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The 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are going down tonight live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. I plead ignorance on a lot of the TV stuff (sorry Dan and Alan), but on the movies side, there is a lot of intrigue. After last night's Producers Guild victory for “Birdman,” and with the film being a favorite to take the ensemble and lead actor prizes tonight, everyone is wondering if Alejandro González Iñárritu's film will come out of this weekend looking BOSS. We'll know in due time.

For now, if you have the stomach for me, follow along with our live blog of the ceremony below. We'll obviously note winners along the way, but we're keeping track of them here as well.

On to the show!

***

4:15 – (P.S.: I'm totally watching the Royal Rumble on my laptop at the same time, so if I accidentally write about John Cena or something, my bad. We all know that's the REAL best ensemble of the evening.)

4:25 – By the way, you can watch a live stream of the show on TNT's website.

4:26 – They're chatting with Michael Keaton on the red carpet now. He's begging off handshakes. Been suffering the flu for a while it seems. Big series of interviews with him coming next week, FYI.

4:31 – Liev Schreiber on the carpet with wife and surprise nominee Naomi Watts (“St. Vincent”). “I had so much fun and the fact that it's being celebrated makes me feel brave enough to keep looking for comedic work,” she says of “Birdman's” success.

4:38 – Adrien Brody chatting it up re: his work in “Houdini,” as well as Wes Anderson and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” It's very possible the film snags that ensemble prize tonight and sends the season into an even. And then Maggie Gyllenhaal interview bombs!

4:47 – Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Debbie Reynolds isn't walking the red carpet, alas. So here's this:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2vWQSgR8H0]

4:50 – By the way, the Stunt Ensemble awards have been announced. Congratulations to “Game of Thrones” and “Unbroken.” Apologies for not being important enough, apparently, to be televised.

4:57 – Lots of Aniston chatter. “Red carpet body” and such. Let's get to this show…

5:04 – I would have said Jennifer Aniston wins the “I'm an actor” bit but then Zach G. stole her thunder.

5:07 – First award of the night is Female Actor in a Comedy Series. And the Actor goes to… Uzo Aduba for “Orange is the New Black.” Pretty lovely moment for her given that she just got finished telling us she got her SAG card for this show. Off to the races.

5:12 – Moving right along, Male Actor in a Comedy Series is up next. And the Actor goes to… William H. Macy for “Shameless.” It's his first trip back to the SAG stage in over a decade. I confess, I don't watch this show. There's too much (good) TV out there to keep up. But who doesn't like seeing Bill Macy get some hardware. “I've written so many great acceptance speeches that I never got to give,” he says. “To my fellow nominees…oh forget it. You lost.” Nice shout out to his co-stars. “I'm not sure why you're not nominated.”

5:17 – Oh, that's right. They get the comedy categories over with quickly don't they? On to Ensemble in a Comedy Series. And the Actor goes to… The Cast of “Orange is the New Black.” Cruising lately. And I think we're all just happy to see “Modern Family” bow out for a change. And also, how awesome that the stage was just PACKED with women for that victory.

Keep the fun going on the next page…

5:23 – Oh hi Colin Farrell.

5:26 – First film award of the evening: Female Actor in a Supporting Role. This has been Arquette's for the majority of the season, so let's see. And the Actor goes to… Patricia Arquette for “Boyhood.” What else can you say? Deserved. She's very caught up in the moment, emotional every step of the way this season, which is surely why she leans on written speeches so often. A fourth generation actor. Wow.

5:31 – Reese Witherspoon takes the stage to present Male Actor in a Supporting Role. Interesting how the Robert Duvall and Ethan Hawke clips sort of mirror each other in a certain way. Anyway, the Actor goes to… J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash.” But of course. Here is a guy who worked in the trenches, a real rank-and-file type. How do you not vote for J.K. Simmons if you're an actor. Richly deserved. Now let's see if he drags on the speech.

5:33 – “I feel like all of us actors are supporting actors, whether it's Miles Teller, who is in every scene of the movie — think about it…each of us is not only supporting the story, each of us is crucial to the story,” he says. “Because if there's one false moment, the train goes off the rails.” Nice touch in support of his co-star there. And a great little speech overall.

5:38 – Hey everyone! It's Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o, last year's Oscar winners in the supporting categories. Stoke that “are they or aren't they” fire, guys. Anyway, they're here to present Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. Gotta be Billy Bob, right? And the Actor goes to… Nope! Mark Ruffalo for “The Normal Heart.” One of his two nominations on the evening (the other for “Foxcatcher”). Bravo! But he's a no-show. Ah well.

5:46 – SAG seizing the moment with a montage dedicated to diversity. (I think. Lots of other…stuff…in there.) Followed up by presentation of the “Imitation Game” clip package. Nice segue.

5:50 – J.K. back with Viola Davis to present the award for Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. And the Actor goes to… Frances McDormand for “Olive Kitteridge.” She hasn't been on SAG's stage since she won for “Fargo.”

5:57 – “The Theory of Everything” stars Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne are out here to present a clip from the film. One wonders if Redmayne could unseat Keaton tonight. We shall see. He's certainly worked it and charmed the pants off the circuit. So, too, has Keaton, in his own way.

6:00 – Princess Leia alert! Carrie Fisher is here to present the Life Achievement Award to Debbie Reynolds. Who is, by the way, her mom. Aw.

6:09 – Sorry, just listening, respecting. You gotta love Debbie Reynolds. Bow. When I think of the most iconic movie moment, by the way, I think of this.

6:15 – And now we're on to Male Actor in a Drama Series. Who presented? I missed it. Anyway, the Actor goes to… Kevin Spacey for “House of Cards.” Who isn't there. WTF with the constant shunning of Matthew McConaughy in “True Detective?” Everyone get fatigue from last year? Big bummer, man, and I love Spacey/”House of Cards.”

6:21 – Cruising along. Female Actor in a Drama Series now. And the actor goes to… Viola Davis for “How to Get Away with Murder.” I need to see this show. Sorry, again, for the ignorance on that score. And by the way, how dynamite does Davis look tonight? Love the hair. “Thank you to all the people who love me exactly as God made me,” she says.

6:24 – In Memoriam. :(

6:33 – Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg here to present Ensemble in a Drama Series. We're drawing to a close here. And the Actor goes to… The Cast of “Downton Abbey”

6:38 – Oh boy. Julia Roberts is here to present Male Actor in a Leading Role to keep the film categories going. Oh boy. Oh boy. Reminded of how bummed I was for Jake Gyllenhaal to miss the Oscar nod. And the Actor goes to… Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything.”

6:40 – Again, Redmayne has really worked it all year. I'm happy for him to get this boost when he's still in the early stages of his career. I'd really like to have seen Michael Keaton get that, though. And I frankly thought Keaton had a better shot at SAG than Oscar. So one has to wonder how wide open this one is now, if indeed at all. Redmayne has the drama Globe and now the SAG Award.

6:47 – Alright, here's Matthew McConaughey and his beard to present Female Actor in a Leading Role. And the Actor goes to… Julianne Moore for “Still Alice.” Cruising.

6:52 – OK, let's put a bow on this. Kevin Costner out to present Cast in a Motion Picture. Why to they eschew “ensemble” for this one? Anyway, moment of truth. And the Actor goes to… The Cast of “Birdman.” At least Keaton gets a trophy tonight. (Sorry to play favorites.)

The Screen Actors Guild handed out the 21st annual SAG Awards Sunday night live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Here is a rundown of all the nominees and winners as they are announced. And be sure to re-live our live blog of the show here!

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
STEVE CARELL / John du Pont – “FOXCATCHER” (Sony Pictures Classics)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing – “THE IMITATION GAME” (The Weinstein Company)
JAKE GYLLENHAAL / Louis Bloom – “NIGHTCRAWLER” (Open Road Films)
MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan – “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
**EDDIE REDMAYNE / Stephen Hawking – “THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” (Focus Features)** – WINNER

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
JENNIFER ANISTON / Claire Bennett – “CAKE” (Cinelou Films)
FELICITY JONES / Jane Hawking – “THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” (Focus Features)
**JULIANNE MOORE / Alice Howland-Jones – “STILL ALICE” (Sony Pictures Classics)** – WINNER
ROSAMUND PIKE / Amy Dunne – “GONE GIRL” (20th Century Fox)
REESE WITHERSPOON / Cheryl Strayed – “WILD” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
ROBERT DUVALL / Joseph Palmer – “THE JUDGE” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
ETHAN HAWKE / Mason, Sr. – “BOYHOOD” (IFC Films)
EDWARD NORTON / Mike – “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
MARK RUFFALO / Dave Schultz – “FOXCATCHER” (Sony Pictures Classics)
**J.K. SIMMONS / Fletcher – “WHIPLASH” (Sony Pictures Classics)** – WINNER

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
**PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Olivia – “BOYHOOD” (IFC Films)** – WINNER
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY / Joan Clarke – “THE IMITATION GAME” (The Weinstein Company)
EMMA STONE / Sam – “BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
MERYL STREEP / The Witch – “INTO THE WOODS” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
NAOMI WATTS / Daka – “ST. VINCENT” (The Weinstein Company)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
**”BIRDMAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)** – WINNER
ZACH GALIFIANAKIS / Jake
MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan
EDWARD NORTON / Mike
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH / Laura
AMY RYAN / Sylvia
EMMA STONE / Sam
NAOMI WATTS / Lesley

“BOYHOOD” (IFC Films)
PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Olivia
ELLAR COLTRANE / Mason
ETHAN HAWKE / Mason, Sr.
LORELEI LINKLATER / Samantha

“THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
F. MURRAY ABRAHAM / Mr. Moustafa
MATHIEU AMALRIC / Serge X.
ADRIEN BRODY / Dmitri
WILLEM DAFOE / Jopling
RALPH FIENNES / M. Gustave
JEFF GOLDBLUM / Dep. Kovacs
HARVEY KEITEL / Ludwig
JUDE LAW / Young Writer
BILL MURRAY / M. Ivan
EDWARD NORTON / Henckels
TONY REVOLORI / Zero
SAOIRSE RONAN / Agatha
JASON SCHWARTZMAN / M. Jean
LÉA SEYDOUX / Clotilde
TILDA SWINTON / Madame D
TOM WILKINSON / Author
OWEN WILSON / M. Chuck

“THE IMITATION GAME” (The Weinstein Company)
MATTHEW BEARD / Peter Hilton
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing
CHARLES DANCE / Commander Denniston
MATTHEW GOODE / Hugh Alexander
RORY KINNEAR / Nock
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY / Joan Clarke
ALLEN LEECH / John Cairncross
MARK STRONG / Stewart Menzies

“THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” (Focus Features)
CHARLIE COX / Jonathan Hellyer Jones
FELICITY JONES / Jane Hawking
SIMON McBURNEY / Frank Hawking
EDDIE REDMAYNE / Stephen Hawking
DAVID THEWLIS / Dennis Sciama
EMILY WATSON / Beryl Wilde

TELEVISION PROGRAMS

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
ADRIEN BRODY / Harry Houdini  – “HOUDINI” (History)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Sherlock Holmes – “SHERLOCK: HIS LAST VOW” (PBS)
RICHARD JENKINS / Henry Kitteridge – “OLIVE KITTERIDGE” (HBO)
**MARK RUFFALO / Ned Weeks – “THE NORMAL HEART” (HBO)** – WINNER
BILLY BOB THORNTON / Lorne Malvo – “FARGO” (FX)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
ELLEN BURSTYN / Olivia Foxworth – “FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC” (Lifetime)
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL / Nessa Stein – “THE HONORABLE WOMAN” (Sundance TV)
**FRANCES McDORMAND / Olive Kitteridge – “OLIVE KITTERIDGE” (HBO)** – WINNER
JULIA ROBERTS / Dr. Emma Brookner – “THE NORMAL HEART” (HBO)
CICELY TYSON / Carrie Watts – “THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL” (Lifetime)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson – “BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister – “GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)
WOODY HARRELSON / Martin Hart – “TRUE DETECTIVE” (HBO)
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY / Rust Cohle – “TRUE DETECTIVE” (HBO)
**KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)** – WINNER

