MIAMI – I’ve often said it’s a mistake to hold film festivals in beautiful, vibrant cities: if you really want to direct undivided attention to your programme of films, you’d be best off locating the entire thing in a stranded multiplex somewhere off the New Jersey Turnpike. In January.

The directors of the Miami International Film Festival, however, are wise to this problem. After a fairly heavily programmed opening weekend, the festival programme unfolds at a civilized pace, with screenings beginning only in the early evening: a fair solution both for working locals and tourists like yours truly, who needn’t choose between the movies and Miami’s ample pastel-colored charms.

After a few days of uncharacteristically cool weather — practically arctic, to go by residents’ complaints, but still a godsend to someone emerging from a drastic London winter — the sun even came out to play ball. Happily, that was just in time for a spectacular, alfresco, Franco-Brazilian-themed brunch at the city’s rooftop Juvia restaurant, in honor of the festival’s Culinary Cinema sidebar opener “Why Did You Leave?.” I regret to say that I missed the film, but can say with conviction that a Culinary Cinema sidebar is something all festivals should consider. (The Miami fest is big on brunches, though their scale and scheduling are distinctly lunch-like to my British sensibilities. Either way, I approve.)

Lest we get drunk on all that Miami sunshine, Lasse Hallström’s frosty Scandi-thriller “The Hypnotist” (B-) was on hand to keep us in check. It was a neat programming choice on the festival’s part, and not just because this eminently commercial adaptation of Lars Kepler’s crossover bestseller is still, strangely, lacking a US distributor.

Rather, it occasioned an career tribute to two-time Oscar nominee Hallström that was all the sweeter for the fact that, 26 years ago, the then-nascent but evidently savvy Miami Film Festival hosted the US premiere of “My Life as a Dog” — the Swedish arthouse smash that made the little-known director’s name in Hollywood. (If you know Hallström only for soft-centered Miramax prestige fare and Nicholas Sparks adaptations, go seek out that 1987 film and be surprised/delighted.) Cleverly, the festival secured Griffin Dunne — producer of Hallström’s first US feature, 1990’s “Once Around” — to deliver the onstage presentation.

“The Hypnotist,” entered last year as Sweden’s official Oscar submission, may be Hallström’s first homeland production since “My Life as a Dog,” but the resemblance to that film — or indeed anything else in the director’s oeuvre — ends there. As the film’s opening beats find the camera poring over a grisly parade of mutilated bodies, the director of “The Cider House Rules” and “Chocolat” seems to take positive delight in the atypical nature of it all. There’s no begrudging Hallström the outlet for his dormant dark side, but this expert journeyman is not so much showing us his true self in this twisty, effectively nasty murder mystery than successfully donning a different disguise.

Not that Hallström has any pretence to the contrary. He has claimed David Fincher’s “Se7en” as an influence, but his film plays very much by the structural and aesthetic rules of the recent, vastly popular wave of Scandinavian crime storytelling on screens big and small — which, of course, Fincher recently fed back into with his take on “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” More impersonally styled, with the emphasis less on chic atmospherics than the mechanics of an absorbing narrative that doesn’t bear the closest scrutiny, “The Hypnotist” is closer in texture to the original, Swedish-language Millennium thrillers, but that’ll work for many.

One ace it does have in its hand is a fiery performance from Hallström’s wife, the perennially underused Lena Olin, here making the most of her biggest dramatic meal since TV’s “Alias.” As the viciously distraught mother of a kidnapped teen — whose disappearance appears to be linked to a brutal family murder in Stockholm — she gives this lengthy, diffuse procedural its human kick. Still, there’s fine work from Tobias Zilliacus as the gray-faced detective investigating both cases in the face of resistance from his superiors, and Mikkel Persbrandt (whom you may remember from the recent Danish Oscar-winner “In a Better World”) as Olin’s husband — a professionally discredited hypnotherapist whose interrogation of the massacre’s lone, comatose survivor is the key to cracking the case.

I’m being coy in the synopsis department, since I’m reliably informed that Paolo Vacirca’s adapted screenplay takes such liberties with the popular source novel that I’m liable to spoiler accusations from all angles, but the changes that have been made appear to be in the interests of amping up the family melodrama — suggesting, at least, that Hallström hasn’t wholly gone rogue on us in a film that is at once an alien homecoming and a familiar departure. (More on Lasse Hallström and his unusual career to come in my interview with him — keep an eye out.) 

Kissed with as much South American sun as can reasonably penetrate the stylish shadows of its lovely monochrome lensing, Matias Cruz’s short, sweet, fleet musical biopic “Miguel San Miguel” (B+) was a welcome antidote to all that grim-up-north business, though it’s no bauble. Yet another product of the Chilean film industry’s dazzling resurgence of late, it’s also a markedly youthful entry in this national cinema’s ongoing negotiation of their tricky political legacy.

Pablo Larrain, of course, recently capped his brilliant Pinochet-era trilogy with an Oscar nomination for its nimblest, most optimistic entry, the advertising satire “No.” “Miguel San Miguel,” the true story of a vocally liberal high school rock band formed in the most violently suppressive days of the dictatorship, bookends “No” in delineating the liberties and dangers afforded by creative expression under a dark regime, though it’s lighter still, smartly reflecting the unformed political perspectives of its teenaged male protagonists –who don’t yet know everything they’re fighting against, but are right to fight just the same.

The Miguel of the title is a shy, musically adept high school kid with a collection of battered, beloved Beatles records, a school briefcase that doubles as his drum kit, and no direction for the rhythm in his fingers until a pair of like-minded classmates come his way. Mutually exasperated by the strictures of a society that manifest themselves even in classroom haircut inspections, the boys form a garage band — well, a bedroom band, to be accurate — that gives both voice and platform to their frustrations, and are surprised when others respond to them.

It’s old-fashioned lets-put-on-a-show stuff given a distinguishing cultural context, counterbalanced by universal coming-of-age rites as the gawky Miguel finds puppy love in a hopeless place. A good portion of the third act in this tidy 80-minute film appears to be missing: the film stops short just as the characters appear to be finding traction.

