cinema reflections
In case you're wondering about the title of this 2017 Emmy nominations post, think Feud: Bette and Joan. Lawsuit or no – Davis friend Olivia de Havilland is at it – Feud can be found 11 times in the list below. Best Comedy Atlanta (FX) black-ish (ABC) Master of None (Netflix) Modern Family (ABC) Silicon Valley (HBO) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) Veep (HBO) Best Drama […]
In the Fade with Diane Kruger: Fatih Akin's Avenging Woman drama may give its German-speaking star the chance to become next awards season's Isabelle Huppert. Diane Kruger: 2017–2018 awards season's Isabelle Huppert? (See previous post: “Cannes Winners vs. Oscar Nominations.”) The Cannes Film Festival's 2003 Female Revelation Chopard Trophy winner, Diane Kruger was Cannes' 2017 Best Actress winner for Fatih Akin's In the Fade / […]
Palme d'Or winner The Square with Claes Bang. “Gobsmackingly weird” Cannes Film Festival favorite may have a tough time landing a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination. As an aside, Ruben Östlund's comedy-drama is totally unrelated to Jehane Noujaim's 2013 Oscar-nominated political documentary of the same title, which refers to downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square. Cannes winners & Academy Award nominations: Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or […]
Best Picture Arrival – Shawn Levy. Dan Levine. Aaron Ryder. David Linde. Fences – Scott Rudin. Denzel Washington. Todd Black. Hacksaw Ridge – Bill Mechanic. David Permut. Hell or High Water – Carla Hacken. Julie Yorn. Hidden Figures – Donna Gigliotti. Peter Chernin. Jenno Topping. Pharrell Williams. Theodore Melfi. La La Land – Fred Berger. Jordan Horowitz. Marc Platt. Lion – Emile Sherman. Iain Canning. […]
2016 movies Things to Come (pictured) and Elle have earned French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert her – surprisingly – very first National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award. 2016 Movies: Isabelle Huppert & 'Moonlight' among National Society of Film Critics' top picks Earlier today (Jan. 7), the National Society of Film Critics announced their top 2016 movies and performances. Somewhat surprisingly, this year's NSFC […]
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay in 'Room': 2016 SAG Awards. 2016 SAG Awards Predictions: Sentiment and 'Diversity' Last-minute SAG Awards predictions, as the 2016 SAG Awards ceremony will begin in about half an hour (Jan. 30) at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. So far, there's one clear winner at the telecast. That's veteran film and (mostly) television actress Carol Burnett (The Carol Burnett […]
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': Critics' Choice Awards Best Picture nomination controversy. Critics' Choice Awards: Everybody is a nominee Your U.S.-based awards group, all-encompassingly named the Critics' Choice Awards, wants to compete with the Golden Globes to become the second-rank Academy Awards – itself a second-rank version of its former self. What to do? Well, how about finding a way to nominate everyone you can […]
Golden Globes' historic gif moment: Lady Gaga and Leonardo DiCaprio. 2016 Golden Globes: 'Diversity' Hollywood Style & Leo and Kate together again There was plenty of “diversity” at the 2016 Golden Globes ceremony, held on Jan. 10 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Winners were male, female, white, black, openly gay, openly straight, newcomers, old-timers, American, Mexican, British, Hungarian, Italian – even film […]
'Mad Max: Fury Road': National Board of Review Best Film Award winner. National Board of Review 2015 Awards: First indication of 'Mad Max: Fury Road' awards season potential Going over the December 2015 movie awards not previously discussed on this site, we begin with the National Board of Review Awards, announced on Dec. 1. (Scroll down for the full list of winners.) Not including the […]
'The Peanuts Movie': 2016 Best Original Score Oscar contender along with 111 other titles. Oscar 2016: Best Original Score contenders range from 'Mad Max: Fury Road' to 'The Peanuts Movie' Earlier this month (Dec. '15), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made public the list of 112 film scores eligible for the 2016 Oscar in the Best Original Score category. As found in […]
Best Visual Effects Oscar: Tom Cruise action thriller 'Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation' bypassed. 2016 Best Visual Effects Oscar semi-finalists: 'Ex Machina,' 'The Revenant' surprisingly remain in the running A couple of weeks ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the semi-semi-finalists for the 2016 Visual Effects Academy Award. There were 20 movies on the list. On Monday, Dec. 21, the Academy […]
'Village Voice' Critics' Best Actress runner-up: Nina Hoss in 'Phoenix' trailed Charlotte Rampling in '45 Years.' 'Village Voice' Best of 2015: Offbeat picks include Géza Röhrig, runner-up Nina Hoss The Best of 2015 choices of the Village Voice film critics will not influence the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, or the SAG Awards. No matter. If you're interested in movies to watch or performances to […]
