Contact Help Wanted

European Film Awards 2009: Nominations

Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); Dev Patel, Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire (middle); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (bottom)

Six films are vying for the top prize at the 2009 European Film Awards. They are:

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, about a teenager (best actress nominee Katie Jarvis) upset that her mother has found herself a new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender)
Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, a melodrama starring Kate Winslet as a former Nazi guard who believes that being illiterate is worse than being an accomplice to mass murder
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, a prison drama about a toughie (best actor nominee Tahar Rahim) fighting his way to the top of the world behind bars
Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, about a young man (best actor [...]

European Film Awards 2009

2009 European Film Awards
2009 European Film Award nominations: Nov. 7, 2009
2009 European Film Award winners: Bochum, Germany, on Dec. 12, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (middle); Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire (bottom)
 

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
Fish Tank, UK
written and directed by Andrea Arnold
produced by Kees Kasander & Nick Laws
Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One In), Sweden
directed by Tomas Alfredson
written by John Ajvide Lindqvist
produced by John Nordling & Carl Molinder
Un Prophète (A Prophet), France
directed by Jacques Audiard
written by Jacques Audiard & Thomas Bidegain based on an original idea by [...]

AFI FEST 2009 Awards

AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009: Hollywood/Santa Monica, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2009
 

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank focuses on a working-class teenager (Katie Jarvis) frustrated that her mother has found a new beau (Michael Fassbender); Javier Rebollo’s Woman Without Piano is a dramatic portrait of 24 hours in the life of a Madrid housewife (Carmen Machi); and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Ajami (above) chronicles the day-to-day, anything-but-routine lives of several denizens of a tough neighborhood in Jaffa, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians are sworn to live in bloody disharmony.
 
NEW LIGHTS COMPETITION AWARD WINNER

FISH TANK DIR: Andrea Arnold UK

WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO (LA MUJER SIN PIANO) DIR: Javier Rebollo Spain/France

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
AJAMI DIR: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani Israel/Germany

AFI FEST 2009 NEW LIGHTS [...]

Doha Tribeca Film Festival Awards 2009

Team Qatar by Liz Mermin (top); Hiam Abbass in Najwa Najjar’s Pomegranates and Myrrh (bottom)

Doha Tribeca Film Festival Executive Director Amanda Palmer and Robert De Niro handed out two audience awards, worth US$50,000 each, at the festival’s closing night gala on Nov. 1. Coincidentally, both winning films were directed by women.
British filmmaker Liz Mermin’s documentary Team Qatar, which chronicles the creation of that country’s first debate team, was awarded Best Festival Film, while Palestinian Najwa Najjar’s debut feature, Pomegranates and Myrrh (talk about a poetic title), was chosen the Best Arab Film.
Starring Hiam Abbass (who deserves a best actress Oscar nod for Lemon Tree), Pomegranates and Myrrh revolves around a Palestinian woman torn between being faithful to her [...]

2009 Fetish Film Festival Winners

Flemish filmmaker Erik Lamens‘ SM-rechter / SM Judge (above) was chosen the best narrative feature at the 2009 Fetish Film Festival, held in the northern German city of Kiel from Oct. 29-31.
Inspired by a true story, Lamens’ SM Judge tells the story of Belgian judge Koen Aurousseau, who, as per Flanders Today, "was accused of physical assault and incitement to prostitution" in 1997. Following his conviction, Aurousseau found himself mired in a deep emotional and financial hole; his only source of support was his wife, Magda, the person who’d initially asked him to get involved in S&M sex practices.
“I heard on TV the other day that this is ‘the most controversial film of the year,’ Lamens is quoted [...]

