Longtime readers will know that this is something of an Oscar Nomination Eve tradition for me: with the Academy finally set to announce their nominees on Tuesday morning, I offer my own pie-in-the-sky wishlist of films and individuals I’d like to see nominated in all feature film categories. The past three years, my list and the Academy’s have borne very little resemblance to each other; suffice to say I don’t expect that to change this year.

For starters, while my First-Half FYC columns stuck to the pool of eligible Academy contenders, my dream ballot — freed from even the hypothetical possibility of persuading voters — has no such restrictions. This means that several outstanding 2011 releases that, for whatever reason, aren’t on the official list of 256 titles being considered by Academy voters (a list that isn’t kind to terribly kind to lesser-spotted foreign and independent titles) can come into play. After all, where’s the justice in being able to consider “Dream House” but not personal top 10 inclusion “Cold Weather?” A line must be drawn erased somewhere.

With that, from all the films released Stateside last year, these are the achievements I personally found most award-worthy. I’m beginning, as usual, with the crafts categories, where I was pleased to find a sufficiently rich and diverse slate of work that 30 films all found their way to a nomination — and not one them, interestingly enough, was a current Oscar frontrunner. Check out my picks below, and share your thoughts in the comments.

Best Art Direction
Katia Wyszkop, “Potiche”
Antxón Gómez, “The Skin I Live In”
Annie Beauchamp, “Sleeping Beauty” 
Yuji Hayashida, “13 Assassins”
Maria Djurkovic, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

Next tier: “City of Life and Death,” “Hugo,” “Immortals,” “Melancholia,” “Water for Elephants”

Two titles on this list are 1970s period pieces, though the overripe pastels and overstuffed kitsch of French drawing-room farce “Potiche” may as well be in another dimension entirely from the utilitarian, dun-coloured meticulousness of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Similarly, “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Skin I Live In” may both use contemporary decor to externalize characters’ sensual states, but the former does so with pincers, the latter with a whirling paintbrush. Meanwhile, the most historical work here, the replication of a 19th-century village-turned-samurai-battleground in “13 Assassins,” resembles nothing so much as a labyrinthine video-game environment.

Best Cinematography
Alma Har’el, “Bombay Beach”
Adriano Goldman, “Jane Eyre”
Christopher Blauvelt, “Meek’s Cutoff”
Mikhail Krichman, “Silent Souls” 
Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Tree of Life”

Next tier: “Certified Copy,” “Cold Weather,” “Drive,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Melancholia” 

What critical superlatives haven’t yet been spent on the restless, ecstatic visual poetry Lubezki has conjured for Terrence Malick’s latest can be sent instead to work that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in an older, more contained Malick film: Blauvelt’s yellowed, dust-veiled Oregon Trail vistas in “Meek’s Cutoff” make ingenious use of the Academy ratio to imprison its lost characters in their limitless landscape. The film shares with “Jane Eyre” a keen artist’s eye for the fleeting, witchy opportunities afforded by natural light, an unaffected sensibility video artist and photographer Har’el takes to more rapturous extremes in her self-shot doc “Bombay Beach.” In Russian road-movie curio “Silent Souls,” meanwhile, the startling widescreen compositions are as formally composed as can be, yet still don’t scrimp on seemingly spontaneous local color.

Best Costume Design
Erin Benach, “Drive”
Xavier Dolan, “Heartbeats”
Eiko Ishioka, “Immortals”
Michael O’Connor, “Jane Eyre”
Jacqueline Durran, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

Next tier: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Potiche,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Water for Elephants,” “Young Adult”

Okay, so the satin scorpion jacket in “Drive” became the year’s single most recognizable, Halloween-destined movie garment, but this nomination isn’t just about that — from Ryan Gosling’s oil-stained Henleys and creaky driving gloves to Albert Brooks’s bloated-yet-spiky suits, this was the year’s most lavishly, meaningfully underdressed movie. In a good year for contemporary costuming, Dolan’s more chic, off-the-rack selections for his own film were entire plot points in themselves. Heading into period territory, I’ve already discussed why the natty English, well, tailoring of “Tinker, Tailor” is worthy of recognition, while O’Connor’s more Oscar-friendly costuming of “Jane Eyre” weaves unusually precise details of character, class and age into its mile-wide crinoline skirts. As for Ishioka’s eye-poppingly kinky creations for “Immortals,” whether they’re historical, mythological or sheer science-fiction, they’re entirely awesome.

Best Film Editing
Mat Newman, “Drive”
Ivan Lebedev, “How I Ended This Summer”
Zachary Stuart-Pontier, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Chris King and Gregers Sall, “Senna”
Joe Bini, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Next tier: “Margaret,” “Le Quattro Volte,” “A Separation,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Weekend”

Two very different fast-car movies, both nominated by BAFTA in this field, bookend my lineup. Newman avoids the hyperkinetic temptations of contemporary action cinema and opts to keep even his most propulsive set pieces lithely coiled, while King and Sall win the degree-of-difficulty prize for fashioning an urgent, tonally consistent narrative entirely from found footage. Lebedev’s negotiation of languidly escalating tensions in “How I Ended This Summer” has the disorienting effect of turning the offbeat Russian character study into a thriller before the audience quite catches on. Two similarly reluctant horror films, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “Martha Marcy Marcy May Marlene,” both employ an intricately fragmented editing architecture to convey the unreliability of their protagonist’s feverish memory process.  

Best Makeup
“A Dangerous Method”
“Jane Eyre”
“Potiche”

Next tier: “The Artist,” “The Iron Lady,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

In a year that presented few outright miracles of the craft, I was most taken with subtler, character-enabling achievements in the period field: the subtext-packed range and wit of the hairstyling in “Jane Eyre,” the delicate ageing and keen-eyed exaggeration and inhibition of actors’ trademark features in “A Dangerous Method,” the campily bouffant overstyling of every character in “Potiche.” Not a vintage field, true, but one that represents the kind of work I wish the Academy would recognize more often.  

Best Original Score
Keegan DeWitt, “Cold Weather”
Cliff Martinez, “Drive”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Dario Marianelli, “Jane Eyre”
Alberto Iglesias, “The Skin I Live In”

Next tier: “Attack the Block,” “Bombay Beach,” “Hanna,” “Margaret,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

It seems unlikely the Academy’s nominees will reflect what a rewarding year it’s been in this category, both in the areas of orchestral and more avant-garde film composing. No one composer sonically defined 2011 more than Martinez: his “Drive” soundtrack may have become coffee-table electro, but only because it was so headily urgent in the first place. Reigning Oscar champs Reznor and Ross couldn’t quite top the emotional channels of “The Social Network,” but their glassy, wintry score for David Fincher’s latest elicits many a tingle anyway; it makes for an interesting side-by-side listen with DeWitt’s airier, janglier but equally nippy atmospherics in “Cold Weather.” Over in the traditionalist’s corner, Marianelli’s typically swoony but appropriately reserved work on “Jane Eyre” was a career high, while Iglesias (who came this close to nabbing two of my five slots) brought both the drama and the humor with his clattering noir semi-pastiche.

Best Original Song
“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” 
“Me Party” from “The Muppets”
“Pretty Bird” from “Rio”
“Stuck on the Puzzle” from “Submarine”
“Think You Can Wait” from “Win Win”

Next tier: “Star Spangled Man” from “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Life’s Happy Song” from “The Muppets,” “Pictures in My Head” from “The Muppets,” “Rango Theme” from “Rango,” “Piledriver Waltz” from “Submarine”

With the Academy’s array of options in this category even more dispiriting than usual, I found three of my nominees in the ineligible pile. Quite why Alex Turner’s wistfully lovely, cinematically integrated original song score for “Submarine” isn’t Oscar-eligible is a question The Weinstein Company needs to answer — did they not submit it? Meanwhile, a bunch of songs from colorful kidpic “Rio” are eligible — save the one really good one, Jemaine Clement’s hilariously acidic paean to himself. Maybe the powers that be decided one “Flight of the Conchords” joker in the Oscar race is enough: Bret McKenzie will likely (and deservedly) find himself nominated for at least two songs from “The Muppets,” though I wish Miss Piggy and Amy Adams’s zippy, pithy disco duet “Me Party” could be one of them. Finally, The National’s rousing bloke-ballad from “Win Win” isn’t inventively applied in the film, but it’s a lovely song — and this year, that’s enough. 

