Alternative Film Guide

Eleven students from eight US colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The winners will take part in a week of industry-related activities and social events, culminating in the awards ceremony on June 7 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater [...]

Curtis Hanson’s 1997 Best Picture nominee L.A. Confidential will be the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The neo-noir crime drama will be screened on Monday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast member [...]

Joel and Ethan Coen’s quirky — and very violent — Fargo will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The pitch-black comedy, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, will screen on Monday, May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s [...]

Tribeca Film Festival Awards 2008
The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature — Let the Right One In (Lat den rätte komma in), directed by Tomas Alfredson (Sweden).
Best New Narrative Filmmaker — My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek), directed by Hüseyin Karabey (Turkey, Netherlands, UK).
Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film — Thomas Turgoose and [...]

Thirty-two students from 20 American colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Their films will be judged by Academy members, who will then vote to select the winners.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal awards, in addition to cash prizes [...]

Turin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Awards 2008
Turin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival: April 17–25, 2008
 

Santiago Otheguy (above, right) directed and wrote (from a story he’d co-written with Juan Solanas) the Argentinian drama. La León, winner of the jury’s best film award at the 2008 Turin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Set in [...]

Five finalists will compete for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Honorary Foreign Film award in the 35th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. As per the Academy’s press release, the winning foreign student filmmaker and the US-based Student Academy Award winners will be brought to Los Angeles "to participate in a week of [...]

Ron Howard’s 1995 Best Picture nominee Apollo 13 will be the next film in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ ongoing "Great To Be Nominated" series. The sentimentalized tale of the failed 1970 lunar landing mission will screen on Monday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Following the [...]

German Film Academy Awards - Lola 2007-2008
2007-2008 German Film Academy Award nominations: March 28, 2008.
2007-2008 German Film Academy Award winners: Palais am Funkturm in Berlin on April 25, 2008.
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

The big winner of the 2008 Lola Awards was writer-director Fatih Akin’s cross-cultural drama Auf der anderen Seite / The [...]

Students representing 114 U.S. colleges and universities are competing in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Student Academy Awards. Additionally, film students from 29 countries are vying for the Honorary Foreign Film award, including a first-ever entry from Cuba. The winners will be announced on Saturday, June 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn [...]

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, the 1994 Best Picture nominee (and, in my view, one of the most overrated movies of all time), will be screened in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series on Monday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
[...]

2008 David di Donatello - Italian Academy Awards
The 2008 David di Donatello: films released between April 27, 2007, and March 7, 2008.
2008 David di Donatello nominations: March 20, 2008.
2008 David di Donatello winners: April 18, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

best film / miglior film
Caos calmo, produced by Domenico Procacci, directed by Antonello Grimaldi [...]

It seems only yesterday that Marion Cotillard was telling the world that Olivier (Dahan) rocked her life…
The Academy, not an organization to waste any time when it comes to the Oscars, has announced that the 2009 Oscar ceremony will take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be [...]

Writer-director Jane Campion’s Gothic drama The Piano, the best of the 1993 Best Picture Oscar nominees and one of the greatest — and greatest-looking — films of the 1990s, will be screened as the first feature in the fifth and final season of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" [...]

2007 Ariel Awards - Mexican Academy Awards
2007 Ariel nominations: February 21, 2008
2007 Ariel winners: Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on March 25, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Writer-director Carlos Reygadas‘ drama Stellet licht / Luz silenciosa was the big winner at the 50th Ariel Awards, taking home statuettes for best film, [...]

Tiburon (Calif.) International Film Festival - 2008 Golden Reel Awards
2008 Tiburon International Film Festival: March 13-21.
 

Set in the arid landscape of Algeria’s Aurès mountains, The Yellow House revolves around the plight of a couple whose son was recently killed in an ambush. The film’s director, Amor Hakkar, plays the bereaved father who does [...]

Jane Campion’s masterful 1993 psychological drama The Piano, starring Holly Hunter, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin, will kick off the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series, which begins its fifth and final installment on Monday, April 21.
The 17-week series, which will run through August 25, will showcase the [...]

Ingmar Bergman (right) will be the subject of a weekend-long salute — with the screening of five of his Academy Award-nominated and winning films — beginning Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
The opening night of "An Academy Salute to Ingmar Bergman" [...]

2007 Asian Film Awards
2007 Asian Film Award nominations: January 17, 2008.
2007 Asian Film Award winners: Grand Hall, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, March 17, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 
Best Film
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Iran)
I Just Didn’t Do It (Japan)
Lust, Caution (Taiwan / China / USA)
* Secret Sunshine (South Korea)
The Sun [...]

2008 SXSW Film Festival Awards
2008 SXSW Film Festival: Austin, March 7–15, 2008
 

Produced, directed, written, and edited by Jake Mahaffy, SXSW 2008 jury winner Wellness follows a salesman (Jeff Clark) whose yearning for financial and professional success gets him all tangled up in a scheme to sell an "embargoed" health product called "Wellness." Tragedy and [...]

Since March 6, the American Cinematheque has been screening the 2008 Oscar nominated shorts (both live action and animated — but no documentaries). The screenings continue until Thursday, March 13.
Schedules and brief synopses are from the Cinematheque’s press release. (All films have English subtitles if in another language.)

OSCAR NOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORTS
Screens nightly at [...]

Tuesday, April 1 is the deadline for U.S. student filmmakers to submit their films for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 35th Student Academy Awards. As per the Academy’s press release, "the Student Academy Awards is a national annual competition designed to recognize and encourage promising new filmmakers.
"Applications and a complete list of [...]

2007 Prix Jutra
2007 Jutra Award nominations: February 6, 2008
2007 Jutra Award winners: March 9, 2008
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

Writer-director Stéphane Lafleur’s feature-film debut, the offbeat comedy Continental, a Film Without Guns, was the big winner at the 2008 Prix Jutra ceremony. Continental, which won Jutras for best film, best director, best screenplay, and [...]

The Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil, never one to waste any time when it comes to Oscar season (a year-long event at the GD), is already "assuming" a possible nomination for Kate Winslet for one of two upcoming films:
"Let’s assume that Kate Winslet gets nominated for the Oscars again next year, a safe bet considering she [...]

Graphic artist Alex Swart, head of SwartAd, poses with the fresh-off-the-presses poster he designed commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards. The 80th anniversary poster features a spiraling gold ribbon containing the one-sheets for all the Best Picture winners, forming the shape of the Oscar statuette.
Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Photo: Todd [...]