The Academy has announced that a whopping 75 tunes are in play for the Best Original Song Oscar this year, and among them were tracks by Adele, Florence + the Machine and The Arcade Fire. I imagine that makes the Oscarcast’s producers very happy, that top ticket acts are in play, but they have to be nominated first, folks. So don’t go carving out a spot in the show’s rundown for these numbers just yet.

Also in play are other popular artists like Keith Urban, Karen O and Katy Perry. I’m personally hopeful that Ennio Morricone’s beautiful track “Ancora Qui” gets into the category, and I have a hunch it might. But what a bummer that “Who We Were” from “Holy Motors” didn’t make the cut. I have no idea why. Also, the Weinsteins’ push for Willie Nelson’s “Midnight Run” from “Lawless” bore no fruit, I see. Though The Bootleggers and Emmylou Harris’s “Cosmonaut” did.

Check out the full list of qualifying contenders below. We’ll have the Best Original Song Contenders page updated in due time. For now, what do you expect will be nominated from the category?

“For You” from “Act of Valor”
“Metaphorical Blanket” from “Any Day Now”
“Let It Rain” from “Being Flynn”
“Learn Me Right” from “Brave”
“Touch the Sky” from “Brave”
“Airport” from “Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best”
“Come on Girl” from “Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best”
“Someday” from “Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best”
“Protect the King” from “Brooklyn Castle”
“California Solo” from “California Solo”
“Casa De Mi Padre” from “Casa De Mi Padre”
“Del Cielo” from “Casa De Mi Padre”
“Yo No Se” from “Casa De Mi Padre”
“No Other Plans” from “Celeste and Jesse Forever”
“Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice”
“By the Light of the Moon” from “Crossroad”
“The Sambola! International Dance Craze” from “Damsels in Distress”
“When You Comin’ Home” from “Darling Companion”
“Death by China” from “Death by China”
“Delhi Safari” from “Delhi Safari”
“Ancora Qui” from “Django Unchained”
“Freedom” from “Django Unchained”
“100 Black Coffins” from “Django Unchained”
“Who Did That to You?” from “Django Unchained”
“How Bad Can I Be?” from “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax”
“Let It Grow” from “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax”
“Thneedville” from “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax”
“Ain’t No Train” from “Downtown Express”
“You Don’t Have to Be a Star” from “Fame High”
“Jose’s Martyrdom” from “For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada”
“Strange Love” from “Frankenweenie”
“Voodoo” from “Halloween Party”
“Luna Nascosta” from “Hidden Moon”
“Song of the Lonely Mountain” from “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Abraham’s Daughter” from “The Hunger Games”
“Master of the Seas” from “Ice Age Continental Drift”
“We Are” from “Ice Age Continental Drift”
“Looking for a Sign” from “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”
“From Here to the Moon and Back” from “Joyful Noise”
“He’s Everything” from “Joyful Noise”
“I’m Yours” from “Joyful Noise”
“Wide Awake” from “Katy Perry: Part of Me”
“Cosmonaut” from “Lawless”
“Beaten Up and Broken Down” from “Least among Saints”
“Suddenly” from “Les Misérables”
“Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi”
“When I Grow Up” from “Losing Control”
“Love Always Comes as a Surprise” from “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”
“Ladies of Tampa” from “Magic Mike”
“The Baddest Man Alive” from “The Man with the Iron Fists”
“This Gift” from “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”
“Still Alive” from “Paul Williams Still Alive”
“Dotted Line” from “People Like Us”
“Snake Eyes” from “Promised Land”
“Razors.Out” from “The Raid: Redemption”
“I’m Not Leaving” from “Re:Generation”
“Still Dream” from “Rise of the Guardians”
“Undercover Love” from “Rock of Ages”
“Big Machine” from “Safety Not Guaranteed”
“I Be Here” from “Saint Dracula”
“I Have Secrets” from “Saint Dracula”
“Skyfall” from “Skyfall”
“Breath of Life” from “Snow White and the Huntsman”
“Gone” from “Snow White and the Huntsman”
“One Wing” from “Sparkle”
“Not Running Anymore” from “Stand Up Guys”
“Feel Love” from “Struck by Lightning”
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted”
“Never Had” from “10 Years”
“Dull Tool” from “This Is 40”
“She Won’t Let Go” from “Until They Are Home”
“Kiss Me Goodbye” from “Virginia”
“Anything Made of Paper” from “West of Memphis”
“Hashishet Albi” from “Where Do We Go Now?”
“When Can I See You Again?” from “Wreck-It Ralph”

Not that this is something to be particularly proud of, but the Broadcast Film Critics Association has done its annual duty of distilling the Oscar race to what we think it is now (now, NOW!). There’s nothing of passionate note in its overall picks, nothing of unique flavor. But as I have explained in the past, that’s the result of a vaster group than these other, smaller 20- and 30-member critics groups. A bigger spread tends to yield consensus and, well, boring choices across the board.

The Academy can sometimes offer more refined selections throughout its many categories, focused on the work of peers, knowledgeable in it, even. But here you’ll find what seems like auto-pilot selections, some of them even traceable to various publicity campaigns around this or that contender (nice work in the Best Song category, “Act of Valor” pushers). I don’t claim them, though I certainly voted in them (full disclosure: I am a member). I don’t see my identity here. Indeed, I don’t see much of an identity at all.

It’s been building to this place, though (and some would argue it’s been here a while — I have defended). I have respect for what the BFCA brass have been trying to do — build a principled alternative to the Golden Globes — but the addition of a slew of categories this time around, awarding acting achievements per genre, reads more as an attempt to out-guest list the Globes than innocently recognizing “often overlooked performances.” It feels like an excuse to just fill out the red carpet with more stars. Jake Gyllenhaal gets to walk for his admittedly stellar performance, but only because somehow “End of Watch” is an “action film.”

I hate to sound this cynical but that’s my instinct. And I’m probably pissing off a few people by writing this, but I won’t be the only one reeling at the absurdity of this bloat. I’m not sure anyone anywhere needs 28 categories, particularly from a group full of people who aren’t exactly the best lot to discern good from bad in a number of these areas. No disrespect to my colleagues. Many of us just shouldn’t be asked to qualify certain things, I feel.

Anyway, that bitching and moaning aside, it was Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” that led the charge with 13 nominations, a record-breaking haul with the BFCA, besting the 12-nod tally run up by “Black Swan” in 2010. It landed a nomination in every conceivable category. Pity it wasn’t a comedy. Or an action film. Or a sci-fi/horror film. Or better yet, a comedy/action/sci-fi/horror film.

Not too far behind was Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables” with 11 and David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” (which did get the benefit of comedy category placement) with 10.

Looking over the nominees, I’d say the Best Picture list is a decent one and, again, fairly indicative of where we are in the Oscar hunt. The Best Actor and Best Actress categories boiled it down to the six anticipated contenders in each field (ditto the original screenplay field), while the supporting categories interestingly spoke up for Javier Bardem and Judi Dench in “Skyfall” (which itself netted seven nominations).

I was a bit irritated that Jared Gillman didn’t manage to join his “Moonrise Kingdom” co-star Kara Hayward in the Best Young Actor/Actress field. And clearly most BFCA members didn’t bother tracking down the GKIDS titles as the animated feature category is stuffed with studio product.

The Best Director field really plants the flag, though. Most would agree at this point that, if there were five Oscar nominees for Best Picture (as it was in saner times), they would be “Argo,” “Les Misérables,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” with “Life of Pi” as a potential spoiler. And so it goes, the director nominees are Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, Steven Spielberg, David O. Russell, Kathryn Bigelow and Ang Lee.

Don’t color outside the lines or anything, guys.

Finally, the group has instituted a new fan-voted award, making the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards the ultimate, terrifying Frankenstein of the Golden Globes, the Satellites, the MTV Movie Awards and the People’s Choice awards. The category is favorite film franchise and the nominees include Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, James Bond/007, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Wars, Toy Story and Twilight.

