Last week, Ava DuVernay took “Selma” to screen at the White House 100 years after “Birth of a Nation” became the first film to do so. To say the least, the occasion meant a great deal to the filmmaker.

It seemed worth it to offer up her thoughts, which she posted to Instagram, in this space.

 

Here is a small note that they will never see, but I must post it anyway. Projecting a film that I made with my comrades in the White House for the President and the First Lady – for THIS President and First Lady – was as stunning an experience as I've ever known. The first film to ever screen at the White House was “Birth of a Nation” or as it was previously titled “The Klansman.” That was in 1915. Last Friday, “Selma,” a film about justice and dignity, unspooled in that same place in 2015. It was a moment I don't have to explain to most. A moment heavy with history and light with pure, pure joy all at once. President Obama's introduction of SELMA in the presidential screening room, the quality time he and the First Lady took with us before and after, the stories he shared with my editor and cinematographer, the praise she gave our dear cast, the handshake he gave my father, the hug she gave my mother, the laughter, the smiles, the extra time they gave us all long, long, long beyond when we were scheduled to go, the warmth, the respect, it was just beyond exquisite. “I'm proud of you,” she said to me. “We're proud of you,” he added. I'm proud too – of them, of us, of the film, of this moment in my life. Who knows what lies ahead. But what has already occurred is food and fuel and fire and freedom. To President Obama and First Lady Obama, it was a dream I never dreamt, a dream seared in my memory like a scar from a fight won. The kind you look at every now and then, and just nod and smile. I thank you. xo.

A photo posted by Ava DuVernay (@directher) on Jan 20, 2015 at 12:02pm PST

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

Also worth pointing out is that Kathryn Bigelow popped in on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday to discuss her elephant poaching short “Last Days,” but talk naturally turned to DuVernay's perceived snub and diversity in Hollywood. This clip unfortunately cuts off before that point (and I can't seem to find one that includes the full discussion), but here she is talking about her short:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBusANWZ8ro]

If we've survived the Golden Globes, if the Oscar nominations have been announced and if the nation's television critics have finished getting the lowdown on what's new for the next six months, it can only mean one thing: Sundance Film Festival time.

The 32nd edition of what has become America's greatest film festival is just days away, but the Sundance Institute is still coming off a high from last year's edition. For the second time in the festival's history, two world premieres, “Boyhood” and “Whiplash,” were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.* The 2014 festival also made a comeback at the box office, delivering indie hits such as “A Most Wanted Man,” “Obvious Child,” “Dear White People” and “The Skeleton Twins.” For 2015, the festival programmers have promised even more laughs, but, as always, continue to mix in some intriguing hot topics in the documentary categories.

This year's Sundance will also find two Cobie Smulders movies (“Results,” “Unexpected”), two Kristen Wiig movies (“Nasty Baby,” “Diary of a Teenage Girl”), a potential Keanu Reeves comeback vehicle (“Knock Knock”), another Josh Charles indie (“I Smile Back”), Ewan McGregor as Jesus (“Last Days in the Desert”), Taylor Schilling's first film since breaking out on “Orange is the New Black” (“The Overnight”) and a very curious doc about Scientology and Hollywood, among other topics. There may be something for almost everyone, and you'll eventually see many of these movies at your local art house or multiplex (or maybe even Netflix or Amazon first).

Keeping all that in mind, HitFix's Sundance crew has ranked our 25 most anticipated films to see at this year's festival, which you can find in the embedded story gallery below.

Agree? Disagree? Is there something else you really want us to make sure we review first? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

*An early version of this post mistakenly noted that this was the “first time.”  “Precious” and “An Education” were both nominated in 2010.

“Boyhood” has kept its precursor dominance strong with a win from the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association's Dorian Awards. Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore took top honors while Ava DuVernay won director of the year.

Check out the nominees here, the full list of winners below and the rest of the madness at The Circuit.

FILM

Film of the Year
“Boyhood”

Film Performance of the Year – Actor
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”

Film Performance of the Year – Actress
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Film Director of the Year
Ava DuVernay, “Selma”

LGBTQ Film of the Year
“Pride”

Foreign Language Film of the Year
“Mommy”

Unsung Film of the Year
“Pride”

Documentary Film of the Year
“The Case Against 8”

Visually Striking Film of the Year
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Campy Flick of the Year
“Into the Woods”

TELEVISION

TV Drama of the Year
“The Normal Heart”

TV Comedy of the Year
“Transparent”

TV Director of the Year
Jill Soloway, “Transparent”

TV Performance of the Year – Actor
Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent”

TV Musical Performance of the Year
Neil Patrick Harris, “Sugar Daddy” – The Tony Awards

LGBTQ TV Show of the Year
“Transparent”

Unsung TV Show of the Year
“Getting On”

TV Current Affairs Show of the Year
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”

Campy TV Show of the Year
“Jane the Virgin”

Music Video of the Year
Sia, “Chandalier”

The “We're Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award
Gina Rodriguez

Wilde Wit of the Year
John Oliver

Wilde Artist of the Year
Jill Soloway

The International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society has announced nominees for the year, and as best I can tell, it's pretty much every film released on 3D that landed a spot. That's probably not true, but it certainly seems that way.

