Golden Globes 2010 Predictions: Best Picture – Drama

2010 Golden Globe Predictions: Best Picture – Drama

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow; scr: Mark Boal
A US Army elite unit disarms bombs in Iraq.

Invictus, d: Clint Eastwood; scr: Anthony Peckham
Newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela campaigns to stage the Rugby World Cup in South Africa so as to unite blacks and whites.

The Last Station, d & scr: Michael Hoffman
Leo Tolstoy’s family life is upended by the writer’s radical politics.

The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson; scr: Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens
A murdered girl sees the world, chiefly her small Pennsylvania town, from up above.

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, d: Lee Daniels; scr: Geoffrey Fletcher
A pregnant, abused, illiterate teen is helped by a kind teacher.

 
The chief characteristic [...]

Oscar 2010: Documentary Feature Semi-Finalists

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semi-finalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Documentary Feature category. Eighty-nine films had been in the running.
The 15 documentary feature semi-finalists are:

The Beaches of Agnes, Agnès Varda, director (Cine-Tamaris)

Burma VJ, Anders Østergaard, director (Magic Hour Films)

The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, director (Oceanic Preservation Society)

Every Little Step, James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, directors (Endgame Entertainment)

Facing Ali, Pete McCormack, director (Network Films Inc.)

Food, Inc., Robert Kenner, director (Robert Kenner Films)

Garbage Dreams, Mai Iskander, director (Iskander Films, Inc.)

Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, Mark N. Hopkins, director (Red Floor Pictures LLC)

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich [...]

Oscar 2010: Hash Hamilton to Direct Oscar Telecast

Hamish Hamilton will direct the 2010 Academy Awards telecast, show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman have announced. It will be Hamilton”s first time directing the Oscar show.
Among Hamilton’s credits are the “MTV Video Music Awards” and the “MTV Europe Music Awards,” in addition to live concert performances by the likes of U2, Neil Diamond, Josh Groban, Stevie Wonder, and Christina Aguilera, among others. In February 2010, he will direct the Super Bowl XLIV half-time show.
The 2010 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place [...]

Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman, Gordon Willis: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipients Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall, and Gordon Willis at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.
“It’s so much better … that nobody’s worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2,” remarked Warren Beatty, a former Irving G. Thalberg Award recipient who paid homage to this year’s Thalberg Award honoree John Calley, who, reportedly suffering from serious health issues, was unable to attend the ceremony.
After Kirk Douglas declared he once unsuccessfully tried to seduce her, and Anjelica Huston praised her “steadfastness,” 85-year-old Lauren Bacall waved away an escort trying to help her get to the podium, remembered her “great love” Humphrey Bogart, her myriad leading [...]

Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Vera Farmiga: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Walter Mirisch, and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks present the Thalberg Award to producer John Calley (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons), who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Actress Vera Farmiga, a potential contender for the 2010 best supporting actress Oscar

Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges and wife Susan

Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme (for The Silence of the Lambs) and Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

George Lucas, Meg Tilly, Kirk Douglas: Governors Awards 2009

Academy Award-nominated actresses Jennifer Tilly (as best supporting actress, for Bullets Over Broadway) and Meg Tilly (also in the best supporting actress category, for Agnes of God), arrive at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient and two-time best director Academy Award nominee George Lucas with investor/TV show hostess Mellody Hobson

Three-time Academy Award nominee Kirk Douglas pays tribute to Lauren Bacall, his co-star in both Young Man with a Horn (1950) and Diamonds (1999)
Photos: Michael Yada (Jennifer and Meg Tilly, Lucas), Richard Harbaugh (Douglas) / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Roger Corman, Anjelica Huston, Sally Kellerman: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman, the producer-director of cult classics such as House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tower of London, The Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and Bloody Mama, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Academy Award-nominated actress Sally Kellerman (in the supporting category, for M*A*S*H, in 1970) and Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston (also as best supporting actress, for Prizzi’s Honor in 1985)

Five-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, among whose credits are The Black Stallion, The Right Stuff, The Natural, and The Passion of the Christ
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on [...]

Gordon Willis, Ron Howard, Dana Delany: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as Klute, The Godfather films, Serpico, All the President’s Men, Annie Hall, Comes a Horseman, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, and The Purple Rose of Cairo, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14. Despite his impressive list of credits, Willis has been nominated for only two Academy Awards: Zelig (1982) and The Godfather Part III (1990)

Ron Howard, who won a best director Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind in 2002

Actress Dana Delany of the television series Desperate Housewives
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Lauren Bacall, Maria Bello, Alec Baldwin: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, who appeared in, among others, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Young Man with a Horn, How to Marry a Millionaire, Woman’s World, Sex and the Single Girl, Murder on the Orient Express, The Fan, and The Mirror Has Two Faces, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Maria Bello, the leading lady in A History of Violence

Oscar 2010 co-host Alec Baldwin, a best supporting actor Academy Award nominee for The Cooler
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Tom Hanks, Annette Bening, Warren Beatty: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Dino de Laurentiis, Warren Beatty, Norman Jewison, Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Walter Mirisch and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks present the Thalberg Award to producer John Calley (The Remains of the Day, The Da Vinci Code), who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Norman Jewison, whose socially conscious cop drama In the Heat of the Night won the best picture Oscar in 1968

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Board of Governors posed for a group photo following the 2009 Governors Awards
Front Row (left to right): Sid [...]