Still, even that abruptness is appealing in a film that is hardly as scrappy as the band at its center. Mirko Zlatar’s crisp, cool lensing, in its best moments evoking the early rock photography of Anton Corbijn, lends it real snap and polish, as does an inventively fluctuating sound mix that makes terrific use of a selection of vintage pop-rock standards that must have cost at least half the earth. Here’s hoping “Miguel San Miguel” doesn’t end its festival journey in Miami — though, as long as the sun’s out and the water’s warm, there are worse places it could stay.

In a couple of months Sony Pictures Classics will be releasing Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight.” It’s an interesting project, as you know, in that it reunites the director with actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy for the third time in a unique series of films that keeps catching back up with the characters to see where they are in their lives (four if you want to count their brief reunion in 2001’s “Waking Life”).

The film gave us an idea: What other filmmaker/actor collaborations have worked so well in the past that we’d like to see them team up again? Sometimes sparks really fly on such a combination and it can leave you yearning for more. While everything from conflicting schedules to outright estrangement can sometimes get in the way, it doesn’t mean filmgoers aren’t eager to see lightning strike again.

We’ve put our heads together to come up with a list of 15 tandems, though we could just as easily spit out 15 more. A few we didn’t write up include Michael Mann and Tom Cruise, Christopher Nolan and Guy Pearce and Steven Spielberg and Liam Neeson, among others. Click through the gallery below to see what we settled on, and feel free to offer up your own picks in the comments section below.

There was a time, I think, maybe, when the MTV Movie Awards were kinda neat. But when you’re talking about an organization that didn’t want it even whispered that it was celebrating its 30th anniversary (lest the kiddies think it’s old school), well, you get “Best Shirtless Performance.”

Ironically enough, that new category this year is the one place that perennial MTV Movie Awards favorite, “The Twilight Saga,” was chalked up this year. The Razzie-dominating vampire tragedy was shut-out otherwise. Gasp! Is the honeymoon over?

The nominations were led by Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” and Seth MacFarlane’s “Ted” with seven each. Not far behind was David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” with six and, rounding out the Movie of the Year line-up, “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” with four and five respectively.

By far my favorite of the nominees? Kara Hayward and Jared Gillman’s precious moment from “Moonrise Kingdom” being immortalized in the Best Kiss category. Now you’re talkin’, MTV. Also, Ben Affleck gets another tip of the hat for his acting chops in “Argo.” The Best Picture Oscar winner’s only mention was in the Best Male Performance category, but at least the members of BAFTA won’t feel so alone in taking that notice this year.

Check out the full list of nominees below. And remember, all this stuff is backlogged for your perusing delight at The Circuit.

Movie of the Year
“The Avengers”
“The Dark Knight Rises”
“Django Unchained”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Ted”

Best Male Performance
Ben Affleck, “Argo”
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Jamie Foxx, “Django Unchained”
Channing Tatum, “Magic Mike”

Best Female Performance
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Mila Kunis, “Ted”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Emma Watson, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Rebel Wilson, “Pitch Perfect”

Breakthrough Performance
Ezra Miller, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Eddie Redmayne, “Les Misérables”
Suraj Sharma, “Life of Pi”
Quevenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Rebel Wilson, “Pitch Perfect”

Best On-Screen Duo
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, “Django Unchained”
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, “The Campaign”
Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg, “Ted”
Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr., “The Avengers”

Best Scared-As-S**t Performance
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Alexandra Daddario, “Texas Chainsaw 3D”
Martin Freeman, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Jennifer Lawrence, “The House at the End of the Street”
Suraj Sharma, “Life of Pi”

Best Shirtless Performance
Christian Bale, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Daniel Craig, “Skyfall”
Taylor Lautner, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2”
Seth MacFarlane, “Ted”
Channing Tatum, “Magic Mike”

Best Kiss
Kara Hayward and Jared Gillman, “Moonrise Kingdom”
Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg, “Ted”
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx, “Django Unchained”
Emma Watson and Logan Lerman, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Best Fight
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson & Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddelston, “The Avengers”
Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Jamie Foxx vs. Candieland Henchman, “Django Unchained”
Daniel Craig vs. Ola Rapace, “Skyfall”
Mark Wahlberg vs. Seth MacFarlane, “Ted”

Best Villain
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
Marion Cotillard, “The Dark Knight Rises” (SPOILER!)
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Django Unchained”
Tom Hardy, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Tom Hiddleston, “The Avengers”

Best Musical Moment
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash & Adam Rodriguez, “Magic Mike”
Emma Watson, Logan Lerman & Ezra Miller, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean & Hanna Mae Lee, “Pitch Perfect”
Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Best WTF Moment
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
–Mutilated and deformed after a botched suicide attempt, Bardem’s villain twists his prosthetic mug to show the few teeth he has left in a gut-twisting moment filled with vindictive vengeance.
Anna Camp, “Pitch Perfect”
–As Aubrey, Camp gives a barftastic display of a capella angst that tips the scales of cinematic grossness.
Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson, “Django Unchained”
–In an excruciating sequence, Foxx’s Django blasts servile head-servant Stephen, played by Jackson, and sets the Candieland mansion ablaze with the strike of a match.
Seth MacFarlane, “Ted”
–Fuzzy, flirtatious and flagrantly inappropriate, Seth MacFarlane’s Ted takes his co-worker crush one step too far.
Denzel Washington, “Flight”
–Washington’s Whip Whitaker rolls an inverted plane out of a 90-degree nose dive and saves the lives of 96 passengers on board.

The 2013 MTV Movie Awards will go down on Sunday, April 14 at 9pm ET/PT on — you guessed it — MTV.

As Kris noted last week in our gallery of potential 2013 Oscar contenders, the next awards season could be a(nother) big one for George Clooney — whose Best Picture win for “Argo” last week put him in an elite club of individuals to have won Oscars for acting and one other discipline.

With his regular producing partner Grant Heslov, Clooney will be looking to score a second straight Best Picture win — a feat last achieved by David O. Selznick in 1941 — and has two shots at bat. The first, the eagerly awaited adaptation of stage sensation “August: Osage County,” is simply a producing gig for the star. The second, WWII thriller “The Monuments Men,” features more Clooney for your buck: it’s his first project as director, co-writer and star since “The Ides of March” in 2011. 

