As Oscar’s phase one drew to a close and the nominations were set to be unveiled, the film press corps was getting its first look at one movie that dodged all of that commotion last year: George Clooney’s “The Monuments Men.” It’s set for release next week and with its arrival, one can only ask: was Sony smart to move it out of the season?

The easy answer is “yes.” This isn’t the awards film it might have been. But that’s not a value judgment or a criticism. Let me explain.

I was a little surprised by “The Monuments Men” in that it doesn’t take the bait of its own premise. It ended up steering clear of being an overtly plot-driven thing, which is unexpected given how meaty the story is. And indeed, I wasn’t alone. I spoke with the film’s cinematographer Phedon Papamichael about it at the recent Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony – he’s nominated this year for Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.” He told me there was a lot of that sort of stuff, plot-driven, active material that apparently didn’t make it into the final cut.

Reports at the time of the film’s move to 2014 indicated that Clooney was still trying to find the right tone and, according to the director and star, he “just didn’t have enough time.” Seeing the finished product now, and taking Papamichael’s comments into account, I can see that was the case. But getting out of the season had plenty to do with staying away from the kinds of expectations that build toward the end of a given year. “He thought he could just open it and say, ‘Hey, guys, this isn’t an awards movie,'” one person close to Clooney told me at the time. Alas, that time of year is a self-cannibalising mess, so I can’t imagine launching then unless you’re ready and willing to play that game.

Ultimately, the film ended up being much more character-driven and character-focused than I anticipated. It has a classical feel, each new scene or segment playing out like a little vignette, almost. Part of that is because the cast is scattered throughout, Matt Damon’s scenes mostly shared with Cate Blanchett in one European locale, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin’s in another, Bill Murray and Bob Balaban’s in another, etc. This leads to a lot of interesting little moments between the characters and the whole things has an easy feel to it. Murray and Balaban in particular have one such moment, quietly conveyed in the snow-blown periphery of the Battle of the Bulge, that I found touching and evidence of Clooney not taking the simple route with this film.

It would not have found much traction during the season, though. Particularly not with Sony tied up with “American Hustle” and “Captain Phillips” campaigns. It’s handsomely wrought, Papamichael’s work and that of the art and costume departments finely rendered. I suppose it could have found some purchase below the line. But it would have been a hard sell overall because, again, it simply doesn’t take the bait of its own premise. It doesn’t go for that obvious angle. And that’s frankly admirable.

“The Monuments Men” opens nationwide on Feb. 7.

If it seems like just the other day that Tom Sherak was in the headlines for happier reasons, that’s because it pretty much was. Only last autumn, the former 20th Century Fox chief was named by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti as the city’s senior film advisor, or “film czar.” And that appointment came with his presidency of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still a very fresh memory: he stepped down from the position in 2012. He was a hard worker — all the more so when you consider that he had been battling prostate cancer for the last 12 years. Sadly, the fight ended yesterday; Sherak passed away at his California home aged 68.

Sherak’s Hollywood career was a storied one. Beginning his career in the distribution arm of Paramount, he went on enjoy a 17-year tenure at Fox — three of them as their head of US distribution. There, he supervised the release of such blockbusters as “Aliens,” “Die Hard,” “Home Alone” and “Independence Day.” He left in 2000 to found the production company Revolution Studios, which produced over 30 films, including “Black Hawk Down,” “13 Going on 30” and “Hellboy,” before folding in 2007.

It was for his three-year stint as the Academy president, however, that he’ll be best remembered in these parts — not least because he steered the Oscars through one of their most topsy-turvy periods. Having taken the post in 2009, it was Sherak who was holding the reins in the year of the big, still-contentious switch to 10 Best Picture nominees, and Sherak again who oversaw the adjustment to the more elastic 5-to-10 nomination system. He also drove the Academy’s move toward electronic voting, and was a major dealmaker in plans for the Academy’s forthcoming film museum.

Somewhat denting his presidency, however, were the ill-conceived Oscar ceremonies that took place under his watch. 2011’s Anne Hathaway-James Franco fiasco was perceived by many as an all-time low for the institution, and the collapse the following year of Sherak’s planned Brett Ratner-Eddie Murphy show resulted in nearly as many red faces in the Academy, even if Billy Crystal came to the rescue late in the day.

Still, Sherak will be remembered as an Academy president who took bold chances, even if they didn’t all come off. Current Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs had this to say: “In the more than 30 years I’ve known Tom, his passionate support of and excitement about the motion picture business, the Academy, his family and friends never wavered. He was truly larger than life, and he will be missed.”

This strikes me as, at best, a half-baked idea: in addition to the theme of “heroes” for this year’s ceremony, the Oscars will also feature a tribute to “The Wizard of Oz” to mark the 75th anniversary of its release. (Well, sort of: it was an August release.) ”We are delighted to celebrate the birthday of one of the most beloved movies of all time at this year”s Oscars,” say producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Still, why single out just one film from 1939, widely perceived as Hollywood’s annus mirabilis? And why not wait until next year, the 75th anniversary of the 1939 ceremony, and do a more considered tribute to the Oscar class of that year, including “Oz,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Stagecoach” and so on? Just a thought. [Deadline]

Richard Halsey and Robert C. Jones will be presented with lifetime achievement honors at the American Cinema Editors Awards next week. [Screen Daily]

Julie Delpy corrects anyone under the impression that the “Before Midnight” script was improvised in any way. [Variety]

Mark Caro considers the pros and cons of this year’s extended awards season. [Chicago Tribune]

Xan Brooks wonders what represents the greater danger to spoilerphobes: trailers or critics. [The Guardian]

“Gravity” was the big winner at the 3D Creative Arts Awards. (Who’d have thought?) [Variety]

“Frozen” songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez talk about topping the charts (and beating Beyoncé.) [New York Times]

The Emmy Awards are moving to August, and will take place on a Monday night. [Hollywood Reporter]

Well, here’s a fresh perspective: Kevin Fallon thinks “American Hustle” is — wait for it — “overrated.” [Daily Beast]

The Oscars are on the way and with it, a slew of viewing parties and office pools in need of downloadable Oscar ballots. Well, look no further, because HitFix has you covered. Print a bunch of these out and pass them around at your Oscar night gathering, and get a leg up on your friends by studying the race with us here each and every day in the lead-up to the Academy Awards.

