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Newswire || ||

Stellan Skarsgard Gives a Little Nymphomaniac Tease

Stellan Skarsgard Gives a Little Nymphomaniac Tease

Swedish-born actor Stellan Skarsgard has run a wide gamut of film roles in his career. His blockbuster fare includes roles in Marvel's The Avengers and last year's Thor. He appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mamma Mia as well as artier titles like A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010) and fellow Scandinavian Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011), Dogville (2003) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). One of his next projects is the controversial filmmaker's next two films, which have already titillated fans of the enigmatic Danish director. Skarsgard gave a bit of insight about the back to back projects, The Nymphomaniac and The Nymphomaniac Part 2, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, promise to live up to their titles.
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The Oscars || ||

Oscar Predictions: S.T. VanAirsdale On the Usual — and Not-So-Usual — Suspects Favored This Weekend

Oscar Predictions: S.T. VanAirsdale On the Usual — and Not-So-Usual — Suspects Favored This Weekend

Forty-eight hours to Oscar. Gut-check time — or maybe make that "gut-instinct check" time, a moment to break away from the meticulous zeitgeist-combing science of Movieline's Institute For the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics and make a few choices for myself. Not that they'll be so different, but if you can't go with a hunch where 5,765 fickle, insular industry minds are concerned, then what can you go with? We can't all be be Otis the Oscar Cat, you know. Anyway, let's make this quick:
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Adventures in Twitter || ||

Patton Oswalt Rounds Up Academy Snubculture For the Only Oscar Party Worth Attending

Patton Oswalt Rounds Up Academy Snubculture For the Only Oscar Party Worth Attending

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, we already know how Albert Brooks feels about this morning's brutal Oscar-nomination snub. But how is the rest of the Academy's snubculture faring? We may never know entirely, but at least their unofficial ambassador Patton Oswalt has the fan-fiction angle covered -- and it sounds like this group has the Governors Ball beat.
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Awards || ||

Rejoice: Melancholia Finally Wins Something

Rejoice: Melancholia Finally Wins Something

When Lars von Trier's latest masterpiece Melancholia last had any real time in the awards spotlight, Kirsten Dunst was accepting the Best Actress hardware at Cannes. News came over the weekend that their drought is over: The National Society of Film Critics voted Melancholia its Best Picture of 2011, with Dunst again earning Best Actress for her role as a depressed bride coming to grips with the end of the world. Other honorees included Terrence Malick, Brad Pitt, Albert Brooks and Jessica Chastain; read on for the full list of winners, runners-up and voting totals.
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Lists || ||

The Artist, Tinker, Midnight in Paris: Stephanie's Top 10 Movies of 2011

The Artist, Tinker, Midnight in Paris: Stephanie's Top 10 Movies of 2011

And so my most-favorite, least-favorite task of the year rolls around again. I never call it a "10 best" list -- meaning the unequivocal 10 best films of the year -- because I'm fully aware of how subjective it is. Yet as frustrating as it usually is to pull together just the right 10, I found the job surprisingly pleasurable this year. So many movies to love! How could this have happened? Let's not even address the fact that two 3-D movies made it onto my list -- that surprises me as much as anyone. The remarkable thing is that year after year, no matter how much samey-sameness Hollywood (or even so-called indie cinema, for that matter) seems to give us, there are always pictures that resonate, movies that stand apart as if to do so were their God-given right.

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Lists || ||

Margaret, Melancholia and More: Alison's Top 10 Movies of 2011

Margaret, Melancholia and More: Alison's Top 10 Movies of 2011

I found 2011 to be a great, overstuffed year in film, though the sweeping trend of nostalgia that peaked during this awards season left me a little cold. Hugo, War Horse, The Artist, The Adventures of Tintin, The Help, even the self-aware looking back of Midnight in Paris -- when it's been such a turbulent 12 months beyond the movies, the comfort of evoking the past, especially the cinephilic past, is understandable, particularly with attendance down once again. But the features I really loved tended to be more prickly, vital affairs, about tragedy and life messily, stubbornly going on in its aftermath -- ones that reminded us that film can not only be a great escape, but can also engage and reflect the outside world.

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Lists || ||

From Lion Kings to Lethal Lisbeth -- Julie's 10 Favorite Films of 2011

From Lion Kings to Lethal Lisbeth -- Julie's 10 Favorite Films of 2011

Truth be told, I don't enjoy ranking films -- especially at the end of a year that disappointingly lacked a single title that moved me to tears, gut-busting laughter or some kind of profound existential realization. (However there were quite a few films that inspired hopelessness for the future of cinema. See Just Go With It and Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star. Actually, don't see them.) But there were some titles I'd recommend and even some I wouldn't immediately regift if they found their way under my Christmas tree/menorah this season. Behold, my fave films of 2011. As always, let me know how much you disagree with this list in the space below.

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Awards || ||

Cahiers du Cinema Top 10 List Honors Terrence Malick, Lars Von Trier and... J.J. Abrams?

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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Burning Questions || ||

Do Lars Von Trier's Nazi Comments Deserve Indefinite Self-Imposed Silence -- or Worse?

Do Lars Von Trier's Nazi Comments Deserve Indefinite Self-Imposed Silence -- or Worse?

Well, now: Lars Von Trier's notorious Nazi comments last May have haunted him all the way home to Denmark, where he says local cops questioned him in connection to charges leveled at him by French officials, post-Cannes. In a statement released today, the Melancholia director issued a promise of his own following the media and legal shit storm caused by his ill-conceived joking, announcing that he'll no longer speak publicly or to press. At all.

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Newswire || ||

Kirsten Dunst on Lars Von Triergate: 'I Was the Only One... to Get Him to Stop'

"Well yeah, you could see my face. I was choking, because I'm watching a friend having a meltdown. And what he's saying is horrendous in a roomful of press. He was asked an inappropriate question [about his family] and his response was to make a joke about it. But no one laughed and he just kept unravelling." Kirsten Dunst told her side of the Lars von Trier Cannes controversy to The Guardian recently, wondering why none of her fellow Melancholia co-stars stepped in to stop their director from shoving his foot squarely into his own mouth.

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Newswire || ||

Diablo Cody Shares Her 3 Most Anticipated Films of Fall with Movieline!

Diablo Cody Shares Her 3 Most Anticipated Films of Fall with Movieline!

Diablo Cody has her own movie to anticipate with the release of her third feature Young Adult this December (featuring a thoroughly unamused Charlize Theron), but the Academy Award winner took time out tell Movieline which three films she most looks forward to seeing. What will make the cut? The Iron Lady? Carnage? A Dangerous Method? Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked? Click through for her adroit (and quite cheeky) observations.

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