Paul Dano in 'Love & Mercy': San Francisco Film Critics' award winner and loser. Paul Dano: San Francisco Film Critics Awards winner & loser The big story at the 2015 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards is the surprising Paul Dano saga. The Love & Mercy actor both won and lost for the very same film role. But how could that be? Well, enough San […]
New York Film Critics Awards: Best Film winner is the lesbian romance 'Carol,' starring Cate Blanchett. 2015 New York Film Critics Awards have enlivened Oscar race Catching up with previously announced awards season winners that will likely influence the 2016 Oscar nominations. Early this month, the New York Film Critics Circle announced their Best of 2015 picks, somewhat unexpectedly boosting the chances of Todd Haynes' […]
2015 European Film Awards winners and nominations Best European Film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. En Duva Satt På En Gren Och Funderade På Tillvaron. Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, 96 min. Written and directed by: Roy Andersson. Produced by: Pernilla Sandström. Mustang. France, Germany, Turkey, 100 min. Directed by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven. Written by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour. Produced […]
Best Song Oscar 2016 contender 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. 74 entries in contention for 2016 Best Song Academy Award 'Tis the season for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to announce the semi-finalists – in some instances, the semi-semi-finalists – for the Academy Awards. Today (Dec. 11, '15), the Academy released the list of songs eligible for […]
SAG Awards' surprise double nominee Helen Mirren as Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 'Trumbo.' 2016 SAG Awards' nominations: Sylvester Stallone, Matt Damon 'snubbed' while Helen Mirren among surprising inclusions Screener issues (see further below) and online streaming possibilities hated by film exhibitors and the Hollywood Establishment were two of the ingredients found in the 2015–2016 awards season mix. That in turn has led to […]
Best Visual Effects Oscar contender: 'Jurassic World' dinosaurs competing with plane stowaway Tom Cruise. 2015 Best Visual Effects Oscar longlist: Spies, superheroes and GMO dinosaurs Today, Dec. 7, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 20 movies are in the running for the 2016 Best Visual Effects Academy Awards. These feature just about everything, from tiny bugs, Tom Cruise, and Jennifer Lawrence […]
Online Film Critics Awards: Rooney Mara (pictured with Cate Blanchett) strangely listed in the Best Supporting Actress category for 'Carol.' Rooney Mara listed as supporting actress in Online Film Critics Society Award nominations The nominations for the 2015 Online Film Critics Society Awards have been announced. Although as much a lead in Todd Haynes' Carol as co-star Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara has been shortlisted in […]
Michael Fassbender in 'Steve Jobs': Los Angeles Film Critics' Best Actor. Michael Fassbender & Charlotte Rampling: Los Angeles Film Critics Awards The Los Angeles Film Critics Association's 2015 winners were announced on Sunday, Dec. 6. LAFCA is one of the two most influential critics groups – i.e., those whose decisions get at least some mainstream media mileage – in the United States. The other one […]
Boston Film Critics' somewhat surprising Best Actress winner Charlotte Rampling in '45 Years.' Boston Film Critics Awards: Somewhat surprising winners Charlotte Rampling & Kristen Stewart winners Those following the movies' awards season will enjoy a smorgasbord of winners, runners-up, and WTFs/How could they? today, Dec. 6, '15. The Boston Society of Film Critics (a.k.a. just simply the Boston Film Critics), the Los Angeles Film Critics […]
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016: Irish-Cuban entry 'Viva,' with Héctor Medina. Multicultural Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016 submissions Nearly ten years ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed a key rule regarding entries for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar;* since then, things have gotten quite colorful. Just yesterday, Sept. 16, Ireland submitted Paddy Breathnach's Viva – a Cuban-set drama […]
Chris Pratt at Oscar 2015 rehearsals. Oscar 2015 winners The complete list of Oscar 2015 winners and nominees can be found further below. See also: Oscar 2015 presenters and performers. Now, a little Oscar 2015 trivia. If you know a bit about the history of the Academy Awards, you'll have noticed several little curiosities about this year's nominations. For instance, there were quite a few […]
Catherine Deneuve: Best Actress César Award 'record-tier' for 'In the Courtyard,' with Oleg Kupchik and Big Dog. Catherine Deneuve: César Award Best Actress Record-Tier (See previous post: “Kristen Stewart & Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.”) Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César Award nominations to date; as mentioned in the previous post, this year she has tied Isabelle Huppert's César record in the […]