And that about says it all, doesn’t it? Voting begins today at The Official Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Site.

The 18th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards will be televised live on The CW, January 10, 2013 at 8pm ET/PT. Unless, you know, Mayans. (fingers crossed)

Check out the full list of nominees on the next page, and as always, keep track of all this insanity as it unfolds via The Circuit.

Best Picture
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Django Unchained”
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Director
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
Tom Hooper, “Les Misérables”
Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”
Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”
David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
Hugh Jackman, “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
Denzel Washington, “Flight”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Argo”
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
Robert De Niro, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Matthew McConaughey, “Magic Mike”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Judi Dench, “Skyfall”
Ann Dowd, “Compliance”
Sally Field, “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Original Screenplay
“Django Unchained”
“Flight”
“Looper”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Art Direction
“Anna Karenina”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”

Best Cinematography
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Master”
“Skyfall”

Best Costume Design
“Anna Karenina”
“Cloud Atlas”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”

Best Editing
“Argo”
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Makeup
“Cloud Atlas”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”

Best Score
“Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Song
“For You” from “Act of Valor”
“Learn Me Right” from “Brave”
“Skyfall” from “Skyfall”
“Still Alive” from “Paul Williams Still Alive”
“Suddenly” from “Les Misérables”

Best Visual Effects
“The Avengers”
“Cloud Atlas”
“The Dark Knight Rises”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Life of Pi”

Best Animated Feature
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”
“ParaNorman”
“Rise of the Guardians”
“Wreck-It Ralph”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Amour”
“The Intouchables”
“A Royal Affair”
“Rust and Bone”

Best Documentary Feature
“Bully”
“The Central Park Five”
“The Imposter”
“The Queen of Versailles”
“Searching for Sugar Man”
“West of Memphis”

Best Young Actor/Actress
Elle Fanning, “Ginger & Rosa”
Kara Hayward, “Moonrise Kingdom”
Tom Holland, “The Impossible”
Logan Lerman, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Suraj Sharma, “Life of Pi”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Best Acting Ensemble
“Argo”
“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Action Movie
“The Avengers”
“The Dark Knight Rises”
“Looper”
“Skyfall”

Best Actor in an Action Movie
Christian Bale, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Daniel Craig, “Skyfall”
Robert Downey Jr., “The Avengers”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “Looper”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “End of Watch”

Best Actress in an Action Movie
Emily Blunt, “Looper”
Gina Carano, “Haywire”
Judi Dench, “Skyfall”
Anne Hathaway, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”

Best Comedy
“Bernie”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Ted”
“This is 40”
“21 Jump Street”

Best Actor in a Comedy
Jack Black, “Bernie”
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Paul Rudd, “This is 40”
Channing Tatum, “21 Jump Street”
Mark Wahlberg, “Ted”

Best Actress in a Comedy
Mila Kunis, “Ted”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Shirley MacLaine, “Bernie”
Leslie Mann, “This is 40”
Rebel Wilson, “Pitch Perfect”

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Looper”
“Prometheus”

As we wait for the BFCA news to drop, the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association has tossed its hat into the ring with a list of nominations as well. It’s nice to see that Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” registered so well, landing eight nominations. Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” was also a favorite from the group, as well as fellow indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Check out the full list below and, well, you know — The Circuit.

Best Picture
“Argo”
“Django Unchained”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Director
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”
Wes Anderson, “Moonrise Kingdom”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Jamie Foxx, “Django Unchained”
John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
Denzel Washington, “Flight”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Helen Mirren, “Hitchcock”
Aubrey Plaza, “Safety Not Guaranteed”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Argo”
John Goodman, “Argo”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
William H. Macy, “The Sessions”
Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”
Bruce Willis, “Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Ann Dowd, “Compliance”
Sally Field, “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
Emma Watson, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Django Unchained”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Seven Psychopaths”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Cinematography
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Cloud Atlas”
“Django Unchained”
“Life of Pi”
“The Master”
“Skyfall”

Best Visual Effects
“The Avengers”
“Cloud Atlas”
“Life of Pi”
“Prometheus”
“Snow White and the Huntsman”

Best Music Score/Soundtrack
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Cloud Atlas”
“The Dark Knight Rises”
“Django Unchained”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Not Fade Away”

Best Animated Film
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“ParaNorman”
“Rise of the Guardians”
“Wreck-It Ralph”

Best Foreign Language Film
“The Fairy”
“Headhunters”
“Holy Motors”
“The Intouchables”
“The Kid with a Bike”

Best Documentary
“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”
“Bully”
“How to Survive a Plague”
“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
“Searching for Sugar Man”

Best Comedy
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Seven Psychopaths”
“Ted”
“Wreck-It Ralph”

Best Arthouse or Festival Film
“Bernie”
“Compliance”
“The Fairy”
“Safety Not Guaranteed”
“Sleepwalk with Me”
“Take This Waltz”

Best Scene
“Beasts of the Southern Wild – The hurricane (and Wink shooting at it)
“Django Unchained” – the “bag head” bag/mask problems scene
“Flight” – The plane crash
“Hitchcock” – Anthony Hopkins in lobby conducting to music/audience”s reaction during “Psycho” shower scene
“The Impossible” – Opening tsunami scene
“The Master” – The first “processing” questioning scene between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix

I’m the first to admit that I don’t tend to take great interest in press releases announcing the umpteenth honorary award winner of the season — while frequently deserved and hard-earned, such honors can seem like unspecific garnish beside their tangier competitive counterparts.

Still, having now served for two years on the awards committee of the London Film Critics’ Circle, I’m well aware of the extensive consultation and organization that goes into such seemingly simple awards. As we tried to decide on a recipient for next year’s Dilys Powell Award — recognizing outstanding contribution to British cinema — a lengthy list of candidates was considered and debated over several meetings and countless emails, until one outstanding name was roundly agreed upon: Helena Bonham Carter.

Bonham Carter is no stranger to the London critics’ shindig, having won our British Actress of the Year award 15 years ago for “The Wings of the Dove.” Her career has grown and shifted so much since then, however, that the time feels ripe for a cumulative honor. Once the quintessential English rose, rarely seen out of a corset, she has grown, via “Fight Club,” “Harry Potter” and her personal and professional partnership with Tim Burton, into something considerably more fun: one of the British acting community’s grandest, most agreeably eccentric character actors. (She has since been nominated three more times by the LFCC, for “Sweeney Todd,” “The King’s Speech” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Please don’t yell at me about that last one; I wasn’t a member then.)

This award comes at the end of a year in which Bonham Carter has also been honored with a BFI Fellowship, while playing the eccentric card even more gleefully than usual on screen. Recently, she’s taken on both Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations” and Madame Thénardier in “Les Misérables,” with another Burton caricature (“Dark Shadows”) thrown in for good measure. She could feasibly wind up also nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the critics, but either way, we’re guaranteed her reliably entertaining presence (and speech) at the ceremony in January. (Sadly, I’ll be far from home at the Sundance fest.)

With typically good humor, Bonham Carter offered this statement: “To be chosen for this award is a surprise and an honour. I am delighted! It’s always nice when critics say something nice about you for a change, and especially the critics in your hometown.”

Previous recipients of the Dilys Powell Award include Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Mike Leigh, Michael Caine, Charlotte Rampling and last year’s choice, Nicolas Roeg.

This announcement, meanwhile, precedes the nominations for the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards, which will be unveiled on Monday. (I’m still in the process of trying to pull my ballot into some sort of shape before Friday’s deadline.) The awards ceremony, this year held in aid of the charity Missing People, will take place in Mayfair on January 20.

