Awards 2010: Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Go With "True Grit"

Adding another standoff to this year's Academy Awards, True Grit has beat out Inception for the CAS award for outstanding achievement in sound mixing. I still haven't a clue how to work out what happens in this race, but I think we were all under the assumption that Inception had this race in the bag. It turns out that we may be wrong, but I'm not too willing to adjust my predictions because of this. I think Nolan's film will take the win come next Sunday, but be ready in case there is an upset.

SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of "True Grit" from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Awards 2010: American Cinema Editors (ACE) Winners

I feel glad that now that we're past the craziness of The King's Speech dragging in an inappropriate amount of guild awards, we can finally get back to awarding what actually deserves reward, kinda. I say "kinda" because Alice in Wonderland took the award for Best Comedy Editing, and aside from the fact that it's still not a comedy, there were other more deserving films. The Kids Are All Right may be better than the whole lot, but try not to pummel me to death when I say that the editing wasn't its strong suit. I think many would agree that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World would have been far more deserving in this field, but I thought that the editing in Easy A was quite recommendable.

Inception didn't take away the Best Drama Editing award, as you could've suspected from the Oscar omission from the category. Instead they gave it to the ultimately deserving The Social Network. The rest falls cleanly into place with no surprises in the slightest. Toy Story 3 and Exit Through the Gift Shop won what they were fated to win, because there wasn't any real opposition. If anything, I now feel moderately safe with my prediction for Best Film Editing, and no longer vexed by fear of The King's Speech stealing it.

Best Drama Editing: The Social Network
Best Comedy Editing: Alice in Wonderland
Best Animated Editing: Toy Story 3
Best Documentary Editing: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Awards 2010: American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Goes For "Inception"

We're now under two weeks away from Oscar night, and it's starting to look like more of a surprising affair than originally assumed. The King's Speech has Best Picture all locked up in a nice little basket, but there are quite a few intense races still ahead. Amongst them is the cinematography race, which for a while felt like it was locked up for Roger Deakins of True Grit. Then Wally Pfister took his first ASC win last night for his work on Inception, effectively casting doubt on some of Deakins' chances. Pfister has a grand total of four consecutive nominations, while Deakins has accumulated nine nominations with zero wins. Somebody is going to get their first statuette this year, and I honestly hope it will be Deakins. He definitely deserves it.

Awards 2010: Writer's Guild of America Winners

This week, I did something that I haven't done since late 2009. I sat down and watched Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight from start to finish. I'd seen fragments of it on television, usually during the ambitious gotham city car chase that takes place in the middle of the film. I can honestly say that I've never fully realize the full scale of Nolan's accomplishment until just now. At face value, it's a dark crime thriller with some breathtaking action set-pieces propelling it, but what always shook me to my core was that final 25 minutes. The Joker had already made it abundantly clear of his intention to show the citizens of Gotham as the murderous fiends they truly are. Ultimately what that final showdown, and what the entire film actually boils down to is the struggle to keep hope alive at whatever the cost. The stakes are made so personal by the face-off between Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon, and that menace shows how painful it is to live in a world with absolutely no hope. That was what made the film so unforgettable.

With that said, Inception is never going to come close to what that film meant and what that film did. To even suggest that is crazy, because Nolan creates a softer film with less emotional stakes. It's dazzlingly well crafted with a powerful and under-appreciated supporting turn from Marion Cotillard, but it won't be what Nolan is remembered for. Recently I have been twisting and turning at how unbearably predictable the Oscar race has become, and it's so unbearable because it's currently in favor of The King's Speech, which is quickly becoming my least favorite film of the bunch, aside from The Fighter. It's amazing how unanimous praise can expose your despise for a film.

