The Hollywood Reporter’s annual roundtables with actors and directors always make for enjoyable reading, though one rarely loses the sense that it’s being treated as a campaign exercise by all involved. Their first ever cinematographers’ roundtable, however, is quite a fresh, candid affair. Five DPs, including Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years a Slave”), Barry Ackroyd (“Captain Phillips”) and Bruno Delbonnel (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) get together for a chat on subjects from 3D to film-versus-digital to why their films never look the way they should on Blu-ray. Interestingly, no one speaks in favor of 3D — Ackroyd deems it a “gimmick,” Dryburgh “unnecessary,” and Bobbitt is “mystified” by it. Still, they’ll have to make their peace with losing the Oscar to “Gravity.”  [Hollywood Reporter] 

Steve McQueen defends the aesthetic of “12 Years a Slave,” in the face of critics who find it “prettified.” [Indiewire] 

Tim Gray on why Oscar voters really need to consider Scarlett Johansson in “Her.” [Variety]

Is there a place for an R-rated “Hunger Games” film? [The Wire] 

The late James Gandolfini is the cover star of GQ’s Men of the Year issue. (Can that posthumous nod for “Enough Said” happen?) [GQ]

Robert De Niro says he and Martin Scorsese have a gangster film in the pipeline. We’ve heard that for a while, haven’t we? [The Guardian]

Pete Hammond spotlights “Bridegroom,” a low-profile heartbreaker (already available on Netflix) with a lot to gain in the documentary Oscar race. [Deadline]

Rebecca Keegan discusses “August: Osage County” with writer Tracy Letts, director John Wells and four cast members, including Margo Martindale. [LA Times]

A list of 50 literary adaptations that (well, according to whom you ask) improved on their source material. [Total Film]

If Oscars were awarded purely on the basis of who wants it the most, Bruce Dern would be a tough man to beat this year. The 77-year-old veteran’s first and last Oscar nomination came 35 years ago for “Coming Home,” and he’s seemingly revelling in the greatest amount of critical and media attention he’s had since then, or perhaps ever.

I’ve lost count of the number of interviews and profiles I’ve seen this past week alone on the “Nebraska” star, who has never had much of a reputation for playing the industry game. But getting that Oscar nomination for what may be his last big-screen lead in a project of this pedigree evidently means something to him, and he’s willing to do the necessary legwork to secure it. It remains to be seen how much the precursors will help him along next month, but he already has that Best Actor prize at Cannes to highlight on his campaign ads.

Now he has something else. We’re not talking Cannes levels of prestige, but the Palm Springs Film Festival has become a key pit stop on the Oscar track for many an acting hopeful — Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock have already been confirmed as honorees at the festival’s awards gala, and now Dern is joining them with a Career Achievement Award.

Fest chairman Harold Metzner’s statement begins: “Bruce Dern is truly a one-of-a-kind performer. His skill at capturing the essence of a character, no matter how complex or unorthodox, is unique and unparalleled.” He goes on to celebrate his work as “Bloody Mama,” “Coming Home” and “Nebraska,” though it could as easily mention his excellent Tom Buchanan in the 1974 adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” (which earned him a Golden Globe nod), Jack Nicholson’s “Drive, He Said,” Walter Hill’s “The Driver,” or his shouldering of Douglas Trumbull’s landmark sci-fi “Silent Running.” Times have obviously been leaner since then, but “Monster” and “Django Unchained” are among the more distinguished films he’s popped up in this century.

All of which is to say, ambivalent as I am about Dern’s “Nebraska” campaign — he gives a fine, suitably ornery performance, but the poignancy of his casting is required to fill in a lot of blanks — an award in recognition of his career, however blighted with B-movies (coming soon: “Coffin Baby!”) it may be, is easier to get behind. In accepting the award, he follows such recent recipients as Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Sally Field and Clint Eastwood. It will be presented on the Palm Springs awards gala on January 4.

While the awards season is often full of intense competition and tear-jerking films, Patton Oswalt promises to bring some funny this time around.

The comedian will serve as host for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

The 29th annual awards ceremony will take place in Santa Monica on Saturday, March 1. Veteran executive producer Diana Zahn-Storey is returning for her 19th Spirit Awards show, where films such as “12 Years a Slave,” “Nebraska,” “Frances Ha,” “Before Midnight” and “Blue Jasmine” will likely compete for prizes.

“Patton is an incredibly talented writer, actor and comedian whose irreverent humor is the perfect fit for our show,” said Zahn-Storey in a press release. “We couldn”t be more thrilled that he will be hosting the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards.”

“Patton has been a long supporter of our organization, he has participated in several Film Independent Live Reads at LACMA and is also a card holding member of the organization,” added Film Independent president Josh Welsh. “I can”t wait to see what he has in store for us at the Awards show in March.”

“Patton”s quick wit and ridiculously funny take on society and pop culture is perfect for IFC and perfect for this event,” IFC’s Jennifer Caserta said. “We are thrilled our viewers will be able to enjoy this year”s show with this incredible talent and distinctive voice at the helm.”

The 2013 edition was hosted by “Boooklyn 99” star Andy Samberg.

Oswalt will next be seen on the big screen in Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

The 29th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will air Saturday, March 1 at 10:00 pm ET/PT on IFC.

Kris gave a great recap of the Governors’ Awards over the weekend, but as mentioned in this morning’s roundup, there are still plenty of people who would rather see the presentations for themselves instead of reading about them. The debate over the pros and cons of separating honorary Oscars from the actual Academy Awards ceremony will resurface annually until (if ever) the Academy reintegrates them. If it was a little more vocal this year, it’s because it’s not often that a superstar still at her professional peak — that’d be Angelina Jolie, the youngest ever recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award — is among the honorees, together with two household-name veterans.

The compromise, for now, is YouTube — the Academy has uploaded the presentations in their entirety, and while it’s not quite the same as watching it in the fever of Oscar night, at least we can share in what was clearly a touching occasion. I’ve embedded Jolie’s, Martin’s and Lansbury’s speeches below, but if you want to see more — including the introductory tributes from the likes of Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson and Gena Rowlands, along with the evening’s fourth award to the great (and absent) costume designer Piero Tosi,it’s all at the Academy’s YouTube channel.

The question now is how the Academy acknowledges the event on Oscar night. Wouldn’t it be nice, after a brief recap reel, to have Jolie, Lansbury and Martin come out on stage together to jointly present Best Picture? Anyone?