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison – “HOMELAND” (Showtime)
**VIOLA DAVIS / Annalise Keating – “HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER” (ABC)** – WINNER
JULIANNA MARGULIES / Alicia Florrick – “THE GOOD WIFE” (CBS)
TATIANA MASLANY / Sarah/Coxima/Alison/Rachel/Helena/Tony/Jennifer and Various Others – “ORPHAN BLACK” (BBC America)              
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham – “DOWNTON ABBEY” (PBS)
ROBIN WRIGHT / Claire Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY ” (ABC)
LOUIS C.K. / Louie – “LOUIE” (FX)
**WILLIAM H. MACY / Frank Gallagher – “SHAMELESS” (Showtime)** – WINNER
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper – “THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
**UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren – “ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” (Netflix)** – WINNER
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)
EDIE FALCO / Jackie Peyton – “NURSE JACKIE” (Showtime)
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)
AMY POEHLER / Leslie Knope – “PARKS AND RECREATION” (NBC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
“BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson
PAUL CALDERON / Arquimedes
NICHOLAS CALHOUN / Sean
LOUIS CANCELMI / Mike D'Angelo
JOHN ELLISON CONLEE / Commodore
MICHAEL COUNTRYMAN / Frank Wilson
STEPHEN GRAHAM / Al Capone
DOMENICK LOMBARDOZZI / Ralph Capone
NOLAN LYONS / Enoch Thompson (young)
KELLY MACDONALD / Margaret Thompson
BORIS McGIVER / Sheriff Smith Johnson
VINCENT PIAZZA / Charlie “Lucky” Luciano
PAUL SPARKS / Mickey Doyle
TRAVIS TOPE / Joe Hardy
SHEA WHIGHAM / Eli Thompson
ANATOL YUSEF / Meyer Lansky
MICHAEL ZEGEN / Benny Siegel

**”DOWNTON ABBEY” (PBS)** – WINNER
HUGH BONNEVILLE / Robert, Earl of Grantham
LAURA CARMICHAEL / Lady Edith Crawley
JIM CARTER / Mr. Carson
BRENDAN COYLE / Mr. Bates
MICHELLE DOCKERY / Lady Mary Crawley
KEVIN DOYLE /  Mr. Molesley
JOANNE FROGGATT / Anna Bates
LILY JAMES / Lady Rose
ROBERT JAMES-COLLIER / Thomas Barrow
ALLEN LEECH / Tom Branson
PHYLLIS LOGAN / Mrs. Hughes
ELIZABETH McGOVERN / Cora, Countess of Grantham
SOPHIE McSHERA / Daisy
MATT MILNE / Alfred
LESLEY NICOL / Mrs. Patmore
DAVID ROBB / Dr. Clarkson
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham
ED SPELEERS / Jimmy Kent
CARA THEOBOLD / Ivy
PENELOPE WILTON / Isobel Crawley

“GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)
JOSEF ALTIN / Pyp
JACOB ANDERSON / Grey Worm
JOHN BRADLEY / Samwell Tarly
DOMINIC CARTER / Janos Slynt
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE / Brienne of Tarth
EMILIA CLARKE / Daenerys Targaryen
NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU / Jaime Lannister
BEN CROMPTON / Dolorous Edd
CHARLES DANCE / Tywin Lannister
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister
NATALIE DORMER / Margaery Tyrell
NATHALIE EMMANUEL / Missandei
IAIN GLEN / Ser Jorah Mormont
JULIAN GLOVER / Pycelle
KIT HARINGTON / Jon Snow
LENA HEADEY / Cersei Lannister
CONLETH HILL / Varys
RORY McCANN / Sandor “The Hound” Clegane
IAN McELHINNEY / Ser Barristan Selmy
PEDRO PASCAL / Oberyn Martell
DANIEL PORTMAN / Podrick Payne
MARK STANLEY / Grenn
SOPHIE TURNER / Sansa Stark
MAISIE WILLIAMS / Arya Stark

“HOMELAND” (Showtime)
NUMAN ACAR / Hassan Haqqani
NAZANIN BONIADI / Fara Sherazi
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison
RUPERT FRIEND / Peter Quinn
RAZA JAFFREY / Aasar Khan
NIMRAT KAUR / Tasneem Qureishi
TRACY LETTS / Sen. Andrew Lockhart
MARK MOSES / Dennis Boyd
MICHAEL O'KEEFE / John Redmond
MANDY PATINKIN / Saul Berenson
LAILA ROBINS / Martha Boyd
MAURY STERLING / Max

“HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)
MAHERSHALA ALI / Remy Danton
JAYNE ATKINSON / Catherine Durant
RACHEL BROSNAHAN / Rachel Posner
DEREK CECIL / Seth Grayson
NATHAN DARROW / Edward Meechum
MICHEL GILL / President Walker
JOANNA GOING / Tricia Walker
SAKINA JAFFREY / Linda Vasquez
MICHAEL KELLY / Doug Stamper
MOZHAN MARNÒ / Ayla Sayyad
GERALD McRANEY / Raymond Tusk
MOLLY PARKER / Jackie Sharp
JIMMI SIMPSON / Gavin Orsay
KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood
ROBIN WRIGHT / Claire Underwood

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
“THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)
MAYIM BIALIK / Amy Farrah Fowler
KALEY CUOCO-SWEETING / Penny
JOHNNY GALECKI / Leonard Hofstadter
SIMON HELBERG / Howard Wolowitz
KUNAL NAYYAR / Rajesh Koothrappali
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper
MELISSA RAUCH / Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

“BROOKLYN NINE-NINE” (FOX)
STEPHANIE BEATRIZ /  Det. Rosa Diaz
DIRK BLOCKER / Hitchcock
ANDRE BRAUGHER / Capt. Ray Holt
TERRY CREWS / Sgt. Terry Jeffords
MELISSA FUMERO / Det. Amy Santiago
JOE LO TRUGLIO / Det. Charles Boyle
JOEL McKINNON MILLER / Scully
CHELSEA PERETTI / Gina Linetti
ANDY SAMBERG / Det. Jake Peralta

“MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)
AUBREY ANDERSON EMMONS / Lily Tucker-Pritchett
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O”NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

**”ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” (Netflix)** – WINNER
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren
JASON BIGGS / Larry Bloom
DANIELLE BROOKS / Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson
LAVERNE COX / Sophia Burset
JACKIE CRUZ / Flaca
CATHERINE CURTIN / Wanda Bell
LEA DELARIA / Carrie “Big Boo” Black
BETH FOWLER / Sister Ingalls
YVETTE FREEMAN / Irma
GERMAR TERRELL GARDNER / Charles Ford
KIMIKO GLENN / Brook Soso
ANNIE GOLDEN / Norma Romano
DIANE GUERRERO / Maritza Ramos
MICHAEL J. HARNEY / Ofc. Sam Healy
VICKY JEUDY / Janae Watson
JULIE LAKE / Angie Rice
LAUREN LAPKUS / Susan Fischer
SELENIS LEYVA / Gloria Mendoza
NATASHA LYONNE / Nicky Nichols
TARYN MANNING / Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett
JOEL MARSH GARLAND / Scott O'Neill
MATT McGORRY / Ofc. John Bennett
ADRIENNE C. MOORE / Black Cindy
KATE MULGREW /  Galina “Red” Reznikov
EMMA MYLES / Leanne Taylor
JESSICA PIMENTEL / Maria Ruiz
DASCHA POLANCO / Dayanara Diaz
ALYSIA REINER / Natalie “Fig” Figueroa
JUDITH ROBERTS / Taslitz
ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ / Aleida Diaz
BARBARA ROSENBLAT / Miss Rosa
NICK SANDOW / Joe Caputo
ABIGAIL SAVAGE / Gina
TAYLOR SCHILLING / Piper Chapman
CONSTANCE SHULMAN / Yoga Jones
DALE SOULES / Frieda
YAEL STONE / Lorna Morello
LORRAINE TOUSSAINT / Yvonne “Vee” Parker
LIN TUCCI / Anita DeMarco
SAMIRA WILEY / Poussey Washington

“VEEP” (HBO)
SUFE BRADSHAW / Sue Wilson
ANNA CHLUMSKY / Amy Brookheimer
GARY COLE / Kent Davidson
KEVIN DUNN / Ben Cafferty
TONY HALE / Gary Walsh
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer
REID SCOTT / Dan Egan
TIMOTHY SIMONS / Jonah Ryan
MATT WALSH / Mike McLintock

STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
“FURY” (Columbia Pictures)
“GET ON UP” (Universal Pictures)
“THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
**”UNBROKEN” (Universal Pictures)** – WINNER
“X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST” (20th Century Fox)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series
“24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY” (FOX)
“BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)
**”GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)** – WINNER
“HOMELAND” (Showtime)
“SONS OF ANARCHY” (FX)
“THE WALKING DEAD” (AMC)

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Screen Actors Guild 51st Annual Life Achievement Award
DEBBIE REYNOLDS

PARK CITY – No one needs to worry about Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig experiencing a sophomore slump. After collaborating behind the camera for 2012's “Frances Ha,” the duo have reunited for “Mistress America,” a hilarious new comedy that premiered Saturday evening at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. And yes, for those who care, this one is in color.

While Gerwig also plays a main character on screen, the movie is actually told from the point of view of Tracy (Lola Kirke from “Gone Girl” and “Mozart in the Jungle”), a freshman writing major at Bard College who is having those familiar first semester problems of fitting in and making friends. She does find one ally in Tony (Matthew Shear) after they both fail to make it into the prestigious Mobius Literary Society. That joy is short-lived once Tony surprises her by finding a jealous girlfriend in the form of Nicolette (Jasmine Cephas-Jones). Seemingly alone once again in the big city, Tracy finally breaks down and takes her mom's advice to call her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke (Gerwig). Their parents are getting married to each other that Thanksgiving and Brooke might be able to help by showing her a less collegial side of living in the Big Apple.

Instantly, the 30-year-old Brooke is a whirlwind of energy and ideas that blows Tracy away. Brooke has a slew of jobs including SoulCycle class instructor and student tutor, but she's there and everywhere else all at once. Her dream is to open a restaurant space she plans on calling “Moms” (intentionally without the possessive, mind you). Of course, a majority of the financing for it is from her mysterious boyfriend Stavros, who is currently living in Greece (but more on that later). Brooke seems to suffer from creative ADD, jumping from one subject matter to another, and is full of opinions and unsolicited advice Tracy can barely process at first. After a few magical days and nights of new adventures, Tracy is inspired to write a new submission to Mobius entitled “Mistress America” and you can easily figure out who inspired it.

While Tracy's road is finally getting brighter, disaster strikes for Brooke, who suddenly doesn't seem as “with it” as first impressions indicated. It all starts to go wrong when Stavros drops out as her primary investor, leaving her with just the weekend to come up with a $45,000 payment to save her new business. Things get worse when she returns home, with Tracy embarrassingly in tow, to find that the landlord has changed the locks on her apartment (it isn't explicitly stated she didn't make the rent, but that appears to be the case). Desperate, Tracy helps convince Brooke to go visit her former best friend (Heather Lind) and one-time boyfriend Dylan (Michael Chernus) in Greenwich, Connecticut to replace Stavros' share. Why would they do this? Well, according to Brooke, her best friend stole her idea for a T-shirt that she sold to J. Crew for a boatload of cash and then proceeded to steal Dylan away from her as well. Basically, they owe her something, right?

Before anyone can really think that out to a logical conclusion, Tracy has convinced Tony to drive a car-less Brooke out of town for this last-ditch effort and they're quickly on the road (with a sneering Nicolette tagging along, too). When they reach Dylan's mansion, a comic set piece of almost non-stop zingers and comedic banter ensues that's hard to describe without spoiling a lot of the fun. Secrets are revealed, characters make major life choices and the plot goes in a somewhat unexpected direction.

Baumbach has cast a wonderfully talented group of up-and-coming actors around Gerwig and Kirke, but it's the screenplay and the leads' incredible chemistry that makes it all so entertaining. There are so many one-liners that you miss because the previous line of dialogue is just as smart and laugh-inducing. In particular, the major Greenwich set piece feels like it's plucked out of a Whit Stillman movie (Gerwig starred in Stillman's 2011 comeback “Damsels in Distress”), and yet, somehow the movie also has an energy that feels as though it's completely missing from independent comedy these days. 

Baumbach has already earned some critical accolades for “While We're Young,” which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September, but it's nowhere near as fresh as what he's created in “Mistress America” with Gerwig. Then again, two Baumbach movies in one year? We should simply count our blessings and pray for more.

“Mistress America” was picked up by Fox Searchlight before its Sundance premiere but there is currently no release date for it at this time.  It is, however, expected to hit theaters sometime this calendar year.

