Oscar Index: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Caught In The Cross-Hairs

The Oscar Index’s head is spinning. What critics organization didn’t announce their nominees or award-winners this week? On Thursday it was the Golden Globes, on Wednesday the SAGs, and Monday the AFI and BFCA. The Boston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis and Washington critics associations also weighed in with their picks.

But critics don’t vote for the Academy Awards, so much of this will have little bearing on who will be nominated for an Academy Award; not Lincoln’s seven Golden Globe nominations, not Dwight Henry’s Best Supporting Actor win from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and not the Washington D.C. Film Critics Association’s pick of Zero Dark Thirty as the year’s best film.
more »

Director, Into Torture, Seeks Same

"Mr. Liman will create a feature-length film whose script is compiled from various documents on prisoner abuse and torture, some of which were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and whose footage will consist of user-submitted videos of their readings of these documents. [...] 'The experience people will have recording a scene, whether you’re the one speaking the words, or the one behind the camera — or the phone that’s filming the person, more likely — is extremely powerful, in and of itself.'" [NYT]