Australian Film Institute Awards 2009

2009 Australian Film Institute Awards
2009 Australian Film Institute Award nominations: Oct. 28, 2009
2009 Australian Film Institute Award winners: Regent Theatre in Melbourne on Dec. 11 ("industry" categories) and Dec. 12 (top categories), 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Winner of the 2009 Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Australia’s submission for the 2010 best foreign-language film Academy Award, Warwick Thornton’s feature-film debut, Samson & Delilah is a coming-of-age story set in a remote Aboriginal community in Central Australia, where two teenagers (best actor nominee Rowan McNamara and best actress nominee Marissa Gibson) must cope with a life of violence, poverty, and substance abuse. Eventually, the couple set out on their own, facing all sorts of [...]

London Film Festival Awards 2009

Star of London for Best Film: Jacques Audiard’s A PROPHET
On behalf of the London Film Festival jury, Anjelica Huston stated: “A masterpiece: Un prohète has the ambition, purity of vision and clarity of purpose to make it an instant classic. With seamless and imaginative story-telling, superb performances and universal themes, Jacques Audiard has made a perfect film.” In A Prophet, Tahar Rahim stars as a prison newcomer who learns how to become that realm’s top dog.

Special mention: John Hillcoat’s THE ROAD

Best British Newcomer: Jack Thorne, screenwriter of the film THE SCOUTING BOOK FOR BOYS

Sutherland Award for most original and imaginative first feature: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani for AJAMI

Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Yoav Shamir for [...]

Colin Firth to Be Honored in Santa Barbara

Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man

Colin Firth, the star of Tom Ford’s A Single Man, will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Outstanding Performance of the Year Award at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre on Feb.13, 2010.
In A Single Man, the 49-year-old Firth plays a grieving, gay college professor in the Los Angeles of the early 1960s. His lover (Matthew Goode) has just died and he is seriously considering ending his own life. Also in the cast: Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult.
Earlier this year, Firth won the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival, and is one of the strongest contenders to land a best actor Academy Award nomination come next February.
Among Colin Firth’s [...]

Screamfest LA Awards 2009

2009 Screamfest LA Awards
2009 Screamfest LA: Oct. 16-25 in Hollywood
 

In Tom Six’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence), a German surgeon (Dieter Laser) sets out to merge together three human beings into one by joining them with a single digestive system. To achieve his goal, he conscripts two American girls (Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie) looking for shelter and a Japanese tourist (Akihiro Kitamura) who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), involving a 12-human centipede, is slated for release in 2010.
 

Best Picture: The Human Centipede (First Sequence), Tom Six
Best Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez, Tres días / Before the Fall
Best Actor: Victor Clavijo, Before the Fall
Best [...]

Oscar 2010: Oscar Correspondent Contest

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, have announced their second annual “Oscar Correspondent Contest,” which gives college journalists across the US the chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to cover red carpet arrivals and backstage activities at the 2010 Academy Awards.
The information below is from the Academy’s press release:

From October 26 through December 18, college students are invited to submit a video at http://oscars.mtvu.com, showcasing their broadcast journalism skills and proving why they deserve to cover the Oscars. All videos submitted must be from teams made up of one anchor and one videographer. The Academy and mtvU will select the top ten [...]

Chicago Film Festival Awards 2009

2009 Chicago Film Festival Awards
2009 Chicago Film Festival: Oct. 8-22, 2009
 

Tina Mabry’s Mississippi Damned depicts the issues faced by the children of a poor and highly dysfunctional family in rural Mississippi. Earlier this year, the film was given the top prize at Outfest in Los Angeles.
 
International Feature Film Competition

Gold Hugo for Best Film: MISSISSIPPI DAMNED (US)

Silver Hugo for Special Jury Award: FISH TANK (UK)

Silver Hugo for Best Director: Marco Bellocchio for VINCERE (Italy)
Silver Hugo for Best Actress: Giovanna Mezzogiorno of VINCERE (Italy)
Silver Hugo for Best Actor: Filippo Timi of VINCERE (Italy)
Gold Plaque for Best Supporting Actress: Jossie Harris Thacker in MISSISSIPPI DAMNED (US)

Gold Plaque for Best Supporting Actor: Michael Fassbender in FISH TANK (UK) [...]

Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Awards 2009

2009 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Awards
2009 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival: Oct. 16-25, 2009
 

A major box-office hit in its native Norway, Stian Kristiansen’s The Man Who Loved Yngve chronicles the (homo)sexual awakening of a small-town male teenager after another male teen starts attending his school.
 
JURY AWARDS

BEST FEATURE FILM: The Man Who Loved Yngve, directed by Stian Kristiansen

FEATURE FILM HONORABLE MENTION: I Can’t Think Straight, directed by Shamim Sarif

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM: Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement, directed by Gréta Olafsdóttir and Susan Muska
BEST SHORT FILM: Diana, directed by Aleem Khan

SHORT FILM HONOURABLE MENTION: Claiming the Title, directed by Jonathan Joiner and Robert H. Martin
MOST INNOVATIVE SHORT: The Apple, directed by Emilie Jouvet
 
AUDIENCE AWARDS

Best [...]

SAG Awards 2010: Deadline for Submissions

PRESS RELEASE
The deadline for consideration for nomination for this year’s Actors® is fast approaching. Submissions for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® must be filed by Wednesday Oct. 28, 2009 at 5 p.m. (PT) .
Submissions can be accepted online at www.sagawards.org/submissions.htm or downloaded from the SAG Awards Web site and faxed to (323) 549-6706.
The Screen Actors Guild Award—The Actor®—is presented for outstanding performances in motion pictures and primetime television.  Actors may submit their own performances from 2009 for consideration in categories of the actor’s choosing. With the actor’s permission, producers, studios/networks, agents, managers, or publicists may also submit performances for consideration. Nominations for the 16th Annual Screen Actors [...]

Golden Globes 2010: Ricky Gervais to Host Awards Ceremony

Ricky Gervais. Photo: David Eustace / HBO

Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Ricky Gervais, probably best known for his role as David Brent on the BBC version of The Office, will host the 2010 Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Sunday, January 17, 2010, on NBC.
This year’s show will be broadcast live coast-to-coast from 5-8 p.m. (PT) / 8-11 p.m. (ET) from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. This marks the first time the Golden Globes telecast has had a host since 1995.
"Not only is this the biggest Hollywood celebration of the industry which includes both film and TV," Gervais is quoted as saying in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s press release, "but also an environment where [...]

2009 British Independent Film Award Nominations

Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank (top); Sam Rockwell in Moon (middle); Carey Mulligan, Dominic Cooper in An Education (bottom)

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank leads the list of 2009 British Independent Film Award nominees.
The tale of a rough teenager (Katie Jarvis) whose life is upended after her mother gets a new boyfriend, Fish Tank was shortlisted in eight categories including best independent British film, best director, best screenplay (Arnold), best actress (Jarvis), best supporting actress (Kierston Wareing), best supporting actor (2008 BIFA best actor winner Michael Fassbender), and most promising newcomer (also Jarvis).
Duncan Jones‘ feature-film debut, the sci-fi thriller Moon, received seven nominations including best British film, best director, best debut director, and best actor (Sam Rockwell).
Lone [...]

British Independent Film Awards 2009

2009 British Independent Film Awards
2009 British Independent Film Award nominations: Oct. 26, 2009
2009 British Independent Film Award winners: The Brewery in London on Dec. 6, 2009
 

Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan in An Education (top); Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank (bottom)
 

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
An Education
Fish Tank
In the Loop
Moon
Nowhere Boy
BEST FOREIGN FILM
Il Divo
The Hurt Locker
Let The Right One In
Sin Nombre
The Wrestler
BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Age of Stupid
The End of The Line
Mugabe and The White African
Sons of Cuba
Sounds Like Teen Spirit
BEST DIRECTOR
Andrea Arnold – Fish Tank
Armando Iannucci – In the Loop
Duncan Jones – [...]