Best Sound Mixing
“Hanna”
“How I Ended This Summer”
“Meek’s Cutoff”
“The Tree of Life”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Next tier: “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Drive,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Le Quattro Volte,” “13 Assassins” 

I had “Hanna” marked as one of 2011’s most propulsively giddy feats of sound design long before its surprise CAS nod, so I’m delighted that Academy recognition now seems eminently plausible. I wish I could say the same for my other choices: “The Tree of Life” is dense and grandiose enough to register as a long shot, but the time-marking creaks and whispers of “Meek’s Cutoff” and the intimate echoes of “How I Ended This Summer” represent the kind of quiet, organic work you’d think a group of professional peers would show a little more respect. As for the dazzling, eerie collage of pops and sprinkler-system spatters in “Kevin,” at least the London Critics’ Circle thought to nominate it.     

Best Sound Editing
“Drive”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Rango”
“Super 8”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Next tier: “The Artist,” “Fast Five,” “Hanna,” “Insidious,” “13 Assassins”

For whatever reason, the slightly more finicky sound-editing category leaned a little more in Hollywood’s direction for me this year: the structured sonic chaos of the train crash in “Super 8” and the crisp bang-and-clatter of pretty much everything in “Ghost Protocol” dignify the cost of seeing them in the best theater possible; as, in their own way, do the continuous rattle of quirky details in “Rango” and the patiently timed punches of “Drive.”  

Best Visual Effects
“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Immortals”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“The Tree of Life”

Next tier: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Hugo,” “Super 8,” “Take Shelter,” “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”

Two of these I’m expecting to show in the Academy’s list of Tuesday: the Douglas Trumbull-assisted recreation of creation in “The Tree of Life” is artful, thematically grounded work of the variety that is all too rarely cited in this field, while the largely seamless, high-concept mo-cap in “Apes” is bells-and-whistles work of the variety that is cited all the time in this field, but not always so justifiably. One of them I’m hoping will show up: because “Ghost Protocol” is such a consistent gosh-wow ride without ostentatiously showcasing its own effects, though fuck it, they blew up the frickin’ Kremlin. And two of them sadly can’t show up, despite the not-really-animated “Tintin” being Spielberg’s most whizzily realized entertainment in a decade, and “Immortals” using effects for the purposes of beauty as well as carnage. Oh well.  

Right, that’s it for today: check in tomorrow for part two, which will cover all the above-the-line categories. For those keeping score, “Jane Eyre” and “Drive” currently lead my ballot with four mentions apiece, with “The Tree of Life” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin” both on three. Even I don’t know yet what will come out on top tomorrow. 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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For a while now, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” has looked like a very solid bet for a Best Visual Effects nomination. Though the only nomination for the franchise in the field prior to last year’s for part one of the finale came for 2004’s “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” the effects have steadily become more refined and the expansion to five nominees last year made the door a little wider.

But an unfortunate snafu at last night’s visual effects bake-off — a lengthy branch-specific event that features reel screenings of effects work on the seven visual effects finalists and presentations from the supervisors involved — could keep the wizard and his denouement out of the equation.

If you don’t follow Variety’s David Cohen on Twitter, you should, because he’s dug in when it comes to the world of visual effects and reports comprehensively from the bake-off every year. His coverage last night was fascinating to read for the various insights into the process of this and that effects job, but it became particularly interesting when the effects reel for “The Deathly Hallows: Part 2” turned out to not be the effects reel at all: it was the makeup reel.

D’oh!

“Awful moment for Tim Burke and the ‘Potter’ team,” Cohen Tweeted. “That’s the equivalent of the Olympic sprinters who missed their heats.”

Eventually the day was saved, the correct reel was located and screened and the presentation was complete. But the damage might have been done, as Cohen noted that the snafu “scrambled the presentation” and could ultimately hurt the film’s chances.

Thinking about this just makes my stomach hurt. You put all that work into something exceptional and then a technical difficulty in presenting the work in a truncated fashion trips you up? I’d be nervous as hell about getting everything just right and that’s just unfortunate, arbitrary pressure. I’m not criticizing the visual effects branch’s process, because it’s a sound one. But it feels like another hoop to jump through, one that’s on fire if the correct reel doesn’t show up.

I have to think that if it’s the work and just the work, then something like this shouldn’t matter all that much. And after all, the film led the field along with “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (of the live-action contenders) when the Visual Effects Society nominations were announced. So I won’t go all crazy and nix it from my predictions, but if it doesn’t show up Tuesday, we might look to this incident as partially to blame. And if so, as Cohen wrote last night, “Heads are going to roll somewhere.”

For what it’s worth, Cohen seems to think “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” are locks in the category, and he’s expecting the final three nominees to be “Hugo,” “The Tree of Life” and, in spite of the above, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” I personally think “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” is something to watch for (as does Cohen), while “Real Steel” would be an intriguing left-field nominee, too.

My final predictions in the category, as well as all other categories, will hit Monday.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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With all due respect, I’ve never really known what to make of the NAACP Image Awards. On the one hand, the concept of an awards ceremony ostensibly devoted to black (or black-themed) cinema seems dated and self-demeaning. On the other, they succeed in drawing attention to the industry’s neglect of non-white stories and artists — just not in ways they necessarily realize.

Let us imagine, then, that Brett Ratner’s synthetically enjoyable but arguably racist “Tower Heist” — a film that makes a plot point of the notion that black people are more expert in criminal activity than white people — is actually nominated for Best Picture as a kind of ironic protest, an indication of just what limited choices Hollywood has to offer the black community. Admittedly, it’d be more effective as a this-is-all-we-have gesture if it weren’t nominated at the expense of, say, Steve James’s “The Interrupters” (mysteriously absent from even the documentary category), a film that revolves around positive, richly rounded black individuals, even if they aren’t played by actors.

Failing that, could we at least acknowledge that Gabourey Sidibe is a hell of a lot funnier in “Tower Heist” than Eddie Murphy? No? Moving on.

Inevitably, the nominee list is led by likely Best Picture Oscar contender “The Help,” with six nominations — which will annoy as many people who find the film regressively condescending and, well, whitewashed as it satisfies those who are simply pleased that a film driven largely by African American women found its way to $170 million. Both camps have a point. (Three of those women, meanwhile, are nominated in the acting races, with Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard joining them — though Jessica Chastain, who so handily outacted most of the ensemble, is weirdly left off the list.) 

The yin to the Disney film’s yang, of course, is “Pariah,” a tough, textured independent drama about a teenage lesbian that represents a hugely promising debut from African American writer-director Dee Rees, and received five nominations: if the NAACP voters are really committed to promoting black art and artists, this would be the smarter option. (Coincidentally enough, a Guardian columnist made much the same point the other day.) In any event, following Meryl Streep’s thoughtful shout-out to breakthrough star Adepero Oduye in her Golden Globe acceptance speech last week, it’s a good week for this rough diamond of a film.

The full list of nominees:

Best Picture
“The First Grader”
“The Help”
“Jumping the Broom”
“Pariah”
“Tower Heist”

Best Actor
Laz Alonso, “Jumping the Broom”
Vin Diesel, “Fast Five”
Laurence Fishburne, “Contagion”
Oliver Litondo, “The First Grader”
Eddie Murphy, “Tower Heist”

Best Actress
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Adepero Oduye, “Pariah”
Paula Patton, “Jumping the Broom”
Zoe Saldana, “Colombiana”
Emma Stone, “The Help”

Best Supporting Actor
Don Cheadle, “The Guard”
Mike Epps, “Jumping the Broom”
Anthony Mackie, “The Adjustment Bureau”
Charles Parnell, “Pariah”
Jeffrey Wright, “The Ides of March”

Best Supporting Actress
Bryce Dallas Howard, “The Help”
Maya Rudolph, “Bridesmaids”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Cicely Tyson, “The Help”
Kim Wayans, “Pariah”

Best Independent Film
“The First Grader”
“I Will Follow”
“Kinyarwanda”
“MOOZ-lum”
“Pariah”

Best Foreign Film
“Attack the Block”
“In the Land of Blood and Honey”
“Le Havre”
“Life, Above All”
“A Separation”

Best Documentary
“Beat, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest”
“Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”
“The Rescuers”
“Sing Your Song”
“Thunder Soul”

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) used to announce its list of nominees after the Oscars did, meaning the Best Sound Editing category was the one field without much in the way of precursor clues for predicting. That changed recently and now we can get an idea of where the sound branch might lean in the field.