Anyway, check out the nominees below. Winners will be announced on Jan. 28 and noted in this space. And don't forget: The Circuit.

UPDATE (1/28): Check out the winners, noted below.

Live Action
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Exodus: Gods and Kings”
“Guardians of the Galaxy” – WINNER
“The Hobbit” The Battle of the Five Armies”
“Maleficent”
“Noah”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”
“Transformers: Age of Extinction”
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”

Animation
“Big Hero 6”
“The Book of Life”
“The Boxtrolls”
“How to Train Your Dragon 2”
“The LEGO Movie” – WINNER
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman”
“Planes: Fire & Rescue”
“Rio 2”

2D to 3D Conversion
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Godzilla”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“Maleficent”
“Noah”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”
“300: Rise of an Empire” – WINNER

It looks like the Coen brothers will be celebrating wrap on the now-filming “Hail, Caesar!” by heading up the jury of this year's Cannes Film Festival, organizers announced Tuesday morning in France. It marks the first time the fest will be chaired by two people.

The filmmaker siblings won the Palme d'Or at the event in 1991 for “Barton Fink.” They last attended with 2013's “Inside Llewyn Davis” in competition, winning the Grand Prix and giving them the rare distinction of having won a Palme d'Or, the Best Director prize (for “Barton Fink” as well as 1996's “Fargo” and 2001's “The Man Who Wasn't There”) and the Grand Prix.

Other Coen films that have screened in competition at the event include 1994's “The Hudsucker Proxy,” 2000's “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” 2004's “The Ladykillers” and 2007's “No Country for Old Men.”

The 68th annual Cannes Film Festival runs May 13-24.

Let's face it: Psychos make good movie characters. Sometimes you just want to sit back and watch a deranged monster do his thing. Please, kill some strangers. Eat their remains if you like. Or just laugh maniacally. Any and all psychos are welcome.

Join us as we pick out the 11 most psychotic characters ever to earn acting Oscars. We've got recent wins, classic crazy people of the '70s, and we even travel back to the '30s for one particular moment of cuckoo cinema. Let's sharpen our knives and prepare for one insane, murderous trip.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910168614001

Awards season is tailor-made for disappointment, but you can add Anne Dorval to the list of actresses who clearly did not get the praise they were due. The 54-year-old French Canadian collaborated with writer/director Xavier Dolan for the fourth time with “Mommy,” a drama which finally hits U.S. theaters on Friday and, boy, she's pretty damn great in it.

Dorval gives a charismatic and heartbreaking turn as the film's title character, a woman trying to deal with an almost uncontrollable teenage son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) thrust unexpectedly back on her doorstep. After the film took home a jury prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival there was some faint hope that perhaps a critics' group here or there might give Dolan enough year-end love to thrust her into the Oscar field, but all of her kudos (so far at least) have come from north of the border. That being said, “Mommy” is one film that will absolutely put the veteran actress on your radar.

Roadside Attractions has been kind enough to provide HitFix with an exclusive clip from “Mommy,” which is embedded at the top of this post. It finds Diane (Dorval) laying down the law with Steve (Pilon) who — surprise — has already made things difficult for her since his return. 

As for Dolan, the outspoken filmmaker is currently prepping his first English-language production, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” which will reportedly star Kit Harrington, Jessica Chastain, Kathy Bates and Susan Sarandon.

“Mommy” opens in limited release in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.

Over the past three decades, Dennis Gassner has had a hand in creating many of Hollywood's most memorable on-screen worlds, from classic period (“Bugsy”) to surreal contemporary (“The Truman Show”) to other-wordly fantasy (“The Golden Compass”). This year, he's back at it again with “Into the Woods,” his first foray into the classic movie musical.

His work on the film earned an Oscar nomination last week, his fifth to date after “Barton Fink,” “Bugsy” (for which he won), “Road to Perdition” and “The Golden Compass.” Currently in Austria working on the “Skyfall” follow-up, “Spectre,” Gassner recently spoke to HitFix about crafting the eponymous forest environment for the Stephen Sondheim adaptation, among other elements.

The design began during a Skype chat between Gassner and director Rob Marshall that the production designer attempts to recreate. On his direction, I go to Google and type “Angel Oak.” My reaction: “Wow,” which was exactly the same reaction Marshall had when he got a look at the centuries-old Southern live oak tree that sprouts from the ground of coastal South Carolina, Gassner says. That sprawling monolith became the core of the film's organic “look.”

Having been born in Vancouver and then moving to Oregon, Gassner was always interested in trees and forests. He even worked as a lumberjack when he was 16. “I know oak trees,” he explains. “They have a particular character and age. I researched them and this one resonated with me, and everything went from there. I was familiar with what woods looked like but they're also all different. We had to make as many variations as you have room for in the story.”

