A windfall of accolades, honors, plaudits and other year-end superlatives swept film culture over the weekend, with voting bodies including AFI and three major regional critics groups announcing their awards for 2011. And while it may not be enough to dramatically shake up the Oscar Index, voices have been heard and impacts have been made. Read on for six quick first impressions, a full rundown of winners and (hopefully) your take on where things stand.
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We've officially crossed the halfway point of this year's Oscar Index -- a bittersweet milestone where the team at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics takes a deep breath, orders a stiff drink, and then... orders another eight or so stiff drinks. While they slam their ways over the awards-season hump, join me for a quick run-through of where things stand this week.
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The annual Cahiers du Cinema Top 10 of 2011 list has been revealed, naming works by the likes of Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier, Jerzy Skolimowsky, and Manoel de Oliveira. Also in the winners' circle? J.J. Abrams! See the full eclectic list after the jump, not to mention the crazy ties in votes that make this early Top 10 a doozy to wrap your mind around...
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Even if no awards body deigns to recognize the year's finest screen work by a dog (or anyone else, for that matter), we can all take some comfort in knowing that Movieline's Consider Uggie campaign has attained an apex of some kind: The Artist's wonder-dog sidekick has been featured in that celebrated repository of prestige, glamor and influence otherwise known as Page Six. But that's the good news; another, more troubling report on Uggie suggests that this campaign may be his last shot at golden glory.
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Spirits were bright Wednesday night in West Hollywood when Fox Searchlight celebrated the season with their annual holiday party -- really, just an excuse to fete Oscar candidates Win Win, Tree of Life, Shame, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and The Descendants like debs at a coming out ball. Movieline caught up with Fox Searchlight's hopefuls at the early awards-season shindig.
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If you thought perhaps the National Board of Review's 2011 award winners might bring even the slightest bit of clarity to this season's Oscar log jam, guess again: The New York-based organization honored Hugo and Martin Scorsese as its Best Picture and Director of the year, with George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Christopher Plummer, Shailene Woodley and -- sort of -- Michael Fassbender making strong showings as well. Read on for the complete list of winners.
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Good news and bad news this week from Movieline's Institute For the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics -- the good news being that a handful of critics organizations and awards bodies have helped to draw the year's noteworthiest (i.e. Oscar-baitiest) titles and talent of the season into their sharpest relief yet. The bad news: Sharp relief remains a total mess, with the fields in most major categories wide open heading into December. Which is the way we like it, right? Right? Ugh. To the Index...
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A day after Movieline launched the unofficial awards campaign on behalf of The Artist's sublime canine co-star Uggie, it's so far, so good: The "Consider Uggie" Facebook page is getting around slowly but surely, and this morning finds the cause featured at the NYT's Carpetbagger awards blog. "He has an impressive list of credits on his own - from Disney fare to Water for Elephants -- and has already been the subject of glowing reviews," writes Melena Ryzik. "And in a silent film, it doesn't matter much that he doesn't, you know, talk." Amen! Keep spreading the word, folks... [NYT]
It's awards madness this week at Movieline, with the New York Film Critics Circle and Gotham Awards having weighed in on their best of 2011, the Independent Spirit Awards revealing their nominees, and the National Board of Review winners forthcoming on Thursday. But amid all the institutionalized laurels and accolades, one subject remains notably absent -- a subject so beloved within his own celebrated film that the omission remains a cruel snub at best and a skulduggerous interspecial sham at worst.
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The New York Film Critics Circle made waves by moving their awards announcement up to November 29 in an effort to claim "First!" but Oscar-watchers have to admit: Between the NYFCC Twitter roll-out and this morning's Spirit Awards nominations, there's a crackle in the air on an otherwise slo-o-o-w news day. So what if the New York critics didn't get a chance to see everything before voting today? They saw Tree of Life! (Clearly.) Hit the jump for the list of winners.
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IFP handed out its 21st annual Gotham Awards tonight in New York, honoring Mike Mills's Beginners and Terrence Malick's The Tree of LIfe among the laureled Class of 2011. Like Crazy actress Felicity Jones and Pariah director Dee Rees showed strongly as well; read on for the complete list of winners.
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For some moviegoers, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive was the movie of 2011 (ditto that soundtrack). Nevertheless, over at Nerve, Jett Wells echoes the sad realization of many a Drive-loving Oscar-watcher: Academy Award nominations are about as unlikely for the stylish crime pic as a clean getaway is for Ryan Gosling's boyish, near-mute anti-hero.
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The bleary-eyed minions at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics have shoved off for the long holiday weekend, leaving it to me to sort out the hectic awards scramble as we head into the third month of this year's Oscar Index. And by "hectic," I do mean hectic, with a lead change at the top of two categories, a neck-and-neck tie atop another and plenty of feverish competition foreseen in another. Read on for a closer look.
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The New York Film Critics Circle retreated a bit today from its controversial decision to move its annual 2011 awards vote up to Nov. 28 -- thus becoming the first in the country -- by delaying it 24 hours to Nov. 29. NYFCC chairman John Anderson cited "conflicting schedules" as the motive. Meanwhile, you can follow the announcements live on the NYFCC's new awards Twitter account -- @NYFCC2011 -- next Tuesday morning. Or just keep an eye out here at Movieline for all the results as they happen. [Press release]
Another year, another ruthless paring down of the Oscar-caliber documentary feature crop, with the acclaimed likes of Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss, Steve James's The Interrupters, Asif Kapadia's Senna and others falling by the wayside as the Academy whittled its 125 submissions to 15 shortlist contenders.
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