The Mel Gibson comeback train barrels into 2011 today with word that the troubled actor/filmmaker has earned awards-body recognition. The catch: He's been given the "Sexist Pig Award" from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, which also recognized more conventional kudos front-runners The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right (including Best Actress winner Annette Bening over Natalie Portman), The King's Speech and True Grit among its films of the year. Congrats to all! [AWFJ]
Remember all that talk about how True Grit was the new Best Picture front runner because of its muscular box office ($110 million and counting)? Yeah, perhaps not. Joel and Ethan Coen failed to received a nomination from the Directors Guild this morning, meaning True Grit's road to winning Best Picture just hit a major bump in the road. Or it didn't, since the Coens could still grab a Best Director nomination from the Academy at the end of this month. Otherwise, this list features your usual suspects. Click ahead for the nominees.
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I know we're all quick to judge these days, but come on: Who hasn't gravely misspelled an A-list movie star and eventual Oscar nominee's name in the process of tweeting about his rumored third nipple?
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We may be getting into an unstoppable Titanic-like streak here. The Social Network, having already been named Best Picture by over seventeen separate critics' groups -- including New York Critics Circle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco,and the National Board of Review -- claimed the crown again, this time from the National Society of Film Critics. The Facebook flick also racked up wins for Best Director, David Fincher, Best Screenplay, Aaron Sorkin, and Best Actor, Jesse Eisenberg. The full list after the break. [EW]
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The British Academy released the long list of potential nominees for their 2011 awards, and much like here in Americaville, they love Black Swan and The King's Speech, which both led the pack, appearing in 15 separate categories. Inception and Made in Dagenham racked up 14 categories, the Social Network in 13 (including Justin Timberlake for Best Supporting Actor), and in 12 categories each were The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Alice In Wonderland (really?), True Grit, Shutter Island (good memory, Brits!), and The Fighter. BAFTA voters will choose from this long list for the actual nominees, which will be announced on January 18th. Soak up the full list after the the break.
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Once every five to seven years, the average American decides he/she is going to see all the Oscar-seeming movies before the ceremony. It's a good way to feel like a part of civilization, just before you dismiss it as contrived, humorless and a misuse of Paul Dano's talents. But as much as you might want to be a completist, perhaps there's one movie you just can't muster the nerve to see: What's your 2010-11 holdout?
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"[W]hy is there so much damn acting in this movie? Melissa Leo is big, all right. She's big all over the place. It's the sort of thing that doesn't just beg to be noticed: It knocks on your door, kicks it down because you didn't respond fast enough, comes in and steals your TV, your laptop, and your toaster, whacks you upside the head with a two-by-four, and finishes by shouting, 'Gimme an Oscah, ya f*ckin' retahd!' Now that's acting." Did we mention Stephanie Zacharek is contributing to the Slate Movie Club this week? [Slate]
Welcome back to Movieline's Oscar Index, your weekly, bulletproof guide to the ever-tightening contention for next month's Academy Awards. And as with last week's awesome "Steak Eaters" theory, the latest edition is dominated by yet another perennially vexing dilemma: Can Hollywood and its ticketbuying public agree once more on Best Picture? Let us investigate...
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The latest Oscar precursor tumbled over the Movieline transom this morning, this time from the Art Directors Guild: The organization announced the nominations for its 15th annual awards, showcasing many of the usual suspects in film and television (The King's Speech, Black Swan, Inception, Mad Men) and a few radical headscratchers (Two and a Half Men's "Hookers, Hookers, Hookers" episode? Say whaaaa?). And snubs! What kind of world do we live in when a union of art directors, production designers and the like will recognize such pedestrian fare as The Social Network but not Grown-Ups? Did they see that water-park montage? Wankers. Anyway, read on for the nominations.
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It's not really awards season until the Razzies rear their terrible-movie-loving head. And so now they have, with such ripe fare as Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, The Expendables, Jonah Hex and Yogi Bear shortlisted for Worst Movie honors. A new, "Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3-D" category recognized Piranha 3-D and The Nutcracker in 3-D as well. Jessica Alba, meanwhile, has earned Worst Actress consideration for four titles in 2010, including Machete, Little Fockers, The Killer Inside Me and Valentine's Day. Congratulations to Ms. Alba! Blue Valentine was snubbed, alas. [Daily Blam]
The guild awards just keep on coming! Right on the heels of the Producers Guild nominations earlier today, the Writers Guild announced their nominees via press release. Round up the usual suspects: The Social Network, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, True Grit, Inception and The Town all scored nominations (it looks like Ben Affleck's film is steamrolling toward the Kodak Theater). So, too, did Please Give and I Love You Phillip Morris, two surprise nominees helped out by the fact that many favorites, including The King's Speech and Toy Story 3, were deemed ineligible because of rule violations. Womp womp. Click ahead for the full list.
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Well, almost all of them. For those keeping score at home, the only film not nominated by the Producers Guild that's also on the list of Best Picture candidates over at the Movieline Oscar Index was Winter's Bone; the beloved indie failed to make the cut, replaced instead by Ben Affleck's The Town. Otherwise, status quo: The Social Network, The King's Speech, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right, Inception, Toy Story 3, 127 Hours and True Grit all received nominations from the PGA, meaning they're one step closer to fulfilling their predicted Oscar glory. Click ahead for the full list of Producers Guild nominees.
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As noted in today's edition of The Broadsheet, a writer at VF.com has made a compelling (or at least intriguing, or at least time-killing) case for The King's Speech being little more than a well-produced riff on the original 1984 version of The Karate Kid. On the one hand, tropes is tropes; there are only so many original stories in the world, and eventually everything will have something in common. On the other... I mean, "The unorthodox, uncredentialed teacher is contrasted with a cruel -- but more respected -- educator." Or, "The teacher helps fill a void left by the student's absent father." Is this the beginning of a covert Sony vs. Weinstein Oscar-season war?
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The official list of Academy Award eligible scores numbers 77 in total, but don't expect to see many of your favorites get recognized come nomination time. As previously reported, Black Swan, The Fighter, Tangled, The Kids Are All Right and True Grit were deemed ineligible because of their reliance on previously produced music, and now comes words that Randy Newman declined to enter his Toy Story 3 score in the running. This marks the first time Pixar won't have a nomination in the Best Original Score category since Cars was passed over in 2006. [In Contention]
Well, here we go: Nomination ballots are in Academy voters' mailboxes as of this week, meaning that the "[m]ost over-covered, over-considered Oscar season ever" just became that much more over-covered and over-considered. How can we ever hope to break it down? To the Index!
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