Other Sundance reviews:
“Summer of Sangaile”
“The Bronze”
“The End of the Tour”
“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”
“The D Train”
“Z for Zachariah”
“True Story”
“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910168586001

PARK CITY – The Sundance Film Festival has transformed the careers of many actors over the years. Parker Posey, Mo'Nique, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jesse Eisenberg, Miles Teller, Amy Adams and Vera Farminga are just a few who had their lives changed after a phenomenal performance shook the festival faithful. Today, another name should be added to that list: Bel Powley. The 22-year-old Brit has her coming out party in Marielle Heller's directorial debut, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which premiered Saturday at the 2015 edition of the festival.

Based on Phoebe Cloeckner's 2002 novel “The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures,” the coming-of-age drama centers on Minnie (Powley), a young woman coming of age in the liberated environs of 1970s San Francisco. And from the opening shot we learn that there is one thing on Minnie's mind: sex. Living with her somewhat “loose” mom Charlotte (a fantastic Kristen Wiig) and younger sister Gretel (Abby Wait), Minnie is a fledgling cartoonist who has a very funny perspective on life and love during her teenage years. Early on we also learn she has something of a crush on her mother's boyfriend Monroe (a wonderfully engaged Alexander Skarsgård). After accompanying him out on the town one evening (at her mom's suggestion, no less), she professes her desire to have him bang her. Before you know it the duo are engaged in a secret affair, which finds Minnie increasingly attached to a man who realizes this is something he really shouldn't be doing (even in this freewheeling age). This experience opens a new door for Minnie, however, and she begins to explore her sexuality in some ways you'd expect (she hooks up with the good looking rich kid from school) and others you wouldn't (she and her best friend pretend to be hookers and suck off two guys in a bar bathroom for money). This is clearly not after-school special material.

What's so refreshing about “Diary” isn't necessarily the storyline or its “shocking” moments. The film's tone and use of humor pretty much tells us that Minnie is going to grow from these events and learn some lessons along the way. What makes “Diary” transcend the genre is the combination of Heller's inspired vision and some truly standout performances. With a slight nod to “American Splendor” (noted cartoonist Aline Kominsky is part of a minor storyline), Heller uses animation in Cloeckner's own style to highlight Minnie's emotions and imagination. It's often lyrical, funny and just plain beautiful.

The other reason “Diary” is so special is Powley's transformative work. In the wrong hands Minnie could have come across as manipulative or grating. Instead, even though she's going down avenues that would be shocking for many of us, we root for her. We want Minnie to come to her own conclusions about Monroe and how much experimenting is too much experimenting. We want her to become empowered as an artist and to have a real relationship with her mother. For all of Heller's impressive direction, she could have delivered something soulless without Powley's contributions.  

And, once again, Sundance delivers a star upon the world.

Other Sundance reviews:
“Summer of Sangaile”
“The Bronze”
“The End of the Tour”
“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”
“The D Train”
“Z for Zachariah”
“True Story”

Ever since “The Hurt Locker” triumphed over “Avatar” at the 2010 Producers Guild Awards, it has been rather obvious to me that this precursor announcement is the skeleton key to understanding how the Oscar vote will likely play out. Why? Because – as we've noted a number of times – the PGA is the only group that shares the preferential ballot system the Academy employs. So what won this year? “Birdman” won, that's what. And for those who were chalking this up as a boring, telegraphed Oscar season…

So, what does this mean for the rest of the season? It means, clearly, “Birdman” could well be poised to take the Best Picture Oscar next month. I, for one, thought “The Imitation Game” would be the one to unseat “Boyhood” this evening and assert itself as the industry favorite. I even thought “American Sniper” had an outside shot. I wasn't looking at “Birdman,” though, and personally, I'm elated. As far as observing a season goes, I'm a touch confused.

But maybe I shouldn't be. Is it just preordained because of how the preferential ballot will play itself out from here? Or will this be the year that breaks the PGA's streak? “Birdman” is already strong going into tomorrow's Screen Actors Guild Awards, and should it take the ensemble prize there (odds on favorite), watch out!

For now, let's reset. I imagine Monday's Oscar column will not want for material. Other bits and bobs from tonight's awards include “Breaking Bad” winning, I believe, the last award the series is eligible for and Oscar snubees “Life Itself” and “The LEGO Movie” winning in their respective categories. But “Birdman,” y'all. Wow.

Check out the PGA nominees here, the full list of winners below and the rest of the season's offerings at The Circuit.

FILM

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Birdman” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
“The LEGO Movie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producer: Dan Lin

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Life Itself” (Magnolia Pictures)
Producers: Garrett Basch, Steve James, Zak Piper

TV winners and more on the next page…

TELEVISION

Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television
“Fargo” (FX)
Producers: Adam Bernstein, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Michael Frislev, Noah Hawley, Warren Littlefield, Chad Oakes, Kim Todd

Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
“Breaking Bad” (AMC)
Producers: Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart Lyons, Michelle MacLaren, George Mastras, Diane Mercer, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett

Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy
“Orange Is The New Black” (Netflix)
Producers: Mark A. Burley, Sara Hess, Jenji Kohan, Gary Lennon, Neri Tannenbaum, Michael Trim, Lisa I. Vinnecour

Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
“COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey” (FOX/NatGeo)
Producers: Brannon Braga, Mitchell Cannold, Jason Clark, Ann Druyan, Livia Hanich, Steve Holtzman, Seth MacFarlane

Outstanding Producer of Competition Television
“The Voice” (NBC)
Producers: Stijn Bakkers, Mark Burnett, John De Mol, Chad Hines, Lee Metzger, Audrey Morrissey, Jim Roush, Kyra Thompson, Mike Yurchuk, Amanda Zucker

Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television
“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC)
Producers: Rob Crabbe, Jamie Granet Bederman, Katie Hockmeyer, Jim Juvonen, Josh Lieb, Brian McDonald, Lorne Michaels, Gavin Purcell

Outstanding Sports Program
“Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (HBO)

Outstanding Children”s Program
“Sesame Street” (PBS)

Outstanding Digital Series
“Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” (http://www.crackle.com/c/comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee)

Stanley Kramer Award
“The Normal Heart”

Milestone Award
Jon Feltheimer

Norman Lear Achievement in Television Award
Mark Gordon

David O. Selznick Award
Gale Anne Hurd

Visionary Award
Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner)

PARK CITY – There is a moment in Rupert Goold's “True Story” that is truly captivating. After watching her husband be manipulated from afar, Jill Finkel (played marvelously by Felicity Jones), goes to meet accused murderer Christian Longo (James Franco) at the county jail where he's incarcerated. In less than five minutes Jill uses the tale of 16th century composer Carlo Gesualdo, who murdered his wife and baby in cold blood, to unmask Longo as the killer she knows he is and to make it clear his charade will only get so far as long as she's around. It's a moment that demonstrates how talented the current Oscar nominee for Best Actress is in what has been a thankless role up until his point in the film. It also underlines how frustrating a film “True Story” is that the best scene in the movie doesn't include star Jonah Hill and barely involves Franco.

Based on the memoir by Michael Finkel, “True Story” starts by depicting the circumstances that led to the dismissal of once famed reporter Finkel (Hill) from the venerable New York Times. Disgraced and unable to find work, Finkel gets a random call from an Oregon newspaper reporter who informs him that Longo had used Finkel's name as an alias while on the run in Mexico. Intrigued by Longo's case, he writes Longo a letter hoping to sit down and get his story. Longo, who admits to being a huge fan of Finkel's writing, agrees and the duo begin regular meetings where the reporter agrees to teach the inmate how to become a better writer if he tells him the true story of what really happened to his family.

Longo, who maintained his innocence until after being sent to death row, was convicted of murdering his wife and three children in December of 2001. The film doesn't really cast any doubt that Longo is guilty. What Goold is more interested in is discovering why these two men would even correspond with each other. The film insinuates that Longo provides some details for Finkel's eventual memoir “True Story,” but doesn't do a good job of conveying why they fascinate each other. There is a stark moment during Longo's testimony during the trial where he uses a line that Finkel had said to him in confidence to help sell his story of innocence to the jury. It's not an alibi, it's not some justification for his actions, but Goold plays it as some sort of epic betrayal and perhaps that's the biggest problem with “True Story” after all.

While Longo's actions were horrifying and his connection to Finkel is unique, Goold somehow can't make this material as interesting as you'd expect it to be. Longo is a charismatic manipulator in the same vein as some of the most famous killers in American history. That simply does not come across in the film and part of the problem is Franco. The 36-year-old actor didn't get the credit he deserved for his work in “The Interview,” but in “Story” he just isn't convincing. He has demonstrated on-screen charisma before, but in this case he's unable to portray the sly manipulator Longo had become. Strangely, he actually might have been a better choice to play Finkel.

While Hill might be slightly miscast as Finkel, he has one powerful scene at the end of the film where his dramatic acting skills shine through. For the most part, however, Finkel is portrayed as a desperate man almost obsessed with Longo as the one means to restore his tarnished reputation. Hill isn't responsible for the film's repetitive scenes focusing on this beat, but he isn't able to make us feel any sympathy for Finkel's personal plight.

Goold's directorial debut is assisted by some fine camerawork by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (“Out of the Furnace”) and stylish production designer Jeremy Bindle (“Zero Dark Thirty”). That being said, the editing choices seem arbitrarily odd at times. There is no doubt a compelling film is there to be mined from this material, but Goold couldn't find it.

“True Story” is currently scheduled for a limited release on April 10.

Other Sundance reviews:
“Summer of Sangaile”
“The Bronze”
“The End of the Tour”
“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”
“The D Train”

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910174565001

PARK CITY – The concept of “The D Train,” which premiered Friday at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, may sound somewhat familiar. An everyday family man who has never moved out of his hometown discovers the most popular guy in high school is now a successful actor in Hollywood. Our hero decides to go to Los Angeles to convince his idol to return for their high school reunion. If he comes back, said hero will finally be “the man” and earn some respect from his former schoolmates. Sure, it hasn't exactly been made before, but there are numerous elements in the premise you've no doubt seen over the past few decades on both the small and big screen. What makes “D Train” unique is the commitment from directors Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul to center the storyline around one outrageous moment and then completely ride it out to an even more jaw-dropping conclusion.  

[Spoiler alert: In order to adequately critique “D Train,” a major event that occurs in the second act will be discussed in this review. If you do not want this revealed, read no further.]

Meet Dan Landsman (Jack Black). This Pittsburgh area native has a wife who loves him (a fantastic Kathryn Hahn) and a teenage son who desperately wants to connect with him (Russell Posner), but Dan is strangely fixated on making his high school reunion his number one priority. He might be alienating everyone else on the alumni committee while doing so, but so be it. Dan is someone who just tries too hard. It can make his personality grating and, in many ways, Black is the perfect actor to play this sort of exaggerated character. One of the film's slight faults is that Dan almost becomes too much of a caricature, but Black does his best to pull back the reins during those borderline moments.

One night Dan recognizes a former classmate, Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), as the star of a TV commercial for Banana Boat sunscreen (if the film becomes buzzworthy, the company has seriously hit the jackpot in free publicity). With his fellow committee members basically laughing in his face, Dan concocts a plan to go to LA and convince Oliver to come to the reunion. If Oliver attends, more people will RSVP (they have had issues getting the class to commit) and Dan will finally be “the man” to all his peers. Taking advantage of his boss' faith in him, Dan uses company funds for the trip under the guise of setting up a major business deal. Once in Hollywood, he reaches out to Oliver and convinces him to go out for a drink where he'll make his pitch. That's where the movie takes a surprising turn.

It's important to note that none of the film's big moments could work without James Marsden portraying Oliver with just the right amount of legitimate cool and LA poser insecurity. As much as he's a success in Dan's eyes, he still lives in a small studio apartment and hasn't made it to the big time yet. Dan's idolization is almost a welcome respite from his actual position in the Hollywood pecking order. On the second night of Dan's stay they party like crazy. Drinking, cocaine, you name it. For Dan, this is the sort of adventure and acceptance he's only day-dreamed of. It's almost too good to be true. Eventually, the duo end up at Oliver's apartment where, much to the audience's surprise, Oliver seduces Dan and they hook up. It's funny not because it's two men having sex, but because Dan's character can't believe someone of Oliver's stature would actually be interested in him in this way. Of course, then there is a shot where Dan is on the receiving end of Oliver sexually. It's just one short image and it's simply hilarious.

The fact Mogel and Paul are able to get away with this without it being sold as a “disgusting” moment of man-on-man sex is quite remarkable. Yes, some viewers will sadly see it this way. In the context of the movie's storyline, however, this scene is important as it sends Dan into a personal tailspin. Not because of the act itself, but because of what it might mean. While Oliver had previously told Dan he “doesn't label himself,” neither man is explicitly gay. Still, Dan isn't sure how to handle all of this emotionally. When Oliver actually shows up for the reunion just a few weeks later, the filmmakers don't tip-toe around what could have been left as just one shocking scene in a more predictable storyline. Dan's increasing confusion on what to feel about his night with Oliver leads to a conclusion that is cringe-worthy only because you just can't believe how it's all, no pun intended, coming out.

