Take Shelter

Not many American films grab me, hold me tight (almost suffocating) and do not release me until well after the movie is over, as a matter of fact can’t recall one that did that to me. But now if you ask me which was the last American movie that kept me captive from beginning to end and beyond, easily will tell you that was Jeff Nichols visually amazing Take Shelter. Yes movie is visually fantastic but is not only a feast to your eyes kind of film as performances by lead actors are so good that make the story told and film as a whole a true intense quite complete cinematic experience.

As movie was in Cannes I knew that was a disaster movie but nothing more and strongly suggest you watch movie without learning much about story as I’m sure you will enjoy it more as Nichols is such an amazing storyteller that converted a very simple story into an intense human drama that many viewers and critics write so many different interpretations that I’ll give mine, so if you haven’t seen movie please skip the next paragraph or continue reading after watching film.

To me film tells a very simple story of a man downturn that takes him from being a very normal man living with a very normal family in a very normal community into the most confusing -for him, his family, his friends, his neighbors, and us his viewers- transformation. Story climax at the very end of movie is key to clarify all confusion, but instead of really clarifying makes confusion wider as opens doors to imagination, interpretation, objectiveness, subjective-ness, and many more qualitative adjectives that allows individuals to see whatever nightmarish vision of their own future fear the most. So read reviews and you will find many that believe story is a parable for what’s going on in USA and well, in many other countries in the world. In the end story could become very complex and layered or –as I saw it- so simple and direct that magnificently confuses. Sigh.

Was reading that Jeff Nichols is Terrence Malick student and surely can be seen in the magnificent visual narrative but none of Malick’s movies I have seen has a story like this one and more impressive, story is developed the way is done here. So if Malick is the teacher, then I’m afraid Nichols surpassed his teacher and with this film he’s starting the hard-to-transit road to become a world master filmmaker. Hope Nichols stays in that road and is not tempted to go back to more traditional American independent cinema.

Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain are the essence of this film and their performances are beyond impressive as not only each complements the other but one pulls the other to the front at the right moments. Most of their performances excellence comes from well delivered dialogues, but what impresses me the most is that they were allowed to act with expressions in deep silences and gee, they were really good. Chapeau Mr. Nichols.

Movie, director and actors have been collecting honors in this award season but none is as impressive as winning the top award at 2011 Cannes Semaine de la Ciritique; all honors are well-deserved but regret that Shannon is not Oscar nominated and most of all, that Jessica Chastain was not nominated for this movie where I know has a lead role, but then is common that lead roles are conveniently converted into supporting role to increase winning opportunities. Nevertheless Chastain should have been nominated for this movie more than any other she was in this year. Sigh.

Strongly recommend to watch this movie that I know could blow your mind but be aware that is NOT your typical American movie or your typical independent (indie) American movie, so you have to love great world-class cinema to enjoy a film that has slowish pace and runs for 2 hours.

Big Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

18th Screen Actors Guild Awards Winners

Last night the largest guild in the American movie industry had their awards ceremony and the big winner was The Help. Maybe was a surprise for some but I still consider the movie to be a serious contender against The Artist and The Descendants. Televised show was not really entertaining so was no surprise that soon enough I fall asleep but I was awake when the top three awards were announced, lol.

What sort-of surprised me is George Clooney not winning and obviously now Jean Dujardin has become the top contender to Oscar, but still Clooney has possibilities when considering the vote of non-actor Academy members. Still believe that Viola Davis, Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams have good chances of winning Oscar; out of the three, Williams is perhaps the one with less chances but she's young and surely will continue doing films where her amazing acting abilities will impress viewers/industry/critics until she gets the honor she deserves.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories including TV go here.

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12/12/2011

This is the first industry group that announces their nominations and gives us our first idea of how close or far away are critics from core industry. These are the nominees that were announced a few minutes ago.

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
The Artist (Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, and Penelope Ann Miller)
Bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Jill Clayburgh, Ellie Kemper, Matt Lucas, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi Mclendon-Covey, Chris O’Dowd, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig)
The Descendants (Beau Bridges, George Clooney, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, and Shailene Woodley)
*The Help (Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, Mary Steenburgen, Emma Stone, Cicely Tyson, and Mike Vogel)
Midnight in Paris (Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, and Owen Wilson).