Kristen Stewart in 'Clouds of Sils Maria,' with Juliette Binoche. Kristen Stewart, Catherine Deneuve make César Award history Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve are two 2015 César Award nominees making history. The French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts announced the nominations on Jan. 28, '15; the César Awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 20, '15, at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet. Kristen Stewart […]
Sean Penn in '21 Grams.' Sean Penn: Honorary César once again goes Hollywood Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award […]
Golden Globes 2015: Julianne Moore in 'Still Alice.' Golden Globes 2015 winners: Double nominee Julianne Moore tops Best Actress – Drama The 2015 Golden Globes, held on Sunday, Jan. 11, were hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Scroll down for the full list of Golden Globes 2015 nominations and winners. The text below was posted prior to the announcement of the 2015 Golden Globe […]
2015 Golden Globes' nominee Julianne Moore in 'Maps to the Stars.' Watch Golden Globes online: Red Carpet arrivals and awards ceremony George Clooney will be present at the Golden Globes ceremony to pick up his Cecil B. DeMille Award. Will presenters Tina Fey and Amy Poehler sink or swim – or both, alternately? Well, the 2015 Golden Globes ceremony will begin shortly. Would you like […]
Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient George Clooney in The Monuments Men, with Matt Damon. Produced and written by Good Night, and Good Luck. collaborators George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and directed by Clooney, The Monuments Men is a World War II drama loosely based on Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter's non-fiction book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt […]
Actor-director Russell Crowe in 'The Water Diviner': ACCTA Awards bypasses Best Actor Oscar winner. Director Russell Crowe Bypassed, but 'The Water Diviner' ties with 'The Babadook' for Best Film: ACCTA Awards 2015 winners and nominations The 2015 Australian Academy Awards, a.k.a. the AACTA Awards, for Best Film – that's right, awards – went to both Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner and Jennifer Kent's acclaimed horror […]
One hundred thirty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category's other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. A shortlist of […]
Gotham Awards' Best Documentary 'Citizenfour' revolves around a controversial topic: Edward Snowden. Gotham Awards winners: Hollywood stars Julianne Moore, Michael Keaton – plus whistleblower and political refugee Edward Snowden The Gotham Awards, the more modest, New York City-based version of the Los Angeles-based Spirit Awards, announced its 2014 winners at a ceremony held on Dec. 1 at Cipriani Wall Street. (See further below the full […]
Best Documentary Short Film Oscar contender 'White Earth.' Best Documentary Short Films Oscar 2015: Illness and death are top subjects Eight films – most of them featuring illness and/or death as their focus – remain in the running for the 2015 Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced (Oct. '14). Of those eight semi-finalists, three to five […]
Neil Patrick Harris. Neil Patrick Harris to host Oscar 2015 ceremony Stage, film, and television actor Neil Patrick Harris will host the 2015 Oscars, a.k.a. the 87th Academy Awards ceremony, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today, Oct. 15, '14. This will be Neil Patrick Harris' first time hosting the show, which in the United States will air live on ABC on Sunday, […]
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contender 'Three Windows and a Hanging': First Kosovo entry. Record 83 movies submitted for 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made public the list of submissions for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. According to the Academy's press release, a record 83 countries have submitted films for Oscar consideration, […]
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild 2015 Awards dates announced (image: Jared Leto in 'Dallas Buyers Club') The Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild 2015 Awards ceremony honoring make-up artists and hair stylists in movies, television, commercials, and live theater will be held on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015, at Paramount Studios. IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 706 President Susan Cabral-Ebert announced the […]
Oscar 2015: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will return as Oscar show producers (image: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron) Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will be back as producers of the 2015 Oscar ceremony, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced yesterday, April 21, 2014. This will mark Zadan and Meron's third consecutive year as Oscar producers. In the United […]
Oscar 2015 dates (Meryl Streep in 'Into the Woods') The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC announced yesterday, April 17, 2014, the Oscar 2015 dates. The Academy Awards ceremony will air live on ABC on Feb. 22, 2015 – or about ten days earlier than the Oscar 2014 ceremony. Key Oscar 2015 dates are as follows: Saturday, November 8, 2014 The Governors […]
