AWARDS 2011: "Artist" & "Tintin" Share PGA Glory

I can't say I'm truly excited for this awards season, or at least not yet. I don't have a single thing against "The Artist", but I don't feel nearly as much enthusiasm as I have in previous years. I suppose "The King's Speech" effectively snuffed that out when it pulled a dreaded sweep of the Guild and Academy Awards. Still, it's nice to see that I'm not in complete hatred of the film that's leading surge for the 2011-2012 awards season. It's less nice to see "The Adventures of Tintin" take the Animated honors away from films that are actually animated, such as the anyways superior "Rango". Nothing much enthusiastic, but what can you expect of a year like 2011?

Producer of the Year in Theatrical Motion Pictures: "The Artist"

Producer of the Year in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: "The Adventures of Tintin"

Producer of the Year in Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures: "Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest"

"Descendants" and Michelle Williams Rock the Golden Globes!

Apologies for massively dropping the ball on the Critics Choice Movie Awards, but I honestly got to a point of not caring in the slightest. The Golden Globes are different. I don't at all care who wins, but I do care about the glamorous dresses, and above all else, Ricky Gervais as host. Worst part of the proceedings? The fact that he was given so little time. Were they just too cared to let him off the leash? You could see clearly that they were concerned about him this time. Still, he managed to make me break down in tears of hilarity in the little time that he did have. And besides that, there were plenty of little moments that managed to make the show worth it.

Like what? Well, for one thing there was the brilliant stream of hilariously hateful tweets when Madonna won Best Original Song ("You're right, Madonna...you have NO excuse. @JustinJagoe"). There's the sweet gesture by George Clooney to hand Meryl Streep's glasses up to the front, which was confronted by a reluctant David Fincher. Seth Rogen's nicely sneaked in jab at the fact that "My Week with Marilyn" is totally not a comedy, and without passing judgment either. Myself, I was overcome with joy at two unexpected moments. 1) When Michelle Williams won, regardless of the fact that she didn't deserve to win for that performance. 2) When Claire Danes won for "Homeland", as I just absolutely love her and want to see whatever else she has to offer.

AWARDS 2011: DGA Does Directors Good

I haven't done too well to keep up with the pace of the Guild awards, and in fact this awards season has been an uncharacteristically weak one for me. I guess I'm just not that invested in it. I rather respect all of the directors on the list of Directors Guild nominations, but two of them just don't deserve to be here. I'm not at all talking about Woody Allen or David Fincher, as both earned their stripes pretty well this year by my standards. I'm talking about Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne, who are both rather fine directors who misfired drastically this year. Payne seemed to lose any strong and dramatic bone in his body with "The Descendants", and Scorsese's passion was diluted by a supremely lacking story in "Hugo". This is quite a strong list of directors, but they just shouldn't be here now.

• Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris")
• David Fincher ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo")
• Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist")
• Alexander Payne ("The Descendants")
• Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

AWARDS 2011: WGA Nominations Skew Disaffected

The WGA has had a notorious penchant for nominating inaccurate films for screenwriting, as they cancel out so many films on strict rules. Therefore, the little interest I usually muster for awards isn't even available now. It's a slow crawl to nomination morning, when all the silliness finally fades from the world and we can start talking not-really-that-seriously.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• "The Descendants"
  
• "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
  
• "The Help"
  
• "Hugo"
  
• "Moneyball"

Best Original Screenplay:

• "Bridesmaids"
  
• "50/50"
  
• "Midnight in Paris"
  
• "Win Win"
  
• "Young Adult"

Best Documentary Screenplay:

• "Better This World"
  
• "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front"
  
• "Nostalgia for the Light"
  
• "Pina"
  
• "Position Among the Stars"
• "Senna"

AWARDS 2011: PGA go for regulars, plus "Dragon Tattoo"

The producers guild are down to their dirty deeds once more, continuing to officially endorse the films which we all know will be nominated for Best Picture. There's little straying from the course at this point. It's probably going to be a seven film race this year, and if there's three below that are probably not going to make it, they're "Bridesmaids", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and "The Ides of March". The rest are just cruising towards nomination day. I would like to see eight films make the cut, and who's to count out that possibility? If there's a film of the three discounted that could likely make it, it would be "Ides of March", which would be a nice capper to a decidedly dicey road it's been on.

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

• "The Artist"
• "Bridesmaids"
• "The Descendants"
• "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
• "The Help"

AWARDS 2011: The "Bad" in the Golden Globe nods!

I'm not often praising the Golden Globe nominations at all, as most year's they're just the afterthought of the season. Nobody should care, and yet we do. Why? Because the split of the Drama and Musical/Comedy branches makes room for the films and actors that would have been left behind otherwise. For the most part anyway, as there are things I still don't quite get. The Globe nods made it clear that it was a light field this year, as most of the "Drama" films nominated weren't really dramas. Doesn't it make sense that "The Descendants", "Hugo", and "The Help" would fall more kindly under Comedy?