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
*Viola Davis in The Help
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in The Artist
Jessica Chastain in The Help
Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs
*Octavia Spencer in The Help

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in A Better Life
George Clooney in The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar
*Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn
Armie Hammer in J. Edgar
Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Nick Nolte in Warrior
*Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Life Achievement Award: Mary Tyler Moore

To read the official press release and the nominees in Primetime Television please go here.

Very pleased with these nominations! Yes. Best Actress looks to me like what Oscar nods may (or should) look like and the same goes to the supporting role. Can’t deny that I’m surprised with Bichir nomination but what upsets me is no nomination for Michael Fassbender, the others are predictable by now; male supporting role is all right nothing special according to me.

But what really blew my mind is Midnight in Paris cast ensemble nomination and is well deserved as with most –if not all- Woody Allen’s movies actors’ performance makes the film good or not good and this film is good plus very enjoyable. Not so surprised with Bridesmaids as movie had too much buzz. These leaves 3 predictable spots that I’m sure will get an Oscar nod and knowing that the Actors Guild is one of the largest maybe the other two could make the list of seven or eight or whatever amount of films there will be in the Best Film Oscar category.

My favorite TV show has many honors (yay!) and so glad Kate Winslet is nominated for her excellent performance in Mildred Pierce but she is in a category that is not easy to predict a winner as also nominated is Maggie Smith with her outstanding (and sometimes hilarious) performance as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham in excellent Downton Abbey.

Can’t say that critics and actors guild members are strictly different as what you assume could happen is happening with both groups; still up-to-this-moment is not easy to be sure how the Oscar nominations will look, which makes this award season more interesting to follow.

Awards ceremony will be on January 29 at 8pm ET with live simulcast on TNT and TBS; red carpet broadcast precedes the ceremony since 6pm and there the stunt categories winners will be announced.

The following 18 minutes video is the recording of this morning announcement.

64th Annual Directors Guild of America Award Winner

Last Saturday night Michel Hazanavicius won top award at the Directors Guild of America; to check winners in all categories go here. Winner is in *BLUE.

Not always the director that wins the DGA wins the Oscar, but the win-win ratio is still very high and there are strong possibilities that Scorsese will not win (yay!) and definitively Hazanavicius has increased its chances to win.

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1/9/2012

A few minutes ago the guild announced the nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
David Fincher for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
*Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

To check the official announcement go here. On January 12 the guild will announce the documentary nominees and will modify post to include documentaries. Award ceremony will be on Saturday, January 28.

As we know the DGA winner has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award; only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the DGA winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. I'm not yet sure but I think the winner will be Martin Scorsese and probably Oscar nods will be the same except for one that will be substituted for Terrence Malick.

2011 Guldbagge Awards Winners

Watching Awards ceremony live and it's quite entertaining, especially when my Swedish is very basic (lol!) but it takes no genius to understand category and winner. Winners in all categories will be at the official site here. Winners are in *BLUE.

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1/5/2012

Yesterday the Swedish Film Institute announced the nominees for this prestigious award and here they are for the main categories. Simon och ekarna leads with 13 nominations followed by Play with 7 and The Crown Jewels with 5.

Best Film
*Apflickorna (She Monkeys), Lisa Aschan
Play, Ruben Östlund
Simon och ekarna (Simon and the Oaks), Lisa Ohlin

Best Director
Lisa Aschan for Apflickorna (She Monkeys),
*Ruben Östlund for Play
Lisa Ohlin for Simon och ekarna (Simon and the Oaks)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
*Ann Petrén in Happy End
Magdalena Poplawska in Between 2 Fires
Helen Sjöholm in Simon och ekarna (Simon and the Oaks)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Mikael Persbrandt in Stockholm Östra (Stockholm East)
*Sven-Bertil Taube in En enkel till Antibes (A One-way to Antibes)
Kevin Vaz in Play

To check nominees in all categories go here. Awards ceremony will be on January 23, 2012 at Cirkus, Stockholm and Swedish TV (STV) will broadcast the event live.

Only in Sweden could happen that two out of the three films nominated for Best Film and Best Director are by female directors; know it has to be a milestone and should be celebrated as great achievement. Then somehow I really miss Noomi Rapace in these awards as unfortunately she’s doing very strange films (for her profile and career) so I hope she goes back soon to make outstanding Swedish productions –sigh.

