A Carmen-inspired South African ‘dance movie,’ German anti-Nazi fighters and a Taiwanese watermelon sex tale are Berlin’s top Golden Bear winners.
An ASC first: The Best Cinematography Award has gone to a French-language World War I drama that unexpectedly beat big-name Hollywood product.
Is Hollywood anti-Christian? Awards season indicates ‘Not so much’ as controversial and blood-soaked Jesus biopic has been shortlisted in several categories.
Best Actress SAG Awards: Boxing-ring star beats stage diva in fierce rematch, while Katharine Hepburn has her first competitive Screen Actors Guild ‘win’ ever.
Sundance winners include a pregnant Amy Adams and a father-son love triangle reportedly inspired on a Satyajit Ray classic, plus an attack on America’s endless wars.
The British Academy Awards’ Oscar-focused new submission deadline rules have had unintended and ironically counterproductive consequences.
Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood have performed an unexpected Golden Globes turnabout, while Hilary Swank and Annette Bening have an awards season rematch ‘tie.’
Darrell Roodt’s Oscar-nominated Zululand-set AIDS drama Yesterday is a must-see partly thanks to a sensational central performance by Leleti Khumalo.
Johnny Depp is a lifeless, Disneyfied version of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in Marc Forster’s feel-good family tragedy Finding Neverland.
Awards season news: In an ungodly twist of fate, Jesus + Jason + Napoleon have all lost out to Spider-Man, while Kate Winslet has nabbed a surprise win.
Brad Silberling’s handsomely mounted fantasy adventure Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is a Jim Carrey mugfest. But Meryl Streep is wasted.
Producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr has publicly derided the Academy Awards’ arcane Best Foreign Language Film rules that keep prestigious work out of the running.
As a 1930s London stage diva, Annette Bening has a fantastic time in István Szabó’s All About Eve-ish period comedy Being Julia.
A superlative Hilary Swank can’t beat the odds against Clint Eastwood’s cliché-ridden boxing + surrogate father-daughter melo Million Dollar Baby.
Sidney Lumet movies getting some belated Academy recognition: The Honorary Oscar will go to the Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon director.
A superb Don Cheadle stars as Kigali hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in Terry George’s absurdly ‘uplifting’ genocide drama Hotel Rwanda.
Meryl Streep is an ‘inspirational’ presence in Wes Craven’s unusually sentimental and gore-free real-life-based drama Music of the Heart. Angela Bassett costars.
As weirdo billionaire Howard Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio Is both fully convincing and badly miscast in Martin Scorsese’s overblown biopic The Aviator.
Alexander Payne’s Wine Country road movie and Michael Moore’s incendiary political documentary are US critics’ top picks this awards season.
Culture clash movies have dominated this year’s European Film Awards, while Pedro Almodóvar was the biggest loser and Liv Ullmann got the longest standing ovation.
Featuring a superficial Denzel Washington as jailed U.S. boxer Rubin Carter, Norman Jewison’s contrived biopic The Hurricane is probably his worst film.
As a proudly evil Nazi, Laurence Olivier Is by far the best thing about the confusing and absurd 1976 political thriller Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman stars.
Jesus Christ and George W. Bush missing link? See past examples of the mystical connection between US presidential elections and Best Picture Oscar nods.
Gay Republicans and their mind-boggling support for the party that despises them + the horrors of the Rwanda genocide are this year’s disturbing AFI FEST winners.
The London Film Festival’s Satyajit Ray Award has gone to Nicole Kassell’s U.S. drama The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon as a child molester.
Pedro Almodóvar is snubbed while Alejandro Amenábar’s pro-euthanasia drama The Sea Inside has shattered the Goya Awards’ record.
Mean Girls quotes have earned Tina Fey an unexpected Writers Guild Awards nomination, while animated + non-English-language movies again bypassed.
NSFC Awards surprise: A Clint Eastwood melodrama is the unexpectedly mainstream winner of the generally more ‘esoteric’ U.S.-based critics group.
Christophe Barratier’s boys school drama The Chorus is an unabashedly sentimental rehash of numerous other such tales (e.g., Going My Way).
Daniel Day-Lewis is the sensationally cruel heart of Martin Scorsese’s generally engrossing sociopolitical + historical drama Gangs of New York.
The Golden Horse Awards’ surprise Best Film is an environmentally conscious Tibet-set ‘Western’ that beat an all-star international hit directed by Wong Kar-Wai.
Julia Roberts delivers the most effective performance in Mike Nichols’ 2004 movie Closer, a lesser cinematic study of off-kilter heterosexual relationships.