Tokyo Film Festival Awards 2009

2009 Tokyo Film Festival Awards
2009 Tokyo Film Festival: October 17-25, 2009
 

In Kamen Kalev’s Bulgarian drama Eastern Plays, two estranged brothers are unexpectedly brought together after they play opposing roles in a racist beating — Georgi is a new member of a neo-Nazi group; Itso, a drug-addicted artist, rescues the victimized Turkish family. Compounding matters, Georgi (Ovanes Torosian) starts to question his place in the neo-nazi movement while Itso (Tokyo best actor winner Christo Christov) falls for the Turkish girl he saved. Eastern Plays is the second film featuring neo-nazi characters to win a top international film festival prize this week. Nicolo Donato’s Danish drama Brotherhood, about two neo-nazis who fall in love with one another, was [...]

AFI FEST 2009: Christopher Plummer, Viggo Mortensen Tributes

James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station (top); Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 has selected Christopher Plummer, who’ll turn 80 next December, and Viggo Mortensen, 51, as this year’s tribute honorees.
Sponsored by the Skirball Cultural Center, Plummer’s tribute will precede the screening of The Last Station, in which he plays Leo Tolstoy, on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Mortensen’s tribute will precede the US premiere of John Hillcoat’s futuristic drama The Road on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Both tributes will take place at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
A stage, film, and television and television veteran, during the course of his 50-plus-year career Plummer has won two Tony Awards (for Cyrano [...]

Rome Film Festival Awards 2009

2009 Rome Film Festival Awards
2009 Rome Film Festival: Oct. 15-23, 2009
 

Danish-born filmmaker Nicolo Donato’s feature-film debut, Brotherhood revolves around a group of Danish neo-Nazis, with particular focus on two members of this group of violent, xenophobic, anti-gay bigots: newbie Lars (Thure Lindhardt), who has been recently discharged from the army, and Jimmy (David Dencik), one of the leaders of the gang. Things get complicated after Lars moves in with Jimmy and discovers that he feels more than a mere brotherly attachment to his mentor. Even more shocking, Jimmy realizes that he feels something quite special for Lars as well. Now, what to do next? Curiously, three years ago another movie featuring neo-nazis, Shane Meadows‘ This Is England, won [...]

European Film Awards 2009: Best Animated Feature Nominations

Mia and the Migoo (top); Niko & the Way to the Stars (middle); The Secret of Kells (bottom)

The European Film Academy has announced the three nominees for the new European Film Award category "Best Animated Feature Film."
They are:

Mia and the Migoo (Mia et le Migou) (France 2008)
by Jacques-Rémy Girerd
A young girl sets out looking for her father, a worker at the building site of a luxury hotel in the middle of a hidden forest. Deep in the woods, she comes face to face with the mysterious creature Migoo.
Niko & the Way to the Stars (Niko – Lentäjän poika) (Finland / Germany / Denmark / Ireland 2008)
by Kari Juusonen & [...]

Susan Sarandon: Lifetime Achievement Award at Stockholm Festival

Susan Sarandon will be the recipient of the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award 2009 to be presented at the 20th Stockholm International Film Festival, which runs Nov. 18-29. Sarandon will be accepting the honor in person.
As per the Stockholm Film Festival’s press release, "the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to honor and acknowledge a longstanding career and an outstanding achievement in cinema. The prestigious award, in the shape of a 16 lb Bronze Horse (the heaviest film award in the world), is a paraphrase on the Swedish Dala horse, designed by designer Fredrik Swärd."
Previous recipients of the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award include Lauren Bacall, Charlotte Rampling, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Jean-Luc Godard, Erland Josephson, and Paul Schrader.
Below is [...]

Gotham 2009 Nominations

Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (top); Nisreen Faour, Hiam Abbass in Amreeka (middle); Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind in A Serious Man (bottom)

Considered the official beginning of awards season in the United States, the Independent Feature Project announced its 2009 Gotham Award nominations earlier today in New York City.
The five nominees for best picture are:

Cherien Dabis‘ Amreeka, the tale of a Palestinian mother (Nisreen Faour) who immigrates with her teenage son to the American Midwest. No more pesky Israeli check-points, but lots of meat-patty flipping at burger joints.
Robert D. Siegel’s Big Fan, in which a hardcore New York Giants fan (breakthrough actor nominee Patton Oswalt) gets beaten up by his favorite player — and [...]