Very Late –almost last minute- 2012 Oscar Nominations Predictions

Been so busy doing nothing that almost forgot to publish my predictions, as nominations announcement is tomorrow around 8:30am EST. The future can be unpredictable, but Oscar is more predictable at least in the basic categories so let’s grab my crystal ball and start guessing.

Best Film
1. The Artist
2. The Descendants
3. The Help
4. Bridesmaids
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Hugo
7. Moneyball
8. Drive
9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
10. The Tree of Life

Movies are in order, so if there are 5, 6, 7, 8 or more up to 10 (maximum possible) ranking becomes my prediction.

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive

Have possibilities: David Fincher and Terrence Malick

Best Actress
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Viola Davis in The Help
Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs

Last position could be Glenn Close, Charlize Theron or Elizabeth Olsen. Berenice Bejo is another possibility but for some strange reason is considered more to be in a supporting role, which after watching movie I absolutely said she has a lead role.

Best Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer in The Help
Jessica Chastain in (which movie?... hmm) The Help
Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants
Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs

IF the Academy members consider Berenice Bejo as having a supporting role (which she does not) then she is going to be nominated in this category and probably one of the last two actresses will be replaced by her.

Best Actor
George Clooney in The Descendants
Brad Pitt in Moneyball
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Michael Fassbender in Shame
Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

Have possibilities Ryan Goslin, Gary Oldman and Michael Shannon; I really wish Fassbender is nominated, but his role is so outrageous that wonder if Academy members will nominate him and know he could easily be replaced by any of those with possibilities.

Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Albert Brooks in Drive
Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn
Nick Nolte in Warrior

Have possibilities Arnie Hammer and Patton Oswalt

Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Diablo Cody for Young Adult
Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids

IF Asghar Farhadi is nominated in Original Screenplay, I’ll be VERY HAPPY!!! as honor is well-deserved plus this is his year for great honors after making (directing, writing, and more) several outstanding films.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin amd Steven Zaillian for Moneyball
Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne and Jim Rash for The Descendants
Tate Taylor for The Help
George Clooney and Grant Heslov for The Ides of March
Hossein Amini for Drive

Let’s stop here with the main categories. In less than 24 hours we will learn the nominees and I’m still hoping for some unexpectedness even when award season started to be too predictable; let’s be positive and let see if I improved my previous years record or not, after all this year have seen almost all movies that most likely will have two or more Oscar nominations.

OOPS! Very absent minded, forgot one important category: foreign language film!

Iran, "A Separation," Asghar Farhadi, director
Germany, "Pina," Wim Wenders, director
Poland, "In Darkness," Agnieszka Holland, director
Canada, "Monsieur Lazhar," Philippe Falardeau, director
Belgium, "Bullhead," Michael R. Roskam, director

Cheers!!!

Les Bien-aimés (Beloved)

The 2011 Cannes out-of-competition closing film absolutely is a very-very French film by Christophe Honoré that plays again with older French film styles but also integrates more contemporary Honoré style making end result quite interesting, at least for me as been reading around and seems that film is not for all audiences, which made me think that Honoré is an acquired taste for audiences that not particularly care for or like good French Cinema.

But if you like Christophe Honoré then this film will be one of the most enjoyable for the old movies indirect references, an outstanding cast with superb performances and great singing of “paroles chantées”, plus a story about women and the men they love. Actually story is about two women, Madeleine and Véra, mother and daughter, with the one man each loved their whole life; so, story spans from 1964 to 2007.

Young Madeleine (Ludivine Sagnier) escapes from becoming a thief by incidentally discovering street prostitution, only to fall-in-love with Jaromil Passer, a Czech doctor doing a specialization in Paris and her client. Madeleine gets pregnant, marries Passer and goes with him back to Czechoslovakia, but his infidelities plus the Russian invasion, makes her return to Paris with her daughter Véra where he divorces Passer, marries a policeman and lives happily ever after until Passer comes back to Paris and reignites a flame that was never over. I know told a lot about movie, but it’s not much as Madeleine gets older (now performed by Catherine Deneuve), Véra is older (now performed by Chiara Mastroianni), Passer gets older (now performed by outstanding Milos Forman) and story continues with the love between Madeleine and Passer, plus Véra falling in love with Henderson (Paul Schneider) while being with Clément (Louis Garrel), but Henderson is gay; story evolves with relevant vignettes in the life all characters around Madeleine and Véra. All right is not a simple story, yes is complex but will grab you, take you all over the place, squeeze you, touch you, etc. until releases you at the very end.

