Oscar Index: PGA Propellant And The N-Word (Nominations!) For 'Django Unchained'

After a momentary holiday lull, it’s back on! Or as Calvin Candie says in Django Unchained. "We got us a fight going on that's a good bit of fun." Academy voters were given one extra day to mull over their Oscar nomination ballots, thanks to a voting deadline extension necessitated by complaints and concerns over the Academy’s first-ever electronic voting system. They could use that 24 hours to digest the Producers Guild Award nominations, which were announced Wednesday, a day early.

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Mash-Ups, 'Moonrise,' And 'Miami' Connections: Jen Yamato's Top 10 Movie Moments of 2012

You can have your Top 10 lists stuffed with cold and corny prestige pics and all those “respectable” “films” headed for Oscar gold, but when I think back on 2012 I remember the movies that wrapped themselves around my heart and brain like a warm blanket made of light and sound and kick-ass jammin' electric guitars and made me feel excited to be alive, dammit!

(I can also pinpoint with a wistful pang the precise moment when Tyler Perry broke my heart. Still love you, TP.)

These are the films, big and small, ambitious and soulful, heart-rending and bone-crunching, about lovers, fighters, time-travelers, masters, closet-dwellers, hermaphrodite basketball players and friends (forever) that made my year at the movies. Join me in celebrating these magical movie moments and let's hope 2013 delivers even more awesomeness.
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'Moonrise Kingdom,' 'Beasts' & 'Keep the Lights On' Lead Spirit Awards Nominations

Film Independent unveiled its 28th Spirit Award nominations Tuesday with last night's Gothams winner Moonrise Kingdom joining the pack of Best Feature nominees which also includes Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, Keep the Lights On and Silver Linings Playbook.

Wes Anderson also picked up a Best Director nomination along with Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Ira Sachs for Keep the Lights On and David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook.

Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 23, 2013. The awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.

"The nominations this year represent an astonishingly strong group of artists both in front of and behind the camera," said Film Independent Co-president Josh Welsh. "At Film Independent, we nurture artist-driven filmmaking all year long and I can't imagine a more fitting or worthy group of films to celebrate here today."

2013 Spirit Awards Nominees:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded)

Beasts of the Southern Wild, Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey & Josh Penn

Bernie, Producers: Liz Glotzer, Richard Linklater, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Judd Payne, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Ginger Sledge, Matt Williams

Keep the Lights On, Producers: Marie Therese Guirgis, Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs

Moonrise Kingdom, Producers: Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, Scott Rudin

Silver Linings Playbook, Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon

BEST DIRECTOR:

Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST SCREENPLAY:

Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer):
Fill the Void, DIRECTOR: Rama Burshtein, PRODUCER: Assaf Amir

Gimme the Loot, DIRECTOR: Adam Leon, PRODUCERS: Dominic Buchanan, Natalie Difford, Jamund Washington

Safety Not Guaranteed, DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow
PRODUCERS: Derek Connolly, Stephanie Langhoff, Peter Saraf, Colin Trevorrow, Marc Turtletaub

Sound of My Voice, DIRECTOR: Zal Batmanglij, PRODUCERS: Brit Marling, Hans Ritter, Shelley Surpin

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, DIRECTOR: Stephen Chbosky, PRODUCERS: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY:
Rama Burshtein, Fill the Void
Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank
Rashida Jones & Will McCormack, Celeste and Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki, Gayby

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD - Given to the best feature made for under $500,000. Award given to the writer, director, and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.
Breakfast with Curtis, WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Laura Colella

Middle of Nowhere, WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Ava DuVernay, PRODUCERS: Howard Barish, Paul Garnes

Mosquita y Mari, WRITER/DIRECTOR: Aurora Guerrero
PRODUCER: Chad Burris

Starlet WRITER/DIRECTOR: Sean Baker, PRODUCERS: Blake Ashman-Kipervaser, Kevin Chinoy, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Francesca Silvestri

The Color Wheel, WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Alex Ross Perry, WRITER: Carlen Altman

BEST FEMALE LEAD:

Linda Cardellini, Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed

BEST MALE LEAD:

Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce, Four

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE:

Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd, Compliance
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere

BEST SUPPORTING MALE:

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike
David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere
Michael Péna, End of Watch
Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Yoni Brook, Valley of Saints
Lol Crawley, Here
Ben Richardson, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov, End of Watch
Robert Yeoman, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer):