The Detroit Film Critics Society has announced its list of nominees, and they refreshingly go their own way in a number of areas. “Silver Linings Playbook” led the way with seven nominations and Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz” was a favorite, too. Other unique picks include Bill Murray in the Best Actor line-up for “Hyde Park on Hudson” and Greta Gerwig in Best Actress for “Damsels in Distress.” Check out the full list below and remember to keep track of the season via The Circuit.

Best Picture
“Argo”
“The Impossible”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Take This Waltz”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Director
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
J.A. Bayona, “The Impossible”
David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Sarah Polley, “Take This Waltz”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
Bill Murray, “Hyde Park on Hudson”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Greta Gerwig, “Damsels in Distress”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”
Michelle Williams, “Take This Waltz”

Best Supporting Actor
Robert De Niro, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Matthew McConaughey, “Magic Mike”
Ewan McGregor, “The Impossible”
Ezra Miller, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Ann Dowd, “Compliance”
Sally Field, “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”

Best Screenplay
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Take This Waltz”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Ensemble
“Argo”
“The Avengers”
“Lincoln”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Breakthrough Performance
Stephen Chbosky, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Zoe Kazan, “Ruby Sparks”
Rebel Wilson, “Pitch Perfect”
Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Craig Zobel, “Compliance”

Best Documentary
“The House I Live In”
“The Imposter”
“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
“The Queen of Versailles”
“Searching for Sugar Man”

I somehow missed this when it appeared a few day ago, but A.O. Scott’s essay on the year in movie heroines is essential reading. While noting the commercial and/or critical success of female-powered narratives ranging from “The Hunger Games” to “Brave” to “Beasts of the Southern Wild” to “Pitch Perfect” — while noting the potential for “Zero Dark Thirty” to rule an otherwise male-dominated Oscar slate — he’s not so naive or patronising as to label 2012 any kind of Year of the Woman. Still, he does sense a recent uptick in studios’ consideration of the intelligent female audience. “It should not, after all, be a big deal that movies like ‘Bridesmaids’ or ‘The Hunger Games’ exist,” he writes, “perhaps because it should have been a bigger deal when such movies didn”t.” [New York Times]

On a related note, Jon Weisman joins me in railing against the curious perception held by many pundits that this is a weak year for actresses. Open your eyes/minds, people. [The Vote]

Justin Chang offers an insider’s account of Sunday’s LAFCA vote, where Dwight Henry beat Christoph Waltz by a single vote while Michael Haneke, despite winning Best Picture, only placed fifth for Best Director. [Variety] 

Geoffrey Macnab looks into the streamlined voting process for this year’s BAFTA Awards, and what they’d do if the Oscars moved to an earlier place in the calendar. (Yep, BAFTA would move earlier too.) [Screen]

The Vulture team hand out prizes in some categories other showbiz award don’t bother with. Fun stuff, but guys, Q’s “Skyfall” cardigan is not the best movie sweater of 2012. The Hardigan. End of. [Vulture]

Makeup artist Lois Burwell talks about turning Daniel Day-Lewis into “Lincoln,” among other feats on Steven Spielberg’s whiskery period piece. [Below the Line]

David O. Russell tells Glenn Whipp how his free-form script for “Silver Linings Playbook” kept growing during the shoot, adding over 40 pages in the process. [LA Times] 

Tolkienite critic Catherine Bray offers a fair-minded assessment of what “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” gets right… and what it very much doesn’t. [Film4]

Andy Serkis, for many critics the high point of Peter Jackson’s film, won’t be returning in the trilogy, but talks about working on the films in a different capacity: as second unit director. [Cinema Blend]

Jeff Wells offers his Top 20 of 2012 list. After giving critics’ groups so much hell for not rewarding “Silver Linings Playbook,” he ties it with “Zero Dark Thirty” for first place? [Hollywood Elsewhere]

The first thing Emmanuelle Riva wants me to know – before any mention of movies, careers or awards, before the word “Amour” even enters our conversation – is that she’s feeling fine. 

Admittedly, it’s not an entirely unprompted statement. She’s merely responding to my opening greeting, in which I mention how sorry I was to hear of her recent ill health – words which immediately draw a good-natured but puzzled laugh. “I’m sorry, illness?” she asks over the phone, via a translator, from her home in Paris. “I don’t know what you mean.” 

Nervous that I’ve kicked off an eagerly-awaited interview with an immediate faux pas, I sheepishly explain that her absence at the previous weekend’s European Film Awards in Malta – where she was a popular winner of the Best Actress prize – had been explained by the presenter as the result of flu season. Happily, Riva cheerfully confirms, there must have been a misunderstanding. “I’m perfectly fine,” she says. “I was just tired. I’ve been doing interviews since Cannes!” 

Speaking with bright, alert enthusiasm, making our Canadian translator work hard as she elaborates discursively on ideas with nary a pause, the 85-year-old actress certainly doesn’t sound ill – or even tired, for that matter, whatever her claims to the contrary. It’s a pleasure to encounter her in such starkly contrasting form to the ravaged, defeated spirit she so hauntingly inhabits in the final stages of Michael Haneke’s “Amour.” 

As Anne, a refined music teacher who succumbs with alarming rapidity to the physical and mental recesses of dementia after a crippling stroke, Riva gives one of the year’s most remarkable performances: the actorly technique involved in portraying Anne’s decline is impressive, but what lingers longest in the memory is the piercing glare of her eyes, persistently protesting the indignities her body is foisting upon her, even when she deteriorates beyond speech. Already laurelled with Best Actress honors from the Los Angeles and Boston critics’ groups, in addition to the European Film Award, Riva is now on course to become the oldest lead acting nominee in Oscar history. 

It’s a belated career peak for the actress who made an auspicious film debut 53 years ago as a nameless, passion-worn actress in Alain Resnais’s New Wave standard-bearer “Hiroshima, Mon Amour” – and one she certainly wasn’t expecting. “Reading that script was bliss,” she recalls. “It’s rare to be offered a script like that at any age, but how often are such roles written for actors over the age of 80, when you assume your time is behind you? It’s miraculous.” 

Though she has never opted for retirement – unlike her co-star, Jean-Louis Trintignant, for whom “Amour” is his first film in nearly a decade – it has been a great many years since Riva has been handed a lead role, let alone one of such complexity. Accepting Haneke’s offer, she says, was a split-second decision. “The potential for this film was evident straight away on the page,” she says. “The subject it deals with is just extraordinary: so universal, so essential to everyone’s experience, and yet seldom portrayed with great depth in film. I had to say yes. It wasn’t a choice.” 

Just because she was certain, however, doesn’t mean Riva wasn’t intimidated by the project. “I can’t remember ever having been so nervous about a role in my life,” says the actress, who describes the fears faced by the film’s characters, inevitably, as hitting rather close to home. “When you’re taking on a story like that, as an actor, you have to be worthy of that subject. It’s life, it’s bigger than you. You don’t want to fail the subject, and you don’t want to disappoint your director.” 

Particularly not, one imagines, when that director is Michael Haneke – the sober-minded Austrian auteur whose career may be green compared to Riva’s, but whose reputation for austere formalism precedes him. Still, if anyone’s less likely to be overwhelmed by Haneke’s standing, it’s the actress who began her film career with Alain Resnais, and has since worked with such giants of the medium as Jean-Pierre Melville, Georges Franju and Krzyztof Kieslowski. 

He’s in that league, not a doubt about it,” she says of Haneke, singling out “The Piano Teacher” and “The White Ribbon” as films of his that she had seen and particularly admired before “Amour” came her way. “From the moment you meet him, just from the way he speaks, you know you’re in the presence of a very great artist – and that’s how it was with Resnais, with Kieslowski, even if they’ve all been very different to work with.” 

Riva is quick to point out, however, that this aura of greatness needn’t imply aloofness; she describes Haneke as a warm and generous personality on set. “On the very first day of shooting, I was taken over by this great sense of happiness and security; there was a clear fraternity of spirit on set with Haneke, the actors, the crew. I knew I could surrender, and give myself to the film – which is important when you’re telling such an intimate story.” 

