I’ve been at a football game all day, so thank to Guy for keeping the news flowing through here.  Meanwhile, the latest SBIFF press release, in part:

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival continues its tradition of honoring the year’s standout performers by presenting The 2010 Chopin Virtuosos Award to Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Gabourey Sidibe and Michael Stuhlbarg, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Award presentation, sponsored by Chopin Vodka, will take place Sunday, February 7 at the Lobero Theatre at the 25th edition of the festival, which runs February 4-14, 2010.

The Virtuosos Award was created to recognize a select group of actors who have distinguished themselves through performances in film this past year. Last year’s recipients for this award were Viola Davis, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon.

Comments Durling, “These four individuals not only gave us standout breakthrough performances, but they all carry their own individual films – and they all do it virtuosically. We salute their achievement.”

Jeez, give us some breathing room. Anyway, the American Film Institute has revealed their annual selection of the year’s best U.S. titles, and as usual, it’s a pleasingly diverse, idiosyncratic list.

My heart sings to see Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s marvelous “Sugar” make the cut, at the expense of heavily-hyped titles like “Invictus” and even “Avatar” — Anne Thompson reports the latter got a special citation for technical achievement, though it’s not in the press release.

From an awards-watcher’s perspective, however, the most interesting inclusion here might be “The Messenger,” whose higher-than-expected precursor profile suggests some may be underestimating its Oscar potential.

Those looking for correlation with the Academy’s eventual Top 10 should bear in mind that a foreign title like “An Education” isn’t eligible for inclusion here. Even so, I’d say there are plenty of American titles not included here that are more likely to land Best Picture nods than, say, “The Hangover.”

But that’s the beauty of the list — it’s always a joy to see a set of year-end honors with more on its mind than mere Oscar prognostication. Check out the full Top 10 after the cut.

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Today is a very good day to be one Ms. Kathryn Bigelow. A few days ago, we asked you which film looks set to be the critics’ darling of the season — today, at least, the clear answer appears to be “The Hurt Locker.”

Hours after sweeping the board with the Beantown crowd, Bigelow’s Iraq-set heartpounder took the top two prizes in the LAFCA voting. What this means for the film’s Oscar chances is open to question, but its 58 year-old helmer’s trifecta of prizes today bodes well for her chances of become the first female Best Director Oscar winner in history.

The film wasn’t as dominant as it was in the Boston critics’ awards. Jeremy Renner’s Boston upset was not to be repeated, with Jeff Bridges taking his first (and, I suspect, not his last) Best Actor honor of the season for “Crazy Heart.” Meanwhile, DP Barry Ackroyd came in second to Christian Berger for “The White Ribbon.”

More thoughts, and a full list of winners and runners-up, after the cut.

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Note to all the critics’ groups out there: yesterday was a quiet day. Did none of you think to announce your awards then, getting a little more individual attention in the process? Talk about a pile-up.

Anyway, the New York Film Critics Online just revealed their selections, and while they’re not the most influential group out there, there’s good news for those hoping for a blockbuster presence in the awards season — and a battle of the exes on the Best Director front.

Side note for fellow fans of Tilda Swinton’s performance in “Julia”: apparently she was Meryl Streep’s nearest competitor for Best Actress, though voter Katey Rich of CinemaBlend speculates that some critics voting hadn’t seen the film. Sigh. Still, nice to see her crop up in some way.

A full list of winners is after the cut. (Thanks to assorted commenters, and Katey again, for furnishing us with details.)

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I’ll offer some commentary when we have the full list of winners at 2.30, but for now I’ll just convey my astonishment at the competence of my predictions so far. And offer a hearty cheer for Agnes Varda.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Runner-up: Peter Capaldi, “In the Loop”

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Runner-up: Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”

Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Runner-up: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci and Tony Roche, “In the Loop”

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Amid the anticipation for the LAFCA awards later this afternoon, you might not have realized that the Boston Society of Film Critics is also announcing its winners today. (I know I hadn’t.)

Anyway, it’s spectacular news for “The Hurt Locker,” which emerged triumphant in five categories, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and Film Editing. In a most welcome surprise, Jeremy Renner took Best Actor for the film — a cheer for the underdog amid a slate of more heavily-buzzed acting winners including Meryl Streep, Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique. Here’s hoping it’s not the last.

Meanwhile, it fell to the brothers Coen to prevent a clean “Hurt Locker” sweep, taking Best Screenplay honors for “A Serious Man,” while the BSFC’s quirkiest move is the joint selection of “Precious” and “Star Trek” for Best Ensemble. In another gesture towards populist cinema, “District 9” took the debut director award. After some delay, meanwhile, “Summer Hours” took foreign-language honors.