Film has very high production values and a caring directorial hand that was able to squeeze 40 years in a bit more than 2 hours and extract from very impressive cast extraordinary performances with special mention to great Czech director Milos Forman –he should do more acting-, Ludivine Sagnier in role that feels and looks like a perfectly fit glove to a magnificent hand, and Chiara Mastrioianni performing like I have never seen her before -with many scenes where she looked so much as her real-life father- and somehow stealing scenes when she was on screen. Then Deneuve and Garrel are superb as always.

An extraordinary movie that of course I do recommend to those that love (classical) French cinema (at least as much as I do) and enjoy Honoré’s particular style that recalls Jacques Demy films (especially Les Parapluies de Cherbourg with Deneuve) but also here evolves with older Véra story into his own particular style.

Last, but not least, Christophe Honoré dedicated film to great Marie-France Pisier, RIP.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

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.

--//--

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.

--//--

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.

Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (Once Upon a Time In Anatolia)

I’m a true admirer of Nuri Bilge Ceylan outstanding films like Distant or Climates, even when I was not too pleased with Three Monkeys; but now I know he went back to what I can call his particular style that allow us to contemplate everything in the screen: the visuals, the dialogues, the situations, the slow pace, the awesome compositions, the use of light, the silences, the amazing long shots, and yes, the story that in this film is about men. Men stories all related to their own woman, but from the very manly restrained point of view. So I contemplated and had one of the best longest moments with great mouth dropping cinema.

For starters just after the opening credits there is a long, very long shot done with a still camera that didn’t move at all during what? Probably 10 to 15 minutes, if not more. Awesome. Story tells about a night where a group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes, so it’s easy to imagine the absolutely beautiful takes of the steppes we will see but what it’s truly amazing is that we watch them while twilight becomes dusk and dusk becomes night. Just imagine the color palette, that somehow reminds me very much of the color palette used in Distant.

Story will grab your attention and tension will develop not from “fictional” situations but from what looks and feels like reality, very realistic performances that are enhanced with great actors close-ups to deadpan faces that suddenly look directly into the camera and a small expression appears. Fabulous.

As I already mentioned film tells men stories, the story of Doctor Cemal, Prosecutor Nusret, Commissar Naci, one killer and the dead man. Each has a woman behind their tale, except the last two that –according to me- have one and the same woman. Thus even if they are looking for a body, slowly you will start to learn each man story and the weaving of all stories happen so flawlessly that you hardly notice that 150 minutes have passed by as you will want more.

Co-winner of the Grand Prix at 2011 Cannes and winner of Achievement in Directing plus Achievement in Cinematography at 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Nuri Bilge Ceylan oeuvre highly deserves the honors and as we know is Turkey submission to Oscar, but I doubt that Academy members will appreciate this kind of true art in cinema. Sigh.

Have to admit that film is not for all audiences but since main story is very clear, a murder investigation, perhaps those who dare to watch it could enjoy the film as a very realistic recount of one night and one morning in the life of some men. Obviously I strongly recommend it to many that read this blog that I know will enjoy this very contemplative voyage into great cinema.

BIG ENJOY!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

17th Prix Lumière Award Winners

I'm currently watching the awards ceremony live, so here are the winners in *BLUE.

Very glad that a female director got the best director award, but not so happy that Aki got no honors at all. To check winners in all categories go here, soon winners will be listed as ceremony is almost over.

--//--

12/19

A few moments ago the International Press Academy announced the nominations for the French equivalent to the Golden Globes and here they are.