Though the principal word Riva uses to describe Haneke’s style, echoing many a critic, is “rigorous” – “It’s the necessity of his craft, that precision” – she says the shoot was a highly collaborative process. “He’s completely in control, but his approach isn’t really instructive. “It’s more like a conference,” she explains, before making an apt comparison for a film about classical musicians. “It’s funny that music is so important in this film, because he’s almost like a conductor on set: we, the actors and the technicians, are all playing our parts, and he’s finding the union, the harmony, between us.” 

Equally crucial, and similarly productive, was her working relationship with Trintignant, with whom Riva performs a fragile, almost unbearably tender actors’ duet. The intimation of a lifetime lived together, with all the subtle specificities of speech and gesture that implies, was another significant challenge of the project. Long-serving contemporaries in the French industry, the actors didn’t actually know each other before “Amour,” though Riva says that wasn’t a hindrance. 

“Quite the opposite, in fact,” she says, “because we had the freedom to build an entire history for the characters, the freedom to act and behave without preconception. By imagining their intimacy and sense of friendship from the beginning, that’s how we got to know each other. It’s a bit like doing a play for two months: you build the relationship as you work.” It was important to Haneke, meanwhile, that the couple’s relationship on screen not be “too sweet,” which might have been harder with a close friend as a scene partner: sentimentality was something to be avoided at all costs. “It wasn’t always easy on set, but that was only right.” 

Riva seemingly delights in the poetic tidiness of her film career currently being bookended by two great “amours”: Haneke’s film, of course, and “Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” which she’s pleased is so well-remembered in the various appreciations of her career that have been written recently. When I ask if there’s a film between them that she wishes were brought up more frequently, she deliberates for some time before settling on Georges Franju’s 1965 film “Thomas the Impostor,” a WWI drama adapted by Jean Cocteau from his own 1923 novel – getting to deliver Cocteau’s words was a particular joy for the actress, herself a published poet. 

When I confess that I haven’t seen it, she sadly sighs that there’s very little way of viewing it today at all; when, as an artist, you find some of your own most treasured work falling into dust and disuse, it’s all the more thrilling to have a stake in new classics like “Amour.” Shrugging off that melancholy interlude, Riva reverts to her effusively chatty self as we say our goodbyes, and she stresses once more that we got the wrong idea at the European Film Awards. She’s a little tired – and with the reality of an Oscar nod looming, the next few weeks could be busier still – but Emmanuelle Riva is just fine.

Though the category remains highly flexible, Amy Adams’s position in the Best Supporting Actress race had been looking the tiniest bit precarious until recently. Though critically beloved, “The Master” is clearly not a consensus favorite, while her excellent work in it risks getting sidelined — not just because of her more prominently featured male co-stars, but because the chilly tenor of her performance as a slyly controlling kewpie-doll wife doesn’t invite the same emotional response as some of her chief rivals.

Things are looking up, though. A win from the Los Angeles critics, who came through for “The Master” in a big way, is a major boost, and today it was announced that Adams will receive the Cinema Vanguard Award at next month’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival — which, like Palm Springs, is a useful stop on the Oscar campaign trail.

The award, which will be presented to Adams at a tribute evening on January 31, is described by the festival as recognizing actors who “forge [their] own path, taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film.” Three-time Oscar nominee Adams has certainly evolved into an interesting risk-taker since otherwise contrasting work in the likes of “Junebug,” “Doubt” and “Enchanted” threatened to pigeonhole her in casting directors’ minds as the go-to girl for guileless naifs.

While “Sunshine Cleaning” and, in particular, “The Fighter” allowed the actress to show her slightly more womanly, hard-bitten side, her performance in “The Master” eerily balances the two modes, her prim porcelain veneer masking a vicious streak of political and sexual dominance.

In terms of both the character and the performance, Adams was my chief takeaway from a second viewing of the film: she may well be the “master” of the title. It may not be her best performance (that title, I think, still goes to “Junebug,” for which she should have won the Oscar first time out), but it’s arguably her most daring. Add to that her riotously scuzzy extended cameo in “On the Road,” and Santa Barbara has chosen the right year to honor her for branching out.

SBIFF chief Roger Durling had this to say: “Amy Adams is one of the gutsiest and most gifted actors working today.  She embodies what the Cinema Vanguard Award is all about, and after her performance in ‘The Master,’ the time has come to recognize her talent and versatility.”  

Previous Vanguard winners, incidentally, include Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Nicole Kidman, Peter Sarsgaard, Christoph Waltz, Stanley Tucci, Vera Farmiga, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Gosling — not exactly bad company to be in. The SBIFF runs from January 24 to February 3. 

The San Diego Film Critics Society also dropped its nominees over the weekend and, well, they flew under my radar. But here they are, and “The Master” led the way with nine nominations. Not far behind was “Argo” with eight. “Django Unchained’ picked up five while “Zero Dark Thirty” only managed four. “Silver Linings Playbook” rounded out the Best Film nominees with six nominations. Check out the full list of nominees below and keep track of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.

Best Film
“Argo”
“Django Unchained”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“The Master”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Director
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”
Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master”
David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman, “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
John Hawkes, “The Sessions”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”
Michelle Williams, “Take This Waltz”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Argo”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Matthew McConaughey, “Killer Joe”
Christopher Walken, “Seven Psychopaths”
Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Samantha Barks, “Les Misérables”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Emma Watson, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Rebel Wilson, “Pitch Perfect”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Django Unchained”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Take This Waltz”

Best Cinematography
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Django Unchained”
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“The Master”

Best Editing
“Argo”
“Killing Them Softly”
“Life of Pi”
“The Master”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Production Design
“Anna Karenina”
“Argo”
“Cloud Atlas”
“Les Misérables”
“Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Score
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Life of Pi”
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Animated Film
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“ParaNorman”
“Rise of the Guardians”
“Wreck-It Ralph”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Amour”
“Headhunters”
“Holy Motors”
“The Intouchables”
“The Kid with a Bike”

Best Documentary
“Bully”
“The Invisible War”
“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
“The Queen of Versailles”
“Samsara”

Best Ensemble Performance
“Argo”
“Django Unchained”
“Les Misérables”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”

The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association announced its list of nominees for the 2012 film awards season yesterday. Had no idea. Then winners today. A little too quick a turnaround, folks. Anyway, no surprise that Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” led the field with eight nominations. Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables” wasn’t far behind with seven. But it was “Zero Dark Thirty” that took the wins for Best Picture and Best Director. It wouldn’t be too crazy to expect a number of these categories to match up perfectly with Oscar. Check out the full list of nominees and winners (***) below, and remember to keep track of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.

Best Film
“Argo”
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Zero Dark Thirty”***

Best Director
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master”
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”***
Tom Hooper, “Les Misérables”
Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”***
John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
Hugh Jackman, “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
Denzel Washington, “Flight”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”***
Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Helen Mirren, “Hitchcock”
Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Argo”
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Django Unchained”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”***
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Samantha Barks, “Les Misérables”
Sally Field, “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”***
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
“Silver Linings Playbook”***

Best Original Screenplay
“Django Unchained”
“Looper”***
“The Master”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Art Direction
“Anna Karenina”
“Cloud Atlas”***
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”
“Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Cinematography
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”***
“The Master”
“Skyfall”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Score
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Lincoln”
“The Master”***
“Moonrise Kingdom”

Best Animated Feature
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“ParaNorman”***
“Rise of the Guardians”
“Wreck-It Ralph”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Amour”***
“The Intouchables”
“I Wish”
“A Royal Affair”
“Rust and Bone”

Best Documentary
“Bully”***
“The Imposter”
“The Invisible War”
“The Queen of Versailles”
“Searching for Sugar Man”

Best Acting Ensemble
“Argo”
“Les Misérables”***
“Lincoln”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Youth Performance
Jared Gilman, “Moonrise Kingdom”
Kara Hayward, “Moonrise Kingdom”
Tom Holland, “The Impossible”
Logan Lerman, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”***

Adding another announcement to the stack this week is the American Film Institute. Remember, the Institute’s annual list of the year’s best films is limited to American cinema, so you won’t see efforts like “Amour” or “Skyfall” pop up. Nevertheless, I think plenty of great American cinema is often avoided by this list in favor of the most obvious mixture of studio and indie fare.

