23rd Annual Producers Guild Awards Winners

Last night the first guild had their award ceremony and top award went to The Artist; also this is the first group of Academy voters, so we can say that The Artist has increased its chances to win big in this award season. To check all winners including TV (fabulous Downton Abbey won!) go here. Winners are in *BLUE.

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01/05

A few days back the Producers Guild of America announced the complete list of nominees for this year awards and here are the nominations for feature films.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
*The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
War Horse

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
*The Adventures of Tin Tin
Cars 2
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
*Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribel Called Quest
Bill Cunningham New York
Project Nim
Senna
The Union

To check nominees in all categories including TV go here. Awards ceremony will be on January 21, 2012. With this guild nominations we get our first idea of what maybe Oscar Best Film category could look like and you probably noticed that the SAG five nominated movies for Cast are included In the first list, so I dare to say that The Artist, Bridesmaids, The Descendants, The Help and Midnight in Paris are starting to have good possibilities to get an Oscar nod, as if we add SAG and PGA members they do represent a good portion of Academy voters. Yet I have to wait until the Directors Guild announcement to start to guess the 7 films that could get an Oscar nod.

32nd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards Winners

Was waiting for the official site to have the awards but they have not posted yet, but eventually winners will be here. If you wish to check winners in all categories before official site uploads info, please go here. Winners are in *BLUE.

Most interesting is to find that films with most nominations did not win an award in the top categories, but yes according to what UK press is commenting, with UK nominations and awards, The Artist has somehow increased its chances to get Oscar top award, still I imagine that The Descendants is still a strong contender and SAG awards will give us a better idea.

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12/20

A few moments ago the British group announced their nominations that are lead by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Drive, both with 6 nominations. These are the nominees.

Film of the Year
*The Artist
Drive
A Separation
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree of Life

The Attenborough Award: British Film of the Year
The Guard
Kill List
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
*We Need to Talk About Kevin

Foreign Language Film of the Year
Mysteries of Lisbon
Poetry
Le Quattro Volte
*A Separation
The Skin I Live In

Director of the Year
Asghar Farhadi for A Separation
*Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Lynne Ramsayfor We Need to Talk About Kevin
Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive

Breakthrough British Filmmaker
Richard Ayoade for Submarine
Paddy Considine for Tyrannosaur
Joe Cornish for Attack the Block
*Andrew Haigh for Weekend
John Michael McDonagh for The Guard

Actress of the Year (tie)
Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia
*Anna Paquin in Margaret
*Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Supporting Actress of the Year
*Sareh Bayat in A Separation
Jessica Chastain in The Help
Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus
Octavia Spencer in The Help
Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom

Actor of the Year
George Clooney in The Descendants
*Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Michael Fassbender in Shame
Ryan Goslingi n Drive
Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Supporting Actor of the Year
Simon Russell Beale in The Deep Blue Sea
*Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks in Drive
Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Michael Smiley in Kill List

British Actress of the Year
*Olivia Colman in The Iron Lady and Tyrannosaur
Carey Mulligan in Drive and Shame
Vanessa Redgrave in Anonymous and Coriolanus
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea

British Actor of the Year
Tom Cullen in Weekend
*Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method and Shame
Brendan Gleeson in The Guard
Peter Mullan in Tyrannosaur and War Horse
Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Young British Performer of the Year
John Boyega in Attack the Block
Jeremy Irvine in War Horse
Yasmin Paige in Submarine
*Craig Roberts in Submarine
Saoirse Ronan in Hanna

To check nominees in all categories go here. Award winners will be revealed on Thursday January 19 at BFI Southbank.

Have to admit that these nominations seems a lot more interesting than BIFA’s nods and winners; let’s hope that BAFTA’s look more like these –well, surely the will. Following the top 2 films that lead the nominees with 6 nods each are A Separation and We Need to Talk About Kevin with 5 each, and with 4 apiece The Artist and Shame.