“The Monuments Men” is a film a number of you have already pegged as a potential Oscar heavyweight, and it certainly adds up on paper, given Clooney’s awards history, the historical subject matter, a December 18 release date (though December prestige releases have an easier time securing nominations than wins these days) and an all-star cast that, besides Clooney, includes Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin. (Suck it, Seth MacFarlane.) Here’s the baity-sounding synopsis:

“The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind”s greatest achievements.”

Production on the film started this week in Berlin, with Clooney and Heslov producing through their company Smokehouse Productions. The crew — including cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, composer Alexandre Desplat, Oscar-winning editor Stephen Mirrione and production designer Jim Bissell — is mostly the same team Clooney gathered for “The Ides of March.” (Sharon Seymour of “Argo” fame designed that film, though Bissell has been along for the ride on every other Clooney-directed effort.). And like “Ides,” this one will be released through Sony Pictures. You may or may not choose to see this likeness as a good Oscar omen — that 2011 political thriller may not have been a major awards player, but by securing a not-entirely-expected writing nod, it kept Clooney in the Academy’s good books.

With production starting now in Germany — and moving later to the UK — the film is expected to complete shooting by the end of June. That suggests a fall festival berth may be a bit of a reach, but we’ll see how things go.

“The Monuments Men” opens December 18.

Barely a week after his film “Lincoln” only managed two Oscars from 12 nominations and deferred to “Argo” on Best Picture honors, Steven Spielberg seems as ubiquitous as ever. Fresh off the Academy Awards he was announced as head of the jury for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and he received a nice love letter in the New York Times last week pitting him as a sort of Godfather to Hollywood filmmakers.

“I think, for Steven, sometimes it”s the most fun to weigh in on someone else”s work when there are no consequences,” “Jurassic Park” screenwriter and “Premium Rush” director David Koepp said in the piece. “He is free to just talk about the creative part.”

But it doesn’t end there. Recently Spielberg revealed that he is developing Stanley Kubrick’s long-gestating and eventually abandoned Napoleon project as a mini-series. It was 12 years ago that Spielberg’s vision of another long-gestating Kubrick project, “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” landed to mixed reaction in 2001. I’ve written before about my own initial complex reaction that then grew to adoration, respect and, eventually, reverence over the years. I now consider it one of Spielberg’s best films. There are those, however, who didn’t quite get there, and so this news might be unsettling for them.

I’m all for it. As in 100%. The Napoleon thing has been written about at length — no, really, at LENGTH. So I imagine you’re mostly aware, but Slate has a nice summary of the events that led to its abandonment. You can also read Kubrick’s “Napoleon” screenplay online. It was unearthed back in 2000 when such projects were finding an outlet to be released, finally, on the internet.

Assuming Spielberg really invests himself in the mini-series and doesn’t farm a lot of the work in realizing it out to lesser filmmakers, I think this could be a truly special event. When I visited the amazing Kubrick exhibit at LACMA in November, the usual pang of sadness hit when I got to the “Napoleon” room. An entire wing dedicated to all this work (Kubrick had a research ethic second to none) that ultimately bore no fruit. Should such a thing be lost to the ages? Is it more romantic that way? Or does it deserve its moment?

I find myself agreeing with film critic David Ehrenstein, who commented on the Hollywood Reporter report on the project (which was first broken by French TV network Canal+ in an interview with Spielberg): “This is a very worthwhile project. It won’t be the film Kubrick planned but its existence will mean the voluminous research he undertook on Napoleon won’t sit on a shelf.”

And finally, a lot of the press this week pertains to the 20th anniversary Blu-ray release of “Schindler’s List,” hitting shelves today. The 1993 Holocaust epic is of course the film that brought Spielberg his only Best Picture Oscar to date. It also picked up Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and, of course, Best Director — Spielberg’s first such prize. (He would win again in 1998 for “Saving Private Ryan.”)

It was a great year to honor Spielberg, and not just because “Schindler’s List” is such a respected, towering achievement. Six months prior to that film’s release, “Jurassic Park” was unleashed onto theaters, tearing through box office records and serving as one last reminder of the filmmaker’s skill with spectacle before he would slow things way down with “Schindler’s List.” That he also managed such a one-two punch in 1997 (“The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “Amistad”), 2002 (“Minority Report” and “Catch Me If You Can”), 2005 (“War of the World” and “Munich”) and 2011 (“The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse”) is a testament to his nimble work ethic, and so 1993 was just a perfect moment.

(By the way, “Jurassic Park” will get the anniversary treatment in the form of “Jurassic Park 3D,” hitting theaters next month. And speaking of “War of the Worlds,” also worth reading is this excellent analysis of Spielberg’s H.G. Wells adaptation by Badass Digest’s Devin Faraci. I’ve always felt that film was an eerie, daring piece of blockbuster filmmaking that was unfairly dismissed in a number of quarters.)

“It doesn”t feel like 20 years at all,” Spielberg said of “Schindler’s List” at a recent event. “March 1 was the very first day of filming in Krakow…I quickly realized after a couple days of filming that this just wasn”t a natural reflex of my filmmaking instincts. This was going to be something that was going to change my life. I didn”t presume ahead that it was going to have any affect on the world entire, but I knew that this was going to be something that would transform me forever.”

Spielberg founded the Shoah Foundation in the wake of that seminal moment. And part of the lasting impression he’s helping the film make on, well, the impressionable, is the IWitness Video Challenge. You can learn more about that here.

And while we’re on the subject of “Schindler’s List” (which landed at #2 on HitFix’s recent collective survey of Spielberg’s best films of all time — my personal list was slightly different in 2011), The Times of London has an interview with actress Oliwia Dabrowska if you’re interested. Dabrowska played the famous girl in the red coat from the film, conveyor of a painfully simple visual concept that eventually pays huge emotional dividends. But Spielberg encouraged her to wait to see the film until she was 18, given the subject matter. She was 11 at the time and, of course, watched it anyway.

“It was too horrible,” Dabrowska said, now 23. “I could not understand much, but I was sure that I didn’t want to watch ever again in my life. I was ashamed of being in the movie and angry with my mother and father when they told anyone about the part. People said: ‘It must be so important to you, you must know so much about the Holocaust.’ I was frustrated by it all.”

