With Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day” effectively out of the awards conversation — with good reason, in my opinion, though it has its admirers — Paramount evidently thought it wasn’t worth subjecting the film to the commercial pressures of the Christmas rush. The Kate Winslet-John Brolin drama hasn’t shifted out of the race entirely: it’ll have a one-week qualifying run, beginning December 27. But regular US audiences will only be able to see it from January 31, when it goes wide — one week before George Clooney’s “The Monuments Men.” Makes sense for a film that might connect more with adult (particularly female) audiences starved for higher-end mainstream fare in the winter lull, though those peek-a-boo qualifying releases have their detractors. [Hollywood Reporter]

Vanity Fair launches their weekly Oscar chat column: Is the “Saving Mr. Banks” the Academy bait it wants to be, and is “Philomena” the “hanging curveball” of the race? [Vanity Fair]

Bilge Ebiri sees how “12 Years a Slave” stacks up against Gordon Parks’ 1984 TV adaptation of Solomon Northup’s memoir. [Vulture]

Pete Hammond reports from the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards, where David O. Russell won for directing a film that hasn’t been seen yet. [Deadline]

Playwright Annie Baker’s essay for the Criterion edition of “Frances Ha” is, much like the film, lovely. [Slate]

Among other subjects, George Clooney discusses his issues with Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. And hey, did you know he likes Brad Pitt? [Esquire]

Tim Brayton looks back to the 2003 race for Best Animated Feature, when even a three-nominee limit couldn’t ensure the strongest lineup. [The Film Experience]

Rebecca Keegan looks at the rise of Hollywood production in the UK. [LA Times]

Are PG-13 movies outdoing R-rated one for gun-related violence? [Variety]

Walt Disney Animation Studios might have the best movie musical of the year on its hands, but up until now they have been somewhat reticent to show it. If you’ve caught any trailers or TV spots for “Frozen” you may have realized it’s just enough story paired with well-tested comedic bits to convince young boys to go see what is essentially a “princess” fairy tale. Well, if you’re a fan of great music and specifically songs of the Broadway variety, you’re in for a major treat.

“Frozen” is Disney’s very lose adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Anderson story “The Snow Queen” but, more importantly, it contains original songs by the husband and wife songwriting team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. The Tony Award winners are best known for their work on the smashes “Avenue Q” and “The Book of Mormon” and they have brought that creativity to the Mouse House. In “Frozen,” they already have a Best Original Song frontrunner in “Let it Go”* and reunite with “Book of Mormon’s” Josh Gad with the wonderfully well-written “In Summer.” Yes, Gad plays a snowman who is in love with the idea of enjoying summer. (No, it can’t end well, can it?) It’s smart fare that could be at home in any Broadway hit of the past 10 years.  

*Speaking of “Let it Go,” do yourself a favor and completely ignore the Demi Lovato pop version of the song that was released recently. Just get the original version performed in the movie by Idina Menzel that will be on the soundtrack album. That’s the one everyone will remember hearing during the Academy Awards show in March anyway.

Disney has released the complete scene for “In Summer” online which you can watch below. It might make you realize tagging along with your son, daughter, niece, nephew or significant other to “Frozen” could be more fun than you thought it might be.

“Frozen” opens nationwide on Nov. 27.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFatVn1hP3o&w=640&h=360]

If you’re still not over the fact that France’s “Blue is the Warmest Color,” Japan’s “Like Father, Like Son” and India’s “The Lunchbox,” among other titles of note, aren’t eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, here’s some cold comfort — any one of them could yet pick up a Golden Globe in the same category. Over at The Wrap, the ever-diligent Steve Pond has done some digging and found the longlist of 48 films up for consideration in the category by the HFPA, which has a somewhat laxer qualifying system — and unsurprisingly, all three controversial Oscar non-submissions are on it.

32 of the 48 films (precisely two-thirds, then) are also contending for the foreign-language Oscar, and include such high-profile contenders as “The Hunt,” “The Past,” “Wadjda,” “Gloria,” “The Grandmaster,” “The Great Beauty” and “Child’s Pose.”

But among the remaining 16 — the options that Academy voters don’t have — are some formidable options. “Like Father, Like Son” isn’t the only notable Japanese entry; Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises,” which will likely feature in the animated Oscar race, is also in the mix. (Japan’s Oscar submission, “The Great Passage,” is not.) Agnieszka Holland’s acclaimed political drama “Burning Bush” is on the list — you might remember that it was initially submitted for the Oscar, but was disqualified owing to its television premiere.

Before we idealize the Globes too much, though, it’s worth noting the number of strong and/or significant films that appear only on the Academy’s far longer longlist, among them Brazil’s “Neighboring Sounds,” Cambodia’s “The Missing Picture” and the Netherlands’ “Borgman.” (The Netherland is instead represented on the Globes’ list by “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” which is actually a Belgian film.)

It seems likely that some combination of “Blue is the Warmest Color,” “Like Father, Like Son” and “The Lunchbox” — this year’s most publicized victims of the Academy’s system in this category — will get nominated for the Globe. (Though I’d like to add at this point that I’ve seen India’s Oscar entry “The Good Road,” and it’s by no means an embarrassing choice.) Perhaps even all three.

But could Keanu Reeves join them? The star’s directorial debut, Chinese-American martial arts adventure “Man of Tai Chi,” is also on the list. Before you laugh off the notion, remember that films by Angelina Jolie, Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood have all been nominated in this category in recent years. If there’s an opportunity to inject the night’s least sexy category with some Hollywood glitter, those wily Globe voters will usually take it.

Meanwhile, Pond reports that the Globes did their darnedest to disqualify Swiss entry “More Than Honey,” on the basis that it’s — ewww, gross! — a documentary. When producers of the rather compelling study of the global bee crisis pointed out that nothing in the eligibility criteria specifically stated documentaries couldn’t compete, the HFPA’s foreign-language committee magnanimously allowed it to compete this year — but swiftly amended the rules to make sure that it can’t happen again. So breathe easy: the Globes will be a strictly documentary-free zone from next year onwards. Whew.

Check out the full list of Globe-eligible foreign language features on the next page. What do you think they’ll nominate?

(Bold print indicates an Oscar submission)

Argentina: “The German Doctor”
Australia: “The Rocket”
Canada: “Another House”
Canada: “Gabrielle”
Chile: “Gloria”
Chile: “The Vineyard”
China: “Back to 1942”
China/USA: “Man of Tai Chi”
China: “Fall of Ming”
Czech Republic: “Burning Bush”
Denmark: “The Hunt”
Finland: “Above Dark Waters”
Finland: “The Disciple”
Finland: “”8-Ball”
France: “Augustine”
France: “Blue is the Warmest Color”
France: “Renoir”
Germany: “Two Lives”
Greece: “Boy Eating the Bird”s Food”
Greece: “What If”
Hong Kong: “The Grandmaster”
Hungary: “Aglaya”
India: “The Lunchbox”
Iran: “The Past”
Israel: “Bethlehem”
Italy: “The Great Beauty”
Japan: “Like Father, Like Son”
Japan: “The Wind Rises”
Latvia: “Mother, I Love You”
Lebanon: “The Attack”
Mexico: “The Last Call”
Moldova: “All God”s Children”
Morocco: “Horses of God”
The Netherlands: “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Norway: “I Am Yours”
Palestine: “Omar”
Peru: “The Cleaner”
The Philippines: “Transit”
Poland: “Walesa. Man of Hope”
Romania: “Child”s Pose”
Russia: “Stalingrad”
Saudi Arabia: “Wadjda”
Serbia: “Circles”
Singapore: “Ilo Ilo”
South Korea: “Juvenile Offender”
Spain: “15 Years and One Day”
Switzerland: “More Than Honey”
Turkey: “The Butterfly”s Dream”

A couple of our readers have been getting shirty with us over the inclusion of Peter Jackson’s latest “Hobbit” chapter in our Oscar contenders galleries, and it’s true that nobody is expecting anyone but the below-the-line artists of “The Desolation of Smaug” to feature much in the awards race. But here’s at least one gong the Oscar-winning New Zealander will be taking home this season: the Vanguard Award from the Producers’ Guild of America.

Together with pioneering visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri and their company Weta Digital, Jackson will accept the award in recognition of their technical advancement of the medium. The Vanguard Award, which acknowledges achievements in new media and technology, has previously been presented to such figures of George Lucas, John Lasseter, James Cameron and Stan Lee.