The nominees, announced today, feature four of the five films I’m currently predicting in the category: “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Hugo,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Super 8.” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” was not mentioned anywhere after picking up a Cinema Audio Society nomination yesterday, so maybe I’ll need to rethink that one.

“Super 8” is clearly a favorite, nailing down the only three nods it could have received. “Drive,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “War Horse,” meanwhile, each got two.

In the sound effects and foley department, which is kind of the guide post for the Oscar category here, two films I’ve been spotlighting as potential nominees showed up: “Fast Five” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” Perhaps one of them could make the cut, or perhaps even “Drive” could surprise (it’s a film that’s popped up in conversation with sound mixers).

And I’m pleased to see that “The Tree of Life” registered in some way.

The animated field contains just about every film that could show up as a nominee, but the only one I’ve heard mentioned frequently enough by voters in the branch is “The Adventures of Tintin.”

So chalk it up as another industry group spoken for. Check out the MPSE nominees for Best Sound Editing in feature films below.

Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
“Drive”
“Fast Five”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Super 8”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”

Music in a Feature Film
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hop”
“Hugo”
“Priest”
“Super 8”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“The Tree of Life”

Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film
“Abduction”
“The Help”
“Moneyball”
“Quarantine II: Terminal”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Super 8”
“War Horse”
“The Way”

Music in a Musical Feature Film
“Footloose”
“The Muppets”
“Perfect Age of Rock n’ Roll”
“Pina”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in an Animated Film
“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Cars 2”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
“Rio”
“The Smurfs”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, ADR and Music in a Feature Documentary
“Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
“George Harrison: Living in the Material World”
“Lemmy”
“Pearl Jam Twenty”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Foreign Language Film
“1920: The World’s Most Important Battle”
“Circumstance”
“Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within”
“The Flowers of War”
“In the Land of Blood and Honey”
“Sarah’s Key”
“The Skin I Live In”

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

Today I’m in snowy Park City, Utah for the 28th annual Sundance Film Festival and Anne is back home in Los Angeles (though on her way to the fest herself). But while next year’s crop of potential awards contenders takes a bow here, the week saw plenty of news relating to the current awards season. So let’s see what’s on the docket today…

First and foremost, speaking of Sundance, Anne has been vocal about studio pick-ups from last year’s fest missing out on the Oscar season this year. We talk about that a bit and a little about this year’s festival films.

Last weekend brought a busy couple of days full of parties leading into Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards. We reflect on those awards and the various celebrations that night.

One of last weekend’s parties was the annual pre-BAFTA nods tea party. The nominations themselves, though, dropped earlier in the week, reflecting some strength amongst that crowd (which has cross-over AMPAS membership) for certain contenders. We discuss.

Suddenly this leads to a discussion of “The Descendants,” which I’m struggling with more and more as it succeeds throughout the season. Anne, naturally, remains in the tank for it.

Also scattered throughout the week were a few industry/guild nomination announcements. The editors, sound mixers and costume designers all spoke up, reflect strength here, weakness there.

And finally, reader questions. We address queries regarding how this year’s Oscar slate is likely to be viewed in the future, what chance Michael Shannon might have to pop up and the odds of “A Separation” getting a major nomination or two.

Have a listen to the new podcast below, with Led Zeppelin leading the way. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. And as always, remember to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

“Immigrant Song” courtesy of Led Zepplin and Atlantic.
“Shake It Out” courtesy of Florence + the Machine and Universal Island.

I’ve said it several times before, but it’s been something of a banner year for dogs in the movies: Uggie, the dancing Jack Russell from “The Artist,” may be hogging the red carpet, but the various pooches from “Beginners,” “50/50,” “Young Adult,” “Le Havre” and “The Adventures of Tintin” all have their fans — “Beginners” star Cosmo even landed a spot on Manohla Dargis’s Best Supporting Actor wishlist. Anyway, all except the animated Snowy from “Tintin” have been recognized with nominations for the inaugural Golden Collar Awards — with Uggie receiving twin mentions for his work in both “The Artist” and “Water for Elephants.” It’ll be interesting to see if he splits his vote and — sorry, there’s only so far I can go with this. But it’s all good fun, and in aid of animal shelters, so cheers all round. [The Odds]

Speaking of which, the Vulture wags want the Academy voters to consider “Young Adult” for Saddest Dog. And “Drive” for Best Jacket. [Vulture]

Jason Reitman on unsettling his audience with “Young Adult,” and arriving late to the joy of drinking. [The Guardian]

David Poland gathers the video interviews he’s done so far with the shortlisted contenders for the foreign-language Oscar. [Hot Blog]

Alas, Mexico’s “Miss Bala” is not among those contenders. Elisabeth Malkin examines the film’s stand on the drug war. [New York Times]

The HFPA are very happy with Ricky Gervais’s critically savaged Golden Globes performance, and want him back. We know how this will go, don’t we? [THR]

Inspired by “The Artist,” Francesa Steele lists the 10 greatest silent films. (No, the Oscar frontrunner is not one of them.) [The Independent]

Katey Rich explains why Channing Tatum is a really good actor. And does so without even mentioning “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.” [Cinema Blend]

Finally, an ingenious Tumblr idea from Joe Reid. Yes, all these films were, at one point, in the awards conversation. [This Had Oscar Buzz]

Writing up an awards ceremony I actually voted in is new territory for me, and slightly awkward to boot. Praising the choices of the London Critics’ Circle amounts to patting myself on the back, criticizing them to shooting myself in the foot — choose your poison, really. Happily, for me at least, I can err on the back-patting side: after assembling a superb set of nominees last month, my Circle colleagues did a pretty bang-up job of choosing the winners, too.

Across 15 categories, eight of the winners were ones I’d voted for myself; of the remaining seven, the majority were for films and individuals I’m more than happy to cheer on anyway. Only one, I’ll admit, really left me scratching my head — though if nothing else, Kenneth Branagh’s Best Supporting Actor prize for “My Week With Marilyn” was an unexpected deviation from the Christopher Plummer/Albert Brooks pattern the season has doggedly followed thus far, and his acceptance speech was composed of equal parts genuine gratitude and surprise.  

Some will complain that “The Artist” was an unadventurous pick for the night’s top prizes, particularly with less widely-awarded critics’ favorites like “Drive” and “A Separation” in the race — though with three wins, the Iranian marital drama equalled the Oscar frontrunner’s tally, and was clearly nipping at its heels. I’m certainly not one of the complainers: its volume of precursor wins doesn’t make the French silent-cinema homage any less fresh or delightful a choice for mainstream awards glory in my eyes, however much detractors insist that this risky formal experiment represents some variety of Oscar bait.

In one of those years where critics and the industry seem to be unusually aligned on this issue, Michel Hazanavicius’s film is the one to which the most people have sincerely lost their hearts. You can hardly accuse the London critics of consciously trying to shadow the Oscar race when their list of winners also includes such excitingly left-field choices as Anna Paquin for “Margaret” and Sareh Bayat for “A Separation” — the first critics’ prize for either of these wonderful performances, as far as I’m aware.

“Tyrannosaur” star Olivia Colman, who beat the likes of Tilda Swinton to the British Actress of the Year award, raised the biggest laugh of the evening in her typically bashful acceptance speech: “This award means so much because you people really know your onions, as it were,” she stammered. It’d be smug to agree, but given that her critics’ win comes days after BAFTA failed even to nominate her tremendous work in Paddy Considine’s debut feature, I couldn’t help but feel a little proud to have voted for a performance that needs — and deserves — all the exposure it can get.

That was hardly the only moment of the evening where I felt such a twinge. I was thrilled to see Andrew Haigh take Breakthrough British Filmmaker honors for my favorite film of 2011, “Weekend” — another effort shamefully sidelined by BAFTA — ahead of a robust field that included “Tyrannosaur” and “Attack the Block.” Added to commendable wins for “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “Shame,” the nervier end of British independent cinema was well served by its home critics.

The evening itself was a classier affair than we scruffy writers generally deserve. Where most critics’ groups toast their winners at upscale dinners or in unceremonious press releases, the London group, benefitting from a shortage of equivalent precursor events on this side of the pond, has recently opted for the full red-carpet, black-tie, theater-housed treatment.