Naturally she grew out of that mindset and came to understand the film as something she could be proud of.

It’s nice to see Spielberg full speed ahead like this. I have this inkling we could be on the verge of seeing a new golden age for the filmmaker, but you never can tell. He takes on and back-burners projects like no other, so there’s always just a lot of smoke. But to transition from “Lincoln” to “Napoleon” indicates an eye toward legacy. It’s not as if Spielberg needs to carve one out for himself — his place in the annals of this medium was set pretty much out of the gate — but his interests are taking on a new hue, and they reflect a certain spark that, if I may be so bold, I haven’t seen in the director in quite some time.

“Lincoln” was one of his finest achievements to date and it’s a shame the Academy Awards didn’t reflect that. But ever onward. I’m excited to see what grabs the director going forward.

We were very proud around these parts back during the Sundance Film Festival as In Contention friend (and former contributor) Chad Hartigan won an award in the NEXT section over some stiff competition for his film “This is Martin Bonner.” The film was picked up for distribution last week by Monterey Media, but while you’ll have a chance to catch his work as a result of that deal, you might also have another opportunity at the Sundance Institute’s Next Weekend Film Festival, should it be a part of the programming (and indeed, it ought to).

The four-day fest will take place in Los Angeles and will feature screenings, panels, parties and filmmaker workshops. It is an extension of the NEXT section at Sundance fest, which showcases stylistically adventurous films that take a bold approach to storytelling. More and more, Sundance-goers look to the NEXT line-up for the true spirit of the festival, and this year’s crop outweighed the competition crop in the eyes of many.

“The NEXT section at our Festival in Utah, built under the leadership of Festival Director John Cooper and Director of Programming Trevor Groth, showcases films that marry form and content in a way that pushes boundaries and offers fresh perspective s on storytelling,” said Sundance Insitute Executive Director Keri Putnam via press release. “We look forward to celebrating the energy of this work and these artists and to sharing it with a larger community in collaboration with like – minded cultural institutions.”

Some other films that have premiered in the NEXT section include “Bellflower,” “Compliance,” “Sleepwalk with Me” and “Sound of my Voice.”

“The best part of independent filmmaking is the freedom to tell your stories your own way, to take risks and not be beholden to convention of any kind,” said Sundance President & Founder Robert Redford. “At the core of NEXT WEEKEND are artists that are taking risks and pushing boundaries . As such, it”s fitting that Sundance Cinemas will be the home for this festival and these films.”

NEXT WEEKEND takes place August 8-11, 2013 at, as Mr. Redford notes, the Sundance Cinemas in the heart of West Hollywood. The newly renovated complex that used to house the Laemmle Sunset 5 cinemas seemed to be crying out for something like this to take up residence. For more information, visit www.sundance.org/events/next-weekend.

And once more for good measure: Congratulations, Chad!

MIAMI – Due respect to the Miami International Film Festival, which I’m confident has many delights in store over the next few days, but I think my festival experience may have peaked yesterday afternoon. Because, honestly, once you’ve had a hug from Darlene Love, it’d be unreasonable to expect much more from life — much less a film festival.

Love — onetime protégée of Phil Spector, owner of some of the greatest pipes in all soul music and the official voice of Christmas in my household and many others — was in town for the festival opener, “Twenty Feet from Stardom,” in which she’s one of the star subjects. She was also, to my great delight, the star of yesterday’s small, informal press brunch, where she held court with a bottomless supply of lively anecdotes and reflections from a storied career in show business — from Spector to Letterman to “Lethal Weapon.”. I was lucky enough to find myself seated directly opposite the great lady and don’t mind admitting my existing fandom was doubled several times over: the Weinsteins, who bought “Twenty Feet from Stardom” at Sundance, have an authentic publicity goldmine here.   

An audience with Darlene Love isn’t really an act that any festival film should have to follow, so it’s a good job that “Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is War” (B+) is so special. One of Miami’s handful of world premieres, it’s a film that seems destined for extensive festival travel, though this was plainly the right city in which to unveil it — a galvanzing, necessarily rough-hewn study of Cuba’s conscientized underground hip-hop scene, it sent a palpable electric current through the largely Spanish-speaking audience.

Documentaries that draw attention upfront to the dangers involved in their production can often straying into self-aggrandizing, even disingenuous, territory. In director Jesse Acevedo’s case, however, the bravado is justified as the film’s frequently guerilla-style shooting is essential. In taking on a government that wields violent censorship measures not just against artists, but audiences too, Acevedo’s film bristles with genuine risk and urgency: that it was completed at all seems a significant achievement, bolstered by the cogency and commendable lack of hysteria in the finished product.  

The ostensible subject of the film is Los Aldeanos, a Havana-based rap duo who have been vigorously fighting the power since 2003 with a combination of aggressive beats and blunt, often lewd, anti-authoritarian lyrics. Lead MC El Aldeano boasts in one track that he’s “hardcore as anal sex without lube”; in one of the film’s sweeter asides, his elderly aunt frets over the such rhymes with equal parts disapproval and concern. She has every reason to be worried: the police are a constant tailing shadow on the group as they illegally perform and distribute their protest music. 

These hulking, tattooed people’s poets are aware of the worst-case consequences of their resistance, however, which is something that can’t be said for all their fans. “Viva Cuba Libre” thus hits its angriest, most infectiously impassioned register as it shifts focus to the flight of the Cruz brothers — two young men who arrested and beaten in their own home, and finally imprisoned for five years, for the simple crime of listening to one of the Aldeanos’ bootleg CDs.

Using hidden cameras to negotiate a society where people live in reasonable fear of speaking their mind even privately, Acevedo excavates this miscarriage of justice inasmuch as you can excavate the deeds of a government so irrational — the film’s moving centerpiece is an interview with the brothers’ stricken mother, still no closer to making sense of what has happened than the day her children were taken into custody. Shot in a moving car in an atmosphere of cramped panic, it’s a sequence that could read as exploitative in less compassionate hands, but the emotional payoff is shattering. 

