Gary Oldman”s career has been a frequent topic of conversation of late at In Contention. Two recent interview pieces focused on his work in “JFK” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” respectively and a secondary list focused on his most notable performances.

But it appears as though we are not the only ones who believe the actor deserves a bit of well-earned recognition at this stage in his career.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival selected the Oldman for its International Star Award earlier this month, and now, the Arclight Hollywood has announced that it will host a six-film retrospective of character portraits starring Oldman  – all of which make an appearance on Kris”s aforementioned top 10 Gary Oldman performances list.

This is a free three-night event from January 9-11, culminating with an in-person Q&A with Oldman following a screening of Focus Features”s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” at 8pm on Wednesday, January 11. Focus is co-hosting the series with radio station KCRW.

One would imagine the hope is to draw attention to both the film and its star as the precursor season crests towards its conclusion.

The other films being screened in the series are:

“Sid and Nancy” (1986) on Monday, January 9 at 6:30pm

“JFK” (1991) on Monday, January 9 at 9pm

“The Contender” (2000) on Tuesday, January 10 at 6pm

“Dracula” (1992) on Tuesday, January 10 at 9pm

“Prick Up Your Ears” (1987) on Wednesday, January 11 at 5:30pm

If you are an LA local, and an Oldman fan, you can RSVP for free tickets at www.OldmanRSVP.com. I’m imagining these are going to move very quickly.

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It”s an annual complaint among Oscar-watchers and industry folk alike that the awards season is overwhelmingly geared towards prestige releases that land in the second half (or even fourth quarter) of the year, aiming to capitalize both on autumn festival buzz and Oscar voters’ short memories. For every early release that stays the course all the way to the Oscar podium — most recently, “The Hurt Locker” — there are any number of deserving January-to-June contenders that slip through the cracks as newer, shinier, not necessarily better fare takes precedence.

With that in mind, I began a new column series last year dedicated to writing that wrong: First-Half FYC, in which I spotlight the worthiest major-category Oscar possibilities (or impossibilities) from the first six months of the U.S. release calendar. I’ve started a little late this year, so I’m doubling up on the categories, beginning with the Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress races: what follows is an alternative ballot of five deserving names in each category, all of them in films released before July.

True to form, the majority of the 10 names I’ve picked below lie far outside the current Oscar conversation: only one of them looks likely to be nominated, though he might be the surest winner of the lot. Even if I’ve waded into some genre territory most Academy members would never consider, there was a pleasingly deep field to choose from, proof that voters would do well to cast their minds a little further back.

I did, however, restrict myself to contenders from Oscar-eligible films, which meant rejecting three of my first choices: Juno Temple in “Kaboom,” Raul Castillo in “Cold Weather” and Sergei Puskepalis in “How I Ended This Summer.” Why their films aren’t on the official list of 265 titles in Oscar play is something I don’t care to find out, but I salute them regardless.

With that, my five January-to-June picks for Best Supporting Actor:

Bruno Ganz, “Unknown”
Jaume Collet-Serra’s deliciously dim-witted entry in the Neeson-scorned genre is packed with so-wrong-it’s-right pleasures, but Ganz’s performance as a wily Stasi agent turned P.I. is the smartest of them: he camps it up riotously, adding multiple Germanic syllables to words like “deeeetailz” and “Leeeeipzig,” but brings of wounded sense of dignity to the character where you least expect it.

Chris O’Dowd, “Bridesmaids”
Casting the not-especially-famous, not-especially-handsome Irish comic O’Dowd as Kristen Wiig’s romantic foil in the comedy hit of 2011 was a masterstroke: as a gangly, out-of-place state trooper, he gamely reflects the heroine’s daffiness even as he represents the feet-planted stolidity the character and film both need; if only for two hours, we all fell for him.

Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
The one name on this list likely to be nominated — and increasingly, one suspects, a sure thing for the win. But Plummer hasn’t reached the front of this race on seniority (and an Academy IOU) alone: it’d be easy to overplay both the twinkliness and the tragedy in the story of a long-closeted gay man blooming in his winter years, but it’s the casual delicacy of the performance that sticks.

Jérémie Renier, “Potiche”
A second closet case of a character, though a far broader assignment than Plummer’s: admittedly, the casting of stony Dardennes alumnus Renier as an unwittingly effete liberal student-turned-umbrella designer is half the joy of the performance, but under a lustrous bowl cut, the actor never overplays his hand, slotting into Francois Ozon’s heightened camp universe with unpatronizing ease.

Corey Stoll, “Midnight in Paris”
The Screen Actors’ Guild may not have deemed him an essential part of the ensemble, but for many others, Stoll’s inspired, hilariously thick-spread impersonation of Ernest Hemingway, all quizzically steely stares and peppery vocal cadences, was the clear highlight of Woody Allen’s novelty bauble, and (together with Adrien Brody’s Dali) the strongest justification for its parlor-game premise. 

And Best Supporting Actress: 

Rose Byrne, “Bridesmaids”
Another bid for “Bridesmaids,” and it’s not the name the season thus far would have you expect: Melissa McCarthy may be scooping up citations for her louder schtick, but it’s Byrne who is the film’s secret comic weapon. It’s always harder to wring laughs out of humorless characters, and Byrne plays this uptight party-planning princess to brittle, and surprisingly affecting, perfection.

Judi Dench, “Jane Eyre”
Dench’s 2011 Oscar buzz evaporated with non-event turns in late-year prestige items “J. Edgar” and “My With With Marilyn.” Would that the buzz had been on her warm, ever-so-slightly vinegary turn as the staunch housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax in this fine-cut Brontë adaptation: no wheels are being reinvented here, but it’s the actress’s most lived-in character work since her last Oscar nod.

Elle Fanning, “Super 8”
Those who didn’t notice Fanning’s gorgeous breakthrough in last year’s “Somewhere” were surely taken a little more off-guard by the teenager’s stunning centerpiece scene in J.J. Abrams’ summer juggernaut: a tear-stained performance-within-a-performance that brought an out-of-the-blue emotional jolt to a proficient genre piece, but revealed a sly actorly self-awareness in an exciting new star. 