Click here to download this year’s Oscar ballot!

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4911761047001

One of the big names missing when the Oscar nominations were revealed earlier this month was media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who won acclaim for her supporting turn in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” but failed to pick up a nomination.

Her absence from the supporting actress category was considered by many pundits to be the biggest snub of the nominations, but Oprah herself is reportedly OK with it.

Her good pal Gayle King — co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” and editor-at-large for Winfrey’s “O” Magazine” — spoke to HitFix about the supposed snub in the video interview posted above.

“She doesn’t feel snubbed at all,” King explains. “She’s really good. And she loves Lupita” [Nyong’o], who earned a nomination for “12 Years A Slave.”

Now, does anyone know how Tom Hanks feels about his snub? 

It seems an uncommon occurrence for the live action short Oscar category to feel so much more compelling than its animated counterpart. Perhaps that’s because the potential for instant gratification is so readily apparent in the animated field, or that the animators so often have a wide array of styles and media up their collective sleeve, making for a fresh-feeling crop every year. But I can’t remember the last time the live action nominees made for this stacked a race, and indeed, like the animated shorts and the documentary shorts, the field is in keeping with the overall trend throughout the Oscars this year: thick competition.

When I really dive into these films, I feel as though there are two that rise above the fray, but one could easily see any of these proving a fetching choice for voters. The least (and, by far, shortest) of them, even has an angle given the recent penchant for rewarding comedy in this category. So let’s start there.

Selma Vilhunen’s “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” is a swift affair – not even seven minutes in length. It’s a gag piece, depicting a family hurriedly preparing for a wedding, late and rushed as the mother frantically holds things together. It all builds to a facile climax but it never feels overly familiar, which is actually an accomplishment with material this, well, familiar. Much of that is probably owed to a great and natural turn from actress Joanna Haartti, as well as an established sense of unpredictability throughout. You smile when it’s over. That can go a long way, particularly as much of this field deals in more sobering subject matter.

Which is a good enough segue to those two I see rising above the other nominees, and beginning with “Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me),” well, talk about an established sense of unpredictability. This film, from Spanish director Esteban Crespo, was so affecting I had to take a breather when it was over. It’s a story of a border crossing gone wrong in an undisclosed war-ravaged African country, children set up as ominous gun-toting soldiers and all the familiar imagery that conjures. But it keeps you glued to the screen with each new turn in the script, ultimately becoming a pretty powerful story of redemption carried exquisitely by wrenching performances from Alejandra Lorente and Gustavo Salmerón, among others.

If it were me with a ballot, I don’t know how I could keep from checking the box next to this one. Even when the film runs into trouble handling action territory, poor effects and compromised photography threatening to break the spell, it maintains focus on its story, unspooling with confidence every step of the way. It’s impressive to pack this much into a short.

That said, I don’t have a ballot, and those who do may well be moved by less harrowing material. And while “Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)” is hardly a walk in the park, it’s a few steps down from the gut-punch of Crespo’s film. It certainly doesn’t sacrifice suspense, though, as it reveals its narrative with a measured pace, letting information out like a slow leak.

The narrative is one of a domestically abused woman looking to make a getaway with her children and the difficult practical steps that have to be taken along the way, and when recognizable actor Denis Ménochet (“Inglourious Basterds”) pops up in this one, a chill runs through your spine. Like “That Wasn’t Me,” this one has won a pretty decent amount of awards across the globe. It was directed by actor Xavier Legrand (“Au Revoir Les Enfants”) and it could be one to watch for.

Even less harrowing than all of that but still registering emotionally is “Helium,” from director Anders Walter. This is the kind of thing where, when you just read the synopsis on paper, you can easily see winning. An eccentric hospital janitor tells a dying boy of the world of Helium and the boy longs for this heavenly place. Beautiful visual effects and design render the fantasy well and the craft on the whole is handsome. But “on paper” doesn’t always compute with these categories, and while “Helium” is the only film to register these kinds of touching grace notes, it faces stiff competition elsewhere.

Which brings me to “The Voorman Problem” and a secret weapon shared among many live action short winners: recognizable actors. Martin Freeman (the “Hobbit” franchise) stars opposite Tom Hollander (the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise) in this “K-PAX”-like story of a doctor called in to study a prisoner who claims to be a god. Surely not, right? Well with one trick – well, two of them ultimately – this swift 12-minute affair has that doctor wondering by film’s end and it’s just the sort of tight ship one could see winning the category, much like, say, “The New Tenants.”

Worth noting is “The Voorman Problem,” while it hasn’t picked up as many trophies out there on the circuit as the other nominees have, it’s had a larger overall awards presence with tons of nominations and citations, including a BAFTA nomination last year.

The longest of the lot, at just over 30 minutes, is “Avant Que De Tout Perdre,” and I feel like its deeply serious content could drive it over the edge. But if you put me on the spot, I might just go with my heart and say “Aquel No Era Yo.” If you made me sit and really think about it, I might say “The Voorman Problem.” But then the nagging sense that lighter touches would prevail from “Helium” and, to a lesser extent, “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa?,” would bother me.

So yeah, I see an angle for all of these and can’t quite commit to a prediction just yet. Thankfully I have over a month to decide.

You’ll have a chance to decide for yourself later this week as the nominees for Best Live Action Short Film will be released in theaters as part of Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures’ annual Oscar Nominated Shorts showcase on Jan. 31. They arrive on VOD Feb. 25.

