Filles
• Black Coal, Thin Ice
• Clouds of Sils Maria
• The Duke of Burgundy
• Hill of Freedom
• Horse Money
• La Sapienza
• Li’l Quinquin
• The Look of Silence
• Pasolini
• A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
• Saint Laurent
• The Tribe
• The Wonders
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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