Best Film
L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close, Bertrand Bonello
*The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
L’exercice de l’Etat, Pierre Schoeller
Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
Intouchables, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache

Best Foreign Film in French
Curling, Denis Cote, Canada
Et maintenant, on va où ?, Nadine Labaki, France, Lebanon, Italy
*Incendies, Denis Villeneuve, Canada
Le gamin au vélo, Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne, Belgium, France, Italy
Les géants, Bouli Lanners (Belgium, Luxembourg, France

Best Director
Bertrand Bonello for L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Aki Kaurismäki for Le Havre
*Maïwenn for Polisse
Pierre Schoeller for L’exercice de l’Etat

Best Actress
*Bérénice Bejo in The Artist
Catherine Deneuve et Chiara Mastroianni in Les bien-aimés
Valérie Donzelli in La guerre est déclarée
Marina Fois et Karin Viard in Polisse
Clothilde Hesme in Angèle et Tony

Best Actor
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Olivier Gourmet in L’exercice de l’Etat
JoeyStarr in Polisse
*Omar Sy in Intouchables
André Wilms in Le Havre

Best Female Newcomer
*Alice Barno in L’ Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close
*Adèle Haenel in L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close
Zoé Heran in Tomboy
*Céline Sallette in L’Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close
Anamaria Valtoromei in My Little Princess

Best Male Newcomer
Grégory Gadebois in Angèle et Tony
Guillaume Gouix in Jimmy Rivière
Raphaël Ferret in Présumé coupable
*Denis Menochet in Les adoptés
Mahmoud Shalaby in Les hommes libres

Awards ceremony will be on Friday, January 13, 2012 and hope to watch it live as I did last year. The nominations eventually will be at the official site in the meantime go here available only in French.

Have not seen many of these movies and there are two or three that I’m “dying” to see yet hope to be able to watch them ASAP. It’s kind of true that this year nominations resemble Cannes more than in previous years as there are only 11 of 40 nominees that don’t belong to a film screened at 2011 Cannes. I imagine that Cesar categories will look very similar to these as all the great movies plus the ones with much buzz are included in the list.

17th Critics’ Choice Awards Winners

Last night watched the awards ceremony that was okay, nothing special well, maybe watching Bob Dylan was my "special moment"; anyway I believe that there were no surprises and somehow show a trend on what film critics liked during 2011. Winners for all categories are not yet posted at the official site but will be here soon; winners are in *BLUE.

--//--

12/13

Today the Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the nominations for the current year with Hugo and The Artist leading the pack each with 11 nominations. These are the nominees for the main categories.

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

Best Animated Feature
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
*Rango

Best Action Movie
*Drive
Fast Five
Hanna
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super 8

Best Comedy
*Bridesmaids
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Horrible Bosses
Midnight in Paris
The Muppets

Best Foreign Language Film
In Darkness, Poland
Le Havre, Finland
*A Separation, Iran
The Skin I Live In, Spain
Where Do We Go Now, Lebanon

Best Director
Stephen Daldry for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
*Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive
Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Steven Spielberg for War Horse

Best Actress
*Viola Davis in The Help
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Charlize Theron in Young Adult
Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo in The Artist
Jessica Chastain in The Help
Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
Carey Mulligan in Shame
*Octavia Spencer in The Help
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

Best Actor
*George Clooney in The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Michael Fassbender in Shame
Ryan Gosling in Drive
Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks in Drive
Nick Nolte in Warrior
Patton Oswalt in Young Adult
*Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Andrew Serkis in Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Young Actress/Actor
Asa Butterfield in Hugo
Elle Fanning in Super 8
*Thomas Horn in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Ezra Miller in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Saoirse Ronan in Hanna
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

Best Acting Ensemble
The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
*The Help
The Ides of March

Best Documentary Feature
Buck
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
*George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Page One: Inside the New York Times
Project Nim
Undefeated

If you wish to check nominees in all categories please go here. Awards ceremony will be on Thursday January 12, 2012 at the Hollywood Palladium, will be broadcast live on VH1 AT 8:00pm ET, and will be hosted by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer.

Yes, I’m starting to see a trend with East Coast critics liking The Artist and West Coast critics preferring a different movie; but, in general seems that up-to-today The Artist could be the critics favorite. The six nominees in each category is not a bad idea this year, especially in the Best Actress category that not only mimics my true choice but also I’m certain the list has the five that have to be nominated for Oscar. One unforgivable omission in these nominees is Pina, but then maybe not many critics have seen the movie even do this group represents more than 250 television, radio and online critics.