Guild chairs Lori McCreary and Michael De Luca say, “Peter Jackson and Joe Letteri have created some of the most epic visionary fantasies in the history of filmmaking. Through the development of groundbreaking technology and software, Weta Digital has redefined the possibilities for producers to create living, breathing worlds to house even their most fantastic stories. We are proud to present Peter Jackson, Joe Letteri and Weta Digital with the 2014 Vanguard Award for their continued determination to break new imaginative ground for our industry.”

Hard to argue with that gushing, even if you’re not a particular enthusiast of their films. I loathe term “game-changing,” but across such films as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Avatar,” “I, Robot” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” among many others, Weta have genuinely realized imagery that would have been impossible even a few years ago. Letteri, who became a director of the company in 2007, has won four Oscars for Best Visual Effects, for the last two “Rings” films, “King Kong” and “Avatar,” as well as a special Technical Achievement Award from the Academy in 2004.

This will be Jackson’s third award from the PGA: he won their Outstanding Producer award in 2003 for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” and added a win in the animation category last year for “The Adventures of Tintin.” “We are truly honoured to receive the Vanguard Award and to be recognized by the Producers Guild,” he says. “Visual effects are a great tool to inspire the audience”s imagination and encourage them to take that extra step into the story.”

The award will be presented at the PGA ceremony on January 19.

George Clooney, Kathryn Bigelow, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sacha Baron Cohen were all honored at last night’s Britannia Awards, an annual shindig held by BAFTA’s Los Angeles outpost to foster Anglo-American industry relations — or, you know, to throw what is reputedly always a pretty good party. Scott Feinberg gives a comprehensive rundown of the event, where the likes of Julia Roberts, Judd Apatow and Chiwetel Ejiofor were also on hand to present. Receiving his award from his recent co-star, Cumberbatch offered this pointed soundbite: “Chiwetel, it feels bizarre that I’m standing here getting the British Artist of the Year Award after watching your performance in ’12 Years a Slave.'” [Hollywood Reporter]

Over at the AFI Fest, David O. Russell received a career tribute and unveiled six minutes of “American Hustle.” [LA Times]

Foreign Oscar hopefuls “The Past” and “Omar” are among the leading nominees for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. [Screen Daily]

Susan Wloszczyna considers the post-Oscar career of Natalie Portman. Is she making the right choices? [Women and Hollywood]

Greta Gerwig on the films that have defined her life at different ages, from “Singin’ in the Rain” to (as if you needed another reason to love her) “Beau Travail.” [The Dissolve]

Alfre Woodard (nice to see her again in “12 Years a Slave”) is a fan of Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past.” [New York Times]

Emmanuel Lubezki gets technical about his work in “Gravity” in this thorough ASC interview. [American Cinematographer]

Alex von Tunzelmann gives “Philomena” a history test, and it makes the grade. [The Guardian]

Alex Pappademas writes the best of the Blockbuster Video obituaries. [Grantland]

She may remain an outsider when the bigger awards have their say, but it’s turning into a pretty good, and pretty unusual, awards season for Scarlett Johansson. She got a surprise Best Actress nod at the Gotham Awards for her delicious comic turn in “Don Jon,” while her acclaimed voice work in “Her” has sparked talk of her becoming the first actor to score an Oscar nomination for an invisible performance. And they’re digging her across the pond, too: for her remarkable work as a seductive alien in Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin,” the actress has cracked the Best Actress lineup at the British Independent Film Awards.

The actress is one of the few Hollywood invaders in this year’s BIFA lineup: as usual, Britain’s equivalent of the Spirit Awards serves a mix of internationally familiar names and talent emerging from the fringes of the UK film industry. It’s certainly the only awards ceremony where you’ll see a darkly divisive genre film like “Under the Skin” sharing space on the list with a gentle crowdpleaser like “Philomena” — they’re not without their blind spots, but the BIFAs certainly give a far more complete picture of British cinema than the Oscar-aping BAFTAs.

I don’t expect we’ll see much BAFTA recognition, for example, for the two British indies that dominate this year’s nomination list. David Mackenzie’s tough, stylish prison drama “Starred Up,” which greatly impressed me at last month’s London Film Festival, leads the field with eight nominations, including citations for three of its actor — notably 23-year-old breakout star Jack O’Connell. Currently filming Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” he’s set for big things, and is the freshest name in a Best Actor lineup made up of more familiar names: Tom Hardy, Jim Broadbent, James McAvoy and Steve Coogan.

Just behind “Starred Up,” with seven nods, is Clio Barnard’s “The Selfish Giant.” Arguably the year’s most  celebrated British film, this devastating social-realist drama of a teenage scavenger learning practical and moral responsibility in the harsh climes of Northern England has been collecting critical hosannas since its debut at Cannes; I think it’s the one to beat for the top prize. Its astonishing young lead, Conner Chapman, is worthy of a Best Actor slot; instead, he’s a shoo-in for the Most Promising Newcomer award, where he’ll compete jointly with co-star Shaun Thomas.

Britain’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Sean Ellis’ Philippines-set thriller “Metro Manila,” is something of a surprise nominee for Best Film, while the category is rounded out by two more middlebrow, older-skewing nominees: Stephen Frears’ “Philomena” and Roger Michell’s silver-haired romantic comedy “Le Week-end.”

Some might say that suggests a certain lack of adventurousness on the part of the nominating committee, but they split the difference with the Best Director category, where Frears and Michell are swapped out for two far edgier choices: Glazer and Jon S. Baird, director of the rollicking Irvine Welsh adaptation “Filth,” which also scored a deserved Best Actor bid for James McAvoy’s wild against-type turn as a bipolar, coked-up Edinburgh cop. “Under the Skin,” meanwhile, landed two other nods in the Technical Achievement category — where, unusually, two films received notice for their casting directors. (I’m not sure I’d call casting a technical craft, but it’s interesting to see this acknowledgement in the same year that AMPAS granted casting directors their own branch.)

In most years, there’s at least one BIFA nominee that goes on to make a significant mark on the US awards circuit: “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” both swept the BIFAs in their respective years, for example. Last year, it was a more isolated event, with Rufus Norris’ little-seen “Broken” snagging the top prize, while this year, only “Philomena” looks likely to figure into the Oscar race — for Judi Dench’s performance in the title role, at least.

I had wondered if Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” would feature, but it was evidently deemed insufficiently British for BIFA consideration. More surprisingly, it wasn’t among the nominees for Best International Independent Film, where “Blue Jasmine,” “Blue is the Warmest Color” and “Frances Ha” are among the nominees.

Check out the full list on the next page.

Best British Independent Film
“Metro Manila”
“Philomena”
“The Selfish Giant”
“Starred Up”
“Le Week-end”

Best Director
Jon S. Baird, “Filth”
Sean Ellis, “Metro Manila”
Clio Barnard, “The Selfish Giant”
David Mackenzie, “Starred Up”
Jonathan Glazer, “Under the Skin”

Best Actress
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Lindsay Duncan, “Le Week-end”
Scarlett Johansson, “Under the Skin”
Felicity Jones, “The Invisible Woman”
Saoirse Ronan, “How I Live Now”

Best Actor
Jim Broadbent, “Le Week-end”
Steve Coogan, “Philomena”
Tom Hardy, “Locke”
Jack O’Connell, “Starred Up”
James McAvoy, “Filth”

Best Supporting Actress
Siobhan Finneran, “The Selfish Giant”
Shirley Henderson, “Filth”
Imogen Poots, “The Look Of Love”
Kristin Scott Thomas, “The Invisible Woman”
Mia Wasikowska, “The Double”

Best Supporting Actor
John Arcilla, “Metro Manila”
Rupert Friend, “Starred Up”
Jeff Goldblum, “Le Week-end”
Eddie Marsan, “Filth”
Ben Mendelsohn, “Starred Up”

Best Screenplay
Steven Knight, “Locke”
Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, “Philomena”
Clio Barnard, “The Selfish Giant”
Jonathan Asser, “Starred Up”
Hanif Kureishi, “Le Week-end”

Best International Independent Film
“Blue is the Warmest Colour”
“Blue Jasmine”
“Frances Ha”
“The Great Beauty”
“Wadjda”

Best Technical Achievement
Shaheen Baig (casting), “Starred Up”
Johnnie Burn (sound design), “Under the Skin”
Amy Hubbard (casting), “The Selfish Giant”
Mica Levi (music), “Under the Skin”
Justine Wright (editing), “Locke”

Best Documentary
“The Great Hip Hop Hoax”
“The Moo Man”
“Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer”
“The Spirit of ’45”
“The Stone Roses: Made of Stone”

Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director
Paul Wright, “For Those in Peril”
Tina Gharavi, “I Am Nasrine”
Jeremy Lovering, “In Fear”
Omid Nooshin, “Last Passenger”
Charlie Cattrall, “Titus”

Most Promising Newcomer
Harley Bird, “How I Live Now”
Caity Lotz, “The Machine”
Jake Macapagal, “Metro Manila”
Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas, “The Selfish Giant”
Chloe Pirrie, “Shell”

Best Achievement in Production
“A Field in England”
“Filth”
“Metro Manila”
“The Selfish Giant”
“Starred Up”

Best British Short
“L’Assenza”
“Dr Easy”
“Dylan’s Room”
“Jonah”
“Z1”

Raindance Award
“Everyone’s Going to Die”
“The Machine”
“The Patrol”
“Sleeping Dogs”
“Titus”

Of course, that wasn”t the title all along. In 2008, months after he won the Academy Award for his harrowing torture study “Taxi to the Dark Side,” Gibney began work on “The Road Back,” a film intended to be a mostly admiring portrait of the seven-time Tour de France champion as he prepared for a comeback from retirement and an eighth victory in cycling”s greatest race. Needless to say, things didn”t quite pan out that way. Armstrong finished the 2009 Tour a respectable but personally disappointing third, but that was the least of his troubles, as the doping allegations that he had strenuously denied throughout his career became ever more compelling and, in time, impossible to dismiss.

That left Gibney, to all intents and purposes, high and dry: the New Yorker had a heap of raw material for a celebratory film about a figure whom, it appeared, was hardly worthy of celebration. Gibney shelved the project, but didn”t abandon it. As the Armstrong case grew more complicated, and its consequences more severe, the director saw he had the makings of a rather more unusual film about the fallen idol – one that could use its own interrupted development to reveal how Armstrong pulled the wool over the world”s eyes, Gibney”s included. As such, it requires the filmmaker to play both puppeteer and patsy, breaking form by foregrounding his own relationship to his subject – “The Armstrong Lie” may be as deliberate and insightful a work as we”ve come to expect from Gibney, but it”s colored by his sense of personal disappointment and professional pique.

The irony, explains Gibney, is that this unforeseen turn of events wound up making for a film that was, in a sense, more typical for a filmmaker accustomed to taking a tough line on tough subjects. “A feel-good story would have been unusual for me, and I was actually looking forward to that,” he laughs over the phone from New York. “So in a funny way, when the shift came about, it came back to more familiar territory for me.”

Still, he”s quick to point out that even at the beginning of the process, he never had “a Disney film” in mind. “Even in the first film, I dealt with the allegations of doping,” he says. “The title ‘The Road Back” had a double meaning, referring to both the comeback and the road back into the past. I liked the idea of a redemption story: the idea of a guy coming back at an ‘advanced age,” and doing it clean, as if to prove that he was great no matter what. That was an interesting quest to observe, as long as I could deal with the allegations – which I thought he was confronting. I thought that was one of the reasons for his comeback: that, from his point of view, it didn”t matter if he”d doped in the past.”

While that essential thesis for the first film turned out to be entirely false, that didn”t mean Gibney couldn”t use it. “It wouldn”t have done any good to start from scratch,” he explains. “I had to make room for the film I”d already done – that”s part of the unique contribution I could make to the story of Armstrong. I had all this wonderful footage that no one else had, that cast a completely different light on his story. I just had to integrate that into a more familiar investigation.”

It was bridging those two objectives that led Gibney into taking a more first-person approach than he usually does in his films: “It seemed to me by then that I was part of the story, inside and out. So by portraying my own journey, I could both be critical of my role in the promo job and create a clearer back-and-forth structure. By making myself a character, I could make narrative jumps that I wouldn”t have been able to do otherwise.”

Though Gibney is accustomed to narrating his own films, he doesn”t mind describing his increased personal presence in this one as “a bit uncomfortable.” “I”ve tried it in other films and always rejected it, because it felt too navel-gazing and self-regarding,” he says. “In this case, however, there seemed a greater point to it. I was part of the problem as well as part of the solution-the admiring fan-which made a lot of sense for the narrative structure.”

A keen sports fan, Gibney nonetheless admits that he had little knowledge of Armstrong when he first came to the project, having been interviewed by producer Frank Marshall as one of several potential directors for an Armstrong film. What was the attraction? “My pitch to them was that I was interested in will. Both the motivational side of that-the comeback from cancer, the will to win-but also the dark side. I saw Armstrong as a combo of [Major League baseball player] Jack Armstrong and Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood.” There was a darkness to him: he told me his slogan was ‘Win-lose, live-die.” Most of us don”t think of losing as akin to dying, and that”s the part of him I was intrigued by. Part of him was inspiring, and yet part of him represented this very American win-at-all-costs ethic.”

That fascination endures, Gibney insists, despite Armstrong”s downfall. He explains: “I”m not one of those who, having discovered that he cheated, had to believe that he was an incompetent, untalented athlete who just took drugs and sat on his bike seat as the drugs took hold and pedalled him up the mountain. I think he”s a great athlete: he clearly had physical gifts, and a will to win. And with many great athletes, the thing for which we most admire them is often something rather dark – that drive can come with a degree of cruelty. You have to want to crush your opponent. Michael Jordan had that. Serena Williams has that. It”s beautiful from afar, but far from beautiful.”

The timeline of Gibney”s initial film ended with Armstrong”s dismal performance in the 2010 Tour de France, when he finished in 23rd place – an omen to the greater descent that lay immediately ahead. But even as the film was fully mixed and edited, with narration in place from Matt Damon, the director knew that it was “insufficient for the time we were facing,” with federal and criminal investigations into Armstrong”s offenses looming.

“It was a pretty good film,” he says, “but what if there was something bigger going on here? The story was becoming about more than athletics: it was about what kind of human being he is. The other film was about human beings” hubris and power. ‘The Armstrong Lie” is a different film, and I do think a better one.”

As Gibney reconceived the film, he made a concerted effort to keep Armstrong informed and involved: the cyclist agreed to provide an on-camera statement for the film earlier this year, after his much-vaunted confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey – a coup Gibney had hoped would be his.

“Lance had briefly promised me that my film would be the one in which he finally came clean – another promise he broke,” he says with a rueful chuckle. “I”d had conversations with him on camera and off, and I kept hoping he would understand that his abuse of power was really the story here. But the purpose of including his statement at the end, which basically amounted to a plea that he be recognized as the winner of the Tour de France, wasn”t to present Lance”s argument in a literal sense. It was to signal my own disappointment that, at the end of the day, this is what he”s still focused on, rather than something bigger.”

That “something bigger”-the arrogant betrayal of public trust-provides a neat thematic link between “The Armstrong Lie” and Gibney”s other hot-button documentary of 2013, his Julian Assange study “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks.” Gibney is excited by the connection, but admits he couldn”t have calculated it: “By the time I started ‘We Steal Secrets,” I”d put ‘The Armstrong Lie” aside, so I didn”t know exactly how it was going to play out. But an eerie symmetry emerged: there are key similarities in the way those stories are seen, and the way their central characters judge themselves and curate their own myths.”

It was while interviewing data journalist James Ball for “We Steal Secrets” that Gibney stumbled upon the theme that binds not just those two films, but “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” his Emmy-winning 2012 documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. “Ball idly referred to the concept of ‘noble cause corruption,” which I then studied a great deal,” he says. “That”s the psychological mechanism of people who allow themselves to do bad because they believe they”re serving a higher cause. That became very interesting to me, and informed all three narratives.”

Though people often speak of narrative cinema in opposition to documentaries, Gibney repeatedly refers to his films as “narratives,” and his subjects as “characters.” “It”s kind of a weird exercise you go through,” he explains, “because you”re speaking to these people as you would any other human being – you”re not thinking of them as characters. But inevitably, in the cutting room, that”s what they become, because you have to place them in a narrative framework. That”s what editing non-fiction film is all about: constructing a narrative out of real events, and making sense of them. So you end up seeing the role a person is playing as you”re putting the film together.”

One of the most prolific directors in the business, Gibney is currently finishing work on a film about African music icon Fela Kuti – a project that has the inspirational elements he”d initially hoped to tackle when taking on Lance Armstrong”s story. On top of his own workload, meanwhile, the active Academy member has been taking time to view a number of the films competing for this year”s Best Documentary Feature Oscar. “We Steal Secrets” and “The Armstrong Lie” are two of the 150-plus films that have been submitted – a record number. Is he managing to see his share?