Mogel and Paul have a lot they are trying to accomplish with “The D Train” and at times it really is too much. They even included a self-referential joke about how Dan's workplace storyline is probably unnecessary and the first half of the film is simply not as funny as you want it to be. That being said, Marsden's career-best turn and a superb third act really turn things around. And as nearly grating as Black's portrayal of Dan can be, by the end? You're pretty much cheering for him.

“The D Train” is currently looking for distribution, but by the time you read this it will likely already have a home and will soon be on its way to a theater near you.

Other Sundance reviews:
“Summer of Sangaile”
“The Bronze”
“The End of the Tour”
“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”

PARK CITY – Nikole Beckwith's new drama, “Stockholm, Pennsylvania,” which premiered Friday at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, asks a number of questions surrounding the provocative subject matter of child abductees. How would a young woman who has spent 17 of her 23 years captive in a basement adjust to living in the real world? And, more controversially, is this a better “life” than what she was experiencing before?

For Lea (Saoirse Ronan), returning to a family she has no memory of isn't just jarring, it's an alien experience. Beckwith begins by reintroducing Lea to her parents Marcy (Cynthia Nixon) and Glen (David Warshofsky), who are, understandably, overjoyed to see their only daughter after so many years. In an extended sequence set in the family living room, we immediately realize Lea – born Leanne – has no real understanding of what has happened to her, the outside world or how she should act in the company of these two relative “strangers.” She insists her birthday is the day her abductor, Ben (Jason Isaacs), chose for her and the reference that her abductee name is the same as a particular “Star Wars” princess goes completely over her head.

As the film goes on, Beckwith, who also wrote the screenplay, continues to reinforce how little Lea knows. She doesn't understand what a toaster is. She's never seen nor worn a bra before. A trip to the supermarket is like exploring the surface of Mars. But eventually, creating such a sheltered character becomes problematic for Beckwith. Lea, as you might suspect, has a strong psychological connection to Ben and seems to resent Marcy and Glen for removing her from him life. At one point, she travels to the prison where he's incarcerated and reconnects with him.

The movie has already made a number of leaps in logic up to this point, but it seems like an impossible feat for Lea to pull off considering she's never been on a bus (or perhaps even knows what one is) or that huge red flags would go off from the prison officials who would no doubt know the identity of a woman who has been the center of national news of this sort. In a Q&A following the screening, Beckwith said she saw Lea as very intelligent, but how could she make such jumps with little knowledge of the outside world? Keep in mind, later on we witness Lea experiencing rain falling on her face and hands for the first time (we'll assume she heard storms outside her basement “home”). That's how sheltered she's been, and yet, she made the aforementioned journey without a hitch. Things get even dicier when the movie has an abrupt tonal change that makes the proceedings feel more like a horror flick than a psychological drama.

This isn't a critic trying to be unfairly tough on a new filmmaker. These are obvious gasps of logic that stand out considering how much detail has been allotted to strategizing how Lea would evolve in this world. Beckwith wants us to consider whether the assumed best case scenario is truly the best environment for someone who has been raised in a considerably unorthodox way. Her goal is clearly to show the difficulties of recovery for an abductee who didn't want to be rescued.  

As for the performances, Ronan expertly sells Lea's stoic indifference to her new surroundings, but isn't provided enough material to make us sympathetic for her particular plight. Nixon has the difficult task of playing a mother who's euphoric joy upon the return of her long lost daughter is severely tested just days into their reunion. The Emmy and Tony Award-winner deserves some kudos, however, for not allowing her character to descend into over-the-top dramatics. Unfortunately, Beckwith's screenplay simply makes it hard to understand how Marcy could become so desperate so soon.

Isaacs plays Ben without any hint of creepiness, which will no doubt make some viewers uncomfortable. Beckwith barely hints that there could have been anything sexual between Ben and Lea, and Isaac doesn't shadow his performance to suggest anything, either. His abductor isn't necessarily a sympathetic figure, but there is almost no judgement regarding his actions.

Noteworthy: Rosalind Chao gives the film a needed breath of fresh air as Dr. Andrews, the court-appointed counselor for Lea.

Beyond the logistics of the screenplay, Beckwith makes some stylistic choices that hinder the story's cinematic opportunities. Often, Lea will daydream about her time with Ben while in the middle of a conversation with Dr. Andrews or her mother. Beckwith stages this so half the set is the contemporary scene and the other half Lea is watching is the flashback being played out in front of her. Its a very theatrical technique that makes a film which primarily takes place in one home feel even more like a play than it should.  

During the aforementioned post-premiere Q&A Beckwith also revealed that she originally conceived of “Stockholm” as a theater piece, but then changed it to a screenplay halfway through. Her original instinct may have better served the material.

Other Sundance reviews:
“Summer of Sangaile”
“The Bronze”

A handful of people ended up with multiple Oscar nominations this year, and a number of them are names you've heard. Alejandro G. Iñárritu, for instance, was nominated for producing, directing and writing “Birdman.” Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater picked up the same trio for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Boyhood” respectively, while Anthony McCarten double dipped for producing and writing “The Theory of Everything.” And of course the prolific composer Alexandre Desplat was nominated for his work on both “Grand Budapest” and “The Imitation Game.” Set decorator Anna Pinnock also picked up two for her work on “Grand Budapest” and “Into the Woods,” but a pair of sound mixers made the cut for two entirely different projects and stood out as a particularly interesting trivia nugget this year: Jon Taylor and Frank A. Montaño.

Industry mixers are typically set up at one studio or another, and in Taylor and Montaño's case, Universal is home. So they were tasked with bringing the sonic environment of Angelina Jolie's “Unbroken” to life. With its multiple environments, it's really a bunch of movies in one: a war movie, a lost-at-sea movie, a prison movie, etc. Meanwhile, Taylor's relationship with Iñárritu meant he got the call for “Birdman,” and he brought his Universal partner along for the ride in what was, ultimately, a complete about face from “Unbroken.” At the end of the day, Taylor picked up his first two Oscar nominations to date for the projects, while Montaño – last recognized with a “surprise” nod for 2008's “Wanted” – landed numbers six and seven.

I spoke to both recently about their work on the two films and the drastic differences in their separate worlds. You can read through the back and forth below. (It's a long one, but super informative.)

“Birdman” hits DVD/Blu-ray Feb. 17. “Unbroken” is now playing in theaters.

***

HitFix: First off, congratulations to both of you. Two nominations for two very different films.

Jon Taylor: We fooled 'em twice!

[Laughs.] Well with Unbroken, it's an interesting project because it's kind of multiple films. It's a war movie, it's a water movie, which is obviously mana for sound guys, and you get the prison movie aspect. So when you saw that this was what you were going to do, is that what came to your mind, that this was going to be a heavily involved, multi-tiered thing?

Jon Taylor: Seeing the film for the first time as a first cut, definitely, I was thinking about it being three different movies as you said. Which is exciting for sound people. I mean your canvas is changing so therefore your color palette changes.

And before really diving in here, Jon, you are dialogue and Frank is effects, correct?

Jon Taylor: You are correct.

So, with the war movie aspect of it, how did you get into truthfully depicting this kind of sonic environment, looking at like what the sounds of these missile bursts and stuff would have been like on the plane and things like that? How did you go about researching it?

Frank A. Montaño: I guess I will speak on that. None of us have actually been in that environment so obviously everything's replicated and sweetened and manipulated to fit picture. But through that sequence, which was interesting after watching it several times through, you have this onslaught of Japanese Zeros attacking Louis' and crews' E-24 Liberator and all this mayhem ensues during this bombing raid. What we'd come to find, working through it time and time again, is that Louis himself was actually the caretaker of the crew. He never fired a weapon; he was moving throughout the plane, going into the underbelly, trying to close the cargo doors, being exposed to the elements and to the enemy, and then coming back helping fellow crew members that needed his aid throughout that whole sequence. You look at it as a war sequence, but the root of it is Louis' spirit through the film.

Sonically we want to make it as immersive as possible, to put the audience in harm's way as Louis truly was and the crew was. So just being able to open up the spaces and pan and move things around [to hear what] you didn't see was quite effective. And then obviously the low frequency information. So we tried really not to hurt anybody, keep the sound pressure up but manage the frequencies to not turn anybody off or make it too loud or uncomfortable. But we wanted to make it threatening and just on the edge of being unbearable. So that was the goal, and obviously clearing dialogue lines. And there was no music in the sequence, Kris, as you probably noticed. So it really allowed us to take liberties in a lot of the movement, interior-to-exterior overheads, etc.

Jon Taylor: And at the same time as Frankie said, also it's just keeping Louis – keeping it pointed toward Louie. So his dialogue – I mean it was all clear, just subtly, just so we could stay with him. And that was something that we sort of recognized a little bit into the film, was how important it was to actually stay with Louis through that scene so to hear his dialogue clear.

How did things change for you when it got to the stranded-in-the-ocean portion of the movie, which is a long stretch actually? Things like that really depend as much on what you hear as what you see, I think, as an audience member. So how did you approach that?

Jon Taylor: It's a really good question. I'll speak first, even though it really was all up to Frankie to keep it going. But the production in that scene was unfortunately in four little dialogue pieces that we were able to salvage. Other than that it was all ADR [automated dialogue replacement] that Becky Sullivan had to go shoot around the world in all these different places. We got – I don't want to say lucky, but we were so blessed to have great actors. These guys pulled off incredible performances in these booths re-creating themselves being stranded in the ocean. So that's where it started. I mean the whole thing, keeping it interesting with nice clear dialogue that wasn't cluttered by extraneous ambient noises that were there in production. That really made a difference. So the dynamics were there sonically and frequency-wise. we pretty much had that going for us and then Frankie took over.

Frank A. Montaño: Which is always bad news for the audience!

Jon Taylor: [Laughs.]

Frank A. Montaño: You know what, Eric Norris did a great job, man, on tracking. We had a discussion with sound editorial, after seeing the film, of what I was really trying to create. Again, the mix was originally 7.1, the original final mix was 7.1. So I really wanted to get depth of field with atmospheres, because like you say, it's kind of one-note, obviously, minus the rain sequences and/or the storm. So we really wanted to make it not too cutty, but shift enough from high shots to low shots in and out of the raft, underwater, etc., just keep it interesting, keep it moving without really being noticed, try to keep it transparent so that when things did dynamically come into play, there was a large difference. But it was a great job done with the Foley, with the raft, the movement, etc., really to set that connective tissue in so that the dialogue, the ADR, had something to actually lay over and blend into throughout that whole sequence with the water laps and the winds, moving things around just to kind of keep it interesting and a lot of perspective changes, but not too cutty was the goal.

Did you do an Atmos mix on it?

Frank A. Montaño: Yeah. We got a call very early, prior to actually starting on the film, and the question was should we or shouldn't we. And I was a proponent. So we were fortunate that we were able to actually even mix it on – we finaled in 7.1 on dubbing stage six [at Universal] as the install of the Atmos was being done on the Hitchcock Theater. So we finished Oct. 17 with the final mix approved by Angelina in studio and then walked over on Oct. 20 and started the Atmos pass, which JT and I are cut from the same cloth – the fact that it's a learning curve, obviously. All films have a learning curve. It doesn't matter the sound format, they all have a learning curve, so as you might have heard before, Kris, as you move through the film, you find your legs, you find the pocket, you find the direction sonically. Somewhere around reel three or reel four, you know, 30 minutes into the film, 40 minutes into the film, you finally get your legs and you go back and do reels one and two over again. And it was the same with the Atmos. We started with reel one, which was a lot of heavy lifting sound effects-wise and transitional-wise from effects to dialogue. So we went through and by the time we got to the end, we doubled back. What did we do, JT? One through four again?

Jon Taylor: Yeah. One through four, yep.

Frank A. Montaño: To put it in the right pocket, to stay out of the gimmick world, you know, stay on the right side of the gimmick line. The movie lent itself to Atmos atmospherically, musically. So we thought we got it in a really nice pocket and we're very proud of the Atmos pass.

Jon Taylor: Going back to that raft scene, because obviously, yeah, like you said, it's probably about 27 minutes long of being on the raft. But when you think about the event that happened…

Frank A. Montaño: Forty-seven days.

