Writers Guild Awards 2007

2007 WGA Awards
2007 Writers Guild of America Award television and radio nominations: December 13, 2006; motion picture nominations: January 11, 2007
2007 WGA Award winners: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and at the Hudson Theater in the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York on February 11, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear in Little Miss Sunshine (top); Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson in The Departed (bottom)
 

FEATURES
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel, Written by Guillermo Arriaga, Paramount Vantage
* Little Miss Sunshine, Written by Michael Arndt, Fox Searchlight Pictures
The Queen, Written by Peter Morgan, Miramax Films
Stranger Than Fiction, Written by Zach Helm, Sony Pictures Entertainment
United 93, Written by Paul Greengrass, Universal Pictures
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat: Cultural [...]

Sharon Stone, Isaiah Washington, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, and Gay Slurs

Sharon Stone does a brief zen meditation session on the set of Basic Instinct 2 while trying to uncover the elusive difference between fag and faggot.

See, it’s all about Got.
No, God has absolutely nothing to do with anything. I wrote Got. Just follow me.
Exhibit A:
When Alan Arkin’s heroin-addicted grandpa tells Steve Carell’s wimpy, sexless gay amoeba to go get himself a “fag rag,” the audience at the industry screening where I saw the weather-beaten Little Miss Sunshine pissed in their pants laughing. (You could actually smell the stench.)
Little Miss Sunshine has gone on to win the Producers Guild Award for best picture of 2006; it has won numerous critics’ awards for Michael Arndt’s screenplay, and it has received four [...]

Oscar 2007

2007 Academy Awards
2007 Academy Award nominations: January 23, 2007
2007 Academy Award winners: Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles on February 25, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Photos: © AMPAS
 

Best motion picture of the year
Babel (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films Production
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers
* The Departed (Warner Bros.)
A Warner Bros. Pictures Production
Graham King
Letters from Iwo Jima (Warner Bros.)
A DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures Production
Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, Producers
Little Miss Sunshine (Fox Searchlight)
A Big Beach/Bona Fide Production
David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub
The Queen (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
A Granada Production
Andy Harries, Christine Langan and Tracey Seaward, Producers

Best foreign language film of the year
After the Wedding [...]

Kansas City Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
2007 Kansas City Film Critics Circle award winners: January 4, 2007
 

 

Best Film: United 93 directed by Paul Greengrass
Best Foreign Language Film: Letters from Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood
Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim
Best Animated Film: Over the Hedge directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick
Robert Altman Award for Directing: Paul Greengrass, United 93
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Sheen, The Queen
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine O’Hara, For Your Consideration
Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed
Vince Koehler Award for Outstanding Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Film: Pan’s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo [...]

Phoenix Film Critics Awards 2006

2006 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
2006 Phoenix Film Critics Society award winners: December 19, 2006.
 

 

Best Film: United 93 directed by Paul Greengrass
Runners-up (in alphabetical order):
Babel
Bobby
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Best Foreign-Language Film: Letters from Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood
Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim
Best Animated Film: Flushed Away directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: [...]

Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Awards 2006

2006 Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association Award winners: December 18, 2006
 

 

Best Film: United 93 directed by Paul Greengrass
Runners-up: The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Dreamgirls, Blood Diamond, Little Children, Flags of Our Fathers.
Best Foreign-Language Film: Letters from Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood
Runners-up: Pan’s Labyrinth; Water; Volver; Apocalypto
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Runners-up: Paul Greengrass, United 93; Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel; Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima; Stephen Frears, The Queen
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Runners-up: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O’Toole, Venus; Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Runners-up: Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal; Meryl Streep, [...]

Southeastern Film Critics Awards 2006

2006 Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
2006 Southeastern Film Critics Association winners: December 17, 2006
 

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
 
Best Film: The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese
Runners-up: Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen, United 93, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, Babel, Pan’s Labyrinth, Little Children, Thank You for Smoking
Best Foreign-Language Film: Pan’s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed
Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim
Best Animated Film: Cars directed by [...]

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE – Awards and Nominations

Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine

Unless otherwise stated, all Little Miss Sunshine awards/nominations are for the year 2006.

Academy Awards: 4 nominations (best film; best supporting actor, Alan Arkin; best supporting actress, Abigail Breslin; best original screenplay, Michael Arndt)
American Cinema Editors: 1 nomination (best edited feature film, comedy or musical, Pamela Martin)
British Academy Awards: 2 wins (best supporting actor, Alan Arkin; best original screenplay, Michael Arndt)

4 additional nominations (best film; best directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris; best supporting actress, Abigail Breslin; best supporting actress, Toni Collette)

Broadcast Film Critics Association: 4 wins (best acting ensemble; best writing, Michael Arndt; best young actor, Paul Dano; best young actress, Abigail Breslin)

3 additional [...]

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE d: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Direction: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Screenplay: Michael Arndt
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano
 

More often than not, the term "independent film" merely indicates that an American production has received its financing from sources outside — or somewhere in the outskirts of — the Hollywood studio system. Only sporadically does the label "independent film" refer to edgy, challenging, and/or unconventional filmmaking.
Instead, "independent filmmakers" usually concoct storylines as conventional as those being churned out by the studios, probably in the hopes of selling their screenplays (or finished films) to a major distributor. Considering the amount of money involved, who can blame them? All they need is to wrap their films’ cliché-ridden core [...]