“It”s hard to know what ‘my share” is!” he says. “We have a de facto system now, whereby each member of our branch tacitly agrees to see a certain number of films that are prescribed, so we can ensure every submitted film is seen by a certain number of voters. And if one that has previous been unheralded really pops out, we can begin spreading the word. I”ve seen my prescribed list, and I”ve seen a bunch of others, but can I see 150? No.”

Still, from the sample he”s seen, Gibney is upbeat about the quality of competition this year. In our interview last year, he waxed lyrical about Sarah Polley”s deft, moving family memoir “Stories We Tell,” and remains just as enthused; “Gideon”s Army” and Errol Morris” “The Unknown Known” are among the other titles that come in for praise. “What amazes me is what a dynamic era for this medium,” he says. “Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes now, and that eclecticism is what is so inspiring.”

Scott Cooper”s “Out of the Furnace” received its close-up at AFI Fest Saturday night as the mystery around Relativity Media’s late-breaking entry finally dissipated. The director”s “Crazy Heart” follow-up brought an array of reactions, and “shell-shocked,” as The Wrap”s Steve Pond put it, may be as apt a description as you’ll find. The film seemed to linger at the Roosevelt Hotel after-party with more than a few willing to admit they weren”t entirely sure what to make of it immediately after the credits rolled.

But the film did find some champions out of the gate. In shrewdly noting “Furnace’s” easy fit in a breed of 2013 cinema concerned with the dark side of America, Pond called the picture “bold and brutal,” while at the trades, Todd McCarthy and Scott Foundas drew comparisons to “Apocalypse Now” and “The Deer Hunter” respectively.

“Things happen in ‘Out of the Furnace’ with the violent, unpredictable force of life itself, rather than the reassuring rhythms of most screenplays,” Foundas wrote. “Director-co-writer Scott Cooper’s second feature shares a similar melancholy, end-of-the-line tone with his first, ‘Crazy Heart,'” McCarthy observed, with a more measured tone than Foundas.

I don”t expect the film to be immediately palatable to everyone, as audiences frankly aren”t all that conditioned for a film with a dark patience such as this. Though maybe I don’t give them enough credit. It will linger, no doubt. For me, the stunning chiaroscuro of Masanobu Takayanagi’s photography is a big takeaway, to be sure, but something that has stood out since the very first time I saw the film and has managed to only deepen upon consequent viewings is Christian Bale’s unparalleled leading performance as Russell Baze.

Bale has delivered a steady stream of outwardly intense performances throughout his career. Particularly turns in films like “American Psycho,” “The Machinist” and “The Fighter” (for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) have stood out because of how bright and complex they are. But that’s the dividing line between something like Dicky Ecklund and something like Russell Baze. Those performances, as mesmerizing as they are, are just that: mesmerizing. You’re aware of them from beginning to end because they have a Baroque touch.

But the actor is typically best, and indeed, more comfortable, disappearing into a role and just being. It’s not that he doesn’t do that even in some of his broader performances. He does, better than anyone in his generation, probably. But perhaps because Cooper is intensely focused on stripping away affect, or because Bale is hungry for such an opportunity (or, more likely, a healthy combination of both), the actor’s work in “Out of the Furnace” is a landmark for him. It’s the best performance he has ever delivered, and obviously, that’s saying something.

The evidence is frequently clear in Bale’s sparring with his co-stars, particularly Casey Affleck, who also delivers a rich, lived-in portrait and helps elevate both his and Bale’s work through an uncanny on-screen chemistry with the actor. The two play brothers in the film and you believe their deep family history through every seemingly mundane cutaway detail, whether playfully revving engines on a Braddock, Penn. street or caring for their ailing father with the clockwork attention that suggests a daily routine.

With actress Zoe Saldana, Bale gets a truly emotional beat when registering an unforeseen dead end for his life goals. With Forest Whitaker, he gets quiet moments of seething, thinly guarded composure in the face of an unfortunate series of events. With Sam Shepard, he gets the casual ease of family interaction that doesn’t need a word or a sentence, but rather a glance or a nod.

On his own, Bale barely gets the words out when tragedy strikes early in the film – indeed, they aren’t words, but rather the haunted, scratchy mumbles of a life instantly changed. He inhabits Russell, supplying a tricky regional blend of accent that was with him from the moment he got off a Pittsburgh plane ready to work, to the final call of “cut” on the set. Though as storied as Bale’s commitment may be, he never overdoes any measure of the work, and certainly not here. Everything here feeds the kind of boiled-down performance that never enjoys such breathless descriptions as “towering,” but should.

Around the corner Bale looks to have a Rupert Pupkin to this Michael Vronsky as he saddles up to yet another David O. Russell project in “American Hustle.” Bald with a comb-over, weight gain, loud costumes, the physical commitment is once again evident. And all of that accoutrement will surely feed another fantastic portrayal. But what he’s doing in “Out of the Furnace” is the essence of performance. It is bare. It is haunted. It is real.

HOLLYWOOD – AFI organizers expected some star power on their red carpet when they booked “August: Osage County” for the film festival’s prime Friday night gala, but they probably didn’t expect it to be from the movie’s producer. With Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep officially “unavailable” (the two-time Oscar winner was in London shooting “Into the Woods”), George Clooney was the biggest name at “August’s” LA premiere and – like the pro’s pro he is – he graciously charmed the press on hand with the soundbites and smiles they so desperately wanted.

“August” actually premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival almost two months ago to the day, but that didn’t stop some of the melodrama’s other stars from supporting it in LA as Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson were in attendance. Director John Wells and screenwriter Tracy Letts, who earned a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for the original play, were also on hand. The film played very well, but certainly to a less “industry” crowd than “Saving Mr. Banks” did the night before. Sadly, most of the attendees at the massive Chinese Theater were unable to hear any of the Q&A afterward because of what appeared to be, um, a lack of microphones or some of the worst in-theater speakers ever (whoopsie).

Having caught “August” in Toronto, I was curious to see whether Wells had made the rumored change to the film’s controversial extra end scene. Newsflash: he has not. While the play ends with the focus on Streep’s blunt Weston family matriarch, the movie instead focuses on Roberts’ character. This has caused some grumbles from the play’s fan base (hello New York AMPAS branch), but the only chatter you hear from the LA crowd is, “Why does the film have three endings?”

The bigger issue, however, is The Weinstein Company’s attempt to pitch Roberts’ work as a supporting performance. After a second time, I still just don’t buy it. Roberts is clearly the co-lead. She arguably has more screen time (cue a studio rep to prove that’s not the case), but the movie positions the events following the death of the Weston patriarch through Roberts’ character’s eyes more than Streep’s. Obviously you can have two female co-leads in a movie, but that doesn’t help when the mission is to land as many Oscar nominations as possible. And when the Oscar race for Best Actress is this competitive? The last thing you want is two former winners going up against each other.

The Weinstein Company may get a supporting nod for Roberts from SAG, but this feels very similar to the Kate Winslet “Revolutionary Road”/”The Reader” situation in 2009 where Weinstein tried to push a supporting turn for the latter while Paramount pushed Best Actress for “Road.” Instead, Winslet surprisingly earned a Best Actress nod for “The Reader” and was snubbed for “Road.” Taking that recent history into consideration, I’m not convinced Roberts in supporting is going to click with the actors branch, no matter how hard TWC tries to push it in their materials. Then again, maybe both actresses can sneak in. Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Emma Thompson are locks. Streep is also pretty close to a lock. Could Roberts knock out TWC stablemate Judi Dench (“Philomena”)? Never say never.

As for the rest of the “August” ensemble, you have to feel for Chris Cooper. He gives a fine, fine performance that will likely be overshadowed by the bigger names in supporting actor race. Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale and former nominee Juliette Lewis are also superb. Could either of them also sneak into the supporting actress race? Sadly, there would have to be some major snubs for that to happen (although I still think Martindale has a better shot than Roberts — call me crazy).