It makes it all the more odd that "The Artist" IS nominated for Best Comedy/Musical, a category it is destined to win of course. But while we're talking about things that don't belong, somebody explain to me how "My Week with Marilyn" is a comedy. If that qualifies as a comedy, then throw "W.E." up there by all means! The lead drama acting nods were typical enough of what you'll see on Oscar nominations morning, with the only exceptions being Ryan Gosling in "Ides of March" and Rooney Mara in "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". The lead comedy acting nods were so much more interesting, as they offer space for Brendan Gleeson ("The Guard"), Ryan Gosling again ("Crazy, Stupid, Love."), and Kristen Wiig in the underrated performance of the year for "Bridesmaids".

The supporting performance branches seem just as lost as usual, aside from Albert Brooks and Christopher Plummer of course. And that's more or less it aside from noting how depressing the Original Song category is. Nary a worthy song in sight. As for the television branch, there nothing I really can say. Well, aside from the bogus omissions of "Cougar Town", "Community", and most shockingly of all, "Breaking Bad"! Color me red! So yeah, this is why nobody SHOULD care about the Golden Globes.

AWARDS 2011: Broadcast Film Critics nominations hit

If I'm pretty damn far behind the beat, it's because more important things in real life have taken up the place of my attention span, however cramped it may be. So now I get along to the BFCA nominations, which remain a mere glyph for what the Oscars might be. The nods are mostly predictable in the vein of what you'd expect. The only thing really worth raising a glass to is Nick Nolte being nominated for supporting actor for "Warrior". Still need to see that one, but I've heard solid things going for the man.

BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

AWARDS 2011: San Francisco votes up "Tree of Life"

Is anybody else getting severely tired of these critics awards? I need a long break to regain my sanity after being numbed by repressive output. If nothing else, San Francisco made a great deal of more than just solid choices for their branch of critics. Sure, "The Tree of Life" reminded us once again of how blindly supportive its followers are, but in the film's defense there is heart to it. It's just buried under a heap of misguided non-narrative detour. Other than that, specifically in the performance branches, they get a lot of things right. It's nice to see Gary Oldman finally pick up an award, and it's even nicer to see Tilda Swinton continue on her march to the Oscars.

BEST PICTURE: “The Tree of Life”

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”

BEST ACTOR: Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”  

BEST ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

AWARDS 2011: LA Critics skew towards Malick

And finally ending the day of hasty awards recognizance, the Los Angeles critics managed to differ in a few slight ways from the rest of the general pot. Examples? "The Artist" isn't even in sight. In its place isn't so much as the rising "Hugo", but the still present "Tree of Life". Malick's film caught quite a few wins this time around. Other notable surprises. The Chemical Brothers won best original score for "Hanna", which is a no-brainer now that it's been brought back to our attention thanks to the wonderful LA critics. Also surprising? Yun Jung-hee won Best Actress for "Poetry". Certainly an obscure won, but who isn't happy about that? Take a look at the full list of winners and runners up after the jump!

BEST PICTURE: "The Descendants"

-Runner-up: "The Tree of Life"

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life")

-Runner-up: Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

AWARDS 2011: "Artist" & "Moneyball" take Boston critics

Boston may have been the first of today's critics awards to start voting, but they certainly have taken the longest of the three. The winners have been predictable to say the least, but it is worth mentioning that they were the first to get it right as far as Best New Filmmaker is concerned. Take a look at the whole list of winners below.

BEST PICTURE: "The Artist"

BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

BEST SCREENPLAY: "Moneyball"

BEST ACTRESS: Michele Williams ("My Week with Marilyn")

BEST ACTOR: Brad Pitt ("Moneyball")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melissa McCarthy ("Bridesmaids")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Albert Brooks ("Drive")

BEST ENSEMBLE: "Carnage"

BEST NEW FILMMAKER: Sean Durkin ("Martha Marcy May Marlene")

BEST USE OF MUSIC: "The Artist"/"Drive"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: "The Tree of Life"

BEST DOCUMENTARY: "Project Nim"
BEST FOREIGN FILM: "Incendies" 

AWARDS 2011: Chris O'Dowd and "Tyrannosaur" Rule BIFA Awards!

Last year's British circuit was just dire, with "The King's Speech" blinding the market from the choices of logical thinking. This year brought us back to the class and quality we expect of the British cinema industry. But if there's anything that the British Independent Film Awards are commendable for, it's for putting Chris O'Dowd in the glorious hosting seat. Getting consistently more drunk with every second going by, the man was able to keep things at such a hilarious clip so as to not get sidetracked. He really stole the focus from the wonderful films being represented, which isn't at all a bad thing. He did what a good host should do. He took focus away from whatever disappointments there might have been.