2012 Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Shortlist

Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 84th Academy Awards. Sixty-three films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Belgium, "Bullhead," Michael R. Roskam, director
Canada, "Monsieur Lazhar," Philippe Falardeau, director
Denmark, "Superclásico," Ole Christian Madsen, director
Germany, "Pina," Wim Wenders, director
Iran, "A Separation," Asghar Farhadi, director
Israel, "Footnote," Joseph Cedar, director
Morocco, "Omar Killed Me," Roschdy Zem, director
Poland, "In Darkness," Agnieszka Holland, director
Taiwan, "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," Wei Te-sheng, director

To read the official press release go here. Now we know and yes, there are some surprises (Taiwan and Denmark) but now I believe will be easier to guess the five that will get a nomination this year.

Out of the nine films was able to guess four (Iran, Germany, Israel, and Poland) in my Academy predictions and concur with only two (Iran and Germany) from my selection. That shows us how far I am of what foreign language films Academy members like in a non-English movie. Sigh.

The Descendants

American movies like this one come nowadays so seldom that many of us have forgotten that American filmmakers can craft excellent movies that with well-told human stories move viewers to feel all kind of emotions, travel from laughter to tears, and intensively enjoy the trip with great cinematography, many scenes with great framing, good outdoor and indoor compositions plus extraordinary actors performances with a director that masterful puts everything together.

Most surprising is that everything is flawlessly presented that you will be able to forget who is acting and will see the character; yes talking about George Clooney that to me today he is more a celebrity than anything else related to movies, but in this movie absolutely forgot that was watching Clooney and definitively was watching Matt King in all his magnificent contradictory feelings and confusion. Superb performance Mr. Clooney, all the honors you’ll get for this performance are well-deserved.

Have seen a few of Alexander Payne movies but I do believe that this is his best as the most complete and very careful crafted with much care to details in every sense that successfully and quite slowly –for an American film- grabs your attention, holds it and won’t let it go until the very end. Ah! yes I do appreciate the ending that is not sad, not happy and it’s open to personal interpretation, which of course is not typical of American cinema.

Tells the story of a family, father and two daughters, saying goodbye to the mother that went into comma after an accident. That’s the essence of the story but please don’t think that film is sad or a downer as there are situations that surely will make laugh and smile even do, yes there is a moment that tears started to pour from my eyes and no, they were not related to death at all. The story twist is that the mother was cheating and the father was not aware until the older daughter tells him after he pushes her to tell him why she fought with her mother.

Talking about the older daughter is impressive how Shailene Woodley performance as Alexandra King is so compelling especially as all her previous work was mainly done on TV, but this is an actress that I’m sure we will start to watch more often in the big screen and only hope she doesn’t go too much for the commercial movies route. Sigh.

If you ask me I think film could win Oscar and if does, will be extremely well-deserved as is a very complete cinematic experience and a rarity –nowadays- in American Cinema; yes, I do recommend film as must be seen for many that read the blog and for adults that enjoy well-crafted cinema.

Big Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

2012 Oscar Foreign Films Predictions

Is almost sure that today Tuesday, January 17 the Academy will announce the 9-film shortlist as will give nominees 48hrs to comply with the following requirement:

III. SUBMISSION G. - Countries whose motion pictures are shortlisted will be required to provide a second English-language subtitled print or DCP of the film to facilitate voting screenings. This second print or DCP is due at the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, January 19, 2012.

Still if is not today then has to be tomorrow.

As many I’m really curious about what films the Academy will select this year and to entertain myself and hopefully you readers, here are my predictions.

Will be nominated FOR SURE
Iran: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi

So, I just need to guess 8 more… hmm…
Germany: Pina, Wim Wenders (not really sure as will be nominated as Best Documentary)
Poland: W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland
China: 金陵十三釵 (The Flowers of War), Zhang Yimou
France: La guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), Valérie Donzelli
Finland: Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
Mexico: Miss Bala, Gerado Naranjo
Brazil: Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within), José Padilha
Israel: הערת שוליים (Footnote), Joseph Cedar

Above are the ones I’m guessing Academy will short list, but if selection depended from one person, me, then the list should look like this:

Turkey: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Germany: Pina, Wim Wender
Sweden: Svinalängorna (Beyond), Pernilla August
Lebanon: وهلّأ لوين؟ Wo Hallah La Wen? (Where Do We Go Now?), Nadine Labaki
Iran: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi
Finland: Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
France: La guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), Valérie Donzelli
Italy: Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese
United Kingdom: Patagonia, Marc Evans

… and my Award goes to… well, not yet but believe that we all know who will win and if does it will be extremely well –deserved.

