Yesterday, Toni Collette and Ari Aster have gathered for what looks like A24’s Oscar campaign for “Hereditary”, as the actress and director have attended a Q&A for the film hosted by Deadline Contenders. “I think every actor longs for a chance to ‘go for it’ and when I read this script it was undeniable,” Collette said. “It was such an opportunity for me to kind of traverse so many different areas…it’s the story of an awakening in this woman. People usually have an awakening or an epiphany about their lives and it means they have some understanding and it gives them a little more control in their lives. I think the true horror of this story is that once she does realize what the truth of her life has been there’s no hope, no way out.” Hereditary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and earned strong reviews, especially for Collette’s work. Writer-director Ari Aster said the horror genre helped the film. “One thing that I love about genre storytelling,” Aster said, “is that you can take thematic material that might be difficult for people to digest…and you can filter it through this other thing that takes what might be a deterrent to people seeing the movie and suddenly render it a virtue.” You can read more over at Deadline. Many many thanks to Mouza for the heads-up!

Toni Collette has received a Best Actress nomination for “Hereditary” from theIndependent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced today the nominees for the 28th Annual IFP Gotham Awards. Ten competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series. The Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the IFP Gotham Awards provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention. Alongside Collette, Ari Aster received a nomination for the Breakthrough Director Award. The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Congrats to both of them.

Best Actress

Glenn Close in The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics)
Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24)
Kathryn Hahn in Private Life (Netflix)
Regina Hall in Support the Girls (Magnolia Pictures)
Michelle Pfeiffer in Where is Kyra? (Paladin and Great Point Media)

The 2018 Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award to Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz for their ensemble performance in The Favourite. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

After an on-demand release two weeks ago, “Hereditary” has been released on Blu-Ray and DVD in the United States today. Needless to say, as it was mentioned by critics ever since its Sundance debut, “Hereditary” is not only one of the best horror films of all times, but also a signature performance by Toni Collette, right on top with “Muriel’s Wedding”, “The Sixth Sense” and “Little Miss Sunshine”. Her performance is brilliant, as is everyone else in the cast. If you’ve missed it in the theater or you’ve been waiting to watch it in the safety of your own home (doesn’t make it better), make sure to grab your copy. Screencaptures from the Blu-Ray have been added to the photo gallery – with massive spoilers towards the end, you have been warned. Also, screencaptures from the making of featurette and from the deleted scenes have been added as well. Enjoy!

While we’re still in our “Hereditary” bubble, hoping that the buzz on the film will transcend to the end of the year’s awards season, this bit by Deadline is definately good news: Ari Aster’s debut feature Hereditary premiered in the Midnight section of Sundance back in January to unanimously positive response and has now become the biggest worldwide grossing movie ever for A24. With $77.5 million at the global box office, the low-budget horror is the third in-house production for A24, with Palmstar and Lars Knudsen on as producers, that the company has seen through a worldwide release following Barry Jenkins’ Best Picture Oscar winner Moonlight and Greta Gerwig’s Oscar nominated Lady Bird. The success comes as horror has picked up great steam over the past few years and overseas audiences, particularly in Latin America and the emerging South East Asian markets, are great consumers. The top overseas plays on Hereditary are the UK (Entertainment) at $7.29M, topping comps like Insidious and The Witch; Mexico (Sun) with $3M, besting Get Out, Insidious and Lights Out; Australia (Studiocanal) with $2.7M to eclipse Insidious and The Witch; Spain (DeAPlaneta) at $1.98M; and Korea (Challan) with $1.46M which is bigger than Insidious. In the Netherlands, the film is Splendid’s biggest release of the year with $1.27M. There, an 80-screen simulcast premiere was the widest ever for a horror title. The full article can be read here.

The critically-acclaimed horror movie will be available on both formats in September. In an early announcement to retailers, Lionsgate says ‘Hereditary’ will be available on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 4. Each release will have a lossless 5.1 soundtrack, the 4K UHD will feature a Dolby Vision HDR presentation, and supplement include: Deleted Scenes, “Cursed: The True Nature of Hereditary” Featurette, and “Evil in Miniature” Photo Gallery. When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.

Wait, there’s a thing like a mid-season film award?! Apparently there is: The LAOFCS (Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society), and they’re not only giving out accolades in June or July when no one else is thinking about the winter’s awards season, but they also strive to promote gender balance and diversity in film criticism. So that’s good. And even better, they named Toni Collette Best Actress for her performance in “Hereditary”, in a tie with Charlize Theron for “Tully”. It’s fair to see they’ve enjoyed stressed-out moms. Additionally, Alex Wolff was awarded Best Supporting Actor. The full list can be read at their website. Let’s have our fingers crossed the hype’s still going until December :-)