MAN ON WIRE, IN A DREAM Screening

Philippe Petit in James Marsh’s Man on Wire (top); Isaiah and Julia Zagar in Jeremiah Zagar’s In a Dream (bottom)

James Marsh’s Man on Wire and Jeremiah Zagar’s In a Dream will launch the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 28th annual "Contemporary Documentaries" screening series on Wednesday, September 30, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission to all screenings in the series is free.
Man on Wire tells the story of Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked on a wire illegally rigged between the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center — a feat that became known as "the artistic crime of the century." Directed [...]

by Anna Robinson | September 15, 2009   
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Oscar 2009: Academy Invites 134 New Members

James McAvoy in Atonement (top); Michelle Williams, Lucy in Wendy and Lucy (bottom)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 134 artists and executives to join its roster in 2009.
As per the Academy’s press release, all the various branches could pick a maximum of 166 new members, but as in the previous years "the several branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than were proposed to them."
Most of the invitees are actors, among them several previous Oscar nominees, e.g., Casey Affleck, Melissa Leo, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and lots of young talent, e.g., James Franco, Michael Cera, James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Seth Rogen, Emile Hirsch. (But where are Robert Pattinson and Zac Effron??)

Among those listed in the other [...]

by Deborah Arthur | June 30, 2009   
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DGA Awards 2009

2009 Directors Guild Awards
2009 DGA feature film nominations: January 8, 2009. Documentary and television nominations: January 9, 2009
2009 DGA award winners: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, January 31, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Following his DGA win, Danny Boyle is the odds-on favorite to win the best director Academy Award. In fact, Boyle has been the odds-on favorite for quite some time. In any case, since the DGA Awards’ inception in 1949 only eight times has the DGA winner failed to win the best director Oscar. (Actually, more like six times as there was some overlapping in the 1948-49 selections. Check out the DGA Awards/the Oscars.) Slumdog Millionaire has also won the Producers Guild Award.
 

FEATURE [...]

by Deborah Arthur | January 31, 2009   
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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 [...]

by Andre Soares | January 3, 2009   
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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: [...]

by Deborah Arthur | December 23, 2008   
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International Documentary Association Awards 2008

2008 International Documentary Association Awards
2008 International Documentary Association winners: December 06, 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 

Feature Documentary (tie)
Kassim The Dream
Director/Producer: Kief Davidson
Producer: Liz Silver
Executive Producers: Forest Whitaker, Keisha Whitaker, Joshua Green
Believe Media, Urban Landscapes, Monaco Film Hamburg, ARTE/ZDF Enterprises
* Man on Wire
Director: James Marsh
Producer: Simon Chinn
Red Box Films, Wall to Wall, Discovery Films, BBC, UK Film Council, Magnolia Pictures
Stranded: I’ve come from a plane that crashed in the mountains
Director: Gonzalo Arijón
Producer: Mark Silvera
Ethan Productions, La Realidad, ARTE France, ITVS International, Zeitgeist Films 
* Waltz with Bashir
Director/Producer: Ari Folman
Producers: Yael Nahlieli, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, [...]

by Deborah Arthur | December 6, 2008   
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