Gotham Awards 2009

2009 Gotham Awards
2009 Gotham Award nominations: Oct. 19, 2009
2009 Gotham Award winners: Nov. 30, 2009 in New York City
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow
 

Best Feature
Amreeka
Cherien Dabis, director; Christina Piovesan, Paul Barkin, producers (National Geographic Entertainment)
Big Fan
Robert Siegel, director; Jean Kouremetis, Elan Bogarin, producers (First Independent Pictures)
The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow, director; Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro, producers (Summit Entertainment)
The Maid
Sebastian Silva, director; Gregorio Gonzales, producer (Elephant Eye Films)
A Serious Man
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors/producers (Focus Features)
Best Documentary
Food, Inc.
Robert Kenner, director; Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, producers (Magnolia Pictures)
Good Hair
Jeff Stilson, director; Chris Rock, Kevin O’Donnell, Nelson George Jenny Hunter, producers (Liddell Entertainment and Roadside Attractions in association with [...]

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Foreign Language Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
An autobiographical tale set in the director’s Sicilian hometown

Forever Enthralled, Chen Kaige (China)
Biopic chronicling the life of Mei Lanfang, China’s greatest opera star.

I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan (Canada)
A young gay man has some serious issues with his mother.

A Prophet, Jacques Audiard (France)
Prison drama in which a young hood learns what it takes to reach the top of that small (and nasty) world.

The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke (Germany)
As a prelude to both World War I and World War II, a German village unexpectedly becomes the setting of numerous acts of cruelty.

Quality (much like fairness) is in the brain of the judge. (Of course, if we’re lucky enough to have a judge [...]

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Supporting Actress

Best Supporting Actress

Penélope Cruz, Nine
A film director’s seductive mistress (if she’s half as tantalizing in the film as she is in the above photo, Cruz deserves not only a nod but the golden statuette itself)

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
A professional downsizer’s trainee

Mo’Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A pregnant, illiterate teen’s Mom from Hell

Julianne Moore, A Single Man (with Colin Firth)
A married alcoholic pining for an English professor — who just happens to be both gay and suicidal

Emma Thompson, An Education
A school headmistress in 1960s London

The most disputed acting category in the 2010 Oscar race. In addition to the aforementioned five actresses, five others who could easily land a nomination (in case their movies open [...]

Next Page →

Recently Posted

• European Film Awards 2009: Rules & Relevance
• European Film Awards 2009: Nominations
• European Film Awards 2009
• Chicago Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
• AFI FEST 2009: THE LAST STATION, AFTER.LIFE
• AFI FEST 2009 Awards
• AFI FEST 2009: POLICE, ADJECTIVE; TO DIE LIKE A MAN
• Grace Kelly: TO CATCH A THIEF, THE SWAN
• Grace Kelly on TCM
• AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN, THE SINGULARITY

Most Popular Tags

2008 Oscar Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Animation Best Films Books Box Office Brokeback Mountain Censorship Classic Movies Daniel Day-Lewis Documentaries DVDs Film Awards Film Festivals Film Reviews Gay Film Festivals Gay Interest Gay Movies Heath Ledger Helen Mirren Interviews London Film Festival London Film Festival 2009 Los Angeles Screenings Martin Scorsese New York Screenings No Country for Old Men Oscar Movies Penélope Cruz Photos Political Movies Politics Sex Shorts Silent Films Slumdog Millionaire Sundance Film Festival Trailers Turner Classic Movies


Related Posts

London 2009: Emma Thompson, Dominic Cooper, Carey MulliganOscar 2010 DatesColin Firth to Be Honored in Santa BarbaraLondon 2009: Amanda Seyfried, Michael Haneke, Thomas TurgooseJohn Hurt, Tahar Rahim, Yoav Shamir: London 2009Oscar 2009 Predictions: Best Song, Visual Effects