Melanie Lynskey, “Win Win”
I have no issue with the wonderful Amy Ryan, who has a well-earned smattering of critics’ citations for her work in Tom McCarthy’s shaggily appealing actors’ piece, but it’s Lynskey’s late arrival as an unmaliciously neglectful mother that sticks most in my mind: playing a scattered character the script doesn’t much want us to like, Lynskey’s hard-stare honesty gets us there anyway.

Lin Shaye, “Insidious”
Rivalling Bruno Ganz in the lively-performance-in-a-loopy-movie stakes is long-serving good sport Shaye, essentially the Zelda Rubinstein of James Wan’s irresistibly silly “Poltergeist” knock-off, who pulls off the neat trick of conveying her medium character’s po-faced seriousness about her role in proceedings, nudging the audience in the ribs all the way. 

Agree? Disagree? Which early-bird standouts would you like to see in the awards discussion? Share your thoughts in the comments, and keep an eye out for next week’s edition, when we’ll be covering the screenplay categories. 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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The trailer for Ridley Scott”s “Prometheus” was released last week and, as many have noted, it bears a striking resemblance to the original teaser for the film that acts as its foundation: Scott”s 1979 sci-fi classic “Alien.” For science-fiction appreciators, the trailer served as a reminder that 2012 has the potential to be one of the strongest years for smart sci-fi in recent memory.

Certainly, there have been intelligent science-fiction films released in the past decade: “Moon,” “District 9,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Children of Men” and “Primer” among them. But 2012″s landscape is distinct in that each of the offerings under discussion are fairly high-concept and have notable directors at the helm.

“Prometheus” marks Scott”s first endeavor in the genre since the release of “Blade Runner” in 1982. He created what was to become one of sci-fi”s most well known and defining franchise and now returns to revisit the universe (if not the story and characters) he designed.

The visual link between the “Alien” and “Prometheus” trailers indicates that the film will simultaneously link with its history and offer the viewer a fresh take on well-established themes. The scale of the project is visually and conceptually immense. To attempt to present a mythology that addresses the origins of mankind to today”s often cynically minded “it”s all been done before” audience denotes an impressive confidence – to say nothing of massive cojones.

The title may be a bit spot on, but it is also inviting. We imagine there is a lesson to be learned, that hubris will be in play (the opening voice over of the trailer has what I assume is Noomi Rapace lamenting, “I was so wrong. I”m so sorry”) and that someone (or ones) will be savior of man, betrayer of Gods, or both. There are detractors who will point to some of Scott”s recent work as an indication that “Prometheus” will not live up to its promise. But I have faith.

“Looper” represents genre-bending director Rian Johnson”s first foray into science-fiction. With his directorial debut “Brick,”Johnson drew from the detective novels of the 1940s, particularly those of Dashiell Hammett, to blend the tone, dialogue and characters of noir with a modernized high-school drama. His sophomore film, “The Brothers Bloom,” was not as well-received as his debut (which won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival). But I happen to love the film: a fast-paced, unique, stylized con-man caper that offers a lighthearted and skilled exploration of the genre. Many criticize the seeming lack of surprises; for me, the nature of the cons themselves are less relevant than that of the relationships and the overarching theme of the pursuit of the “unwritten life.”

“Looper” is a sci-fi crime thriller that reunites Johnson with his “Brick” lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In the film, the mob has discovered that they can commit the perfect murder by sending the body back in time, thereby eradicating any physical evidence. I enjoy Johnston and the way he toys with the rules of genre. He has passion and a sense of reverence, which is tempered by a sense of play. It is impossible to predict its merits, but if we are to judge by his previous efforts, “Looper” will at the very least be one to talk about.

Alfonso Cuarón is responsible for one of the stronger science-fiction undertakings of the last decade: 2006’s “Children of Men.” After a series of casting struggles, his latest, “Gravity,” went into production with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in the leading roles. I will confess that Bullock is the one drawback for me as far as this project is concerned. I like her just fine in “Sandra Bullock” films, but fear I will be thrown out of the tone (I believe) Cuarón will create by her presence. If the small tidbits that have been released are any indication, however, the ingenuity of the filmmaking (think the car sequence in “Children of Men” in space) will keep me engaged with this film. My hope is that Bullock will surprise me and/or I will be able to release my preconceived notions when the lights go down.

I don”t necessarily count “The Dark Knight Rises” as sci-fi as it is a comic book movie. For those who do, there”s that to look forward to as well. Of course, 2012 may shake out quite differently than we are currently imagining, but we’ll see. With that in mind, In Contention will be releasing our 10 most anticipated films of the new year next week. Be sure to check back for that, and here’s hoping sci-fi is well-represented.

For year-round entertainment news and commentary follow @JRothC on Twitter.

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For the fifth time in his career, director Steven Spielberg has offered up a drama (“War Horse”) and an entertainment (“The Adventures of Tintin”) in the same year. But for the first time ever, he has two films in theaters at the same time.

On top of all of that, 2011 has very much been “The Year of The Beard.” In addition to his own work, he has lended his check book and his talent as a producer to films like “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “Super 8” and “Cowboys & Aliens,” while having a presence on television via programs like “Falling Skies” and “Terra Nova.”

So with the man so much a force in entertainment this year, it seems like now is as good a time as any to take stock of his portfolio and offer up a list ranking the best he’s had to offer over the last four decades.

This really is the ultimate in subjective collectives, though. Spielberg, as one Twitter follower recently remarked to me, has become a brand. And the audience is brand-loyal. But within that brand are a lot of different experiences and memories to take into the assembly of a list such as this.

So with that in mind, do remember that this is my list. I’m sure yours is different and I’d love to hear what it is, so feel free to offer it up below with any general thoughts on the director, his work over the years and his work currently available in theaters.