The BFI Southbank, with its views onto the river, makes for a handsome venue. Star turnout was strong — of the winners, only Paquin, Meryl Streep and the team from “A Separation” couldn’t attend, and there was a collective gasp from the audience when surprise guest Donald Sutherland casually sauntered onto the stage to present his “Don’t Look Now” director, Nicolas Roeg, with the Dilys Powell Award for contribution to British cinema. The emotional high point of the evening, it was also enlivened by Sutherland’s smooth, witty tribute — which I’d probably be able to quote more specifically if the event hadn’t been so generously sponsored by Moët & Chandon. Oh well. 

I was glad of an opportunity to convert some phone encounters from the past few months into face-to-face chats. Colman, comfortably barefoot after having ditched her lethal Louboutins, was sanguine about her BAFTA miss, but touched by the Twitter outrage it prompted; we agreed the British Academy isn’t representing its own film industry as well as it could be. Dujardin, whom I encountered on the smoking terrace looking intimidatingly, Gallicly cool, still seems merrily bemused by his film’s good fortune. (Oh, and his English is fine — thanks for asking.)

I had a long exchange with “Weekend” producer Tristan Goligher — “You’re not just a Twitter handle!” was his reassuring greeting — who tipped me off about Haigh’s next project, which he describes as a thematic bookend to the gay romance. And I may or may not have drunkenly blathered to Lynne Ramsay — dressed, rather uncharacteristically, in an elaborate fuchsia ballgown — about how much her work means to me, though she was cheerful enough after winning British Film of the Year to smile and nod and pretend I was actually making sense. 

All in all, a good night for film, a great night for “The Artist” and a better morning than mine for any teetotallers among the guests. Check out the full list of winners here. 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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Wins for both Best Picture and Best Actor at the Golden Globes Sunday, coupled with George Clooney”s victory at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards last week have solidified Alexander Payne”s “The Descendants” as an Oscar frontrunner (if consistent critical approval hadn’t already). Clooney stars in the film as Matt King, a man who must confront his wife”s infidelity as well as (to the best of his somewhat limited ability) his own inadequacies as a husband and father as she lay dying in a coma.

In addition to the precursor attention the film, director and lead actor have received, 19-year-old Shailene Woodley (who plays Clooney”s hybrid wild-child/precocious teen daughter) has been an intermittent presence in the supporting actress field (as well as a consistent one in the young or up-and-coming star arena). But for many cinema-goers, there is a third performance in the film that resonates long after the lights have come up. Judy Greer”s short-lived but palpable turn as Julie Speer, a woman who has the misfortune to discover that her husband Brian was having an affair with Clooney”s wife Elizabeth, is both grounded and evocative.

Greer”s final scene has the most visceral impact. With deeply conflicted desires, her character goes to pay her respects at the deathbed of the woman who, had she lived, would have sought to destroy her marriage. Greer is, by turns, compassionate, heartbroken, enraged and magnanimous, gracefully traveling through a nuanced range in a very short time period of time.

“My goal was to try and fit in as many emotions as possible,” she says now. “It was like one of those word games where you have to make as many words as possible in a certain amount of time out of nine letters. I thought there is no one emotion happening here for my character. She”s not just mad, she”s not just sad, she”s not just betrayed. She”s everything.”

In fact, it is as though her character is living through the trajectory of the film as a whole in one remarkably condensed moment. Her release allows Clooney to, in essence, come to his wife”s defense and find his way to forgiveness, which is, for Greer, is what the film is about. One of the more unique aspects of the adaptation is that the reckoning that takes place between Elizabeth King and those her life has touched is resolved via one-sided effort. We (very briefly) see the character on a jet-ski as the films open, but for the bulk of the story she is an inert, bed-bound woman who can never truly be confronted. As a result, she becomes the projection of whomever is speaking of her, or to her. In the case of Greer”s character, the story of “the other woman” is colored by the reality that said woman is completely vulnerable and, as such, inherently in a position that inspires our empathy.

“That”s a choice that Alexander made,” Greer recalls. “She”s in flashbacks in the book and in one version of the script (which I did not read) before Alexander did a draft. I love it because I get to make up my own mind about her. Everything we see of her is so exposed and defenseless, but what people say about her is kind of awful, with the exception of her father. She can”t ever defend herself against her daughter or anyone in her life and it”s so interesting because this whole human character is created through the verbal descriptions of others.”

Payne”s choice entrusts us as the audience to allow Elizabeth the full range of her humanity. The question of whether she was “in the right” or “in the wrong” is ultimately irrelevant. It is in the ability to move past the limitations of those distinctions that the characters in the film find freedom. “Fox president Tom Rothman gave a speech where he said this is an adult movie made for adults,” Greer says. “He”s so right and that”s rare. There”s not a tone of meaty grown-up roles that are real and raw. But that”s how Alexander”s movies are. All of his characters are flawed.”

Greer has primarily been associated with comedic, quirky side-kick characters, so for many viewers this portrayal represents a break-out performance. “I can understand why people see it that way and I appreciate it,” she muses. “But I don”t really see it that way because I was there having the experience. Most actors feel they can play any role, I don”t feel that way, but I do feel I can play other characters. And I have played other dramatic parts but no one saw them because the movies were kind of crappy!”

The actress does experience some measure of frustration over the industry”s bias in favor of drama, a bias which is, interestingly enough, not entirely playing out this awards season. “I do feel that when people cry they get rewarded,” Greer says. “Probably because I”m a comedic actress, I get a little defensive about comedy and the actors who thrive in it. That being said, I do get that it”s hard to cry for two days in a row and it is depressing. And the stakes felt higher just in that it was a dream of mine to work with Alexander and the script was so good, I felt like I didn”t want to mess it up.”

The initial challenge for Greer was intellectually understanding why her character would choose to enter that hospital room. When she finally surrendered to the reality that we as people are often driven by a kaleidoscope of motivations that we can”t fully rationalize or articulate, she found her way into the role. “I get when actors say, ‘I have to believe my character is right,” if they”re playing a terrible person or something,” she says. “But I just realize that what”s going to be best is if the scene is truthful, and if the truthful moment that I”m in is that I don”t know why she”s going there, then maybe that”s the truthful moment that she”s in. She goes for a million reasons, and she isn”t really sure why she goes, so that”s what I played.”

Greer describes Payne”s directorial style as “intimately hands off.” Once she secured the role, he instructed her to simply do what she had done in the audition. “He”s there for you, he”s close to you,” she says. “Literally he stands by the camera. He”s not far off in video village somewhere in another house, on another block, he is right there. But he lets you have your way with it. He doesn”t love to hear himself talk like some people in this business. He”s very measured with his words and his direction and even on a huge movie set it felt like we were all doing something private, something we all cared about, whereas sometimes it gets clock punchy when you”re working. I don”t want to sound like I”m giving myself a compliment, but he says that he feels like he casts perfectly and then he lets the actors do their work.”

For year-round entertainment news and commentary follow @JRothC on Twitter.

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The Iowa Film Critics have joined and drowned in the on-going chorus of year-end kudos-dishers. Drowned because it’s all just a blur now. “The Descendants” came out on top, winning both Best Picture and Best Director. And there’s Melissa McCarthy, yet again. Check out the full list of winners below.

Best Picture: “The Descendants”

Best Director: Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”

Best Actor: Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”

Best Actress: Viola Davis, “The Help”

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”

Best Animated Film: “Rango”

Best Film Yet to Open in Iowa: (tie) “Project Nim,” “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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In part one of this feature, we spotlighted the fields of Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Makeup. Now to round out my final predictions in the crafts fields with the remainder.

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Ludovic Bource”s music for Michel Hazanavicius”s “The Artist” was integral to the film and present in virtually every scene. The BAFTA-nominated and BFCA- and Golden Globe-winning score is firmly in the running, alongside John Williams”s booming BFCA-, Globe- and BAFTA-nominated work in “War Horse.” Any nomination for Williams will move him into first place in the all-time list for music nominees (breaking his current tie with Alfred Newman), behind only Walt Disney on the all-time overall list.

But, will “The Adventures of Tintin” make a double nominee out of him? Very possible and, in my view, probable – it has the characteristics of a typical nominee. But I would not be sure of it, especially given the lack of precursor attention and the many other contenders.

I would say Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are looking primed to return to the race for their popular “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” score, especially after the film”s good showing with the guilds and their Globe, BAFTA and BFCA nominations. I would place them third, between the two Williams scores, in order of likelihood.