Last year, for instance, standard awards-hunt comedies like “Bridesmaids” and “Midnight in Paris” that were threatening inclusion in the Best Picture field at the time made the cut, as well as those which clearly weren’t, like Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar.”

Be sure to circle back on Friday for the podcast where Anne and I will reveal our own top 10s for the year. For all my snarkiness about this lot’s list, I’d be dishonest if I didn’t admit a fair share of them made my own collective.

Check out the full AFI list below.

“Argo”

“Beasts of the Southern Wild”

“The Dark Knight Rises”

“Django Unchained”

“Les Misérables”

“Life of Pi”

“Lincoln”

“Moonrise Kingdom”

“Silver Linings Playbook”

“Zero Dark Thirty”

Remember to keep track of all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.

Duck into any number of industry — and likely public — screenings of Ben Affleck’s “Argo” in the final moments of the film, and you’re sure to hear a big burst of applause. It happens at the same moment every time: CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) peers out the window of a plane he and six American embassy workers have boarded to flee Iran under the guise of a film crew as a number of soldiers wise to their plans at the last minute chase the flight down. The plane gains momentum then it’s wheels up and, after a tense moment, clarity sets: they got away.

It’s fair to attribute that burst of applause to the release of tension. The nail-biting final sequence of the film builds to a crescendo and is expertly assembled to play on that tension. But for editor William Goldenberg, with those kinds of sequences, you have to remain focused on the characters.

“That”s what I try to keep in my mind when I”m cutting it,” Goldenberg says. “You”re trying to put the audience in the head of these people and not just make it about the event but the story of each person and what they”re going through, always keeping it personal. And luckily for me, the actors were all so good at being in the moment, being terrified but being under control at the same time. It made for great editing opportunities.

And that was the mandate Affleck set on the film, in fact. The camera always falls on faces, rarely taking an overt observational position. For a movie about one small element of a larger crisis, that was key. Getting lost in the greater geopolitical ramifications of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis would have gone against the grain of the more intimate story screenwriter Chris Terrio had hammered out, though Affleck certainly uses those highlights to build on overall themes of America’s relationship with the Middle East, an on-going topic to this very day.

But with a film like “Argo,” there is also a balance of tone to be struck. Unlike, say, “Zero Dark Thirty,” which Goldenberg also edited (along with Dylan Tichenor), Affleck’s film deals in humor and even a bit of satire (though don’t let star Alan Arkin hear you say that word — “That’s the way Hollywood was back then!” he would shout).

“The tone was certainly the biggest challenge and it was what we talked about most,” Goldenberg says. “Obviously we did want to keep it in the same universe, the same bandwidth. You didn”t want jokes to poke out…[But] this is how these people were, and we wanted to keep all the comedic, organic characters and not have jokes for the sake of jokes and punchlines for the sake of punchlines. And then we were careful to shape the jokes so that they felt like they were in the moment and not, you know, a set up and a punchline.”

Also, naturally, he was careful to steer clear of awkward juxtaposition. They didn’t want to go from Hollywood, where Arkin’s piss-and-vinegar film producer may say something funny, right to a life-and-death situation in Tehran. But with that in mind, that kind of thing can be played to dramatic effect if handled with care, and Goldenberg recalls one such scene: a read-through of the faux film Mendez mounted as cover for his mission at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, which was framed by a mock execution scene in Tehran.

“When Ben shot the mock execution, he shot it out a lot more elaborate than it was in the script,” Goldenberg says. “The footage was so beautiful and it was so frightening that that became the sort of framework for a lot of it. And that affected the climax of it…I added and layered in more newsreel stuff and stuff that felt relevant to what we were trying to tell in that particular little story. The focus became a little bit more to the mock execution and the danger that the 50 hostages in the embassy were going through.”

On the other side of things is a film like “Zero Dark Thirty,” which builds tension in much different ways, all leading up to the riveting raid of Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan compound by members of SEAL Team Six. Goldenberg shared overall duties on the film with another talented colleague, Dylan Tichenor. He came onto the film halfway through and the amount of material, he says, was staggering.

“Zero Dark Thirty” was filmed on the Arri Alexa camera, so there was no “film” to speak of, but if there were, it would have been about 1.8 million feet of film, Goldenberg says. One million is a huge amount and this complicated story had yielded nearly double that.

“But [director] Kathryn [Bigelow] shoots with four cameras, five cameras much of the time and this is a complicated story,” Goldenberg says, “so we wanted to be very clear-minded about what that was. There was an incredible amount of local flavor and just beautiful stuff you could almost make a whole documentary about. So you have to resist the temptation in a way. You want to layer all that in but you don”t want to lose the story. We were constantly being single-minded about the story we were telling and sticking with the single-mindedness of Maya.”

The first task Goldenberg took on was cutting the raid on the compound, which itself was whittled down from 40 hours of footage. He says it was a “test of sanity” because he sat in a dark room for three weeks straight watching dailies for four or five hours a day and then cutting a few hours before moving on to the next part of the sequence. The darkness had to do with the way it was filmed, with infrared lights and night vision devices on the camera. The footage had not even been color-timed yet, either.

“It was so dark I couldn”t even see the keyboard,” Goldenberg says. “I had to get a special light for my Avid – like a little penlight to light up my keyboard because I couldn”t find the keys…It was so dark that I didn’t even know there was an image there.”

After making a first pass on the sequence, it went off to DP Greig Fraser to be color-timed and Goldenberg remembers the first time he could fully see how beautiful the images were at that moment. “I had never seen anything like that before,” Goldenberg says. “Because movies at night usually look lit. And I think its Kathryn and Greig”s and Mark [Boal]”s decision to do it that way. It”s so brilliant. It”s so original and it really does put you right in there and make you feel like you”re in that compound with them.”

That commitment to absolute accuracy, as opposed to the (equally valid) choices of compositing and dramatization in “Argo,” presented other challenges as well. The raid had a very specific sequence of events and keeping that timeline in order was of the utmost importance for Bigelow and Boal’s mission of turning journalism into cinema.

“There were storyboards and diagrams about, you know, who was where, what helicopter landed first and the sequence of events,” Goldenberg says. “But telling that story and keeping the action feeling simultaneous [was a challenge]…The guys all had the same uniforms. They all had the same night vision goggles, so everybody looked sort of similar and the location can look very similar. So we had to be very careful about setting up geography and not losing that so that the audience wouldn”t be like, ‘Where are we now?’…That was a very, very fine line to walk.”

Goldenberg also dealt heavily with another riveting sequence involving the tracking of a cell phone through city streets. It’s a scene he calls “unwieldy,” “sprawling” and “a mess,” but through no one’s fault. It’s just a sloppy bit of business inherent to the story and finding the throughline was no walk in the park.

“I always thought the way to work with two editors is there”s no ego and no, ‘This is mine’ and ‘This is yours,'” Golenberg says when prompted about working with Tichenor on the film. “Like, ‘Let”s just make this really good and if you”ve got an idea you work on it for a minute and if I”ve got an idea,’ you know? So it”s completely collegial and free-flowing. I’ve done that with Paul Rubell a couple of times with Michael Mann, Steve Rivkin on ‘Ali.’ As long as you trust the other guy and you think he trusts you then you get another pair of eyes on things before the director gets to see it and it just makes the movie better.”