We neglected to report on the nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards a little earlier this month, and while there is zero overlap between their list and the Academy’s, more than a few of these names should be familiar to you. Leading the way with 10 nomination is Denis Villeneuve’s Jake Gyllenhaal-starring thriller “Enemy,” which was somewhat overshadowed at the Toronto fest last year by the pair’s Hollywood collaboration, “Prisoners.” Gyllenhaal joins the Best Actor field along with two other notable non-Canucks, Brendan Gleeson and Daniel Radcliffe. Not present in the category is Xavier Dolan, but the boy wonder’s kinky noir “Tom at the Farm” (one of my 2013 Top 10) scored eight nods, including Best Picture. Also nominated in the top field: Canada’s unsuccessful Oscar submission “Gabrielle.” Full list of nominees after the jump. Keep up with the season at The Circuit.

Best Film
“The Dismantlement”
“Empire of Dirt”
“Enemy”
“The F-Word”
“Gabrielle”
“The Grand Seduction”
“Maïna”
“Tom at the Farm”

Best Direction
Sébastien Pilote, “The Dismantlement”
Denis Villeneuve, “Enemy”
Michael Dowse, “The F-Word”
Xavier Dolan, “Tom at the Farm”
Pedro Pires and Robert Lepage, “Triptyque”

Best Documentary
“Hi-Ho Mistahey”
“My Prairie Home”
“People of a Feather”
“Vanishing Point”
“Watermark”

Best Actor
Gabriel Arcand, “The Dismantlement”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Enemy”
Daniel Radcliffe, “The F-Word”
Brendan Gleeson, “The Grand Seduction”
Rajesh Tailang, “Siddharth”

Best Actress
Tatiana Maslany, “Cas & Dylan”
Cara Gee, “Empire of Dirt”
Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, “Gabrielle”
Kawennahere Devery Jacobs, “Rhymes for Young Ghouls”
Isabelle Guérard, “Rouge Sang”

Best Supporting Actor
Jay Baruchel, “The Art of the Steal”
Alexandre Landry, “Gabrielle”
Gordon Pinsent, “The Grand Seduction”
Pierre-Yves Cardinal, “Tom at the Farm”
Marc Labrèche, “Whitewash”

Best Supporting Actress
Florence Blain, “L’autre maison”
Jennifer Podemski, “Empire of Dirt”
Sarah Gadon, “Enemy”
Mackenzie Davis, “The F-Word”
Evelyne Brochu, “Tom at the Farm”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Art of the Steal”
“The Dismantlement”
“Empire of Dirt”
“Siddharth”
“Whitewash”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Enemy”
“The F-Word”
“The Grand Seduction”
“Tom at the Farm”
“Triptyque”

Best Cinematography
“Enemy”
“Maïna”
“Mama”
“The Meteor”
“Upside Down”

Best Original Score
“Enemy”
“Maïna”
“Rock Paper Scissors”
“Rouge Sang”
“Tom at the Farm”

Best Original Song
“Molly” from “Down River”
“Far Away” from “The Legend of Sarila”
“It’s No Mistake” from “The Right Kind of Wrong”
“A la Clare fontaine” from “Rouge Sang”
“Ivo/Moses” from “Stay”

Best Production Design
“The Dismantlement”
“Enemy”
“Louis Cyr: The Strongest Man in the World”
“Maïna”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

Best Costume Design
“The Colony”
“Louis Cyr: The Strongest Man in the World”
“Maïna”
“Molly Maxwell”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

Best Film Editing
“Amsterdam”
“The Dirties”
“Empire of Dirt”
“Enemy”
“Gabrielle”

Best Makeup
“The Colony”
“Cottage Country”
“Maïna”
“Mama”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

Best Sound
“Amsterdam”
“Gabrielle”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”
“Siddharth”
“Tom at the Farm”

Best Sound Editing
“Amsterdam”
“Gabrielle”
“Louis Cyr: The Strongest Man in the World”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”
“Tom at the Farm”

Best Visual Effects
“Enemy”
“Louis Cyr: The Strongest Man in the World”
“Mama”
“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”
“Upside Down”

J.C. Chandor is pretty hot property these days. His first film, “Margin Call,” netted him an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay; “All is Lost” may not have garnered quite the awards attention people initially expected, but was still a formidable follow-up — one that earned him a Cannes berth, lest we forget. So hopes are high for Chandor’s third feature, “A Most Violent Year,” which is already building quite an ensemble.

Two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain and “Inside Llewyn Davis” breakout Oscar Isaac were already confirmed for the 1980s-set crime drama — another Chandor original — which centers on an immigrant family in New York whose burgeoning heating-oil business takes them into criminal territory. Now Albert Brooks has joined the project; he’ll play the lawyer of Isaac’s character.

Brooks, who was Oscar-nominated 26 years ago for “Broadcast News,” is an infrequent screen presence, though he’s been picking up the pace slightly. His villainous turn in “Drive,” which netted him numerous critics’ honors, ended a six-year break from non-animated film roles; he followed it up with a 2012 appearance in Judd Apatow’s “This is 40.” “A Most Violent Year” will be his first onscreen performance since then, though he also has voice roles in “The Little Prince” and, of course, Pixar’s “Finding Dory” to come.

Domestic distribution rights to “A Most Violent Year” were picked up by on-the-ball young company A24 at the Sundance Film Festival — where “Margin Call” debuted three years ago. Chandor’s regular producers Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb are back on board. The exciting below-the-line news, meanwhile, is that Chandor will be working with cinematographer Bradford Young — currently one of the best in the business, as anyone who saw last year’s double-shot of “Mother of George” and “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” would probably agree.

The film is currently set for a 2015 release.

Emma Thompson has bowed out of receiving the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Modern Master prize this year. “Nebraska” star Bruce Dern will be honored instead.

The news comes on the heels of Thompson surprisingly missing out on a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in “Saving Mr. Banks.” The John Lee Hancock film nearly scored a goose egg with the Academy, landing only a Best Original Score nomination.

