Nicholas Hoult receives Vanguard Award for “The Menu”
Written by Katelyn Myrick. Photo courtesy of Katelyn Myrick.
Nicholas Hoult is best known for his acting in “About a Boy” and “Skins.” At the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, he was awarded the Vanguard Award for his role as Tyler in “The Menu.”
The Vanguard award is given to someone who has shown significant contribution to the film industry. Hoult has more than 50 credits in his filmography from over 20 years in the industry, which definitely makes him a worthy honoree. Along with the presentation of the award and the Q&A afterward, the audience enjoyed his most recent film. “The Menu” will be released in November.
As a horror and thriller movie, “The Menu” held many moments where the audience erupted in laughter, along with gasps. The movie is about a couple (Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy) that leaves for a remote island with ten other strangers to experience an expensive dinner at a high-end restaurant. While at the restaurant, the chef (Ralph Fiennes) shocks the guests with multiple courses, each with a story and performance that give slicing and dicing a whole new meaning.
After the screening, Hoult was invited to a Q&A to talk more about the production of the film, along with executive producer and co-writer Seth Reiss, production designer Ethan Tobmen and actress Aimee Carrero. Reiss described the origins of the story from the other writer Will Tracy, who took a trip to a fancy restaurant on a boat with his wife. He turned to his wife and said, “What if this goes wrong?”
The movie was filmed in Savannah and Jekyll Island, which also means that all the sous-chefs in the movie were chefs from the Savannah area. On top of this, more than 45 SCAD students, faculty, and alumni worked on the set. Hoult and Carrero went to talk about their characters as well as the wonderful time while on set. Each briefly told some fun anecdotes about their experiences in Savannah while filming.
From the cast to the deeper meanings created by the writers, this movie of suspense and dark comedy had the audience on the edge of their seats.