Warren Beatty, Steven Spielberg, Dino de Laurentiis: Governors Awards 2009

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Warren Beatty, who also won a best director Oscar for Reds in 1982, at the presentation of the Thalberg Award to John Calley, who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Steven Spielberg, who also won two best directors Oscars, for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan

Previous Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Dino de Laurentiis, the producer of classics such as La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, The Great War, The Stranger, and Serpico
Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Lauren Bacall, Annette Bening, Jeff Bridges: Governors Awards 2009

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, the star of classics such as To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Designing Woman. Bacall was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996.
“A man at last,” the 85-year-old Bacall exclaimed while holding her Honorary Oscar. “I’m here to stay so you better get used to the idea.”

Three-time Oscar nominated actress Annette Bening toasts Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall during the 2009 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as The Godfather Part II, All the President’s Men, and The Purple Rose of Cairo, receives [...]

Warren Beatty, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg: Governors Awards 2009

Past Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipients Dino de Laurentiis, Warren Beatty, Saul Zaentz, George Lucas, Norman Jewison, Walter Mirisch, Steven Spielberg presenting this year’s Thalberg Award to John Calley, who was unable to attend the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14.

Honorary Award recipient Roger Corman, the producer-director of numerous low-budget films including Attack of the Crab Monsters, Carnival Rock, Bloody Mama, and House of Usher

Honorary Award recipient Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of classics such as The Godfather, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, with Jeff Bridges, one of the stars of Bad Company, a 1972 Western shot by Willis
Richard Harbaugh (Willis/Bridges, group photo), Matt Petit (Corman) / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the photos [...]

Blue Dragon Awards 2009

2009 Blue Dragon Awards
2009 Blue Dragon Awards – Nominations: Nov. 14, 2009
2009 Blue Dragon Awards – Winners: KBS Hall in Seoul on Dec. 2, 2009
 

Directed by Joon-ho Bong, Mother chronicles the fight of a middle-aged mother to clear the name of her son, accused of a vicious crime. Mother is South Korea’s submission for the 2010 best foreign language film Academy Awards.
 

Best Film
Take Off – Yong-hwa Kim
Good Morning President – Jang Jin
Mother – Joon-ho Bong
Thirst – Chan-wook Park
Haeundae – Je-gyun Yun
Best Director
Yong-hwa Kim – Take Off
Jang Jin – Good Morning President
Joon-ho Bong – Mother
Chan-wook Park – Thirst
Je-gyun Yun – Haeundae
Best New Director
Hyeong-cheol Kang – Scandal Makers
Keon-hong Park – Lifting King Kong
Ik-jun Yang – Breathless
Yong-ju Lee – Possessed
Ki-hun [...]

Oscar 2010: David Rockwell to Design Oscar Show

David Rockwell will serve as production designer for the 2010 Academy Awards, Oscar telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have announced. Rockwell served in that same capacity last year.
Rockwell’s set design work includes the Broadway productions of Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Rocky Horror Show, as well as the upcoming Elf and Houdini. His firm also designed the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland complex.
Other projects designed by Rockwell Group include a free-standing building for Cirque du Soleil at Walt Disney World in Florida; the Elinor Bunin-Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center in New York; and the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
The [...]

Golden Globes 2010: Martin Scorsese to Receive Cecil B. DeMille Award

Martin Scorsese will be the next recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Scorsese will be handed out his Cecil B. at the 2010 Golden Globes ceremony on January 17 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Hosted by Ricky Gervais, the show will be broadcast live coast to coast Sunday, January 17 on NBC (5 to 8 pm PT, 8 to 11 pm ET).
The Cecil B. DeMille Award, voted by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was announced by Vera Farmiga.
Scorsese has already taken home two Golden Globe Awards for Best Director of a Motion Picture: for Gangs of New York (2002) and The Departed (2006). He has also [...]

Oscar 2010: Animated Feature Semi-Finalists

Up by Pete Docter (top); A Town Called Panic by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar (middle); Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson (bottom)

Twenty features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 2010 Academy Awards. They are:

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Astro Boy
Battle for Terra
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Mary and Max
The Missing Lynx
Monsters vs. [...]

People’s Choice Awards 2010

2010 People’s Choice Awards
2010 People’s Choice Award Nominations: Nov. 10, 2009
2010 People’s Choice Award Winners: Jan. 6, 2010
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart in Twilight
 

FILM
Favorite Movie
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
The Hangover
The Proposal
Twilight
Best Movie Actor
Brad Pitt
Hugh Jackman
Johnny Depp
Robert Pattinson
Ryan Reynolds
Best Movie Actress
Anna Hathaway
Drew Barrymore
Jennifer Aniston
Kristen Stewart
Sandra Bullock
Best Action Star
Christian Bale
Gerard Butler
Hugh Jackman
Shia LaBeouf
Vin Diesel
Best Comedic Star
Adam Sandler
Ben Stiller
Jim Carrey
Ryan Reynolds
Vince Vaughn
Best Breakout Movie Actress
Anna Kendrick
Emily Osment
Ginnifer Goodwin
Miley [...]

Awards 2010: Warren Beatty to Receive ADG Honor

Warren Beatty will receive the Art Directors Guild’s Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award, "given to an individual whose body of work in the film industry has richly enhanced the visual aspects of the movie-going experience," at the ADG Awards ceremony on February 13, 2010, at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Nine other ADG awards will also be presented, along with a Lifetime Achievement Award for production designer Terence Marsh (Mary Queen of Scots, A Touch of Class, Clear and Present Danger, The Green Mile). Additionally, three production designers will be inducted into the ADG’s Hall of Fame: Malcolm F. Brown, Bob Keene, and Ferdinando Scarfiotti.

Among the 72-year-old Beatty’s [...]

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 [...]

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