Yet this evening we got a glimmer of hope that maybe everything isn't set in stone. Inception took home the WGA award for Best Original Screenplay, making it Nolan's first win at the prestigious awards. For the past seven years the WGA has been spot on in predicting the outcome of the race, despite the strict rules of qualification. This year, The King's Speech was cut out of the race because of such technicalities, so this could break the WGA's streak of voting so correctly. However, I manage to believe that Nolan still has a shot at the win. The message of outcry amongst the fans at Nolan's omission from Best Director has been heard, so voting for Inception could also work as a bit of damage control.

Of course Aaron Sorkin also took the obvious win for his precise screenplay for The Social Network, which has a much greater struggle for the win in Best Picture. It'll be a struggle for David Fincher to recieve his deserved Best Director win against the undeserving Tom Hooper. I feel a greater stream of optimism this evening than I have in a long time. I've adjusted my Oscar Predictions page, so check it out. The winners are listed below.

Best Original Screenplay: Inception
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Documentary Writing: Inside Job
Miniseries/TV Movie Adapted Screenplay: The Pacific
Miniseries/TV Movie Original Screenplay: The Special Relationship
Episodic Comedy: Modern Family
Episodic Drama: Mad Men
New Series: Boardwalk Empire

Awards 2010: Producer's Guild of America Winners

The PGA announced their winners this morning, much to our surprise and delight. The winner of the top prize, However, did not go to the obvious candidate of The Social Network. It was instead opted to go to The King's Speech, and that makes the Best Picture race a bit more of a wild card now than it was before. The PGA have awarded the film that's gone on to win Best Picture for the past three years. Either this is going to be the breaking of that tally, or they're onto something we haven't caught up to yet. I'm still pulling for a come-from-behind victory for Black Swan, but that's just dreams. The rest of the winners are rather procedural, and nothing really too surprising. I'm still happy that Mad Men took the Drama Series prize, especially since it was robbed at the Golden Globes.

Best Picture: The King's Speech
Best Documentary: Waiting for "Superman"
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Drama Series: Mad Men
Best Comedy Series: Modern Family
Best TV Move/Miniseries: The Pacific
Best Talk-Show/Reality: The Colbert Report

Awards 2010: Cesar Award Nominations

I know it's ridiculous to post a story on a bunch of films that nobody has ever heard of before, but I've always admired the choices of the French awards known as the Cesar Awards. It's not surprising that Of Gods and Men was nominated for the top prize, but The Ghost Writer also made the cut, surprisingly enough. Carlos failed to make the top prize, but settled well enough for the lower categories. The Social Network and Inception were the American nominations for Foreign Language Film, while Academy Award winner The Secret in Their Eyes also made it in. Perhaps it's not too relevant, but it's certainly interesting.

Best Film
“Gainsbourg”
“The Ghost Writer”
“Heartbreaker”
“Mammuth”
“The Names of Love”
“Of Gods and Men”
“On Tour”

Best Director
Olivier Assayas (“Carlos”)
Bertrand Blier (“The Clink of Ice”)
Roman Polanski (“The Ghost Writer”)
Mathieu Amalric (“On Tour”)
Xavier Beauvois (“Of Gods and Men”)

Best Actor
Gérard Depardieu (“Mammuth”)
Romain Duris (“Heartbreaker”)
Eric Elmosnino (“Gainsbourg”)
Jacques Gamblin (“The Names of Love”)
Lambert Wilson (“Of Gods and Men”)

Awards 2010: Golden Globe Predictions

It makes very little sense to predict the winners of the Golden Globes, because the HFPA always goes their own way, and it's never what you think, or what you hope. I will probably get the majority of these guesses wrong, because I'm just taking blind jabs at what may or may not win. My three biggest disappointments about what wasn't nominated are that (1) True Grit doesn't appear once on the list, (2) Easy A isn't nominated for Best Comedy/Musical, and (3) Fringe is once again omitted from the race entirely. It is nonsensical, and I honestly am dismayed. Nevertheless, I expect Ricky Gervais to do a good job at hosting the show, and I'll try my best not to take the losses too seriously. Until then, I leave you with the poster for the one major film not nominated at all.