According to the festival, Thompson “is unfortunately now not able to be in attendance as she is required for rehearsal in London on the New York Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd,'” but that’s a commitment she obviously had before accepting the honor to begin with. It seems clear that without a nomination, her stage work became the priority and she has therefore bowed out.

Here’s hoping other honorees that didn’t manage Oscar bids – such as Oprah Winfrey and Robert Redford – don’t get cold feet on the fest. This is kind of what you have to muscle through this time of year. The work is still worth celebrating, whether the Academy went for it or not.

In any case, Dern – who receive the Palm Springs Film Festival’s Career Achievement Award earlier this month – is a fine choice in Thompson’s stead. The “Nebraska” star received his second Oscar nomination to date this year, his first in the lead actor category. But he’s been a force of nature since he suited up and hit the turf with the dream of being an actor. So congratulations to him on yet another honor this season.

The 29th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival runs Jan. 30 – Feb. 9.

With apologies to any die-hard fans of “About Time,” we’re not exactly in a golden age for romantic comedies right now. Big-screen romance, however, is another matter: from “Before Midnight” to “Her” to “The Spectacular Now” to “Blue is the Warmest Color,” 2013 was a rich year for films about love in its many complicated forms. Alexander Huls wonders if change is afoot: “It may be optimistic to declare the synchronous timing of these movies to be a new emerging status quo … Still, I like to think prevalence could maybe mean change. Cinema, like nature, can abhor a vacuum. With no romantic-comedy revival in sight, and audiences” ability to occasionally adapt, there”s a chance a different kind of romance could ascend. Or romantic comedies could at least evolve to adapt these characteristics.” [The Atlantic]

Willa Paskin thinks “American Hustle” is the year’s flashiest, emptiest Best Picture nominee. I don’t think anyone has written this before. [Slate]

Alex von Tunzelmann, meanwhile, examines the film from a historical standpoint: it doesn’t really measure up, but she’s not too mad at it. [The Guardian]

Yours truly joins Nathaniel Rogers, Nick Davis and Katey Rich to discuss DGA, Sundance and fantasy Oscar ties on the Film Experience podcast. [Film Experience]

Animators Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting will work with Richard Linklater on his upcoming Warner Bros. fantasy “The Incredible Mr. Limpet.” [Screen Daily]

Undanted by the fact that they have zero chance of winning, DreamWorks is really campaigning the hell out of “The Croods”: it was the subject of an exhibition at the Pacific Design Center last week. [Variety]

Melena Ryzik notes some of the stealth Oscar campaigning that took place at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. [The Carpetbagger]

The Guardian Film Awards pick the 10 best scenes of 2013. [The Guardian]

Mike D’Angelo revisits the 2003 Best Supporting Actress race. I don’t think I’ve read kinder words for Renee Zellweger’s Oscar-winning turn in “Cold Mountain.” [The Dissolve]

When Alfonso Cuarón won the DGA prize Saturday night, I laid out my thoughts on why “Gravity” should be considered the de facto frontrunner in this year’s Best Picture race. With a PGA award (albeit in this case half of one) and a DGA honor in tow, it tends to be a done deal this time of year. But this isn’t a typical year by any stretch.

One thing that could end up playing against “Gravity” in the end is an elongated phase two. The Winter Olympics have stretched things out and that’s brutal for any film looking to maintain a certain buzz wave. At the moment, “Gravity” is cresting high on that wave (with added killer, relentless, epic new TV spots on key programming like last night’s Grammy Awards). But “12 Years a Slave” has been chugging along since the Golden Globes, steadily building steam. And it could hit a real high note just two days into the final phase of Oscar voting begins this year.

Yes, for the first time in quite a while (if ever), the BAFTA Awards could make a real difference. For years the ceremony across the pond was a more singular affair. For a number of years, in fact, it used to take place after the Oscars, away from the fray. The voting system used to be an inverse of the Academy’s, the entire membership voting on nominees across the various fields while the individual branches decided the winners in each category (save for Best Film and the acting categories, which were still open to the full membership).

However, all of that has slowly changed over the last decade. Beginning with the 2001 ceremony, the BAFTA Awards moved out of April and went back to taking place before the Oscars. But then that date began to creep up even more, eventually putting the show close to the start of Oscar voting in the first or second week of February. And then, finally, in the lead-up to the 2012-2013 awards season, the group completed its transition to Oscars shadow dancer by switching its process to mirror the Academy’s, individual branches voting on nominees and the overall membership voting on winners.

“The BAFTAs aren’t what they used to be,” a production-based industry insider with BAFTA ties across the pond tells me. “‘Filth’ and James McAvoy would have made it in here 10 years ago, truly great British cinema. Even [Best British Film nominee] ‘The Selfish Giant’ had to be saved by committee.”

All of that is to highlight the point that, more than ever, the BAFTA Awards seem to be in a real place of affecting the buzz wave this year as we find ourselves in a dead heat for the Best Picture Oscar, “Gravity” in one corner, “12 Years a Slave” in the other. The former led nominations with the Brits, but only just, as its Best British Film nomination sent it ahead of “12 Years” and “American Hustle” on the final tally.

That actually ended up being an interesting bone of contention for some members of the organization, though. In reporting on the nominations, our own Guy Lodge called the film “newly British,” noting his surprise that “BAFTA effectively claimed it as their own” with that Best British Film nomination. As it turns out, though, it’s entirely possible “Gravity” misses out on both the Best Film and Best British Film trophies as a response.

“It seems quite a few are reactionary voting for ’12 Years’ in Best Film and ‘Philomena’ in Best British Film because they feel ‘Gravity’ doesn’t truly feel like a British film (even though it genuinely is one, unlike ‘Saving Mr. Banks’),” my BAFTA insider says. “And a lot of them felt they were going to vote for ’12 Years’ in Best British Film, but then it didn’t get nominated there, hence the support in Best Film.”