The woods also needed to look the same, whether they were shot in rural England or on the soundstage. It was this, in Gassner's words, “blending of the external and internal world – external being the real forest and internal being the soundstage forest” that was another issue which needed to be addressed early on; there was naturally concern that the audience would clue in to what was shot on the soundstage.

“Granny's place where Little Red goes is a combination of both things,” he cites as an example. “There was a very ancient oak tree and I created a façade, which was the entry way. I wanted her to live in the tree and out of the tree. The exterior is a combination of set piece that's placed in the tree and out of the tree.”

Of course, a forest wasn't the only significant environment of the film, as village and castle sets also play integral roles in the film. England was the natural fit from a village perspective, as one-street villages have significant variety and character. Cinderella's family, by way of example, “were living in the high rent district,” Gassner says.

Despite the variety of films and sets Gassner has done over his career, it's ultimately story and a good time on set that keep him going, he says. He had been looking for a chance to work with Marshall, and “Into the Woods” provided it. Now it's back into the maelstrom of Bond, a considerably different design environment and aesthetic, to say the least.

“My approach is the same to all genres if you have a good story to tell,” he says. “I'm a designer, and if it's not fun, I'm not interested.”

“Into the Woods,” now playing in theaters, was also Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Costume Design.

The “Selma,” #OscarsSoWhite thing was like kerosene to a match this weekend, and frankly, the reductivism on both sides made it impossible to even have a real conversation about it. So let's let that breathe for a beat. I have no epiphanies about it and neither does anyone else endlessly gnawing on it. Let's talk about what's out there now.

“American Sniper” made a lot of money this weekend. Like, a whole lot. And that has some wondering aloud about its Oscar prospects. On one hand, no one who saw what the film did in limited release (and saw even earlier that Warner Bros. was taking advantage of the January dumping ground to leverage awards buzz for box office a la “Lone Survivor”) was surprised that it dominated. On the other hand, most estimates were significantly south of $90 mil.

Regardless, this film has been seen and chewed on for nearly two months as the studio had the screener ready to go very early (before the official Academy screening, even). This weekend was the rest of the country catching up to a movie already viewed and considered by AMPAS. Box office ignition isn't going to suddenly change people's minds about the best of the year.

I see sound editing and sound mixing wins, and I see potential for Bradley Cooper to give Michael Keaton a run for his money in Best Actor, but beyond that, don't forget the lessons of “American Hustle” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Those films came on strong in the final lap, landed multiple nominations (10 for the former), cleaned up at the box office and, ultimately, fell prey to the already established narratives. Meanwhile, there is some reported backlash within the Academy vis a vis “Sniper's” depiction of someone who “seems like he may be a sociopath,” to quote one member.

But…you never know. I'm not making any declarations. Just providing some context to consider. I think if this were the old Oscar timeline, with the Academy Awards deep into March, then something like “Sniper” shocking as a Best Picture winner could happen. If there was time to build that head of steam, mitigate any potential backlash, etc. But the season has been reduced on the back end the last several years, and by now, generally, everyone pretty much already knows what they're voting for.

I expect the Academy to spread things out this year. I'm betting on three Oscars each for “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Imitation Game” (including Best Picture), and two for “American Sniper.” We don't have a crafts juggernaut like “Gravity” to sweep through the below the line categories and we certainly don't have an anointed victor to drag various other prizes along. So that makes the most sense to me.

I will say, though, that “Selma” is absolutely still in a position to win. There could be internal pushback if there is overwhelming pressure that they “must” vote for it, but I still believe the film needs to be seen by many and during phase two, that will change. Nothing about stats or recent history really figures, and leaning on that kind of information is folly. There's nothing keeping “Selma” from making history that requires pointing to lack of precedent.

For now, “Sniper” will continue to make bank. “Selma” will continue to be a political football. “Boyhood” and “The Imitation Game” will maintain an even keel. And the guilds will help show the way.

Speaking of which, keep your eye on Saturday night's Producers Guild Awards. That is the only group that uses the preferential balloting system that the Academy employs. In this era, I feel that whatever wins there, wins the Oscar (though this year the lack of “Selma” in the PGA nominations line-up means it's still a Best Picture wild card). The next night, the Screen Actors Guild dishes 'em out, which could be a good night for “Birdman,” but I'm not entirely sure. It'll all just feel like added shading after PGA, though.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Contenders section has of course been updated with all the nominees and added commentary in each category. What are your predictions? Are you ready to commit?

The London Film Critics Circle dished out kudos across the pond Sunday, with top honors going to – what else? – “Boyhood.” Richard Linklater and Patricia Arquette also picked up hardware, while in the British-specific categories, “Under the Skin,” Timothy Spall and Rosamund Pike were among the winners.