In the fifth spot (with “Tintin” being in fourth), I am banking on Howard Shore”s compositions for “Hugo,” though I remain skeptical. While the film is clearly loved and it is Shore”s most Oscar-friendly work since his three wins for “The Lord of the Rings,” I cannot help but shake the feeling that that will remain the extent of his Oscar success. He had been around a long time before Jackson”s masterpiece but AMPAS never bit, nor have they since. Even so, love of the film, and BFCA, Globe and BAFTA nods, mean it would be foolish to bet against him.

Alexandre Desplat has been ubiquitous in recent years. His biggest problem, in my view, is the lack of certainty regarding the film that is his best vehicle to a nomination. George Clooney”s “The Ides of March” has been experiencing a mini-resurgence as of late but the score for Stephen Daldry”s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is more traditional Oscar bait.

This lack of certainty surrounding Desplat leads me to consider “The Help””s Thomas Newman and “Jane Eyre””s Dario Marianelli. The latter score was particularly lovely and Marianelli was a surprising and deserving nominee for “Pride & Prejudice,” capturing a similar period in English history. (He deservedly won this category two years later for “Atonement.”)  Newman, on the other hand, is a favorite. That said, I found Newman”s score forgettable and am not sure how well “Jane Eyre” will be remembered.

Rather, as my primary alternate, I would look to Alberto Iglesias for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Iglesias was a surprise nominee in 2005 for “The Constant Gardener” (and also returned to the race two years later with “The Kite Runner”). I personally loved the score, which was suspenseful, appropriately period-based, and managed to bring in several different atmospheres. The BAFTA nomination may be the result of the British clearly loving it. Then again, maybe there’s more to it.

Predictions:

“The Adventures of Tintin”

“The Artist”

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

“Hugo”

“War Horse”

(alt. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”)

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

I should note at the outset that this category is difficult to predict. The manner in which songs are scored in the branch viewing/listening session means that a few poor votes could torpedo a tune”s chances, especially if the musicians are not impressed by the manner in which the songs are featured in the film. This is not to mention the possibility that the category will cite less than five films or could even be cancelled.

With those caveats noted, I think “The Muppets,” which featured its songs prominently in the narrative, is headed towards two nominations. The question is which two (as a few years ago a rule was adopted preventing more than two per film)? BFCA winner “Life”s a Happy Song,” which is quite the show-stopper, seems a safe bet. I think the sweet “Pictures in My Head” is a more typical Oscar song than the amusing “Man or Muppet,” but a nomination for either would not surprise me.

Alan Menken has experienced multiple nominations in this category for the same film four times over, having accomplished the feat for the “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin,” for which he earned six of his eight Oscars, in addition to “Enchanted.” His “Star Spangled Man” was an appropriately show-stopping song-and-dance break within “Captain America: The First Avenger,” smartly used int he narrative. I think he is headed to his 20th nomination.

Sinead O”Connor”s soothing ballad “Lay Your Head Down” from “Albert Nobbs” earned a Golden Globe nomination. Glenn Close wrote the lyrics for the tune and could end up double-nominated if she is cited here and for acting. I think it is probably a good bet here, though its place on the end credits does not help matters.

The end credit ditty I have more faith in is actually Mary J. Blige”s “The Living Proof” from “The Help.” A booming ballad, the sort that has often found a home in this category, the song will also be helped out by a likely high nomination tally for the film.

“Hello Hello” from “Gnomeo & Juliet” managed to garner both BFCA and Globe nominations. Even so, Elton John”s sole nominations to date come for his rather extraordinary contributions to “The Lion King” and the other contenders seem more plausible to me.

Predictions:

“Lay Your Head Down” from “Albert Nobbs”

“Star Spangled Man” from “Captain America: The First Avenger”

“The Living Proof” from “The Help”

“Life’s a Happy Song” from “The Muppets”

“Pictures in my Head” from “The Muppets”

(alt. “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets”)

BEST SOUND EDITING

Best Sound Editing is probably the category in which I have the least faith in my predictions. I had fully expected Steven Spileberg”s “War Horse” to get nominated here, until it collapsed in support at the guilds. Even so, I find it difficult to imagine that all those war sounds and horse sounds will not result in it being among the final five, especially with sound editing giant Richard Hymns having a big hand in things.

The other Spielberg effort, “The Adventures of Tintin,” also has all the makings of a nominee, being animated and filled with artificially created sounds. It has had a mixed ride in the precursors but I think it will make it in.

The other title I have some level of confidence in is “Super 8,” if only because it is a sound showcase, sound editing courtesy of Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood.

“Tintin” is not the only animated film I view to have a great shot here, as “Rango” also featured superb artificially created sounds courtesy of last year”s nominee Addison Teague (and I say this as no fan of the film). It strikes me as the sort of film they would go for if they watch it. And the film”s recent success in many animated film races increases that likelihood, in my opinion.

I am predicting both “Hugo” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” in Best Sound Mixing, and they could well make the final cut here as well. But “Hugo” remains more of a mixer”s film in my view (and interestingly, no Martin Scorsese film has ever been nominated here). “Transformers,” on the other hand, has to contend with the fact that its predecessor in the series was not nominated here. While this film could be seen as an improvement, I am already predicting it for mixing and Best Visual Effects. Three nods may seem a tad much.

Speaking of sequels, once again, this is the last year to recognize the “Harry Potter” series, which, as I have always noted, features clever sound effects. The novelty may not be great, but sentiment may be enough to see it off in style.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” comes from a series where the first two films made the cut here. The recent CAS nomination suggests the sound branch has not forgotten about the series. But I question how many voters will actually sit through this film, and “At World”s End” wasn’t nominated here, despite having more in the way of sound editing in my view.

Instead, I will go out on a limb and predict another fourth entry in a series to get its franchise”s first nomination: “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” While the sound effects did not necessarily add a great deal to what had been done before in this series, the critical acclaim was by far the greatest. It also remains fresh in voters” minds having been released in December. The potential of Hymns to become a double nominee could be a double-edged sword, though. Still, I will stick with my gut and predict it.

At the end of the day, however, this is really a category where I could see a major shocker. I certainly did not see “Unstoppable” coming last year and that could leave the door open to something such as “Real Steel.”

Predictions:

“The Adventures of Tintin”

“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”

“Rango”

“Super 8”

“War Horse”

(alt. “Hugo”)

BEST SOUND MIXING

This has got to be one of the most confusing categories of the year. After predictable BAFTA and BFCA nominations, the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) threw a monkey wrench into things with their shocking nominations. Of those nominees, I am only somewhat confident in two translating to Oscar: Best Picture favorite “Hugo” (supervised by longtime Scorsese collaborator Tom Fleischman and the only recipient of BAFTA, CAS and BFCA nods in this category) and sound showcase “Super 8” (the BFCA- and CAS-nominated work of AMPAS favorites Tom Johnson and Andy Nelson). I will come back to the other three CAS nominees shortly.

In third, I would place former favorite “War Horse.” After BFCA and BAFTA nominations, we can see that its sound is noticed. It is after all a Spielberg film with his trusted Oscar-nominated crew, and it is both a war film and a horse film! CAS snub aside, I think it will show up here.

In fourth, I would rank Greg P. Russell and Jeffrey J. Haboush for “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Russell has been nominated for the two previous “Transformers” movies and this film is overwhelmingly considered an improvement on its predecessor. If he can get nominated for “Salt,” I believe he can be nominated for anything so I am going to continue to predict him, despite the surprising CAS snub.

I actually think BAFTA nominee “The Artist” may well find a spot in the final five. The dream sequence alone will tickle the branch”s fancy and I expect the film to get at least ten other nominations. It remains, however, a silent film, and I think that could ultimately do it in.

I have to eat my hat, to a certain extent, with respect to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” I had a debate with a commenter in my column on this category about the film”s chances, which I rather cavalierly dismissed. After a BFCA win and a BAFTA nod, I can no longer do so. Even so, I fail to see what this film had that its predecessors didn’t. Plus, the absence of a CAS nod troubles me – the guild almost never misses more than two of the nominees.

Another non-Society nominated contender is “The Adventures of Tintin.” This was in many ways a sound showcase and it is not unusual for an animated film to show up here despite a guild snub. But regardless of that, the precursor attention remains minimal and I feel “War Horse” is the better-positioned Spielberg effort. The BAFTA nod for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and BFCA citation for “The Tree of Life” strike me as those awards bodies loving a film a great deal more than I expect out of AMPAS.

