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2009 Golden Globe Winners

Kate Winslet, Leonardio DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road (top); Winslet, David Kross in The Reader (bottom)

There were few surprises among the 2009 Golden Globe winners.
The biggest one was Kate Winslet’s best actress, drama, win for Revolutionary Road. Pundits everywhere — including those in this blog — were predicting either Anne Hathaway or Meryl Streep.
Sally Hawkins‘ best actress, comedy or musical, win may have caught some by surprise — those who were expecting Meryl Streep for the box-office hit Mamma Mia!. But considering that Hawkins has been a critical favorite (New York, Los Angeles, National Society of Film Critics) and that she’s a likely Oscar contender, Golden Globe prognosticators shouldn’t have been too shocked, even though Happy-Go-Lucky is hardly what one would [...]

National Society of Film Critics 2009 Winners

An animated film has won the National Society of Film Critics 2009 Awards. No, not WALL-E, but Ari Folman’s anti-war documentary-ish Waltz with Bashir, about Israel’s disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon. It’s hard not to believe that current events — the Gaza conflict has been going on since late December — influenced the vote, though war or no war in the Middle East, Waltz with Bashir has been garnering nearly universal praise.
Waltz with Bashir, which had previously won the Los Angeles Film Critics‘ best animated film award (a sort of consolation prize for having lost to WALL-E in the best film category), is Israel’s entry for the 2009 best foreign-language film Oscar; the film is also one of [...]

Oscar 2009 Predictions: Best Actor, Actress

Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass in The Visitor

BEST ACTOR
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
Sean Penn (Milk)
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Clint Eastwood becomes a sentimental favorite whenever he has a Message to convey;
Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke have been winning awards left and right;
Frank Langella will get his first Oscar nod (a sort of career achievement recognition, like James Garner’s — well-deserved — nomination for Murphy’s Romance back in 1985);
and so will SAG nominee Richard Jenkins.

Runners-up: Unless Dev Patel pulls off a Keisha Castle-Hughes upset (she was pushed as a supporting player for Whale Rider in 2003, but landed a — truly surprising — best actress nod instead), the five [...]

Oklahoma Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards
2008 Oklahoma Film Critics winners: December 23, 2008
 

Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire
 

Best Film of 2008: Slumdog Millionaire dir. Danny Boyle
Top Ten Films (listed alphabetically):
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
The Wrestler
Best Foreign Film: Let the Right One In, dir. Tomas Alfredson
Best First Feature: Synecdoche, New York, dir. Charlie Kaufman
Best Documentary: Man on Wire, dir. James Marsh
Best Animated Film: WALL-E dir. Andrew Stanton
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Original Screenplay: [...]

Satellite Awards 2008

2008 Satellite Awards
2008 International Press Academy’s Satellite Award nominations: November 30, 2008
2008 Satellite Award winners: December 14, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire
 

Motion Picture, Drama
The Reader
* Slumdog Millionaire
Revolutionary Road
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Frozen River
Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
* Happy-Go-Lucky
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Tropic Thunder
In Bruges
Choke
Motion Picture, Foreign Language Film
Let the Right One In, Sweden
The Class, France
Sangre de mi Sangre, Argentina
Reprise, Norway
* Gomorrah, Italy
Caramel, Lebanon / France
Motion Picture, Animated Or Mixed Media
The Tale of Despereaux
Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
* WALL-E
Bolt
Waltz with Bashir
The Sky Crawlers
Motion Picture, Documentary (tie)
* Man on Wire
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Encounters at the End of the World
Religulous
* Anita O’Day The Life of a Jazz Singer
Waltz with Bashir
Director
Thomas McCarthy, The Visitor
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van [...]

2008 New York Film Critics Winners

There were no major surprises in the list of the New York Film Critics Circle’s 2008 winners — unless you count last year’s Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days being chosen this year’s best foreign film. (Last year, the New York critics’ picked the German drama The Lives of Others — released in Los Angeles in 2006 — as their top foreign film; the previous year, their choice was the French underground drama Army of Shadows, a 1969 release in its country of origin.)
Milk was voted best film, Sean Penn (above) was the best actor for his performance as slain gay leader Harvey Milk, and Josh Brolin was chosen best supporting actor for the same film. [...]

2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Winners

For the first time in its 34-year history, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has bestowed its best picture award on an animated film, the Disney/Pixar production Wall-E.

Other surprises included Berlin Film Festival winner Sally Hawkins (above) as best actress for Happy-Go-Lucky, which means that Hawkins is now a potential Oscar contender; Jia Zhangke’s 2006 Venice Film Festival-winning Chinese drama Still Life as best foreign-language film and for the year’s best cinematography, for Lik Wai Yu; and Happy-Go-Lucky for best screenplay (Mike Leigh, who also directed the film).

Non-surprises were Heath Ledger (above) as best supporting actor for The Dark Knight; James Marsh’s widely acclaimed Man on Wire as best documentary; and National Board of Review winner Penélope [...]

Berlin 2008: Official Competition Line-Up

2008 Berlin Film Festival: Official Competition Line-Up
The Berlin Film Festival will be held between February 7–17, 2008.

Avaze Gonjeshk-ha / The Song of Sparrows, Iran (World Premiere)
by Majid Majidi
with Reza Najie, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hossein Aghazi

Ballast, USA (International Premiere)
by Lance Hammer
with Micheal J. Smith, Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs

Bam gua Nat / Night and Day, Republic of Korea (World Premiere)
by Hong Sangsoo
with Kim Youngho, Park Eunhye, Hwang Soojung

Caos calmo / Quiet Chaos, Italy (International Premiere)
by Antonello Grimaldi
with Nanni Moretti, Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassman, Valeria Golino

Elegy, USA
by Isabel Coixet
with Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper

Feuerherz / Heart of Fire, Germany / Austria
by Luigi Falorni
with Letekidan Micael

Gardens of the Night, Great Britain / USA [...]

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