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

Film of the Year
“Boyhood”

Director of the Year
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Screenwriter of the Year
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Actor of the Year
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”

Actress of the Year
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Supporting Actor of the Year
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Supporting Actress of the Year
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”

British Film of the Year
“Under the Skin”

British Actor of the Year
Timothy Spall, “Mr. Turner”

British Actress of the Year
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl” and “What We Did on Our Holiday”

Young British Performer of the Year
Alex Lawther, “The Imitation Game”

Breakthrough British Filmmaker
Yann Demange, “'71”

Technical Achievement of the Year
“Under the Skin,” Mica Levi, score

Foreign Language Film of the Year
“Leviathan”

Documentary of the Year
“CITIZENFOUR”

Dilys Powell Award
Miranda Richardson

The dust has most certainly not settled on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in the wake of “Selma's” perceived snubs by the Academy Thursday. I missed George Lucas' appearance on CBS This Morning, where he pretty much called the Oscars what they are: “a political campaign.”

Of course, Lucas has maintained his fiercely independent ways for years and, as a non-member who has no desire to join the Academy (for these reasons), is perfectly content with being this outspoken. “It has nothing to do with artistic endeavor,” he said.” What it does is I think it hurts everybody.”

In dealing with perceived racism within the group – not specifically re: “Selma,” but in general – he made the same point Jessica Chastain did, that Awards are just a reflection of a disease. “You're not talking about the show [when you talk about racism], you're talking about Hollywood,” he said. “It's not just the show. It's everything, everywhere…David [Oyelowo] was in 'Red Tails' [which Lucas produced]. We went through the same thing on 'Red Tails': Those kind of movies are very hard to get out there.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Boone Isaacs was asked about the situation by the Associated Press and she offered up the company lines:

“In the last two years, we've made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization through admitting new members and more inclusive classes of members. And, personally, I would love to see and look forward to see a greater cultural diversity among all our nominees in all of our categories.”

And:

“What is important not to lose sight of is that 'Selma,' which is a fantastic motion picture, was nominated for best picture this year, and the best picture category is voted on by the entire membership of around 7,000 people.”

I still maintain that in a great many instances – actors and directors who did not receive screeners before the holiday break due to agency mailings, for instance – the film was underseen. I think “racism” is a stretch, even if I know that those pointing to last year's Best Picture victory for “12 Years a Slave” fail to understand that many people did not see that film, but voted for it anyway.

But I think Lucas' point and Chastain's still stands, objectively. Getting “these kind of films” – i.e., films from a minority point of view – remain difficult to push through the system, for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, “American Sniper” is predictably cleaning up at the box office and leaving many wondering if it's catching a stride at the perfect time. If it does, and that is reflected in Oscar glory next month – watch out.

Check out Lucas' interview below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0NLbukrq4]

I am ready for Oscar speeches. I am ready for badass Oscar speeches. And here are 10 that remind you what it looks like when a bad-ass wields a gold statue and tells it like it is. 

1. Lee Grant remembers what Hollywood did to her. And now they will never forget.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVQlWL31WCo]

Lee Grant, who won a Best Supporting Actress for “Shampoo,” was blacklisted in the '50s and had to put her entire career on hold. She eventually rebounded with an Emmy for “Peyton Place” and a couple of Oscar nominations. When the time came to approach the dais, she had reckoning on her mind. Addressing her Oscar, she said, “We had a fight 20 years ago. I think he's changed. I know I haven't.” BAM.

2. George Burns was the hottest young star of '75.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUBZsCYc1w]

George Burns picked up an Oscar for “The Sunshine Boys” at the age of 80. And yet, he was somehow the youngest star in the room. His quote: “I've been in show business all of my life and I've loved every minute of it. Tonight proves one thing: If you stay in the business long enough and if you get to be old enough, you get to be new again.”

3. Sandy Powell wins a third Oscar for “The Young Victoria” and acts like Queen Victoria while doing so.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrWSYC07nYA]

Sandy Powell, empress of movie fashions, won her third Oscar for costuming “The Young Victoria,” which might just be the most costumey movie of all time. When her name was announced, she sauntered up to the stage looking like the most fabulously suspicious character in a murder mystery and sighed: “Well, I already have two of these. So I'm feeling greedy.” She added, “I'd like to dedicate this one to the costume designers that don't do movies about dead monarchs or glittery musicals. The designers that do the contemporary films and the low-budget ones don't get as recognized, and they should. They work as hard. So this is for you, but I'm going to take it home.” Grateful, haughty, respectful, and haughty again. Perfect.

4. Cate Blanchett would like more Blue Jasmines in the world, guys.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=squYKgRWZN0]

True glamor and a perfect speech. Cate Blanchett had something major to say about “Blue Jasmine” and female protagonists when she won her second Oscars: “[There are] those of us in the industry who are still clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them, and in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

5. Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein puts it all in perspective for you.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zn-fPM4KS0]

Gerda Weissman Klein was part of the Oscar-winning documentary short subject “One Survivor Remembers,” and she took only a minute or so to blow the audience's mind with some perspective about war and what “winning” means. I won't even quote it here, it's so good. Just watch.

6. Shirley MacLaine is as gracious and tired as ever. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqSEH_bVRz8]Before toasting James L. Brooks, Jack Nicholson, and “the turbulent brilliance” of Debra Winger (LOL), Shirley MacLaine began her Oscar speech with a desperate confession: “I'm going to cry because this show has been as long as my career.” Hilarious and withering as always, our Shirl.

7. Lupita Nyong'o gave perhaps the greatest Oscar speech. Full stop.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73fz_uK-vhs]

Lupita Nyong'o won an Oscar for her debut performance in “12 Years a Slave,” a movie where she plays the cruelly treated slave Patsey. The subject of Solomon Northup's story is incredibly grim, and she managed to acknowledge that thoroughly and graceful at the Oscars. “It does not escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's. And so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey for her guidance.” The rest of the speech is divine and literary-level great too.

8. Ingrid Bergman thinks her own Oscar is b.s.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky5sW4no_cg]

“It's always very nice to get an Oscar,” Ingrid Bergman mused while accepting her third Oscar for a very slight role in “Murder on the Orient Express.” “But in the past [Oscar] has shown that he is very forgetful and that his timing is wrong.” She then added that the Oscar should've gone to co-nominee Valentina Cortese, who played an actress in the Truffaut film “Day for Night.” “I'm her rival and I don't like it at all!” Bergman said. “Forgive me, Valentina, I didn't mean to!” Holler to the Swedish supernova Ingrid Bergman for being the classiest legend in the room.

9. Stage and screen icon Ruth Gordon finds her first Oscar “encouraging.”[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxsLNhH0yjA]

“I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is,” said Ruth Gordon as she picked up a trophy at age 72 for “Rosemary's Baby.” She'd been a stage star for 50 years. She wrote an Oscar-nominated screenplay in the early '50s. She had done it all, yet played the ingenue here. Amazing. Her final line is a towering Oscar moment. She said, “And thank all of you who voted for me, and to everyone who didn't: please, excuse me.”

10. Do not interfere with Cuba Gooding Jr.'s joy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCMqr1QRQw]

Cuba Gooding Jr. was not intimdated by the blast of music that tried to usher him offstage for his “Jerry Maguire” win. He shouted through it and earned the most honest standing ovation in Oscar history. It is actually kind of inspiring.

BEVERLY HILLS – When sitting down for a “Blackhat” chat with director Michael Mann a few weeks ago, I had to ask him about the transition to digital filmmaking as an industry standard. Having already queried a number of our top cinematographers on the matter and written a piece about “Collateral's” legacy in that regard, and given the techno-drive of a movie like “Blackhat,” it felt like territory worth digging into.

And Mann digs in with intellectual ferocity, like anything else. “When I first shot some stuff digitally it was in 'Ali,'” he says. “We went on the roof of a building in Chicago, we had a couple of cameras and I took a flashlight, bounced it off a card and that was all the lighting. It was very little lighting. And it felt that what I saw was there was a truthfulness to the graphic that just blew me away. It felt like, 'Holy shit. The film crew's not here but this has really happened.' And I tried to define for myself what I was seeing. What I was seeing was the absence of film lighting. We're used to a certain convention of film lighting. It's an artifact, but we're used to it. We applaud when [Vittorio] Storaro does it. It's great. I love it. But when you subtract it, stuff feels real in a certain way. It's all mid-tones. There's no key light and fill.”

That manipulation is what he's always eager to get around when he works. The ratio of light to shadow on a subject, “we manipulate that to how I want to feel about you,” he says. “If I want to see deeper into your eyes, I bring that light down or I raise the fill or I put a card here. When you eliminate the artifact of theatrical lighting, suddenly truth seems to show up. I believe more that it's really happening. Ali is really on that roof. He's really working out. He's distracted by something in the distance and he realizes buildings are burning all over the city, because it's the night Martin Luther King got killed. I just felt that immediacy of it.”

That initial eureka moment is what attracted him to the form's conventions, and of course he took them headlong into “Collateral” three years later. Digital photography was even more important for that project, however, because of the film's time-of-day setting: Los Angeles at night.

“With film, you don't have any depth of field,” he says. “I wanted to see way into the distance, two miles down the street. I wanted to see like the burnt umber that's like a ceiling in this city, that reddish glow on the marine layer 900-1200 feet up, and see deep into the city and the sodium vapor and everything that makes that color. That had to be digital. But there weren't even look-up tables, the equivalent of a color table. We invented all of that, myself and [Second Unit Director] Bryan Carroll, actually.”

Within all of that, though, Mann says he has finally settled on what it is about digital that excites him as an artist looking for meaning in an aesthetic. And the analogy he has settled on is architecture.

“When steel came in to architecture in New York, they tended to use it to make buildings go up, but they didn't know what to make them look like,” he says. “So they took the basic maison – or a house, the ground floor – then they made the premier étage – the first floor – fancy. And then where there would be one or two stories and then a roof of the pediment, they stretched that to 30 stories. So if you think about all those buildings right around the turn of the century that are starting to use steel, they're all the same. They've got a couple of fancy floors, they've then got brick for 30 floors and then they've got a roof. It's like you want to slice 18 of the 20 floors out, drop it down and you've got a house, right?

“Whereas in Chicago and the Chicago school of architecture, they said, 'No,' that the structural technology should dictate – i.e. its function, to make a building tall – should dictate its form. And so the first building that really looks like a skyscraper, that is the first tall building in form, is the Monadnock Building in Chicago. And it's no accident that the institute of design – when all the Bauhaus architects, with the advent in '33 of the Nazi party being elected and they all fled – they all went to Chicago. Mies van der Rohe and the whole crew, they all went to Chicago in the '30s and developed the actual true form of the skyscraper. I apply that analogy to digital because I want to find my aesthetic in digital. I don't want to use digital to make it look like I'm shooting photochemical. I want to find and derive an aesthetic from what the technology can really do.”

What digital can do, he says, is offer much more range and variability than film. You can achieve many looks and that's attractive to him. What it does impose on a filmmaker, however, is the need to pre-visualize. “Photochemical is limited,” he says. “You've got the ASA of the stock. You can put more or less light through because of your f-stop, shutter speed, and then you've got the variable of the lighting. But the stock is static. In digital it's not static and we have much more variety. So rules of thumb don't work. For me, I want to research and develop what the look is that I want and then pre-vis the look and then go get that look. I want to get it in the camera. I don't like the idea of shooting some neutral look and then doing it in post.”

It's perfectly in keeping with an artist who so obsessively delights in the details of the worlds he crafts on the screen. It makes sense that he would do so in the technology that drives them into being as well. But interestingly enough, it's not like he has no plans of looking back. “If I had something that would really benefit from being shot with film, I would do it,” he says. “And in certain situations, it's logistically a lot simpler. You throw a mag on and boom. I'm not precious about it. I'm not an advocate for one technology or another. But I do get irritated with, and I've always been irritated with, the labs. They're lazy. 'Public Enemies' was gorgeous. But the prints people saw were sloppy. They were photochemical release prints made to what the labs considered their standards, which are really low. People who saw the film digitally saw the film we made. Today, if I had made the film, everyone would have seen it digitally. So all the criticism of that one, it wasn't that it was shot digitally. It's that it was on photo chemical prints.”

And speaking of “Ali,” which was shot by this year's toast of the medium, Emmanuel Lubezki, I selfishly make it clear that I would love to see the two of them work together again. It's certainly possible. “Chivo is great,” he says. “I'd love to work with him again. The stuff that he and my pal Alejandro [González Iñárritu] did on 'Birdman' is so fucking good. I went nuts. We were talking about it before he shot it. He had some anxieties about it, just out socially. I was just so happy for him. It was a really great accomplishment. He's a real artist. But a DP is like casting an actor. 'Is this guy right for that movie?' It depends on if the right movie comes around.”

“Blackhat” is now playing in theaters.

We knew going into the announcement of the 87th Academy Awards nominations that there were a number of tight races. We knew Lead Actor could flip upside down and surprise. We knew Directing was a questionable field and that, as always, categories such as Sound Mixing and Sound Editing could throw everyone a major curve ball or two. No one was surprised, then, when all those “surprises” and “snubs” actually came to pass. That being said, how did In Contention's Oscar pundits do with their own predictions? Let's take a look…

First off, Kris Tapley gets a gold star for even attempting to predict the Live Action Short, Animated Short and Documentary Short categories (how he did was another matter). Second, both Tapley and myself predicted nine Best Picture nominees. Because there were eight we are noting a “minus one” on our overall scores. Here's the rundown:

Gregory Ellwood – 85 (-1) correct out of 106 = 80%
Kristopher Tapley – 87 (-1) correct out of 106 = 82%

*Kris went 9 for 15 for the shorts

Some key takeaways:

– Ellwood correctly predicted Foreign Language Film, Sound Editing, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor and the eight Best Picture nominees that got in

– Tapley correctly predicted Foreign Language Film, Cinematography, Supporting Actor and the eight Best Picture nominees that got in

– Tapley nailed the Cinematography nomination for “Ida”

– In below-the-line categories Ellwood underestimated “Sniper” and overestimated “Big Eyes,” while Tapley overestimated “Imitation Game” and underestimated “Interstellar”

– Both Ellwood and Tapley didn't believe “Foxcatcher” would get in by a nose for Makeup and Hairstyling or “Inherent Vice” would fit into Costume Design

– Ellwood's worst categories were Production Design, Lead Actor and Directing (3 correct). Tapley's worst were Editing and Directing (3 correct)

How did you do in your predictions?

One of the “surprise” nominations Thursday morning that I felt like I saw coming once the BAFTA nominees were revealed was “Ida's” recognition in the Best Cinematography category. Part of my reasoning was that just last year, the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) handed it the organization's inaugural Spotlight Award. If industry cinematographers were still nominating the film a year later (i.e., the BAFTA nod), then surely it still had enough heat to make it in. And so it did. Now, a day later, this year's ASC Spotlight Award nominees have been unveiled.

Once again, a foreign black-and-white film, Finland's “Concrete Night,” is in the mix as director of photography Peter Flinkenberg got a nomination.

Also in play, and what an awesome inclusion, is Darius Khondji for his jaw-droppingly gorgeous work on James Gray's “The Immigrant.”

Rounding things out is Daniel Landin, whose atmospheric work on Jonathan Glazer's “Under the Skin” got its share of precursor recognition this year.

“These nominees have created some of the more inspiring and imaginative visuals our members have seen recently,” ASC Awards Chairman Lowell Peterson said. “We're proud to recognize their innovative work, and we hope at the same time to raise the profile of these films, so more audience have a chance to see their outstanding imagery.”

And that's the goal of the ASC's Spotlight Award. I remember when I first heard that the idea of initiating this honor was being kicked around a few years ago, I thought it was a great idea. The metric is a little bit ambiguous – “to recognize outstanding cinematography in features and documentaries that are typically screened at film festivals, internationally or in limited release” – but I've taken to just considering it a sort of “indie” offshoot of the awards. And why not? Great work like the above deserves recognition from the guild. I only hope that it doesn't become overtly ghettoized, because if something like “Ida” is good enough to be an Oscar nominee, maybe it should be good enough to be a full-on ASC nominee and not merely relegated to a side category. Reality being what it is, though, it's great to have the venue.

Winners of this year's ASC Spotlight Award will be announced alongside all other winners at the 29th annual ASC Awards on Feb. 15.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4911505205001

The biggest Oscar shocker yesterday morning, bar none, was “The LEGO Movie” missing out on a nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. For many, it was the frontrunner to win the Oscar, and indeed, its absence has everyone still in the category thinking they might have a play on this thing.

My bet would be on “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” which won the Golden Globe last weekend. But there are those on the Disney campaign who are making everything they can of the statistic that no film that wasn't nominated by BAFTA has ever won this particular Oscar. So the “Big Hero 6” fire will surely get a lot of kindling next week.

There was a bit of a silver lining Thursday night, however, as “The LEGO Movie” won the animated prize at the 20th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. Director Christopher Miller called the day a “roller coaster of emotions,” echoing in some ways “Argo” director Ben Affleck's quip on the show a few years ago upon being snubbed of a Best Director Oscar nomination: “I'd like to thank the Academy.” It was nice that they got a moment like that, and when I circled around to “Dragon 2” director Dean DeBlois at one point during the show, he mentioned how happy he was for them.

Yesterday morning, DeBlois was as surprised by the omission as everyone else. “I try best not to be presumptuous about it because every now and then there are those bizarre omissions,” he said. “I went to bed thinking 'I hope we make the cut.' I was happy to hear our name mentioned and was shocked when 'LEGO' wasn't. It bums me out because Chris and Phil are great guys and they made a great movie. But I also see the artistic merit in the other nominees like 'The Tale of Princess Kaguya' and 'Song of the Sea.' They're both amazing movies in their own way.”

Indeed, GKIDS was the party crasher this year, just like three years ago when the indie distribution company landed nominations for “The Cat in Paris” and “Chico & Rita” while major studio players like “Arthur Christmas,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Cars 2” and “Rio” ended up on the sidelines. This will continue to happen, I would wager, as the animation branch is full of, if not purists, then certainly those who want to see the value of traditional animation propagated.

“I'm obviously a fan of hand-drawn animation, having come from that background, so I applaud that being continued,” DeBlois told me. “I think the animation branch is made up of many classically trained, hand-drawn animators, and they certainly do their best to keep the medium alive and in the public eye, and the Academy is a great way of doing that and recognizing and celebrating them. And it's important, I think, because a lot of those skills get lost as everyone focuses on computer animation. There's always a danger that the art form of hand-drawn animation and all of its sort of time-honed techniques will be lost in time.”

But again, the race is now on. For GKIDS, the nominations might be the win, but you never know. If you can get enough people to watch the screeners, magic can happen. But Disney and Focus will probably step up their game considerably.

We'll see how it shakes out, but it's hard for me not to pull for “Dragon 2,” obviously. And if indeed film claims the prize, it will be a nice moment for producer Bonnie Arnold (who recently got the bump upstairs to DreamWorks Animation co-chief). She and a number of producers at other studios lobbied the Academy recently in order to allow for producers to be nominated alongside directors in the animated feature category, which is only fitting seeing as producers claim victory in the live action Best Picture category. It makes sense that the creative lead and the producing lead share in the recognition, and so should the film win, she'll be able to take the stage right alongside DeBlois.

Meanwhile, here's a great shot courtesy of “The Book of Life” director Jorge R. Gutierrez from last night's awards show. That's Gutierrez on the left and moving right, his wife and fellow animator Sandra Equihua, “Big Hero 6” director Chris Williams, “The Boxtrolls” directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and DeBlois in front.

Congrats @chrizmillr @philiplord !! We could not be happier for you. @JustChris @tonystacchi @grickle @DeanDeBlois pic.twitter.com/TelWXRWIow

– Jorge R. Gutierrez (@mexopolis) January 16, 2015

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Who are you predicting to win Best Animated Feature Film? Can “Big Hero 6” pull it off? Do the GKIDS entries have a prayer? Will “The Boxtrolls” creep in and snatch it away? Sound off in the comments.