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ATgxOp31oI&w=640&h=360][youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=381aYexNTuc&w=640&h=360][youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-qk2itNfzU?rel=0]

The work of the casting director has received increased attention in the industry this year, with the Academy’s long-demanded creation of a casting directors’ branch prompting many to suggest that they should have a competitive category at the Oscars too. Coincidentally, the British Independent Film Awards fed into that conversation last week, taking an unusual step by nominating two films’ casting directors alongside a composer, a sound designer and an editor for their all-purpose Technical Achievement Award. Until a Best Casting Oscar is created — if, indeed, one ever is — the Casting Society of America’s Artios Awards will remain the discipline’s highest honor.

Given their placement in the calendar, the awards straddle the cinematic output of late 2012 and early 2013, with the former, unsurprisingly, getting most of the attention. The only film from this year to be recognized was Jeff Nichols’ acclaimed spring indie “Mud,” which won in the Studio or Independent Feature (Drama) category. Among the film it beat were two other 2013 releases: “The Place Beyond the Pines” and “The Company You Keep.”

Beyond that, it’s a 2012 Oscar flashback all the way, with “Argo” besting “Lincoln,” “Life of Pi,” “Les Miserables” and “Zero Dark Thirty” in the Big Budget (Drama) category — just as it did to the Best Picture Oscar. “Silver Linings Playbook,” which earned a quartet of acting nominations and won for Jennifer Lawrence — already a pretty good reflection on the casting director’s work — took the corresponding comedy award.

Other films rewarded were “The Sessions,” “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” while the TV categories were dominated by such established awards-hoggers as “Homeland,” “House of Cards” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra.” Nice to see “Girls,” which has always struck me as particularly deft in the casting department, take a prize too.

Full list of TV and film winners below:  

Best Casting in a Big Budget Feature – Comedy
“Silver Linings Playbook,” Mary Vernieu, Lindsay Graham, Diane Heery (location casting), Jason Loftus (location casting)

Best Casting in a Big Budget Feature – Drama
“Argo,” Lora Kennedy

Best Casting in a Studio or Independent Feature – Comedy
“Moonrise Kingdom,” Douglas Aibel, Henry Russell Bergstein (associate)

Best Casting in a Studio or Independent Feature – Drama
“Mud,” Francine Maisler, Diana Guthrie (location casting)

Best Casting in a Low Budget Feature – Comedy or Drama
“The Sessions,” Ronnie Yeskel

Best Casting in an Animated Feature
“Wreck-It Ralph,” Jamie Sparer Roberts

Best Casting in a Short Film
“The Learning Curve,” Kendra Patterson

Best Casting in a Television Pilot — Comedy
“The Mindy Project,” Felicia Fasano

Best Casting in a Television Pilot — Drama
“House of Cards,” Laray Mayfield

Best Casting in a Television Series — Comedy
“Girls,” Jennifer Euston

Best Casting in a Television Series — Drama
“Homeland,” Judy Henderson, Lisa Mae Fincannon (location casting), Craig Fincannon (location casting)

Best Casting in a Television Movie or Mini Series
“Behind the Candelabra,” Carmen Cuba, Wittney Horton (associate)

Best Casting in a Daytime Drama Series
“The Young and the Restless,” Judy Blye Wilson

Best Casting in a Children’s Series
“iCarly,” Krisha Bullock, Jennifer K.M. Treadwell (associate)

Best Casting in Television Animation
“Family Guy,” Linda Lamontagne

Career Achievement Award
Nina Tassler

Hoyt Bowers Award
Linda Lowy

New York Apple Award
Michael J. Fox

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced today that it will bestow its highest honor, the Modern Master Award, to “Saving Mr. Banks” star Emma Thompson at the 29th edition of the fest on Feb. 8, 2014.

Established in 1995, the honor was created to pay tribute to an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her multi-faceted accomplishments in the film industry. And Thompson certainly applies. She is, after all, the only individual to have ever won an Oscar for both writing (“Sense and Sensibility”) and acting (“Howards End”).

Festival director Roger Durling called attention to that feat, noting that Thompson “exemplifies the spirit of the Modern Master.” She is a multi-hyphenate of the highest order, and her work in “Saving Mr. Banks” – a delicate balance of stiff upper lip and restrained emotion – is a wonderful occasion to give her a tip of the hat.

Past recipients of the award include Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Plummer and James Cameron. It’s about time we got another lady into that mix, and Thompson feels right at home in that group.

The 29th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival runs Jan. 30 – Feb. 9, 2014.

I know, I know, I link to Mark Harris a lot in these roundups. But he’s always a pleasure to read, and rarely more on-point than in his impassioned piece about last weekend’s Governors’ Awards — the separation of which from the Oscar telecast is an issue that still gets his goat, particularly in a year when the speeches of Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury and Steve Martin would all have made good television for a relatively mainstream audience. “Of all the ways of nodding to the past, it is grotesque that the only one that has survived on the main telecast is the in memoriam roll call,” he writes. “It’s pious sentiment, and also profound hypocrisy, to bow to Hollywood history by honoring those who are no longer around while shoving its living representatives off to November lest they ruin your TV show.” Do you think he has a point? I do. [Grantland]

Addie Morfoot gets the views of Academy members on the overwhelming glut of candidates in the Best Documentary Feature race this year. [Variety]

Mike D’Angelo revisits a 20-year-old Best Supporting Actress race. Does Anna Paquin’s surprise win hold up? Yep. [The Dissolve]

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” screenwriter explains to Scott Feinberg why his script qualifies as original, not adapted. [Hollywood Reporter]

Costume and production designer Catherine Martin is tipped to take another Oscar (or two) for “The Great Gatsby,” but feared the film would look like “a flapper-themed 21st.” [Yahoo!]

Kate Erbland rails against the character posters so frequently favoured by studios these days. (Also: “The Railway Man” has character posters?) [Film.com]

Best Supporting Actress contender Lupita Nyong’o is a style icon now, apparently. She has superb dress sense, for sure, but what does “icon” even mean these days? [Vulture]

From “Planet of the Apes” to “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Guardian critics pick the top 10 literary adaptations in film. [The Guardian]

Finally, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is getting a sequel. Does anyone — even those of us who don’t like Frank Capra’s holiday standard — think this is a good idea? [Variety]

I honestly didn’t know my iCal application could hold this many events. The reminder jingle on my phone is going off constantly, jogging my memory of this shindig or that Q&A. The circuit has, in no uncertain terms, become unhinged with phase one glut, and it seems like it’s only getting worse…depending on how you look at it.

I have to check myself in these moments. I’m not a friggin’ coal miner. This isn’t “work.” But it’s definitely a glut and it has bloated the business of campaigning for awards considerably. Films such as “Gravity,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “All is Lost,” “Out of the Furnace,” “Rush,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Lone Survivor” and more have held voter-courting events in recent weeks as “holiday” parties for this and that distributor have provided further excuses to get talent in the room. Add to that junketing for films opening in the near future (“Llewyn Davis,” “Furnace”), the boom of AFI Fest this year (busier than it’s ever been) and the granddaddy campaign stop of them all – the Governors Awards – and it’s fair to say 2013 is easily the densest Oscar season I’ve ever encountered.