You can dig into my selections at our new gallery.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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The ever-investigative Steve Pond has unearthed an interesting nugget here: a four-page short story written by Woody Allen in 1971 that bears more than a passing resemblance to “Midnight in Paris.” In “A Twenties Memory,” contained in the collection “Getting Even,” the narrator hangs out with F. Scott and Zela Fitzgerald, Gertude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and other Jazz Age luminaries that resurface in the film Allen made 40 years later, making similarly droll, casual observations about their work. Narratively, the film obviously represents a significant elaboration on the premise, so it’d be a stretch to call the screenplay an adaptation — though the Academy has made similarly sketchy rulings in the past. [Reuters]

Meryl Streep has developed a strong admiration for Margaret Thatcher, apparently. No need to go that far, Meryl. [The Guardian]

Nathaniel Rogers talks to Jessica Chastain about her all-round 2011 ubiquity. And soy ice cream. [The Film Experience]

A round-up of the year’s best movie posters. Good stuff, but they picked the wrong “We Need to Talk About Kevin” one-sheet. [Slant]

Roger Ebert counts down his 20 favorite documentaries of the year. No prizes for guessing his #1. [Roger Ebert]

For those still uncertain about the Best Picture Oscar voting, Christy Grosz recaps how this year’s rule changes will work with the preferential system. [Variety] 

With “Pariah” heading to theaters, Nelson George studies the directors offering a fresh perspective on black America. [New York Times]

Anne Thompson reviews the holiday box-office. It’s good news for Ethan Hunt (yay!), but bad news for Tintin (boo!). [Thompson on Hollywood]

Conclusive proof that “The Descendants” and “We Bought a Zoo” are the same movie. [Vulture]

To insert a slightly clunky line into a Frank Sinatra classic: when I was 28, it was a very good year. At least, I think so. So often, when I tell a friend or colleague that this has felt like the richest 12 months for cinema-gathering of my admittedly brief career as a film journalist, I’m met with hard Paddington stares or outright opposition. It’s been a weak year, I’m told, and I’m handed the slate of current Oscar frontrunners (peppered with unremarkable titles as “The Help” and “War Horse,” with only one cracking the list below) as evidence.

Which, well, yes. If a year in a film is measured by its head-prefect awards contenders and multiplex behemoths alone, then 2011 hasn’t been the strongest of vintages (even if it doesn’t strike me as markedly worse, by those standards, than 2009 or 2010). But like most artforms splintered by the array of options and platforms in the 21st century, cinema now requires a little bit of legwork to find the goods, and dedicated cineastes didn’t even have to wade too far into the fringes to find the good stuff: a banner year for British film, a strong showing for American indies and a healthy crop of challenging, festival-grown foreign hits. Seek and ye shall find (and keep). 

In short, I liked a lot of films this year. So many, in fact, that the running list of possible Top 10 material was beginning to run worrying long by September, when Venice added its annual donation of treasures. By the time I’d finished playing festival catch-up at the London Film Festival in October, I was beginning to secretly hope I wouldn’t love too many of the late-year prestige releases; the thought of what I had to leave out was getting disheartening. It didn’t work: earlier this month, a wild card arrived, five years in the making (and waiting), that undid the house of cards yet again. So it was that I decided on a Top 20 instead of a Top 10: still ranked, so the sticklers can stop counting halfway if they wish, but a more rounded reflection of the films that fired me up this year.

Even then, there were painful omissions. I toyed with a Top 25, before realizing that there were enough films to widen the goalposts even further if I let them; a line had to be drawn somewhere. Looking at the list I finally, after much doleful deliberation, assembled below, I can’t believe that everyone’s favorite foreign-language film of the year, “A Separation” isn’t on it: Asghar Farhadi’s film is an undenied marvel, and yet there’s room in my heart to love more than 20 films this year, believe it or not. (On a side note: I’m surprised that this is the most English-language-dominated year-end list I’ve yet assembled. Coincidental or otherwise, I suppose it makes a change from French productions topping my list for the last three years running.)

Other films that were all in various drafts of this list at one point or another: “Shame,” “Senna,” “Pina,” “Beauty (Skoonheid),” “Arrietty,” “I Wish,” “The Myth of the American Sleepover,” “Rango” and, yes, “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” On another day, in another mood, any of them could have made the cut; I can’t wait to see each one of them again.

Before we get started, a note for those who are unfamiliar with my year-end lists: I am privileged enough to attend a number of film festivals where I get to see many outstanding films that won’t hit U.S. screens until the next year (and, sometimes, beyond). I could wait until the year of their release to include them (which is the perfectly sensible approach that Kris takes), but I choose not to: writing an appreciation of a film nearly two years after I saw it feels false to me, and with many festival standouts struggling to find distribution at all, why not fly the flag for them earlier?

All of which is to say there are a few titles in the Top 20 that you might not yet have had an opportunity to see: please don’t think of it as obscure showing-off, but rather as planting a flag for films you should be looking forward to. And with that, here’s my Top 20 — as always, do share your thoughts in the comments.  

#20

“IMMORTALS”
Directed by Tarsem Singh

In a mostly uninspired year for multiplex fare, only three big, silly blockbusters really rocked me: if “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “The Adventures of Tintin” were a little too machine-tooled to crack the final list, Tarsem’s rapturously beautiful swords-and-sandals-and-fetishwear spectacular, however, is sufficiently bonkers to stand as an auteur statement independent of its audience obligations. Reaching new highs in multiplex homoeroticism (“Will you go south with me, or the way of the lady?” Stephen Dorff growls to Henry Cavill), the film’s singular styling is as refreshingly unhinged as its mythology. 

