Cannes regains its Oscar foresight

Posted by · 4:43 pm · February 20th, 2012

With “The Tree of Life” the first Cannes Palme d’Or winner in nine years to receive a Best Picture nomination, and “The Artist” set to join the short list of top Oscar champs that debuted on the Croisette, was the French festival last year’s most important Oscar hunting ground?

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Stuck in the middle with you: thoughts on the Oscar nominations

Posted by · 2:28 pm · January 24th, 2012

If it’s hard to settle on one emotional response to this year’s Academy Award nominations, that could be the result of the Academy’s own split instincts.

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The Lists: Top 10 things we learned about the Academy today

Posted by · 9:13 am · January 24th, 2012

It’s been a busy morning. The nominees are out. About a thousand different variations of “it’s humbling and exciting” are coming through from the various contenders. And all eyes are fixing on February 26. But as we transition into phase two of the 2011-2012 film awards season, it’s worth it to pause and consider what we might have learned today.

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Round-up: The missing makeup nominee from 'The Iron Lady'

Posted by · 6:47 am · January 19th, 2012

Also: Designing ‘Potter’ and exhausting Uggie

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Round-up: Oscar's doc rule change favors theatrical visibility

Posted by · 7:50 am · January 9th, 2012

Also: ‘The Iron Lady”s composer switch and the craftsmen of ‘War Horse’

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'Tree of Life,' Fassbender, Swinton win with Online critics

Posted by · 9:20 am · January 2nd, 2012

After releasing quite the agreeable slate of nominees last week, the Online Film Critics Society has awarded “The Tree of Life” its 2011 Best Picture prize. The film won five awards in total. Previously announced special awards go to Jessica Chastain and Martin Scorsese.

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Austin film critics like 'Hugo,' Refn and Shannon

Posted by · 9:13 am · December 28th, 2011

The Austin Film Critics Association is the latest group to speak up on the year’s best, tapping “Hugo” as the best picture of the year. The film didn’t show up anywhere else on the unique slate of superlatives, though, which included two acting wins for “Take Shelter.”

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Round-up: Oscilloscope wants us talking about 'Kevin' sooner

Posted by · 7:12 am · December 22nd, 2011

Also: Steve Pond predicts 8 Best Pic nominees, and Richard Curtis on Spielberg

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Off the Carpet: Setting the field with the precursors so far

Posted by · 11:41 am · December 19th, 2011

In just three weeks we’ve gone from zero to a hundred on the circuit as the film awards landscape has been sculpted into a bit of a consensus in these waning moments of 2011. Let’s see what that consensus appears to be.

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2011: the year in superlatives

Posted by · 10:11 am · December 16th, 2011

Who am I to complain about the amount of year-end kudos announcements when I had this post coming all along? I know. I’m so hypocritical.

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'The Artist' leads with six Golden Globe nods, Spielberg snubbed

Posted by · 4:27 am · December 15th, 2011

‘The Descendants’ and ‘The Help’ followed with five nominations apiece, but it’s George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” with four, that is the morning’s big comeback kid.

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'The Help' leads SAG nominations, Demián Bichir surprises in Best Actor

Posted by · 5:51 am · December 14th, 2011

The SAG Awards tend to hew closely to Oscar prognosticators’ lists, but they handed us a few wild cards this morning — not just in terms of who they nominated, but who they left out.

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'The Descendants' takes Best Picture from Houston critics

Posted by · 9:00 pm · December 13th, 2011

“The Descendants” has been crowned Best Picture with the Houston Film Critics Society. Nicholas Winding Refn received his second Best Director prize of the day and Michael Fassbender was recognized for “Shame.” Check out the full list of winners below.

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Off the Carpet: Against the grain of dystopic claims

Posted by · 9:33 am · December 13th, 2011

There is a film I can talk about, a film I can’t talk about and a bunch of precursor awards that have faded into an indistinguishable blur. Let’s try to make some sense out of the week’s shenanigans.

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Indiana critics like 'The Artist,' Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth Olsen

Posted by · 8:07 am · December 12th, 2011

The Indiana Film Journalists Association has, like many before it, given its the Best Picture prize to “The Artist.” But there were a few notable singular choices throughout their list, particularly in the acting races.

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San Francisco critics honor 'Tree of Life,' 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'

Posted by · 4:40 pm · December 11th, 2011

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle has announced “The Tree of Life” as this year’s winner for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” won two prizes, for Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

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The Long Shot: Vehicle trouble

Posted by · 5:11 pm · December 7th, 2011

Many Oscar-watchers are describing this year’s Best Actress race as “weak,” a pejorative that has less to do with the fine performances in play than the iffy films many of them happen to find themselves in. But does it have to be that way?

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Lars von Trier maintains his silence at European Film Awards

Posted by · 10:40 am · December 5th, 2011

As predicted, Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” won top honors at the European Film Awards on Saturday, but received some karmic payback when fellow Dane Susanne Bier, whom he insulted in his now-famous Cannes press conference, beat him to the Best Director award.

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