The Favourite ''The Favourite'' is a 2018 Historical drama, period black comedy film co-produced and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, from a screenplay by Deborah Davis (screenwriter), Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (writer), Tony McNamara. Set in early 18th ...

'' is a 2018 historical period

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Yorgos Lanthimos Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos ( el, Γιώργος Λάνθιμος, Giórgos Lánthimos, ; born 23 September 1973) is a Greek film director, film producer, screenwriter, photographer, theatre director and former professional basketball player. Sin ...

, from a screenplay written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. Taking place in the early 18th century, the story focuses on the rivalry between the Duchess of Marlborough (

Rachel Weisz Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award. Weisz began acting in British stage and television in the ...

) and her younger cousin,

Abigail Hill Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham (née Hill; 6 December 1734), was an English courtier. She was a favourite of Queen Anne, and a cousin of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Life Early life Abigail Hill was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London m ...

( Emma Stone), to be court favourites during the reign of Queen Anne ( Olivia Colman) at the height of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

Nicholas Hoult Nicholas Caradoc Hoult (born 7 December 1989) is an English actor. His body of work includes supporting work in big-budget mainstream productions and starring roles in independent projects in both the American and the British film industries ...

Joe Alwyn Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born 21 February 1991) is an English actor. He made his feature film debut as the titular character in Ang Lee's 2016 war drama, '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk,'' and has since played supporting roles in films such as ...

, James Smith, and

Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', ''Sherlock (TV series), Sherlock'', and ''Dracu ...

feature in supporting roles. Sandy Powell designed the costumes; the cinematographer was Robbie Ryan. It had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 30 August 2018, where it won two awards: the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

and the

Volpi Cup for Best Actress The Volpi Cup for Best Actress is an award presented by the Venice Film Festival. It is given by the festival jury in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance from the films in the competition slate. It is named in honor o ...

(for Colman). It was released in the United States on 23 November 2018, by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Stu ...

. Its opening $105,603 per-theater average was the highest opening average of the year. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing $53.1 million on a $15 million budget, and has received critical acclaim, with particular praise given to its screenplay and direction, cinematography, editing, costume design, production values, music, and its three lead performances. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

surveyed 371 reviews and judged 93% of them to be positive.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

calculated a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 90/100 based on 53 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ''The Favourite'' was Metacritic's twelfth-best-reviewed film of 2018. ''The Favourite'' won a record-breaking ten awards from thirteen nominations at the 2018 British Independent Film Awards, including

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

; Best Supporting Actress (Weisz); Best Director; Best Screenplay, and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

for Colman, maintaining her record of winning each time she has been nominated. The film has received the most nominations at the

72nd British Academy Film Awards The 72nd British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 10 February 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2018 in film, 2018. Presented by the British Academy of F ...

—including for

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, Best Direction,

Best Actress in a Leading Role The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

(Colman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (both Stone and Weisz) and Best British Film. With ten nominations, it tied with ''

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

'' as the most-nominated film at the

91st Academy Awards The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, ...

. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards at the 76th ceremony, winning Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Colman. It was ranked by the American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of 2018.

Accolades

Notes

See also

References

External links