Oscar selfie becomes most retweeted tweet of all time: Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, and Oscar 2014 company. Oscar selfie + TV ratings: 10-year high in overall viewership in U.S. Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, whose “Oscars selfie” became the most retweeted tweet of all time, and featuring the likes of Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, and John […]
Producers Guild of America Awards 2014: 'Gravity' and '12 Years a Slave' tie for Best Picture (image: 'Gravity') Earlier this evening, January 19, 2014, the Alfonso Cuarón-directed Gravity and the Steve McQueen-directed 12 Years a Slave shared the Producers Guild of America's Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures – in other words, the PGA's Best Picture Award. That's the first […]
SAG Awards 2014 winners: Lupita Nyong'o surprises, shoo-in Cate Blanchett doesn't (image: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o in '12 Years a Slave') The 2014 SAG Awards ceremony was held at downtown Los Angeles' Shrine Exposition Center earlier this evening, January 18. Presenters included Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Josh Holloway, Clark Gregg, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Mindy Kaling, and Pauley Perrette, in addition to about […]
Amy Adams and Christian Bale in 'American Hustle' Oscar 2014 predictions Below are our last-minute Oscar 2014 predictions. The 86th Academy Award nominations are going to be announced on Thursday, January 16, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. We will be posting the list of Oscar 2014 nominations here. As mentioned […]
Golden Globes telecast hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (photo © HFPA) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler funny enough at the 2014 Golden Globes telecast? Acting as a lighter version of Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took a series of (mostly) mild jabs at the rich and famous sitting in the audience at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Sunday evening, […]
Golden Globes: Amy Adams & Jennifer Lawrence are 'American Hustle' winners Scroll down to check out the full list of Golden Globes 2014 winners. This year's Golden Globes ceremony took place earlier this evening, January 12, with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey back as hosts. (See further below the full list of Golden Globe winners and nominees.) The 2014 Golden Globe nominations were announced by […]
Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' People's Choice Awards 2014: Gee, why aren't the Oscars more like them? People are always bitching about the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences not representing the tastes of the average moviegoer. The Academy is accused of being elitist and snobbish, snotty and snooty, old and tired. Well, below you'll find the list […]
Cate Blanchett and Woody Allen on the 'Blue Jasmine' set. WGA Awards 2014 nominations: Woody Allen, 'American Hustle' in; '12 Years a Slave,' 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' ineligible The Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for the 2014 WGA Awards. The lists – adapted and original screenplay, documentary screenplay – mostly feature the expected titles, in addition to a handful of surprises […]
Joel and Ethan Coen movie 'Inside Llewyn Davis' tops 2014 National Society of Film Critics Awards (Oscar Isaac in 'Inside Llewyn Davis') The National Society of Film Critics is the last major U.S.-based critic's group to announce their annual winners. This year, their top film was Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis, a comedy-drama about a hapless folk singer. Inside Llewyn Davis also earned […]
Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is the Warmest Color: timing is everything. Abdellatif Kechiche's sexually charged romantic drama Blue Is the Warmest Color won the 2013 Palme d'Or just as more than 150,000 people took to the streets of Paris to express their righteous outrage at the legalization of same-sex marriage – a.k.a. gay marriage – in France. Fast forward to December: just […]
Stranger by the Lake with Pierre Deladonchamps and Christophe Paou. Winner of a Cannes side award regrettably named Queer Palm, Alain Guiraudie's erotic thriller Stranger by the Lake / L'inconnu du lac landed the no. 1 spot on Cahiers du Cinéma's list of the Top Ten movies of 2013. In the film, a young man (Pierre Deladonchamps) falls in lust with a handsome stranger (Christophe Paou) […]
The Emigrants with Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow. From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the New York Film Critics Circle handed out top awards to a couple of dozen non-mainstream releases. Jan Troell's 1971 Swedish drama The Emigrants / Utvandrarna, starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow as two of the title characters, was one of these films, helping to earn Ullmann – […]
James Franco tattoos in Spring Breakers. The 2013 LAFCA has named two Best Supporting Actor winners: James Franco for his portrayal of a Florida rapper and drugs & arms trafficker in Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers and Jared Leto for his performance as a fictional HIV-positive trans woman and AIDS medication smuggler in Jean-Marc Vallée's real-life-inspired drama Dallas Buyers Club. Perhaps it's a mere coincidence, but […]