And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.

Countless people keep saying to me, “Does it seem like all of this is happening earlier this year?” It certainly seems like the full-court press has settled in earlier. The Academy is partly to blame for that, pulling the Governors Awards ceremony up two weeks earlier than it has been in the past. Who knew that the modestly-attended first annual ceremony five years ago would turn into the blatant campaign schmooze-fest it has become?

I’m not complaining or even disgusted by that, mind you. Studios are using what’s available to them, and why not? But for an organization, the Academy, that has been pretty vocal against campaigning (particularly the current president), it’s interesting that they are responsible for perhaps the biggest phase one opportunity to court Oscar voters this side of a Peggy Siegal party.

That’s not, however, to say the responsibility doesn’t also lie with Bob Iger and ABC, who surely wanted nothing more than to boot those presentations off the annual telecast. But it’s a shame, as my colleague Mark Harris recently opined, that Steve Martin, Angelina Jolie and Angela Lansbury all received Academy Awards on Saturday night and yet those moments are no longer part of the show.

And by the way, all the cards aren’t even on the table yet. We still have “American Hustle” (week of Thanksgiving) and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (first week of December) to reveal. Both David O. Russell and Martin Scorsese are on a roll with Oscar and their presence could significantly impact the season. But for now, a few things are interesting to me.

The CBS Films campaign for “Inside Llewyn Davis,” for instance, is just stellar, and events like that Santa Monica jam session last week are just gobbled up by Academy members this time of year. I’ve also heard “Fruitvale Station” mentioned by a number of Academy members as of late. The Best Actor category has felt solid for a while now, but guys like Oscar Isaac and Michael B. Jordan absolutely have their fans. And don’t forget Forest Whitaker, who is receiving a hugely generous push from The Weinstein Company. That category is just gnarly. It’s a shame there can only be five.

As Judd Apatow put it to me Saturday night, it’s one of those years that’s so great it makes a mockery of the whole process. That there should be any “winner” is foolish in the face of this amount of quality.

And indeed, what…a…year. I can’t say it enough. Someone last year told me I was sniffing the season’s farts a little too much, but if that’s the case, this year I’m inhaling them. Because I love a lot of these movies and I love a lot of the people involved with them. Matthew McConaughey, J.C. Chandor, Oscar Isaac, Scott Cooper, Emma Thompson, Alfonso Cuarón, Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Sandra Bullock, Ron Howard…these are great talents, yes, but they’re also great people, putting out great work. And that’s before you even get to the Cinderella stories of Barkhad Abdi and Lupita Nyong’o, or the comeback kid Bruce Dern (who, yes, really wants it, but have a conversation with him and try to tell yourself he doesn’t deserve it).

So that’s what I’m trying to think about as the season starts to feel like it’s going way overboard. At least it’s all in service of people and work such as this. You can bend yourself into a pretzel looking for that elusive objective point from which to cast judgment on a year’s worth of film product, but that’s the fool’s way amid an embarrassment of riches like this.

The Contenders section has been tweaked throughout. Don’t forget to sign up with HitFix Oscar Picks and make your own bets.

 But as her character, Daisy, flicks her faintly punkish blonde bangs and tunes out everything but her headphones with typical teen contempt for the outside world, the penny drops: we”ve seen Ronan on screen throughout her adolescence, but at the same time, we”ve rarely seen her quite this, well, adolescent. “Preternatural” or “precocious” have long been go-to words for critics describing Ronan”s characterizations: the unwittingly powerful young meddler Briony in “Atonement,” her cool playing of whom earned her an Oscar nomination at the tender age of 13, the philosophical spirit of a young murder victim in “The Lovely Bones,” the socially unschooled kid assassin “Hanna,” or the possessed, two-minded alien of this year”s Stephenie Meyer adaptation “The Host.”

Like those characters, Daisy is required to face some very adult trials: set in the near-future, “How I Live Now” follows the snippy American high-schooler”s struggle for survival as the idyllic summer she shares with her English cousins is plunged into a devastating nuclear war, where the children are separated and forced to fend for themselves. But Daisy remains very much an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances – Ronan”s smart, flinty performance, which earned her a British Independent Film Award nomination for Best Actress last week, is colored by fast-switching teenage moods, from obtuse surliness to the undisguised blush of first love.

For Ronan, it was that very recognizability that drew her to the project. “I had begun to notice that I was playing a lot of characters who were quite otherworldly, whether supernatural or in some other sense,” she says in a cheery, ever-so-lightly muddled Irish brogue. “By the time I”d finished ‘The Host,” I added it up and I”d played a vampire, an alien, a ghost, and a hit girl who had been hidden away in the mountains. I was desperate to play someone who”s part of modern society and pop culture. I felt it was something I really needed to do. And I loved the idea of playing someone from New York, with that personality and physicality and attitude – I was born in New York myself, so I could work a bit of my own background into her.”

Ronan admits to seeing herself in Daisy, but that wasn”t a particularly actressy impulse; most teenagers, she argues, would do the same. “I hope I”m not quite as stroppy as she is, but everyone has a bit of that going on,” she acknowledges. Certainly, Daisy isn”t an immediately likeable character, but Ronan doesn”t necessarily regard that as a challenge.

“I don”t really think of winning over an audience to a character – you just have to present her as she is,” she says. When I say that she seems to have been taking that approach ever since taking on the prickly young antagonist of “Atonement,” she agrees: “I was so young when I played Briony that I didn”t really think of how people might respond to her. But when you”re playing a character like that, or like Daisy, and you empathize with her, and understand what”s made her so cold or abrasive, then her vulnerability will begin to show. It”d be very boring just to have Daisy be a bitch the whole time, after all. It”s just like real life: some people you meet every day and they”re so harsh, but once you understand their circumstances, they open up. Characters require the same approach.”

Ronan hadn”t read Rosoff”s novel when she was approached for the role, though even before she received the script, the prospect of working with Kevin Macdonald, the tough-minded Scots director of “Touching the Void” and “The Last King of Scotland,” had her pretty much sold: “I was excited, because I love everything he”s done – and thought it would be really interesting to see what he”d bring to more of a teen romance.”

