In Contention

Tag: Fernando Mereilles

  • ‘Milk,’ ‘Slumdog,’ ‘WALL-E’ nominated by Vancouver critics

    Josh Brolin in MilkThe Vancouver Film Critics Circle have dished out their list of nominees, three per category, and “Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “WALL-E” filled out the group’s Best Film ballot.  “Milk” and Philippe Falardeau’s “C’est pas moi, je le jure!” led the nominations tally with four mentions each.

    David Fincher showed up in the Best Director category for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” while Fernando Meirelles’s all but forgotten “Blindness” managed three performance nominations, all in the “in a Canadian film” fields.

    The nominees:

    Best Film
    “Milk”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”

    Best Canadian Film
    “C’est pas moi, je le jure!”
    “Heaven on Earth”
    “The Necessities of Life”

    (More after the jump.)

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  • OFF THE CARPET: 2008, a year in advance

    Another year, another set of wins…and another look ahead at what’s in store NEXT year.

    It’s never too late to take a long gander at what we might see dominating the film awards landscape in 365 days, and with that in mind, I’ve been doing my usual mulling over the possibilities for a few weeks to put together the sadly thorough examination of the 2008-09 award season that follows. Let’s get into it. There are some major considerations to take into account. right off the top.

    Like Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, who is set to be the entertainer of the year. With performances in “Body of Lies” (Ridley Scott) and “Revolutionary Road” (Sam Mendes), DiCaprio is working with a duo of awards-proven talent this year. Perhaps that will work against him, much like it did in 2006, and no major Oscar success will come knocking. But we’ll wait until we see the performances. Each of them could be enticing.

    This year’s Best Picture Oscar victor Scott Rudin is back again, by the way, with “Revolutionary Road,” recently inherited by Paramount Vantage and probably one of the true “frontrunners” this far out that we could put our finger on. The only other film in Vantage’s arsenal is Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” which could simply be a commercial success, but might find its way to multiple nods like “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond” in recent years.

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