Jon Taylor: Yeah, 47 days long. If you think about what happened while on the raft, as far as the sharks, as far as the two plane passes, you know, the different things that happened, the bird, the seagull, the catching of the shark – even though it's just three guys in a raft so many events happened in those 47 days or that 27 minutes, and accompanied with Alexandre's score, very simple from the track-running scenes and things like that in reels one and two, when they finally went in the raft, the music was completely different. It was very sparse, where it just really blended in with the ambience rather than just overpowering the whole scene. In fact one of the greatest things about the score is when it finally starts raining, when they're in the raft, you have all the high components of the rain coming down, the drops, all of the higher-end components, and Alexandre didn't score any high instruments. There are no violins or anything in there. It was actually mostly French horns and trombones and cello and bass. It was so thought-out so elegantly that it just kind of blended. I mean, the way that Frankie takes the backgrounds and moves it the way that the ADR sat in, the Foley and then music, the components were really just perfect. It just naturally just came together.

Now you guys are usually set up at Universal but you have a relationship with Alejandro, is that how this worked?

Jon Taylor: That's correct. I've done five movies with him.

Well, let's talk about “Birdman.” Very similar to “Unbroken.”

Jon Taylor: [Laughs.]

Frank A. Montaño: [Laughs.]

I mean, that's got to be part of the fun of the job, doing these completely different things, right?

Jon Taylor: You're exactly right, Kris. We're so lucky to be able to these movies. I mean from the huge Hollywood hits to these couple of the more indie-style movies, which “Birdman” is.

I thought it was great that the sound branch singled out both “Birdman” and “Whiplash,” because obviously they both have this drumming element and that's at the forefront of what you hear throughout “Birdman.” So was that kind of your first way in on this movie, is dealing with that treatment throughout?

Jon Taylor: I would say that because I've done movies with Alejandro, I kind of knew what he would expect, and although we never really had a conversation of the tone of the movie, it was pretty obvious. I mean from the very beginning, drums come in. Music is narration for Alejandro. It's never really underscore. There's always a purpose for it. So when there's music, it means that it's narration. It's telling the story. It's at the forefront. So that being said, the challenges were that when there's dialogue, we have to hear the dialogue, but at the same time those drums have got to keep playing. I mean they are telling the story as well as the dialogue that you're hearing. So that was the challenge, in as far as doing little tiny dips around each word with a fader, an EQ in space and reverb and whatever you could possibly do to make it work. So every cue was a challenge.

And then in this one you have a full-blown action movie toward the end of it there at the end of the second act so you get to play with that as well.

Jon Taylor: That's right.

Frank A. Montaño: The effects on the movie in general were handled in the same way. Like JT says, there is a narrative to all the components. It's interesting. There's dialogue, music and effects and they all have their place and time in “Birdman.” And it can be from subtle to dynamic all within a short period of time. But we do break out into a very quick little action sequence. At about an hour and a half into the film it kind of pops out and throughout that we only had a little bit of time to actually let that kind of take the forefront and then, of course, his ego, his subconscious, whatever Birdman is, comes flying in and gives him another pep talk. So it wasn't a lot of time, actually, to let it live like a classic action sequence. But nevertheless, all the bits and all the parts equal the sum of the whole for the entire effect of the film. So it was a lot of fun to work through each scene. And because the challenges were really – it was a continuous shot throughout the film, so there's just a lot of movement to the track. JT was moving music around the room. We're obviously tracking the camera and keeping the audience engaged without taking attention away from all of it. And story is forefront. So it was a lot of fun.

That must have been a challenge, too, for your production guys – the mixer and the boom mic onset – with this kind of flurry of movement.

Jon Taylor: Yeah. But that's the thing about what Alejandro did. They practiced for many days. But regardless, Tom Varga, who was the production mixer, man, he killed it. He really did such a fantastic job. It's amazing how little ADR is in that film. Very little.

Wow, interesting. I love it when the sound branch singles out movies like this that you might not immediately think of as a sound movie. But when you really think about it, the way sound reverberates in that theater in “Birdman,” it's a different identity than the way the dialogue and such is represented throughout the rest of the movie. So everything has its kind of place, as you say, and starts to delineate.

Jon Taylor: Oh, completely. The theater definitely had its own – we call it the belly of the whale, and it had to have its own atmosphere and you felt that the audience was there. I made sure the voices build it and so forth but it was really about the presence, the actual low-end sort of force that comes out when you pan around to the front of the stage, where you actually see the belly of the whale, and then you get that low-end presence that just fills the whole place up.

That movie is absolutely amazing all the way through. I read the script nine months before we saw the movie and I'm sitting there looking at the script and I go, “OK, another cute small little indie from Alejandro here. Nice little dialogue saying, blah, blah, blah.” And then I saw the cut and my jaw dropped. I was like, “This is a massive film.” I mean really, really, really big, very detailed. And to be immersive, it's like you can do two things. You can completely go with the camera everywhere, but if you do that it's a little distracting. Or you can play it sort of traditional and get away with things. But in this case we did – we kept the focus on the story, you know, when the characters are on screen, we kept [their dialogue] coming out of the center channel. So regardless if they were left screen or right screen they were coming out of the center channel. But then when they panned off, then we went into whole immersion pan world. I think this film really benefited from keeping focused, yet when the camera really goes, you go with it. If the people are going off screen they all get panned off. So from the beginning we took the drums and we're like, “OK, we got the voice down. We have the voice of Birdman. We know what he sounds like. Now let's get into these drums. What can we do? How crazy can we be with this thing without being just too ridiculous?” So we had to sort of go through and figure out our limits and then go from there. But it didn't take Frank and myself very long to understand it. We didn't have to do multiple reels and then go back. We got it in reel one.

Frank, had you worked on Alejandro movies before or was it just Jon?

Frank A. Montaño: Yeah, just JT. My trial by fire.

What did you think?

Frank A. Montaño: It was a great experience. It truly was. It's rare that you get an opportunity to work on a movie such as “Birdman.” And I just had the best time, being Mexican American and him being a Mexican director – really connected on that level. And as soon as he started treating me like he treated Jon, I knew that I was okay.

Well straight-up, that's my favorite movie of the year. So I'm glad you guys got recognized for it. And congrats on getting two nominations on these movies. It's an awesome little footnote to the season.

Frank A. Montaño: Thank you. It's a big honor, obviously.

Jon Taylor: For sure. A big honor, but super excited. The first thing that excited me was exactly what you pointed out, Kris: two completely different films, two completely different sound styles. Frankie and I definitely have a signature sound that we go for, and that's “Unbroken.” “Unbroken” is a signature sound. That's what we go for. Alejandro's movies, I have a separate signature sound for his movies and it's very aggressive. You just lay it down. Don't pull punches. Just let it happen. Don't hold it back. It's definitely a different mind frame, and we're fortunate to have been able to work on those two movies and many other movies this year that we're super proud of.

Something happened with this year's Oscar nominations that marked another milestone on the ongoing sage of film and digital photography. For the first time ever, four of the Best Cinematography nominees were digital productions. The lone celluloid holdout? Robert D. Yeoman's work on Wes Anderson's “Grand Budapest Hotel.”

It's a noteworthy moment, particularly for a branch that was far more reticent to embrace digital work than members of the American Society of Cinematographers (who nominated “Collateral” and “Apocalypto” in the years before the branch finally gave in with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Slumdog Millionaire”). And as the old world continues to be squeezed out, guys like Yeoman just hope the analog option remains available to them.

I hopped on the phone with Yeoman earlier today to discuss that and his work on the film, perhaps his most handsome collaboration with Anderson to date. Read through the back and forth below.

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HitFix: This is probably the most handsome work you've done with Wes. There's something about the lighting that gives it this soft, evocative tone. As an overall project, what made it considerably different from anything else you guys have done together?

Robert D. Yeoman: Well, let's see. Several things. One being we were in this little town in Eastern Germany in the winter time. So the exterior light was always very overcast and very soft, and we purposely, on the very few sunny days we had, we'd go around to the other side in the shade and shoot in the shade and occasionally even through up a silk. Because Wes' concept was there weren't any sunny days. It was always winter here. Typically it was 8:30 in the morning until four in the afternoon. So it was very kind of controlled and scheduled so that we could shoot in the shade, basically, but luckily the skies were gray most of the time, so we didn't have to worry about it.

The interiors in the hotel lobby, there was a skylight at the very top that let light in. But unfortunately, it being winter time, we weren't able to go with natural light all the time. So we took a lot of our lights up there and bounced them into a giant muslin and then shown the light through that skylight, so we were kind of recreating the look of natural light there. And it allowed us to shoot any time of the day, or after it got dark outside. Also in the lobby of the hotel, in the background, we put a lot of warm practicals.

Yeah, “warm” is the word I'm after here. It's like fireside cozy or something.

That gave it a much more inviting, a much more pleasant feeling to it. And we tended to use a little bit warmer light on the actors as well. We didn't do a whole lot of lighting other than the practicals and the overhead skylight. We would bring in one or two little lights that we would soften through diffusion when we were shooting the actors' faces for close-ups and things. That was kind of the overall plan.

And for the '60s lobby, what we did was, back then, often, when the Communist regimes would come in in Eastern Europe, they would put fluorescent lighting in. They'd paint over a lot of the beautiful walls and make it a lot more stark, so we put a fake florescent ceiling in the lobby.

What helped inform the look early on? Did you guys look at any photography or art work or other movies?

Yeah, we watched a lot of old movies, which were black and white. The Ernst Lubitsch comedies, “Grand Hotel,” stuff like that. That kind of, in many ways, was even more about the format we were shooting, which was the square, 1.37 Academy format – which was what movies were shot on in the time – to kind of familiarize ourselves with the compositions and how when you shoot in a square format as opposed to a widescreen format. It offers many different compositional possibilities. So we watched those for that and I just think for me, the movie was a bit of a storybook, kind of a fairytale. And it was set in this kind of romanticized world of Eastern Europe where it was going through transition. I kind of took that for what I did and I tried to romanticize the light as best I could, using warm light, soft light.

We used a lot of China balls, which are just like a Chinese lantern type of thing, very soft light that is very warm and very pleasing on the actors' faces. Often times we would just light the whole plan and then I'd bring in a China ball. If someone was walking down a hallway, for instance, and I was on a dolly, we would have a China ball over the camera that would walk with us and give a kind of glow to the actors' faces. Wes was very supportive of it. He loved the idea. So that was our way of working a lot of time, to just light the overall space and then bring a China ball in close to the camera to give it another punch for the actors.

Yeah, and what was your initial response to the fact that Anderson wanted to shoot the majority of this film in that Academy ratio?

I was very excited about it. I had never done that before. I was a little bit nervous. We had typically shot the widescreen before, which is always very exciting visually and offers a lot of great opportunities compositionally, but this was a whole different direction. I kind of approached it like, “Alright, cool. This is going to be something different.” And we constantly kind of pushed ourselves to find unusual compositions using a lot of head room, for instance, framing actors how you would not always see them framed, to push the limits a little bit. It has its restrictions and has its advantages like anything else, but in the end, we both enjoyed it. The chance to try something different was very exciting to me.

I was going to ask, yeah, if it felt limiting at all. But I guess it's a mixed bag.

It is a mix. I mean you're limited in that, with 2.40, for instance, you can get several actors very close to the camera, because it's a very wide, skinny frame. And Wes likes to do master-type shots, where he has a lot of his actors in the same frame. So we had to find new ways to get everybody in the shots. An example would be the scene where Edward Norton pops out of the floor in the prison and his head is coming through the hole in the floor and all the other soldiers are gathered around him. It's not a long, narrow frame, but we were able to get everybody in. Sometimes it meant – for instance, when Harvey Keitel and the prisoners are there kind of chopping a hole in the floor – pushing everybody close together. On a wider frame it's easier, but here we just pushed them closer together and it worked beautifully.

How about shooting on film? I've talked to a lot of DPs this year and just kind of gauged the reaction to the film vs. digital debate, which has hit a fever pitch of late. Do you have any general thoughts on that?

Well I've always been a film person. I've come up through film. I love the look of film. I love shooting film. The process is different and it has a different feeling, a different texture on screen. I do shoot digitally. I shot a lot of commercials digitally and my last feature I shot digitally. The digital cameras have come a long way, particularly for low-light situations. The Alexa performs beautifully. I know there's a lot of pressure from people at the studios and post-production people to shoot digitally and all the labs are going out of business and it's becoming more and more difficult to shoot film. But I know I'd always like to shoot film, though I've certainly come to embrace a lot of the advances digital cameras have. I hate to say it but it might not be too far down the road until everything is shot digitally. But, you know, I think it's sad. Film has been a wonderful friend to us in the movie business for so long and I hope we continue to have it as a possibility, for sure.

