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Blitz
Blitz
	Release poster
Directed by	Steve McQueen
Written by	Steve McQueen
Produced by	Tim Bevan; Eric Fellner; Steve McQueen; Anita Overland; Adam Somner; Arnon Milchan; Yariv Milchan; Michael Schaefer;
Starring	Saoirse Ronan; Elliott Heffernan; Harris Dickinson; Benjamin Clementine; Kathy Burke; Paul Weller; Stephen Graham;
Cinematography	Yorick Le Saux
Edited by	Peter Sciberras
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Production; companies	Apple Studios; Regency Enterprises; New Regency; Working Title Films; Lammas Park;
Distributed by	Apple TV+ (worldwide); Altitude Film Distribution (Ireland and United Kingdom theatrical);
Release dates	October 9, 2024 (BFI); November 1, 2024 (United Kingdom and United States); November 22, 2024 (Apple TV+);
Running time	120 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom; United States;
Language	English

Blitz is a 2024 historical war drama film written, produced and directed by Steve McQueen. The film stars Saoirse Ronan and Elliot Heffernan (in his film debut), supported by Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, and Stephen Graham.

Blitz had its world premiere as the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival on 9 October 2024, and was released in selected cinemas in the United Kingdom and United States on 1 November 2024, followed by a streaming release on Apple TV+ on 22 November 2024. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In London during World War II, when a young boy is sent away to evacuate the city amidst the Blitz, he instead defiantly goes on an adventure to return to his mother, only to find himself in immense peril from a succession of Dickensian characters.

Cast

Elliott Heffernan as George Hanway
Saoirse Ronan as Rita, George's mother
Harris Dickinson as Jack
Benjamin Clementine as Ife
Kathy Burke as Beryl
Paul Weller as Gerald, Rita's father
Stephen Graham as Albert
Leigh Gill as Mickey Davies
Mica Ricketts as Jess
CJ Beckford as Marcus
Alex Jennings as Victor Smythe
Joshua McGuire as Clive
Hayley Squires as Tilda
Erin Kellyman as Doris
Sally Messham as Agnes
Devon McKenzie-Smith as Ken "Snakehips" Johnson
Celeste as Anita Sinclair
Peter Rogers as Bus driver

Production

Development

In October 2021, it was announced that McQueen would write, direct and produce a new feature film titled Blitz for New Regency, with Lammas Park producing alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films.^[3] In March 2022, McQueen confirmed his next project was going to be about Londoners during the Blitz of World War II and that he had discussed this with Anne, the Princess Royal, as she awarded him his knighthood at Windsor Castle.^[4] In June 2022, it was announced that Apple TV+ had picked up the distribution rights. Producers are New Regency's Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer.^[5]

Casting

In September 2022, it was announced that Saoirse Ronan would be heading the cast and Adam Stockhausen leading the production design.^[6] In December 2022, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke were added to the cast, along with singer-songwriter Paul Weller in his feature film acting debut.^[7] Later that month, Benjamin Clementine, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Hayley Squires and Sally Messham were announced as joining the cast.^[8]

Filming

Principal photography began in London in November 2022.^[9] Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden was used as a base.^[10] In January 2023, filming took place close to London Waterloo station. Later that month, special effect crews simulated bombs hitting the water in the River Thames at Wapping. Filming also took place in the London borough of Greenwich.^[11] In February 2023, it was reported that production had relocated to Hull's old town, with a filming schedule of two weeks.^[12]

Music

“The idea behind the whole thing is the story of a child who is trying to get through war-torn London, which has been bombed all the time, and trying to find his mother again. What I wanted to do is, I wanted the grownups – you, me, the grownups – to feel the same sort of disassociation, being completely lost in the world, being illogical, not knowing how to get there, not knowing how to get home, not knowing how to find home, and having that horror, that fear that you’ll never find it again; the horror of these massive bombs coming down. So the only way I could think of doing it was to write music which was so brutal and so absolutely violent.” - Hans Zimmer

