Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
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''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' is a 2017
crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
film written, directed, and produced by
Martin McDonagh Martin Faranan McDonagh ( ; born 26 March 1970) is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his Absurdism, absurdist Black comedy, dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won List of awards and no ...
. It stars
Frances McDormand Frances Louise McDormand (born Cynthia Ann Smith; June 23, 1957) is an American actress and film producer. In a career spanning over four decades, McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awa ...
as Mildred Hayes, a Missouri woman who rents three roadside billboards to draw attention to her daughter's unsolved rape and murder.
Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...
,
Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...
,
Abbie Cornish Abigail Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. In film, Cornish is known for her roles as Heidi in ''Somersault (film), Somersault'' (2004), Fanny Brawne in ''Bright Star (film), Bright Star'' (2009), Sweet Pea in ''Sucker Punch ...
, John Hawkes, and Peter Dinklage appear in supporting roles. The film was theatrically released in the United States in November 2017 and in the United Kingdom in January 2018 by
Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...
, and it grossed $162 million at the worldwide box office. It received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for McDonagh's screenplay and direction, and the performers of its
ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...
(particularly McDormand, Rockwell and Harrelson). It won numerous accolades, including five
BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...
, four
Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual Awards ceremony, award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally ...
, and three
Screen Actors Guild Awards Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1995 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...
. It also received seven nominations at the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
, including Best Picture, winning Best Actress (McDormand) and Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell).


Plot

In the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes is grieving over the rape and murder of her teen daughter, Angela, seven months earlier. Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, she rents three disused billboards near her home and posts on them: "", "", "". Many townspeople are upset by the billboards for singling out local police chief Bill Willoughby, whose
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
diagnosis is an open secret. Willoughby visits Mildred to persuade her to take them down, but is unsuccessful. He renews his efforts to solve the case, but does not get anywhere. Jason Dixon, an immature, prejudiced police officer who idolizes Willoughby, unsuccessfully tries to intimidate Red Welby, who rented Mildred the billboards, into taking them down. Later at his mother's suggestion, Dixon arrests Mildred's friend Denise on trivial drug possession charges to put pressure on Mildred. Mildred's dentist is sympathetic to Willoughby and menaces her during an appointment, so she drills a hole in his thumbnail. Willoughby brings her in for questioning and accidentally coughs up blood into her face. He has her released and is hospitalized, though he soon checks himself out against medical advice. The billboards have further strained Mildred's relationship with her son, Robbie, and she recalls that her last interaction with Angela was an argument (during which she lashed back by saying she "hopes she gets raped"). Her abusive ex-cop ex-husband Charlie confronts her about the billboards and ends up revealing that, shortly before Angela's murder, he had turned down her request to come live with him. Knowing his death is imminent following the hospitalization, Willoughby spends an idyllic day with his wife, Anne, and their two daughters, then commits suicide later that night to spare his family from watching him die slowly. A distraught Dixon reacts to the news by assaulting Welby and throwing him out a second-story window. This is discovered by Abercrombie, Willoughby's replacement, who fires Dixon. Before his death, Willoughby wrote several letters, including one to Mildred. Anne delivers it, interrupting an unknown man who was menacing Mildred at work. In the letter, Willoughby tells Mildred that she was not a factor in his suicide, asserts he was dedicated to finding Angela’s killer and reveals he secretly paid to keep the billboards up another month. After the billboards are destroyed by
arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
, Mildred retaliates by tossing
Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...
s at the police station, which she believes to be unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is inside reading Willoughby's letter to himself, which advises him to let go of hate and embrace love if he wants to be a detective someday; he manages to escape the blaze with Angela's case file. James, an acquaintance of Mildred, happens to pass by and extinguishes Dixon's burning clothes before providing Mildred with an alibi. Dixon is put in the same hospital room as Welby, to whom he apologizes. Jerome, who was part of the team that put up the billboards, brings Mildred a set of copies and helps her restore the signs. Discharged from the hospital, Dixon overhears the man who menaced Mildred bragging in a bar about raping a girl in the same manner as Angela. He notes the number on the man's Idaho license plate and then scratches the man's face to get a DNA sample, passively accepting the resulting beating. Mildred is on a date with James to thank him for his help, when Charlie enters with his 19-year-old girlfriend Penelope and apologizes for burning the billboards when he was drunk. Unnerved that she retaliated against the wrong target, Mildred abruptly calls off the date, but James misinterprets her decision as embarrassment to be seen with him and leaves the restaurant incensed. Abercrombie informs Dixon that the DNA sample is not a match and the man was overseas on military duty at the time of Angela's death. Dixon gives Mildred the disappointing news and, believing the man to be guilty of some other rape, the pair plan a trip to Idaho to kill him. As they set out, Mildred confesses that she set the police station on fire, which Dixon had already assumed. They both express uncertainty about their mission, but Mildred says they can decide what to do along the way.


Cast

Additionally,
Amanda Warren Amanda Warren (born July 17, 1982) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Lucy Warburton on the HBO drama series '' The Leftovers'' and as Betty on the Apple TV+ comedy series '' Dickinson''. Early life Amanda Warren was born on J ...
portrays Mildred's friend Denise. Malaya Drew plays Gabriella, a local reporter, and
Christopher Berry Christopher Shane Berry is an American character actor best known for his roles in ''12 Years a Slave'' (2013), '' The Walking Dead'' (2015) and '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017). After retiring from acting, he began a new career as a profess ...
plays bar patron Tony. Jerry Winsett appears as Geoffrey, the dentist who has his thumb drilled by Mildred. Momma Dixon, Jason Dixon's mother, is portrayed by Sandy Martin. Nick Searcy makes an uncredited appearance as Father Montgomery.


Production


Development

While traveling through the
Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
,
Martin McDonagh Martin Faranan McDonagh ( ; born 26 March 1970) is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his Absurdism, absurdist Black comedy, dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won List of awards and no ...
came across a couple of accusatory billboards that alleged a woman named Kathy Page had been murdered by her husband Steve Page in
Vidor, Texas Vidor ( ) is a city in western Orange County, Texas, United States. A city of Southeast Texas, it lies at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Farm to Market Road 105, east of Beaumont. The town is mainly a bedroom community for the nearby ...
, and highlighted the incompetence of the police in solving the case. McDonagh described the billboards, which he presumed had been put up by the victim's mother, as "raging and painful and tragic" and was deeply affected by them, saying the image "stayed in my mind ..kept gnawing at me". This incident, combined with his desire to create strong female characters, inspired McDonagh to write the story for ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri''. He said it took him about ten years to decide "it was a mother who had taken these things out. It all became fiction ..based on a couple of actual billboards".


Casting

The character of Mildred was written with Frances McDormand in mind, and the character of Dixon was written specially for Sam Rockwell. McDormand initially felt she was older than the character as it was written and suggested Mildred be Angela's grandmother, rather than her mother, but McDonagh disagreed, feeling it would change the story too much, and eventually McDormand's husband
Joel Coen Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) is an American filmmaker. Working alongside his brother Ethan, the duo have directed, written, edited and produced many feature films, the most acclaimed of which include '' Blood Simple'' (1984), '' ...
persuaded her to take the part regardless.
John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood' ...
served as an inspiration for McDormand in her portrayal of Mildred, and Rockwell, wanting to make his character "the exact opposite" of Mildred, took inspiration from
Lee Marvin Lee Marvin (February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and prematurely white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as th ...
, Wayne's co-star in '' The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance''.


Filming

Principal photography began on May 2, 2016, in Sylva, North Carolina, and ran for 33 days. Allison Outdoor Advertising of Sylva built the billboards, which were put in a pasture near
Black Mountain, North Carolina Black Mountain is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,426 at the 2020 United States census. It is part of the Asheville metropolitan area. The town is named for the old train stop at the Black Mountai ...
, 60 miles east of Sylva. When not filming, the billboards were usually covered because people in the area found them upsetting. David Penix of
Arden, North Carolina Arden is an unincorporated community located in southern Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Arden is considered to be approximately the area between Skyland and Fletcher near the Henderson County line. Arden's ZIP code is 28704 ...
, subsequently bought the billboards and used the wood for a roof in Douglas Lake, Tennessee, though the messages are no longer legible. Town Pump Tavern in Black Mountain, which had been featured in '' The World Made Straight'' (2015), was closed for three days while filming took place inside. A pool table and booths were added, but the bar's actual sign appears in the film.


Music

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. He has also scored films by other directors such as Bill Condon, Todd Haynes ...
's score for the film was nominated for Best Original Score at the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
. It was Burwell's third collaboration with McDonagh, as he had served as composer for McDonagh's first two feature films, ''
In Bruges ''In Bruges'' is a 2008 black comedy, black comedy-drama crime thriller film directed and written by Martin McDonagh in his feature-length debut. It stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two London-based Irish hitmen hiding in Bruges, with ...
'' (2008) and '' Seven Psychopaths'' (2012). The film also features songs by
ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...
,
Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
, The Felice Brothers, the
Four Tops The Four Tops are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1953 as the Four Aims. They were one of the most commercially successful American pop music groups of the 1960s and helped propel Motown Records to international fame. The ...
, Monsters of Folk, and
Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.
. All tracks composed by
Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. He has also scored films by other directors such as Bill Condon, Todd Haynes ...
, unless otherwise noted.


Release

''Three Billboards'' premiered in competition at the
74th Venice International Film Festival The 74th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, at Venice Lido in Italy. American actress Annette Bening was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actor Alessandro Borghi hosted ...
on September 4, 2017. It was also screened at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
, the
San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...
, the
BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...
, the Zurich Film Festival, and the
Mar del Plata International Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival () is an List of film festivals, international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature festival recognized by the FIAPF ...
, among many others. In the United States, the film received a
limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
by
Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...
on November 10, 2017, in advance of its
wide release In the motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in ...
on December 1. On February 27, 2018, it was released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD, with '' Six Shooter'', McDonagh's 2004 Academy Award-winning short film, included as a bonus.


Reception


Box office

The film grossed $54.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $105.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide box office total of $160.2 million. In its limited opening weekend, the film made $322,168 from four theaters, for a per-theater average of $80,542, the fourth-best of 2017. It made $1.1 million from 53 theaters its second weekend and $4.4 million from 614 its third, finishing 9th and 10th at the box office, respectively. The weekend following its four Golden Globe wins on January 7, 2018, the film was added to 712 theaters (for a total of 1,022) and grossed $2.3 million, an increase of 226% from the previous weekend's $706,188. Two weeks later, following the announcement of the film's seven Oscar nominations, it made $3.6 million, an increase of 87% over the previous week's $1.9 million, finishing 13th at the American box office. The weekend of March 9–11, following its two Oscar wins on March 4, the film made $705,000, down 45% from the previous weekend's $1.3 million.


Critical response

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of '' Variety'' praised the film's performances, stating that "It's Mildred's glowering refusal to back down that defines her, and McDormand brilliantly spotlights the conflicted humanity beneath the stony façade", and calling Rockwell's performance a "revelation." Steve Pond, writing for ''
TheWrap ''TheWrap'' is an American online news organization that covers the business of entertainment and media. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles. The site features original reporting, analysis, and editor ...
'', praised McDonagh's writing, calling it "very funny, very violent and surprisingly moving." Less flatteringly, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' columnist Wesley Morris likened McDonagh's portrayal of rural America to "a set of postcards from a
Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...
lured to America by a cable news ticker and by rumors of how easily flattered and provoked we are."
Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis ( ) is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', Dargis ...
, also writing for ''The New York Times'', said in her review: " cDonagh'sjokes can be uninterestingly glib with tiny, bloodless pricks that are less about challenging the audience than about obscuring the material's clichés and overriding theatricality." In ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'',
Tim Parks Timothy Harold Parks (born 19 December 1954) is a British novelist who has lived in Italy since 1981. He is also an author of nonfiction, a translator from Italian to English, and a professor of literature. Early life and academic career Parks ...
praised the film's "magnificently photographed images", but wrote that the plot contained "a thousand cheap coincidences", and concluded that the film is "empty of emotional intelligence" and "devoid of any remotely honest observation of the society it purports to serve." Some took issue with its handling of racial themes, particularly surrounding the redemptive arc of Officer Dixon, whose alleged torturing of an African American prisoner before the events of the film is referred to several times. In ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...
'', blogger Ira Madison III described the treatment of Rockwell's character as "altogether offensive ..McDonagh's attempts to script the black experience in America are often fumbling and backward and full of outdated tropes." Alyssa Rosenberg noted in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' that " ixon'sredemption doesn't merely defang his previous venomous bigotry; it softens Mildred's character development." Focusing on the film's treatment of sexual violence, Oliver Kenny pointed out that the film is unusual for not foregrounding images of the rape victim, and welcomed the shift from a focus on the rape itself to how the community handles rape, however poorly or mishandled their approach may be. In this case, the flawed and problematic nature of all the characters (who are each bigoted, racist, judgemental, selfish, and thoughtless in their own ways) is actually one of the film's strong points: "We must therefore think about ''Three Billboards'' in the context of rape imagery. Not just as a film that considers discourses around rape but one that does so without depicting the rape itself, without pursuing eye-for-an-eye revenge narratives as a crowd-pleasing solution and without pandering to a black-and-white narrative of evil-doing perpetrators, angelic victims and innocent bystanders. It is a film that entwines everyone in its narrative: the local residents, the police, the news reporters as well as us, the spectator, as we are swung back and forth between the competing ethical interests of all the characters, each of whom is worthy and flawed, invoking empathy and open to negative judgment."


Accolades

At the
75th Golden Globe Awards The 75th Golden Globe Awards honored film and American television of 2017, and was broadcast live on January 7, 2018, from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST / 8:00 p.m. Easter ...
, ''Three Billboards'' won Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actress – Drama (McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell), and Best Screenplay, and it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Original Score. The film was nominated in nine categories at the 71st British Academy Film Awards and won five awards: both Best Film and Outstanding British Film (making it and ''
The King's Speech ''The King's Speech'' is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language ther ...
'' (2010) the only films to win both awards since the latter category was reintroduced in 1992), Best Leading Actress (McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell), and Best Screenplay (Original). At the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards, the film was nominated for four awards and won three, including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. It was nominated for six awards at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards and won three, including Best Acting Ensemble. At the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
, the film received seven nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Actress (McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (both Rockwell and Harrelson), and
Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...
, and McDormand and Rockwell took home their respective awards. The film was named one of the top 10 films of the year by the
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
. It won the top prize, the
People's Choice Award The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the Fan (person), fans and Public, general public. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined us ...
, at the
2017 Toronto International Film Festival The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2017. There were fourteen programs, with the Vanguard and City to City programs both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down by ...
, and won the Audience Award at the 2017
San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...
.


Impact

Signs inspired by the billboards in the film have been used in protests by numerous groups around the world. Both McDonagh and McDormand have responded positively to this, with McDonagh saying that "You couldn't ask for anything more than for an angry film to be adopted by protests," and McDormand saying she is "thrilled that activists all over the world have been inspired by the set decoration of the three billboards in Martin's film." * On February 3, 2018, a mural was erected outside Bristol city centre in England depicting three billboards like those in the film, which read: "", "", "". It was installed by the groups People's Republic of Stokes Croft and Protect Our NHS in response to the alleged privatization of the
National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
(NHS) and the death of a 15-year-old girl that the coroner attributed to neglect caused by a lack of NHS resources and care. * On February 15, 2018, Justice4Grenfell, an advocacy group created in response to the
Grenfell Tower fire On 14 June 2017, a List of fires in high-rise buildings, high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of Public housing in the United Kingdom, flats in North Kensington, West London, England, at 00:54 British Summer Time, BST ...
, hired three vans with electronic screens to protest perceived inaction in response to the fire the previous June. The vans were driven around
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and displayed messages in the style of the billboards in the film: "", "", "". * On the night of February 15, 2018, the movement #OccupyJustice set up three billboards and a number of banners in
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
to mark the four-month anniversary of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The billboards bore the text: "", "", "". The authorities removed the billboards the following day, stating that they were illegal. The government was criticized for this move, and a day after their removal, activists laid down banners with similar text near
Auberge de Castille The Auberge de Castille (), historically in full known as the Auberge de Castille et Portugal, is an Inn, auberge in Valletta, Malta. The auberge is located at Castile Place, close to Saint James Cavalier, the Malta Stock Exchange, and the Upp ...
, the office of the Prime Minister. * In response to the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
that took place on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida, activist group
Avaaz Avaaz is a US-based nonprofit organization launched in 2007 that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. The word ''avaaz'' means 'voice' in several Asian and E ...
had three vans circle Florida senator
Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party (United States) , Rep ...
's offices displaying: "", "", "". * On February 22, 2018, the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, protesting the inaction of the UN in response to the Syrian Civil War, set up three billboards outside the United Nations building in New York that read: "", "", "". * Shortly before the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
ceremony (on or around March 1, 2018), conservative street artist Sabo set up three billboards in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, stating: "", "", "" * On
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...
2018 (March 8), three billboards were put in downtown
Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...
,
Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
, to protest the death of two women as a result of domestic violence. * On March 24, 2018, signs inspired by ''Three Billboards'' appeared at March for Our Lives gun control rallies across the U.S. and around the world. * In January 2019, Chinese artist Wu Qiong and a gay policeman launched a public protest campaign in which bright-red trucks bearing slogans denouncing homosexual "
conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...
" were paraded through several major cities in China, including
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
,
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, and
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
. * Around June 2022, three red banners were hung at Izmaylovsky Park in Moscow protesting the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.


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* * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' , list = {{AACTA International Award for Best Film {{BAFTA Best Film {{BAFTA Best British Film {{Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble {{Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast {{Golden Eagle Award for Best Foreign Language Film {{Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Drama {{IFTA Award for Best International Film {{London Film Critics Circle Award for Film of the Year {{Mainichi Film Award for Foreign Film Best One Award {{Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Foreign Film {{Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble {{Satellite Award Best Motion Picture {{Saturn Award for Best Thriller Film {{ScreenActorsGuildAward CastMotionPicture 2011–2020 {{TIFF People's Choice Award {{Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble 2017 films 2010s American films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films American black comedy films American comedy-drama films American independent films BAFTA winners (films) Best British Film BAFTA Award winners Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners Best Film BAFTA Award winners British black comedy films Film4 Productions films Films about grief Films about mother–son relationships Films directed by Martin McDonagh Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award–winning performance Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe–winning performance Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award–winning performance Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe winning performance Films produced by Graham Broadbent Films scored by Carter Burwell Films set in Missouri Films shot in North Carolina Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award Fox Searchlight Pictures films Golden Eagle Award (Russia) for Best Foreign Language Film winners Satellite Award–winning films Saturn Award–winning films Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award winners Tragicomedy films Southern noir films