Is Wes a purist in this. Do you think there would ever be a project for which he would inherently think digital was the way to go?

He is a bit of a purist and I think for this particular film, because it was period, he felt that film was the right way to go. That said, as a director, with digital you have a much better idea on the set of what you are getting and a lot of directors prefer to have that. I certainly can't blame anyone for wanting to know exactly what you're getting. There's a certain leap of faith you have with film. But it's a nice feeling, certainly, to be at the end of the day and know exactly what we got. It's one of the advantages that digital has, for sure.

And I wanted to ask you that specifically because, intriguingly enough and for the first time ever, we have four digital Oscar nominees in the category. And you're the only film representative.

I noticed that. Usually it's the other way around. But, you know, it's a sign of the times. Certainly Roger Deakins, Emmanuel Lubezki, these are amazing cinematographers and I think it just shows in a certain situation, they chose digital for a particular reason. So it's an option that is open to us now. It is a little disconcerting in some ways to me, but that said, it's a sign of the times. That's where we're all headed.

Have you had a chance to see the work from your fellow nominated cinematographers?

I've yet to see “Ida.” I've been trying to see all of them in a theater. I saw “Birdman” twice. I would like to comment that everything I've seen, they're all wondrously shot films and what I like so much about them is they are not super heavy on the production aspect. Certainly all the films have been manipulated, but it's just so nice to see cinematography as opposed to a big effects movie. That's more what I'm drawn to, is those types of films and cinematography. “Mr. Turner,” for instance, and certainly “Birdman.” There's a certain amount of manipulation there as well, but it's more pure cinematography and that's something I greatly appreciate. And I think it's a great group of films nominated and I applaud whoever voted for them.

Well, that would be your peers!

Yeah! Well they did a good job. And I'm not just saying that because I got nominated. I think all of the films are representative of really good, solid, pure cinematography, and I'm really happy about that.

Winners were revealed Thursday night for the Casting Society of America's 30th annual Artios Awards. Winners in the film categories included “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Dear White People.”

Check out the nominees here, the full list of winners below and all the rest of the season's offerings at The Circuit.

Feature Film – Big Budget Comedy
“The Wolf of Wall Street,” Ellen Lewis

Feature Film – Big Budget Drama
“12 Years a Slave,” Francine Maisler, Meagan Lewis (Location Casting), Melissa Kostenbauder (Associate)

Feature Film – Studio or Independent Comedy
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Douglas Aibel, Jina Jay, Henry Russell Bergstein (Associate)

Feature Film – Studio or Independent Drama
“Dallas Buyers Club,” Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee, Rich Delia, Tracy Kilpatrick (Location Casting), Allison Estrin (Associate)

Feature Film Low Budget Comedy
“Dear White People,” Kim Taylor-Coleman

Feature Film Low Budget Drama
“Boyhood,” Beth Sepko

Feature Film Animation
“Frozen,” Jamie Sparer Roberts

Television Pilot Comedy
“Orange is the New Black,” Jennifer Euston

Television Pilot Drama
“True Detective,” Alexa L. Fogel, Christine Kromer, Meagan Lewis (Location Casting)

Television Series Comedy
“Orange is the New Black,” Jennifer Euston

Television Series Drama
“Breaking Bad,” Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas, Kiira Arai (Location Casting), Russell Scott (Associate)

Television Movie or Mini Series
“Fargo,” Rachel Tenner, Jackie Lind (Location Casting), Stephanie Gorin (Location Casting), Charlene Lee (Associate)

Daytime Drama Series
“General Hospital,” Mark Teschner

Children”s Pilot and Series (Live Action)
“Good Luck Charlie,” Sally Stiner, Barbie Block

Television Animation (Children and Adult)
“Family Guy,” Linda Lamontagne

Web Series
“Deadbeat,” Adam Caldwell, Cindy Tolan

Short Film
“All”s Fair,” Alyssa Weisberg

New York Broadway Theater – Comedy
“Casa Valentina,” David Caparelliotis, Nancy Piccione, Bernard Telsey

New York Broadway Theater – Drama
“All the Way,” William Cantler, Karyn Casl (Associate)

New York Broadway Theater – Musical
“Beautiful – The Carole King Musical,” Stephen Kopel

New York Theater – Comedy
“Dinner With Friends,” Jim Carnahan, Carrie Gardner

New York Theater – Drama
“Choir Boy,” Nancy Piccione

New York Theater – Musical
“Here Lies Love,” Tara Rubin, Lindsay Levine (Associate)

Regional Theater East
“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tara Rubin, Lindsay Levine (Associate)

Regional Theater West
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” David Caparelliotis, Lauren Port (Associate)

Los Angeles Theater
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” Mark B. Simon, Daniel Swee

Special Theatrical Performance East
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Musical Thriller,” Craig Burns, Cesar A. Rocha (Associate)

Theater Tours
“Once,” Jim Carnahan, Stephen Kopel

PARK CITY – It's probably somewhat remarkable that in 2015 a tale of summer romance between two teenage girls feels awfully familiar. Since gay-themed indies began to increase in notoriety in the '90s, there have been many of these dramas set both stateside and overseas. Director Alanté Kavaïté has a unique and talented eye, but she can only do so much to make this compelling material beyond its aesthetic charms.

Our heroine is Sangaile (Julija Steponaityte), a 17-year-old spending the summer holiday with her parents in the Lithuanian countryside. We first meet her as she watches a stunt pilot's exploits at a local air show. She catches the eye of Auste (a wonderful Aiste Dirziute) who fixes a raffle so that Sangaile can get a free ride in the stunt plane. Sangaile will have nothing of it, though, and sullenly walks off, leaving a perplexed Auste to wonder how she can charm her. Immediately, the audience discovers that Sangaille has been cutting herself (her parents seemingly oblivious to it all) and her sparse room, plain clothes and dour mood inform us she's got a lot on her mind.  Eventually and perhaps out of boredom, Sangaile succumbs to Auste's powers of persuasion and begins to hang out with her circle of friends. This leads to a one-time fling with a blonde boy (probably unnecessary), but Auste finds ways to seduce her and, soon, the two find themselves in passionate love (or as much in love as two teenagers can be). 

The film's central conflict and Sangaile's arc's are, unfortunately, thin. Sangaile has a calling to be a stunt pilot, but suffers from vertigo. If this is the only reason she's been cutting herself the story doesn't make that clear, but she might have some issues understanding her mother as well (a famous ballerina who doesn't think she's as tough as her namesake). Why Sundance likely chose “Summer” as one of its opening night films is because of Kavaïté's impressive cinematic vision.

Working in conjunction with cinematographer Dominique Colin, Kavaïté weaves a wonderful web of truly tantalizing images. Unlike, say, “Blue is the Warmest Color,” which still took female beauty from a male point of view, Kavaïté clearly knows the parts of a woman's body that would find Auste falling head over heels for Sangaile. She'll hold the camera on her face as we see the wind slowly brush the minuscule hairs on her cheek. Or, cut to an extreme close-up on a nipple so the natural abrasion bumps are visible. And when the two leads are together sexually, it certainly feels more natural than the aforementioned Cannes winner.

Kavaïté and Colin also work wonders using either a helicopter or a drone to get some stunning aerial POV shots throughout the picture. She uses this technique to convey Sangaile's vertigo without using any familiar, unsteady camerawork you'd expect. It also, gradually, communicates Sangaile's passion to fly and to soar in the sky.  

Early on, Kavaïté also stages some seductive scenes of teenagers enjoying their summer freedom that evokes, whether intentional or not, a slight inspiration from Alfonso Cuarón's “Y Tu Mamá También.” This much-needed energy dissipates, however, when Auste's friends disappear from view and the film focuses primarily on whatever drama Sangaile is getting herself through.

Considering the story limitations, it's remarkable, even hours after seeing the picture, how many images Kavaïté is able to compose that stick in your head. We only wish the final product had us rooting for or even caring what happens to Sangaile and Auste before the credits roll.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910203684001

PARK CITY – Robert Redford and the Sundance Film Festival brain trust reconvened once again for the festival's annual press conference kick-off Thursday afternoon. While this year's edition features documentaries on controversial topics such as Scientology (“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”) and the ex-gay movement (“I Am Michael”), the panel  instead bounced around the subject of “change,” diversity and the impact of modern day television.

Redford, one of the co-founders of the festival, was asked a somewhat open-ended question about his belief in “change” and whether it was still happening at the festival.

“I believe change is inevitable,” he said. “And I think we can see that there are some people that go with change. There are others that don't because they're afraid of it. The idea was that the festival was meant to use change to underline the word 'diversity,' which I think moves the ball and I think that's something we represent. As things change I think the filmmakers roll with it and I think their films reflect the life we live in.”

More intriguing were Redford and Festival Director John Cooper's thoughts on television and how it can be showcased at an event like Sundance. In the past, the fest has found it hard to integrate modern day television programs noting – often off the record – that it was a “film” festival first. With so many new ways for people to consume content these days, that's changed. Redford, who got his start during the golden age of television, spoke more passionately about the art form at this press conference than at any previous one this writer can remember.

“I believe in television,” he said. “It's part of the fabric of storytelling in terms of film. Television is film. They are blurring and there is a reason why, aside from the money factor, it's harder and harder for an artist to find a way in the major film business. Some of the shows have been breakthrough. They have talent in writing and directing and actors. It's a wonderful platform of actors to develop themselves. Whether [TV and film comes] together as one or whether they stay separate? Television is advancing more than major filmmaking.”

Cooper remarked on Sundance's attempts to integrate TV content into the festival noting, “Two years ago we did 'Top of the Lake' here. 'Transparent,' we showed the first episode last year – the story of how Amazon's developing that. This year there is 'Animals,' which is independent television, and an HBO show, 'The Jinx.' Andrew Jarecki is showing two episodes of that. Interesting TV and independent film are running neck and neck. In the freshness, in the quality, we're running neck and neck and I think it's exciting.”

While Redford surprisingly did not comment on the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations (Cooper made sure to note Ava DuVernay won the Grand Jury prize for directing at Sundance for “Middle of Nowhere” two years ago), he did reflect on the recent Charlie Hedbo tragedy in Paris. In his view, it's a broader problem that has to be seriously addressed.

“Clearly I think there is an attack on freedom of expression, not just in Paris,” he said. “It was a sad event. I also have a hunch it was a bit of a wake-up event. Freedom of expression seems to be in danger in a lot of areas, but we'll keep it alive here.”

Look for complete coverage of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival for the next 10 days on HitFix.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910599417001

One of my favorite Oscar nominations this year was Mark Bridges getting the call for his work on Paul Thomas Anderson's “Inherent Vice.” I only wish David Crank and Amy Wells could have joined him because the design of this film was out of sight (to say nothing of Robert Elswit's lush lensing). Still, it's sort of serendipitous that it's Bridges and Anderson (in the adapted screenplay category) representing the film, as like Elswit, their collaboration goes all the way back to the beginning, but unlike Elswit (who won the Oscar for “There Will Be Blood”), Bridges had yet to be recognized for a PTA movie.

I talked to Bridges, who did get his own trip to Oscar's stage for “The Artist” a few years ago, about that and a whole lot more earlier this week. The research and engineering that went into bringing these costumes – and, by proxy, these characters – to life is really something else. So read through the back and forth below, and at the bottom, check out a few of Bridges' pre-production sketches alongside the completed costumes in a little photo gallery.

“Inherent Vice” is now playing. You should go see it.

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HitFix: Hey, Mark. How's it going?

Mark Bridges: Good to talk to you. Good. Good. Good. Good. What can I in enlighten you on?

Quite a bit, I'm sure! First of all congratulations. I'm really happy for you.

Oh, thank you.

This was actually a nomination that I was kind of pulling for. I thought maybe the costume designers would be cool enough to do it and they did it so I kind of let out a little mini cheer when I heard your name called.

Thank you so much. I was a little surprised. That fifth slot always could go a lot of different ways.

It's an interesting branch, though, because they often, regardless of perceived quality – though I think “Inherent Vice” is one of the best movies of the year – they'll nominate movies that maybe didn't do well with the critics or whatever. They focus on the work. Have you always found that as well?

Yeah. I have. But also it's really gratifying because I've been working with Paul Thomas Anderson for 20 years and this is the first time – not “Bogie Nights,” not “There Will Be Blood,” not “The Master” – but “Inherent Vice” is the one that got the nomination. So that's kind of exciting. Lucky number seven.

Absolutely. And I was going to ask you about that. I mean as you say, you guys worked together for so long and you finally got in for “The Artist” but had not gotten in for a PTA movie yet. So it's nice that the two of you are nominated here.