2011 Critics Awards - Final

With today's announcement by the National Society of Film Critics we close this post to be final as has almost the winners of all listed groups -except for one.

Critics didn't concentrate their honors into one particular movie like happened last year, nevertheless we know that the film with more wins is The Artist followed by The Tree of Life and The Descendants. Congruently with the best film category Michel Hazanavicius leads the best director tally but then incorporates two new films as is followed by Nicolas Winding Refn and Martin Scorsese.

Michelle Williams is the actress with more wins followed by Tilda Swinton; other winners like Viola Davis and Meryl Streep are far away from the first two. Jessica Chastain leads the Best Supporting Actress wins, followed close by (that's a surprise for me) Shailene Woodley in The Descendats, Octavia Spencer in The Help, and Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids.

Best Actor has three close actors, but is George Clooney who got the most wins, followed by Michael Fassbender and Michael Shannon. Best Supporting Actor has Albert Brooks leading the pack with Christopher Plummer following far away.

I know that critics are not Academy members but also know that they do honor some of the movies that later will get Oscar nominations. I imagine that soon my crystal ball will be used to give my best Oscar guesses and surely critics will help me to guess better.

Cheers!

--//--

12/11

As there were several announcements during the weekend and specially today, decided to do the first update to this post that will continue to change until becomes final. Up to this moment, The Artist seems to be popular among critics and no other category seems to have a clear trend, except for Best Supporting Actress that is not listed here but where many are starting to agree.

--//--

12/6

Last year I was able to get a good picture of what critics liked and honored with their awards as did one post will all the info; as worked will do the same this year and today we start this post that will be updated constantly as groups, societies, associations, circles, etc do their announcements. New this year is to publish Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor, not only the film as last year.

Alliance of Women Film Journalist (EDA Awards)
Nominations: Official Site

Austin Film Critics Association
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Hugo
Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

Boston Society of Film Critics
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Chicago Film Critics Association
Nominations: Official site.
Winners: Official site
Best Film: The Tree of Life
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Descendants
Best Director: Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: George Clooney in The Descendants

Detroit Film Critics Society
Nominations: Official Site
Winners: News here.
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender in Shame

Dublin Film Critics Circle
Winners: Not at Official site, news here.
Best Film: Drive
Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain in The Tree of Life
Best Actor: Ryan Gosling in Drive

Florida Film Critics Circle
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Descendants
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender in Shame

The Houston Film Critics Society
Nominations: Official site down. News here.
Winners: News here.
Best Film: The Descendants
Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn for Drive
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton in We Have To Talk About Kevin
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender in Shame

Indiana Film Journalist Association
Winners: Official site is down. News here.
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn for Drive
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Indiewire Annual Critics Survey
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: The Tree of Life
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Best Lead Performance: Michael Fassbender in Shame
Best Supporting Performance: Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Las Vegas Film Critics Society
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Actor: Paul Giamatti in Win win

National Society of Film Critics
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: Melancholia
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia
Best Actor: Brad Pitt in Moneyball

New York Film Critics Online
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Online Film Critics Society
Nominations: Official site
Winners: Official site
Best Film: The Tree of Life
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of LIfe
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender in Shame

Phoenix Film Critics Society
Nominations: Official site.
Winners: Oficial Site
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: George Clooney in The Descendants

St. Louis Film Critics
Nominations: Official site.
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Descendants
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Rooney Mara in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Best Actor: George Clooney in The Descendants

San Diego Film Critics Society
Nominations: Official Site.
Winners: Official site.
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn for Drive
Best Actress: Brit Marling in Another Earth
Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: The Tree of Life
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin
Best Actor: Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Southeastern Film Critics Association
Winners: Official site or news here.
Best Film: The Descendants
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Actress: Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Best Actor: George Clooney in The Descendants

Toronto Film Critics Association
Winners: Official Site
Best Film: The Tree of Life
Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

Utah Film Critics Association
Winners: news.
Best Film: Drive
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Best Actor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50/50

The Washington DC Area Film Critics
Winners – Official Site
Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Actress: Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Best Actor: George Clooney in The Descendants

As we know there are a few exceptions that will get their own post.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tomas Alfredson is the director of my favorite vampire movie I’ve ever seen, Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), so I had big expectations for his first English language film. Have to say that film has traces of what I can call Alfredson style, great slowish pace, good framing and some spectacular indoor compositions, and a darkish/blueish tone that made me think about colder scenarios, but then –after all- film is set in the Cold War. Visually I found film very compelling but I had a problem that distract me a lot from truly enjoying the film.

