Palace intrigue peppers the first teaser for ‘The Favourite’ with Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman from Yorgos Lanthimos

Oscar winners Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardner) and Emma Stone (La La Land) vie to be in the good graces of Queen Anne (Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman) in the wickedly funny first teaser for Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite, a bawdy tale of royal intrigue in the vein of All About Eve from Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster).

In early 18th century, England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfill her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.

The Favourite is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. It co-stars Nicholas Hoult , Joe Alwyn, James Smith, and Mark Gatiss.

Fox Searchlight will release The Favourite in the US on November 23 and worldwide in January. Here is the first teaser.

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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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