#19

“SLEEPING SICKNESS”
Directed by Ulrich Köhler 

Two European filmmakers hugged their Joseph Conrad volumes close to their chests in new films: the esteemed Chantal Akerman had festival critics doffing their hats with her languid adaptation “Almayer’s Folly,” but it was the lower-profile Ulrich Köhler who indirectly came closer to the heart of darkness with his structurally jackknifed study of two foreign doctors — one white, one black — who respond in radically different ways to the feverish advances of the Cameroonian landscape. My highlight of February’s Berlinale, where it won the Best Director award, it’s still seeking a U.S. distributor — here’s hoping that changes in 2012. (Longer review here.)

#18

“THE ARTIST”
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius 

Should the Academy crown Michel Hazanavicius’s frisky silent-movie tribute 2011’s Best Picture in two months’ time — which I sense they will — I expect the club of detractors will extend even to some of those critics who were enchanted by its elegant, film-drunk game-playing at its morning press screening in Cannes, days before it became A Harvey Weinstein Cause. Their loss, I say; the film’s a lark, certainly, but it’s also a thoughtful and heartsore one, mourning departed artists and artforms even as it ultimately, joyously, celebrates the elasticity of it own medium. Cute dog, too. (Longer review here.)

#17

“TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY”
Directed by Tomas Alfredson 

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that Tomas Alfredson’s wistfully stately adaptation of John le Carré’s knotty espionage novel — a more evocative and affecting watch than the beloved 1970s TV miniseries, for my money, sticklers be damned — is impossible to follow. It’s not an issue I have, for even if the spot-the-mole puzzle plot had left me behind, it’d still be of secondary importance: this is a film actively about tweed, cigarette smoke and a period fading before its inhabitants’ own eyes. As affecting a tale of professional transience, in its own way, as “The Artist,” though the final outlook is a lot less rosy. (Full review here.)

#16

“JANE EYRE”
Directed by Cary Fukunaga 

Contemporary cinema wasn’t exactly crying out for another adaptation of Charlotte Brontë proto-feminist Gothic romance, even if the last major go-round, the 1996 Franco Zeffirelli-Charlotte Gainsbourg edition, left room for improvement. Wisely, then, Fukunaga’s airily traditional take aimed to be definitive rather than subversive, and squarely hit its target with bang-on casting (Mia Wasikowska’s just-askew beauty is ideal, while Michael Fassbender’s rough dourness balances his sexed-up taked on Rochester), astute rejigging of the familiar narrative and Adriano Goldman’s exquisite pastel-and-gold lensing, its embrace of natural light keeping it fresher than any postmodern tinkering might have.

#15

“MELANCHOLIA”
Directed by Lars von Trier 

From “Contagion” to “Kaboom,” “Take Shelter” to “Another Earth,” filmmakers in 2011 seems determined to announce the end of world as we know it. That it fell to Lars von Trier to formally bring on the apocalypse was hardly surprising; that he did so with one of his most lyrically ruminative films to date, with nary a clitoridectomy in sight, was perhaps a little more unexpected. Its diagnosis of humanity cleverly filtered through a see-sawing character study of two sisters who may as well be named Depression and Anxiety, brilliantly played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia” is a silent alarm that couldn’t have been more misleadingly advertised by the requisite media furore surrounding its maker. (Full review here.)

#14

“MISS BALA”
Directed by Gerardo Naranjo 

“That could be a crossover hit,” I remarked to a colleague as we left a screening of Naranjo’s blazing formalist drug-cartel thriller, a commendably cool Oscar submission from Mexico, only to be met with a look of gentle pity at my cluelessness. “Are you kidding?” he said. “It’s genre fare for people who think Michael Bay made ‘Gomorrah.'” He may have been exaggerating (though the film didn’t do much business in the UK), but I know what he’s getting at: in this bristling study of a young woman’s unwitting recruitment into underworld wars, Naranjo daringly ratchets up urgency by slowing the pace, spitting furiously at Mexican authorities all the while. (Full review here.)

#13

“SNOWTOWN”
Directed by Justin Kurzel 

I know at least one entirely respectable critic who had to leave a screening of Justin Kurzel’s icily claustrophobic true-crime thriller, which lays out the improbably domestic origins of Australia’s most notorious serial killer, to be sick. I like to imagine that’s less due to its admittedly gruelling but intelligently measured violence than its overwhelmingly oppressive prefab-suburban atmospherics. Eitherway, it’s a testament to the riveting control wielded by debut helmer Kurzel, not to mention devastating work by a mostly non-pro ensemble, that the critic in question actually came back: I couldn’t have left if I’d tried. (Full review here.)

#12

“SLEEPING BEAUTY”
Directed by Julia Leigh 

A distinctly frosty reception greeted Australian novelist Julia Leigh’s compulsively precise debut film on the opening night of the Competition at Cannes, though even that couldn’t match the impressive chilliness of the film itself: a ruthlessly calm deconstruction of the very personal politics of fucking, its every frame appears to have been assembled with tweezers. That startling auteurist austerity only makes the emotional chaos inside the head of protagonist Lucy (an astonishing Emily Browning), a directionless girl whose yen for human feeling leads her into an unusual brand of prostitution, all the more evident, not to mention upsetting. (Longer review here.)

#11

“BOMBAY BEACH”
Directed by Alma Har’el 

It’s been an invigorating year for documentaries, not that the Academy’s typically safe-playing shortlist in the category would have you know it. Israeli-American video artist Alma Har’el’s feature debut is the most striking non-fiction statement left off (or indeed on) the list: a freeform study of manifold bruised-and-broken lives in the eerie virtual no-man’s-land of California’s Salton Sea, the film is unafraid of aestheticizing feeling, which isn’t to say that it shies away from it. “A doc can dance,” has been Har’el’s mantra in promoting this heartbreaking hybrid, wild with music and symbolism: purists may demur, but her subjects seem eager for the light. (Full review here.)