Jennifer Lawrence: Hot and unbalanced con artist's wife Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle. Best known as the fearless Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and its sequels, Jennifer Lawrence, unlike most other blockbuster-franchise stars, has also acquired the reputation of being a “prestige actress.” Earlier this year, at age 22 she became the second-youngest Best Actress Oscar winner (after Marlee Matlin for Children of a […]
'12 Years a Slave': 2013 Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award winner (image: Chiwetel Ejiofor in '12 Years a Slave') 12 Years a Slave, already touted as a top contender for the 2014 Best Picture Academy Award, was the not unexpected People's Choice Award winner at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. Steve McQueen's biopic tells the story of Solomon Northup, a freeborn 19th-century black man […]
Adele Oscar winner Best Original Song and Best Original Score Oscar 2014 live concert In 2014, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will sponsor a live concert featuring the nominees in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories. The source for this information is not an Academy press release, but an internal email from Music Branch governors Charles Fox (Nine to […]
Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County: Duel of the Oscar winners [See previous post: “Oscar 2014 Watch: Harvey Weinstein Cannes Film Festival Coming Attractions.”] More Oscar 2014 bait: August: Osage County, directed by John Wells, and starring three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady) and Oscar winner Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich). Is it mere coincidence that […]
Tony Awards: 'Lucky Guy' with Tom Hanks. Tony Awards 2013: Tom Hanks, Nora Ephron & Cicely Tyson among nominees April 30, '13, update: The Tony Awards 2013 nominations were announced earlier today. Missing in action is a whole array of film celebrities, though a few managed to be included in this year's shortlist. Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) is in the […]
Daniel Radcliffe and Kristen Stewart at Oscar 2013 ceremony Oscar 2013 controversies and criticisms [See previous post: "Oscar 2014: Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron Return."] There's more: In reference to the repartee between the talking teddy bear Ted and Mark Wahlberg, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League lamented that “it is sad and disheartening that the Oscars awards show sought to use anti-Jewish stereotypes for laughs.” […]
Oscar 2014 ceremony: Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to return (image: Oscar 2013 host Seth MacFarlane) Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will return next year as producers of the Academy Awards ceremony, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Hawk Koch announced earlier today. The Oscarcast will air on Sunday, March 2, 2014. Zadan and Meron executive-produced Rob Marshall's 2002 Best Picture winner […]
Silver Linings Playbook tops Spirit Awards 2013 – as expected As expected, Silver Linings Playbook was the big winner at the 2013 Spirit Awards, though the David O. Russell-directed comedy drama about mental illness, family issues, and blossoming romance failed to make a clean sweep. Distributed by the awards-savvy Weinstein Company, Silver Linings Playbook won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (also Russell), and Best […]
PGA Awards 2013 winners Update: Ben Affleck's Argo wins Theatrical Motion Picture PGA Award. Argo producer Ben Affleck tells Steve Pond "I had totally convinced myself they were going to read another name." Affleck's fellow Argo producers are George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The Producers Guild of America is currently handing out its PGA Awards in a handful of film and television categories. Contenders for […]
Adele Golden Globes Golden Globes 2013 non-surprises: Adele, Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis The Golden Globes 2013 – a.k.a. the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards – offered few surprises, at least when it came to the winners. Unless, that is, you weren't expecting Adele to win for her Skyfall ditty, Ben Affleck to win Best Director for Argo, Les Misérables to win Best Picture – Comedy […]
WGA Awards: Latest 'Batman' movie out The WGA Awards 2013 nominations were announced earlier today. Expect the Academy Awards 2013 nominations in the writing categories to be – at least – somewhat different, for reasons explained below. But first, here are the WGA Awards 2013 nominees: Best Original Screenplay John Gatins for Robert Zemeckis' Flight; Rian Johnson for Looper, which he also directed; Paul Thomas […]
Holy Motors with Denis Lavant and Eva Mendes. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Best Foreign Language Film and a double nominee for the Online Film Critics Awards, Leos Carax's hallucinatory Holy Motors follows a mysterious man (frequent Carax collaborator Denis Lavant) whose equally mysterious tasks range from playing the accordion to kidnapping a model at a cemetery. Besides Lavant and Eva Mendes (in a […]
