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The Movies’ Top Five Scariest Living Dead

In The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment not only sees dead people, he hears them as well. Bruce Willis, for his part, sees and hears what he wants to see and hear.

The Day of Dead ended on this meridian about five hours ago. But the Night of the Dead is still here. It isn’t quite midnight, yet. (It wasn’t; it took me longer to write this post than I expected. Even so, it isn’t midnight in Hawaii, yet.)
In honor of this Christianized pagan holiday — the pagans came up with some of the most important Christian holidays — below is my list of the movies’ Top Five Scariest Living Dead. By that I don’t mean actors, characters, or real-life [...]

Federico García Lorca’s Remains to Be Exhumed

Javier Beltrán as Federico García Lorca, Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes

According to reports, forensic experts have begun digging at a mass unmarked grave in search of the remains of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca (right), executed in the early days of Spain’s bloody 1936-39 civil war.
The work is taking place on a remote hillside area near Granada, in Spain’s southern province of Andalusia. The assassins were members of a militia loyal to right-wing Gen. Francisco Franco. Approximately 500,000 people were killed during the civil war, which erupted after Franco, abetted by Spain’s business establishment and the Catholic Church, rebelled against the elected leftist Republican government. (Guillermo del Toro captures the brutality of this dark period [...]

A Tribute to Dick Smith: The Godfather of Special Makeup Effects

The Godfather: Dick Smith and Al Pacino (top); Smith, Marlon Brando, and Phil Rhodes (bottom)

"A Tribute to Dick Smith: The Godfather of Special Makeup Effects" will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Six-time Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker will host the evening, which will be attended by Dick Smith himself and will feature a panel discussion including writer-director Guillermo del Toro, actor Hal Holbrook, and makeup artists Greg Cannom, Kazuhiro Tsuji and Andrew Clement, among others.
The evening will highlight Smith’s long career, which began in 1945 when he became NBC’s first [...]

Ariel Awards 2007

2007 Ariel Awards
The Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2007 Ariel nominations: February 21, 2007
2007 Ariel winners: Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on March 20, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Doug Jones, Ivana Baquero in Pan’s Labyrinth
 
Best Film / Mejor película
Crónicas / Chronicles by Producciones Anhelo
* El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth by Tequila Gang, Estudios Picasso and Fábrica de Ficción.
El violín / The Violin by the Fondo de Inversión y Estímulos al Cine (Fidecine), Cámara Carnal Films and Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC).
Best Ibero-American Film / Mejor película iberoamericana
En la cama / In Bed by Matías Bize (Chile)
* La vida secreta de las palabras / The Secret Life of Words by [...]

Goya Awards 2007 Winners

Yohana Cobo, Penélope Cruz in Volver (top); Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero in Pan’s Labyrinth (bottom)

The Spanish Academy’s Goya Awards were presented on Jan. 28. Although best picture winner Volver seemed like an easy pick, it actually faced stiff competition from both Agustín Díaz-Yanes‘ adventure period piece Alatriste and Guillermo del Toro’s dark fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth.
Ultimately, Volver took home five Goyas: best film, best direction (Pedro Almodóvar), best actress (Penélope Cruz), best supporting actress (Carmen Maura), and best original score (Alberto Iglesias).
Almodóvar, however, failed to win the original screenplay award, which went to Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro’s film, in fact, turned out to be the top Goya winner that evening: seven trophies in all. Among [...]

Palm Springs Film Festival Awards 2007

2007 Palm Springs Film Festival Awards
2007 Palm Springs Film Festival: January 4-15, 2007
2007 Palm Springs Film Festival Winners
 

 

FIPRESCI Award Winner – Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico / Spain / U.S.) directed by Guillermo del Toro
 
New Voices New Visions Grand Jury Prize: Zemestan / It’s Winter (Iran) directed by Rafi Pitts
New Voices New Visions Special Jury Prize: Aguas Argentinas / Agua (Argentina) directed by Verónica Chen
Audience Choice Award – Best Narrative Feature: Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others (Germany) directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Audience Choice Award Best – Documentary Feature: Blindsight (United Kingdom) directed by Lucy Walker
 
Director of the Year: Alejandro González [...]

2007 Palm Springs Film Festival Winners

The 2007 Palm Springs Film Festival has announced its jury and audience winners.
The New Voices New Visions Grand Jury Prize was given to Rafi Pitts‘ Iranian drama It’s Winter, the story of a woman left behind in a small Iranian town after her husband travels abroad looking for work.

The Special Jury Prize went to Verónica Chen’s Agua, an Argentinean drama about two swimmers — one trying to refute charges of doping, the other doing whatever he can to join the national team.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s old-fashioned spy melodrama The Lives of Others, winner of 7 German Academy Awards and the European Film Academy’s best film, was the audience choice for best narrative feature. The Lives of [...]

2006 National Society of Film Critics Awards Winners

The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), composed of 58 U.S. critics mostly based in New York City and Los Angeles, has chosen Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-language dark fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth as the best film of 2006.
Set in 1940s Spain, Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of a girl (Ivana Baquero) who finds herself living in two worlds: One of Fascist horror above ground, one of dark magic below ground. Also in the cast are Sergi López, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones, and Maribel Verdú, none of whom made the NSFC’s list of winners or top runners-up. (In the last couple of decades, acting categories have tended to be restricted to English-speaking roles.)
The last time the NSFC chose a foreign-language [...]

Austin Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Austin Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Austin Film Critics Association award winners: January 2, 2007
 

 

Best Film: United 93 by Paul Greengrass
Runners-up: The Departed, Pan’s Labyrinth, Children of Men, Brick, Borat, Little Children, The Queen, The Prestige, The Fountain
Best Foreign Film: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro
Best Documentary: This Film Is Not Yet Rated directed by Kirby Dick
Best Animated Film: Cars by John Lasseter and Joe Ranft
Best First Film: Rian Johnson, Brick
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Best Actress: Ellen Page, Hard Candy
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Best Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Best Original Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel [...]

Online Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Online Film Critics Society Awards
2007 Online Film Critics Society award nominations: January 2, 2007
2007 Online Film Critics Society award winners: January 8, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 

Best Picture
Babel
Children of Men
The Departed
Pan’s Labyrinth
* United 93 by Paul Greengrass
Best Foreign Film
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
The Child
* Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro
Volver
Water
Best Documentary
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
* An Inconvenient Truth by Davis Guggenheim
Jesus Camp
Neil Young Heart of Gold
Shut Up & Sing
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón – Children of Men
Paul Greengrass – United 93
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel
* Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Guillermo del Toro – Pan’s Labyrinth
Best Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole – Venus
* Forest Whitaker – [...]

2007 Goya Awards: Nominations

Viggo Mortensen in Alatriste (top); Lola Dueñas, Yohana Cobo, Penélope Cruz in Volver (bottom)

Agustín Díaz Yanes‘ 17th-century tale of a Spanish soldier turned mercenary, Alatriste, and Pedro Almodóvar’s story of the women of La Mancha, Volver, dominated the Spanish Film Academy’s 2007 Goya Award nominations announced yesterday, Dec. 18, by actors Pilar López de Ayala and Juan José Ballesta. Alatriste, the most expensive Spanish film ever made (€24 million), received a total of 15 nods, while Volver received 14.
Both Alatriste and Volver were nominated for best film, best director, and, respectively, for best adapted screenplay (Alatriste is a cinematic condensation of five novels by Arturo Pérez Reverte) and best original screenplay. (Curiously, Volver failed to get a best editing [...]

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