#10

“WUTHERING HEIGHTS”
Directed by Andrea Arnold 

“Love is a force of nature” ran the tagline for Andrea Arnold’s uncompromising new take on the Emily Brontë chestnut — the year’s second Brontë adaptation to use simple, literal fresh air to resuscitate a text, though to markedly more aggressive effect. It may have been stolen from “Brokeback Mountain,” but it wears well on a film that exposes the primal nature of Heathcliff and Cathy’s truthfully unromantic romance by equating them with the elements: breathtakingly shot in the Academy ratio by Robbie Ryan, this is the rare literary film that finds a new visual and aural turn of phrase, buffeted by a howling Yorkshire wind, for the source’s every word. (Full review here.)

#9

“ELENA”
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev 

A crisp, cruel comedy of manners that admittedly isn’t very funny at all, Zvyagintsev’s third feature is the film I’ve found myself most strenuously recommending to undecided festival attendees, not least because it won’t be landing on arthouse screens for a while yet. (It opens in the U.S. in May.) It’s been a tough sell, though. Those not turned off by the promise of a study of a middle-aged woman in moral crisis might still be wary after the dour disappointment of the director’s last film, “The Banishment,” to which the fine-bone-china delicacy, economy and wit of his latest, the cinematic equivalent of Chekhov short story, couldn’t be a sharper tonal about-face.

#8

“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN”
Directed by Lynne Ramsay 

In its own way as exemplary a cinematic reappropriation of literary source material as “Wuthering Heights,” Lynne Ramsay’s searing adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s unlikely bestseller — a worst-case parenting scenario tinged with post-Columbine era panic — succeeds by making every decision a standard prestige filmmaker wouldn’t: eschewing voiceover (and, frequently, dialogue) where the novel’s epistolary nature instructs otherwise, bravely soaking the screen in red where more timid symbolism might do, her filmmaking bravado happily refuses to buckle to a peak-form Tilda Swinton. It simply can’t be nine years until Ramsay’s next film. (Full review here.)

#7

“DAMSELS IN DISTRESS”
Directed by Whit Stillman 

Continuing the theme of too-long-absent auteurs, Whit Stillman’s gleefully daffy campus bauble, his first feature in a criminal 13 years, is the first out-and-out laugh riot to crack one of my top 10 lists since 2008. Does that make it my favorite comedy of the last four years? Quite possibly. There’s no one in American cinema at the moment who writes quite like Stillman: his complexly structured, patiently planted gags, as literate on the subject of academic etiquette as on the spiritual properties of anal sex, equal Woody Allen at his loosest. And if it took him this long to find a star as tuned into his wavelength as the never-spryer Greta Gerwig, so be it. A release date hasn’t been set yet, but you’ll feel a little warmer whenever it lands. (Longer review here.)

#6

“TOMBOY”
Directed by Céline Sciamma  

In a year when a number of major releases focused on the often underestimatated emotional crises of childhood, none rivalled Sciamma’s exquisite, ideally scaled miniature — at a compact 80 minutes, neither overworking nor diminishing its protagonist’s drama — for compassion, perspicacity or, indeed, reach. The sexual and gender insecurities of a pre-teen girl over a single summer would appear to be a dangerously fragile subject for film treatment, yet, aided by an alert, resourceful lead performance by newcomer Zoé Héran, Sciamma artfully avoids assumptions about her past or future, appreciative of all the directions this uncertainty could lead.

#5

“ALPS”
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos 

The Oscar-nominated critics’ darling “Dogtooth” may not have been director Yorgos Lanthimos’s debut, but his follow-up, “Alps,” still had ‘difficult second album syndrome’ stamped all over it from a distance: following the stark allegorical nature of his breakthrough, Lanthimos has headed into headier, still more cryptic territory, both structurally and thematically, for his latest. In mapping the inevitable chaos that occurs when an enigmatic group offers a relative-replacement service for bereaved families, the film splits narratives as nervily as its characters split identities. The results could descend irretrievably into murk, but Lanthimos keeps a tight leash on his delicious absurdities: it’s a cool formalist freakout that somehow made me want to call my family. (Longer review here.)

#4

“MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE”
Directed by Sean Durkin 

“Alps” would make one hell of a double feature with “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” another brisk meditation on the alternate selves that ultimately shadow and threaten their unhappy inventors, and the most assured and searching debut in a year of many. That last tag could apply with equal aptness to writer-director Sean Durkin or actress Elizabeth Olsen, whose open, never-quite-readable face does much of the legwork in this ingeniously structured, deceptively unfussed horror film about a cult escapee trying, with limited success, to deprogram herself in the presence of her bewildered sister. “Settles upon you like a slow strangle,” I wrote after my first viewing; seven months later, I haven’t shaken it off. (Full review here.)

#3

“DRIVE”
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

“I won’t lie to you, I pretty much want to have sex with this movie,” I tweeted after seeing “Drive” late in the Cannes Film Festival, the pop-fuelled sugar rush of Nicolas Winding Refn’s hot, clipped, nasty fast-car thriller having impeded any more profound insights. Two viewings later, I have yet to find a better way to describe how the film makes me feel: there’s an inclination among some critics to distrust immediate sensual pleasure, and I’ve heard many complain that there’s nothing beneath the surface of “Drive,” as if its surface, wrapped up in an all-purpose crush on Los Angeles, Walter Hill movies and Ryan Gosling himself, isn’t explicitly what this gorgeous gut-punch is about. (Full review here.)

#2

“MARGARET”
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

This time last year, I wouldn’t have believed that I’d be in a position to consider “Margaret” for any 2011 list at all, much less that it’d be a fierce contender for the #1 spot. (It’s been flip-flopping with the next film for the past month, believe you me.) Miraculously, what emerged from the ashes of creative blockage, editing conflicts and legal disputes wasn’t just the interestingly scarred sophomore feature we cautiously hoped for from Kenneth Lonergan, but a fully-fledged phoenix of a movie: masterfully dramatized and performed, raging with love and hurt and fury, structuring the aftermath of a single traffic accident as a self-seeding spider-plant of sorrow, and somehow offering the most profound reflection on post-9/11 New York City into the bargain. And we thought we had it good with “You Can Count on Me.” (Longer review here.)