It really gave me chills that after all these years it's the two of us representing this film and so it's kind of fun.

What were some of your references, if any, that you had your eye on in working your way into this world? Other what was inherent in the book, of course.

Yeah. I always love to look at movies from the period because they're usually a real slice of life, of the moment. So there were some really funny movies about Hollywood, specifically, and Los Angeles at that time. We looked at this weird documentary that Paul had found called “Mondo Hollywood” and then also this film called “The Baby Maker” with Barbara Hershey, and “Alex in Wonderland,” in which Donald Sutherland is this director who sort of blows up and has these meetings at MGM and stuff. And it's right from that period. He can't decide whether he wants to go all out and spend $70,000 for a house. It's a great slice of that moment in time. So I look at that because it's primary research and it has so many little details and I try to get the DNA or the shortness of a skirt or the shape of a pant or something like that. Also just clicking on really broad subjects on Google Images, because you'll never know what you're going to find. I never usually put in the subject clothing; it's usually a much broader subject than that. And then you find images that are evocative of a moment or something you never even would have thought of.

So between the Internet and films – there was a great book, a photo book that's come out, a couple of them, about the surfers of that period. So it was shape of bathing suits and how people wore their hair and things. So it all just gets put together little piece by little piece like a jigsaw puzzle. And then also, once I kind of get down the shapes and things like that, then I go out and put my hands on clothing and I find things that I didn't even know existed and that would be really cool, or a piece of clothing has the character of a person. It's just, again, little tiny pieces and little tiny steps. I think I had like eight weeks prep. But with Paul, I'm always involved in the writing process. “There Will Be Blood” we had table reads, like, two or three years before we ever filmed. For “There Will Be Blood,” I keep discovering versions of the script. I probably had, like, seven versions of that script. And “The Master,” too. So actually I'm lucky working with a writer like Paul that I actually sees it along the way and I'm able to look at research and things at my leisure, sometimes a year in advance.

The first paragraph of the book is what opens the movie, that bit of narration, and it's interesting because it's immediately evocative of look and clothing. This note about Shasta “looking like she swore she'd never look.” I haven't actually read all of the book, but how much of that kind of thing is in there that helped your process?

I read the book and some of it doesn't translate for my world, like what would actually have been accurate of the period. He wrote it much after that period. But basically this was part of the detective part of my job that I really loved, where it's “in flatland gear looking how she said she'd never look.” What does that mean? Then I go into my character work, which is, “OK, she lives here. This is where she associates. She's sort of vaguely dabbling her toe into modeling with Mickey Wolfmann. What is the complete opposite of beach wear?” Then I put all of those things together: Hancock Park plus actress plus Mickey Wolfmann plus that moment in time equals… So much of my job in this thing was a combination of reading Pynchon's intent or vibe of Pynchon, and then making it three dimensional and bringing it to life and making it photogenic and making it tell a story and having it be a real person. But then luckily I was free enough to take the ball and run with it, so to speak.

Let's talk about the colors. I've talked to Bob Elswit a couple times this year and I tell him that it's almost not fair, the amount of blue and orange contrast throughout it, because that's such an inviting, complementary contrast. But what did you and Paul talk about as far as what this color palette would be and what it would mean?

I know what you're talking about, like her orange dress in the beginning and the beautiful outside blue, the beach outside, like right from the beginning, it grabs you. For me I'm always trying to be specific about a period. And so between the DNA of what Pynchon wrote about things like Rudy Blatnoyd's ultraviolet blue suit, well, I made two suits for that. One that would be ultraviolet and the other one was a little more viewable plum. And the plum is what we used, ultimately. So I just tried to go with the period colors, and again, always striving to tell a story. I mean he talks about Bambi at the Chick Planet massage parlor, appears there in a day-glow, psychedelic bikini. Well I thought, “Why not use psychedelic patterns?” It doesn't have to be day-glow because that doesn't photograph so well, but certainly that multiple of colors…

So if it's at all successful and I look at the movie – I've seen it like three times finished – I'm very, very happy with the colors, their combinations, how they work in a scene, because they're pretty much dead-on colors used in 1970. And so that's part of their appeal. Paul and I are a little more emotional than, like, sitting down and getting any kind of plan, per se. I mean I think he had a color plan in “There Will Be Blood,” because Jack Fisk had a strong feeling about that. And then in “Magnolia” we had a strong plan, that it should feel like “Ordinary People” and “The Verdict” and stuff like that, which was sort of this '80s non-color, like, no blue. And then in “Boogie Nights” I used, like, five different palettes depending on where we were in the story. So that's the only time that I think they've been sort of cerebral choices. This is more emotional and looking at the whole thing as a whole and seeing if the little piece of the jigsaw jibes with the whole.

What would you say was your favorite costume to design on this one?

That's a toughie. Maybe Sloane's bathing suit. Sloane Wolfmann wears that really crazy, like, cut-out bathing suit that like comes at you, but then from the back, all it is is those shoulder straps and her little really low back where you see the little top of her butt crack. [Laughs.] So it's, like, that look one way when you're coming to you and then another thing when you're walking away. And also there was Dr. Blatnoyd's receptionist in that vinyl jumpsuit. Which a black vinyl jumpsuit was something that was mentioned by Pynchon but I had wanted to go off of this other design from the period, this Rudi Gernreich bathing suit. We went to the LACMA Museum, to their archives, and actually looked at a garment to figure out how it was constructed. So probably those two things, the cut-outs, the bathing suit. Maybe if I had to say one it was probably Sloane's bathing suit. And we had several fittings to try to get to the engineering right. Ultimately it worked and she [Serena Scott Thomas] felt comfortable and it looked great.

Well, like I said, congratulations on this. I love the movie so much. I've seen it a couple times now and I'm really happy that you finally got in for a Paul movie.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Thanks.

Have a good week.

Cool. All right. Take care man.

It's been a week since the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards were announced and, well, there certainly isn't euphoria in the air for those residing in the 323 or 310 area codes. The controversy over the lack of nominations for “Selma” still stings (as it should) and following the embarrassing hacked Sony E-mails, it's just another round of considerably negative press for Hollywood. There is almost a sense that another shoe is going to drop and somehow things will get even uglier.  Of course, there was a lot of celebrating over the massive box office success for “American Sniper” this past weekend, but it's going to take a lot more blockbusters (they are coming) for Hollywood to feel the weight of all this drama lift off its shoulders. And the Oscars, meant as a time of celebration, may not bring much relief.

As Mr. Tapley has pointedly noted, this weekend's back-to-back guild honors from the Producers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild will truly crown a frontrunner. It's where “American Hustle's” Oscar dreams died last year and could make “Boyhood's” coronation not just likely, but inevitable.

The PGA Awards will announce their winner Saturday night and with seven of the eight Best Picture nominees also PGA-nominated, who they pick will be telling (and the fact that they have a preferential ballot like the Oscars won't hurt either). Granted, the PGA could surprise and reward a non-Oscar nominee such as “Gone Girl” or “Nightcrawler,” but that really would be shocking. If “The Imitation Game” wins, however, and then pulls off a best ensemble honor from SAG? Well, things have gotten very interesting.

More likely, though, “Boyhood” or even “Sniper” will win PGA and “Birdman” or “Grand Budapest” will take SAG. Any win for “Boyhood” is enough to keep its Best Picture frontrunner status in tact. And if Linklater takes the DGA Award next month? Well, there probably won't be much of a surprise in the Best Picture category on Oscar Sunday. And judging by what my fellow Gurus of Gold think in their latest poll, the IFC Films team should rest easy.

Remember this time of relative unsettled-ness. It all changes on Saturday.  

With that being said, here's the latest Contender Countdown.

Jan. 22, 2015

1. “Boyhood”
Aiming to prove the naysayers wrong for good.

2. “The Imitation Game”
Happy all that historical accuracy stuff is focused mostly on two other nominees.

3. “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Does it really have a better shot to win than its Searchlight stablemate? Well…

4. “Birdman”
Michael Keaton, original screenplay, cinematography and the sound categories are the big plays here.

5. “Selma”
Anecdotal evidence says it plays much better on the big screen than on screener. Might hurt its comeback chances for members who are, sadly, finally getting around to watching it.

6. “American Sniper”
Box office helps the cause, but there are some loud detractors in the Academy (and we're not just talking about Michael Moore).  

7. “The Theory of Everything”
Could take home a number of statues including best actor and original score (fingers crossed), and don't be surprised if it takes home adapted screenplay.

8. “Whiplash”
A pretty amazing achievement for a movie that has only grossed $6.6 million at the box office so far (don't get us started on that one…).

Can any film take the frontrunner status from “Boyhood?” Share your thoughts below.

There has been a lot of heat going into Sundance that this year's festival could be another buyer's market for mini-majors and indie distributors looking to fill out their 2015 slates. Fox Searchlight already picked up Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's “Mistress America” and now Lionsgate has surprised by acquiring another premiere title, Jared Hess' “Don Verdean.”

A potential comeback for the man behind “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Verdean” finds Sam Rockwell playing the title character, a biblical archeologist brought on by a small town church pastor to find “faith-promoting” historical items in the Holy Land. He has to get creative when his expedition comes up short. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Jemaine Clment, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, Leslie Bibb and Will Forte.

Hess' first break was when “Napoleon Dynamite” exploded out of Sundance in 2004. A decade later he returns after one major hit, 2006's “Nacho Libre,” and an unfortunate disaster, 2009's “Gentlemen Broncos.”

“Don Verdean” has its public premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 28. No word on when Lionstate plans on releasing it or whether they distribute it through their partnership with Roadside Attractions.

GLAAD has announced nominees for the 26th annual GLAAD Media Awards in categories covering film, television, comic books, music and journalism. And in the film arena, Oscar season staple “The Imitation Game” was joined by films like “Love is Strange,” “Pride,” “Dear White People” and “Lilting” in the list of nominations.

Check out who else was nominated below. Winners will be announced on March 21. And remember to follow along with the rest of the season at The Circuit.

Outstanding Film – Wide Release
“The Imitation Game”
“Love is Strange”
“Pride”
“The Skeleton Twins”
“Tammy”

Outstanding Film – Limited Release
“Dear White People”
“Life Partners”
“Lilting”
“The Way He Looks”
“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”

Outstanding Drama Series
“Degrassi”
“The Fosters”
“Game of Thrones”
“Grey's Anatomy”
“How to Get Away with Murder”
“Last Tango in Halifax”
“Masters of Sex”
“Orphan Black”
“Pretty Little Liars”
“Shameless”

Outstanding Comedy Series
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
“Faking It”
“Glee”
“Looking”
“Modern Family”
“Orange is the New Black”
“Please Like Me”
“Sirens”
“Transparent”
“Vicious”

Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character)
“Deep Breath” – “Doctor Who”
“Down a Tree” – “Good Luck Charlie”
“Identity Crisis” – “Drop Dead Diva”
“Let's Have a Baby” – “Playing House”
“No Lack of Void” – “Emergency”

Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series
“The Normal Heart”

Outstanding Documentary
“The Case Against 8”
“L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sun”
“Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word”
“To Russia with Love”
“True Trans with Laura Jane Grace”

Outstanding Reality Program
“B.O.R.N. to Style”
“Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce”
“Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project”
“R&B Divas: Atlanta”
“Survivor: San Juan del Sur”

Outstanding Daily Drama
“Days of Our Lives”
“General Hospital”

More nominees on the next page…

Outstanding Music Artist
Against Me! (“Transgender Dysphoria Blues”)
Angel Haze (“Dirty Gold”)
Mary Gauthier (“Trouble & Love”)
Mary Lambert (“Heart on My Sleeve”)
Sam Smith (“In the Lonely Hour”)

Outstanding Comic Book
“Hawkeye” (Matt Fraction)
“Lumberjanes” (Nicole Stevenson, Grace Ellis)
“Memetic” (James Tynion IV)
“Rat Queens” (Kurtis J. Wiebe)
“Saga” (Brian K. Vaughan)

Outstanding Talk Show Episode
“Issues Facing the Transgender Community” – “Katie”
“Laverne Cox discusses 'The T Word'” – “The View”
“Michael Sam” – “Oprah Prime”
“Pepe Julian Onziema” – “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
“Robin Roberts” – “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”

Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine
“Coming Out” – “Nick News with Linda Ellerbee”
“Gay and Muslim in America” – “America Tonight”
“Gay Rodeo” – “This is Life with Lisa Ling”
“Infield & Out: Baseball for All” – “Morning Joe”
“Transgender Society” – “Ronan Farrow Daily”