Of course, the number one question is whether “August” is a Best Picture nominee or not. Critical reaction was mixed at Toronto and it’s unclear whether the consensus will get that much of an uptick once the national and local reviews come in closer to the film’s Christmas Day release. And let’s be clear, noteworthy acting aside, the movie does have its problems. The story drags, there are too many scenes that seem better suited to the stage than the screen and Wells is not the most imaginative or subtle director. He does an adequate job, but oh, to see this material in the hand of Mike Nichols, Steven Soderbergh or even Stephen Daldry. Ah, well

Now, The Weinstein Company is clearly counting on the actors branch to give “August” the first place votes it needs to crack the top 10. Is that enough in a year where not one, but possible two or three great “Oscar” films might not make the cut? Not to put him on the spot, but In Contention’s own Kris Tapley still thinks so while a majority of our peers aren’t so sure. And, we haven’t even considered “August” going up against “Banks” on Christmas Day at the box office yet (at this time the film is still going wide on Dec. 25).  If “August” falters over the holiday frame it could absolutely impact its chances at a nod.

Yes, “August’s” Oscar dance is just about as dramatic as a Weston family dinner. Would we want it any other way?

“August: Osage County” opens nationwide on Dec. 25.

LOS ANGELES – In the new drama “Out of the Furnace,” premiering tonight at the 2013 AFI Fest in Hollywood, Scott Cooper has finally delivered a follow-up to his 2009 debut “Crazy Heart.” That film, which won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Original Song, came about as a vessel through which the Virginia-born director could, in some way, tell the story of singer Waylon Jennings (something he could not do directly due to legalities surrounding the country crooner’s life). Indeed, Jennings’ Nashville smack-down “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?” made it onto the soundtrack, part of the DNA of a film that aimed to strip away the flashy rhinestones and fancy bolos and tell a straightforward story of a musician’s life on the road, no place for the weary kind.

Given how entrenched that film was in its musical identity, it’s only natural that one might be curious about the musical pulse of his latest, an account of life and death and the thin line between in the mountains of Pennsylvania Appalachia. And make no mistake, there is a musical soul to “Out of the Furnace,” perhaps one even deeper than that of “Crazy Heart.”

When Cooper first began working on the script, which was a complete re-write of Brad Inglesby’s black list screenplay “The Low Dweller,” he was listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad” albums quite a bit. In fact, a line of action in the script – “The stacks, reaching for the sky like the arms of God, connect to a massive PLANT that hulks over the Monongahela river.” – recalls a lyric from Springsteen’s “Youngstown”: “Then smokestacks reachin’ like the arms of god into a beautiful sky of soot and clay.”

There was a time when the film was titled “Under a Black Sun” and featured Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” playing diegetically on a jukebox, both referencing, like the end of the Springsteen lyric, the dark cloud of industry that once hung low over Pennsylvania steel country. The second trailer for the film features a cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” by Phantogram singer Sara Barthel, and early on, cues ranging from Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” to Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” populated the script, all of it reflecting character and culture crucial to the world Cooper was building.

“Any time I sit down to write, I’m always listening to music because it helps inform my characters and my world,” Cooper says, sitting in his stark Brentwood office space. “Some of Bruce Springsteen’s work sort of speaks to the themes that course through the narrative, and I was also listening to a lot of Enrico Caruso opera for some of the more violent sequences. I would listen to a lot of cello, too, and you’ll find a lot of cello in the film, because it felt like those were the tones that best encapsulated this world.”

Cooper then began thinking about his characters, rough neck brothers Russell and Rodney Baze and what kinds of music they would listen to. For the 38-year-old lead, Russell (Christian Bale), Cooper theorized that music probably became very important to him, as it does many people, in his teens and early-20s. Perhaps he was anti-establishment in his youth, interested in the punk and metal scenes, but eventually something like Pearl Jam would speak to him.

“Eddie Vedder, through his music and through the whole band, has always spoken to – much like Bruce – a blue collar ethic,” Cooper says. “He writes about the obstacles in life, both physical and emotional.”

It was an important point of departure for Cooper because until then he was playing with bringing in other elements. There were conversations with Springsteen and U2’s Bono, artists who also speak to the milieu he was interested in exploring. “These are two of the most famous rockstars in the world, and they may be extraordinarily wealthy, but you feel like they are not part of the ‘1 percent,'” Cooper says. “They really understand what a blue collar steel worker is going through because they write from that experience.”

But generationally, Vedder and his band made the most sense. So much so, in fact, that Cooper reached out to the singer for permission to use the song “Release,” the closing track of Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut album “Ten,” in the film. Cooper was writing from a very personal place, he says, and so certainly his own musical taste was creeping in on the fringe. But in “Release” he found an anthem that reflected the more elegiac qualities of the film. Like a handful of Vedder’s work, the song is about the singer’s father, who died before Vedder – who grew up believing his stepfather to be his biological father – knew the truth about him. And so it rang a grace note with some of the plot points of the film in that way, as Russell and Rodney care for their dying father, bedridden in the family’s Braddock, Pennsylvania home.

“It felt like that was a song that probably carried Russell Baze through some very difficult times, as I know it did me,” Cooper says. “It seemed to be a natural fit.”

But Pearl Jam had never allowed the song to be used for commercial purposes and in fact collectively disdains that sort of thing. Cooper flew up to Seattle to screen an early assembly of the film for Vedder, who was a fan of “Crazy Heart,” and though the director says he never really gets nervous, he was dreadfully so after that screening. But he could see instantly that the film had moved Vedder. The two men clicked on an artistic level and shared a kindred spirit, Cooper says, and without much hesitation, Vedder conceded the song’s use in the film.

But then he did Cooper one better. He suggested re-recording the song for the first time in over two decades to afford a rendition rich with all the life experience he, now a father, had acquired in that time. He even tweaked the song’s lyrics from “Dear Dad, can you see me now?” to “Dear Rod, can you see me now?,” further embedding the musical identity of the film in the perspective of Russell Baze. And so “Out of the Furnace” is bookended with the two versions, opening with the nostalgia of the original, closing with the lived-in resonance of the re-recording.

“It’s a longer recording and Eddie infused it with so much power and pain and everything that we all go through,” Cooper says of the new version. “I hope it registers with everybody.”

If that weren’t enough, Vedder was also interested in writing some original material for the film, which Cooper couldn’t have hoped for even in his wildest dreams. The director is a huge fan of the songs Vedder contributed to Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” soundtrack and thought he understood the depths he was aiming for with “Furnace,” so of course, he was happy to explore the possibilities.

Vedder penned a number of songs “that were just so beautiful and haunting,” Cooper says. “I would place them into the film and they were nearly perfect. In fact, I would say they were too perfect because as I would toy with them in the narrative and try to place them in certain areas that I thought would be most effective, I found myself being drawn out of the story into how beautifully crafted and how potent they were.”

It’s never Cooper’s intention, he says, for anything to ever pull the audience out of the world on the screen. He wants no fingerprints, his or otherwise, on the film. He doesn’t like anything too affected present, and whether it’s a performance or a music cue or just something that doesn’t seem like it fits into the world, he’s always looking to strip away and find an essence. So as much as it pained him, the original material couldn’t find a comfortable home in the film and it was decided, mutually, that score would be a better fit.

“It was a very difficult decision to make because any time someone goes to those depths to write something that’s that beautiful and that personal and that meaningful to him, and to me, you want it to fit into the movie,” Cooper says. “Eddie has such a rich voice, but what makes it difficult is his voice is much like Bruce’s. It’s unmistakably Eddie Vedder. The second you hear that voice you know, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s Eddie Vedder.’ And even if I was using it as a needle drop in the film, if Christian were driving down the road and he turned on the radio and here’s this Eddie Vedder song, again, it was just so powerful. I know it sounds odd but it was so powerful that it took me out of the narrative.”

Ultimately, both Vedder and Cooper felt the songs were best left as unearthed relics of the creative experience rather than seeing any sort of commercial release alongside the film. “They’re very personal songs to Ed and to me,” Cooper says. “I forged a close relationship with him through the movie and it’s probably better kept between us. Sad to say, for Eddie Vedder fans, as we all are.”

From there Cooper turned to score. A number of composers had expressed interest in working on the film, and in fact, Cooper hired one of them: Alberto Iglesias. Iglesias was quite moved by what he saw and even had to take a walk around the block to clear his head after first viewing the film, Cooper says. But conveying to a composer the sort of musical signature a director is looking for can be one of the most difficult aspects of the filmmaking process. It’s why so often composers are replaced on films. And in this case, Cooper felt he just didn’t do a proper job of elucidating exactly what he wanted, even though the score Iglesias had produced was gorgeous and moving. “It felt that perhaps I needed someone who could better understand my inarticulate manner of trying to describe the very regional, Appalachian soundscape that I was looking for,” Cooper says. The two, of course, parted on amicable terms.