Still, the only real story here is the loud arrival of Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq actioner on the critics’ award scene. It’ll be interesting to see if the LA Critics continue the love across the country; we’ll know in a few hours. Full list of winners after the cut.

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Because it’s a lazy Sunday afternoon. Because I need a moment of light relief after rewatching “Inland Empire” and plunging back into “Dogville” — I’m working on my end-of-decade Top 50, can’tcha tell? Because I personally get more fluttery with excitement about critics’ awards than any well-adjusted guy should.

Because of all these things, my best guesses for the outcome of today’s two-part L.A. critics’ awards are after the cut. I’ll be bringing you the winners as soon as they are announced — at 12.30 and 14.30 PST.

Meanwhile, you’ve been guessing away at these gongs in previous spaces Kris designated for the purpose — but who wants to take a stab at the tech categories? The LAFCA always do interesting things there. (Their music award is, annually, the most well-judged of the season, if you ask me.)

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(UPDATE: Due to an error on the EFA’s own website, we initially reported that the technical Prix d’Excellence had been awarded to “Vincere.” This is incorrect: the sound design team behind “A Prophet” took the prize.)

Foreign-language Oscar favorites “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet” have been locked in something of an awards duel since May, when they took the top two prizes at Cannes.

However, while the latter film has been hogging the spotlight of late — pipping “Ribbon” to the post at the London Film Festival, the NBR Awards and even the Spirit noms — Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner clawed back some momentum at tonight’s European Film Awards, taking the top three prizes for Best Film, Director and Screenwriter.

“A Prophet,” which entered the race as the most-nominated contender, had to be content with a well-deserved Best Actor award for sensational newcomer Tahar Rahim, as well as the technical Prix d’Excellence for its sound team.

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The next seven days will be a whirlwind end to 2009 (I say end because we all know this town checks out from roughly the third week of December on).  The season will take on a whole new face as a number of announcements come down the pike.

But I’ll be tossing my own hat into the ring throughout the week as well, so I thought I’d offer a few reminders.

Obviously tomorrow kicks off the critical kudos season with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s list of award winners.  Guy will be bringing those to you as they are announced in the afternoon (I’ll be out of pocket).

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• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.

• As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.

• We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.

• In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”

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Wednesday we featured Dr. John’s “Down in New Orleans” from Disney’s traditional animation entry “The Princess and the Frog,” which is expanding considerably this weekend.  Today we’re happy to offer up what could be the second-best play at a nomination for the film in this category, “Almost There.”

Singing on the Randy Newman-penned track is Anika Noni Rose, who of course performs the voice of Tiana, the princess of the film’s title.  There isn’t much to be said about the song itself except that it’s a typical piece of break-out-into-song fluff that happens to come during a fairly key moment (and, therefore, has a leg up given the voting practice of viewing clip reels for the contenders).

Newman has also said this and “Down in New Orleans” are the best songs from the film, though Ne-Yo’s “Never Knew I Needed” and Jim Cummings’s “Ma Belle Evangeline” (a really fun tune) are also getting some campaign focus.  But have a listen to “Almost There” below and tell us what you think.

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In Alexander Payne’s “Sideways,” Paul Giamatti gave the best performance by an actor in 2004, so said the New York Film Critics Circle, and how right they were.  So why, why, why was the actor denied an Oscar nomination?  Granted, it was a strong year, but his work was at the top of that heap and that snub was one of the biggest shocks of the year.

Here was a man giving perhaps the finest performance in a comedic film since Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie.” His co-stars go were recognized, save for the equally deserving Sandra Oh, but the leading man, around whose performance the film stands, is snubbed.  All I can remember saying is: “Wow.”

Certainly Jamie Foxx deserved the attention he received for “Ray” and Leonardo DiCaprio was astonishing in “The Aviator,” even though he drew some criticism for before too youthful in the role. Rubbish, I thought.  He was superb, inhabiting Howard Hughes as he must have been in those days, brash, cocky, wealthy and willing to do anything that interested him.

Clint Eastwood was terrific in “Million Dollar Baby,” while Jim Carrey gave a wonderful performance in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” — a marvelous piece of acting, in fact.  Equally fine, and dark, was Kevin Bacon as a pedophile struggling to start anew in “The Woodsman,” which was one of the most daring American films in a long time.

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Two striking films in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race probe the theme of moral drift, both individual and communal, bred in a rural European community – the very opposite of what Hillary Clinton meant by “It takes a village.”

One of them, Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” you’ve probably heard of. The other you’ll hopefully hear much more about in the months to come: Danish entry “Terribly Happy” is a terrific thriller from Oscar-nominated writer-director Henrik Ruben Genz that has taken its homeland by storm and is ripe for a U.S. remake.