Amid its more politicized agenda, however, “Viva Cuba Libre” also hits home as a vital, frequently good-humored portrait of a city culture all too often romanticized in tourist cinema; Acevedo’s interview technique, whether in street vox pops or in busy domestic spaces, benefits from a keen ear and eye for life at the ages. (The music itself, meanwhile, is pretty compelling.) In demonstrating how a down-but-never-out culture depends on art and music to rise above economical and social suppressors, Acevedo’s film stands as a louder, ruder bookend to Wim Wenders’s less politically candid “Buena Vista Social Club” — it deserves equivalent exposure.  

I’m less confident that festival audiences worldwide will find their way to the festival’s narrative competition opener, Mexican director Analeine Cal y Mayor’s debut feature “The Boy Who Smells Like Fish” (C-) — and not just because this gentle-hearted but tonally baffling fusion of afterschool special, disease-of-the-week movie and magical-realist romance might be saddled with the least commercially-minded title since “Life is Cheap, But Toilet Paper is Expensive.” 

Still, it presumably sounded more approachable than “Trimethylaminuria,” the name of the rare ailment — also known as, yes, fish odor syndrome — that afflicts teenaged protagonist Mica (the appealing Douglas Smith, best known for TV’s “Big Love”) from birth. It’s an unusual and obviously unfortunate condition that the film spotlights with a curiously conflicted mixture of compassion and ridicule, alternating between Up With People sentiment and broad comedy, as one subsidiary character after another twitches their nose in response to Mica’s extreme B.O.

The Canadian-set film’s already high levels of farcial whimsy are given a needless assist by a subplot that finds Mica growing up in a heritage museum devoted to fictitious Mexican cheese-balladeer Guillermo Garibai and run with considerable zeal by the boy’s doting mother (the delightful Ariadna Gil, who leaves proceedings all too early). That this business receives such improbably brisk passing trade in the suburb of Toronto is one of the smaller question marks in the naive script, co-written by the director with Javier Gullon, that is most sure-footed when covering Mica’s tentative, sweetly familiar romance with fellow, more fragrant misfit Laura (Zoe Kravitz, an actress who continually seems bound for bigger things).

Cal y Mayor sometimes seems to be channelling Almodovar with her blend of the kitsch and the cute; indeed, this Canadian co-production (which also stars Canucks Carrie-Annie Moss as Mica’s motherly therapist and Don McKellar as his clueless dad) may have seemed a little more fluent if shot, as originally planned, in Spain. Still, it’s hard see Kravitz’s point in a statement at the post-screening Q&A: “It was too weird a film to say no to,” she said, and indeed, you won’t see many other teencoms this year that close with a mariachi-scored, Esther Williams-style musical routine. Miami seems as fitting a place as any. 

MIAMI – As thrilling as it is to be in the thick of the action at such superfests as Cannes or Sundance, I may well enjoy the smaller, less flashy film festival circuit even more —  as well as affording you a chance to catch up on previous festival hits you may have missed, the more off-the-beaten-track, locally-flavored programming often yields gems you’d never find otherwise. (And I won’t lie: with less stress around covering this or that major auteur premiere comes more time to take in some local color. Hey, even cinephiles like seeing the off-screen world on occasion.) 

So it was with great pleasure that I accepted an invitation to the Miami International Film Festival, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and looks to be doing so in considerable style. In fact, I should retract the words “less flashy” from the last paragraph if yesterday’s opening party — cheerfully mixing vodka cocktails, zesty Latin cuisine and booming chart hits in the spectacular art deco surrounds of the city’s historic Alfred I. DuPont Building, with a best-dressed contest encouraging guests to up the glamor ante — was anything to go by.    

I had been hoping to catch the opening film of the festival, which happened to be one of the documentaries I most regretted missing at Sundance — “Twenty Feet from Stardom,” the soul-soaked spotlight on backup singers that delighted Greg in January and has been picked up for distribution by the Weinsteins’ Radius label. Sadly, flight schedules and the snaking passport queue at Miami International conspired against me, so straight to the party it was. There will be plenty of other chances to catch this crowdpleaser, which, to go by the chatter last night, warmed Miami as much as it did the more frozen Park City audience.

Other Gala titles at the festival include recent Oscar nominee “No,” Fernando Trueba’s “The Artist and the Model,” Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom’s return to his homeland in “The Hypnotist,” Cannes prizewinner “The Hunt,” self-explanatory sports documentary “Venus and Serena,” and the US premiere of George Sluizer’s unfinished 1993 thriller “Dark Blood,” starring River Phoenix — which I saw and reviewed at Berlin last month.

That I’ve seen a number of the bigger draws allows me more room to explore the more exotic reaches of the programme, which is of course heavy on Ibero-American cinema, with two entire competition strands devoted to this ethnic branch. Among the 10 world premieres at the festival are the unusual-sounding coming-of-age drama “The Boy Who Smells Like Fish,” with a cast including Zoe Kravitz, Ariadna Gil and Carrie-Anne Moss, Spanish marital drama “Matrimonio” (which offers a welcome chance to “All About My Mother” star Cecilia Roth in another lead role) and documentary “Viva Cuba Libre,” a study of the underground Cuban rap scene. Look out for my festival postcards and we’ll see what we find. 

We mentioned a few weeks ago that Sony Classics has lined up release dates for its summer slate, consisting of Richard Linklater’s Sundance hit “Before Midnight,” Woody Allen’s latest, “Blue Jasmine,” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “I’m So Excited.” The latter in particular looks to be a wild romp akin to the director’s earlier work.

We might expect to see the film, which hits theaters on June 28, at the Cannes Film Festival. Almodóvar’s last film, “The Skin I Live In,” premiered on the Croisette and news of his latest emanated from the fest in 2012.

A new trailer has been released, courtesy of Total Film. Take a look below.

While two-thirds of this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees grossed over $100 million, there are still those who think blockbuster cinema is shortchanged by the Academy — franchise films, in particular, struggle to get much respect beyond the technical categories, however well-executed. We can argue back and forth about the rights and wrongs of that, but for more populist-minded viewers, the Jameson Empire Awards should come as a relief.

Voted for by readers of UK film magazine Empire, the awards take place in London on March 24, and are a loose, funny and — as you’d expect from a whisky-sponsored event — cheerfully irreverent antidote to the pomp and ceremony of awards season. Mainstream hits tend to dominate the event, and such is the case with this year’s nominations: British smash “Skyfall” leads the way with six mentions, followed by top US grosser “The Avengers” and “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” with five apiece.