Looking back on the year, one that could easily yield a pair of Academy Award nominations and even leave him competing with himself for the Oscar, Goldenberg is naturally thankful and gratified. He says he feels lucky to have had these two films this year, to have had a chance to work with Kathryn Bigelow and to see Ben Affleck’s refinement as a storyteller take another big leap (he worked with him on “Gone Baby Gone” but wasn’t available for “The Town”). Awards recognition would just be gravy at this point.

“The best part of all of it is there are literally hundreds of emails I”ve got from people I went to high school with who”ve seen ‘Argo’ and relatives I”ve talked to and things like that,” he says. “It”s so much fun to have people enjoy the movie that much and I hope they”ll feel the same way when ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ comes out. Obviously, who wouldn”t want that stuff [awards] to happen? But it just would be another bonus on top of an already blessed year.”

“Zero Dark Thirty” opens in limited release on December 14. “Argo,” meanwhile, hits DVD and Blu-ray on February 19.

Bradley Cooper has seemed very much a touch-and-go prospect in a crowded Best Actor field, but the scales slowly seem to be tipping in his favor. In contrast to the perennially ingenue-friendly Best Actress race, youngish Hollywood dreamboats can struggle to win over Academy voters, particularly for romantic and/or comic leads, so Cooper’s superb work in “Silver Linings Playbook” is at a disadvantage in several ways. But after last week’s unexpected win with the National Board of Review, Cooper has also landed the Desert Palm Award for Achievement in Acting at the Palm Springs Film Festival. He’s the first male acting honoree announced for this publicity-heavy Oscar-season pitstop: Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Naomi Watts and the “Argo” ensemble are also getting a boost there. The list of recent Desert Palm winners includes Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges and Daniel Day-Lewis, which doesn’t hurt Cooper’s Oscar voodoo any. [PSIFF]

Wayne Blair (“The Sapphires”), Tobias Lindholm (“A Hijacking”) and Czech Oscar hopeful David Ondricek (“In the Shadows”) have been named among Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch, also set to be honored at Palm Springs next month. [Variety]

Been missing Mark Harris this Oscar season? Then you’ll enjoy his excellent portrait of how Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal brought “Zero Dark Thirty” to the screen. [New York]

At last week’s BAFTA screening of “Django Unchained,” Quentin Tarantino defended his film’s depiction of slavery as less violent than the reality. [The Guardian] 

After limp box office weekend, “Skyfall” — though not the record-breaker it is across the pond — came out on top again, while “Lincoln” races toward the $100 million mark. [Box Office Mojo]

Scott Harris counts down what he believes are the 10 best animated films of the year. Can’t say I agree, but nice to see a mention for “Arrietty.” [Film.com]

Scott Feinberg surveys the spread of critics’ awards so far, and wonders if Academy voters are paying attention — particularly to less obvious champs like Rachel Weisz and Dwight Henry. [THR]

J.A. Bayona and shamefully Oscar-ignored VFX artist Felix Berges reveal how they went about recreating a tsunami to bone-shaking effect in “The Impossible.” [New York Times]

David Poland chats to “Anna Karenina” star Keira Knightley, who seems slowly to be slipping out of the Best Actress conversation. Can she get back in? [Hot Blog]

Ava DuVernay talks about the inspiration behind her self-distributed feature “Middle of Nowhere” — which I finally saw this weekend, and deserves the creeping awards buzz. [Gold Derby]  

The British Independent Film Awards are known for surprises, and true to form, they sprung a last-minute one at tonight’s ceremony. As I’d anticipated, Peter Strickland’s critically beloved horror homage “Berberian Sound Studio” enjoyed a great haul, taking Best Director, Best Actor for Toby Jones and two extra prizes for production and technical achievement. But just as it seemed set to take the night, they swung left, handing the top prize to “Broken,” the debut feature from acclaimed theater director Rufus Norris — an unexpected choice both because it received mixed reviews upon its Cannes premiere, and won’t  be released until the spring in the UK. The film won in only one other category, for Best Supporting Actor.

“The Imposter” team will also be celebrating tonight, as the Oscar-shortlisted doc inevitably won the Best Documentary award, but also Best Debut Director for Bart Layton (beating, among others, Rufus Norris). Entirely shut out of the awards, despite five nominations, was “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” — seems the BIFA jury might have heard the complaints of critics who felt the mainstream smash hit wasn’t sufficiently “indie” to compete.

“Best Exotic” even lost what appeared to be its best bet, Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith had to make way for a different kind of national treasure, as Olivia Colman took the prize for her droll turn as the Queen Mother in “Hyde Park on Hudson.” (Hey, remember when people expected that to be an Oscar player?)It’s Colman’s second straight BIFA win, incidentally — she won Best Actress last year for her staggering turn in “Tyrannosaur.” Could the BIFA win lead to a BAFTA nod this time, after last year’s controversial snub? I think it could.

Andrea Riseborough, meanwhile, won Best Actress for strong work in IRA thriller “Shadow Dancer,” beating out some stiff competition — including Oscar-winner Meryl Streep for “The Iron Lady.” Can’t win ’em all, eh?

Full list of winners below: 

Best British Independent Film: “Broken”

Best Director: Peter Strickland, “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Actor: Toby Jones, “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Actress: Andrea Riseborough, “Shadow Dancer”

Best Supporting Actor: Rory Kinnear, “Broken”

Best Supporting Actress: Olivia Colman, “Hyde Park on Hudson”

Best Screenplay: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram and Amy Jump, “Sightseers” 

Best International Independent Film: “The Hunt”

Best Documentary: “The Imposter”

Best Technical Achievement: Joakim Sundstrom and Stevie Haywood (sound design), “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Debut Director: Bart Layton, “The Imposter”

Most Promising Newcomer: James Floyd, “My Brother the Devil”

Best Achievement in Production: “Berberian Sound Studio”

Raindance Award: “Strings”

Best British Short: “Volume”

Variety Award: Jude Law

Richard Harris Award: Michael Gambon

Special Jury Award: Sandra Hebron

As always, keep track of all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 season via The Circuit.

Over a week after their colleagues on the east coast went in big for Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” the Los Angeles Film Critics Association put the brakes on Kathryn Bigelow’s film, which has been dominating the circuit. It even won two Best Picture prizes today, but one of them was not LAFCA’s crown. Instead, the LA critics went with Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” and as a runner-up, a film clearly beloved by the group that won four other prizes, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Check out the full list of winners below with running commentary.

Best Picture: “Amour” (Runner-up: “The Master”)

Thoughts: Such an awesome choice, and interesting that we figured “The Master” would march all the way to it, given the other prizes. This is a huge help for “Amour,” which is very much in the Best Picture hunt and even more so now.

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master” (Runner-up: Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”)

Thoughts: If it isn’t obvious at this point late in the game (these awards are listed in reverse order as they’re announced), “The Master” is coming on strong with LA after “Zero Dark Thirty” dominated the early days of the circuit last week. And of course, we knew it would. I submit it is in no small part reactionary.

Best Actress: (TIE) Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook” and Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

Thoughts: This would have been a nice place to honor Emmanuelle Riva alone, particularly given that it would have been in keeping with recent winners. Maybe they saw her wins with NYFCO and BSFC earlier today as enough and wanted to go in a direction no one (surprisingly) has gone yet. So Jennifer Lawrence gets a big boost alongside Riva in a tie as Jessica Chastain has been dominating the category’s discussion as of late.

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master” (Runner-up: Denis Lavant, “Holy Motors”)

Thoughts: Yet another group without the stones to just go with Lavant. Sigh. I guess they get the cool points of him actually having been in the mix, and there’s no question that Phoenix NEEDED this in the Oscar race. Apparently this was a very close race between Phoenix, Lavant and Daniel Day-Lewis (“Lincoln”). Jack Black was also in the mix for “Bernie.”

Best Screenplay: “Argo” (Runner-up: “Silver Linings Playbook”)

Thoughts: That’s a boost for Chris Terrio. The adapted screenplay category is going to be really competitive this year with “Argo” and the runner-up here, “Silver Linings Playbook,” in the running, as well as “Lincoln.”