Rather, I would look to the guild nominees to complete the quintet, especially as it is very rare for the CAS not to nominate at least three of the eventual Oscar nominees. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” has an Oscar-nominated crew and the first two films in the series were cited here. Even so, the third one was not and I feel this effort is kind of underwhelming all around. “Moneyball” could get caught up in a sweep for the film, but at the end of the day, I feel that is just an odd, random Society nomination.

Instead, I am going to go out on a limb and predict “Hanna” for a nomination. The CAS nomination was shocking, to be sure, but I continue to have major doubts about all the other contenders. And a Saoirse Ronan-Cate Blanchett action film may just tickle this branch”s fancy.

Who knows in this category, though – I could see some very surprising nominations among the final five.

Predictions:

“Hanna”

“Hugo”

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

“Super 8”

“War Horse”

(alt. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” brought visual effects to new heights. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is the last chance to nominate a successful franchise that has been recognized here before. “Hugo””s nomination tally seems poised to be huge. I am quite confident in those three titles finding a place among the final five for Best Visual Effects.

I was originally skeptical about the chances of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” given the lack of love for its predecessor in this series. However, its massive success at the Visual Effects Society, combined with its better reception when compared to its predecessor, makes me confident in its landing a place come Tuesday morning.

I actually think “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” could well show up here. The work was well done and the film was immensely respected. Even if none of its predecessors in the series scored here, Brad Bird”s name and the year-end top 10 notices could make a difference.

Ultimately, however, I cannot help but think that “The Tree of Life” will be among the final five. While its effects were not as showy or expensive as many other films’, they nonetheless were prominently featured in the film. And while I am unsure how many nominations the film will ultimately get, I strongly suspect it will show up somewhere outside cinematography, and this seems the second-most likely place.

As for the other shortlisted films, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” has series history on its side, but I feel this film underwhelmed most. I also see no reason why “X-Men: First Class” would buck the trend of that series being shut out at Oscar. “Real Steel” seems a tad underwhelming to get into this blockbuster-loving category, and while I would rank “Captain America: The First Avenger” seventh, the other titles simply seem to have more going for them in my view.

Predictions:

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”

“Hugo”

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

“The Tree of Life”

(alt. “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”)

So that”s it for another year! I will be back next week with reactions to the nominees.

Meanwhile, feel free to offer up your guesses for the fields of Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects in the comments section below.

Sorry to get this up later than usual, but you know the drill. Fire off your need-to-knows and we’ll try to address a few in the podcast. Get them in fast, though. We’re recording in a few hours.

The London Film Critics Circle (of which I’m a member) handed out its year-end kudos this evening, and “The Artist” was the big winner, taking awards for Film of the Year, Director of the Year and Actor of the Year. I’ll be back from this evening’s festivities soon enough to offer up extended commentary, but for now, check out the full list of winners below.

Film of the Year: “The Artist”

Director of the Year: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”

Actor of the Year: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”

Actress of the Year: (tie) Anna Paquin, “Margaret,” Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Supporting Actor of the Year: Kenneth Branagh, “My Week with Marilyn”

Supporting Actress of the Year: Sareh Bayat, “A Separation”

Screenwriter of the Year: Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation”

Documentary of the Year: “Senna”

Best Foreign Language Film: “A Separation”

British Film of the Year: “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

British Actor of the Year: Michael Fassbender, “Shame”

British Actress of the Year: Olivia Colman, “Tyrannosaur”

Breakthrough British Filmmaker of the Year: Andrew Haigh, “Weekend”

Young British Performer of the Year: Craig Roberts, “Submarine”

Technical Achievement of the Year: Maria Djurkovic (production design), “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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In five days, the nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards will be announced. It seems extraordinary that another season has nearly passed. And with a silent film and a somewhat fantastical (not-so-) children”s film poised to dominate the major categories, one realizes how quickly trends can change in Hollywood. The period nature of these films will result in their showing up across the crafts categories as well, along with many other usual suspects. But at the margins, there is definitely room for excitement.

So with that preface, I now embark on my final analysis of the crafts categories for the cinematic year of 2011. This will be done in two parts, five categories covered in each part. Check back later for part two.

BEST ART DIRECTION

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Hugo” and “The Artist” all earned BFCA, guild and BAFTA nominations. The latter two are Best Picture frontrunners and this has been the kindest category to the “Harry Potter” series. I think all are locks.

The other Best Picture contender in the running here is “The Help,” which managed guild citation, and also has Mark Ricker (an up-and-comer in my view) behind it. Its lack of showiness, as well as the BAFTA omission, means it is not as assured as the other three, but I still expect it to make the cut.

Lastly, we come to “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” After a slow start to awards season, it managed two guild nominations (this being one) and a plethora of BAFTA nominations. The LAFCA victory (to say nothing of the quality of the work) leads me to believe that a notice here is in the cards. If it is not getting in here, it is not getting in anywhere.

I have likely underestimated “Anonymous” throughout the awards season. Its guild nomination means it is a force to be reckoned with and the work is exactly the sort the Academy likes. So it would be my primary alternate, even if I remain doubtful about how AMPAS has received the film.

“War Horse” earned BFCA and BAFTA nominations in this category and despite Rick Carter relying heavily on exteriors, the work was memorable. That said, the failure to earn a guild nomination, to say nothing of my decreasing faith in the film overall, leads me to think he’ll come up short.

Predictions:

“The Artist”

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”

“The Help”

“Hugo”

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

(alt. “Anonymous”)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Lubezki”s work on Terrence Malick”s “The Tree of Life” is clearly going down in the history books. It may not win the Oscar but it is certainly headed to a nomination. (The BAFTA snub was odd but it had been the only place the film was even longlisted.)  “Hugo” and “The Artist,” meanwhile, are leading the Best Picture race. Robert Richardson”s gorgeous collaboration with Martin Scorsese, as well as Guillaume Schiffman”s black-and-white work on “The Artist,” will certainly end up in the final five as well.

Jeff Cronenweth”s moody work for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was recognized by the ASC and BAFTA. Coming off a nomination for “The Social Network,” I suspect the second-generation DP is in position to benefit from some goodwill from last year and earn a repeat nomination, especially given the respect the film seems to have in the industry. The stark and low-key nature of the photography means he is hardly assured a spot, however.

Hoyte Van Hoytema managed ASC and BAFTA nods for his atmospheric, mood-building work on “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Part of me wants to say he is good to go but there is usually a variable between the Society and AMPAS and I feel Cronenweth is in somewhat better shape given his film”s overall success at the guilds and that above-mentioned residual respect from last season. We will see though – “Tinker” has been picking up momentum in the last few weeks.

Janusz Kaminski”s lensing of “War Horse” may have seemed a sure bet and it actually tied for a win with the BFCA. However, it has been criticized in certain circles as being over-the-top and I could see his fellow cinematographers finding it annoying. The film”s failure to get an ASC nomination (Kaminski has never been Oscar nominated after a Society snub), in addition to the film”s gradual descent this season, leads me to believe it will come up short.

Rather, I will go out on somewhat of a limb and predict Eduardo Serra for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” Serra”s two previous nominations (“The Wings of the Dove” and “Girl with a Pearl Earring”) also came for efforts for which he was not nominated by the ASC. The Society did not cite Bruno Delbonnel before the Academy’s cinematographers branch nominated him for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and given that this is the last chance to recognize the series in this category, I would say Serra could manage a nod her.

Predictions:

“The Artist”

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:Part 2”

“Hugo”

“The Tree of Life”

(alt. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Sandy Powell is a mortal lock for a nomination here for her showy and top-notch work on “Hugo.” Mark Bridges (“The Artist”), Jill Taylor (“My Week with Marilyn”) and Sharen Davis (“The Help”) all strike me as good bets, with precursor attention, showy period clothes and films that will show up elsewhere in prominent places. Davis”s failure to garner a BAFTA nomination, as Taylor’s coming up short with the guild, would make me put them third and fourth, but I still think nominations are likely.

Michael O”Connor”s threads on “Jane Eyre” were appropriately period and reminiscent of the work that earned him a victory in this category three years ago for “The Duchess.” It also seems a good place to award the film, so I think he is the fifth nominee.