The only Best Picture nominee Empire readers and Academy voters agree on, meanwhile, is Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”; “The Dark Knight Rises,” which pointed received no Oscar nominations at all, rounds out the top category.

Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis and Christoph Waltz both make the Best Actor lineup. The same goes for Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway in Best Actress, though Empire and Oscar disagree over what the ladies’ best performances of 2012 were: they’re nominated here for “The Hunger Games” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” respectively. Best Picture winner “Argo,” by the way, rates just a single nomination, in the Best Thriller category.

Kudos to Empire readers, though, for also noticing such less prominent titles as “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Sightseers” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and for handing a nomination each to “Anna Karenina” breakouts Alicia Vikander and Domnhall Gleeson. Voting for the winners opens today, and runs until March 15 — you can do so here.

With that, here’s the full list of nominations: 

Best Film
“The Avengers”
“The Dark Knight Rises”
“Django Unchained”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Skyfall”

Best Director
Joss Whedon, “The Avengers”
Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”
Peter Jackson, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Sam Mendes, “Skyfall”

Best Actor
Daniel Craig, “Skyfall”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Robert Downey, Jr., “The Avengers”
Martin Freeman, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Judi Dench, “Skyfall”
Anne Hathaway, “The Dark Knight Rises”
Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”

Best British Film
“Dredd 3D”
“Les Misérables”
“Sightseers”
“Skyfall”
“The Woman in Black” 

Best Male Newcomer
Domnhall Gleeson, “Anna Karenina”
Tom Holland, “The Impossible”
Steve Oram, “Sightseers”
Suraj Sharma, “Life of Pi”
Rafe Spall, “Life of Pi”

Best Female Newcomer
Samantha Barks, “Les Misérables” 
Holliday Grainger. “Great Expectations”
Alice Lowe, “Sightseers”
Alicia Vikander, “Anna Karenina”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Art of 3D Award
“The Avengers”
“Dredd 3D”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Life of Pi”
“Prometheus”

Best Comedy
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Ted”
“21 Jump Street”

Best Thriller
“Argo”
“Headhunters”
“The Raid”
“Skyfall”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Horror Film
“The Cabin in the Woods”
“Dark Shadows”
“Sightseers”
“Sinister”
“The Woman in Black”

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film
“The Avengers”
“Dredd 3D”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Looper”
“Prometheus”

Independent distributor A24 may be less than a year old, but they’re already building a clear brand image — if it’s stylish, name-heavy and young-skewing, they’re interested.

Though they’ve been making their presence felt with high-profile festival purchases since last fall, but they’re only just beginning to venture out into the real world. Roman Coppola’s critically panned “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III,” starring Charlie Sheen and Bill Murray, was their first theatrical release three weeks ago — it’s left them much room for improvement.

That’ll come in two weeks’ time with the simultaneous release of Sally Potter’s delightful “Ginger and Rosa,” with its award-caliber lead turn by Elle Fanning — shame about that hopeless Oscar-qualifying run last year — and Harmony Korine’s meretricious but cult-ready “Spring Breakers.” Both were flashy acquisitions from last year’s festival circuit, and should earn the company a healthy lick of prestige as they head into the summer.

Summer, incidentally, will be the most crucial period for A24, as it was announced today that their two highest-profile pickups to date will be released at opposite ends of the season. Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring,” with a youthful ensemble led by Emma Watson, will hit screens on June 14. Meanwhile, acclaimed teen love story “The Spectacular Now,” starring Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, is set for an August 2 bow.

The release date for the Coppola film, which seems likely to premiere at Cannes, is roughly what we were expecting. Buzz is currently quiet for the true-life crime comedy, which tells the story of a group of teenage girls who set out to burgle a series of celebrity homes — but even if it turns out to be a gem, it sounds a little light for the pressure of a prestige fall slot.

Scheduling “The Spectacular Now” for August, however, is arguably a little surprising for a film that was one of the biggest critical and audience hits of last month’s Sundance Film Festival — where it won acting accolades for its two young leads. It means the film won’t be benefiting from a second wave of festival buzz at Toronto, but it can be wise to give small, high-end items like this a little breathing room in the summer, allowing them more time to find an audience and generate word of mouth — whether it’s a future awards player or not.

Director James Ponsoldt’s previous film, “Smashed,” was also acclaimed at Sundance, but was buried upon release in October last year; this could be a kinder move. In any event, we should always be grateful to distributors who are willing to give us some of their good stuff earlier in the year. 

Lots of festival news this week. Next up, the Tribeca Film Festival has announced its opening night premiere for the 12th annual edition of the fest: Tom Berninger’s documentary “Mistaken for Strangers,” which chronicles Brooklyn-based band The National on tour.

“‘Mistaken for Strangers’ exemplifies the independent spirit and vitality that Tribeca is excited to showcase every year,” Tribeca’s Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Gilmore, said via press release. “We are thrilled to open with a film that embodies the journey of an independent filmmaker, and is at its core a highly personal and lighthearted story about brotherly love. It will be a great night of both indie film and music.”

Berninger is the brother of The National’s lead singer Matt Berninger. The heavy metal and horror enthusiast was asked to come along on the tour by his big bro, and figured he might as well bring a camera along to film the experience. “Mistaken for Strangers” is the result.

“What started as a pretty modest tour documentary has, over the last two and a half years, grown into something much more personal, and hopefully more entertaining,” Tom Berninger said in the release.

The National was recently announced as part of the line-up for the 2013 Bonarroo Music and Arts Festival, which runs June 13-16. They also have a new album due in May. So chalk one up for synergy.

The opening night premiere of “Mistaken for Strangers” will be followed by a special performance by The National.

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival runs April 17- 28. The rest of the feature film slate will be announced next week.

This September I’ll be off to the mountains of Colorado for my fifth trip to the Telluride Film Festival. It’s been a delightful excursion to start every season over that spread, though even in that short amount of time the crunch of other outlets descending on the space for an early look at potential awards players has been felt (and even I started going at a time when that escalation was already on the rise).