~Film~

Best Motion Picture (Drama): The King's Speech
Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical): The Kids Are All Right
Best Actor (Drama): Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)
Best Actress (Drama): Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Best Director: Christopher Nolan (Inception)
Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Best Original Score: Hans Zimmer (Inception)
Best Original Song: "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" from Burlesque
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: Biutiful

~Television~

Best Series (Drama): Mad Men
Best Series (Comedy/Musical): Glee
Best Miniseries/TV Movie: The Pacific
Best Actor (Drama): Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
Best Actor (Miniseries/TV Movie): Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)
Best Actress (Drama): Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)
Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Tony Collette (United States of Tara)
Best Supporting Actor: Chris Colfer (Glee)
Best Supporting Actress: Jane Lynch (Glee)

Awards 2010: BFCA Critics Choice Winners

It's so easy to minimalize the importance of these critics awards when you don't see the actual ceremony. The sense of occasion is one of the core defining aspects that makes going to the movies so important in the first place. Without it, it just doesn't seem necessary. I was really impressed by the brisk moving Critics Choice Awards on VH1 last night, because they kept things entertaining. The winners weren't so dull and sedated as people believe, as Jack McGee made clear while accepting the Best Ensemble award on behalf of the cast of The Fighter ("This is just Bitchin'!). Hailee Steinfeld was so darling and beautiful accepting the Best Young Actor/Actress award for True Grit. Every time I see Natalie Portman win an award for Black Swan, it makes me need to see the film again.

The opening montage of the year's films was pretty great, and Bruno Mars has never been so iconic and elegant before, nor will he be so ever again. The Jackass crew got some pretty nice laughs in their parodies of films like Inception, Black Swan, and The Social Network ("Thousand. Twenty-two hundred views in 1000 hours."). Quentin Tarantino and Matt Damon accepted the honorary awards of the evening, and they made their time count. My favorite presenter of the evening was undeniably Kevin Spacey. He's got so much charisma and comedic timing, and I miss seeing him in films. He needs to take another major role now, or else I'll take him and lock him up in my cellar for him to entertain me whenever I want.

There were a few small surprises along the way, and that certainly eases the stress of the awards season being too content as it is. We knew who was going to take home the big award in the end, but that didn't keep us from getting a slight pit in our gut as the nominees were announced. I feel like Alice in Wonderland and Inception went away with probably too many awards, and Black Swan should have secured more statues over the course of the evening. I'm pretty damn happy that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won best Original Score for The Social Network. I think they're a pretty good bet on getting an Oscar nomination now, and whenever I have some heavy blogging work to do, I play their soundtrack in the background. I'm also glad I stuck to my guns in predicting Easy A would win Best Comedy. Sometimes things turn out exactly as they should. The evening was a healthy reminder that the season is far less safe and predictable as it seems, and that Melissa Leo is a lot more attractive in real life than she looks in The Fighter.

Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech
Best Cinematography: Inception
Best Art Direction: Inception
Best Film Editing: Inception
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland
Best Makeup: Alice in Wonderland
Best Visual Effects: Inception
Best Sound: Inception
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Action Movie: Inception
Best Comedy: Easy A
Best Picture Made for Television: The Pacific
Best Foreign Language Film: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best Documentary: Waiting for "Superman"
Best Song: "If I Rise" from 127 Hours
Best Score: The Social Network

Awards 2010: BFCA Critics Choice Predictions

Tonight offers us the 16th Annual Critics Choice Awards, and fittingly the climax of the critics awards season, so it would be surprising if tonight's winners were in any way surprising. The awards have mostly gone the same way, with The Social Network leading the pack with several wins in the top category. It'd be a shame if it went through all that work only not to win here, and I doubt that's going to happen. We'll save the shocks for the Golden Globe telecast on Sunday, because tonight should be rather easy to guess at. There are plenty of opportunities for the best films of last year to get some sort of recognition, so it shouldn't be that difficult to predict who will win. Until then, take a look at this fantastic poster for Black Swan, the film that took in the most nominations.

Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Best Young Actor/Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Best Acting Ensemble: The Fighter
Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Original Screenplay: Inception
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Cinematography: Black Swan
Best Art Direction: Black Swan
Best Editing: Inception
Best Costume Design: The King's Speech
Best Makeup: Alice in Wonderland
Best Visual Effects: Inception
Best Sound: Black Swan
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Action Movie: Inception
Best Comedy: Easy A
Best Picture Made for Television: Temple Grandin
Best Foreign Language Film: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best Documentary Feature: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Best Song: "Shine" from Waiting for "Superman"
Best Score: Inception

Awards 2010: American Cinema Editors (ACE) Nominees

More guild award nominations, and this time it's a little more interesting than usual. The ACE have announced their nominations, and I'm pretty impressed for the most part. The Social Network and Inception made it in, as should be pretty obvious, and the rest of the dramatic field was filled by The King's Speech, Black Swan, and The Fighter, who definitely deserves the nomination. One of my favorite things about the film was the aggressive way it was cut together, adding on to the brutality of it. As for the Comedy or Musical department, there is the obvious exception of Alice in Wonderland, but I was still really impressed. Easy A and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World made the cut, which is a nice victory to me. The Animated and Documentary editing categories are pretty straightforward, but no less deserving.

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
“Black Swan"
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech"
“The Social Network”

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
“Alice in Wonderland”
“Easy A”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“Made in Dagenham"
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”

Best Edited Animated Film
“Despicable Me”
“How to Train Your Dragon"
“Toy Story 3″

Best Edited Documentary
“Exit Through the Gift Shop”
“Inside Job”
“Waiting for Superman”

Awards 2010: National Society of Film Critics

It's not really spreading the wealth if you mention the runners-up in the category, but I guess these precursors just wanted to give the losers the illusion that they just barely lost out. That's not really the case, because the rankings don't give any idea how big the gap in between may be, and it only makes people feel worse in any case. Ignoring the runners-up, The Social Network took away the most wins with the NSFC, and Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer) continues to be an outside contender that we can dream will be nominated for the Oscars, but the odds are still against her.

Best Picture: "The Social Network"
Runner-up: "Carlos"
Second runner-up: "Winter's Bone"

Awards 2010: American Society of Cinematographers Nominations

I absolutely hate the awards season, not because it's a time when people get honors they deserve, but because the only reason somebody visits a site like mine is for news on the latest awards. That's what the next few weeks are going to be like, and we haven't even gotten to the ones that people really care about. The Critics Choice Awards are this Friday, and then we've got the Golden Globes on Sunday, and then I'm heading back to school. I am going to try to put through more 2011 relative news in the next few days, but it's mostly going to be fueled by the guild awards and such. So I don't really care too much about the mild surprises of the ASC nominations, of which the only real shockers are that The King's Speech and The Social Network made it in. The King's Speech does seem like a stretch, given there were a few times I felt they could've chosen better shots. Everything else that made it is well deserving like Inception and Black Swan, whose cinematography keeps getting better upon follow up visits.

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Motion Pictures
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”

Awards 2010: Director's Guild of America Nominations

The guild awards season does tend to seem a little single-faceted at times, mostly because they have one basic category to decide on each. When it comes to the DGA, I'm a bit surprised at the nominations. Most of them are right on the money, but I find it a bit shocking that David O. Russell made the cut for The Fighter while Joel & Ethan Coen were snubbed for True Grit. Other than that, I have no qualms or quarries with this year's nominations. I'm pretty sure David Fincher will end up winning, but I'd like to think that Darren Aronofsky still has a chance.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film
Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”)
David O. Russell (“The Fighter”)
Christopher Nolan (“Inception”)
Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”)
David Fincher (“The Social Network”)

Awards 2010: BAFTA Rising Star Nominations

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is beginning to form their nominations for this year's awards season, and one of the most entertaining categories of the show is the Rising Star Award. Each year it is given to one of the breakout stars of the year, usually chosen by the public. As such, last year it was given to the obnoxious Kristen Stewart over Carey Mulligan and Jesse Eisenberg. So I do fear the honor will go to somebody undeserving, which is always a potent possibility. This year, Emma Stone of Easy A is up for the honor, and seeing as she was the first one I mentioned, you can probably tell that I favor her more than the other nominees.

