Oscar 2010: Those That Didn’t Make It

Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated (top); Penelope Cruz, Lluís Homar in Broken Embraces (middle); Agnes Varda in The Beaches of Agnes (bottom)

Which movies were totally ignored by the Academy? Which performers and filmmakers were ignored? The list is quite long, of course. Below are the most notable omissions from the Oscar 2010 shortlist.
Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer, Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces, Todd Phillips‘ The Hangover, Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, Duncan Jones‘ Moon, Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre, Sebastian Silva’s The Maid, and Olivier Assayas‘ Summer Hours were totally left out.
And so were Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles, Nancy Meyers‘ It’s Complicated, Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!, John Hillcoat’s The Road, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things [...]

2010 Oscar Predictions: Best Documentary

2010 Oscar Predictions
Best Documentary Feature

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

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

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

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 and Rick Goldsmith, directors (Kovno Communications)

Like in the best foreign language film category, the best documentary feature Academy Award nominations are decided by a relatively small group of people. Like in the best foreign language film category, controversies have plagued the Academy’s documentary branch since its inception decades ago.
Four of the five films above have been widely talked about, especially The Beaches [...]

THE HURT LOCKER Tops National Society of Film Critics Awards

Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (Jonathan Olley / Summit Entertainment)

The Hurt Locker was the National Society of Film Critics’ big winner. The war drama about a bomb squad doing their work in the dangerous streets of an Iraqi city was voted best film of 2009, and earned honors for director Kathryn Bigelow and actor Jeremy Renner. Most US film critic’ groups have picked The Hurt Locker as the best film of 2009 and Bigelow as best director. Jeremy Renner has also received several citations and is up for a SAG Award.
The NSFC’s best actress was — I told you not be surprised — Cesar winner Yolande Moreau for Séraphine, in which she plays Séraphine de Senlis, a houseworker [...]

Los Angeles Film Critics Winner THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS Returns to LA

Cinema Guild will bring Agnès Varda’s Les plages d’Agnès / The Beaches of Agnès back to Los Angeles for an open-ended return engagement on Saturday, December 26, and Sunday, December 27, at 11 am at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood and Playhouse 7 in Pasadena.
Named the Best Documentary of 2009 (tied with Louie Psihoyos‘ The Cove) by the Los Angeles Film Critics, The Beaches of Agnès has also been included on the shortlist for Academy Award consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category. Additionally, The Beaches of Agnès was nominated for an European Film Award.
From the Cinema Guild press release:
Agnès Varda, whom A.O. Scott in The New York Times deemed “a treasure” when writing [...]

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 [...]

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