The Simpsons dominated the field of nominees announced this afternoon for the 2010 Writers Guild Awards, pulling down five nominations (though all were in the animation category). The usual suspects -- including Mad Men, The Office, and 30 Rock -- plus newcomer Modern Family tied for second place with three nominations each. Meanwhile, Rosie O'Donnell earned surprise recognition for adapting a Lifetime telepic America (in which she also starred), along with HBO's loved-or-hated dark comedy series Eastbound & Down, which was nominated for Episodic Comedy. The complete list of nominations, as well as the notable absences, after the jump.
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Of all the year-end Hollywood rites, the annual Running of the Film Critics is by far our favorite -- a thrilling, life-affirming ritual marred only occasionally by a straggler's demise due to a fatal Manohla Dargis goring. The New York Film Critics Circle is the latest tastemaking conglomerate to announce their top prizes for 2009, and they've given Best Film and Director honors to The Hurt Locker and its director Kathryn Bigelow. Best Actress and Actor honors went to Meryl Streep for her buttery turn as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, and George Clooney for Up in the Air. (NY Critics Online agreed on Meryl, but gave Jeff Bridges the prize for Crazy Heart.) Mo'nique and Christoph Waltz took supporting acting awards, furthering our fantasy that the two show up as each other's dates. ("Oooooh! That's a Mo'nique!" "You just say 'Mo'nique.'") Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, meanwhile, enjoyed its second upset, edging out Up (as it did with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association) to take Best Animated Film.
The full list of winners:
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Critics organizations around the country have begun their annual winter rites, gathering in conclave and releasing intermittent puffs of smoke from their roofs to signal the anointing of 2009's best. After the jump, a sampling of the chosen from Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, plus Critics Choice nominees and the European Film Awards own typically tasteful response to the kudos frenzy:
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The most orgiastic year in cinematic history, at least where special effects are concerned, has produced this list of finalists vying for the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Among the 15 to eventually be whittled down to seven: District 9, Sherlock Holmes, Terminator Salvation, 2012, Where the Wild Things Are and Avatar. Missing: New Moon. Which isn't to say it doesn't still have a decent-to-excellent shot at Best Picture. Full list after the jump.
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We always figured that Spike Jonze's Wild Things were no fan of Miley Cyrus (they'd much prefer to listen to Pavement, on vinyl) and now we've got proof! We Love You So brings us the news that Cyrus's "The Climb" was disqualified from the Grammy nominations for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media, freeing up a spot for Karen O and the Kids' "All is Love" from Where the Wild Things Are. Yay, except what? That wasn't nominated before? Jesus. [We Love You So]
At last night's chilly Los Angeles premiere of Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges's ebullience was apparent and for good reason: The 60-year-old actor will almost certainly earn his fifth Oscar nomination for his role as Bad Blake, an alcoholic country musician who regains purpose after falling for a young journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal). For a man who was first nominated in 1971 for The Last Picture Show, the buzzy premiere reminded Bridges of his father's sage Oscar advice and the first director who guided him to gold.
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The tradition of Miss Golden Globe goes back nearly half a century -- it's an elaborate Hollywood Foreign Press Association anointment ritual that involves the slaughtering of a fatted publicist as a sacrificial offering to the show business god Nepoteus, followed by the overturning of an awards show gift bag and reading of its scattered swagtents, and culminating, finally, in the announcement of their selection of leggy celebrity progeny to stand mutely on a makeshift stage in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, handing out trophies before a televised audience of millions while trying their best to avoid direct eye-contact with Jack Nicholson, hopped up on prosecco and waving an outstretched pinkie and thumb near his ear, mouthing, "Call me." This year's lucky lady...after the jump.
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Blame it perhaps on Oprah, who famously called Mo'nique after first seeing Precious and declared, "So what are you wearing to the Oscars, girl?" Or maybe it was another female figure from her more distant past, a strong-willed grandmother who sat a 7-year-old future superstar on her lap and instructed, "One day, they'll be expecting you to dance for your gold prize. Don't do it, Mo'mo. When that day come, you let them dance for you." Whatever the case, when it comes to the awards derby, Mo'nique is not having any of it. Absent from most of the early Precious campaigning and film festival premieres, the comedian and actress's first direct acknowledgment of the race came in the form of this pragmatic and much-quoted kiss-off:
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Adam Shankman's Twitter followers, that's who. The Oscarcast producer last weekend solicited show-planning suggestions from his 48,000 devotees, sparking a torrent of feedback and burgeoning transparency that -- according to at least one report -- isn't making the Academy terribly comfortable. But with the downmarket promise wielded by solicitations like, "So weird question; would u watch the oscars with more exitement [sic] if I cast some sytycd dancers if there are musical #s," who wouldn't want to see just how far the hoi polloi can influence Hollywood's grandest show?
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It took some work, but four days after the National Board of Review's list of '09 winners left the distinct, chalky aftertaste of WTF in America's collective mouth (Two Lovers among the year's 10 best independent films? Come again?), a crisp, refreshing glass of alternative awards news helped rinse the flavor away over the weekend:
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As any critic worth his Pitchfork byline can tell you, the Grammys have a really dubious history of picking winners and nominees. One of the most uneven categories is Best New Artist, where winners range from legends like the Beatles, the Carpenters, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, to -- well -- un-legends like Marc Cohn, the Starland Vocal Band, and Milli Vanilli. This year the category earned double the scrutiny by shunning shoo-in Lady Gaga, with Grammy president Neil Portnow noting that her single "Just Dance" was nominated for a dance award last year. Now that Portnow's coterie has released the 2010 nominees, we can call him on his bluff and point out five examples of Grammy's mistaken "rookie" commemoration.
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The sometimes-wacky but always first National Board of Review announced its award winners and top films today, and the board positively flipped for Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, which won Best Picture, Best Actor for George Clooney (tied with Morgan Freeman), and Best Supporting Actress for today's Movieline interview, Anna Kendrick. That's right, Kendrick beat heavy favorite Mo'Nique -- in fact, Precious didn't even make the NBR's list of the top eleven films of the year, trumped by Star Trek and (500) Days of Summer. The full list, after the jump:
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The International Animated Film Society's Annie Awards nominations are out. Here's the shortlist for Best Animated Feature:
· Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs -- Sony Pictures Animation
· Coraline -- Laika
· Fantastic Mr. Fox -- 20th Century Fox
· The Princess and the Frog -- Walt Disney Animation Studios
· The Secret of Kells -- Cartoon Saloon
· Up -- Pixar Animation Studios
Most notable here is the omission of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo and the $879 million-earning (not a typo) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and the inclusion of The Secret of Kells.
The what?
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The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees today, and films like Precious and The Last Station were showered with attention. Still, I couldn't help but notice which surefire contenders were not nominated. Here's 5 of the most notable snubs, along with the full list of nominees:
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The 2009 Gotham Awards swept in trophy season Monday night in New York, honoring The Hurt Locker with the evening's Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance prizes. A smattering of other films and performances took home hardware as well, with the non-nominated Antichrist -- and one penis's command performance therein -- somehow diverting the evening's attention from the honorees. A complete list of winners and a sampling of the evening's organ chatter follows the jump.
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