#1

“WEEKEND”
Directed by Andrew Haigh

There were plenty of films in 2011 that announced their humane intentions and social currency with more volume and grandeur than Andrew Haigh’s wry, raunchy, finally shattering study of an extended one night stand between two very ordinary Nottingham blokes, but nothing this year has felt more like a quietly emphatic landmark. Homosexuality isn’t a condition to be evaluated and processed by either the characters (played, in the year’s most beautifully welded two-headed performance, by newish faces Tom Cullen and Chris New) or the audience: the chief takeaway here is that love is no more or less elusive, exciting or mundane for gay men than for anyone else. The acute attention to detail of Haigh’s writing is mirrored by his crisp, sponteneous shooting style: even its most intimate pillow talk belongs expressly in the cinema.

And there you have it: a 20-film playlist that doesn’t just evoke memories of a very nourishing year at the movies for me, but, I feel sure, will provide me with repeated pleasure and provocation on smaller screens in the future. All in all, I feel so good about this year that I’m not inclined even to consider a Worst of 2011 list (consider this my gesture of Christmas charity to Madonna), so here’s a recap of the best:

1. “Weekend”
2. “Margaret”
3. “Drive”
4. “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
5. “Alps”
6. “Tomboy”
7. “Damsels in Distress”
8. “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
9. “Elena”
10. “Wuthering Heights”
11. “Bombay Beach”
12. “Sleeping Beauty”
13. “Snowtown”
14. “Miss Bala”
15. “Melancholia”
16. “Jane Eyre”
17. “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
18. “The Artist”
19. “Sleeping Sickness”
20. “Immortals”

And finally, since I know my “If I saw it in 2011, it’s a 2011 film” approach irks some list purists, here are my top 10 U.S. releases of the year:

1. “Weekend”
2. “Margaret”
3. “Meek’s Cutoff”
4. “Certified Copy”
5. “Drive”
6. “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
7. “Tomboy”
8. “We Need to Talk About Kevin” 
9. “Cold Weather”
10. “Bombay Beach” 

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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The sleigh bells have been silenced, the decorations are ready to be stored another year and the online Christmas spirit is giving way once again to the power of snark.

As we enter the lull between holidays, I glance at the box office and see good news for Disney. Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse,” after weeks of heartland screenings, an aggressive TV campaign (I keep talking to friends all over the country who feel like they’re inundated with commercials) and plenty of awards buzz, the film is estimated to bring in $15 million in two days. Had it not opened on a Sunday (Christmas Day), it would obviously have had a stellar weekend.

“True Grit” opened on December 22 last year (a Wednesday) and still made $24 million on the weekend (dropping a scant 1% the next week, which ignited it as a box office story). It’s left to be seen what kind of legs Spielberg’s film will have, but with little demographic competition standing in its way, I’m thinking next weekend will be solid and the legs could be significant.

Significant enough to put it in the thick of the Best Picture race? Time will tell. Right now most are conceding things to “The Artist,” with “The Descendants” as the bridesmaid. “Hugo” is still in a position to make good (it has the critics and the industry, so box office doesn’t need to be outstanding) and “War Horse” is the only other film with the mojo to make a case for itself. (Some might argue in favor of “The Help,” but I’m skeptical.) Becoming a financial success story would give it a huge leg up, especially in the wake of “The Artist”‘s expected box office anemia. The narrative almost begins to write itself at that point.

But we’ll just have to wait and see what “War Horse” has in its tank first, and more importantly, whether the awards team behind it can use that to its benefit.

Last week we ran through the precursors so far to see what has been propped up to date, but the critics’ say is running its course. With the Screen Actors Guild having already declared, we’re moving into the guild phase. Ballots go out tomorrow, and between then and the balloting deadline (Jan. 13), three major announcements will drop:

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) declares a slate of 10 feature nominees (with separate categories for animated features and the previously announced documentaries) on January 3.

Two days later, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announces nominees for adapted and original screenplays on January 5 (with a number of ineligibilities that won’t show up but should nevertheless be noted).

Then on January 9, all eyes will be on the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA) announcement, which historically has the most sway on the Best Picture race (largely due to how massive the organization is).

How will they change the discourse? Will they? We’ll find out next year.

There hasn’t been a lot of movement throughout the Contenders section, but Guy and I have made this or that edit where necessary. The sidebar predictions reflect those changes.

(Note: Be sure to check back later today as Guy offers up his top 10 films of the year.)

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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One holiday down, one to go. And in the lull, we can probably expect more precursor awards announcements, no doubt.

Today, the Online Film Critics Society has declared nominations (or maybe I missed them pre-Christmas, I don’t know). And I guess it’s only fitting that, given the group, it’s the slate most in-line with my own views of the film year so far.

“The Tree of Life” led the way with seven nominations, but “Drive” wasn’t far behind with six. “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” meanwhile, had a decent showing, grabbing mentions for Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. And both of Werner Herzog’s documentaries made it into that field (where “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” has for some reason been the dominant one of the two — probably because that’s the one most people have seen).

Winners will be announced January 2. Check out the full list of nominees below and be sure to keep track of the ups and downs of the season via The Circuit.