As it turned out, the answer may have been staring Cooper in the face the whole time he was editing the picture. He temped much of “Out of the Furnace” with music from the 2010 film “Winter’s Bone,” which composer Dickon Hinchliffe scored for director Debra Granik. Seeing as it was working so well on a temporary basis, Cooper felt like he should give him a shot at it, and Hinchliffe ended up trumping everything he had hoped for.

“Dickon, to me, is a musical genius,” Cooper says of the Englishman and former member of the British indie rock band Tindersticks. “He really understood the film beautifully and wrote from a strong character place, and much like with ‘Crazy Heart,’ the music really informs who the characters are presently and where they’re likely going.”

The director didn’t want a lugubrious or mournful score, though. He wanted something that at times would be very life-affirming, in fact, even though the film is full of trials and tribulations. But he was also interested in low tones, and indeed, Hinchliffe took some his cues from the D-minor stylings of Pearl Jam’s “Release” throughout.

“There’s something about that song and the intensity of it that moved me a lot,” Hinchliffe says by telephone. “It sort of casts a shadow across the film in a really intense and good way. It has that guitar at the beginning that’s quite stark and on its own, but it has this beautiful turning of momentum and that definitely had an impact on some of the cues that I wrote.”

Cooper also wanted to use instruments with a regional flair, including banjo. “Before it became ‘Brooklyn hip,’ bluegrass was essentially born from the Scotch Irish in the Appalachian mountains,” Cooper says. “I was listening to bluegrass in the womb of my mother, fiddle, cello, banjo, Ralph Stanley, Bill Munroe, the legends.”

But that’s not to say he wanted a bluegrass score. The task was to take the instruments of that aesthetic and forge something fresh and new to help convey the narrative musically. And Cooper gave Hinchliffe the freedom to explore and experiment toward those ends.

Hinchliffe picked up a banjo at a pawn shop, and when the owner pulled it down off the wall and started playing “Dueling Banjos,” the composer couldn’t help but wince a bit at what has become something of a cliche with the instrument. But nevertheless, because he had never really played a banjo before, Hinchliffe had to invent his own style.

“Usually you equate the banjo with a certain type of American bluegrass, or there’s an Irish four-string banjo,” Hinchliffe says. “It’s very much part of folk music and it’s not often used outside of that. But I wish that there was more banjo music that was a bit more experimental. There was a band called 16 Horsepower a while back and the lead singer played banjo and it was amazing just to hear it played in a different way.”

He also notes the irony that the banjo is yet another element of music that has been co-opted by white America as the instrument originated in Africa. But nevertheless, using things like bowed cymbals and an EBow, Hinchliffe drove out an abstract touch in the score that became its own thing. He did things like distress guitars with distortion and overdrive and even put strings through a very old analog deck to try and make them a bit grittier and grainier. The idea was for the music to emanate from the culture and the people of the film’s setting.

“I was trying to fuse, at times, the music with the sounds of the industry, of the furnace,” he says. “I think the musical identity is very much from Russell Baze’s character, who is a blue collar working guy whose world is collapsing around him, economically, culturally and in terms of his family. The music is like the kind of blues around his life.

Hinchliffe likes to “inhabit a film with music,” he says, “and to do that, you have to be quite subtle, I think, and not be too bombastic. There’s a misconception that bigger and more is better with film music, and in my opinion, it isn’t. When you think of great scores like ‘The Godfather,’ with that solo trumpet line in it, it’s haunting and it stays with you forever. I like to start off in a more intimate way and then allow the music to grow naturally from there, in the same way that I think great character performances can be very intimate, but they somehow become larger than life as the film continues. This was very much the case in ‘Out of the Furnace,’ and hopefully the music follows a similar kind of pattern.”

Cooper reiterates the point, noting, “I don’t want anyone to ever say, ‘Look how clever he is with the way he moves the camera,’ or, ‘Look at those very arch, histrionic performances,’ or, ‘Look at those outlandish costumes.’ I want all of that stuff to recede into the background and I knew Dickon would be able to lend a very cinematic and atmospheric score and do exactly what I wanted. He delivered, I think, an astounding score, one that does not call attention to itself but is very rich and vibrant.”

The score was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London, which was of course a dream come true for Cooper. As soon as he stepped into those hallowed halls, he could sense the ghosts of The Beatles and Pink Floyd and of course the countless film scores that came before “Out of the Furnace.” Hearing the strings section gear up on Hinchliffe’s compositions and having legendary engineer Peter Cobbin invest so much time and emotion and care into the finished product is one of the highlights of his life. “It made that experience all the more special,” Cooper says. “I can only hope that Dickon will score whatever I do next and go back to Abbey, because it was truly, much like every facet of this film, about as good as it gets. Which is why it’s a privilege to do what I do and certainly not work.”

Music remains an ever-present thing in Cooper’s life. Every morning as he and his wife are preparing their children for school, they listen to soothing classical pieces for a calm start to the day. Later, the morning becomes a bit more eclectic as the lineup of local Los Angeles station KCRW filters in. When he heads down to his office to write, he’s always listening to something, building his worlds from a place of melody and lyric. And it’s because of that, he says, that he can’t imagine that his next film and indeed any future project won’t be as influenced by music as “Crazy Heart” and “Out of the Furnace” have.

It really just stretches back to those words from “Youngstown” embedded on the page in the early conceptual days of the project. “Bruce Springsteen made it into the script,” Cooper says. “And that led to a Walker Evans shot of a cemetery, the Bethlehem Steel Mill in the distant background. When I heard that lyric, it just struck me as being really cinematic, because I grew up in a region just like that. As the grandson of a coal miner, I knew what that lyric meant. I didn’t watch a lot of television growing up but I listened to a lot of music, and it’s such an important part of my life that it not only informs my writing process but my worldview as well.”

“Out of the Furnace” premieres tonight at AFI Fest. It opens nationwide on Dec. 6.

Well, in the heated war of words between the director and stars of “Blue is the Warmest Color,” the European Film Awards have (albeit probably not intentionally) taken a side. In this afternoon’s nominations announcement, Abdellatif Kechiche came away with two nods for Best Film and Best Director, but Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux were both left out of the Best Actress category — a shock for a film that’s so performance-driven. (Still, it’s something of a surprise to see the film nominated at all, given that it wasn’t on the initial longlist of eligible titles announced in September.)

The Palme d’Or winner was, in fact, outshone by several other other titles in the nominations list. Somewhat unexpectedly, Belgium’s Oscar entry “The Broken Circle Breakdown” came out on top with five nominations — the only film to score in all the major categories. A profoundly moving tale of a musical couple rocked by their young daughter’s terminal illness, it should now (in absence of the “Blue” girls) be regarded as the frontrunner for Best Actress for Veerle Baetens’ devastating performance, though it could surprise further. I’m increasingly thinking it’s a force to be reckoned with in the Oscar race too.

Scoring four nominations — a drawing level for the lead, when you count its previously announced editing award — is Italy’s Oscar entry, “The Great Beauty.” Paolo Sorrentino’s Fellini-referencing ode to Roman decadence and decay seems to be the favorite for the top honors, though this year there’s no obvious, “Amour”-style sweeper. In a good year for Italy, Giuseppe Tornatore’s romantic mystery “The Best Offer” also landed a Best Film nod, while the category is rounded out by Spain’s flamenco-ized Snow White riff “Blancanieves” (last year’s Oscar submission) and Germany’s sharp hipster comedy “Oh Boy!” (somewhat contentiously, though probably strategically, not entered in the Oscar race).

François Ozon’s delightful black comedy “In the House” was probably just edged out of the top race, given that it scored a lone director bid, as well as nominations for Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

The Best Actress category brings a bit of Hollywood luster to the awards — also edging out the “Blue” stars are British-born Naomi Watts (for “The Impossible,” fortunately, not “Diana”) and Keira Knightley for “Anna Karenina.” The EFA voters were evidently quite fond of last year’s divisive Tolstoy adaptation, given that they also nominated Jude Law for Best Actor and Tom Stoppard for Best Screenplay, while it has already has a win for Best Production Design in the bag.

“Anna Karenina” is also the only British film to feature in the nominations, with such critical favorites as “Berberian Sound Studio” and “The Selfish Giant” among the eligible films left on the sidelines. They’re in pretty good company, at least: “Borgman,” “A Hijacking,” “Stranger by the Lake,” “What Richard Did” and last year’s Oscar nominee “Kon-Tiki” all failed to score a single nomination between them.

The European Film Awards will be presented in Berlin on December 7; I will, once more, be in attendance. Check out the full list of nominees on the next page. 