Cheers!

Terraferma

Seems like Emanuele Crialese has a special touch to tell stories about immigration as in Nouvomondo (Golden Door) tells about Italian immigration to America, while here tells about immigration from Africa to Italy. In a way makes me think about Sicilians that left Italy for a better life and nowadays Sicilians not able to deal with those who are looking for a better life in Italy. Yes, not an easy to tell story that is told remarkably well, without sentimentalism and a high dose of realism.

If story is strong, many visuals are breathtaking sea and island views with high production values that make ride quite interesting as starts slowly being contemplative of sedentary island life until tourists arrive and island plus story become alive to reach an intense climax that will make you feel several contradictory feelings. There are two scenes that will stay a long time in my mind, the full of tourist boat dancing to Maracaibo’s rhythm with the underwater take when they jump into the sea and the distant white shadow in a very dark night that advances and advances. Both are superb.

Film is the winner of the 2011 Venice fest Pasinetti Award, Special Jury Prize, and UNICEF award plus is Italy’s submission to Oscar great honors that are well-deserved as Crialese is one of the now not many Italian directors that successfully tell complicated stories with spectacular visual narrative –magical and realistic- and compelling storytelling that touches viewers deep inside.

It’s a great movie that everyone that loves excellent European cinema should see to visually enjoy, to think about illegal immigration in its many forms that surrounds us almost all over the world, and to question your own boundaries when it comes to save a life or not.

Big Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

69th Annual Golden Globe Awards Winners

Last night the awards ceremony was (a lot) less funnier and entertaining than last year, I do believe that Ricky Gervais censored himself more, which undoubtedly helped to make ceremony duller. Just for example, the few jokes I laugh (like Jodie Foster Beaver) were so "clean", straight-forward and NOT sarcastic or dark that felt "elegant" in Gervais mouth. Anyway think that last year the shock-effect was what made show so remarkable and that happens only once.

At the end what I enjoyed most was watching the actors, lol!, especially Johnny that was a great positive surprise. What shocked me most was what press people were tweeting about the golden globes, some comments were truly insulting and I follow press people from Variety, Indiewire, NYT, and other minor Internet "famous" sites. What they tweeted is common or accepted knowledge (the HFPA awards don't have a good reputation), but was the "style" the "words" and the "intent" what was out of line especially when was coming from colleagues as all are news people. Disgusting.

So I kept tweeting nonsense, was to only way to keep busy and not fall asleep! LOL! But I made it until the end, so I suppose that my activity to keep-me-awake will be repeated on every awards show this year.

The good news is that this is the last awards show from critics and now is the turn to start learning if the Industry will behave -or not- the same. Here are the winners for some categories and if you wish to learn about all categories the official site is here. Winners are in *BLUE. The big winner of the night with three wins is The Artist.

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12/15/2011

A few minutes ago the nominations were announced and spontaneously I believe there are some surprises for me, but will comment after doing the post.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
*The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
50/50
*The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week With Marilyn

Best Animated Feature Film
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Rango
Puss in Boots
*The Adventures of Tintin

Best Foreign Language Film
*Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation), Iran
Jing Ling Shi San Chai (The Flowers of War), China
Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid With The Bike), Belgium
In The Land of Blood and Honey, USA
La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In), Pedro Almodovar, Spain

Best Director
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
George Clooney for The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
*Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Glen Close in Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis in The Help
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
*Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Jodie Foster in Carnage
Charlize Theron in Young Adult
Kristin Wiig in Bridesmaids
*Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet in Carnage

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Motion Picture
Berenice Bejo in The Artist
Jessica Chastain in The Help
Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs
*Octavia Spencer in The Help
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
*George Clooney in The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender in Shame
Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March
Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
*Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Brendan Gleeson in The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50/50
Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love
Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Motion Picture
Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks in Drive
Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method
*Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Best Screenplay
*Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon for The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for The Descendants
Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin for Moneyball

