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 and Her Sisters (1986), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). He won for Annie Hall. Curiously, Allen failed to receive a matching Academy Award nomination for Manhattan, one of his most prestigious efforts.
David Fincher has been nominated twice before, for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and The Social Network (2010). Fincher was the favorite to win for the latter film, but surprisingly lost to Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech. Hooper also went on to win last year’s Academy Award. Somewhat ironically, Fincher’s inclusion among the top five DGA nominees this year was a moderate surprise. Most were probably expecting Steven Spielberg for War Horse, Tate Taylor for The Help, or perhaps even Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life.
Alexander Payne has one previous DGA Award nomination, for Sideways, while Martin Scorsese has seven previous DGA nods in the motion picture category: Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006). Scorsese finally won for one of his lesser effort, The Departed. Twice he failed to receive matching Best Director Oscar nods: for Taxi Driver and The Age of Innocence.
In addition to Spielberg, Taylor, and Malick, among those left out of the DGA Award roster were Stephen Daldry (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive), Bennett Miller (Moneyball), Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Clint Eastwood (J. Edgar), Jason Reitman (Young Adult), and David Yates (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2).
Considering that this is the DGA, whose members tend to opt for more commercial, mainstream fare, I don’t believe anyone in his/her right mind was expecting a nomination for, say, Lars von Trier (Melancholia), Asghar Farhadi (A Separation), Roman Polanski (Carnage), Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin), or Steve McQueen (Shame). Or for relatively little-seen “smaller” efforts directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter), Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn), Kenneth Lonergan (Margaret), and Mike Mills (Beginners).
Simon and the Oaks Tops Swedish Oscar Nominations: Guldbagge Awards
Best Film
Play – Erik Hemmendorff
She Monkeys / Apflickorna – Helene Lindholm
Simon and the Oaks / Simon och ekarna – Christer Nilson & Per Holst
Best Foreign Language Film
Dogtooth / Kynodontas – Yorgos Lanthimos
A Separation / Jodaeiye Nader az Simin – Asghar Farhadi
Winter’s Bone – Debra Granik
Best Director
Lisa Aschan – She Monkeys
Lisa Ohlin – Simon and the Oaks
Ruben Östlund – Play
Best Actress
Ann Petrén – Happy End
Magdalena Poplawska – Between Two Fires
Helen Sjöholm – Simon and the Oaks
Best Actor
Mikael Persbrandt – Stockholm East / Stockholm Östra
Sven-Bertil Taube – A One-way to Antibes / En enkel till Antibes
Kevin Vaz – Play
Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bergström – Somewhere Else / Någon annanstans i Sverige
Liv Mjönes – With Every Hearbeat / Kyss mig
Cecilia Nilsson – Simon and the Oaks
Best Supporting Actor
Peter Andersson – Happy End
Jan Josef Liefers – Simon and the Oaks
Johan Widerberg – Happy End
Best Screenplay
Josefine Adolfsson & Lisa Aschan – She Monkeys
Pernilla Oljelund – Stockholm East
Ruben Östlund – Play
Best Cinematography
Marius Dybwad Brandrud – Play
Per Källberg – Stockholm East
Dan Lausten – Simon and the Oaks
Best Film Editing
Michal Leszczylowski & Kasper Leick – Simon and the Oaks
Göran Hugo Olsson & Hanna Lejonqvist – The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Jacob Schulsinger – Play
Best Costume Design
Pia Aleborg – Play
Moa Li Lemhagen Schalin – The Crown Jewels / Kronjuvelerna
Katja Watkins – Simon and the Oaks
Best Sound
Andreas Franck for the sound in Apflickorna / She Monkeys
Per Hallberg and Daniel Saxlid for the sound in Försvunnen / Gone
Jason Luke for the sound in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks
Best Makeup
Anna-Lena Melin for the make up in Gränsen / Beyond the Border
Sara Klänge for the make up in Kronjuvelerna / The Crown Jewels
Linda Boije af Gennäs for the make up in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks
Best Music
Fredrik Emilson for the music in Kronjuvelerna / The Crown Jewels
Annette Focks for the music in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks
Ahmir Questlove Thompson and Om’Mas Keith for the music in The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Best set design
Roger Rosenberg for the set design in Kronjuvelerna / The Crown Jewels
Anders Engelbrecht, Lena Selander and Folke Strömbäck for the set design in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks
Cian Bornebusch for the set design in The Stig-Helmer Story
Best visual effects
Johan Harnesk for the visual effects in Gränsen / Beyond the Border
Håkan Blomdahl and Tor-Björn Olsson for the visual effects in Kronjuvelerna / The Crown Jewels
Marcus B. Brodersen and Lars-Eric Hansen for the visual effects in Simon och ekarna / Simon and the Oaks
Best Short Film
Las Palmas – Dir.: Johannes Nyholm
No Sex Just Understand – Dir.: Mariken Halle
Without Snow / Utan snö – Dir.: Magnus von Horn
Best Documentary
At Night I Fly – Dir.: Michel Wenzer
Big Scene / Stora Scenen – Dir.: Tova Mozard
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 – Dir.: Göran Hugo Olsson
Cinema Eye Honors
Steve James’ The Interrupters topped the 2012 Cinema Eye Honors announced earlier this evening. The Interrupters received honors as Best Nonfiction Film and for Best Director, a first in the organization’s five-year history.