How to Survive a Plague DIRECTOR: David France
PRODUCERS: David France, Howard Gertler

Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present, DIRECTOR: Matthew Akers, PRODUCERS: Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

The Central Park Five, DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon

The Invisible War, DIRECTOR: Kirby Dick, PRODUCERS: Tanner King Barklow, Amy Ziering

The Waiting Room, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Peter Nicks
PRODUCERS: Linda Davis, William B. Hirsch

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director):

Amour (France) DIRECTOR: Michael Haneke

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia, (Turkey) DIRECTOR: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Rust And Bone (France/Belgium) DIRECTOR: Jacques Audiard

Sister (Switzerland) DIRECTOR: Ursula Meier

War Witch (Democratic Republic of Congo)
DIRECTOR: Kim Nguyen

16th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – The 16th annual Piaget Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.

Nobody Walks PRODUCER: Alicia Van Couvering
Prince Avalanche, PRODUCER: Derrick Tseng
Stones in the Sun, PRODUCER: Mynette Louie

19th ANNUAL SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The 19th annual Someone to Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Pincus, DIRECTOR: David Fenster
Gimme the Loot, DIRECTOR: Adam Leon
Electrick Children, DIRECTOR: Rebecca Thomas

STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The 18th annual Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Leviathan, DIRECTOR: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel
The Waiting Room, DIRECTOR: Peter Nicks
Only the Young, DIRECTOR: Jason Tippet & Elizabeth Mims

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD - (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)

Starlet, Director: Sean Baker, Casting Director: Julia Kim
Ensemble Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karagulian, Stella Maeve, James Ransone

'Moonrise Kingdom,' 'How To Survive A Plague,' 'Beasts' Win Gothams

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom won Best Feature tonight at the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards tonight in New York, while David France's How to Survive a Plague took Best Director. Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild, meanwhile won two awards including the Breakthrough Director prize and the inaugural Bingham Ray award. more »

Gotham Awards Unveil 22nd Annual Nominees

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) unveiled nominees for the 22nd annual Gotham Independent Film Awards Thursday morning with 26 films named in Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Ensemble Performance, Breakthrough Director, Best Actor and "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" categories. Indie favorites Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, Middle of Nowhere, and Moonrise Kingdom received two nominations each. The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.
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High and Low: Ex-Collaborators Anderson and Baumbach Sow Solo Quirk in 'Moonrise Kingdom' & 'Madagascar 3'

Onetime collaborators Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach each have a new DVD release this week. The two last worked together on Anderson’s gorgeous and witty Fantastic Mr. Fox, and their idiosyncratic proclivities and points of view are very much on display at both ends of the High/Low spectrum. (As a bonus, both films feature Frances McDormand!) more »

'Moonrise Kingdom' Contest: Win An iPad With An Ode To Dangerous First Loves (Updated With Winner)

What kind of bird are you? Make like Wes Anderson and pen your own ode to first love and you could win a grand prize iPad courtesy of Moonrise Kingdom, which hits DVD and Blu-ray this week.

We'll award the Movieliner with the most powerful original haiku dedicated to childhood romance, Sam & Suzy style — so crank up that Françoise Hardy, traipse down memory lane, and get to memorializing your own nostalgia-fueled tribute to puppy love.

The rules are simple: Submit an original haiku (using the 5-7-5 format) inspired by either Moonrise Kingdom or your own first love, in the comments below. One grand prize winner will receive a 32 GB Apple iPad and Moonrise Kingdom Blu-ray.

Entries are open to ages 18 and up. Winners must be in the U.S. or Canada.

Contest closes Wednesday, October 17 at 5pm ET/2pm PT. Entries must include an email address for contacting winners. Only one submission per person.

**UPDATE: Contest is now closed! Thanks to all who played, and stay tuned as we announce a winner!**

**UPDATE #2: We have a winner!

Among all of the sweet and vivid entries we received, Movieline's editors loved Movieline reader Adam's haiku about a memorable summer camp kiss:

Locking lips at camp
Beautiful girl, nervous boy
...and then I came out

Congrats to Adam, who will be receiving the grand prize of an Apple 32 GB iPad, courtesy of Moonrise Kingdom.