Best Film Editing: “Zero Dark Thirty” (Runner-up: “Argo”)

Thoughts: This was the first year LAFCA decided to vote on this award, and it’s a good thing, I feel (as you know), to expand into the below-the-line fields for recognition. And it’s a great year for William Goldenberg, who was a runner-up for “Argo” to himself (and Dylan Tichenor) for “Zero Dark Thirty.” An interview with Goldenberg will be landing here some time next week.

Best Cinematography: “Skyfall” (Runner-up: “The Master”)

Thoughts: Roger Deakins! That would be my pick, as his digital work on the latest Bond film is just that good, that crisp, that stunning in all its elements: framing, lighting, movement. “The Master” was clearly in the hunt but I’m glad the group opted to go with “Skyfall.” And what an interesting film vs. digital showdown it must have been.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, “The Master” (Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Les Misérables“)

Thoughts: The LA crowd continues to show much love for “The Master,” and Amy Adams really needed this boost, I think. The prohibitive frontrunner for the Oscar, Anne Hathaway, takes the runner-up spot.

Best Foreign Film: “Holy Motors” (Runner-up: “Footnote”)

Thoughts: If a foreign film is the “best film of the year,” then it is by definition the “best foreign film of the year.” Nothing else makes sense, no matter how backwards you bend to justify nothing more than spreading the wealth. Be definitive with yourself, at the VERY least. Alas, “Holy Motors” is awesome, so I’m happy it has a prize I guess. It should have taken Best Actor, too, but, well, they aren’t MY awards.

Best Documentary: “The Gatekeepers” (Runner-up: “Searching for Sugar Man”)

Thoughts: A nice pick to change it up from “How to Survive a Plague” and “Searching for Sugar Man” for a bit, and a truly powerful piece of work, at that. Part of me wonders if “The Gatekeepers” is something to watch for at the Oscars, but the rule changes have really shifted things on that landscape.

Best Animation: “Frankenweenie” (Runner-up: “It’s Such a Beautiful Day”)

Thoughts: I confess I never saw Don Hertzfeld’s trilogy-closing short “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” but I will one of these days. But the story is “Frankenweenie” having nailed down this prize from both the NYFCC and now the LAFCA.

Best Music/Score: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Runner-up: “The Master”)

Thoughts: A great choice. The score for Benh Zeitlin’s film, cooked up by Zeitlin and Dan Romer, is a soaring piece of work and was a huge part of my memory of the film months and months after first seeing it at Sundance. But note that “The Master” was close here.

Best Production Design: “The Master” (Runner-up: “Moonrise Kingdom”)

Thoughts: Will this be the first of a few awards for “The Master” today? Some of us are thinking the group will stand up for Paul Thomas Anderson’s film? It’s handsomely mounted design-wise but I might have gone with the runner-up here.

Best Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Runner-up: Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”)

Thoughts: And we’re off with a huge feather in Dwight Henry’s cap. I just watched “Beasts of the Southern Wild” again last night and had a pang of sadness that he hasn’t been getting his due this season. Well, the LA crowd has changed that. Interesting that they went with Christoph Waltz as supporting in “Django.” Apparently the campaign on that changed (or was never lead to begin with).

New Generation Award: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Thoughts: And another debut prize for a guy who deserves it.

Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award: “Leviathan”

Thoughts: I wanted to see this at the New York Film Festival but never made it over there. It’s an intriguing concept and so a lovely winner for a prize such as this.

As always, keep track of all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 season via The Circuit.

Just minutes after the Boston Society of Film Critics crowned “Zero Dark Thirty” the year’s best film, the New York Film Critics Online went and did the very same thing. They also spotlighted Kathryn Bigelow in the Best Director category (as well as Mark Boal’s screenplay), and, like Boston, went with Daniel Day-Lewis and Emmanuelle Riva in the lead acting categories.

Check out the full list of NYFCO winners below with running commentary.

Best Picture: “Zero Dark Thirty”

Thoughts: Falling in line…

Best Documentary: “The Central Park Five”

Thoughts: All this does is just remind me of how annoying it is that the film wasn’t shortlisted by the Academy. It’s an exemplary piece of work, balanced, fully formed, a vital documentary.

Best Animated Film: “Chico & Rita”

Thoughts: A blast from the past. Last year’s Oscar nominee makes good with the New York online crowd. I saw this film so long ago but I remember how vibrant it was and what a handsome choice it would be for animation awards. I’m glad it got a few notices along the way.

Best Ensemble Cast: “Argo”

Thoughts: A great pick. I just watched it again a few days ago and the organic nature of the cast is top notch. It could be one to watch at SAG, along with “Les Miserables” and “Lincoln,” of course.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”

Thoughts: What else can be said? His second award of the day after the Boston prize

Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

Thoughts: See my thoughts in the Boston post, where NYFCO was beaten to the punch. I won’t complain about another award for this performance, you can bet on that.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Thoughts: That’s three out of three so far. Is the film set to just dominate and run the critics table?

Debut Director: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Thoughts: This was apparently a landslide and rightly so. A stellar debut and announcement of a unique, vital voice.

Best Use of Music: “Django Unchained”

Thoughts: See my thoughts on this category at the Boston Society of Film Critics post. Suffice it to say, thumbs up from me.

Best Cinematography: “Life of Pi”

Thoughts: This brings up an interesting question, as it did with “Avatar.” Claudio Miranda is a singular talent, so make no mistake, but are the visuals people are responding to with this film due to effects, cinematography or a combination? Or have we entered territory with the continued hybridization of things that “Best Cinematography” is beginning encompassing it all, particularly with the decline of celluloid. It’s an interesting thing to consider.

Best Screenplay: “Zero Dark Thirty”

Thoughts: Whatever issues I might have with “Zero Dark Thirty,” one of them is NOT the work Mark Boal put into the screenplay, which is a triumph of journalism. He might be considered the prohibitive favorite for the Oscar, might not, but his accomplishment is entirely unique in the history of film.

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”

Thoughts: I’ve come around to expecting Jones to win the Oscar for his work in “Lincoln” this year, but it still feels a bit off. Nevertheless, all of the actors from the film continue to do very well on the precursor circuit, which is an intriguing first for a Spielberg film.

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”

Thoughts: It was the first thing I said after seeing the film last month: Hathaway wins. It will likely be a long, forceful march to Oscar, despite Sally Field besting her with the NYFCC. And she’ll win it for one take, one shot, one song.

Breakthrough Performance: Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Thoughts: As her “Beasts” co-star Dwight Henry wins a big award with the LAFCA, young Quvenzhané Wallis rightly takes breakthrough recognition. The girl is a force in the film, maintaining such an even keel and revealing such a well of emotion. It really is a striking turn.

Remember to keep track of all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.

The Boston Society of Film Critics has joined the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review in crowning “Zero Dark Thirty” the year’s best film. Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director while Daniel Day-Lewis (“Lincoln”) and Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”) won top acting honors. The group clearly liked “Moonrise Kingdom,” which won Best Use of Music and went on to pop up in a number of runner-up spots.

Check out the full list of winners below with running commentary on the winners.

Best Film: “Zero Dark Thirty” (Runner-up: TIE – “Amour” and “Moonrise Kingdom”)

Thoughts: Well, you might be sensing a pattern here. “Zero Dark Thirty” is unquestionably the critical darling of 2012. But so was “Brokeback Mountain.” So was “The Social Network.” That’s all I’m saying. Nevertheless, in that company, you can’t complain. It’s a solid choice to say the least, however many groups go for it.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty” (Runner-up: Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master”)

Thoughts: Annnnd…five for five.