Despite generally positive reviews and several US-based critics’ awards, The Interrupters is not in the running for the 2012 Oscars. Curiously, seventeen years ago the absence of James’ Hoop Dreams from the list of Academy Award nominees sparked a furor against the Academy’s Documentary Branch.
“Tonight, I don’t care about the Oscars!” James exclaimed while accepting his award from Michael Moore, the Academy’s current Documentary Branch governor. Moore recently came up with new (and somewhat controversial) rules that are intended to open up the selection of semifinalists and nominees for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
Among this year’s other Cinema Eye Honor winners were Cindy Meehl’s Buck, which took home the Audience Choice Prize; Wim Wenders’ Pina, winner of the Outstanding Achievement in Production Award (Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel) and Germany’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film; and Asif Kapadia’s Senna, winner for Outstanding Achievement in Editing (Gregers Sall and Chris King) and another widely praised documentary that failed to be included among the Academy’s semi-finalists.
One Cinema Eye Honors curiosity is the Heterodox Award, given to “a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production.” This year’s winner was Mike Mills’ Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor and (potential Best Supporting Actor contender) Christopher Plummer as son and gay father, and which was based on Mills’ relationship with his own father.
The Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking went to Tim Hetherington’s combat documentary Diary, which has also been bypassed by the Academy. Hetherington died at age 41 in April 2011 while covering the Libyan civil war.
Frederick Wiseman’s 1967 Titicut Follies, a harrowing peek into a Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Correctional Institution for the mentally ill was named the winner of the Legacy Award. Purportedly due to “privacy concerns” – and the government of Massachusetts’ successful censorship initiative – Titicut Follies was banned in the United States until 1992. (In 1948, Olivia de Havilland earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Anatole Litvak’s similarly themed – but much sentimentalized – narrative melodrama The Snake Pit.)
Steve James’ quote via Steve Pond’s article in TheWrap
Titicut Follies image: Zipporah Films
Scripter Awards
The 2012 finalists for the USC Scripter Awards, honoring both screenwriters and the original authors of adapted screenplays, are the following:
- Christopher Hampton for A Dangerous Method, adapted from John Kerr’s nonfiction book A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein and Hampton’s own 2002 stage play The Talking Cure;
- Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for The Descendants, adapted from Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel (itself an expansion of her short story “The Minor Wars”);
- Moira Buffini for Jane Eyre, adapted from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel;
- Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin for Moneyball, from Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game;
- Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan for their adaptation of John le Carré’s thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Notably absent from the Scripter Award shortlist are Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (adapted by Lee Hall and, more surprisingly, Richard Curtis from Michael Morpurgo’s novel) and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (adapted by John Logan from Brian Selznick book).
Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin are past Scripter winners, while Alexander Payne, Christopher Hampton, and John le Carré are all former Scripter finalists. Zaillian won in 1991, 1994, and 1999 for, respectively, Penny Marshall’s Awakenings, Steven Spielberg’s Best Picture Oscar winner Schindler’s List, and the Zaillian-directed A Civil Action. Additionally, in 2008 Zaillian was the first recipient of the Scripter Literary Achievement Award.
Sorkin won the Scripter award in 2011 for David Fincher’s The Social Network. Payne has been a Scripter finalist for his work on About Schmidt (2002) and Sideways (2004). Hampton was nominated for Carrington (1995) and Atonement (2007). Le Carré was in the running for The Constant Gardener (2005).
Directed by David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method stars Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Keira Knightley. Directed by Alexander Payne, The Descendants stars George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Jane Eyre stars Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska. Directed by Bennett Miller, Moneyball features Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Robin Wright. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman.
Co-chaired by Golden Globe-winning screenwriter Naomi Foner (Running on Empty, Bee Season) and USC screenwriting professor and vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the 32-member Scripter selection committee – which includes the likes of Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, and screenwriters Eric Roth, Geoffrey Fletcher, Tom Schulman, Gale Anne Hurd, and Wesley Strick – picked the five finalists out of a record 109 eligible films.
The winning writers and screenwriters will be announced on Saturday, Feb. 18, in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the USC campus. Academy Award winners Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford will return as honorary dinner chairs.
Also at the Scripter ceremony, former winner Paul Haggis ( for the Clint Eastwood-directed Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby) will be handed the 2012 USC Scripter Literary Achievement Award. In addition to Million Dollar Baby, Haggis has written or co-written The Last Kiss (2003), the Iraq War drama In the Valley of Elah (2007), the critical and commercial dud The Next Three Days (2010), and the two James Bond films starring Daniel Craig, Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008). Haggis has also penned the story for the highly popular videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Viggo Mortensen A Dangerous Method image: Liam Daniel | Sony Pictures Classics