Attribute it to the source material, Macdonald”s direction, or most likely a bit of both, but “How I Live Now” indeed emerges as a very grown-up, rough-and-ready teen romance. That”s arguably part of a generational swing that has brought a harder genre sensibility to youth-focused storytelling, evident too in such teen heroines as Katniss Everdeen. “I hope that”s the case,” Ronan says, though she”s too polite to mention that her Hanna would probably have eaten Katniss for breakfast. “For so long, films about teenagers were so soft and formulaic, and there are more stories out there now with a bit of grit to them. ‘How I Live Now” is obviously very different from ‘The Hunger Games,” but I think there”s a similar vibe there, a kind of maturity.”

That jives very much with Ronan”s personal taste: she”s never really been into what she terms “giddy” teen fare, and professes to avoid projects that she wouldn”t watch herself. Has anyone guided her to that sensibility, or has she always called the shots? “I”ve always been very lucky in that I have two great agents, one Irish and one American, who are pretty much on the same page as me,” she says, before handing equal credit to her parents. “They were very involved in reading scripts, so I had them for support and advice and opinions – but they never told me what I should and shouldn”t do. I simply gravitated personally to stories of children in a more adult environment.”

It”d have been easy to lose her bearings, as a number of prodigious child actors have done, after scoring that early Oscar nomination, but Ronan claims she never really felt the need to prove herself: “I just wanted to keep being involved with films that were that good,” she says. “I was 13, so I didn”t worry about my own career too much. Even now, as much as I want to make good films, you never know how it”s going to turn out. Once you”re finished with it, you”re finished with it.”

In fact, it took a few years for the young Ronan even to acknowledge that she had a career. “When I was a kid, even when I started making films, I didn”t even say I wanted to be an actress – I wanted to be a waitress.” She laughs merrily. “Honestly! I wanted to a be a waitress, a writer or an artist – but mainly a waitress.”

Ronan”s schedule is jam-packed these days. Nearest in the pipeline is a role in the all-star ensemble of Wes Anderson”s “The Grand Budapest” hotel, which premieres in February at the Berlin Film Festival: she jokes that Anderson will give her hell if she reveals too much about the character she plays, a bakery worker called Agatha, though the words “Courtesan of Chocolat” suggest we”ll be seeing her more playful side.

Is working on a Wes Anderson film as much fun as it looks? “It really is!” she enthuses. “You never forget that you”re in a Wes Anderson film – his style is very clear, very tangible in a way. There are hardly any visual effects, so when you walk on set, you walk right into his world: these beautiful art pieces have been made for you, and you”re in this amazing hotel lobby that has taken months to design and build. And Wes himself is like a character that he”s created.”

Ronan describes the experience of working with a cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and any number of other famous faces as “surreal” in the best way: “We”d all have dinner together every night, and it”d be like, there”s Harvey Keitel! And there”s Ed Norton! And Adrien Brody, and Tilda, and Bill, and all these amazing people. It just feels special to be a part of that.”

Most of Ronan”s scenes were shot with Fiennes and Tony Revolori, but she delighted in watching the rest of the puzzle fall into place. “I”d see bits and bobs of what everyone else was doing – and when I did, it was like watching another film I wasn”t a part of, which was really exciting,” she says. “Usually, I feel odd about watching footage on set, but when there”s so much that you don”t know anything about – like, you know, watching Tilda Swinton in a coffin or something – it”s a new experience.”

A different but equally rewarding experience, she says, was working with Ryan Gosling on his directorial debut, “How to Catch a Monster,” a dark, fantastical thriller in which she stars alongside Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes. “I love Ryan,” she says. “As an actor, he”s one of the best, and as a director, the way he works is very interesting. A lot of it was improvised, so you”d turn up on set one day prepared for the scene, and then he”d say, ‘That scene you”ve just learned? We”re not doing that.” So you”d forget about the dialogue, and build something fresh.

“It”s really great, and I believe it”s quite similar to the work he”s done with directors like Derek Cianfrance. So he was very free with his approach, and had a lot of respect for our choices – but still had a very clear vision of what he wanted to achieve with the film. Plus, he”s just a great person to be around: very relaxed and self-confident, and when he”s your boss, it”s easy to be that way yourself.”

She speaks with genuine affection, though it hardly seems like Ronan needs to feed off anyone else”s self-confidence these days. That waitressing career may just have to go indefinitely on hold.

LOS ANGELES – Paramount brought out some artillery on behalf of “Nebraska” star Will Forte Sunday afternoon as the actor’s fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum Jason Sudeikis moderated a post-screening Q&A with the Best Supporting Actor hopeful for a capacity audience filled with mostly Screen Actors Guild members.

The discussion covered a lot of ground but often came back around to the notion of stripping away affect in favor of “being,” as opposed to outwardly “performing,” as well as boring down into the truth of what Bob Nelson’s script, and certainly Alexander Payne’s direction of the cast, is trying to get at.

“In comedy, when you find that truth, the majority of the time, is when you hear laughs,” Sudeikis said. “There’s this little sign post from the audience.” But with “Nebraska,” Forte didn’t have that particular breed of guidance. The actor has said plenty of times that he felt out of his element and quite nervous about starring in a dramatic role, but a variety of things, from Payne’s confidence to co-star Bruce Dern’s ease and assurance on camera, helped him through it.

For Sudeikis, it’s no shock at all that Forte found his way to such a role. “You have such a distinct comedic voice that people begin to only think of you that way,” Sudeikis said. “But I had the luxury of getting to see you be in other people’s sketches [in Wednesday read-throughs on “Saturday Night Live”], and you served those sketches with such conviction and integrity towards the scene and not trying to do anything other than help the scene versus help yourself in the scene, which is not a switch that most people have who choose to do this for a living. Most people would prefer to be listened to as opposed to listening.”

Being that “straight-man” center to the film could go a long way toward helping Forte’s case in the race, particularly with critics taking note of his subtle choices throughout.

Forte said he could empathize with the plight of his character because he had a grandfather who, like Woody Grant in the film, is a man of few words and “you can get frustrated with his lack of communication, but you still love the guy with all your heart.” He also noted that, for him, his life is all about family and that was a great way into understanding where his character was coming from.

“This is the most exciting thing of all time, to be in this movie and to get my dream job on ‘SNL,’ but family is what it’s all about,” he said. “I have a great relationship with my parents, but watching this the number of times that I have now, it’s made me realize that it can always be stronger.”

Sudeikis made an interesting observation about the film that hadn’t really occurred to me. First and foremost, as I’ve written, “Nebraska” is a film that doesn’t appear to sit in judgment of its characters as much as a number of Payne’s past films have. Perhaps that’s owed to the fact that he wasn’t the writer of the project. But that having been said, it certainly has something to say about a longing for greener grass on the other side, and that’s what Sudeikis was speaking to Sunday.

“Being from the Midwest, I know those fields, those long patches,” he said. “There’s almost a bleakness to everyone’s characters where any aspiration is enough: Woody always looking out of windows or Albert always watching cars go by. Everybody’s always curious about what’s going on away from them.”