While Hans Zimmer has previously ventured musically into World War II with films like Dunkirk and Pearl Harbor, working on Blitz allowed him to look at the era, and a facet of his own family history, in a new way. Zimmer revealed that his mother had been "a refugee in England during the Second World War, and Steve McQueen gave me one direction. He said ‘After you watch this film, you will understand your mother better’", during a Deadline Sound & Screen event. The story moved Zimmer to create a score to reflect the unrelenting chaos and brutality of the blitz: “This score is unmitigatedly horrendous", he said. "It is an absolute horrible score, it’s so dissonant, it’s so committed to this atonality."^[13]

Release

Blitz premiered as the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival held at the Royal Festival Hall on 9 October 2024. This was McQueen's third directorial effort to do so after 2018's Widows and 2020's Mangrove, which was part of his Small Axe anthology series. The film was then released in selected cinemas in the US and UK on 1 November 2024, before streaming on Apple TV+ from 22 November.^[14]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 179 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A surprisingly old-fashioned tale of survival from director Steve McQueen, Blitz's examination of British society under wartime is given a beating heart by Elliott Heffernan and Saoirse Ronan's lovely performances."^[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[16] Writing in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw scored the film three out of five, and described it as a "well made and unashamedly old-fashioned wartime adventure, heartfelt and rousing and – yes – a bit trad overall", and said that it was "a film about the blitz of 1940 which tries to restate the accepted imagery, the dramatic stock footage and familiar ideas but also absorb revisionist approaches".^[17]

Leonard Maltin, reviewing Blitz for his own blog, described it as "powerful and somewhat disarming" and "one of the year’s best films".^[18] However, in the Chicago Reader, critic Kylie Bolter, while praising the score, cinematography and some of the performances, said the film didn’t "feel complete or unique".^[19] Peter Travers, for ABC News, summarised Blitz as "an indisputably good movie", but concluded that despite "all the elements [being] in place for something extraordinary", it "misses the mark".^[20] Critics also praised Yorick Le Saux's "stunningly captured" images for their "stark beauty".^[21]

Accolades

Award/Festival	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Montclair Film Festival	27 October 2024	Visionary Director Award	Steve McQueen	Honored	^[22]^[23]
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	20 November 2024	Best Original Song – Feature Film	"Winter Coat" – Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen & Taura Stinson	Nominated	^[24]
		Original Score – Feature Film	Hans Zimmer	Nominated
		Song – Onscreen Performance (TV Show/Limited Series)	"Winter Coat" – Saoirse Ronan	Nominated
Camerimage	23 November 2024	Special Award for Outstanding Director	Steve McQueen	Won	^[25]^[26]
Camerimage	23 November 2024	Golden Frog	Yorick Le Saux	Nominated	^[25]^[26]
Winter IndieWire Honors	5 December 2024	Wavelength Award	Steve McQueen and Adam Stockhausen	Won	^[27]
Los Angeles Film Critics Association	8 December 2024	Best Production Design	Adam Stockhausen	Runner-up	^[28]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	8 December 2024	Best Youth Performance	Elliott Heffernan	Won	^[29]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	8 December 2024	Best Original Score	Hans Zimmer	Nominated	^[29]
Celebration of Cinema and Television	9 December 2024	Director Award	Steve McQueen	Won	^[30]
Critics' Choice Movie Awards	12 January 2025	Best Young Actor/Actress	Elliott Heffernan	Pending	^[31]
Satellite Awards	26 January 2025	Best Costume Design	Jacqueline Durran	Pending	^[32]
Satellite Awards	26 January 2025	Best Original Song	"Winter Coat" – Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, and Taura Stinson	Pending	^[32]
Black Reel Awards	10 February 2025	Outstanding Director	Steve McQueen	Pending	^[33]
		Outstanding Breakthrough Performance	Elliott Heffernan	Pending
		Outstanding Screenplay	Steve McQueen	Pending
Society of Composers & Lyricists	12 February 2025	Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production	"Winter Coat" – Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, and Taura Stinson	Pending	^[34]
Artios Awards	12 February 2025	Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Big Budget Feature (Drama)	Nina Gold, Lucy Amos	Pending	^[35]