Best Picture
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Drive”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Nicolas Winding Refn, “Drive”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Lars von Trier, “Melancholia”

Best Actor
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Michael Fassbender, “Shame”
Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
Michael Shannon, “Take Shelter”

Best Actress
Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia”
Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks, “Drive”
John Hawkes, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Brad Pitt, “The Tree of Life”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”

Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastain, “The Tree of Life”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Carey Mulligan, “Shame”
Shailene Woodley, “The Descendants”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“The Descendants”
“Drive”
“Moneyball”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Best Original Screenplay
“Martha Marcy May Marlene”
“Midnight in Paris”
“A Separation”
“The Tree of Life”
“Win Win”

Best Cinematography
“The Artist”
“Drive”
“Hugo”
“Melancholia”
“The Tree of Life”

Best Editing
“Drive”
“Martha Marcy May Marlene”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
“The Tree of Life”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Best Animated Film
“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Arthur Christmas”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Rango”
“Winnie the Pooh”

Best Documentary
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
“The Interrupters”
“Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life”
“Project Nim”
“Tabloid”

Best Film Not in the English Language
“13 Assassins”
“Certified Copy”
“A Separation”
“The Skin I Live In”
“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”

Special Award: Jessica Chastain (the breakout performer of the year)

Special Award: Martin Scorsese (in honor of his work and dedication to the pursuit of film preservation)

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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It’s been a nice end-of-year push from #teammargaret on behalf of a number of critics, no doubt feeling empowered by their position (and perhaps allowing their opinion of Kenneth Lonergan’s film to inflate a bit in the wake of perceived lack of support from the studio — which is itself a stretch of the truth). And it looks like victory, as according to Esquire critic Mike D’Angelo, screeners have been sent to the Academy for the group’s consideration. Perhaps all the fuss that has been kicked up over this one will force members to satisfy their curiosity and put the film in the player. And who knows? Maybe we’ll get a surprise or two from the writers or actors branches. At least the possibility is alive, now. [Twitter]

Jeffrey Wells, meanwhile, is on board. He’s revised his year-end top 10 to include the film. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

Spotlighting the year’s 22 worst films. [Film School Rejects]

Sasha Stone says the reviews for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” are “annoying and off point, written by men, too many men.” She spotlights a review by a young woman to beef up her point. [Awards Daily]

Oh, wait, smart women find things to loathe about it and can surgically take it to task, too. So, I guess we can’t be so reductive after all. [Movies.com]

Steven Zaillian, meanwhile, on changing Stieg Larsson story and the ending. [Entertainment Weekly]

Rebecca Keegan talks “The Iron Lady” with actress Meryl Streep and director Phyllida Lloyd. [Los Angeles Times]

D’oh! Baz Luhrmann bumped his head on the set of “The Great Gatsby.” Stop the presses. [Sydney Morning Herald]

David Poland sits down with “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” star Max von Sydow. [Hot Blog]

Tim Appelo looks at four recent home video releases that could figure into the awards race. [The Race]

The road for “War Horse” to the screen has been an interesting one this season. Highly anticipated, the film screened for public before most press via pop-up showings in the heartland. When critics finally did get a look, reactions seemed to fly in all directions. I had my say, the film being of a piece with a year that has me kind of in the middle on so much. We talked to the film’s famed cinematographer and have interviews with other elements of the cast and crew to come, but for now, you can finally give us your thoughts on the film as it hits theaters nationwide. If/when you make it out to a screening this holiday weekend, come back and give us your take.

One more sleep until Christmas, a day when the usual social restrictions on kitsch, sentimentality and sugar of all forms are lifted, as we all revel in shiny objects, soft lighting and Frank Capra movies. Not coincidentally, it’s also the day Steven Spielberg’s unabashedly saccharine “War Horse” is opening — but many displeased critics aren’t affording it the customary seasonal leeway, taking the film to task for its chocolate-box styling and blatant emotional manipulation. But is it the film that’s too cynical, or the critics? Taking into account other schmaltzy recent releases, including “We Bought a Zoo” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” Sasha Stone ponders the challenges of selling sentimentality in the 21st century. [Awards Daily]   

Daniel Craig talks to Ryan Gilbey about headlining two very different genre franchises. [The Guardian]

Some people are offended by “The Iron Lady” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” — for different reasons, obviously. [The Carpetbagger]

Bennett Miller and some of the craftsmen behind “Moneyball” (including Oscar-winning DP Wally Pfister) get the round-table treatment. [The Hot Blog] 

As “Margaret” gets re-released in New York City after a critical resurrection, Ed Douglas ponders its mysteries. [Coming Soon]

Marc Lee looks at the Oscar race and thinks it boils down to “The Artist” versus “The Descendants.” I think he’s only 50% right. [The Telegraph] 

One for the last-minute Christmas shoppers: Glenn Kenny offers a gift guide of some recent Blu-ray releases. [Some Came Running]

Finally, some blogosphere inside baseball: Indiewire’s Brian Brooks is moving to Deadline. We wish him well. [Indiewire]

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists have released their nominations which heavily favor Oscar frontrunners such as “The Artist” and the “The Help” but also honors some lesser served films, such as “Shame” and oddly enough “Melancholia” (which was selected as having The Worst Female Images In A Movie by the Women Film Critics Circle earlier this week). Though I agree with the large majority of their selections, I also find myself feeling as though several of the categories undercut rather than support the overall goals.

I know Actress Most In Need Of A New Agent is meant to be in good fun, but it feels petty and out of sync with the tone of the nominations. Movie You Wanted To Love But Couldn”t is a bit muddied. “Drive,” “Sucker Punch” and ”Young Adult” do not belong in the same category as far as I”m concerned. More to the point, is the criteria that you wanted to love it but when you saw it you realized it was a well intentioned but overstretched, convoluted mess of a thing taken on by someone without the emotional maturity to handle the cinematic endeavor (“Sucker Punch”); or that you wanted to love it but it just isn”t your cup of tea?

“Most Egregious Age Difference” also lifts right out. The voters themselves don”t seem to be taking it all that seriously when they nominate Bella and Edward from “Twilight.” The MTV Movie Awards has a different sense of itself than the Academy and the clarification makes the each organization’s intentions clear, as well as their respective place in the larger scheme of the entertainment industry.

Curmudgeonery aside, if you are going to have a Hall Of Shame Award, the AWFJ has certainly selected viable options. I mentioned “Something Borrowed” as my number one choice for “The Worst Female Images In A Movie” Tuesday. There is an argument to be made that “worst of” categories do little to elevate the conversation, however.  