Outstanding TV Journalism Segment
“Change is Coming to the South” – “Melissa Harris-Perry”
“Fired for Being Gay?” – “MSNBC Live”
“License to Discriminate?” – “Anderson Cooper 360”
“A Model with a Mission” – “Alicia Menendez Tonight”
“Transgender Tipping Point?” – “This Week”

Outstanding Newspaper Article
“A Christian Family, a Gay Son and a Wichita Father's Change of Heart” by Roy Wenzl (The Wichita Eagle)
“For Transgender Service Members, Honesty Can End Career” by Ernesto Londoño (The Washington Post)
“An Identity to Call Their Own” [series] by Michael A. Fuoco and Mackenzie Carpenter (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
“Longtime Utah LGBT Advocates Recount Brutal History” by Erin Alberty (Salt Lake City Tribune)
“When They Stopped Waiting” by Shaun McKinnon (The Arizona Republic)

Outstanding Magazine Article
“Do Ask, Do Tell” by S.L. Price (Sports Illustrated)
“Inside the Iron Closet: What It's Like to Be Gay in Putin's Russia” by Jeff Sharlet (GQ)
“Sex Without Fear” by Tim Murphy (New York)
“The Forsaken” by Alex Morris (Rolling Stone)
“The Transgender Tipping Point” by Katy Steinmetz (Time)

Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage
Essence
Glamour
Out
Sports Illustrated
Time

Outstanding Digital Journalism Article
“31 Days of PrEP” (Advocate.com)
“Black Parents, Gay Sons and Redefining Masculinity” by Edward Wyckoff Williams (TheRoot.com)
“Conner Mertens came out to his college football team. Now he comes out publicly.” by Cyd Zeigler (Outsports.com)
“A Nun's Secret Ministry Brings Hope to the Transgender Community” by Nathan Schneider (America.Aljazeera.com)
“A Year Later, 'Nothing' Has Changed Since Transgender Woman Islan Nettles was Killed” by Tony Merevick (Buzzfeed.com)

Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia
“Left Behind: LGBT Homeless Youth Struggle to Survive on the Streets” by Miranda Leitsinger (NBCNews.com)
“Why did the U.S. Lock Up These Women with Men?” by Cristina Costantini, Jorge Rivas, Kristofer Ríos (Fusion.net)
“With Technology I Didn”t Have to Sell My Body” by Kerri Pang (MSNBC.com)
“Young and Gay: Jamaica's Gully Queens” by Adri Murguia, Christo Geoghegan (News.Vice.com)
“Young and Gay in Putin's Russia” by Milene Larsson (News.Vice.com)

Outstanding Blog
The Art of Transliness (theartoftransliness.com)
Autostraddle (autostraddle.com)
Box Turtle Bulletin (boxturtlebulletin.com)
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters (holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com)
My Fabulous Disease (marksking.com)

Special Recognition
“Dragon Age: Inquisition”

Click over to GLAAD's official site for Spanish Language nominees.

If you've been reading us this season then you know we've already given you pretty thorough analyses of this year's short film categories. I watched all the films that made it to the final consideration stage and offered up thoughts on each and some somewhat informed predictions. In the end, though, it was still tricky to guess, but I did get four of the five animated players right. Now, with nominees announced, it seems worth it to review. So let's…

All things considered, the animated short category is difficult to handicap. Particularly with the infiltration of other voters, as theses categories are opened up to the entire membership via screeners, it's just hard to guess which way preference will fall. The biggest surprise for me was that Glen Keane's gorgeous, heavily promoted “Duet” missed out on a nod. I frankly thought it could have put up a fight to win, but that's how it crumbles sometimes.

However, for many, the frontrunner might be Disney's “Feast,” which is certainly the year's most-viewed nominee as it screened ahead of “Big Hero 6” in theaters across the world. But there's folly in this logic that just because it's more widely-viewed, it has a leg up. Just last year we saw “Mr. Hublot” beating out “Get a Horse!,” despite that Disney entry being more prevalent. In all likelihood, there isn't much blind voting going on out there with the honor system in place. And “Mr. Hublot,” a film that would obviously appeal to animators, came out on top. But “Feast” is a much better film than “Get a Horse!,” and, like “Paperman” before it, plays with technology in new and exciting ways. It could indeed be formidable.

But I say watch out for films like “The Dam Keeper” and “Me and My Moulton.” Beginning with the former, at more than 18 minutes, it is far and away the longest of the nominees. As I've written before, it's a fable of sorts about a pig whose duty it is to maintain a large windmill, which keeps poisonous clouds away from a tiny animal village. It becomes a story about acceptance, but it's the technique on display that really stands out. It's pretty jaw-dropping, assembled from over 8,000 paintings, a blend of hand-drawn animation and brush strokes. Directors Robert Kondo and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, it should be noted, were formerly art directors at Pixar, working on features like “Ratatouille” and “Monsters University.”

But “Me and My Moulton” is also a strong possibility, coming from a former winner in the category, Torill Kove (“The Danish Poet”). This one tells the most conventional and complete story of the five nominees as Kove revisits her childhood with an homage to her family, reflecting on the relationship between parents and children and the inherent disconnect therein. The design is typical Kove, sporting minimalist, singular flourishes within a modest palette. And it is, of course, traditionally animated.

I would call it a race between those three, but I truly love “The Bigger Picture.” I had my fingers crossed it would get in, as it's such a bold combination of varied media, mixing life-sized, wall-painted characters and real objects to tell a story of two brothers struggling to care for their elderly mother. The production commitment is something to behold, and it's worth noting that it is the most laureled of the nominees to date.

Meanwhile, the shortest of the bunch – “A Single Life,” at under three minutes – is certainly refreshing for its brevity. As I've written before, it's the best kind of entry in a race like this: clever, in and out and with a punchline. The main character receives a mysterious vinyl record and discovers that by moving the needle around on the disc, she can move forward and backward in time. But I imagine both of those will struggle to top the others, particularly in a race that isn't necessarily exclusive to voters who come from the world of animation.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsUT0v8Zix8&w=890&h=500]

Continue to the live action shorts on the next page…

On the live action side of the equation, two of this year's nominees stand out as being widely awarded, but they couldn't possibly be any different from one another. Start with what might be the frontrunner, “The Phone Call.” It will be instantly identifiable for voters with well-known actors like Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent (well, his voice, anyway) featured. And as I've written, it would make an interesting double feature with short doc nominee “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” as it finds Hawkins manning the phones at a helpline when Broadbent's suicidal griever rings her up. What plays out is a pretty rich back-and-forth between two talented actors who never share the screen together, but squeeze a ton of empathy and tenderness out of the high-stakes situation. Watch out for this one.

On the other side of the equation is “Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak).” Not at all concerned with narrative, but rather, symbolism and realpolitik, it's a very unique nominee. For 15 minutes, an itinerant photographer shoots Tibetan nomads in front of a series of backdrops, the thematic import of each often speaking for itself – the Great Wall, the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Disneyland. One instance of an elderly woman transfixed by a backdrop of Potala Palace is particularly humorous. All along you hear the wind whipping and whistling until the final image reveals why that is. It's an abstract curiosity in the fray, but probably too much so to resonate as a winner.

If not “The Phone Call,” I would look to one of the final three entries. The longest of them, “Aya,” is the first short film to be released stand-alone in Israeli commercial cinemas and has its share of kudos coming into the Academy Awards as well. It's built on the strength of actors Sara Adler and Ulrich Tomsen as a two-hander that explores close encounters with temptation, feeding the atmosphere with notes of longing throughout. It's like “The Phone Call” in that it doesn't offer a conventional “narrative” despite having its fair share of drama, which Adler in particular sells very well.

Then there's “Boogaloo and Graham,” notable for being a bit of a “little movie,” telling a full story with an arc, hard to do within these run times. It's a period piece – 1970s Belfast – about a pair of brothers given two young chicks to raise by their father. But when a new baby threatens to change the family's status quo, there are hard decisions to be made about the then-grown chickens. The film zips along with an oldies verve and never focuses on the obvious political unrest surrounding it beyond sprinkling a bit of that flavor here and there. It's a film clearly made with love and I could see it resonating.

Finally, “Parvaneh” has already been awarded by the Academy once: It received the Silver Medal at last year's Student Academy Awards. And it fits in well with zeitgeist considerations, this fish-out-of-water tale of an Afghan immigrant who has to travel to the big city (Zurich) to send money to her ailing father. It's a culture shock story as she befriends a local girl and sees a bit of the world that has been closed off to her. I could see it resonating as well.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2apgVzCZ1Ms&w=890&h=500]

Let's wrap it up with the documentary shorts on the last page…

With the documentary short subject nominees this year, the Academy went small and intimate. They eschewed broader productions like “One Child” and “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace” in favor of what is still a varied lineup, despite the fact that nearly all the finalists were incredibly sobering in their own ways. Still, I was surprised Lucy Walker's portrait of actress Marianna Palka's plight in “The Lion's Mouth Opens” was left without a nomination.

If I had to guess, and it would definitely be a guess, I would say Aneta Kopacz's “Joanna” is a strong possibility to win here. It has won tons of prizes from all over the world and is just such an intimate, stirring little portrait that it is sure to leave a different feeling than the rest. It's the story of Joanna Salyga, a mother diagnosed with last-stage cancer who documents the mundane day-to-day life details that someone not in her position would of course take for granted. But it's artfully done. It emanates from Andrzej Wadjda's film studio in Poland and, in its final moments, really transcends and dares you not to engage with it emotionally.

But “Joanna” could be undercut a bit by another intimate story of terminal illness. With “Our Curse,” Tomasz Sliwinski has crafted a straight-forward document of his and his wife's experiences dealing with their newborn's rare, incurable disease: Ondine's Curse. Those afflicted stop breathing during sleep and require a lifetime of mechanical ventilation. The way the situation weighs so heavily on the couple instills such empathy and the film plays out as a series of confessionals, Sliwinski and his wife freely disclosing the numbing horrors on their mind. “And this is how it will be for the rest of our life, that gasping sound,” still gets me.

Now, should voters want to keep it lighter, I suppose they could go with “White Earth.” It's hardly “light,” though, as it offers intimate portraits of the people peripherally affected by the North Dakota oil boom (and would make a good double feature with “The Overnighters,” inexplicably snubbed in the documentary feature category this year). It's beautiful, too, with top-notch cinematography, sunsets painting a landscape dolloped by oil rigs. It weaves its way into the broader picture through its chosen microcosm, but whereas “The Overnighters” takes the viewer on a dramatic series of events, “White Earth” is a much more modest story, concerned with naïveté in the poetry of its subjects' narration.

As a subject study, “The Reaper (La Parka)” kind of slips up on you. It feels pretty dry for large stretches, documenting the day-to-day of a Mexican butcher who the film notes has killed about 500 bulls a day, six days a week for over 25 years. It leans on imagery and intriguing shot choices quite a lot, making it a visual essay in many ways. Indeed, it's about six or seven minutes before La Parka himself speaks. But it ultimately leaves an impact, because by trying for poetry with its wordless compositions – all the way through a trip to La Parka's home, where it asks you to sit with him and his family and imagine, if you can, the thoughts he must be silently trying to shake – it truly transcends.

Finally, there's “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.” It's just 17 seconds longer than the 40-minute “Joanna,” making it the longest nominee, and it's unique as well for being a bit of a procedural. But the more I think about it, with a movie like “American Sniper” raising concerns of veteran post-traumatic stress disorder (and considering the film's startling statistics: U.S. vets commit suicide at a rate of nearly one per hour, and more have killed themselves since 2001 than have died on the battlefield), this could be set up as a potential winner. The film follows a number of the individuals who man the phones of the Veterans Crisis Line in upstate New York, and it can be nerve-racking to watch them work through breakdowns with their callers, contacting local law enforcement and essentially talking people off the proverbial ledge. The viewer is brought into a number of these situations to observe protocol, hanging on every line when it appears a caller is unresponsive, etc. The filmmakers cut in and out of these situations, the drama crescendoing throughout, the relief palpable when operators resolve a crisis. It could be the one.

So that's a look at the shorts categories from someone who's seen all of the nominees, and I still don't know with any confidence which way things will fall. Once voters begin to get a look at the screeners, maybe we'll have a better idea, but tentatively, I'd say: “The Dam Keeper, “The Phone Call” and “Joanna.”

You'll be able to get a look at each of these films yourself when ShortsHD once again brings the wildly popular Oscar Nominated Short Film program to theaters later this month. The program will open in over 350 theaters throughout the US and Canada on Jan. 30 and will land on VOD in February.