Very astute.

“Nebraska” is now playing in limited release.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – “Inside Llewyn Davis” is the Joel and Ethan Coen’s 16th feature to date. Starring Oscar Isaac as a shade of New York folk singer Dave Van Ronk, it tells the story of the scene that Bob Dylan came into, the calm before a storm. It’s a love letter to music of the era, making for a potent collaboration – their fourth – with music maestro T Bone Burnett.

The filmmaker siblings are notoriously difficult interviews, though in most of my experiences with them it’s been pleasant. You just can’t drop the usual mundane queries and expect excitement. But when you key on to something they really want to discuss, usually something that has nothing to do with the film at hand, they light up. They don’t suffer too much heady consideration about their work and remain pragmatic, almost refreshingly so, in the face of such things. Nevertheless, they collectively make for one of the most vital voices in all of American art.

I recently sat down with the duo to discuss, among other things, long-standing collaborations, the allure of stardom and the romance of New York City. Read our back and forth below.

*****

HitFix: So what’s it like being music producers on this film’s soundtrack? That’s new for you.

Ethan Coen: It’s fantastic! We sit around, put our names on things, and T Bone does all the work.

But you’ve got arrangement credits and whatnot. Do you kind of sit there and give input about what he might be doing?

Ethan: Not really. The “sit there” part is accurate.

Joel Coen: We’re thinking about doing it full time, actually! Switching professions. This movie stuff is bullshit! It’s a lot easier when T Bone’s around.

I know most of the music here was taken directly from the set but did you record anything a studio?

Ethan: We did pre-record some stuff before we started shooting, but that was more as rehearsal and possibly for record, but we knew we wanted to shoot the music live.

Joel: And then one of those songs was actually recorded – it was a set but, actually – well, I was going to say it was a recording studio, the old Edison recording studio in New York. But in fact when we were in there it was really no longer a real studio. There was no booth. We were just physically in the space.

Ethan: When they record the novelty song [“Please, Mr. Kennedy”].

Talk about that decision to record everything live on the set, which must have come very early on. How difficult was it as editors to deal with that in post-production?

Joel: It could have been difficult but it wasn’t. As T Bone has said many times, and it’s true, Oscar [Isaac] has such a weirdly perfect sense of time that we were able to combine takes. He wasn’t using a click track but we were able to combine takes pretty much throughout the whole show with all of the songs he was doing.

Ethan: It’s really weird. Even when you’re shooting it live, you always put an earwig on and give the actor a click track, just so you can do that, combine different takes. Obviously it’s better to just play it free, and Oscar did. We could always cut. It was great.

Joel: There were all these different, weird things that conspired to make him the perfect choice. You look at those things retrospectively and it seems impossible for them to have fallen into place that way but it did.

And of course the soundtrack has made its way to vinyl. There’s a lot of vinyl going around in general lately.

Joel: Yeah, I’ve gotten very into vinyl through the years. It does sound completely different. There’s something really satisfying about it.

One of the things about the film that’s interesting is that it’s sort of a love letter to New York. Do you remember what your first trip to New York was like and how it affected you? And how much of that perspective did you want to put into the film?

Joel: It was so long ago. I’ve been in New York for 40 years, actually visiting maybe even a little longer than that.

Ethan: Yeah, me too. You know, it’s like a lot of the characters in the movie – although not the main character; he’s a kid from the boroughs – we were provincials who wanted to go to the big city. It was “the big city.”

It’s obviously very realistic but there’s a touch of fantasy to it as well. Almost like it’s infused with a sort of longing. Is that something you were going for?

Ethan: No, but…OK. I’ll acknowledge that.

Is that a unique thing to hear?

Ethan: Yeah, but I wouldn’t disavow that. I wouldn’t say that’s wrong. We were kind of trying to get it right, but it is kind of the New York of our minds in 1961. It’s the cover of “Freewheelin’.”

Joel: I think for this character it was a little bit different than it was for us, or for me, anyway. Because we were sort of thinking, well, there were all these kids that came out of the boroughs, working class kids, some of them, and some of them middle class kids who were part of that folk revival. That was interesting. In a weird sort of way, our experience is a little bit more like Bob Dylan. Dylan came from Minnesota, we came from Minnesota, and Dylan was definitely not the urban or ex-urban, suburban. He was from Hibbing. But the first time I came to New York sort of on my own I remember being around 16 years old and literally thinking, ‘OK, this is what they were telling me about in the Midwest. This all looks pretty exciting and interesting and cool.’ But that’s not the impression a kid from Queens would have, exactly.

And how about the look of the film. It’s very much in tune with the aesthetic you’ve grown into and developed with longtime cinematographer Roger Deakins over the years, but it’s also it’s own thing. Were you and your DP, Bruno Delbonnel, trying to emulate anything?

Joel: Well, Ethan was saying that we were looking at the cover of “Freewheelin’,” that shot of Jones Street, that little depressing, gray, slushy, cold New York winter. And that kind of slightly washed-out Ektachrome look of the photography. That seemed more sort of evocative. We didn’t want anything leafy and green and warm and fuzzy. We wanted it to be hard. You could say sort of anti-romantic, but in a way that’s not really true. You’ve got all kinds of weird romance to it in a way, like you just said.

I was at the Telluride Film Festival for your tandem tribute with T Bone. That was a great idea, doing it together rather than just the filmmakers, particularly with a film like this.

Joel: It’s nice to celebrate long-standing collaborations that you have with people, especially ones that are as close as ours with T Bone. It was fun and that’s a very important one to us, because it’s one of the really, really long-standing ones. It was fun to celebrate that. There are all the things that go into a long – making the movies what they are. They’re important.

How about this opera project you guys are working on. Any chance T Bone contributes to that?

Ethan: The music in that is a lot more, funnily enough, peripheral. There isn’t as much of it. It’s the story of a guy who starts off as an opera singer and turns into something else. But I’m not sure. We’re kind of in the middle of writing a couple of things, one of which is that, and we’re not sure what we’ll do next.

Would Scott Rudin produce that?

Joel: I don’t know. Maybe. We have that discussion, really, with Scott once we have something concrete that we’re going to do. Possibly.

I wanted to talk about another DP you’ve worked with who is having a great year, what with “Gravity,” and that’s Emmanuel Lubezki. Can you share your experience working with him on “Burn After Reading?”

Joel: We love Chivo. Chivo is one of the funniest guys on the planet. He’s really a riot and we had a great time with him.

Ethan: He’s just really good.

Joel: He’s fantastic. He’s one of the great DPs and he’s got great energy. We did have really a lot of fun working with him. Mostly we work with Roger, so when Roger’s busy, which happens – for instance, on this last movie he was doing James Bond for like a year – we basically look around for who’s available that you know and like and have worked with, hopefully. Bruno we had actually worked with before [on “Paris, je t’aime”]. It was a similar thing when we worked with Chivo. Though we didn’t actually know Chivo. We just knew his work. And I knew Alfonso Cuarón, so I had heard a lot about him from Alfonso. I think that’s how it started.

Is there anything about his work in particular that stood out for you? A film of his that struck you?

Joel: I think it was just the whole body. Chivo has done lots of stuff and it’s all beautiful, so you look at it and go, ‘This is a guy who really knows what he’s doing and is one of the top…’

Ethan: The funny thing about both Chivo and Bruno, a weird thing that is always there at the beginning of our working together, is both of them know that we usually work with Roger, and Roger is held in awe by other cinematographers.

Joel: Roger is kind of the God of all contemporary cinematographers.

Ethan: And both Chivo and Bruno were a little nervous, apprehensive…

Joel: …of working in Roger’s shadow.

Ethan: Yes, ‘What am I doing here?’

Joel: You’ve got to understand, also, it’s hard to come into a thing for a DP, which both of them do brilliantly, but we’ve done 11 movies with Roger. That’s a lot. So they know that we have this very long-standing relationship with a really brilliant cinematographer. And as brilliant as they are, it’s funny. It would be the same as if Roger went into a situation, probably, with Alfonso, who had done 11 movies with Chivo. You know what I mean? It’s hard.

Have you seen “Gravity?”

Joel: Yeah. It’s fantastic.

Ethan: We actually had T-shirts made that we were wearing on the set the first time we were working with Chivo that said, ‘What would Roger do?’

Joel: Which Chivo thought was funny…kind of. And also, DPs, that’s a big job. And they also have big egos. They have to.

Ethan: They get over it pretty quickly, because then you’re working and you actually have to figure out what you’re doing.

Joel: Chivo is funny as hell. He’s a riot. He’s got his own sense of humor. He’s very dry.

Ethan: Yeah, not cracking jokes. Just mischievous.

Coming back to “Inside Llewyn Davis,” you’ve been on a long slog with this one since Cannes. Which you did before with “No Country for Old Men” as well, but how does the experience compare this time around?

Ethan: This is even longer because the movie has been done longer. It’s been done for almost a year. It was financed by Studio Canal but we didn’t have a domestic distributor. We didn’t need one because they financed the movie, so we found ourselves with a finished movie about a year ago, started shopping it to distributors, and by the time that happens, and allowing them time to prepare the release of the movie – it wasn’t going to come out fall of last year and no one wanted to release it in the spring or summer. So by default, it became a year. So it’s been a slog.

Joel: There was a choice not to sell it until it was finished. And it sold right off the first screening. [CBS Films] has been fantastic, actually. Unbelievable. Really good experience, actually. These have been just extraordinary partners, probably the best we’ve ever had just in terms of distribution. They’ve got a lot of initiative and good ideas. It’s a really unqualified thing, which is rare.

To wrap things up here, and not to get too heady with it, but the film seems to being saying something about the allure of stardom and whether an artist really wants that or not. I can’t help but wonder if there’s a correlation there with your career and if you put any of that experience into it.

Joel: We’re also in a business where those are all issues. Our sort of path has been, fortunately, mercifully, so much luckier and different than the one the character has. There have been things that we’ve encountered and had to deal with and others that we haven’t. That isn’t to say that they aren’t informing the story in some way or another.

Ethan: Actually, in that regard, we’re more like the John Goodman character, a jazz guy who just, I don’t know, presumably is successful enough to have a career and the whole stardom thing doesn’t figure in that. [Like it] doesn’t figure for Ornette Coleman or whatever.

Joel: That’s true. It’s just the guys that are able to work and not have to worry about a lot of those things, which we’ve fortunately been able to do that. We’ve been lucky that way.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” opens in limited release on Dec. 6.

As I wrote last week, the Palm Springs Film Festival makes a habit of giving their annual Desert Palm Achievement Awards to surefire Best Actor and Actress Oscar nominees, and they’ve almost certainly maintained that record this year. Matthew McConaughey was recent named the first recipient; now he’s joined by “Gravity” star Sandra Bullock — “the epitome of cinematic talent and versatility,” in the words of fest chairman Harold Matzner. (I bow to no one in my love for Bullock, but… the epitome?) The actress, currently Cate Blanchett’s chief challenger in the Best Actress race, will be presented with the honor at the festival’s awards gala on January 4. [PSIFF]

Scott Feinberg on the Oscar lobbying that took place at this weekend’s Governors’ Awards. [Hollywood Reporter]

From Xavier Dolan’s “Tom at the Farm” to Gia Coppola’s “Palo Alto,” the 26 best films of 2013 still seeking US distribution. [Film.com]

R. Kurt Osenlund examines the Oscar forecast for “The Butler,” and argues that it’s more worthy of consideration than “12 Years a Slave.” [Slant]

“12 Years a Slave,” “Fruitvale Station” and Hans Zimmer received awards at the Stockholm Film Festival, while “The Selfish Giant” took Best Film. [Screen Daily]

Joe Reid and Richard Lawson read the tea leaves in the Supporting Actor and Actress races. [Atlantic Wire]

Disney required the near-complete removal of their founding father’s heavy smoking habit in “Saving Mr. Banks.” [The Guardian] 

Andrew Stewart looks at the tricky commercial road faced by Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.” [Variety]

Kyle Buchanan lists four departments in which even the most advanced visual effects are still falling short. [Vulture]

The estimable Syd Field — the savior of all screenwriters, or the bane of their profession, depending on whom you ask — has passed away aged 77. [Screen Daily] 

At the AFI Fest premiere of “Out of the Furnace” last weekend, director Scott Cooper pardoned the absence of Christian Bale by quipping, “He’s parting the Red Sea as Moses in the Canary Islands, but he really wanted to be here.” Indeed, Bale has been hard at work filming Ridley Scott’s “Exodus” these last few weeks, and the actor told HitFix in a recent interview that audiences can expect a far cry from what Charlton Heston and Cecil B. DeMille delivered 60 years ago.

“It’s an intriguing piece, because it’s very few people that I’ve met that have actually read the Torah, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, all the way through,” Bale said. “Most people read snippets. If you read it all the way through, it’s harsh. It’s really ‘Old Testament.’ And violence in the extreme. He was not a man of any half measures whatsoever.”

Bale said he was relieved to finally be moving off of studio sound stages and onto location with the project because he always works so much better in a real environment. “The camera can pick up what it chooses to pick up, but it’s much bigger than what’s just on that little frame,” he said. “I find it such an advantage to be on location. It changes everything because you cease to feel like you have to perform.”

RELATED: ‘Out of the Furnace’: Christian Bale’s greatest performance

The actor also prefers shorter shooting schedules than what he (inevitably) is facing on the Biblical epic, which was why, along with the benefit of location shooting in Braddock, Penn., “Furnace” was so appealing to him. But he keeps coming back to these big projects, whether it be the “Dark Knight” franchise, “Terminator Salvation” or, indeed, “Exodus,” never quite sure himself what will be next because, he said, he has no strategy when choosing his next role and just jumps at what feels right. He’s always looking for something fresh and exciting.

With that in mind, he promises the payoff on Scott’s film will be quite out of the ordinary. “There’s a lot of shocking stuff about it,” he said.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for more with Bale about “Out of the Furnace.”

“Exodus” opens in theaters on Dec. 12, 2014.

As awards season trudges forward, the two weeks surrounding AFI Fest have easily been more packed with fetes and soirees than ever before. And on Sunday afternoon, it was Universal and Focus holding events for Oscar hopefuls “Rush” and “Dallas Buyers Club” respectively.

The “Rush” event took place at the Chateau Marmont and was packed to the gills. Academy and press members held small plates loaded with brunch goodies while standing and hoping for others to vacate their seats, but to no avail. The occasion was to toast the film’s Best Supporting Actor player Daniel Brühl, and the size of the crowd was just evidence of the love the film is registering in a few circles. That’s particularly the case with the HFPA; watch out for a potential surprise Best Picture – Drama nomination if “American Hustle” fails to land with the group.

Nevertheless, it was too crowded for comfort in a notoriously cramped space (Paramount throws an equally dense shindig there every season to honor the studio’s Golden Globe nominees). A few miles west, though, Focus Features was honoring “Dallas” with stars Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner, as well as screenwriters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack with a lunch in the shadow of CAA at the airy Craft restaurant. Producers Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter were also on hand.

The sense with this film is that it’s a last hurrah for Focus (as we’ve known it) on the awards circuit, and everyone agrees that it’s very much a “Focus movie” – a perfect inclusion among the studio’s illustrious and high brow portfolio of films to date. Leto, who is in the midst of a UK tour with his band 30 Seconds to Mars (he just flew in from London and is heading right back out to finish the leg), expressed to me a hope that the new regime won’t tarnish that legacy.

“I hope they don’t screw with it too much, as ‘they’ tend to do,” he told me. “They’ve got a good thing going.” Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall as the Focus/FilmDistrict merger pretty much screams a departure from the breed of art house selectivity James Schamus and his team have cultivated over the last decade.

McConaughey said he was certainly registering the feeling that, for a company that found such success in the past with films like “Brokeback Mountain” and “Milk,” everyone involved with “Dallas” is looking at this as an opportunity to let loose a final salvo on the circuit. “They seem to have that extra incentive to let this be their send-off,” he said.

By the way, the actor is far from letting all of this go to his head. He remains pragmatic but excited at every turn, to be in full stride, a proud steward of the film. “The reputation of the film is preceding me,” he told me. “So I don’t feel like I’m selling something…Last night I was talking to Chiwetel [Ejiofor, at the Governors Awards], and he said, ‘If I can’t have a good time with this, then something’s wrong with me.”

Indeed. As I like to say, it beats working.

A slew of potential nominees for the 86th Academy Awards attended the annual Governors Awards Saturday night, where voters were on hand to salute honorees Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, Piero Tosi and Steve Martin. While a few were actually friends or relatives of the honorees, 99 percent of them were in full campaign mode (or at least that’s what the studios and their publicists were hoping for).

Some attendees such as Spike Jonze skipped the carpet, but most made sure to smile (or attempt to smile) for the photogs and we’ve collected many for your review. It wasn’t as star-studded as in years past as numerous big names such as Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts, Judi Dench and Kate Winslet were missing (wait, that’s every major Best Actress contender save Emma Thompson — did the rest of them make a deal they’d all skip out?). But, there were many players on hand including Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Steve McQueen, Harrison Ford, Jonah Hill, Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Ben Stiller, Mark Wahlberg and many more.

For more details on the event itself, read this excellent in-room report from HitFix’s Kristopher Tapley.

To see who worked the room on Saturday night as well as some lovely photos of the honorees, check out the gallery embedded below.

HOLLYWOOD – The Academy kicked off awards season in its own way Saturday night with the presentation of this year’s Honorary Oscars at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood. Or, as Martin Short considers them, “The highest honor an actor can receive…in mid-November.” But more on that in a moment.

This year’s class had a glitzier flare than usual with Angelina Jolie receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and Steve Martin being one of the Honorary Oscar recipients. Angela Lansbury also finally got her hands on that elusive golden boy while legendary costumer Piero Tosi was toasted in absentia.

Jolie’s honor was the first of the evening as cast members from her 2011 directorial debut “In the Land of Blood and Honey” took to the podium in appreciation. It was an apt choice given that film’s place in the actress’ passion on behalf of helping refugees around the world. “I didn’t intend to make a movie,” Jolie said in the introductory film package, which was narrated by Morgan Freeman. “But I was frustrated by the lack of intervention.”

Actress Gena Rowlands raised a glass on stage and filmmaker George Lucas was on hand to present the honor to Jolie, who gave a solemn but heartfelt speech largely about the sense of social duty her mother instilled in her from a normal age. “Nothing would mean anything if I didn’t live a life of use to others,” Jolie recalled her mother saying to her. And being recognized in this manner was, to Jolie, evidence of that promise kept.

Next on the docket was costume designer Piero Tosi, the evening’s below-the-line honoree following such names as makeup artist Dick Cook and stunt coordinator Hal Needham in recent years. This is a particularly appropriate year to recognize someone in the field as in January the costume designers broke away from the Academy’s Designers Branch and formed their own.

A five-time Oscar nominee famed for his collaborations with Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti, Tosi could not be on hand to accept the award. He has never traveled to the US, in fact. But equal legends of the form including Oscar winners Milena Canonero (Tosi’s protege) and Ann Roth, as well as branch governor Jeffrey Kurland, were on hand to sing his praises.

“For my money Piero Tosi is the greatest costume designer in the world,” Roth said in no uncertain terms. “The rest of us will chase the bar, wherever he sets it.”

On hand to accept the honor on Tosi’s behalf was none other than actress Claudia Cardinale, who Tosi has outfitted in such films as “La viaccia” and “The Leopard.” It was a true surprise that drew a standing ovation from the crowd.