But to be perfectly honest, there was nary a single disappointment in the pot this year. It was absolutely fantastic to see those deserving get appreciated, between "Tyrannosaur", "Shame", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Senna", and more. If nothing else, I'm beating myself up even more now for not having the chance to see "Weekend" yet. Along with "Tyrannosaur", it's placed towards the top of my hit list for the rest of the year. I was getting worried that "We Need to Talk About Kevin" would go on unnoticed for the evening, until Lynne Ramsay thankfully took Best Director. With all the focus on Tilda Swinton, it's easy to overlook Ramsay's absolutely brilliant work. Ultimately, the big winner ended up being "Tyrannosaur", with three wins before the evening was out, including the top prize. You can see the full list of winners after the jump!

AWARDS 2011: DC Critics go for the odd nods

With the awards season in full swing, it's expected for things to start to form in unexpected manners. The DC critics have continued that trend which started at NBR, and we're really starting to consider which films are genuinely the main players of the season. Until "War Horse" garners a genuine win, I think it's becoming more and more plain that maybe it's not the frontrunner we all thought it would be. Perhaps it's just a lower tier player, as it wasn't able to even scratch past "Win Win" or "Drive" in the DC circuit. It's odd enough that Nicolas Refn's film was in there, and that alone sparks another fire in this awards season that's in much need of some personality.

"Win Win", on the other hand, I wouldn't give too much attention based on this nomination alone. If AWARDSit's a trend that continues on to other awards, we'll definitely take it into consideration. After all, if "The Help" is getting buzz, then we can more than expect to see more light indie flicks like this to rise up. You could categorize "Win Win" right along with "50/50" in that respect. A few more pleasant notes are that Fassbender made it into his first Best Actor field for his performance in "Shame", Elizabeth Olsen and Tilda Swinton continue to be of strong presence in Best Actress, and Andy Serkis and Melissa McCarthy are genuinely getting buzz for the supporting categories. In review, we need more critics awards to tell if DC is not completely off their rocker.

BEST FILM

- "The Artist"

- "The Descendants"

- "Drive"

- "Hugo"

- "Win Win"

AWARDS 2011: Annual WGA No-Want List

It's that time of year again, when the Writers Guild of America decides to be prissy little bitches and kick out any film that doesn't abide by their numerous and illogical rules. As such, they aren't a truly reliable precursor in the Oscar fray, and they actually serve just to alienate themselves from the rest of the awards season. But it's still worth some interesting conversation on who didn't make the cut this year. The most high profile film is probably "The Artist", which makes sense on the grounds that that might've been a slim screenplay based on the lack of dialogue. But there's also no sense in the numerous other films to be kept out the competition.

In the original screenplay field, "The Artist", "Beginners", "The Iron Lady", "The Lady", "Margin Call", "Martha Marcy May Marlene", "Melancholia", "Rango", and "Take Shelter" were shelved. In the counterpart adapted field, "Albert Nobbs", "Carnage", "Jane Eyre", "My Week with Marilyn", "Sarah's Key", "The Skin I Live In", and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" got the shaft. While it doesn't much shake the latter race, it does make us wonder what's left for the former. The Best Picture contender most likely to make it in for Original Screenplay here would probably just be "Midnight in Paris". Hell, I'd count on that for the win. Adapted Screenplay, it's pretty much the same game as it was before.

AWARDS 2011: National Board of Review throws "Hugo" into the race

If we were shrugging in a somewhat disgruntled manner when the New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners on Tuesday, the National Board of Review managed to inject a bit of personality into this race. How so? Well I don't think people were quite on board with "Hugo"s Best Picture chances until just now. With Scorsese and his film taking the top prizes from NBR, which was highly expected to go to "The Artist" and Michel Hazanavicius, it feels like there's new blood in there. What gets me even further buzzed is that Tilda Swinton took the Best Actress prize for her amazing performance in "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Fingers crossed that at least this one sticks.

The wins for "The Descendants" and "Beginners", on the other hand, were pretty predictable and within the grain of what we expected. The wins for "50/50" and "Margin Call", on the other hand, are just plain silly. Their top ten are considerably more interesting than I had originally diagnosed this season, but I don't imagine this bunch will all make it to the film list, least of which "Drive", "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and for entirely different reasons, "J. Edgar" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2".

BEST FILM: "Hugo"

BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

BEST ACTOR: George Clooney ("The Descendants")

BEST ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton ("We Need to Talk About Kevin")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer ("Beginners")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants")

AWARDS 2011: NYFCC kicks off the season

And now we get to the critics awards, and occasionally draining and often repetitive exercise usually. This season, it seems to serve more to get some sense of proper footing amidst an uncertain slate of features. If you were following us on twitter, which I advise you do in the immediate future, it was quite an ordeal. Taking up more than three hours of our lives, the New York Film Critics Circle made clear their drawn out method of debating which films would win, rather than something easier like the ever trustworthy secret ballot. It did mean a surprise or two, but it also made things unusual throughout.

