“Little Women” and “The Farewell” are showing no signs of slowing down this awards season. The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the recipients of the 2019 AFI Awards, and both pics made the cut for the Motion Pictures of the Year list.
Greta Gerwig’s take on “Little Women” stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen. Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, and Timothée Chalamet round out the cast. The period pic, based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel of the same name, follows the March sisters as they battle societal expectations, fall in love, and endure loss on their journey to womanhood under the guidance of their mother.
Written and directed by Lulu Wang and based on an actual lie, “The Farewell” sees U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) returning to Changchun, China, and being pressured to go along with a morally ambiguous ruse. Doctors have revealed that the family’s matriarch, Nai-Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), has mere weeks to live. Everyone knows — except Nai-Nai herself, and the family intends to keep it that way. To ensure that her final days are happy ones, they celebrate an expedited wedding as an excuse to bring the family together.
“Little Women” and “The Farewell” have been receiving awards buzz since their debuts.
AFI is also recognizing the Television Programs of the Year. That list includes Netflix hits “When They See Us” and “Unbelievable,” both of which are based on true stories and chronicle failures of the justice system.
Created by Ava DuVernay, “When They See Us” tells the story of five young men of color — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson (Asante Blackk), Yusef Salaam (Ethan Herisse), Raymond Santana (Marquis Rodriguez), and Korey Wise (Jharrel Jerome) — who were wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park in the early ’90s.
“Unbelievable” centers on a Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever), a sexual assault survivor who goes to the police to report her rape. Their harsh, judgmental treatment of the teen — and suggestion that she’s lying — cause her to falsely claim that she made the whole thing up. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, detectives Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) meet while investigating a similar pair of intruder rapes and team up to see if the crimes are connected. Susannah Grant co-created the limited series and served as showrunner.
“Fleabag” also received a Special Award, which is “designated for a work of excellence outside the Institute’s criteria for American film and television,” according to a press release. The Phoebe Waller Bridge-starrer is a portrait of a woman grieving the loss of her best friend and struggling with intimacy.
Honorees will be celebrated at the annual AFI Awards private luncheon, set to be held January 3 in LA.