Best Screenplay: “Lincoln” (Runner-up: “Moonrise Kingdom”)

Thoughts: Boy, it sure does seem like they want to give more love to “Moonrise Kingdom,” but it keeps popping up as a runner-up. Alas, Tony Kushner’s work on “Lincoln” will continue to be a favorite throughout the season and whittling some of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book to what we saw on the screen was no small feat.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln” (Runner-up: Denis Lavant, “Holy Motors”)

Thoughts: Nice runner-up pick, but oh, if only Lavant could have pulled off the win. Then Boston would have nailed down the two best performances of the year (see below). But you’ll find it difficult to argue with Day-Lewis, all the way up to the Oscars.

Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour” (Runner-up: Deanie Yip, “A Simple Life”)

Thoughts: Boston goes for Riva in “Amour,” which is, to my mind, one of the top two best performances of the year. So congratulations to her (not that she hasn’t been getting her share of praise along the circuit). We’ll have an interview with Riva coming next week, FYI.

Best Supporting Actor: Ezra Miller, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (Runner-up Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”)

Thoughts: I guess the Boston crowd really dug “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Good on ’em. I’d love to see Logan Lerman threaten Best Actor. Meanwhile, Christoph Waltz picks up his second runner-up recognition of the day, but these groups are really sleeping on Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson on that score.

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, “Lincoln” (Runner-up: Emma Watson, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”)

Thoughts: Apparently Field took this by just one vote over young Watson in a field that was also heavily contested by the likes of Ann Dowd, Anne Hathaway and Amy Adams. Intriguing, that. Sally Field wins her second critics prize after the NYFCC award last week.

Best Ensemble: “Seven Psychopaths” (Runner-up: “Moonrise Kingdom”)

Thoughts: An inspired pick, though I didn’t think the film itself really came to much. It is nevertheless full of interesting performances and highlights from the likes of Christopher Walken, Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, etc. Another close call for “Moonrise Kingdom,” obviously a favorite.

Best Animated Film: “Frankenweenie” (Runner-up: “ParaNorman”)

Thoughts: Tim Burton’s film picks up its second prize on the circuit, though National Board of Review winner “Wreck-It Ralph” deferred to “ParaNorman” on the runner-up front. Burton’s is a wonderful, personal, hand-made piece of work that’s probably his best in many years. It would be great to see him finally win an Oscar and bring it full circle with the character that launched him into the business so many years ago.

Best Documentary: “How to Survive a Plague” (Runner-up: “The Queen of Versailles”)

Thoughts: Obviously they were leaning heavily toward David France’s film. But since we can see “The Queen of Versailles” was in the running, allow me to say: I’d have gone with that. What an amazing film.

Best Foreign Language Film: “Amour” (Runner-up: “Holy Motors”)

Thoughts: What an interesting pair of films to have been in the running. Both are duking it out for inclusion in my own top 10 list.

Best New Filmmaker: David France, “How to Survive a Plague” (Runner-up: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Thoughts: This seems like the Boston crowd saw what the New York folks did in the category and though, “Huh, good idea.” And fair enough. But while France’s work is a great accomplishment, particularly as a feat of editing, I think Zeitlin deserves this recognition as a new visionary.

Best Editing: “Zero Dark Thirty” (Runner-up: “Argo”)

Thoughts: I’d say these two films are on the top tier of editing accomplishments this year, and both feature work from the great William Goldenberg. He shared duties on the winner here with another great talent, Dylan Tichenor, and it’s really “Zero Dark Thirty” that is tough to argue against this year. What an assemblage.

Best Cinematography: “The Master” (Runner-up: “Life of Pi,” “Moonrise Kingdom”)

Thoughts: And “The Master” wins its first critics award of the season (this is its first, right?). I imagine it will continue to get its share of cinematography prizes this year as the 65mm work is stunning and crisp and at the forefront of discussion on the film. Was it necessary? Perhaps that’s arguable, but it sure is pretty.

Best Use of Music: “Moonrise Kingdom” (Runner-up: “Django Unchained”)

Thoughts: I might have gone with the runner-up here, though not by a wide margin. Wes Anderson’s use of music in “Moonrise Kingdom” is a darling call but as always, Quentin Tarantino fills out his latest with wonderful tracks, particularly an original tune penned by Ennio Morricone called “Ancora Qui” that I really hope finds some room with the Academy’s music branch.

Remember to keep track of all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 film awards season via The Circuit.

While the US precursor circuit is getting into the swing of things, tomorrow marks the first major date of the British awards calendar: the British Independent Film Awards. Ostensibly the UK’s answer to the Independent Spirit Awards (though they don’t define “independence” by quite the same criteria), it’s a ceremony that has grown in prominence in recent years, representing a larger sample of the local film industry than the slavishly Oscar-minded BAFTA Awards. That said, the BIFAs have given nascent awards juggernauts like “The King’s Speech” and “Slumdog Millionaire” their first big trophy hauls of the season.

Nobody will be looking the BIFAs for any Oscar cues this year. After last year’s awards reflected a banner year for British film — “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “Shame,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Weekend” and “Senna” — were among the big winners, this year’s lineup of nominees, while studded with high-level work, doesn’t boast quite the same lustre.

British film in 2012, by contrast, hasn’t boasted an equivalent spread of critical and commercial breakouts. That’s evident in the rum bunch of nominees for the Best British Independent Film Award, which range from Peter Strickland’s superb but defiantly esoteric meta-horror film “Berberian Sound Studio” to John Madden’s slick seniors-abroad smash “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which maybe independent by name, but hardly by nature.

If critics largely cheered the former’s nomination and sighed over the latter’s, they didn’t react much at all to the field-leading nominee “Broken” — not least because, with the film only set for release in spring 2013, not many of them have seen it. (The BIFAs’ unusual eligibility-date rulings, which place much stock in festival premieres, are also evident in “The Iron Lady” popping up for Best Actress and — gah — Best Screenplay. Oscar win or not, I expect Meryl Streep to lose to a far lower-profile name tomorrow.)

The field is so unorthodox, and so light on films with a significant stake in the rest of the season, that tomorrow’s ceremony stands to be rather suspenseful. “Best Exotic” may be the film here with the best chance of showing up in top BAFTA (or, at a stretch, Oscar) categories, but oddly enough, I think it stands the least chance of winning big here; BIFA jury voters aren’t especially elitist, but they do they like to show some edge. With that in mind, I think Bart Layton’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary “The Imposter” — a hugely entertaining conversation piece that did strong business in the UK — is a plausible compromise winner.

With that, here are my picks for what will, and what should, take the gold tomorrow. (The full list of nominees is here.) Bear in mind, though, that these are among the most foolhardy awards to predict: in 2006, Helen Mirren lost Best Actress for “The Queen” to Kate Dickie in “Red Road.” And I love them for it.

Best British Independent Film
Will win: “The Imposter”
Should win: “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Director
Will and should win: Peter Strickland, “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Actor
Will and should win: Toby Jones, “Berberian Sound Studio”

Best Actress
Will win: Alice Lowe, “Sightseers”
Should win: Elle Fanning, “Ginger and Rosa”

Best Supporting Actor
Will and should win: Domnhall Gleeson, “Shadow Dancer”

Best Supporting Actress
Will win: Maggie Smith, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
Should win: Eileen Davies, “Sightseers”

Best Screenplay
Will win and should win: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram and Amy Jump, “Sightseers”

Best International Independent Film
Will win: “Amour”
Should win: “Rust and Bone”

Best Documentary
Will and should win: “The Imposter”

Best Technical Achievement
Will win: Joakim Sundstrom and Stevie Haywood (sound design), “Berberian Sound Studio”
Should win: Robbie Ryan (Cinematography), “Ginger and Rosa”

Best Debut Director
Will win: Rufus Norris, “Broken”
Should win: Sally El Hosaini, “My Brother the Devil”

Most Promising Newcomer
Will and should win: James Floyd, “My Brother the Devil”

Best Achievement in Production
Will win: “Ill Manors”

Raindance Award
Will win: “Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet”