10:10 PST 2/15/2021
in
Rebecca Ford
Although the collection of five films earned a nomination for TV Globes, the project also won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best film.
BBC and Amazon anthology series by Steve McQueen Small Ax has been accumulating prizes – along with some confusion.
The series that accompanies West Indian immigrants in London consists of five short films, ranging from 64 to 128 minutes. Although the project received a nomination for Globo for best limited series, anthology or film made for TV, the project also received the December Los Angeles Film Critics Association best film award (the winner of this award almost always receives Oscar nominations) LAFCA’s victory sparked a heated debate on social media, whether McQueen’s most recent work was a film or a TV series.
McQueen, however, is ready to end the debate: “This has always been done for television, for the BBC, because I wanted my mother to see these stories on TV,” he says. THR. “This is nothing new for Europe. Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Alan Parker – it all came from films made for TV. All I wanted to do was tell as many stories as I could tell at that time and place. “
In working with the BBC, the director adds that he felt he would be able to use “a platform that was not linked to advertising” to create the stories he wanted to tell. “I could do whatever I wanted within that format,” he says. “Sometimes, you have to go where people are, and that’s what Small Ax is about.”
This story first appeared in the February 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.