The American Film Institute on Wednesday unveiled its picks for the year’s 10 best films along with its choices for the year’s 10 best television programs. The 2019 AFI Awards for film, which focus on American movies that are deemed culturally significant, will go to 1917, The Farewell, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Knives Out, Little Women, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Richard Jewell. On the television side, this year’s AFI Awards will go to Chernobyl, The Crown, Fosse/Verdon, Game of Thrones, Pose, Succession, Unbelievable, Veep, Watchmen and When They See Us. The AFI also recognized South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag with special awards because they fall outside the group’s criteria for American film and TV. Selected by two juries, one for TV and one for film, the honorees will be recognized at the AFI Awards luncheon, set for Jan. 3 in Los Angeles. This year marks the 20th year for the AFI Awards.

“Knives Out” has not only scored big with critics and audiences (as of December 3, 2019, it has grossed $43.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $29.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $72.6 million), Rian Johnson’s film also enters the 2020 awards season as a player in the ensemble categories and among the year’s top 10 lists (see following update). The National Board of Review has awarded the cast of the film – Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell and Christopher Plummer – with its 2019 award for Best Ensemble. “Knives Out” was also included in their list of the year’s 10 best films.

In Rian Johnson’s “Clue”-esque whodunit, a large ensemble soars as relatives of a rich patriarch who dies mysteriously on his 85th birthday. “I truly adore every single woman I worked with in this movie,” says Ana de Armas, who plays the dearly departed’s beloved nurse. “I have a special weakness for Jamie Lee Curtis. She went from being the most intimidating person to my closest ally and friend on set. I will never forget the first thing she said to me in between takes. She held my shoulders, pulled me close and said, ‘You have the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen, you are incredible, you are going to be okay.’ That made my day, my week, my whole shoot!” She continues, “Toni Collette is one the most versatile actresses I’ve ever seen. She can do any genre. I would just stare at her when we were together in a scene. So sharp, funny and free.” Praising Collette’s improvisational gifts, “The craziest things will come out of her mouth,” she recalls. “While Jamie was in the kitchen cooking or making tea for everyone, Toni was in the basement with us playing games. A treat to share this experience with her.” “It’s freeing when actors are openly supportive of each other,” adds Collette. Early mornings in make-up were especially a pleasure for her. “A fabulous way to wake up in cold, dark Boston. Ana provided delicious Cuban coffee, hugs and warmth. Jamie made [everyone] laugh with her outrageous, moving honesty and I provided the tunes. We just couldn’t stop talking and yelling to each other from one end of the trailer to the other. I’m sure we drove the fabulous hair and make-up team bonkers with our constant head craning to listen to each other. Aah, listening to each other! That’s the key.” You can read more about Variety’s Top Female Collaborations of 2019 on their website.

A big batch of promotional videos for “Knives Out” have been added to the archives, including a compilation of television spots, an on-set interview with Toni Collette, a making of featurette and b-roll as well as a scene from the film. To watch all added clips, have a look at the previews below:

Director Rian Johnson loves a good puzzle. Not even a five-month global shoot for Star Wars: The Last Jedi could keep him away from The New York Times crossword, which he printed out and kept near his monitor so he could scribble answers between takes. “It’s just a nice little ritual that helps keep you centered,” says Johnson, 45. So when he got to work on his latest film, the modern-day whodunit Knives Out, it was only natural that he tackled it much like he would a brainteaser. The first piece of any good mystery is a death: Mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) assembles his family for his 85th birthday and winds up dead before the next morning. Next, the suspects: His family members, a sweeping ensemble cast that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon and Toni Collette, each have a motive. To top it off: an eccentric private detective, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc (sporting a thick Southern accent), and an outsider, Ana de Armas’ wide-eyed Marta, who gets swept up in the inquiry. “It is something of a jigsaw puzzle,” acknowledges Johnson, who tells much of the story through a series of flashbacks as each character recounts their version of the events that led to Harlan’s death. But Johnson didn’t want to make a conventional murder mystery, so the director added his own little twist, turning Knives Out into a commentary on wealth and privilege in Trump’s America all while winking at the audience about the tropes of a typical whodunit. “The goal was to take the weight off of the notion of there being a big surprise at the end, to give the audience the freedom to just relax and have a ride,” he says. “I want it to be a roller coaster.” The full article can be read over at The Hollywood Reporter.

News.com.au shows us how to spin some very generous quotes about Toni Collette into a hyper dramatic news article with a shock and twist waiting around each corner :-) As Joni Thrombey, the ebullient lifestyle guru with a Cali-girl drawl, Toni Collette is just one of the sprawling, epic ensemble of new murder mystery Knives Out. She’s not the main character: that would be Daniel Craig’s Southern detective Benoit Blanc, nor is she the character with the most bombastic scenes. We’ll award that one a tie between Chris Evans, hilariously playing against type as a wayward trust fund type and Christopher Plummer, injecting his few scenes as Harlan Thrombey, the eccentric crime novelist whose untimely death leads to a murder investigation in which every one of his family members is a suspect. Murder most foul, to be sure, but what Collette does, through her character in Knives Out, is a crime of a different nature – she steals every scene that she’s in. “Toni Collette is a treasure,” Don Johnson, her Knives Out co-star tells news.com.au laconically. “She’s an amazing actress, and if you’re not careful, you will be forgotten in a scene. Because Toni is always working,” Johnson adds. “She’s like rust. She never sleeps.” As director Rian Johnson puts it: “She’ll steal everything, man, even if she’s not saying anything in the background of a scene you’re watching Toni Collette. “Obviously now I’ve edited the movie I’ve seen this stuff a hundred times, but I’ll still watch her. Because every line she does, she’s putting so much nuance into every little thing. She amazes me. I’m convinced she can do anything.” The full article can be read News.com.au.