London Film Critics Awards 2005

2005 London Film Critics’ Circle Awards
2005 London Film Critics’ Circle Award winners: February 9, 2005.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Thomas Haden Church, Paul Giamatti in Sideways
 

Best Film
The Aviator – Martin Scorsese
The Motorcycle Diaries – Walter Salles
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michel Gondry
House of Flying Daggers – Zhang Yimou
* Sideways – Alexander Payne
Best British Film
Ae Fond Kiss . . . – Ken Loach
Finding Neverland – Marc Foster
My Summer of Love – Pawel Pwawlikowski
Shaun of the Dead – Edgar Wright
* Vera Drake – Mike Leigh
Best Foreign-Language Film
* The Motorcycle Diaries – Walter Salles
A Very Long Engagement – Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Bad Education – Pedro Almodóvar
House of Flying Daggers – Zhang Yimou
The Return [...]

BAFTA 2005

2005 BAFTA Awards
2005 Orange British Academy of Film and Television Arts award winners: Odeon Leicester Square in London on February 12, 2005
2005 BAFTA Nomination Issues
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett in The Aviator
 

FILM
* THE AVIATOR Michael Mann / Sandy Climan / Graham King / Charles Evans Jr
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND Steve Golin / Anthony Bregman
FINDING NEVERLAND Richard N. Gladstein / Nellie Bellflower
DIARIOS DE MOTOCICLETA / THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES Michael Nozik / Edgard Tenembaum / Karen Tenkhoff / Walter Salles
VERA DRAKE Simon Channing Williams / Alain Sarde / Mike Leigh
The Alexander Korda Award for the OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
DEAD MAN’S SHOES Mark Herbert / Shane Meadows
HARRY POTTER AND THE [...]

Iowa Film Critics Awards 2005

2005 Iowa Film Critics Association Awards
2005 Iowa Film Critics Association award winners: January 10, 2005
 

 

Best Picture: Sideways by Alexander Payne
Runner-up: Million Dollar Baby by Clint Eastwood
Best Director: Alexander Payne for Sideways
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese for The Aviator
Best Actor: Paul Giamatti for Sideways
Runner-up: Jamie Foxx for Ray
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake
Runner-up: Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church for Sideways
Runner-up: Jamie Foxx for Collateral
Best Supporting Actress: Virginia Madsen for Sideways
Runner-up: Cate Blanchett for The Aviator
Best movie yet to open Iowa: Hotel Rwanda by Terry George
 
Iowa Film Critics Association Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
 

Seattle Film Critics Awards 2004

2004 Seattle Film Critics Awards
2004 Seattle Film Critics Award winners: December 30, 2004
 

Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
 

Best Film: Million Dollar Baby
Best Foreign-Language Film: Maria Full of Grace
Best Documentary (tie): Control Room and Touching the Void
Best Animated Film: The Incredibles
Best Director: Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx – Ray
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church – Sideways
Best Supporting Actress: Virginia Madsen – Sideways
Best Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sideways, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
Living Treasure Award: Henry Bumstead
Special Citation: Brian Jamieson and Richard Schickel for the reconstruction of Samuel Fuller’s 1980 The [...]

San Diego Film Critics Awards 2004

2004 San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
2004 San Diego Film Critics Society Award winners: December 21, 2004
 

Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
 

Best Film: Vera Drake directed by Mike Leigh
Best Foreign-Language Film: The Sea Inside directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Best Documentary: Tarnation directed by Jonathan Caouette
Best Animated Film: The Incredibles by Brad Bird
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor: Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actor: Phil Davis, Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman, Closer
Best Original Screenplay: Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Sideways
Best Cinematography (tie): Christopher Doyle, Hero, and John Mathieson, The Phantom of the Opera
Best Production Design: Dante Ferretti, [...]

Washington Film Critics Awards 2004

2004 Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards
2004 Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association winners: December 17, 2004
 

 

Best Film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Foreign-Language Film: Maria Full of Grace
Best Director: Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx, Ray
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Best Supporting Actor: Jamie Foxx, Collateral
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator
Best Acting Ensemble: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Sideways
Best Animated Film: The Incredibles
 
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Site
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Film Awards: 2004 2005 2006 2007 [...]