Zero Dark Thirty with Chris Pratt and Joel Edgerton. With ten wins and two nominations to date, Kathryn Bigelow is the top Best Director choice this awards season for the controversial “war on terror” thriller Zero Dark Thirty, about a dogged CIA analyst (Jessica Chastain) and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. This is her second year at the top: during the 2009–2010 awards season, […]
Argo with Ben Affleck. Actor-director-co-producer Ben Affleck's political thriller Argo chronicles – by way of Hollywood-style flights of fancy – the real-life rescue of six U.S. embassy employees hiding in the Tehran house of Canada's ambassador as most of their colleagues are taken hostage following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. If U.S. critics and assorted awards groups are to be trusted, Argo is the no. […]
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty. With ten wins – and three nominations – to date, relative film newcomer Jessica Chastain is the top Best Actress pick this awards season for her portrayal of a dogged CIA analyst in Kathryn Bigelow's political thriller Zero Dark Thirty. Initially a TV and stage performer (notably as Salome opposite Al Pacino's King Herod in a 2006 rendition of […]
Meryl Streep in Hope Springs. In movies since the late 1970s – she was first seen in a small role in Fred Zinnemann's Julia (1977) – Meryl Streep seems to get at least one annual Golden Globe nomination. This year, her performance as a middle-aged woman attempting to revive her semi-comatose marriage in David Frankel's romantic comedy-drama Hope Springs has earned Streep her 27th nomination. […]
Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone. The SAG Awards usually bypass performers in non-English-language films. This year, however, could be a major exception thanks to two well-received French-language dramas: Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone and Michael Haneke's Amour. The former stars Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts; the latter stars veterans Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z, The Conformist) and Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Kapò), in addition to the more youthful […]
Amour with Emmanuelle Riva. Michael Haneke's French-language drama Amour is easily the top Best Foreign Language Film pick this awards season. Strangely, the film's veteran leading man, Jean-Louis Trintignant, hasn't been winning any awards in the U.S.; on the other hand, co-star Emmanuelle Riva has been faring quite well. She has shared Best Actress honors in Los Angeles (with Silver Linings Playbook actress Jennifer Lawrence), and has had […]
Emmanuelle Riva in Amour. Written and directed by Michael Haneke, the French-German-Austrian old-age drama Amour was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's surprise Best Film winner. Less surprising was 85-year-old veteran Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Léon Morin Priest) being selected as the year's Best Actress (along with, ahem, Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook). In recent years, the L.A. Film Critics have been inclined […]
The Master with Philip Seymour Hoffman. Our Best Supporting Actor prediction for the L.A. Film Critics Awards, The Master's L. Ron Hubbard-like portrayer Philip Seymour Hoffman was ultimately bypassed. His co-stars, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams, fared better, topping the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories, respectively. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood), the reportedly $30 million-budget The Master had […]
Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow. The “war on terror” thriller Zero Dark Thirty has yet to open in the U.S., but it can already be labeled as one of the year's most controversial movies, as it deals with the hunt for and assassination of Osama bin Laden. Besides, there have been questions about how much – if any – top-secret information was provided to […]
Michael Haneke at the 2012 European Film Awards. The story of an elderly couple facing illness and death, Amour was the top winner at this year's European Film Awards, collecting trophies in the following categories: Best European Film, Best European Director, Best European Actor (Jean-Louis Trintignant), and Best European Actress (Emmanuelle Riva). Veterans Trintignant and Riva were first-time nominees/winners, but Michael Haneke is now a three-time […]
Zero Dark Thirty with Jessica Chastain. Kathryn Bigelow's thriller Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for – and eventual assassination of – Osama bin Laden, has already stirred quite a bit of controversy even though it has yet to open in the U.S. Whether or not the Barack Obama administration shared top-secret information with director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty was the […]
Amy Adams in The Master. Inspired by the life and times of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master had been touted as one of 2012's top awards season/Oscar contenders until it proved itself a domestic box office misfire in early fall. Even so, The Master is a likely Academy Award contender at least in the acting categories thanks to the widely praised work […]
Best Actor Oscar: Joaquin Phoenix a potential contender. 2013 Oscar predictions Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Daniel Day-Lewis Joaquin Phoenix and Daniel Day-Lewis look like the two shoo-ins for the 2013 Best Actor Oscar at this stage. Phoenix's nod will be for Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing The Master; Day-Lewis' will be for Steven Spielberg's generally well-received Lincoln, in which the two-time Oscar […]