Best European Film
“The Best Offer” (Italy)
“Blancanieves” (Spain/France)
“Blue is the Warmest Color” (France)
“The Broken Circle Breakdown” (Belgium)
“The Great Beauty” (Italy/France)
“Oh Boy!” (Germany)

Best European Director
Giuseppe Tornatore, “The Best Offer”
Pablo Berger, “Blancanieves”
Abdellatif Kechiche, “Blue is the Warmest Color”
Felix van Groeningen, “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Paolo Sorrentino, “The Great Beauty”
François Ozon, “In the House”

Best European Actress
Veerle Baetens, “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Luminita Gheorghiu, “Child’s Pose”
Keira Knightley, “Anna Karenina”
Barbara Sukowa, “Hannah Arendt”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”

Best European Actor
Johan Heldenbergh, “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Jude Law, “Anna Karenina”
Fabrice Luchini, “In the House”
Tom Schilling, “Oh Boy!”
Toni Servillo, “The Great Beauty”

Best European Screenwriter
Tom Stoppard, “Anna Karenina”
Giuseppe Tornatore, “The Best Offer”
Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen, “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello, “The Great Beauty”
François Ozon, “In the House”

Best European Comedy
“I’m So Excited!” (Spain)
“Love is All You Need” (Denmark)
“The Priest’s Children” (Croatia/Serbia)
“Welcome, Mr. President!” (Italy)

Previously announced:

Best European Animated Film
“The Congress”
“Jasmine”
“Pinocchio”

Best European Documentary
“The Act of Killing”
“The Missing Picture”
“Stop-Over”

Best European Discovery (FIPRESCI Prize)
“Call Girl” 
“Eat Sleep Die” 
“Honey” 
“Oh Boy!” 
“The Plague”

Best European Cinematographer
Asaf Sudry, “Fill the Void”

Best European Editor
Cristiano Travaglioli, “The Great Beauty”

Best European Production Designer
Sarah Greenwood, “Anna Karenina”

Best European Costume Designer
Paco Delgado, “Blancanieves”

Best European Composer
Ennio Morricone, “The Best Offer”

Best European Sound Designer
Matz Müller and Erik Mischijew, “Paradise: Faith”

Best European Short Film
“Butter Lamp”
“Cut”
“Death of a Shadow”
“House With Small Windows”
“Jump”
“Letter”
“Morning”
“Mystery”
“Nuclear Waste”
“Orbit Ever After”
“A Story for the Modlins”
“Sunday 3”
“Though I know the River is Dry”
“The Waves”
“Zima”

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4912017360001

20th Century Fox’s “The Book Thief” opens in limited release today and it’s landed with something of a thud. Reviews are very mixed (and that might be kind) and there’s little pre-release buzz about the film. That being said, this was always a tough sell for Fox. The film’s biggest names are Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, the movie did not make a splash at any of the major fall festivals (it debuted at Mill Valley) and feels more like an Oscar bait movie than it probably should, being based on a popular novel by Markus Zusak set in Germany during WWII. That period is almost the definition of an Oscar bait movie these days.

“Thief” is based on stories Zusak’s relatives told him about living in Germany during the war, but not anyone’s specific tale. Once you find that out it makes the movie almost feel like a cheat even though that was never Zusak’s intent and is the palpable difference between reading a novel and a cinematic experience. The story begins with a young girl, Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), assigned to the home of a poor-to-middle class family after her mother is deemed a communist and, we assume, sent to a camp or exile (her fate is never revealed). Liesel’s new mother is stern but with a secret heart of gold (Watson) and the father is the polar opposite: a friendly and comforting figure just trying to get through the bad times. Books are burned, the family shelters a young Jewish man for two years in their basement, Liesel finds a friend in the wife of the most powerful Nazi in town, the town gets bombed and Liesel falls in love with the adorable young Nazi next door named Rudy. And, like clockwork, tragedy strikes in the film’s third act. Storylines that all sound a tad familiar, no?

Director Brian Percival, a “Downton Abbey” vet, benefits from the pro performances of Watson and Rush and gets the most out of the kids that he can. He also helped coax a rare non-Steven Spielberg score from John Williams (the film’s one real chance for an Oscar nod), which helps move the story immensely. But overall, the movie’s just too pat. It can’t escape a lack of authenticity, which ultimately makes it forgettable. And, much to the studio’s chagrin, it will be shocking if it turns into any sort of real awards season player.

Zusak and the novel have a fan base that 20th Century Fox is hoping will come out to support the picture. And making a small profit never hurts in Hollywood. Speaking to the cast, Percival and Zusak a few weeks ago, it was clear the spirit of the book was integral to what they were trying to capture on screen. You can watch our discussion in the video embedded at the top of this post.

“The Book Thief” is now playing in New York and Los Angeles.

The Palm Springs Film Festival calls it the Desert Palm Achievement Award — but that’s really just code for Star Sure To Get An Oscar Nomination Award. Every year, they tap an actor and an actress hot on the awards trail for the honor: recent recipients include Naomi Watts for “The Impossible,” Bradley Cooper for “Silver Linings Playbook,” Michelle Williams for “My Week With Marilyn” and Brad Pitt for “Moneyball.” (In 2010, they neatly foreshadowed the eventual Oscar champs, picking Colin Firth and Natalie Portman. Indeed, of the last 10 recipients, the only one who failed to secure an Oscar nod afterwards was Marion Cotillard. (R.I.P. “Nine.”) Who is this year’s first buzz-heavy recipient, then? Matthew McConaughey.

There’s little doubt that the streak will continue with McConaughey: not only is the laid-back Texan pretty much assured his first Oscar nomination for his performance as real-life AIDS activist Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyers Club,” but he could even win. Industry goodwill for the star has never been higher, and his recent, unexpected career resurgence, as has widely been noted, is remarkable. The Academy missed out on their chance to recognize that turnaround with a supporting nod for “Magic Mike” last year, so cumulative momentum could work in his favor. (I maintain that he might actually have pulled off the win over four former champs, had he only managed the nomination — but that’s all spilt milk.) 

“Matthew McConaughey is the rare actor who effortlessly moves between cinematic genres. From drama to thrillers to romantic comedies, he captivates audiences with the depth and range of his performances,” states Palm Springs chairman Harold Matzner. “We are privileged to present [him] with an award that honors his extraordinary and versatile talent, the 2014 Desert Palm Achievement Award for acting.”

The statement cites only his work in “Dallas Buyers Club,” not his other acclaimed turn this year in “Mud,” though I should imagine it factored into the decision. The award will be presented at the festival’s awards gala on January 4, 2014.

Though I’m not terribly invested in the Marvel universe, and am definitely feeling the effects of superhero fatigue, I found myself looking forward to “Thor: The Dark World.” I was unexpectedly charmed by the literate sweep and dippy comedy of Kenneth Branagh’s franchise-starter two years ago, and a London set visit last year got me intrigued by the promised expansion of its story world. So I was disappointed to find the follow-up a more turgid, less cohesive offering, with the much-vaunted “darkness” translating mostly to digital murk, with less room for the cast to play — and Tom Hiddleston’s invaluable Loki confined to a box for far too long.

But that’s me. Others have been far more tickled, while Drew McWeeny was guardedly favorable. So, over to you: it’s been out internationally for over a week now, and hit US screens today, so share your thoughts if/when you’ve seen it, and be sure to vote in the poll below.  

Even from a continent’s distance, the American Film Market, which began on Wednesday and continues until next Friday, tends to make me aware of a number of films that I previously had no idea were even at the germination stage, much less wrapped and ready to go. One such film is “Mojave,” the second directorial effort from William Monahan, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Departed.”

Monahan’s first venture behind the camera was a considerable disappointment. Based on a whip-smart novel by Ken Bruen and boasting a starry cast led by Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley, “London Boulevard” had the makings of A-grade pulp, but its ironic tone and genre gloss failed to gel — not least because Monahan chucked the clever “Sunset Boulevard” homage that was the novel’s entire comic point by casting a female lead (Knightley) at least thirty years too young for the part. A missed opportunity, then, but one sufficiently tangy and eccentric to keep me interested in Monahan’s future projects.

Unlike most of his filmed work, Monahan directed “Mojave” from an original screenplay: the synopsis gives little away, describing it as “an intense, classical thriller”  about a brooding, violent artist who retreats to the desert and forms an antagonistic relationship with a homicidal drifter. The logline gives me inklings of John Dahl and Sam Shepard, though of course there’s a lot of tonal and narrative leeway there.