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards 2004

2004 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
2004 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award winners: Dec. 11, 2004
 

 

Best Film: Sideways
Runner-up: Million Dollar Baby
Best Foreign-Language Film: Shi mian mai fu / House of Flying Daggers directed by Zhang Yimou
Runner-up: Diarios de motocicleta / The Motorcycle Diaries directed by Walter Salles
Best Director: Alexander Payne, Sideways
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, The Aviator
Best Actor: Liam Neeson, Kinsey
Runner-up: Paul Giamatti, Sideways
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Runner-up: Julie Delpy, Before Sunset
Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church, Sideways
Runner-up: Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
Best Supporting Actress: Virginia Madsen, Sideways
Runner-up: Cate Blanchett, Coffee & Cigarettes and The Aviator
Best Screenplay: Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Sideways
Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best Documentary / Nonfiction Film: Born into [...]

VERA DRAKE II – Imelda Staunton

VERA DRAKE Review: Part I
Elsewhere, the director imbues Vera Drake with a somewhat artificial flavor. True, the film’s 1950s working-class environment looks real — cramped homes and ugly clothes — but Leigh, as usual, overdoes the unattractiveness of his characters. His laborers have bad teeth and funny faces, and several of them look like they might belong in a mental institution. (Alex Kelly’s Ethel, Vera’s pathologically shy daughter, is a typical inhabitant of Mike Leigh’s Mondo Labor.) Worse yet, Leigh treats them like children — sympathetically, of course, but with a not inconsiderable degree of condescension.
Despite the meticulous preparations and rehearsals that go into Leigh’s projects — or perhaps because of them — several performances feel much too carefully calculated. [...]

VERA DRAKE d: Mike Leigh

Vera Drake (2004)
Direction and screenplay: Mike Leigh
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Philip Davis, Peter Wight, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, Eddie Marsan, Ruth Sheen, Sally Hawkins, Chris O’Dowd, Heather Craney
 

 
Director Mike Leigh’s touches are found everywhere in Vera Drake, from the drab working-class social setting to the somewhat bizarre characters that inhabit that milieu (at least in Leigh’s oeuvre). Even so, Vera Drake cannot quite be considered a Mike Leigh Film. This bleak drama about a kind and gentle — if none too bright — part-time cleaning woman, part-time wife and mother, and part-time abortionist truly belongs to its leading lady, veteran stage and screen actress Imelda Staunton, whose superb tour de force carries the film to heights it would never have [...]

Venice Film Festival Awards 2004

2004 Venice Film Festival Awards
2004 Venice Film Festival: Sept. 1-11, 2004
 

 

Golden Lion for Best Picture: Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, United Kingdom)
Jury Grand Prix: Mar adentro / The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenábar, Spain)
Director: Kim Ki-Duk, Bin-jip / 3-Iron (South Korea)
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Young Actor: Tommaso Ramenghi and Marco Luisi, Lavorare con lentezza / Working Slowly
Career Golden Lion: Manoel de Oliveira and Stanley Donen
Silver Lion for Best Short Film: Signe d’appartenance, Kamel Cherif
Special Mention Best Short Film: The Carpenter and His Clumsy Wife, Peter Foott
Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best First Film: Le Grand voyage, Ismaël Ferroukhi (director); Humbert Balsan [...]

Venice Film Festival 2004

This past Wednesday, Sept. 1, the 61st edition of the Venice Film Festival kicked off with a gala screening of Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, a box-office and critical disappointment in the United States, where it opened more than two months ago.
At the festival’s press screening, the film received an equally unenthusiastic reception — but none of that matters to festival organizers, who surely didn’t pick Spielberg’s latest production because of its cinematic qualities. What matters is that both Spielberg and The Terminal’s star, Tom Hanks, were on hand for the gala evening — a surefire way to guarantee worldwide coverage for the festival.
"I wanted a festival of quality films for mass audiences," says festival director Marco Muller. "But [...]