Lots was made yesterday of “Selma” missing out on key Oscar nominations across the board, save for Best Picture and Best Original Song. A hashtag – #OscarsSoWhite – even ended up trending in the US. on Twitter. The question I was left with was whether the outrage was being properly placed.

There is nuance to the “Selma” situation. I hate to dig down into the screener issue again, but with many of them arriving to the agencies of actors and directors on Dec. 19, with much of the industry beginning to shut down and tons of re-routing happening, I remain convinced that a great many still had not seen the film when they voted. I also maintain, resolutely, that “Selma” can still win Best Picture (and over on Melrose, the people at Paramount feel the same way). Phase two is a different ballgame.

But nuance aside, the issue of diversity in filmmaking is absolutely worth tackling. And even with missed opportunities with the likes of Gillian Flynn (obviously they didn't care for “Gone Girl” across the board) or Angelina Jolie (ditto), I find that the Academy is less representative than reflective. First and foremost, it's not a monolithic being making singular choices, as I've pointed out. But to take umbrage with the lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations is, to me, to take umbrage with the lack of diversity in the industry. That's where the problem lies, not with the 7,000 people who annually speak up on the best of it.

The Best Actress category, for instance, was considered “weak” all season. And it was. My favorite lead actress performance of the year was Gugu Mbatha-Raw in “Beyond the Lights,” but that was certainly a film that could have done with more campaigning. The way the category was shaking down, it was a thin group of plausible contenders; it's a wonder Marion Cotillard was able to push in, though, because unlike Jennifer Aniston's cause, hers was mostly muted outside of critical adoration.

The issue is systemic. Not to be reductive, but as an illustration: Stories with strong female characters aren't typically pushed through the system, due in part to the overall lack of female artistic voices given a chance to produce them. So actresses aren't given the opportunities to put out these performances and, ergo, the performances don't exist for the Academy to choose from. The end result isn't a choice, it's a reflection.

Anyway, I'm sure whatever point I'm getting at is muddled in all of that, but in the simplest of terms, I think #HollywoodSoWhite is more in keeping. And so I was delighted with Jessica Chastain's acceptance speech at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards last night as “MVP” of the year for coming at it from that angle.

“Today is Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday,” she said. “So it got me thinking about the need to build the strength of diversity in our industry and to stand together against homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and racist agendas.”

She went on to state that she's optimistic for the future, before wrapping up with a quote from King: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” And in closing she said, “I would like to encourage everyone in this room to please speak up.”

Check out the full speech below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewnM1mHX2Ec]

One of the best pieces of Oscar-related video is the footage of Steven Spielberg watching the nominees be revealed in 1975. Spielberg's “Jaws” was up for tons of awards, of course, but one of them – shockingly – was not Best Director. As Spielberg watched every name but his be called, he held his head in his hands and looked on with disbelief. “I got beaten out by Fellini” and the documented hand-wringing over the miss lived on in infamy.

Making the rounds today is a video blog of “Force Majeure” producer Erik Hemmendorff and Ruben Östlund watching the Best Foreign Language Film nominees be unveiled. Östlund's reaction moves from gleeful acceptance to anger to silence to off-screen weeping. Given that the film is very much about male ego and features a similar scene where a man breaks down into hysterics, the question has arisen as to whether it's a staged joke. I think it most surely is for those reasons, and there are sources indicating as much at other outlets. But let me proceed with the assumption that it's not in order to try and make a point.

It's easy, as someone who knows how this sausage is made, who has covered the awards season landscape for 15 years, to sit here and say this kind of reaction is ridiculous. But I'm sure it's all too real year after year. The circuit is a significant grind and an Oscar nomination means different things to different people. Often, as one Oscar-nominated director has told me in the past, it simply means being able to continue making the stories you want to make. That is significant capital for an artist, and one can imagine the emotions that stream out of such a circumstance.

Last night's Critics' Choice Movie Awards featured a number of actors and artists who weren't nominated for an Oscar yesterday morning: Jennifer Aniston, Antonio Sanchez (whose fate was sealed a few weeks ago when his “Birdman” score was disqualified), Ava DuVernay, Jessica Chastain, “The LEGO Movie” directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, etc. Östlund's film actually won the foreign film prize. With the Broadcast Film Critics Association sticking by this date every year in order to be the first red carpet Oscar nominees find themselves on, there is also the potential for people who are neglected to simply bow out of attending. It's always nice to see those who put on a brave face, though.

Getting back to the circuit, it turns art into a bit of a meat market, yes. But within that, there are dreams, and dreams are shattered each and every year. We snipe and cheer in equal measure from the sidelines, but they're running the race. And I really do tip my hat to all of them for having the stomach to proceed through it all. Sometimes it works out, sometimes you're beaten out by Fellini.

Check out the Spielberg and Östlund videos below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTWqLmnjt0][youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mgrxvTdl-Q]