I have not read the novel by John le Carré but, unfortunately I read once, more than the headline reviews and end up learning the character that was the double agent, which surely spoiled the complete story and tension building –still, performances are quite good; so highly enjoyed the almost cruel, freezing-cold bloody characters with some great dialogues.

Probably is only me but nowadays I admit not to be interested in Cold War spies, double agents, missions or anything else related. For me the world tensions have changed so much that the spying world has also changed a lot as players and circumstances have become “less classic” and more “underworld”. So even if I did enjoy the directorial style, the visuals, the slowish pace, the performances, I wasn’t able to get involved with the story. Undoubtedly knowing “who-did-it” was a major spoiler, but also story needs to be told maybe in what, 20-30 years to become relevant again.

Film basically tells the story of a British semi-retired spy that is given the task to uncover a double (British-Russian) agent at the TOP of British echelons.

But if you enjoy classical–very close to reality- spy films with no Hollywood distracting chases/sfx’s, with darkish/blueish great directorial style and great performances by an extraordinary actor’s ensemble that deliver some crisp lines then probably you will enjoy this movie even more than what I did.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @MOC

2nd Online World Festival of French Cinema

A year ago I was highly excited about being part of the very first French Cinema festival online as was one of the (too) many jurors. A year after the second edition promises to be a little bit more interesting, not only because it has become more available (14 languages) but also there are a couple of films that could be very interesting.

Let me share with you excerpts of the press release I got this year.

Unifrance Films and Allociné are launching the 2nd edition of the Online World Festival of French Cinema, MyFrenchFilmFestival.com, from 12 January to 1 February 2012. Three weeks to discover young French film creation throughout the world!

After its first edition, which attracted more than 320,000 Internet users from 170 different countries, the Festival is even bigger in 2012. The selection proposes via paying VOD 10 French feature films and 10 French shorts, as well as 3 films out of competition: "The Trip Across Paris", directed by Claude Autant-Lara, and two Canadian films, one short and one feature. Three prizes will be awarded at the conclusion of the festival: the Audience Prize, International Press Prize and Social Network’s Prize.

This year both the films and website are available in 14 different languages. In addition to the official platform, the Festival is hosted worldwide by partner platforms. The films can be watched free of charge in certain territories: Latin America, Russia, Germany, Italy and China.

The following are the films that will be shown this year.

Feature Films In Competition
Belle épine (Dear Prudence), Rebecca Zlotowski
Case depart (Back to square one), Lionel Steketee
D'amour et d'eau fraîche (Living On Love Alone), Isabelle Czajka
Entre nos mains (Into our own hands), Mariana Otero
Huit fois debout (Eight Times Up), Xabi Molia
J'aime regarder les filles (18 years old and rising), Frédéric Louf
La Reine des pommes (Queen of Hearts), Jérémie Elkaïm
Memory Lane, Mikhaël Hers
Pauline et François (Pauline andFrançois), Renaud Fely
Un poison violent (Love Like Poison) Directed by Katell Quillévéré

Short Films In Competition
Aglaée, Rudi Rosenberg
C’est à Dieu qu’il faut le dire (God's the one to tell), Elsa Diringer
Cul de bouteille (Specky Four-Eyes),Directed by Jean-Claude Rozec
Dripped, Léo Verrier
J'aurais pu être une pute (I could've been a hooker), Baya Kasmi
L'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner), Olivier Treiner
Le Meilleur ami de l'homme (Man's best friend), Vincent Mariette
Monsieur l'abbé (Dear Abbot), Blandine Lenoir
Petit tailleur (The Little Tailor), Louis Garrel
The Silence Beneath the Bark, Joanna Lurie

Out of Competition
La Traversée de Paris (The Trip Across Paris), Claude Autant-Lara
La Vérité, Marc Bisaillon
Trotteur, Arnaud Brisebois

To watch movies, check director’s interviews, watch trailers and more go to the fest official site here.  Hope you’ll participate in this incredible festival that STILL is the only one that’s truly open to the world; is with our participation that this and hopefully many more unconventional “distribution channels” could become available in regions where otherwise is impossible to be able to watch GREAT films.

