Movie Awards

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.

Critics’ favorites: A crowd-pleasing Wine Country road movie and a polemical political documentary are the top selections this awards season, while Imelda Staunton is the Best Actress fave.

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.

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.

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: Alexander Payne’s California-set road movie Sideways was the big winner. Imelda Staunton and Liam Neeson topped the acting categories.

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.

National Board of Review Awards: The J.M. Barrie movie Finding Neverland was named the year’s best release. Annette Bening and Laura Linney were among the other winners.

Julia Roberts is the most effective star in the 2004 movie Closer, Mike Nichols’ lesser cinematic study of off-kilter heterosexual relationships.

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.

Featuring attendees like Omar Sharif and Youssef Chahine, Tunisia’s Arab cinema showcase has bestowed top honors on a socially conscious Moroccan drama.

An animated Pixar hit, a costly motion-capture fantasy and an ‘end of the world’ disaster flick are among eligible entries for next year’s Academy Awards.

The Insider movie shows that corporate greed and simplistic storytelling are bad for you. A hammy Al Pacino and a mannered Russell Crowe star.

Stephen Daldry’s uneven drama The Hours is immensely helped by the performances of Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman + Philip Glass’ haunting score.