Adam and two runners-up will also receive a copy of the Moonrise Kingdom Blu-ray release, out this week. A hearty round of applause to runners-up PRBRANDT and Doug J. for their submissions, which also sent us back in time with their dreamy imagery of childhood loves past:

PRBRANDT:
She had long striped socks
Mine were short and white, but still
our feet slowly touched

Doug J.:
classroom open house
dad’s cologne and my best shirt
she smiles – my face warms

Thank you again to all who entered - stay tuned for our next contest!

WATCH: Moonrise Kingdom Animated Short Brings Suzy's Children's Books to Life

Wes Anderson's nostalgic kid romance Moonrise Kingdom is on its way to wide release later this month (June 29), when even more folks will have the chance to fall in love with the tale of New England youngsters Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward). As a special treat, Focus Features has released an utterly charming supplemental short — introduced by Bob Balaban as the island of New Penzance's narrator/cartographer and, as it turns out, local librarian — in which the six young adult fantasy books glimpsed in the film come to life via Hayward's narration and some magical animation.
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Anyone Wanna Buy the Scout Costume From Moonrise Kingdom?

It's not quite Willy Wonka's suit, and it should probably belong to the young actor who wore it onscreen, but it's a good cause, so hey: "Focus Features is donating an original costume from its acclaimed new movie Moonrise Kingdom, directed by Wes Anderson, to Variety the Children’s Charity of New York for Variety New York’s online auction." Read on for more from Focus's announcement and the auction site CharityBuzz.
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Moonrise Kingdom Shatters Specialty Record with $523,000

It's not just the superheroes who are toppling box-office records this summer: Check out the opening for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, which pulled in $523,000 over the weekend — on four screens. Its $130,750 per-theater average represents a new standard for limited live-action releases, besting Dreamgirls's $126,316 from 2006. (Moonrise's four-day holiday total reached $669,000.) Hats off as well to The Weinstein Company's The Intouchables, no slouch itself with around $26,000 per screen for the three-day frame. Champagne for all! [Deadline]

Wes Anderson on the Fantasy of Moonrise Kingdom — and the Myth of His 'MO'

A week and a half after its world premiere kicked off the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom arrives Stateside this weekend in limited release. Starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban, acting novices Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward steal the show kids on the cusp of their teens who fall in love on an island off New England in 1965. To stay together, the couple make a pact to make a dash for the wilderness, but the authorities are on their trail.
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REVIEW: Moonrise Kingdom — Attractive and Meticulous, Yet Lacking the Indefinable Magic of Moonlight

Whenever I throw away one of those large round plastic lids from an orange-juice jug, in my head I hear my mother saying, as she would have said to my 8-year-old self, “That would make a great table-top for a doll’s house.” As an adult I don’t have a dollhouse, but I still have a hard time throwing away those orange-juice lids; the mentality dies hard. So why — with one luminous exception — can’t I love the movies of Wes Anderson, the most dollhousey of all filmmakers? Why, specifically, can’t I love Moonrise Kingdom, a sweet-natured picture set in 1965 on a mythical New Englandy island, in which two oddball kids run away together and pledge undying love?
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Take the Bill Murray Tour of the Moonrise Kingdom Set

After debuting at Cannes, Wes Anderson's latest offering Moonrise Kingdom hits limited release in New York and Los Angeles this week. You've seen the twee snippets previewing the tale of young puppy love in flight, circa 1965. You've pored over the visual charm assault that is its poster. Now let co-star Bill Murray be your guide — wearing patchwork madras pants, with a little bit o' rum in his belly — through the New England set of Moonrise Kingdom.
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Cannes: Adolescence Reigns in Wes Anderson's Opener Moonrise Kingdom

Ahead of opening the 65th Cannes Film Festival with tonight's red-carpet premiere, Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom kicked off the frenzy this morning with a screening and press conference.
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Twee Alert: Watch Six Adorbs Clips from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom

You already know you're in for a twee-fest packed with richly colorful characters and a healthy dose of quirky charm in Wes Anderson's period kid romance Moonrise Kingdom, so watching these six newly unveiled clips from the film probably won't spoil all that much. Instead, they give us more of what we're already expecting: Game turns by Anderson regulars like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman as well as Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and Ed Norton, the hazy muted palette of the isolated New England countryside as if filtered through Instagram, and our two preternatural adolescent heroes, plotting their summer camp flight through the wilderness in the name of love.
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