I am relatively confident in this quintet (probably more than any other category), but I have said before and I will say again that this category does not particularly care about how films are viewed overall. So “Anonymous” (Lisy Christl) and guild nominee “W.E.” (Arianne Phillips) could very well show up. Character-building British work such as that seen in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Jacqueline Durran) and “The Iron Lady” (Consolata Boyle) should not be ruled out but strikes me as a tad too subtle.

Predictions:

“The Artist”

“The Help”

“Hugo”

“Jane Eyre”

“My Week with Marilyn”

(alt. “W.E.”)

BEST FILM EDITING

Film editing is tremendously tied with the Best Picture category. Therefore, the two films I am most confident in here are “Hugo,” cut by the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker, and “The Artist,” poised to make a hat-trick nominee out of Michel Hazanavicius, who edited the film with Anne-Sophie Bion.

Slightly behind these two titles would be “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” headed up by last year”s winners Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall. This is the sort of film that could score here even without a Best Picture nomination. Its recent ascent in that category, as well as the duo”s guild nomination, not to mention their BFCA win, leads me to believe they are back in the game. (The BAFTA snub can likely be attributed to the film clearly not catching on with the Brits.)

“War Horse,” edited by Spielberg”s regular collaborator Michael Kahn, managed not only BFCA and BAFTA nominations, but also a nod from the guild, one of few for the film. The war scenes and different stories should result in Kahn earning his eighth nomination. But I have some reservations.

Christopher Tellefsen”s piecing together of Bennett Miller”s “Moneyball” was fresh, engaging and memorable. I feel the film is headed for a Best Picture nomination, among many others. With an ACE nomination behind him, I would say he is looking good for the final slot.

His principal competitor is likely Kevin Tent”s work on Alexander Payne”s “The Descendants.” Now this was hardly an editing showcase, but editors do love the film. And it’s poised for a great deal of major nominations. This could be dragged along.

And then there is Matthew Newman”s work on Nicolas Winding Refn”s “Drive.” Nominated by the BFCA and BAFTA, the work was undeniably superb, bringing action and riveting suspense into this unique crime tale. So even if the film is hardly Oscar bait, I could see it showing up here.

Predictions:

“The Artist”

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

“Hugo”

“Moneyball”

“War Horse”

(alt. “The Descendants”)

BEST MAKEUP

Ah, Best Makeup. The bake-off list provided some clues in this respect with “J. Edgar” and “Green Lantern,” both of which I really thought could score here, failing to make the cut.

That said, we do have great aging efforts in “The Iron Lady” and “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.” Meryl Streep”s transformation on the former effort and the notable prosthetics on the latter make me suspect they are leading the way.

After that, I really do not know, though my inclination is that “Albert Nobbs””s work was not showy enough, while “Anonymous””s was not novel enough to stick out. And while “last chance to award” sentiment could put “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” over the top (it made BAFTA”s final five), I am more inclined to think it will also suffer from a perceived lack of novelty.

That leaves the Best Picture contenders and BAFTA nominees “The Artist” and “Hugo” battling for the final spot. The makeup in the flashbacks to the infancy of cinema was very well done in the latter, though I ultimately suspect love of the film, and admiration for the unique makeup challenges prompted by a black-and-white shoot, will bring “The Artist” into the final trio.

Seriously, though, this category never ceases to surprise. No combination of three could be considered a shocker.

Predictions:

“The Artist”

“Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”

“The Iron Lady”

(alt. “Hugo”)

Check back later today for part two as we round out the final five crafts fields. In the meantime, what are your predictions for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Makeup? Have your say in the comments section below!

Following on the heels of the Cinema Audio Society today is the Costume Designers Guild, which has selected nominees in its three patented categories.

The first thing you’ll notice, naturally, is yet another “War Horse” snub. I haven’t been expecting an Oscar nomination for the film’s costumes and the period field is particularly stacked this season, but nevertheless, another miss.

There aren’t many surprises on the list, though the appearance of “X-Men: First Class” in the fantasy category is a nice inclusion for its blend of period styles with comic book tropes. Once upon a time I thought costumer Sammy Sheldon might be a possibility for an Oscar nod, and maybe that’s even still the case. Ditto “Thor,” outfitted by four-time nominee Alexandra Byrne.

Another pleasant change of pace was “Melancholia” showing up in the contemporary field, alongside expected contenders like “Bridesmaids,” “The Descendants” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” and that signature scorpion jacket gets a nice notice there, too.

The safe haven for the “Harry Potter” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” films has been the fantasy field here for a few years, and both entries in the respective franchises showed up today. Though “Red Riding Hood” getting to call itself an awards player of any sort — yikes.

As usual, you can expect the fair majority of eventual Oscar nominees to include period contenders. Oscar frontrunner “The Artist” was chalked up there, along with predicted nominees “Jane Eyre,” “The Help” and “Hugo.” Also there is “W.E.,” as well a serious contender.

In the way of snubs, the inventive work on “Immortals” (spotlighted in our recent list of bubble-contending hopefuls) received no love, nor did, perhaps more surprisingly, “Anonymous.” Ditto other possible nominees like “My Week with Marilyn” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (the latter, again, spotlighted by Guy recently). And it’s interesting that “Captain America: The First Avenger” couldn’t join its fellow comic adaptations.

But don’t take snubs here too much to heart. The Academy’s costume designers branch often includes this or that contender completely snubbed by the guild. So there is hope yet.

Check out the full list of nominees for the 2011 Costume Designers Guild awards below. And remember to follow the Best Costume Design race in the Contenders section throughout the season.

Excellence in Period Film:

“The Artist” (Mark Bridges)

“Jane Eyre” (Michael O’Connor)

“The Help” (Sharen Davis)

“Hugo” (Sandy Powell)

“W.E.” (Arianne Phillips)

Excellence in Fantasy Film:

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (Jany Temime)

“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (Penny Rose)

“Red Riding Hood” (Cindy Evans)

“Thor” (Alexandra Byrne)

“X-Men: First Class” (Sammy Sheldon)

Excellence in Contemporary Film:

“Bridesmaids” (Leesa Evans & Christine Wada)

“The Descendants (Wendy Chuck)

“Drive” (Erin Benach)

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Trish Summerville)

“Melancholia” (Manon Rasmussen)

Be sure to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

Also: Stay tuned later today for Gerard’s final predictions in the craft categories in today’s Tech Support two-parter!

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

Sign up for Instant Alerts from In Contention!

Predicting Best Makeup nominees is always a blind-man’s-buff process, but the one title we can reasonably expect to show up on Tuesday morning is “The Iron Lady”; like Marion Cotillard’s Edith Piaf, Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher is enabled by startling cosmetic and prosthetic wizardry. This has been recognized by BAFTA, but as blogger Bradley Porter, who also worked on the film, points out, credit isn’t entirely being given where it’s due: the only name nominated by BAFTA is chief makeup and hair designer Marese Langan, thoroughly deserving of notice — but prosthetics designer Mark Coulier isn’t on the list. Given that he’s the man behind the ageing work that most wows people in this area, that’s a shameful oversight. Here’s hoping the Academy doesn’t make the same error. [Eat Sleep Live Film]   

Chris Laverty talks to “War Horse” super-producer Kathleen Kennedy, with particular emphasis on the film’s costume design. [Clothes on Film]

Leslie Lindeman talks to “Harry Potter” production designer Stuart Craig, gunning for his fourth Oscar nod for the series (and his tenth overall). [Below the Line]

Mark Harris predicts a Michael Fassbender snub on Tuesday morning. I have a horrible feeling he might be right. [Grantland]

Nicole Sperling talks to Lynne Ramsay and Tilda Swinton about “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” (There are too many “talk abouts” in that sentence.) [Los Angeles Times] 

S.T. Vanairsdale monitors the progress of the Consider Uggie campaign, which at this point is doing the film more good than the dog. [Movieline]

Nathaniel Rogers’s ever-entertaining Film Bitch Awards continue with his Best Supporting Actor category. I sense the Academy’s five won’t be as interesting. [The Film Experience]

Bringing his own addiction experience to the table, Glenn Kenny offers probably the sharpest, truest piece anyone’s yet written about “Shame.” [The AV Club]

Alex von Tunzelmann finds Best Original Screenplay hopeful “Margin Call” heavier on historical credibility than actual excitement. [The Guardian]

And now, as they say, for something completely different.