There was no better seat in the house for the Steve Martin segment of the evening the one next to director Judd Apatow and “Saturday Night Live” alum Bill Hader, who laughed uncontrollably throughout the clip package and much of the tributes from such celebs as Martin Short and Tom Hanks. Indeed, Short basically turned the thing into a roast: “Steve is so pale he once got a sunburn from his Kindle Reader.” “Tonight is one of those magical nights when the one percenters come together to honor our own.” Etc. But jokes turned to sincerity as Short closed by saying to his friend, “You are a breathtakingly brilliant, staggering original. Congratulations, amigo.

Hanks presented the award, and Martin had plenty of his own jokes. “I can’t possibly express how excited I am tonight because the Botox is fresh,” he began. Or, in response to the ever-lovable Hanks, “I saw ‘Captain Phillips.’ I didn’t think it was so funny.”

Martin became caught up in the emotion when thanking his wife, for coming into his life and for bringing a child into it as well. “I knew I wasn’t going to make it through this speech when I read it to my dog this morning and wept,” he quipped. He also talked about how there had been a considerable lull in his film career, indicating that he had lost the heart for it in some way until director Nancy Meyers called him to star in her 2009 comedy “It’s Complicated” opposite Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin.

“I went out to the set, across the Queensboro Bridge on a cold winter morning on the first day of shooting,” he recalled. “I opened the door to the dark sound stage, I stepped over all those black, snaking, electric cables and walked past the craft service table that overflowed with boxes of raisins and bagels and muffins and the slowest toaster in the world, jars of M&M’s and Twizzlers for breakfast and every variety of mustard.”

[Hader was dying at this, FYI.]

“I made this little journey I had made a thousand times at every studio in the city,” Martin continued. “I walked through the corridors of these flimsy plywood flats and the light changing from black to blinding white, and I thought, ‘home.'”

The biggest hit of the night, however, had to be Angela Lansbury. After decades as a film actress who landed three Oscar nominations (the first for her on-screen debut in “Gaslight”) and an even more storied career on the stage, she finally held aloft an Oscar of her own.

Emma Thompson introduced the clip package (which brought with it the revelation that Lansbury nailed the recording of the Oscar-winning song “Beauty and the Beast” in one take) with a handful of humorous anecdotes, while Geoffrey Rush gave a wonderful toast calling the actress “the living definition of range.”

It was Turner Classic Movies’ Robert Osborne, though, who presented Lansbury the trophy. And it was an apt choice. Lansbury took to the stage and immediately thanked Osborne and TCM for “keeping her alive” all those years through the channel’s classic film programming.

The actress seemed genuinely relieved to finally have this kind of recognition from the Academy. It sure beats those years of fretting and hoping at Grauman’s Chinese Theater Oscar ceremonies all those years ago as a three-time nominee, always a bridesmaid. “What an incredible moment,” she said.

And you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the room to disagree. Indeed, most would likely echo Osborne’s introductory remarks: “I’d like to thank the Board of Governors for one of the best decisions they’ve ever made.”

Meanwhile, it’s worth pointing out that the entire room was packed to the gills with Oscar hopefuls, from Jake Gyllenhaal (“Prisoners”) to Bruce Dern (“Nebraska”), Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) to Jonah Hill (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), Michael B. Jordan (“Fruitvale Station”) to Harrison Ford (“42”). It’s the first big opportunity of the season to get talent in a room full of this many Academy members and, more and more, studios are seizing it.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – After a rough start to 2013 (“Stoker,” say what?), Fox Searchlight has had a lot to celebrate. The studio’s Sundance pickup “The Way, Way Back” was one of the art house hits of the summer earning $21 million, September comedy “Baggage Claim” did an OK $20 million with an $8.5 million budget and Nicole Holofcener’s “Enough Said” became a surprise indie smash with $16 million and is still going strong (with $20 million well within reach). Oh, and of course, there is that little drama “12 Years a Slave” that critics and audiences have been a tad euphoric for.

The mini-major held its annual holiday party for press and talent on Friday night at Cecconi’s in West Hollywood and it was well worth stopping by. “12 Years” director Steve McQueen was constantly encircled by well-wishers and it turns out expected supporting actress nominee Lupita Nyong’o is a natural when working an awards season crowd. Along with Chiwetel Ejiofor, the trio have been busy on the circuit hitting the Britannia Awards, GQ Awards and screening after screening over the bast week alone. And they’ll be at the Academy’s Governors Awards Saturday night alongside every potential nominee squeezed into the Hollywood and Highland ballroom.

Ejiofor seemed much more at ease with being a Best Actor frontrunner (it’s clearly between him and “Dallas Buyer’s Club’s” Matthew McConaughey for the win) and the reaction to “12 Years” than when we spoke in September. At that time he was coming off of back-to-back rapturous screenings at both the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals and seemed a little overwhelmed by it all. That has clearly passed. The 36-year-old actor said he may shoot an indie in New Zealand (which he loves) in January, but it’s unclear if it can work with his schedule. He also noted that thanks to “12 Years” he’s found himself in the envious position of being offered much bigger movie roles than he’s ever seen before. And yet, he told this pundit he’s being cautious. He noted that if this notoriety had occurred much earlier in his career he’d probably have jumped at as many of these parts as he could. Now? It’s about picking the right project at the right time and for the right reasons. Smart man.

Searchlight’s “Enough Said” was also represented with star Julia Louis-Dreyfus arriving just hours before (she’d filmed scenes for “Veep” earlier in the day on the East Coast) as well as the film’s wonderfully self-deprecating writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Louis-Dreyfus and I had caught up a little over a week ago to discuss the box office success of “Said.” At the time, embattled Toronto mayor Rob Ford had just admitted he’d smoked crack. Louis-Dreyfus had said there was no way “Veep” could ever go down that direction. Audiences just wouldn’t believe it and would think it was too over the top. Even for a comedy about Washington politics. It turns out Louis-Dreyfus was so busy on Thursday she hadn’t heard of Ford’s latest misstep. The pleasure, after excusing myself for having to stay a naughty word, was all mine. Needless to say, she went bug-eyed at the news.  And no, “Veep” could never go there. Who’d believe it?

Along with the “12 Years” crew the “Enough Said” duo will enjoy the swanky Governors Awards (as will HitFix’s Kristpher Tapley, mind you). They’ll be joined, no doubt, by the numerous Universal Pictures stars who showed up to celebrate the studio’s mega-blockbuster “Despicable Me 2” about a mile away at Fig and Olive (and enjoyed a performance from Pharrell Williams). This writer tried to make both events, but with a season as intense as this it sadly didn’t happen.

Other notables on hand at the Searchlight event included 20th Century Fox Chairman Jim Gianopulos, Plan B partner and “12 Years” producer Jeremy Kleiner, Searchlight toppers Nancy Utley and Stephen A. Gilula and “Black Nativity” star Jacob Latimore.