Steve McQueen’s film passed the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) test for consideration as a “British film,” so it is a bit odd that it didn’t make the cut in the category. But that only seems to be galvanizing some members into supporting it. “People are truly proud of it,” the insider says. “BAFTA-winning British director, British cast (mostly). Plus, it’s just opened here, so the press was high on it right when ballots came out.”

There may be plenty of members sweep-voting the film, meaning it could walk away with wins for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay just two days after Oscar ballots hit mailboxes (and inboxes). Yes, Cuarón could hit his first real hiccup with BAFTA (not that his missing there would greatly affect his standing on these shores – with or without a Best Picture Oscar for “Gravity,” his award for directing seems secure). Below-the-line votes seem to be spread out a bit between the two films.

If suddenly “12 Years a Slave” looks like a muscular frontrunner coming out of the BAFTA Awards, then you can bet it will encourage some Academy voters who have shied away from watching it (there are still a number) to finally do so. And it would certainly go a long way toward fortifying conviction in supporters and/or influencing fence-sitters.

(It also, by the way, seems that the Coen brothers’ masterful “Inside Llewyn Davis” was met with the same collective shrug in BAFTA-land that it was over here. “It was my favorite film of the year, yet I haven’t met a single BAFTA voter yet who liked it,” our insider says.)

So the tide may be on the verge of turning. Academy members were quite enamored with “Gravity” after it released. It was a consistent topic of conversation for months and seemed to be the one simmering as a dominant force throughout the season. But maybe some of the high is wearing off. “Everybody I’m talking to is switching to ’12 Years’ because it’s the important film,” says one publicist affiliated with neither contender.

At the end of the day, though, none of these shifts are likely to settle anything in the minds of those gunning for the gold. Even films like “The Wolf of Wall Street” are finding traction and could get a BAFTA boost: the film ended up scoring the highest opening weekend of Martin Scorsese’s career in the UK last week and Leonardo DiCaprio’s second-highest. In a BAFTA Best Actor field bereft of Oscar frontrunner Matthew McConaughey, any votes not going to “12 Years” star Chiwetel Ejiofor appear to be going to DiCaprio, I’m hearing. That would be bad news for Focus Features, because if any of the other Best Actor Oscar nominees has an angle on upsetting McConaughey’s apple cart, it may well be DiCaprio.

“There is a hell of a long time between now and ballots even going out,” another publicist tells me. “Things could change a lot. Nobody is sitting down and rolling over right now; everyone thinks they can win something.”

Would you expect anything less of the most competitive Oscar race in recent memory?

(Final note: I’m finding I have even more to say about all of this, about the nastiness of these sorts of competitions, how both of these films are masterful pieces of work from consummate craftsmen and to see them shedding blood on the battlefield is tough to watch. But I’ll save it for now.)

Turns out that you just can’t keep Helen Mirren out of awards season. A week after the 68-year-old actress stunned everyone — not least herself — by beating Elisabeth Moss at the SAG Awards, it has been announced that she’ll add one more trophy to her mantelpiece before the seasson is out: the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding contribution to cinema.

The Fellowship is the British Academy’s highest honor, and is traditionally the last award presented at the BAFTA ceremony — which takes place this year on February 16. Last year’s film Fellowship was awarded to director Alan Parker; other past recipients range from Martin Scorsese to Maggie Smith to Ingmar Bergman to Anthony Hopkins. Mirren is the first woman to receive the Fellowship since Vanessa Redgrave in 2010. 

“This is the greatest professional honour I can imagine, certainly one I never dreamt of as a schoolgirl in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex,” said Mirren in response to the news. “To join that list of legendary names is overwhelming.”

Unlike the otherwise equivalent Honorary Oscars, BAFTA Fellowships gop more often than not to individuals who have been recognized by the group before. This will be Mirren’s fifth BAFTA, her first three having come back-to-back in the TV category, between 1992 and 1994, for her landmark portrayal of Detective Jane Tennyson in “Prime Suspect.” Her lone film win to date has come for her awards-sweeping 2006 turn in the title role of “The Queen,” which of course won her the Oscar too. She’s been BAFTA-nominated on seven other occasions, most recently for “Hitchcock” last year. 

BAFTA chairman John Willis says: “Dame Helen Mirren receives the Fellowship as one of the most outstanding actresses of her generation. Dame Helen”s incredibly successful career is testament to the determination, dedication and skill she brings to each of her roles.”

In addition to her BAFTAs and Oscar, Mirren’s list of career honors also includes four Primetime Emmys, three Golden Globes and five SAG Awards. She’s also one of only four women to have twice won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

The 2014 BAFTA Film Awards take place in London on February 16, with Stephen Fry hosting once more. “Gravity” leads all nominees.

This year’s documentary short subject Oscar race is a varied blend of profiles with a harrowing eye-witness account added for good measure. They tell stories of Holocaust survivors and earthworks artists, forgiveness, compassion and solidarity. It’s a pretty strong assortment for voters to choose from with no clear winner from afar.

Like the other short categories, the full Academy membership will be receiving DVD screeners of all the contenders in this race, and therefore, the ballot is open to any and all who would like to vote. Unlike the animated shorts category, where recognizable studio-backed entries can find an advantage, or the live action short film category, where well-known actors can give this or that film an edge, the documentary shorts rarely feature such built-in angles on winning the race. It boils down to the movies themselves, the stories they tell, the characters they reveal and the combined impact on the viewer.

To expand on that, what’s exciting about this annual race is that you can’t really look at the history of the category and say a certain kind of documentary tends to win. Profiles of children in some state of disprivilege pop up frequently enough, but for the most part, it’s a cornucopia of subjects and topics. And this year provides something for everyone.

Sara Ishaq’s “Karama Has No Walls” is the most immediate of the lot, an on-the-ground account of how the Yemeni Revolution turned bloody in the city of Sana’a. Protesters demanding a change in government from President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 30-year rule did so peacefully in the streets, pitching tents and sitting-in with solidarity until pro-government snipers tore through the crowd on “the Friday of Karama (dignity),” killing 53 and injuring thousands. The film ultimately views this event through the eyes of those who lost loved ones, finding emotional notes as it soberly moves through the carnage. It’s a film with its share of harrowing images and, like a lot of journalism of this sort, a wonder for its sheer existence.