Examples? "The Tree of Life" castmates Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain managed to win for wide berth of work for this year. Pitt was obviously less deserving for "Moneyball", which was the only one of his two performances that was lead. Chastain had three films in her batch, which made it somewhat unfair for the rest. "Margin Call" inexplicably and despairingly won best first feature, which should have gone to "Martha Marcy May Marlene". "The Artist" topped the Best Picture and Director race, which wasn't at all surprising. The strongest win, without any complaint, was Albert Brooks for "Drive". I think he may be the only one who has smooth sailing ahead of him.

Best Picture: "The Artist"

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist")

Best Screenplay: Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin ("Moneyball")

Best Actor: Brad Pitt ("Moneyball", "The Tree of Life")

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks ("Drive")

AWARDS 2011: "Drive" & "Beginners" Dominate Indie Spirit Nods

Let me quickly clarify that this was hell to speed write out all the nominations as they were announced via twitter. Give a guy a chance to breathe! All the same, it was really quite fantastic to finally be in the rush of awards season, especially when we're starting in such great fashion. The Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations are really the best way to kick off the season which ends in the bitter disappointment of the Oscars. Of course there are quite a few films that I still don't care for, primarily "The Descendants", and as time ticks by "The Artist". I am not spent on "Beginners" yet, as the film was really quite charming, and its resurgence here gives me enough pause to see it again and reevaluate it.

Still haven't seen "50/50", which doesn't seem as spectacular as it once did, and I expect to get branded by everyone I love for not falling for it. I never got the chance to see it, sadly enough. Fortunately, "Take Shelter" is coming around the bend for me to get in just under the wire for this year. And I've even more ecstatic about "Drive" making such a strong surge for the Indie Spirits. With each passing second it seems all the more like the "Black Swan" of this year. It was nice to see "Martha Marcy May Marlene" to get some love under the main line. What wasn't nice was the almost complete alienation of "Shame", which left Fassbender and Mulligan out of the races, much to my disdain. I'll survive. This is still a nice batch.

BEST PICTURE

-"50/50"

-"Beginners"

-"Drive"

-"Take Shelter"

-"The Artist"

-"The Descendants"

BEST DIRECTOR

-Mike Mills ("Beginners")

-Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive")

-Jeff Nichols ("Take Shelter")

-Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist")

-Alexandre Payne ("The Descendants")

AWARDS 2011: "Tinker, Tailor" Dominates BIFA Nods

Continuing the slow unveiling of film award nominations, the British Independent Film Awards have happily added to the pot. It's a nice array of films that you should get jotted down before the year ends, and I've already gotten off to a solid start with two films in the top race already seen. Two films in particular have prevailed in the nominations above the others, though it's still mostly the same central players. "Senna" is the standout documentary nominee, and a well earned one in my own opinion. "Tyrannosaur" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" are also strong points of interest, gaining their fair share of nods as well. I'd be very happy to see the latter get the lion's share of praise.

However, the top players here are "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", which dominates the performance categories, and "Shame", which picks up more than a few technical nods here. I'd love this to be the start of a surprise awards run for "Shame", but lets face it. That's probably not going to happen. It'll be a wonderful miracle for Fassbender to get nominated in the endgame for Best Actor. I'd consider this to be a sort of outcast lineup, with Mia Wasikowska ("Jane Eyre") and Brendan Gleeson ("The Guard") rounding out the lead actors, and "Drive" picking up a foreign independent nod amongst "Pina" and "A Separation".

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

• "Senna"
• "Shame"
• "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
• "Tyrannosaur"
• "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

AWARDS 2011: Gotham Award Nominations favors "Descendants"

The awards season has finally gotten rolling with the Gotham Independent Film Awards' nomination announcement. Despite my malign of the predictions period, I really do enjoy the awards circuit, seeing what films make the cut, and what films don't. These nominees are the perfect example of such, with "The Descendants" starting its likely undeserving awards run by picking up three nominations here. "Beginners" and "Take Shelter" both doubled up in the Best Feature and Ensemble.

However, the two most surprising developments came from the Best Feature race. Mainly "Martha Marcy May Marlene" being an odd omission and "Meek's Cutoff" instead sneaking in there. Not sure I could have called that. And "The Tree of Life" got in there, but it's a slow start to what could be an extremely fortunate awards run. Glad we're finally starting things off, if a bit slowly. Excited to see what's next.

BEST FEATURE

• "Beginners"
• "The Descendants"
• "Meek's Cutoff"
• "Take Shelter"
• "The Tree of Life"