Vera Farmiga, Emily Watson, Jean-Pierre Jeunet: London 2009

Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, two potential best supporting actress Oscar nominees, attend the Up in the Air photocall during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Mayfair Hotel on October 18.

Emily Watson at the premiere of Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti, at the Vue West End on October 18.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet arrives for the premiere of MICMACS at the Vue West End on October 18.

Vera Farmiga, Jason Reitman, Anna Kendrick: London ‘09

Vera Farmiga arrives for the premiere of Up in the Air, a potential Oscar nominee, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 18.
Photos: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Anna Kendrick, Jason Reitman, Vera Farmiga

Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick at the Up in the Air photocall

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Supporting Actress

Best Supporting Actress

Penélope Cruz, Nine
A film director’s seductive mistress (if she’s half as tantalizing in the film as she is in the above photo, Cruz deserves not only a nod but the golden statuette itself)

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
A professional downsizer’s trainee

Mo’Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A pregnant, illiterate teen’s Mom from Hell

Julianne Moore, A Single Man (with Colin Firth)
A married alcoholic pining for an English professor — who just happens to be both gay and suicidal

Emma Thompson, An Education
A school headmistress in 1960s London

The most disputed acting category in the 2010 Oscar race. In addition to the aforementioned five actresses, five others who could easily land a nomination (in case their movies open [...]

G-FORCE Beats HARRY POTTER at the Box Office

Walt Disney’s 3D-animated flick G-Force topped the North American box office with $32.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Jerry-Bruckheimer-produced film follows a squad of smart guinea pigs trying to stop a ruthless villain from taking over the world. The film grabbed an average of $8,697 per theater at 3,697 locations.

Last week’s winner, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, starring Daniel Radcliffe, collected another $30 million in second place, reaching a total gross of $221.8 million after an excellent ten-day run.

New entry The Ugly Truth debuted in third place with $27 million from ticket sales at 2,882 locations. Starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard [...]

U.S. Critics’ Awards 2007

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men

Much has been said about the absence of a front-runner for this year’s Academy Awards. Be that as it may, one film is clearly the favorite among the myriad film critics’ groups in the United States.
Directed and written by Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men has been chosen the top film of 2007 by nearly all critics’ societies, associations, and circles in the US and by the Toronto critics.
What often crosses my mind whenever I look at those award lists is their lack of variety. (That could be the result of the way votes are tabulated; if so, perhaps the rules should be changed.) Generally speaking, the [...]

Critics’ Influence on the Oscars

Kevin Spacey, Mena Suvari in American Beauty

Critics and Awards Season: Part I
It’s too bad that U.S. film critics have such short memories — see Jack Mathews‘ top comment in the previous page — as Once is the type of small, foreign film that needs year-end critics’ awards so Academy members can a) become aware of its existence b) check it out. Here’s wondering if voting "compromises," as mentioned by Mathews in his second comment, ended up leaving Once almost totally shut out of the myriad U.S. critics’ lists.
Both Stephen Witty’s and Scott Foundas‘ articles are well worth a read. I do, however, disagree with Foundas’ statement that the Oscar’s "golden luster" has been badly tarnished in recent years. After all, [...]

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards 2005

2005 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
2005 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award winners: Dec. 10, 2005
 

Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (top); Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche in Hidden (bottom). Noticeably absent from the L.A. Critics’ list of winners and runner-ups were King Kong, Munich, Match Point, Batman Begins, Paradise Now, The New World, and Memoirs of a Geisha. “We really did end up not going with anything big,” said Henry Sheehan, president of the L.A. Film Critics Association. “There was some support for King Kong for cinematography and production design, but there was almost nothing for Munich, maybe a couple of acting votes, but very scattered.”

 
Best Film: Brokeback Mountain
Runner-up: A History of Violence
Best Foreign-Language Film: Caché / [...]