(Side note: “Karama Has No Walls” would be well-served in a double-bill with documentary feature nominee “The Square,” which tells another story of the Arab Spring from the heart of the Egyptian Revolution.)

Moving into the profiles, we have “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life.” One could take the cynical route of “Holocaust-related material always does well at the Oscars” and chalk this one up for the win, as it reveals the impact music has had on the life of the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, 109-year-old Alice Herz-Somme. Using the still-lively subject as a hub for others’ stories from concentration camps, the film continuously settles on Alice’s sense of forgiveness for her wrong-doers and how playing the piano both literally (as it gave her a purpose for the Nazis) and figuratively (preserving her sanity amid ruin) saved her life. Director Malcolme Clarke is a previous winner in this category, by the way (1988’s “You Don’t Have to Die”), and former nominee for the 2002 feature documentary “Prisoner of Paradise” as well.

HBO’s “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” is a wholly different account of incarceration. A former WWII POW who was convicted of murder and served the rest of his life behind bars, Jack Hall is a cantankerous sort with an unfortunate story. The film doesn’t linger on the murder beyond Hall’s pronouncement that his victim – a dealer who brought drugs into his son’s life, leading to his suicide – was one day bragging about how much money he made “and he didn’t make no more…I stopped him.” Instead, director Edgar Barens follows Hall’s dwindling days (indeed, capturing his final breath) and the inmates who serve as his hospice caretakers, capturing the bonds formed through such unique relationships. Barens’ story is interesting, too, cashing out his retirement fund to buy the camera, struggling to finance the film’s completion (it was shot in 2006). At just over 40 minutes, “Prison Terminal” is the longest of this year’s nominees.

The most visually captivating of the bunch would have to be Jeffrey Karoff’s “Cavedigger.” Of course, the director is fortunate in that he has so many pretty things to point his camera at: the gorgeous earthworks carvings and constructions of cave digger Ra Paulette. Paulette’s creations are immaculate, abodes fit for Gods chiseled from New Mexico sandstone. And the film finds some interesting material in showcasing how the demands of those who commission such work can clash with the fancies of an artist, from Michelangelo and the cardinals of Rome to Paulette and his sometimes eccentric clients today. Paulette’s is a story of the consummate dreamer, and how the life of an artist can sometimes make for hardship at home.

Finally, there is Jason Cohen’s “Facing Fear,” very modest in scale compared to the other nominated films but no less powerful in its message. We learn two diametrically opposed stories of youth, of 13-year-old Matthew Boger thrown out of his house for being gay and forced to find his way on the streets of Hollywood, and of ne’er-do-well Tim Zaal finding comfort in rage-fueled punk clubs and Mohawked gang life. Their worlds collided one night when Zaal’s crew beat Boger near to death, and again years later, with Zaal reformed and telling his story to a group at Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance…where Boger just so happened to be an employee. Today, against all odds, they are friends who trust each other with their lives and give presentations at the museum together. It’s all movingly, unassumingly captured by Cohen, an important piece of work in the line-up.

I could honestly see any of these five films winning the award, with “Cavedigger” perhaps being the outlier given that it doesn’t boast the same emotional tug as the others. My instinct is “The Lady in Number 6” for its refinement of craft, but it could just as easily be “Karama Has No Walls.” Each of these documentaries tells a story that will draw viewers in, so it will be interesting to see which one penetrates the most.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject will be released in theaters as part of Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures’ annual Oscar Nominated Shorts showcase on Jan. 31. They arrive on VOD Feb. 25.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4911785964001

Adele, Pharrell Williams and David Fincher were among the list of current and former Oscar nominees to win Grammys Sunday night.

Adele’s 007 power ballad “Skyfall” won in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category nearly a year after taking the Academy Award for the same track, while the film’s composer, Thomas Newman, won for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Though Newman remains Oscarless to date (one 12 nominations), this was his third Grammy win to date. He previously won for his work on 1999’s “American Beauty” and 2008’s “WALL-E.” Sunday he beat out fellow Oscar nominees from last year such as Alexandre Desplat (“Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) and John Williams (“Lincoln”), as well as Oscar winner Mychael Danna (“Life of Pi”). Craig Armstrong was also nominated in the category for “The Great Gatsby.”

Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams had a sensational evening in keeping with his exemplary year, sharing wins for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Dance/Electronica Album with Daft Punk for his work on the album “Random Access Memories.” Hit track “Get Lucky” also won the Record of the Year prize and Williams received the Producer of the Year award for his work across a wide spectrum in 2013, including the Oscar-nominated original song “Happy” from the animated film “Despicable Me 2.”

Elsewhere, Fincher won Best Music Video for Justin Timberlake’s black-and-white “Suit & Tie.” Other music video/film directors who have made the transition to feature filmmaking who were nominated for their work this year included Jonas Åkerlund (Paul McCartney’s “Live Kisses”) and Mark Romanek (Jay-Z’s “Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film”).

Steve Martin also shared the Best American Roots Song award with Edie Brickell for “Love Has Come for You.”

There was an overall Hollywood awards season presence on the show as Oscar nominees such as Jared Leto and Steve Coogan as well as “American Hustle” star Jeremy Renner graced the stage to introduce acts like Metallica, Katy Perry and the Highwaymen. Julia Roberts also made a surprise appearance, welcoming Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to the stage. And in between performances and kudos presentations, in certain markets, there were epic new commercial spots for Best Picture nominee “Gravity,” currently in re-release.

If you missed the Grammys telecast or you just want to re-live it, check out Dan Fienberg’s live-blog of the show.

