The most demoralizing awards season in recent memory continued over the weekend, with the Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild handing out their hardware to pretty much everyone you expected to receive it. I'll factor all this into Oscar Index on Wednesday for a complete-race breakdown, but here are the five basic takeaways worth keeping in mind:
more »
What, ya didn't know rapper/personality Ed Lover was a closet cinephile-slash-Oscar pundit? To borrow from the man himself: "C'mon, son!" In a searing video rant over at NextMovie, he reacts to this year's batch of Oscar nominees and glaring snubs (what, no Drive, Harry Potter, or "Dame Julie Dench?") and pretty much takes the words out of my mouth. "They had the Academy Award nominations the other day at like 7 o'clock in the damn morning... C'mon, son!"
more »
Remember Patton Oswalt's Oscar-snubbee Twitter fan fiction -- specifically the part wherein Tilda Swinton and Andy Serkis rocked out together to "Life on Mars"? Well, Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert or someone might want to get on that, if Swinton's priceless reaction is any indication.
more »
As you may have heard or read, the 2012 Academy Award nominations have stirred strong reactions in certain pockets of the Oscar snubculture. And you just know that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close filmmaker Stephen Daldry -- a first-time non-nominee for Best Director -- is seething somewhere out there: "But at least two of those guys won't even show up!" Fair enough! Or is it?
more »
This reaction quote just in from Gary Oldman, a deserving first-time Oscar nominee for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: "This afternoon in Berlin I have learned that I was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Actor. You may have heard this before, but it has never been truer than it is for me today, it is extremely humbling, gratifying, and delightful to have your work recognized by the Academy, and to join the celebrated ranks of previous nominees and colleagues. Amazing." Meanwhile, how is viciously smacked-down Oscar snubbee Albert Brooks doing?
more »
Let's not belabor this: The Artist claimed Best Picture at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards, all but affirming its eventual Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. Other winners included The Adventures of Tintin in the animated category and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest in docs. Congrats to all! Is it March yet?
more »
Seeing Uggie, the Artist's celebrated Jack Russell terrier, onstage Sunday night at the Golden Globes might have been enough to placate some observers who've demonstrated an interest in the wonder dog's awards-season recognition. But for most who've joined the "Consider Uggie" chorus -- 6,218 fans and counting -- our mission is only getting started.
more »
Now that Golden Globe winner Octavia Spencer's sitting pretty with her Best Supporting Actress trophy, the L.A. Times breaks out a choice quote from an October visit to the set of her Sundance 2012 pic Smashed: "You do a movie like [The Help] to get a movie like this," she said of her new film, which sees her go from spitting retorts and baking special pies as The Help's Minny to helping Mary Elizabeth Winstead battle alcoholism. "It’s nice... to play roles when I'm not just a sassy black woman." Hear, hear. Now let's get Spencer the Oscar, already. [LAT]
Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone forwards an interesting theory: "There is a school of thought where Oscar is concerned that goes like this: You can win if you can give them rock hard erections." The latest in said awards trend, it would seem, is the February cover spread in GQ in which My Week with Marilyn's Michelle Williams poses in lingerie as the magazine's headline screams "Who Knew Michelle Williams Had This Body?" It's a far cry from Williams' perpetual pixie-mom persona, the one she broke out in her Golden Globe acceptance speech last weekend. But is her skin-baring the key to getting that coveted Oscar nomination/win?
more »
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts came out this morning with its 2012 Orange British Academy Film Awards nominations, which -- wait for it -- look suspiciously like the rest of the worlds 2012 film awards nominations. In fairness, for every nod thrown in the direction of The Artist, we witnessed some refreshing recognition for the likes of Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, We Need to Talk About Kevin and a few select others. But hoo boy -- another Albert Brooks snub? This is getting a little weird. More analysis forthcoming Wednesday in Movieline's Oscar Index; congrats to all the nominees, listed below.
more »
Well, that was fun (if not especially shocking): The Artist and The Descendants continued their awards-season showdown as the year's top finishers at the 69th Golden Globes. Click through for a photo gallery and full list of movie and TV winners, and why not enjoy Movieline's livetweet commentary as well?
more »
"Weak." "Lackluster." "Underwhelming." "Less-than-stellar." Such are the general characterizations of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's box-office earnings to date from observers, insiders and pundits around the Web. And now for an equally appropriate one-word response to those perceptions: "Huh?"
more »
The American Society of Cinematographers recognized a typically diverse, eclectic gang of shooters this morning, singling out cinematographers from four countries -- including two first-time nominees -- in revealing its 2012 awards nominations.
more »
When James Franco took to the blogosphere to pledge his awards season support for Rise of the Planet of the Apes co-star Andy Serkis and his performance-captured turn in the film, Serkis was the one person who probably appreciated the gesture most, precisely because it did what he couldn’t do himself: Provide an argument in favor the art of performance capture as a mode of legitimate acting, from an outsider’s perspective. Serkis rang Movieline to chat and expressed appreciation for Franco’s open letter.
more »
FILM NEWS 
