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  • ‘Black Swan’ leads Online Film Critics Society noms

    The nominations list just announced by the OFCS features most of the expected names, but with a few welcome twists: nice to see Edgar Ramírez and LAFCA winner Kim Hye-ja lending some international flavor in the lead acting categories, while the Best Original Screenplay bid for “Greenberg” cuts pleasingly against the grain.

    Interesting, too, to see “The King’s Speech” missing out in the top race, where both “Winter’s Bone” and “Toy Story 3” have a home. (No autopilot nod for Helena Bonham-Carter, either.) Bonus points for a Best Foreign Language Film race that finally reflects the widespread critical adoration for “Dogtooth” (over “I Am Love,” to boot). There’s even a treat for all you “Scott Pilgrim” fans.

    Full list of nominees at The Circuit.

    [Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]

  • POLL: Predict the Best Picture 10

    Now that we’re deep into the precursor season and it seems there are 11 legitimate contenders for 10 Best Picture slots, it seemed a good time to revisit this poll.

    I’ve slotted those 11 in the left sidebar, with the obligatory “other” option for those of you who want to predict a curve ball (and we most certainly could get one).  But even if you don’t, there’s plenty to discuss regarding your bubble picks, so chalk up your predictions there and come back here with your thoughts.

  • 12/27 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Pond on original songs, rigging the ‘Grit’ game, coal for the year’s worst

    • Steve Pond offers his perspective on the Best Original Song race. [The Odds]

    • Jack Giroux talks “Rabbit Hole” with star Sandra Oh. [Film School Rejects]

    • Michael Cieply reveals how a shrewd publicity executive rigged the game in the favor of “True Grit” the first time around. [New York Times]

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  • BOX OFFICE: Focking ‘Fockers’

    “True Grit” looks to end up the highest-grossing western since “Unforgiven,” and hopefully a box office bump from a number of Oscar nods will be nice.  Whew.

    (Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)

  • Christmas greetings from the Francos

  • CINEJABBER: Another year over and a new one just begun

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Granted, Christmas isn’t universal, but is anyone making it to this page between the turkey and ham and mistletoe and Darlene Love?  If so, we thank you for squeezing IC into your holiday craziness (though we all know you’re just ducking the relatives for a few minutes).

    I don’t have much to chew on for you, though I suppose 2008’s collective of my favorite Christmas films is always good fodder around this time of year.  I just watched “Jingle All the Way” again earlier this week.  Every time, I can only ask myself, “Why did I do that?”

    BUT, if you haven’t delighted in this one, I suggest you Netflix Instant watch that sucker NOW.

    Anyway, I’m in snow-covered Ohio with the future in-laws (and having grown up as an only child, seeing a tree with four kids’ worth of presents underneath is a unique sight to say the least).  I was stoked to be met with a White Christmas for, I think, the first time in my life.  And the drive up from North Carolina: GORGEOUS.

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘The Illusionist’ producer Bob Last

    It’s been over 10 months since I first reviewed Sylvain Chomet’s dazzling new animated feature “The Illusionist” at the Berlinale, and yet it only finds its way to US theaters tomorrow.

    A more appropriate film to unwrap on Christmas morning, however, you could not ask for.  Both a loving tribute to the creative legacy of French comedian Jacques Tati and an iridescent valentine to the city of Edinburgh, Chomet’s latest is finally a heartbreaker independent of such associations, covering loneliness, disillusionment and renewal in its delicate tale of an outmoded music-hall magician who takes a naïve waif under his wing.

    The crowning artistic glory of a robust year for animation, and among the best films of any stripe in 2010, “The Illusionist” has already taken Best Animated Feature honors from the New York Film Critics’ Circle, as well as a special award from the National Board of Review, a Golden Globe nod and a healthy haul of Annie Award nominations.  And in addition to Chomet himself, the man deservedly basking in the film’s success is its British producer Bob Last.

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  • Guardian shortlists 10 titles for Best First Film

    When I was filling out my ballot for indieWIRE’s 2010 critics’ poll, Best First Film was perhaps the category I spent the longest time deliberating over — as unremarkable as the year has been in other respects, the amount of scrappy new directorial promise surging up through the cracks has been both unusually high and unusually prominent.

    Excitingly, much of this fresh filmmaking energy has been on the non-fiction side of things — something reflected in The Guardian’s newly announced shortlist for their annual Best First Film award. Four of the 10 films selected are documentaries after a fashion, even as they play with the boundaries of the format. (One of them, of course, turns out to be wholly a performance piece.)

    Included, of course, is Kris’s #1 film of the year, as is the film I eventually settled on for my indieWIRE vote. The list follows the UK release calendar — hence the inclusion of a 2009 title and the exclusion of, say, “Animal Kingdom” — but it’s a fine selection nonetheless.

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  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: ‘True Grit’ production designer Jess Gonchor

    We’re wrapping things up today with a final look at the below-the-line of Joel and Ethan Coen’s “True Grit” and a chat with production designer Jess Gonchor.

    You might recall our interview with Gonchor from last year when he mentioned how he first came to work with the Coens (on 2007’s “No Country for Old Men”).  The brothers had been very impressed with what they saw on Bennett Miller’s “Capote” and liked what he brought to the table.  Gonchor had already shown his value as art director on films like “Kate & Leopold” and “The Last Samurai,” but “Capote” was his first stab at being the head of the art department as production designer.