The casting is promising: Garrett Hedlund plays the artist, while Oscar Isaac plays the drifter. Both actors, of course, also appear in the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which has Isaac as an actor of previously untapped substance and charisma. Hedlund, for his part, had an equivalent breakthrough in “On the Road” last year. Isaac’s chances of a Best Actor Oscar nomination for “Davis” have slipped into long-shot territory, but nevertheless, “Mojave” could benefit from his elevated profile when it opens, presumably, at some point in 2014. (Monahan also has a hand the screenplay for delayed sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” coming up next year.)

It’s not often that an actor has three different films to support in the Oscar race, and in three different capacities to boot — but Forest Whitaker is a busy guy. The 52-year-old actor, an Oscar winner seven years ago for “The Last King of Scotland,” is chasing a second Best Actor nod for his quiet turn in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” Meanwhile, as a producer of “Fruitvale Station,” he’s chasing a less likely nomination in the Best Picture category. And now he has a horse — or, to be more accurate, a bear — in the Best Animated Feature race, as he leads the English-language voice cast of GKIDS’ delightful art house hopeful “Ernest and Celestine.”

The film, a beautifully hand-drawn tale of the forbidden friendship between a bear and a mouse, premiered in its French-language incarnation at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and that version has won a lot of fans on the festival circuit. After seeing it at Cannes (without subtitles, in fact), I was pretty much enchanted, calling it “the kindest, purest celebration of friendship” I’d seen for some time. The film is so European in its storytelling sensibility and wry humor that I have a hard time imagining it with American voices, so I’m excited to see the dubbed version. (Also, while my French is adequate, a few gags may have been lost in translation.)

Whitaker, no stranger to gentle-giant characters, will channel his inner bear as Ernest; “Twilight” tyke Mackenzie Foy will play the considerably smaller-voiced mouse Celestine. The all-star voice ensemble also includes Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally and Jeffrey Wright — a distinguished group that should help boost the film’s profile in the Best Animated Feature race. It’s just the kind of delicate artistic achievement that the animators’ branch often favors over flashier studio contenders; I guess you’ve worked out by now that I’m rooting it all the way. (Directors Vincent Patar and Stephane Aubier were responsible for the equally charming, but considerably more chaotic, “A Town Called Panic,” which deserved more traction in the race than it got.)

GKIDS will open the film in the US next year. Meanwhile, Kris and I will be going into more detail on the Best Animated Feature contenders in next week’s gallery, so look out for that.

HOLLYWOOD – The American Film Institute kicked off the 2013 AFI Film Fest on Thursday night with the North American premiere of John Lee Hancock’s “Saving Mr. Banks” at the TCL Chinese Theater. Hancock noted during the screening’s introduction that the entire event felt a tad like deja vu. Not only had “Mary Poppins,” a classic film that is a key element of the movie’s plot, held its world premiere at the Chinese, but “Banks” re-staged that premiere for its own ending about a year ago. Needless to say, the Walt Disney Company may own the El Capitan Theater across the street, but “Banks'” Hollywood debut proved the Chinese has special place in the studio’s history.

Unfortunately for attendees, one of the always disappointing secrets of AFI Film Fest is that it’s very rare that the stars of one of the festival’s galas will actually attend their movie’s after-party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  Smartly, Disney decided to have a pre-screening reception in order to give the press some time with the film’s talent. Those in attendance included Hancock, legendary Disney songwriter Richard Sherman, B.J. Novack, Jason Schwartzman (who plays a younger Sherman in the movie), Bradley Whitford, Colin Farrell and, of course, Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.

(Fred Willard and Brenda Vaccaro were also spotted throughout the night, but that’s just the odd mix of AFI Film Fest for you).

Thompson delivers one of her finest performances as P.L. Travers, the author and creator of Marry Poppins. Set mostly in 1961, “Banks” follows Travers’ two-week journey to Los Angeles to see if she can stomach giving Walt Disney (Hanks) the rights to make a Poppins movie (something the mogul was already in deep pre-production on after chasing the rights for 20 years by that time). The film earned mostly positive reviews out of its London Film Festival world premiere last month and instantly earned a spot among this year’s awards season players.

Arriving at the reception, I barely had time to grab a drink before I was introduced to the always delightful Thompson, who seemed a bit surprised to be talking to someone who had already seen the movie (most of the press in attendance had not). As she had during the London premiere’s introduction, the Oscar-winning screenwriter continued to give a huge amount of praise to “Banks” writer Kelly Marcel, who shares credit with Sue Smith (although no one seems to be mentioning the latter’s contributions at all). I asked what she thought of the reaction to the film so far and Thompson insisted that she doesn’t read reviews, but she had heard some of the reactions in London were a bit mixed (true). As for working with Hanks, she joked that the two were old pros and they hardly needed rehearsal. That was a sentiment her co-star also shared.

Hanks, always jovial, always a delight to speak to, has been somewhat quiet during the promotional efforts for both “Banks” and his hit thriller “Captain Phillips.” The two-time Oscar winner participated in barely any sit down video interviews for “Phillips” (mostly limiting his appearances to red carpets) and “Banks” is no different. It’s clearly a strategy set in motion as to not overexpose the actor with the opportunity for both Best Actor (“Phillips”) and Best Supporting Actor (“Banks”) nominations at play. Hanks laughed when I told him Thompson referred to them as both old pros and then proceeded to credit the script (Marcel again) and Hancock for their easy repartee.

He also used the analogy of describing both Thompson and himself as two classic baseball players meeting on the field. He gave her an excellent pitch in their scenes together and she knocked them out of the park. Of course, as fantastic as Thompson is, it’s Hanks’ work (especially during a major moment in the third act) that makes the movie work. Before you know it, and before I can tell him what a big fan of the underrated “Cloud Atlas” I am, Hanks is pulled away by someone wanting a photograph. Something suggests he won’t go far as he should be making a number of future appearances on the awards season calendar.

As for the screening itself, there was laughter at many expected moments, but it was not as prevalent as during the London premiere, possibly because many of the jokes are at Americans’ expense. (It’s worth noting Hanks told me he sat through the London premiere and noticed the English crowd laughed at moments he hadn’t expected). That being said, the film got a very nice if not enthusiastic round of applause at the end.

It was a solid night for “Banks'” U.S. premiere as it looks to make an Oscar run and score at the box office beginning on Christmas day.

For more on “Saving Mr. Banks” read Guy Lodge’s review or Drew McWeeny’s review.

“Saving Mr. Banks” opens nationwide on Christmas day.

The nominations for the Gotham Independent Film Awards were announced two weeks ago, delivering predictably good news for “12 Years a Slave,” which led the field with three nominations, including Best Picture, Actor and Breakthrough Actor. Well, it has now extended that leading tally to four, as the nominees for the Gothams’ Audience Award were announced today — and, naturally, Steve McQueen’s Oscar heavyweight is on the list.

As the name implies, this award is one public-voted award at the Gothams, and only films that have already won audience awards at one of 50 North American film festivals are eligible to be considered. 36 films made the longlist, and five films how survived the first round of voting. From now until November 24, you can vote for your favorite at the Gothams’ website.

Joining “12 Years a Slave” on the list, unsurprisingly, is The Weinstein Company’s Sundance champ “Fruitvale Station” — which was left out of the Gothams’ Best Picture lineup, but was nominated for Best Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor.

Rounding out the nominees, meanwhile, are three far lower-profile titles you could be forgiven for not recognizing — all of them documentaries. “Best Kept Secret” is a study of a special-needs teacher preparing her students for the outside world, “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey” is a Journey rockumentary that went down well at the Palm Springs fest, while another music doc, “Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings” looks at the titular ukelele player.

Hardly a fair fight, you might. But before you leap to conclusions, remember that “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was nominated for this award last year, and wound up losing to “Artifact,” a Jared Leto-directed doc about his own rock band. Public voting moves in mysterious ways.

With that, the nominees for the 2013 Gotham Audience Award are:

“Best Kept Secret”
Samantha Buck, director; Danielle DiGiacomo, producer

“Don”t Stop Believin”: Everyman”s Journey”
Ramona S. Diaz, director; Capella Fahoome Brogden, Ramona S. Diaz, producers

“Fruitvale Station”
Ryan Coogler, director; Nina Young Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, producers

“Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings”
Tadashi Nakamura, director; Donald Young, producer

“12 Years a Slave”
Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers

The winner will be announced at the Gotham Awards ceremony on December 2. Have any of you seen all five nominees? And what would you vote for?