Awards Season 2013 Calendar: Cinema Audio Society Awards will have earlier nominations The Cinema Audio Society announced today that the nominations for the 2013 CAS Awards will take place on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, via press release. Initially, CAS Award nominees were to have been announced on January 10. Why the sudden change? (Image: Iron Man in likely CAS Award 2013 nominee The Avengers.) The […]
Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur While delivering her intro for the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony, Mistress of Ceremonies Bérénice Bejo waxed poetic: “If festivals are the parentheses, films are the words, the exclamation points…” In fact, there were quite a few exclamation points among the winners, both in regard to who/what won – it helped to have been a former […]
Best Picture * The Artist – Thomas Langmann. The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor & Alexander Payne. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin. The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus & Michael Barnathan. Hugo – Graham King & Martin Scorsese. Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson & Stephen Tenenbaum. Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz & Brad Pitt. The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill & Bill Pohlad. War Horse – Steven Spielberg & Kathleen Kennedy. Best Foreign Language Film […]
Adam Sandler, Adam Sandler in Jack and Jill WORST PICTURE Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star Jack and Jill New Year's Eve Transformers: Dark of the Moon The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 WORST ACTOR Russell Brand, Arthur Nicolas Cage, Drive Angry 3-D / Season of the Witch / Trespass Taylor Lautner, Abduction / The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Adam Sandler, Jack and […]
Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, The Artist In the Oscar 2012 Best Actor category, Gary Oldman, Demián Bichir, and Brad Pitt are dark horses for, respectively, their performances in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Chris Weitz's A Better Life, and Bennett Miller's Moneyball. That leaves George Clooney, who plays a befuddled father in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, and Jean Dujardin, who plays a mix […]
Jean Dujardin, Uggie the dog, The Artist Our prediction for the Best Picture Academy Award: Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. Why The Artist? No, not because of some sociohistorical/psychological significance that various pundits have ascribed to the Hazanavicius' movie and its effect on members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That's not only total b.s., but a blatant misreading of both the (brilliant) […]
The Artist with Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC) * The Descendants Kevin Tent, A.C.E. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Angus Wall, A.C.E. & Kirk Baxter, A.C.E. Hugo Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E. Moneyball Christopher Tellefsen, A.C.E. War Horse Michael Kahn, A.C.E. BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY OR MUSICAL) * The Artist Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazanavicius Bridesmaids William Kerr & Michael […]
No Rest for the Wicked with José Coronado Pedro Almodóvar didn't have much luck at the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Goya Awards this evening in Madrid: Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In won a total of four Goyas, but none for its director/writer. Starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon, Elena Anaya as his captive woman, and Jan Cornet as the […]
"It's been TWENTY-NINE YEARS SINCE MERYL STREEP WON AN OSCAR. And she certainly deserves to win for her performance in The Iron Lady,” reads a Thelma Adams quote heading a The Weinstein Company ad. The ad, sent out a week ago by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety to their email subscribers, also included a link to a Streep interview found on the TWC website. According […]
Albert Nobbs with Glenn Close John Michael McDonagh's The Guard, reportedly the most successful independently made Irish production ever, won four top prizes at the 2012 Irish Film and Television Awards, held this evening in Dublin. The story of a tough, cynical, hard-drinking cop who goes after three drug dealers, McDonagh's comedy thriller won awards for Best Irish Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (also McDonagh), […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011 trailer, with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. The U.S. remake of Niels Arden Oplev's Swedish-made international blockbuster has far outperformed the original in the North American market; nonetheless, the David Fincher-directed thriller is an undeniable commercial disappointment in relation to its reported $90 million price tag (not including marketing and distribution expenses). Martin Scorsese's Hugo (period film), David […]
Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture * The Help – Jessica Chastain. Viola Davis. Bryce Dallas Howard. Allison Janney. Chris Lowell. Ahna O'Reilly. Sissy Spacek. Octavia Spencer. Mary Steenburgen. Emma Stone. Cicely Tyson. Mike Vogel The Artist Bérénice Bejo. James Cromwell. Jean Dujardin. John Goodman. Penelope Ann Miller Bridesmaids Rose Byrne. Jill Clayburgh. Ellie Kemper. Matt Lucas. Melissa […]
Ra'anan Alexandrovicz's The Law in These Parts Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild, the story of a young girl growing up in Louisiana (to be released by Fox Searchlight) was the top U.S. narrative feature at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In, a documentary about the United States' inane, costly, deadly, and corruptive war on drugs (good for […]
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady Three actresses are shoo-ins for the 2012 Academy Awards' Best Actress shortlist: Meryl Streep for her portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, Michelle Williams for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn, and Viola Davis for her portrayal of a Southern housemaid in Tate […]
Jessica Chastain, The Help The list of potential Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees is nearly as long as the list of female cast members in Tate Taylor's socially conscious comedy-drama The Help. In fact, several The Help actresses are either likely or possible Oscar contenders. Much like in the Best Supporting Actor category, in which only Christopher Plummer is a true shoo-in for his […]
Jeremy Irvine Jeremy Irvine, the star (along with the titular character) of Steven Spielberg's World War I drama War Horse, arrives at the 2012 London Film Critics Awards. Irvine was a contender for Young British Performer of the Year, along with John Boyega for Attack the Block, Yasmin Paige for Submarine, Saoirse Ronan for Hanna, and the eventual winner, Craig Roberts for Submarine. Michel Hazanavicius' […]
While accepting the award for Best Comedy for Bridesmaids at the 2012 Critics' Choice Awards ceremony, Judd Apatow ended his speech with the following: “Jerry Lewis [photo] once said that he didn't think women were funny. So I'd just like to say, with all respect, fuck you.” Jerry Lewis' negative comment about female comedians was made at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in […]
The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius is the only first-timer among the five nominated directors for the 2012 Directors Guild of America Awards. Hazanavicius' competition consists of Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo. This marks Woody Allen's fifth DGA Award nomination, following Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah […]
Shahab Hosseini in Asghar Farhadi's A Separation The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), among whose members are the majority of the United States' most influential and respected film commentators, has – as usual – taken a (mostly) different route than your average US-based critics' group. For every The Social Network or The Hurt Locker there's a Mulholland Dr. or a Yi Yi. This year, […]
Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, Take This Waltz With four nominations, Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist is the top nominee in the international categories of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle's 2011 Awards. (See further below the full list of Vancouver Film Critics nominations.) Starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, The Artist is set at the dawn of the talkie era, as screen icon George Valentin […]
I Saw the Devil with Lee Byung-hun. Released in August 2010 in South Korea, Kim Jee-woon's psychological action thriller I Saw the Devil stars Blue Dragon Award nominee Lee Byung-hun as a National Intelligence Service agent out to avenge the gory death of his fiancée. Written by Kim and Park Hoon-jung, and co-starring Choi Min-sik as a bus driver and serial killer, I Saw the […]
The Tree of Life with Brad Pitt. Notwithstanding its Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or win, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life has not been taking home all that many U.S. film critics awards this season. Most groups have gone either for Michel Hazanavicius' Old Hollywood homage The Artist or Alexander Payne's middle-age crises – there are several – comedy-drama The Descendants. The Chicago Film Critics […]
Tabloid with Joyce McKinney. The Detroit Film Critics Society's surprising Best Documentary pick, Errol Morris' Tabloid, offers a glimpse into “The Case of the Manacled Mormon” a.k.a. “The Mormon Sex in Chains Case.” Long before the Internet, the British yellow press and their voracious readers enjoyed collective orgasms that lasted for months, thanks to the alleged abduction and rape of visiting U.S. Mormon missionary Kirk […]
Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus, with Harry Fenn as the young Caius Martius, later known as Coriolanus. In actor-turned-director Ralph Fiennes' modern-day film version of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, veteran Vanessa Redgrave plays Volumnia, the mother of the title character (played by Fiennes), a Roman general who, thanks to the encouragement of his mother and the people's blind worship of his many military victories, earns a seat […]