Excitement will be as high as ever this year as the festival celebrates its 40th anniversary with an extra day added to the long Labor Day weekend festivities. Not only that, but a new venue has been announced bearing the name of the fest’s most famous regular, director Werner Herzog.

“The Werner Herzog Theatre will be situated in Telluride”s Town Park Pavilion and become the Festival”s most technologically advanced theatre accommodating 650 pass holders,” the press release states. The fest will not, however, be expanding its 2013 pass holder base in order to keep value placed on its intimate, relaxed atmosphere.

“The 40th celebration is our chance to thank and honor the founders, filmmakers and audience who have helped us create such a beloved cultural institution,” blurbs Telluride Film Festival Executive Director Julie Huntsinger in the release. “We are inspired every day by the cinematic genius that surrounds us and look forward to sharing the best of that on this very special occasion.”

Four of the last five Best Picture winners have had their North American premiere at the festival, though films like “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech” and “Argo” were screened as “Sneak Previews,” given their “official” bow at the Toronto Film Festival in the weeks following Telluride. The last two years have seemed like a bit of a slight recoil back to its former identity, perhaps as a response to increased media interest in such early looks. “Argo” was the only Sneak Preview last year after a couple of years particularly well-positioned by Fox Searchlight Pictures to include the likes of “Black Swan,” “127 Hours” and “The Descendants.”

The 40th annual Telluride Film Festival runs August 29 – September 2 and In Contention will once again be covering from the scene. Passes go on sale tomorrow and can be purchased at www.telluridefilmfestival.org/passes.

Hey, who needs a third Best Director win? On the heels of his Oscar night disappointment, Steven Spielberg received some solace in the form of a very different, though arguably no less prestigious, cinematic honor: he’s been named the the president of the Competition jury at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. (Not that it will have come as a surprise to him, of course: he provisionally accepted the job when it was offered to him two years ago.) 

“My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none,” said Spielberg in response to the announcement. “The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium.”

Only the greatest of the film world’s great and good have been deemed fit for this role by the prestigious French fest: past American filmmakers to have held the position include Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood and Tim Burton. Last year’s president was the Italian actor-auteur Nanni Moretti, who won the Palme d’Or in 2001 for “The Son’s Room.”

Spielberg may seem a more mainstream pick than usual, but he has his own history with Cannes. Like all the aforementioned names, he has also competed for the Palme d’Or — way back in 1974, with his very first theatrical feature, “The Sugarland Express.” (It didn’t win the big one, but he shared the Best Screenplay award with co-writers Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins.) And while he’s never been in Competition since, he’s maintained his relationship with the Croisette: “E.T.” had its world premiere in an out-of-competition slot at the festival in 1982, as did “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008.

“The memory of my first Cannes Film Festival, nearly 31 years ago with the debut of ‘E.T.,’ is still one of the most vibrant memories of my career,” Spielberg further stated. (Was he not present in 1974, or has it slipped his mind?) “For over six decades, Cannes has served as a platform for extraordinary films to be discovered and introduced to the world for the first time. It is an honor and a privilege to preside over the jury of a festival that proves, again and again, that cinema is the language of the world.”

With or without his Cannes credentials, Spielberg is, as the foremost directorial brand name in all cinema, an inarguably worthy choice. It’s also worth noting the extreme high regard in which the French hold him and his work: in 2010, august film journal Cahiers du Cinéma named “War of the Worlds” one of the 10 best films of the previous decade.

Indeed, the only surprising thing about Spielberg’s selection is that it’s taken this long to happen — and not for lack of trying on the festival’s part. Festival president Gilles Jacob states that they had been courting Spielberg for some time, but this was the first year the director’s busy schedule allowed for it:

“It was with ‘E.T.,’ that I screened as a world premiere in ’82, that ties were made of the type you never forget. Ever since, I”ve often asked Steven to be Jury President, but he”s always been shooting a film. So when this year I was told, ‘E.T., phone home,’ I understood and immediately replied: ‘At last!'”

This year’s Cannes Film Festival runs from 15 to 25 May. Once again, we’ll be in attendance. Roll on spring.

The engravings on Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Best Picture Oscars for “Argo” are still fresh and already the gears are spinning across the net on what to expect in the film awards season next year. Of course we were going to pile on.

I remember a time when year-in-advance Oscar speculation boiled down to just a handful of eager beaver outlets (this one included). Now the LA Times, IndieWire, you name it, everyone’s putting that early bird finger to the wind. And no shock, everyone’s turning out similar lists.

Indeed, the old standbys are pretty much, well, stood by when it comes to this kind of thing. Oscar bait, pedigree, a pinch of buzz and voila, you have a set of films to look out for. But beware the pretenders. Remember “Amelia?” How about “The Shipping News?” And here’s one for you: “Pay It Forward.” Yes, there are as many seemingly awards-ish titles waiting to fall off that pedestal as there are those waiting to live up to the expectation. And for those recipes that turn out a tasty Oscar soufflé, dominance isn’t always a given. Just look at something like “Les Misérables” or “Lincoln” this year.

From our perch here, it’s fair to say there is a healthy slate of possibilities on the horizon. Studios like Paramount, Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company are already filling out their stables, while there are, as ever, plenty of films waiting to find a home that could figure into the equation as well. And as Clooney finds a place for his latest Academy Award, he might want to start staking out a potential spot for another one next year. Just in case.

But let’s save the serious predictions for a future date, shall we? For now, here are 25 films we think you might want to keep an eye on as we make our slow crawl to the 2013-2014 film awards season.

Click through the gallery below for more (and feel free to add any other films you think ought to be considered in the comments section below).

If you’ve paid any attention to the film industry the last few weeks, or maybe at least noticed green icons all over Facebook and Twitter, you’re well aware of the on-going state of frustration within the visual effects community. HitFix’s Drew McWeeny laid out a very compelling and considered piece this week examining why the industry playing chicken with these guys is a bad, bad idea, and the reportage on the “fragile underpinnings” of all of this really stems back to a David Cohen piece in Variety two weeks ago. In so many words, we’re approaching a watershed moment.

With that in mind, Visual Effects Society Executive Director Eric Roth has issued an open letter and a “call to action,” imploring government and, certainly, industry attention be paid to this post-production sector. “The amazing irony,” he writes, “is that while 47 of the top 50 films of all time are visual effects driven and billions of dollars of profits are generated yearly, the actual people who create the work are becoming an endangered species in California.”