Best Original Score
*Ludovic Bource for The Artist
Abel Korzeniowski for W.E.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore for Hugo
John Williams for War Horse

Best Original Song
Hello Hello from Gnomeo & Juliet, Music by Elton John, Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
The Keeper from Machine Gun Preacher, Music & Lyrics by Chris Cornell
Lay Your Head Down from Albert Nobbs, Music by Brian Byrne, Lyrics by Glenn Close
The Living Proof from The Help, Music by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason, Jr., Lyrics by Mary J. Blige, Harvey Mason, Jr., Damon Thomas
*Masterpiece from W.E., Music & Lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, and Jimmy Harry

To check the official announcement and later on the official list go here or here. The Award ceremony will be on Sunday, January 15, 2012 and will be broadcast by NBC, no matter what happens with the lawsuit (I believe).

So again the red carpet will be full of celebrities and some great actors (lol!) as for sure Brad and Angelina will be there along with Leonardo, George , Tilda, Meryl, Glenn and a few others that just with their first name you know who I’m talking about. As has been happening with other awards/nominations announcements The Weinstein Company is the motion picture distributor that has more nominations, here has 12; so it’s NO surprise that the movie with the most nods is The Artist with 6, followed by The Descendants and The Help with 5 each.

By now the news have reached the world and reactions are coming from all over, I like those from France, Belgium and be sure that will check China reaction to Zhang Yimou’s latest oeuvre nomination. Okay the biggest surprise for me is that Rooney Mara got a nomination, but as there are 10 nominated actresses, she was able to make it; still my five fav are included and can’t deny that I’m pleased with the honors given to Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet for their roles in Carnage which, strangely enough, no male roles made got any honor.

Then perhaps I’m more surprised by the omissions than for the movies that got nominations, most annoying is the absence of nominations for The Tree of Life and Melancholia, not that I liked both movies, but obviously this group always includes movies with high buzz in the festival circuit and imagine the reason why must be related to both directors being no-show at public events. LOL! Also miss Aki’s Le Havre, but in general I’m really pleased with the foreign-language film nominees especially IF Zhang Yimou (and not an actor) comes to the award show. The only exception is “you know who” but have to be fair and will comment only after watching In the Land of Blood and Honey.

Haven’t seen three of the six Best Motion Picture – Drama nominees and not really looking forward to watch them as believe that will be too predictable, so whoever wins will be all right for me as from those that have seen the best for me is The Help (?!).

More excited with the news that thanks to the TV categories great actresses will be in the red carpet like the one from my favorite TV show, Julianna Margulies and Claire Danes, followed by Maggie Smith, Eva Rachel Wood, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Elizabeth McGovern, and Romola Garai. By the way have to mention that excellent Downton Abbey and very good Mildred Pierce are the top TV shows with 4 nominations each, followed by Boardwalk Empire, Cinema Verite, Homeland, The Hour, Modern Family, and Too Big to Fail each with 3 nods.

So here is the list with each movie and the number of nominations it got.

THE ARTIST 6
THE DESCENDANTS 5
THE HELP 5
THE IDES OF MARCH 4
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS 4
MONEYBALL 4
ALBERT NOBBS 3
HUGO 3
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 3
50/50 2
BRIDESMAIDS 2
CARNAGE 2
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO 2
W.E. 2
WAR HORSE 2
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN 1
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS 1
BEGINNERS 1
CARS 2 1
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. 1
A DANGEROUS METHOD 1
DRIVE 1
THE FLOWERS OF WAR 1
GNOMEO & JULIET 1
THE GUARD 1
IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY 1
THE IRON LADY 1
J. EDGAR 1
THE KID WITH A BIKE 1
MACHINE GUN PREACHER 1
PUSS IN BOOTS 1
RANGO 1
A SEPARATION 1
SHAME 1
LA PIEL QUE HABITO 1
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN 1

Here is the video with the announcement of the first nominations that were not broadcasted live on national networks.



The second video is a recording of what was broadcasted live on national TV.