Surely coming as a surprise to precious few, “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuarón has just won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) prize for theatrical motion pictures. He beat out fellow Oscar nominees Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), Martin Scorsese (“The Wolf of Wall Street”) and David O. Russell (“American Hustle”), as well as “Captain Phillips” helmer Paul Greengrass to land his first such honor from the guild.

The award comes nearly a week after “Gravity” shared the producers guild prize with “12 Years a Slave” in a historic tie that underscored how competitive this year’s Oscar race truly is. With the DGA and PGA prizes, Cuarón’s film is now the de facto frontrunner for the Academy’s Best Picture award, but that view isn’t universally held as many continue to predict a split between the Best Picture and Best Director prizes at the Oscars.

In Movie City News’ most recently updated Gurus o’ Gold collective, only two pundits – myself and our own Gregory Ellwood – have “Gravity” ear-marked for the big prize. All but one pundit, however, is betting on Cuarón to win Best Director. No one is likely to be moved, then, by tonight’s news, and indeed, as I noted in my Off the Carpet column last week, a “Gravity” win tonight probably wasn’t going to move the needle much anyway. Had Cuarón lost, well, then there would have been something to chew on.

A brief history of Best Picture/Best Director splits at the Oscars…

2012: “Argo”/Ang Lee – Ben Affleck was not nominated. A split was necessitated.

2005: “Crash”/Ang Lee – Obviously a close year with animus in the water toward “Brokeback Mountain.” “Gravity” has no such baggage.

2002: “Chicago”/Roman Polanski – Clearly “The Pianist” was gaining steam given its other wins that night, but the musical was the broader play, and Rob Marshall, unlike Alfonso Cuarón, was fresh on the scene.

2000: “Gladiator”/Steven Soderbergh – Like “The Pianist,” clearly “Traffic” was gaining ground in a race nearly as competitive as this year’s (three different films split PGA, DGA and SAG honors). “Gladiator” was the broader play, and curiously enough, I don’t even recall Ridley Scott being considered a serious contender for the Oscar win.

1998: “Shakespeare in Love”/Steven Spielberg – An advertising melee in phase two with Miramax spending buckets. Maybe we’ll see something similar this year with Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros. throwing money around like Skittles.

1989: “Driving Miss Daisy”/Oliver Stone – Bruce Beresford was not nominated (nor for DGA). A split was necessitated.

That brings us to the beginning of the PGA Awards’ existence and it seems fair to bookend it with the two films to win Best Picture in recent history without a corresponding Best Director nomination. So those two years don’t compute. We’re really looking at four times of consequence over a 24-year stretch. Rob Marshall, meanwhile, won the DGA prize in 2002.

So the only real points of consideration, if indeed “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” are to split the two top Academy honors, are “Crash,” “Gladiator” and “Shakespeare in Love.” And even that history is somewhat skewed, given the use of the preferential ballot today. The PGA/DGA combo has predicted the winner in each of the four years that voting scheme has been implemented. “Gravity” has both. “12 Years” has one.

With that glimpse at my scattered logic out of the way, there were a few other awards given out tonight that obviously should be mentioned. Jehane Noujaim won the documentary prize for Oscar nominee “The Square.” The film also won the International Documentary Association award and is stiff competition in the Academy race (and also makes for an interesting companion to short documentary nominee “Karama Has No Walls”). TV awards, meanwhile, went to the series finales of “30 Rock” and “Breaking Bad,” directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller and Vince Gilligan respectively.

And Steven Soderbergh ended up walking away with two prizes, one for directing the HBO movie “Behind the Candelabra,” the other a surprise Robert B. Aldrich Award presentation by Paris Barclay, Michael Apted and Taylor Hackford. Lee Blaine, Vincent DeDario and Shonda Rhimes & Betsy Beers rounded out the honorary awards.

Check out the full list of DGA winners below and remember to keep track of the season via The Circuit.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film
Alfonso Cuarón, “Gravity”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
Jehane Noujaim, “The Square”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries
Steven Soderbergh, “Behind the Candelabra”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series
Vince Gilligan, “Breaking Bad” – “Felina”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series
Beth McCarthy-Miller, “30 Rock” – “Hogcock!/Last Lunch”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming
Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live with Host Justin Timberlake”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials
Glenn Weiss, “The 67th annual Tony Awards”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs
Neil P. DeGroot, “72 Hours” – “The Lost Coast”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs
Amy Schatz, “An Apology to Elephants”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials
Martin de Thurah, Epoch Films
“The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down,” Hennessy VS – Droga5
“Human Race,” Acura MDX 2014 – Mullen

Robert B. Aldrich Award
Steven Soderbergh

Frank Capra Achievement Award
Lee Blaine

Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award
Vincent DeDario

Diversity Award
Shonda Rhimes & Betsy Beers

Welcome to Oscar Talk.

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

On the docket today…

– BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: A week after the Oscar nominations announcement, we finally get around to assessing the field. What were the surprises?

– TO SPLIT OR NOT TO SPLIT?: Is this really a year that will see Best Picture and Best Director split? Is such a thing predictable? Many seem to think so but…

– BALMY SUNDANCE: No snow in Park City this year but a few films hit a stride that could carry them into the awards discussion a year from now.

Have a listen to the new podcast below. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. You to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

“Here I Come” courtesy of Stuart Park.

Last year the Academy finally made a move to open the short film races up to the entire voting membership. By providing screeners of all the nominees (for shorts as well as documentary features), the ballot is now free of all crevices of exclusivity, where formerly only members who showed up at sanctioned screenings of the nominees were allowed to vote in those specific categories.

The question has been clear: how will this affect voting practices? With little more than an honor system in place, will members actually watch the films before marking their ballot? Will they vote blind, leaving the more widely-seen entries in a fortunate spot? Or will it be as it always has been, only those with an actual interest in the categories bothering to concern themselves with them? It’s probably the latter.

You can overstate the possibility of bloc voting when trying to surmise how this kind of thing will play out. That’s more of a remnant of another era, the studio era. Yes, Disney has a film in play for Best Animated Short Film this year. But that and suspicion of a spooky corporate edict aren’t really enough to assume a film like “Get a Horse!” is in the driver’s seat. But let’s start with that one.

Early in 2013, Disney teased its entry as a long-lost Mickey Mouse yarn with Walt Disney voicing the icon. But that ended up just being a bit of smoke and mirrors fun in the lead-up to the short’s Annecy animation festival premiere; it was actually a new effort, blending the hand-drawn black-and-white animation styles of Mickey’s origins with some souped-up 3D CG pizzazz, with a few left-over Walt Disney soundbites plugged in throughout.

The film, directed by Lauren MacMullan, really took off when it premiered in North America at the Telluride Film Festival. It then screened in front of “Frozen” in theatrical release, so it’s certainly the most widely seen of the nominees. But keep in mind the fact that the 3D element of the film will be lost on home viewers, as the DVD screeners will be in 2D. Without that added edge, which really pops from the antiquated stuff at the beginning of the film, it might not have the same effect.

Also benefitting from wide exposure is Jan Lachauer and Max Lang’s “Room on the Broom.” Though the film was independently produced by London’s Magic Light Pictures, it was acquired by the BBC and aired on television in the UK over the Christmas 2012 holiday. It has also had theatrical exposure overseas, which was always part of its planned distribution. Like “The Gruffalo” before it, it is a high gloss kind of thing with an all-star voice cast (Simon Pegg, Gillian Anderson, Sally Hawkins, etc.). But – and not to be generally disparaging of the small screen – it FEELS like an animated TV production, limited in artistic scope, albeit with the longest runtime of the nominees at 25 minutes.

Shuhei Morita’s “Possessions” comes to the world as part of the “Short Peace” omnibus project spearheaded by legendary Japanese manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo (“Akira,” “Steamboy”). It’s a “production committee” sort of thing, a concept that is very popular in Japan, funded in part by Dentsu, Inc., NAMCO Bandai and Sunrise Productions. Otomo, along with three of the top creators at the leading edge of Japanese animation, contributed one short film each for the project, all of them with the shared theme of “Japan.” Like last year’s winner in the category, “Paperman,” “Possessions” is a gorgeously rendered film that blends hand-drawn animation with CGI (with an assist from the LightWave 3D computer graphics software). I could see it having its fans.

The best of the lot, in my humble opinion, is Daniel Sousa’s “Feral.” It’s a simple story, without the broad imagination of “Possessions” or the aesthetic refinement of “Mr. Hublot,” maybe, but I loved it for its abstractions. Not to be too reductive, but it sort of recalls last year’s nominee “Adam and Dog,” an artful hand-drawn consideration of duality.

But in the end, I see this race falling to the beguiling and charming “Mr. Hublot.” Laurent Witz’s film is the only nominee that really hits on an emotional level, even if it’s not as heavy as some of the category’s past winners on that score. It boasts an imaginative steampunk world rendered quite stunningly (production lasted three years). The story is simple, about a tinker-toy-like figure (the eponymous Hublot) who takes in a robot dog as a pet, which, over the years, outgrows the dusty confines of Hublot’s quarters. It just feels like the one that stands out.

When you watch the nominated shorts every year you really just have to tune into whatever your gut tells you. It’s not like the other categories, which are chewed on over and over again in conversations at cocktail gatherings and dinner parties and whatnot. So it can be difficult to gauge what exactly people are voting for (and indeed, who, exactly, is actually voting). I’m wrong as often as I’m right, I suppose, but my hunch is “Mr. Hublot” rises above the fray as voters privy to its technical wizardry and those affected by its charms will push it over the edge.

The nominees for Best Animated Short Film will be released in theaters as part of Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures’ annual Oscar Nominated Shorts showcase on Jan. 31. They arrive on VOD Feb. 25.

Well, this is a positive turn of events for “Grace of Monaco.” Olivier Dahan’s biopic of Hollywood-turned-European princess Grace Kelly was initially slated to open until November last year, until The Weinstein Company booted it from their prestige release schedule and announced it’d be a spring 2014 release instead. With iffy word brewing about the Nicole Kidman starrer, and Dahan voicing his reservations about the Weinsteins’ handling, it looked like the film might be quietly swept under the rug.

Not so, it turns out: “Grace of Monaco” will premiere on May 14 as the Opening Film of the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The film will open in France, and several other regions, on the same day.

The Weinsteins dropped a hint this may be in ther works when they pulled the film from their US release calendar earlier this week. And the selection makes perfect sense from a Cannes standpoint: it’s sparkly, set in the region, and guarantees the red-carpet presence of international A-list stars. Kidman, in particular, is a longtime friend of the festival: a juror last year, she has brought numerous films to the Croisette, including 2001 festival opener “Moulin Rouge!.”

Whether this means the film itself is up to scratch is another question entirely. Opening night is a famously tricky slot, and Cannes has had a hit-and-miss record with their selections in recent years: “Midnight in Paris” and “Moonrise Kingdom” were warmly embraced, “Blindness,” “My Blueberry Nights” and “Robin Hood,” not so much.

Last year’s pick, “The Great Gatsby,” fell somewhere in between, though it’s interesting to note that was also a major prestige film with poor advance word that had been bumped from the previous year’s schedule. The Cannes date initiated a kind of rehabilitation of its reputation, and the film wound up exceeding critical and commercial expectations. Could “Grace” follow a similar trajectory? Like “Gatsby,” it’s not playing in Competition, which reduces the critical pressure on the film.

The film also stars Tim Roth, Derek Jacobi, Parker Posey, Frank Langella and Paz Vega. Dahan, who previously directed Marion Cotillard to an Oscar in “La Vie en Rose,” last ventured into English-language waters with the Renee Zellweger-Forest Whitaker musical drama “My Own Love Song,” which never received a US release.

The 67th Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14 to 25, with Jane Campion already confirmed as the president of this year’s Competition jury.