Read the letter in its entirety below.

VES Open Letter – Call To Action

In light of current events, the Visual Effects Society (VES), an honorary body comprised of the very best visual effects artists around the world, today issues two calls to action:

First, we call upon Governor Brown and the State Legislature to immediately expand its tax incentive program for the entertainment industry and to include a focused approach concentrated on the visual effects and post production sectors of the industry.

Secondly, because we have reached a tipping point for the visual effects industry and there is much pent up energy, anger and frustration right now, the VES, under its good offices, is organizing a VFX Congress to take place within the next few weeks to allow all artists from around the world to share their concerns to find common ground on the issues that face us today. It is hoped that this effort will lead to a number of direct follow up actions that will gain consensus from visual effects artists everywhere. Everyone is invited and should attend.

As has become all too apparent over the past few years, and especially in the past few weeks regarding the status of Rhythm & Hues, Digital Domain, DreamWorks, and other visual effects facilities, the future for professionals who work in the visual effects industry – and the entertainment industry at large – in California is in serious jeopardy.

We certainly recognize that we live in a global economy and in fact, VES has members in 30 countries around the world. Many of those countries – and many states elsewhere in the US – offer aggressive tax incentives – which seek to lure visual effects work to their communities and away from our state. While California finally created a tax incentive program in 2009 (AB1069, Chapter 731, which was recently extended it to 2017), it is woefully inadequate to the needs of today”s entertainment industry. In effect, thousands of talented visual effects artists are joining the unemployment lines or becoming “migrant film workers”, chasing the work outside our borders because that”s where the jobs have been going and are still going.

The amazing irony is that while 47 of the top 50 films of all time are visual effects driven and billions of dollars of profits are generated yearly, the actual people who create the work are becoming an endangered species in California. In short, Hollywood, the birthplace of all this art and commerce, is quickly becoming the land where creative dreams die on the vine and pink slips for dispossessed artists are being issued at an alarming rate.

We know that there are some out there who are calling for the elimination of all subsidies & tax incentives everywhere around the world. We think that”s a great idea and if there were a magic button that could be pressed to make that a reality, we would press it in a nanosecond. Why? Because California can compete with anyone, anywhere if there”s a level playing field.

But in today”s global economy, where many hundreds of localities around the world are feverishly devising new ways to make California”s piece of the entertainment pie smaller, the fact that California”s program doesn”t meet it”s current needs (it only allocates $100 million yearly … which meets the needs of only about 20% of the work that would stay in California otherwise. For comparison purposes, New York caps its program at $420 million yearly and both Louisiana and Georgia are uncapped in the amount of incentives they offer), and is recklessly negligent to the thousands of visual effects professionals who are daily losing their jobs to other locales around the world. This not only hurts those artists, but also California”s economy because thousands of good paying jobs wind up buttressing the economies of states and countries elsewhere and the technological advances that otherwise would be birthed in California are now taking root elsewhere.

According to a Milken Institute report from July 2010, commenting on the changing entertainment industry economy in California since 2008, their “research shows that if California had managed to retain the 40 percent share of North American employment it once enjoyed, 10,600 direct jobs would have been preserved here in 2008. Furthermore, those direct jobs would have had broader economic impact, generating an additional 25,500 jobs after rippling through other sectors. If the state had maintained its former level of dominance, a total of 36,000 jobs would have been saved, generating $2.4 billion in wages and $4.2 billion in output.”

But until such time as all tax incentives everywhere are a thing of the past, California will need to take action– right now – or we”ll lose many thousands more jobs and Hollywood will soon be the equivalent of an empty storefront.

If you support this call to action for a larger incentive program in California that matches the needs of filmmakers and would keep jobs here, then send letters to our state lawmakers that urges them to get to work immediately to increase our incentive program. See the sample letter below.

Additionally, for the benefit of our membership and visual effects professionals worldwide, we will work with our global VES Sections and others to promote a healthy and vibrant visual effects industry in every country where visual effects are created. It is for all of our worldwide colleagues – here in California and everywhere else – that we hope a VFX Congress can bring us all together in a truly meaningful way. Details of when and where the Congress will take place will be forthcoming. Together we can make amazing things happen.

As always, feel free to send us your comments at leadership@visualeffectssociety.com.

Respectfully,

Eric Roth
Executive Director
Visual Effects Society

You didn’t think you had heard the last of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star Quvenzhané Wallis, I hope. The youngest Best Actress nominee of all time was shrewdly announced on Oscar Sunday as the lead in the Will Smith-produced, Will Gluck-directed adaptation of the musical “Annie,” and today a release date has been announced: Christmas 2014.

Of course, as Greg Ellwood outlined in his list of eight lessons learned from the 2012-2013 film awards season, a December release can be a tricky play when it comes to landing a Best Picture Oscar, but that’s obviously not at the forefront of consideration when you’re putting on a show like this. The holiday corridor will be fertile ground for box office potential, just as it was recently with Universal’s “Les Misérables.”

Is it too early to start talking about an Oscar race two years in advance? Yeah, probably. But clearly this will be some part of it, whether “Annie” ends up going the way of “The Producers” or “Chicago.” It will be interesting to see how much Wallis grows in that period of time, and indeed, it will be a joy to see her grow up in the spotlight. She shows no signs of slowing down.

Meanwhile, “Annie” is currently playing on Broadway at New York’s Palace Theatre with Lilla Crawford in the title role.

I’m a huge fan of Ramin Bahrani. Films like “Man Push Cart,” “Chop Shop” and “Goodbye, Solo,” to me, announced a vital new voice in American independent filmmaking. And when Guy caught and liked “At Any Price” at the Venice Film Festival last year, I was excited to catch it myself at the Telluride Film Festival just a few days later. There was something fetching there, but I couldn’t quite saddle up to it. I’ve nevertheless been looking forward to giving it another look sooner or later, and the film’s April 26 release date (opposite another bold American indie voice, Jeff Nichols and “Mud”), will provide a great opportunity to do just that. In the meantime, though, Collider has premiered the first poster for the Sony Pictures Classics release. Check it out below.