Enjoy!

2012 BAFTA Long List

Today the British Academy released the long list that’s the result of round one voting by Academy members. 285 films entered this year and round one reduces the list of eligible films to 15 in each category. As we know round two will reduce these 15 contenders down to 5 nominations in each category. Leading the pack are My Week With Marilyn and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with 16 mentions each, followed by The Iron Lady with 14, and The Artist, Midnight In Paris, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and War Horse with 13 each.

Best Film
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
The Iron Lady
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Outstanding British Film
Arthur Christmas
Attack the Block
Coriolanus
The Guard
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
The Iron Lady
Jane Eyre
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Submarine
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tyrannosaur
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Film Not in the English Language
Abel
As If I Am Not There
The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan
Calvet
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)
Incendies
Little White Lies
Pina
Post Mortem
Potiche
Le Quattro Volte
A Separation
The Skin I Live In
Tomboy
The Troll Hunter

Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
Arthur Christmas*
Gnomeo and Juliet
Puss in Boots
Rango*

Director
The Artist*
The Descendants
Drive*
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo*
The Ides of March
The Iron Lady
J. Edgar
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin*

Leading Actress
Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist*
Carey Mulligan (Sissy) – Shame
Charlize Theron (Mavis Gary) – Young Adult
Emma Stone (Skeeter Phelan) – The Help
Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) – The Debt
Jodie Foster (Penelope Longstreet) – Carnage
Kate Winslet (Nancy Cowan) – Carnage
Kristen Wiig (Annie) – Bridesmaids
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady*
Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) – Jane Eyre
Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn*
Olivia Colman (Hannah) – Tyrannosaur
Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin*
Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help*

Supporting Actress †
Alexandra Roach (Young Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook) – The Help*
Carey Mulligan (Irene) – Drive
Emily Watson (Rosie Narracott) – War Horse
Evan Rachel Wood (Molly Steams) – The Ides of March
Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote) – The Help*
Judi Dench (Dame Sybil Thorndike) – My Week with Marilyn*
Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein) – Midnight in Paris
Kathy Burke (Connie Sachs) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Marion Cotillard (Adriana) – Midnight in Paris
Melissa McCarthy (Megan) – Bridesmaids*
Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson) – The Help*
Olivia Colman (Carol Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King) – The Descendants
Zoe Wanamaker (Paula Strasberg) – My Week with Marilyn*

Leading Actor
Antonio Banderas (Robert Ledgard) – The Skin I Live In
Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball*
Brendan Gleeson (Gerry Boyle) – The Guard
Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Eddie Redmayne (Colin Clark) – My Week with Marilyn
Gary Oldman (George Smiley) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants*
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist*
Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar Hoover) – J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame*
Owen Wilson (Gil) - Midnight in Paris
Peter Mullan (Joseph) – Tyrannosaur
Ralph Fiennes (Caius Martius Coriolanus) - Coriolanus
Ryan Gosling (Driver) – Drive
Ryan Gosling (Stephen Meyers) – The Ides of March

Supporting Actor
Alan Rickman (Prof. Severus Snape) - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Albert Brooks (Bernie Rose) – Drive
Ben Kingsley (George Méliès) – Hugo
Benedict Cumberbatch (Peter Guillam) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Christopher Plummer (Hal) – Beginners*
Colin Firth (Bill Haydon) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Eddie Marsan (James) – Tyrannosaur*
Ezra Miller (Kevin - Teenager) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
George Clooney (Mike Morris) – The Ides of March
Jim Broadbent (Denis Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
John Hurt (Control) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Jonah Hill (Peter Brand) – Moneyball*
Kenneth Branagh (Sir Laurence Olivier) – My Week with Marilyn*
Paul Giamatti (Tom Duffy) – The Ides of March
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara) – The Ides of March*

Documentary
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Life in a Day
Pina
Project Nim
Senna

To check all categories go here. Nominations announcement is on Tuesday, January 17 and will be streamed live on BAFTA site. Awards ceremony will be on Sunday February 12.