The guild nominations these last few weeks have been rank and file, the usual mish-mash of the same titles reflecting a bit of group think and perfunctory nominations. That ends today, though, as the Cinema Audio Society’s crop of selections for excellence in sound mixing includes some eyebrow-raising, refreshingly singular choices.

First and foremost, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” was snubbed, and I’m shocked by that. The sound mixers carried the franchise’s last two films to nominations with both the CAS and the sound branch of the Academy, but stopped things dead in their tracks today by ignoring the year’s best work in the field. Will it still be able to grab a mention from the smaller group within AMPAS? Maybe, but this is a blow.

In its place, actioner “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” filled out the summer blockbuster spot, along with the expected inclusion of “Super 8.” But the real surprise is “Hanna” turning up, completely out of left field.

The Joe Wright film has received a little bit of love this season for star Saoirse Ronan, but mostly for The Chemical Brothers’ unique score. The music’s implementation in the movie is very much a part of its drive and effect, so this is a nice notice for it. It was one of the early screeners to go out, but nevertheless, it’s a brave change of pace for the Society. And how fitting it is, with all that in mind, that this year scoring mixers have been included in the list of CAS nominees for the first time ever.

Also a bit unexpected, but not entirely shocking, is the inclusion of “Moneyball,” a meat-and-potatoes movie if there ever was one this season. I don’t think it will turn the trick with Oscar, but it certainly could. Nevertheless, I’d consider it and “Hanna” to be at the bottom of the pile here.

“Hugo” was the only serious Best Picture contender named, keeping its guild and society showing strong. It’s a likely Oscar nominee, too, and I’d chalk “Pirates” and “Super 8” up alongside it. The “Pirates” franchise has twice been nominated for Best Sound Mixing and each time with a CAS nod to go along with it.

Elsewhere, Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” suffered yet another precursor set-back as the work from his trusted team of mixers did not register with the Society. That marks misses with the DGA, WGA, ADG, SAG and CAS, with only PGA and ACE nods to show for itself from the industry awards so far. It did, however, get a Best Sound nod from BAFTA and was also chalked up by the sound chapter there in the longlists, which is why, for now, I’m keeping it in my predictions. I’m also banking on “Transformers” finding its way there, too.

“The Artist” popped up in the Best Sound category with BAFTA, though it wasn’t a choice from the chapter. Nevertheless, it could ride a lot of goodwill to a “surprise” nomination like this. It seems like a nod that could happen and then we all go, “Of course.”

Other BAFTA nominees included “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Each was also selected by the chapter.

My fingers are crossed that CAS voters just didn’t get around to “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” in time, and that it and “Rango” might still find some play.

You can follow the race at the Best Sound Mixing category’s Contenders page.

Once again, the 2011 Cinema Audio Society nominees are:

“Hanna” (Roland Winke, Christopher Scarabosio, Craig Berkey, Andrew Dudman)

“Hugo” (John Midgley, Tom Fleischman, Simon Rhodes)

“Moneyball” (Ed Novick, Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco, Brad Haenel)

“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (Lee Orloff, Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes, Alan Meyerson)

“Super 8” (Mark Ulano, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Dan Wallin)

The 48th annual Cinema Audio Society Awards will take place on Saturday, February 18 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. As previously announced, director Rob Marshall will receive the organization’s Filmmaker Award. Meanwhile, Scott Millan will receive the CAS Career Achievement Award.

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

Sign up for Instant Alerts from In Contention!

You could say that Andrew Haigh’s shimmery boy-meets-boy romance “Weekend” was always going to be readily embraced by the Gay & Lesbian Critics’ Association. Still, given that they already have a separate category for LGBT-themed fare, the fact that the film additionally took Film of the Year — ahead of such season heavyweights as “The Artist” and “The Descendants” — is pretty special. (Okay, I’m just glad of all and any recognition for my favorite film of 2011.)

Oscar-shortlisted AIDS doc “We Were Here” took an equivalent brace of awards in the documentary field. Funnily enough, however, the Performance of the Year award went to the one nominee whose character has no LGBT qualifications: Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady.” Other winners, meanwhile, include the natural pairing of Michael Fassbender and the Muppets. Roth reported on the nominees last week; full list of winners after the jump.  

Film of the Year: “Weekend”

LGBT-Themed Film of the Year: “Weekend”

Performance of the Year: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Rising Star Award: Michael Fassbender

Documentary of the Year: “We Were Here”

LGBT-Themed Documentary of the Year: “We Were Here”

Unsung Film of the Year: “50/50”

Campy (Intentional or Otherwise) Film of the Year: “The Muppets”

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit. 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

Sign up for Instant Alerts from In Contention!  

The biggest surprise about the nine-film shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is, well, how unsurprising it is. Seven of the titles I predicted yesterday are on it; the two films I didn’t, Morocco’s “Omar Killed Me” and Taiwan’s “Warriors of the Rainbow,” are the kind of could-have-been-anything choices that we know to expect (or not to expect, as it were) by now. Presumed frontrunner “A Separation” naturally made the cut and festival favorites “Pina” and “Bullhead” are present and correct — as is the semi-obligatory annual Holocaust drama, in the shape of Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness.” Check, check, check.

The general predictability of the list makes it harder than usual to speculate what three films may have been rescued by the executive committee. There’s nothing as outwardly subversive as “Dogtooth” or “Confessions” in the group, which suggests to me that the committee may have had their hands full saving consensus critical favorites: if they really did have to come to the rescue of a film like “A Separation,” as has been rumored, that narrows the window for a truly “difficult” film like “The Turin Horse” to slide in.

The omissions? Many will be surprised that Cannes critics’ darling “Le Havre” and Toronto Audience Award winner “Where Do We Go Now?” missed the cut, but I anticipated their absence yesterday — both have eccentric tonal transitions that I imagine turned off some voters, and neither film, for my money, ranks as their director’s strongest work.

More eyebrow-raising, perhaps, is the exclusion of France’s “Declaration of War,” a strong, heartfelt story of parents battling their child’s terminal disease (based on director-star Valerie Donizelli’s own experience) that I, like many pundits, thought would hit the voters where they live; it’s the second year in a row that the French, usually a fixture in the category, have failed to make even the shortlist. It’s one of two films I incorrectly predicted yesterday: the other, Mexico’s superbly steely drug-war thriller “Miss Bala,” was always going to be a tougher sell, though I was optimistically hoping the committee might be persuaded by the critical buzz around it.

The one inclusion I do suspect firmly suspect the committee might have had a hand in is “Warriors of the Rainbow,” an extravagant, 276-minute action epic that isn’t really in the Academy’s regular wheelhouse; I missed the film at Venice, where it received mixed reviews, but I’ve spoken to enough critics who didn’t to know its advocates are fervent ones. (It’s also possible the committee wanted at least one Asian film on the list for the sake of form, and thought this the most enticing of the lot — Zhang Yimou’s Christian Bale-starring “The Flowers of War” may have the profile, but the response to it has been tepid thus far.)

I’m annoyed that I didn’t see Morocco’s “Omar Killed Me” coming — the film, a French-set penal-system drama directed by “Days of Glory” star Roschdy Zem, is probably the selection causing the most head-scratching today, but based on early reviews, I liked its chances when it was submitted back in August. (“Could be one to watch,” I wrote — I should have listened to myself.) Interestingly, it’s the second your running that France’s thunder has been stolen in this category by a semi-French production from a former colony. (Between that and Canada’s “Monsieur Lazhar,” it’s possible the executive committee thought French-language filmmaking was well enough represented without throwing “Declaration of War” into the mix too.)

Critically, I can’t offer much perspective on the list, as I’ve still only seen four of the nine films — some major catch-up work awaits, though I haven’t yet had an opportunity to see most of the other five. My predictions for the category, meanwhile, remain largely unchanged; The Contenders page will be updated shortly.

Here’s the shortlist: 

Belgium, “Bullhead,” Michael R. Roskam, director

Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar,” Philippe Falardeau, director

Denmark, “Superclásico,” Ole Christian Madsen, director

Germany, “Pina,” Wim Wenders, director

Iran, “A Separation,” Asghar Farhadi, director

Israel, “Footnote,” Joseph Cedar, director

Morocco, “Omar Killed Me,” Roschdy Zem, director

Poland, “In Darkness,” Agnieszka Holland, director

Taiwan, “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” Wei Te-sheng, director 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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