There are two performers up for the honor who honestly wouldn't deserve it, starting with Gemma Arterton, who inexplicably is appearing in most massive failures these days. Last year she appeared in Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia, and she fortunately doesn't have any major releases this year. The other less than favorable choice would be Aaron Johnson, who had one major performance this year in Kick-Ass. It's not that he wasn't good, but he is hardly worthy of the honor. The man who'll probably win is Andrew Garfield who appeared in both Never Let Me Go and The Social Network in 2010. It's not quite Tom Hardy's year for the honor yet.

BAFTA Rising Star Award
Gemma Arterton
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Aaron Johnson
Emma Stone

Awards 2010: Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Nominations

I'm not much of a followers of the Sound Mixing and Sound Effects Editing awards, because it's a very technical sort of things that I don't entirely understand as of yet. As far as subtle arts go in films, they can either make or break a film. I'm not surprised that TRON Legacy didn't make the cut for the CAS, because the work felt rather odd and just didn't work with the rest of the film. The Social Network is certainly a surprise bid, and I don't think it'll carry on to the Oscars.

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing
"Black Swan"
"Inception"
"Shutter Island"
"The Social Network"
"True Grit"

Awards 2010: USC Libraries Scripter Nominations

Once again, off the wall ideas of what might be nominated for the screenplay categories. Enjoy it for what it is, which is a slight leg up for The Ghost Writer.

"The Ghost Writer"
"127 Hours"
"The Social Network"
"True Grit"
"Winter's Bone"

Awards 2010: Art Director's Guild (ADG) Nominations

Amongst my favorite factors of film production, as well as the most vital, is art direction, so the technical categories are often as fascinating as the main races for me. The ADG doesn't give so much of an idea of what to expect from the Oscar nominations. It's more of a reminder of all the films in the race, and what to choose. My current predictions remain mostly in the Fantasy Film category with films like Inception and Alice in Wonderland, but I'll probably change that up a bit before the nominations are announced. Until then, take a look at these nominations.

Period Film
"Get Low"
"The King's Speech"
"Robin Hood"
"Shutter Island"
"True Grit"

Fantasy Film
"Alice in Wonderland"
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1"
"Inception"
"TRON Legacy"

Contemporary Film
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"127 Hours"
"The Social Network"
"The Town"

Awards 2010: Writer's Guild of America Nominations

Well, the annual list of films snubbed from the WGA didn't seem to stop a consistent stream of quality coming in, although there are two rather interesting horses in this race. Please Give and I Love You Phillip Morris were nominated for their Original and Adapted Screenplays respectively. The winners ought to be rather obvious, with Inception and The Social Network coming out on top in their respective categories. It's not a great glimpse at what to expect from the Oscar nominations, but it's something different to say the least.

Awards 2010: Producer's Guild of America Nominations

We're finally getting somewhat past the repetitive critics awards, and into the guild award part of the season. The PGA is one of the more important awards, because it gives us a reliable idea of what to expect when the Oscar nominations for Best Picture are released. On the other hand, we already had a clear idea of what was probably going to make the list. Another Year's chances have dwindled by far. The Town is seeming like a more likely candidate, but I'm still pulling for Winter's Bone to make the cut. Ultimately, there isn't much diversion from what we already suspected. The major surprise for me is that Exit Through the Gift Shop didn't make the cut for the documentary category.

Awards 2010: Kansas City Film Critics Circle

Nah. I already saw that one. Go fish.

Best Film: The Social Network
Best Director: Christopher Nolan (Inception)
Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Best Original Screenplay: Inception
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Best Foreign Language Film: Mother