A wickedly comic flipside to Haneke’s solemn social critique, Genz’s film trades in twisty suspense and coal-black humor as it follows the misadventures of Robert (Jakob Cedergren), a mysteriously disgraced Copenhagen cop reassigned to an unwelcoming one-horse town with its own share of nasty secrets.

As Robert gets drawn into the void by a hesitant relationship with abused housewife Ingerlise (Lene Maria Christensen), the film has drawn comparisons to the Coen Brothers of “Blood Simple” and even the David Lynch of “Twin Peaks” in its cool unveiling of the macabre within the mundane.

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Sunday kicks off the critical kudos season with the LAFCA’s list of superlatives.  Every year one film stands out as the “critics’ darling” if you will, a film that commands support from quality-gaugers across the board.

So what’s it going to be?  In the latest sidebar poll, I’ve offered up a list of possibilities (leaving off less traditional stuff that was nevertheless critically acclaimed, such as “District 9,” for instance, or “Star Trek”).  Have your say and, if you think it’ll be something else, tell us in the comments section below.

(By the way, the last poll asking which of the “big four” everyone expected to fail?  Interesting results.)

*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

We are only one week away from the day that movie-going is changed forever so why even bother seeing anything now? I can’t be hassled by anything in only TWO dimensions! I didn’t buy these designer 3D/sunglasses for nothing!

Disney really emphasizes the 2D this weekend with the wide launch of “The Princess and the Frog,” the studio’s first non-computer animated title since “Home on the Range” in 2004. That modest film grossed $57.8 million, despite ingeniously casting Roseanne as a cow, but the damage had already been done by “Treasure Planet” two years before.

Intended to be Disney’s huge Thanksgiving family film, that flick grossed a terrible $46.9 million and effectively closed down the production house. Ironically enough, it’s John Lasseter who is spearheading the renaissance and the grosses here will go a long way towards deciding the future of the medium.

Two weeks of exclusive engagements in New York and Los Angeles have been a gold mine and “A Christmas Carol” and “Planet 51” will not be offering much competition. “The Blind Side” might be the only obstacle in the way of a really large opening but I think this should be the number one film easy and earn $32 million or so. I know I’ll be there.

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Via the Academy’s press release, the titles are:

“Angels & Demons”
“Avatar”
“Coraline”
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
“District 9”
“G-Force”
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Star Trek”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“2012”
“Watchmen”
“Where the Wild Things Are”

I’d say “The Lovely Bones” got the shaft, but I’m hopping off of that horse for now.  “Avatar,” “District 9” and “Star Trek” are the likely nominees, which is what I’ve had in the sidebar for weeks.  “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” could land in there, but it might feel old hat.  And “Where the Wild Things Are” is a legitimate contender.  Everything else is destined to be an also-ran, I suspect.

Still fully engaging at the end of a long day of interviews, actress Saoirse Ronan seems as eager to dive into the particulars of Peter Jackson’s latest film, “The Lovely Bones,” as she might have been before being asked every question in the book. Her energy is undeniable, as well as her poise, a young actress grounded but hungry for challenging work.

Her performance in Jackson’s film is a considerable notch in the 15-year-old’s early career. As Susie Salmon, the ill-fated youth at the center of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel, Ronan had to go places she certainly never has as a performer. But the working environment and relationship her director developed on the set deserves a great deal of the credit, she says.

“I don’t think I could really label what I’ve learned from Pete,” Ronan says. “I was with him for about nine months and being with someone like that every day that gets the best performance out of you that I can give makes you work hard as an actor and therefore makes you grow as an actor, and hopefully makes you a better actor. So I suppose you could say he’s made me a better actor.”

Ronan was particularly fond of Jackson’s upbeat, energetic approach to the work. And it is fair to say it was, as far as she is concerned, a non-traditional environment, but at the start of her career, she embraces the idea of eschewing the typical, just as Jackson has.

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Welcome to the latest installment of Oscar Talk, your weekly kudocast with yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

This week’s discussion is pretty much dominated by the unveiling of, arguably, 2009’s most anticipated film. So with that in mind:

• Anne and I discuss the joy of James Cameron’s “Avatar,” including everything from technical wizardry, the film’s milestone status in the history of cinema and, of course, awards prospects.

• With the critics’ awards kicking off this weekend, starting Sunday with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s list of kudos, we speculate on which films could get recognition and which films need the leg up.

• Top 10 lists are hitting and Anne just published hers, so that’s food for thought. Mine will hit Monday.

• Briefly we preview next week’s list of key dates, which include the BFCA, Golden Globe and SAG nomination announcements.

Have a listen to this week’s podcast below. Apologies for the audio on Anne’s side of things. It sounds a little muffled because we couldn’t get her external mic to work. Roll with the punches.

Oh, and as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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