    Four films later the collaboration is still going strong as Gonchor has settled in nicely with the Coens’ family of craftsmen and women, and “True Grit” might be the apex of that work so far.  Any designer would delight in working on a western, but the attention to detail in Gonchor’s work, and particularly in the work of his set decorator, Nancy Haigh, is truly wonderful.

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  • Behind the scenes of ‘Inception’

    Happy Christmas Eve. Warner Bros. has been nice enough to give you a present early this year in the form of a two-and-a-half-minute look behind the scenes of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.” Enjoy:

  • 12/24 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Coen mustache history, year’s most overlooked, Cronenweth on ‘Social’

    • The 15 greatest mustaches in Coen brothers history. [Vulture]

    • The Gurus o’ Gold get their last licks in before the new year. [Movie City News]

    • Betsy Sharkey writes up the 10 most overlooked films of 2010, and yes, it’s a valid point to put the nearly $300 million worldwide grosser “Shutter Island” on there. [Los Angeles Times]

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  • Tilda Swinton spearheads reinvention of Edinburgh film fest

    I wrote at the end of my coverage of the Edinburgh Film Festival, back in June, that this year’s fest had come in for a fair bit of media flak, with many journos complaining (not entirely fairly, I thought) of a tepid film programme and minimal atmosphere. Few were surprised, then, when the fest’s artistic director Hannah McGill resigned from her post shortly afterward; speculation as to who might replace her has been coursing through the UK industry ever since.

    As it turns out, the answer is nobody: under a radical new scheme for the festival drawn up by festival patron Tilda Swinton and former EIFF director Mark Cousins–the pair who previously set up their own mobile film festival in the Scottish Highlands– and newly appointed producer James Mullighan, the new-look festival will dispense with an artistic chief (as well as many of its usual parties and awards) and instead have films programmed by multiple guest/celebrity curators.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘True Grit’

    I had no time to post this up yesterday, but it’s time you had your say on the Coen brothers’ latest.  I am a big fan, of course, and a bit predisposed, given my love for the genre.  But rattle off your thoughts in the comments section below if you get a chance to see it over the holiday.

  • More updates to The Circuit

    Updating has been a bit sluggish.  Apologies.  The holidays.  You understand.  Today, three critics groups to mention, as the Austin folks admirably go with something different here, the Utah critics aren’t afraid of ties (and do well by properly placing Hailee Steinfeld and Lesley Manville) here and the Oklahoma critics file in with the usual here.

  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: ‘True Grit’ composer Carter Burwell

    Nearing the end of our week-long series of interviews with the below-the-line talent of Joel and Ethan Coen’s “True Grit,” we’re talking today with the film’s composer Carter Burwell.

    Of the entire Coen crafts family, Burwell is one of the true veterans.  He goes way back with the brothers — all the way back, in fact, to their directorial debut, “Blood Simple,” in 1984.  Save for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” which featured an assemblage of pre-existing musical selections, Burwell has contributed an original score to each of their films.

    With “True Grit,” the task was unique despite music having always been quite integral to the genre.  Rather than whip up a completely original score from beginning to end, Burwell and the Coens decided to base a lot of the music on hymns of the period (though there is still a good deal of original music in the film — music unceremoniously ruled ineligible for Oscar consideration by the music branch of the Academy this year).

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  • 12/23 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Oscar’s age preferences, hear the King’s speech, ‘True Grit’ and ‘Winter’s Bone’ parallels

    • Anne Thompson talks with “The Way Back” director Peter Weir. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Nathaniel Rogers charts Oscar’s age preferences. [The Film Experience]

    • Melinda Newman sits down with “True Grit” and “TRON Legacy” star Jeff Bridges. [Awards Campaign]

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  • “The film’s power comes from the fact it’s all 100% true.”

    During the 12/10 top 10 podcast, when I spoke on the two documentaries that made my list this year — “Catfish” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop” — I made a point of noting that I’m taking the films at face value.  They are films that spark a natural sense of suspicion, especially in the case of the latter given that it is directed by prankster street artist Banksy, but I’m content to take them for what they claim to be (while feeling that, if fake, they are even more brilliant).

    All These Wonderful Things documentary hound A.J. Schnack recently interviewed Banksy about his film.  When the question of authenticity pops up, the debuting filmmaker states explicitly that the film is “100% true,” though of course he would.  But it’s an enlightening discussion for other reasons.

    For instance, Banksy says he’s very unpopular in his community at the moment for the attention paid to Mr. Brainwash, whose derivative, pointless, cookie-cutter “art work” becomes a narrative and thematic focus for the film.  There’s also his perspective on documentary filmmaking (“Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock are very punk to me,” he says.)  Great stuff.

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  • Guess Mark Lisanti’s top 11 films of 2010

    He doesn’t make it easy.  The list below, in no particular order.  How many can you guess?  (Okay, I made the first one pretty easy.)

    • The Sweet-Hearted-But-Poignant Animated One We’re Supposed To Take More Seriously

    • The One By The Famously Exacting Director With The Great Script By The Famously Jerky Screenwriter

    • The One Where You’re Going Insane Waiting Around For The Crazy Thing To Happen, Then It Happens

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