The Septimius Awards are planned on Wednesday and Thursday in beautiful Pathé Tuschinski. According to the organization, that price is all about diversity, international film and television. They are held for the fourth time and have attracted participants from all over the world in recent years. In addition to panel discussions and a workshop, they conclude on Thursday with an award ceremony.
For this, Majors has been nominated for best American actor and Kevin Spacey receives a prize for his entire oeuvre. According to many people, a controversial decision, but festival director Jan-Willem Breure sees that differently. “Spacey is not personally an angel, but nobody is perfect. And he is just acquitted. Everyone deserves a second chance. He has meant so much for film and television. With House of Cards he really put Netflix on the map.”
Jan-Willem Broere, festival director of the Septimus Awards. “Spacey is not an angel, but nobody is perfect.”
Spacey first disconnected in 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp accused him of assault. Since then, several men have emerged with similar stories. However, Spacey has been acquitted on all charges. But due to the many complaints to his address, and the fact that he reacted cynically to the accusations in videos such as his House of Cards character, he was never embraced by Hollywood.
Recent reports show that all those lawsuits and lack of work have fined financially hard, and for him everything is positively in the news again. That would explain why he made his appearance in Cannes earlier this year, earlier this year and early this week in Venice.
Jonathan Majors together with actress Meagan Good, his current girlfriend and recently also his wife. She is also expected in Amsterdam. © ANP / Associated Press
However, Majors was found guilty of abusing his girlfriend, after which Disney broadcast him the avenue. This had a shock effect for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), in which he played a bad guy Kang. A very expensive price correction that ensured that Robert Downey Jr. returns when Dr. Doom in the new Avengers film and a number of plot lines from the latest Ant-Man movie and the Loki series have ended up. “The same applies to Majors as with Spacey,” says Breure. “Nobody is perfect, he also deserves a second chance.”
Majors has not made a film since that lawsuit, but still had one on the shelf that was released earlier this year. The movie Magazine Dreamsin which he plays an amateur bodybuilder.
Breure, himself a film producer by profession, explains that he started the festival in 2022 because he himself experienced a lack of diversity. “Many ceremonies live in bubbles. Africans are aimed at Africans, Europeans are aimed at Europeans. We have therefore divided the prizes for best film, actor and actress into five continents. We have scouts abroad that send us the best from those continents. An international jury then concludes which are nominated and ultimately win.”
Spacey recently at the red carpet of the Film Festival in Venice. © ANP / SIPA USA
Breure does not want to say who exactly is in that jury. “We keep that secret to avoid influence from outside. Harvey Weinstein once had so much influence at the Oscars, by offering dinner and trips to jury members that he could manipulate the result. We want to prevent that.”
The prizes were originally awarded by actress Imanuelle Grives and director/comedian Shariff Nasr, but they have withdrawn for unclear reasons. “Things change, I can’t say more about that,” Breure responds. In addition, he does not hide his ambition. “Our goal is to become the Oscars of Europe. And maybe we will ignore it in a few years.”