Tag

Focus Features FYC

Browsing
Awards

All About ‘Conclave’

By

Conclave has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design. One of the most celebrated films of 2024, it grossed over 100 million at the worldwide box office, rare for a drama to perform so well in current years. Directed by Academy Award Winner Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front) and based on the 2016 book by Robert Harris.

Read More
Awards

Suzanne Stokes-Munton And Traci Loader On Realistic Period Hair And Makeup In ‘Nosferatu’

By

When Lily’s in bed she does the table effect maneuver, and then she comes straight into the camera. I have to be aware of the whole action so that you don’t get hair all over the face and it’s distracting. The most challenging scene was of Lily lying in the bed at the end of the film. It was five hours and that blood came out of every orifice of Orlock. So it was quite challenging to restore the wig for the next day.

Read More
Awards

‘Nosferatu’ Production Designer Craig Lathrop On Building Castles, Sand Dunes, Monasteries, And Rat Mats

By

We built over 60 sets. Like we built all the houses, the monastery, and all the frescoes there. We built the chapel at the end where all the rats are. I built all of that so it could be decaying as well. The roof is falling but you can’t quite see it, which is a shame. We built the Romanian Village. Yeah, we built a lot for this film. All of that was built so for two reasons. One, so that we could get that decayed look, and also because Rob and Jarin liked to do very elaborate specific shots, and camera movements.

Read More
Awards

Production Designer Suzie Davies On Juxtaposing Balustrades And Bunkers In ‘Conclave’

By

I loved the Casa Santa Marta. Its function was very useful. We didn’t have a lot of space and not much money. It had the longest corridor we could afford. Only one room, but it’s on trucks flat, so they squeeze in and out to create slightly different environments depending on whose room we’re in. I love how well it worked on camera. There’s not much ornamentation on it, it’s pretty simple but the simplicity really worked. The balance between the ornate, beautiful balustrades of the church and then this brutal underground bunker, a hermetically sealed prison was perfect.

Read More
Awards

Costume Designer Lisy Christl On The Power Of The Color Red in ‘Conclave’

By

Red is a very important color in the Catholic Church, to begin with. Edward and I looked at the shade of red the church is using now and thought it wouldn’t work for the film. This was actually our starting point to say, let’s change the color. Let’s also change the fabric to a heavier, woolen fabric, in a red that embraces you. A color can create a distance and the color can draw you in. Red is the color of blood. It’s for love. It’s for fire. It is a very powerful and meaningful color.

Read More
Awards

Robin Carolan On Creating The Otherwordly And Psychosexual Score For Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu

By

I worked closely with Damian Volpe, who is one of the main sound designers. Essentially we tried to isolate what was most important. Rob wanted a lot of music for this film to be big and in your face. I also knew Rob wanted a lot of sound design, especially in like, a lot of the Orlok scenes. When we’re in the castle things need to suddenly start to feel otherworldly and kind of like off. You wanna make sure that those two things are in harmony and they’re not clashing or competing.

Read More
Awards

Linda Muir On The Extraordinary Atmosphere Of Robert Eggars ‘Nosferatu’

By

There’s only so much that you can do with the weight of, for instance, Orlok’s cloak, which was all fur-lined and it’s massive. It’s a massive costume piece. We devised a harness that went next to Bill’s body, came out through his inner clothing, and clipped onto the cloak, and it meant that we could do a quick release, and get it off him because his prosthetic makeup was very hot for him. Then you add all the costuming onto it and the hat and everything else and the poor guy was just boiling.

Read More
Awards

‘Conclave’ Director Edward Berger On The Existential Crisis At The Center Of The Film

By

“I think the main reason why I made this movie was to explore Ralph Fiennes’ interior journey where I have a person who’s in that position who says, I have difficulty with prayer. That’s the core of his job. That is the essence of it. It’s like you saying, I have difficulty believing in the words I write or me, I have difficulty in the capability of the camera capturing any truth. It’s kind of like that.”

Read More