There were some particularly apt and interesting selections in the performance categories. I was gratified to see Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan each receive nominations for “Shame” as well as Michael Shannon (who essentially defines the term “still waters run deep”) for “Take Shelter.” The supporting actor field was spiced up with the additions of Alan Rickman for “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2” and Andy Serkis for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” both deserved

I was somewhat surprised to see Diablo Cody ignored in the Best Original Screenplay field, and then get a mention in the Best Woman Screenwriter for the very film that then gets a nod (as mentioned) in the “Movie You Wanted To Love But Couldn”t” category. Feels somewhat fragmented. Overall solid choices with room for a few roads less traveled.

Check out the full list of nominations below.

Best Film
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Hugo”
“Melancholia”
“Midnight in Paris”

Best Director
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”

Best Actor
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Michael Fassbender, “Shame”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”
Michael Shannon, “Take Shelter”

Best Actress
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, “My Week with Marilyn”
Albert Brooks, “Drive”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Alan Rickman, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
Andy Serkis, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Carey Mulligan, “Shame”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“The Descendants”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Artist”
“Beginners”
“Bridesmaids”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Win Win”

Best Animated Film
“The Adventures of Tintin”
“Arthur Christmas”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”

Best Documentary
“Bill Cunningham New York”
“Buck”
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
“The Interrupters”
“Pina”
“Project Nim”

Best Non-English-Language Film
“Le Havre”
“Pina”
“A Separation”
“The Skin I Live In”
“Trollhunter”

Best Ensemble Cast
“Bridesmaids”
“The Descendants”
“The Help”
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”

Best Cinematography
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Melancholia”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”

Best Editing
“The Artist”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”

Best Film Music or Score
“The Artist”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hanna”

Best Woman Director
Lynne Ramsay, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Dee Rees, “Pariah”
Vera Farmiga, “Higher Ground”
Kelly Reichardt, “Meek’s Cutoff”
Jennifer Yuh, “Kung Fu Panda 2”

Best Woman Screenwriter
Diablo Cody, “Young Adult”
Abi Morgan, “The Iron Lady”
Lynne Ramsey, Rory Kinnear, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Dee Rees, “Pariah”
Kristin Wiig, Annie Mumolo, “Bridesmaids”

Best Breakthrough Performance
Jessica Chastain, “The Tree of Life”
Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Adepero Oduye, “Pariah”
Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Shailene Woodley, “The Descendants”

Kick Ass Award (for Best Female Action Star)
Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Helen Mirren, “The Debt”
Paula Patton, “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
Saoirse Ronan, “Hanna”
Zoe Saldana, “Columbiana”

Best Animated Female
Emily Blunt, “Gnomeo & Juliet”
Isla Fisher, “Rango”
Anne Hathaway, “Rio”
Salma Hayak, “Puss in Boots”
Angelina Jolie, “Kung Fu Panda 2”

Female Icon Award
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Actress Defying Age and Agism
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Judi Dench, “J. Edgar”
Helen Mirren, “The Debt”
Vanessa Redgrave, “Coriolanus”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry
Jessica Chastain
Thelma Schoonmaker
Stacey Snider
Kristin Wiig

AWFJ Award for Humanitarian Activism
Sandra Bullock (for tsunami relief)
Elaine Hendrix (for Animal Rescue Corps and In Defense of Animals)
Angelina Jokie (for UN work and making “In the Land of Blood and Honey” to raise awareness about genocide)
Elizabeth Taylor (for her work with AIDS)
Olivia Wilde (for relief work in Haiti)

AWFJ Hall of Shame Award
The Hollywood Reporter (for failing to invite any women to join the Directors Roundtable)
“I Melt with You” (production and cast)
“Jack and Jill” (production and cast)
“Something Borrowed” (production and cast)
“Sucker Punch” (production and cast)

Actress Most in Need of a New Agent
Jennifer Aniston
Kate Hudson
Sarah Jessica Parket
Amanda Seyfried
All actresses in “New Year’s Eve”

Movie You Wanted to Love But Just Couldn’t
“Drive”
“The Future”
“Sucker Punch”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
“Young Adult”

Unforgettable Moment Award
“The Artist” (the sound of glass clinking on the table)
“Drive” (the elevator scene)
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Lisbeth’s revenge)
“The Help” (the pie scene)
“Shame” (Carey Mulligan singing “New York, New York”)

Best Depiction of Nudity, Sexuality or Seduction
“A Dangerous Method” (Carl Jung spanks Sabina Speilrein)
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Lisbeth mounts Mikael)
“Melancholia” (Justine in the moonlight)
“Shame” (opening sequence on the subway train)
“Shame” (Brandon with co-worker)

Sequel or Remake That Shouldn’t Have Been Made Award
“Arthur”
“Cars 2”
“The Hangover: Part II”
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

Most Egregious Age Difference
“Albert Nobbs” – Glen Close (64) and Mia Wasikowska (22)
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” – Daniel Craig (43) and Rooney Mara (26)
“Midnight in Paris” – Owen Wilson (43) and # Léa Seydoux (26)
“Sleeping Beauty” – Emily Browning (23) and Man 1 (Peter Carroll, 68), Man 2 (Chris Haywood, 63) and Man 3 (Hugh Keays-Byrne, 64)
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” – Bella (18) and Edward (over 100)

Be sure to keep up with the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and commentary follow @JRothC on Twitter.

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The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle has spoken up and added nothing to the precursor conversation, going with a slate of typical winners. Most annoying, they totally got their “Obviously Worst Film” and “Not-So-Obviously-Worst-Film” awards mixed, but whatever. Check out the full list of winners below.

Best Film: “The Artist”

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”

Best Actor: George Clooney, “The Descendants”

Best Actress: Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, “Drive”

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

Best Adapted Screenplay: “Moneyball”

Best Original Screenplay: “The Artist”

Best Animated Film: “The Adventures of Tintin”

Best Documentary Film: “Page One: Inside The New York Times”

Best Foreign Language Film: “The Skin I Live In”

Best First Feature: Sean Durkin, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

Obviously Worst Film: “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

Not-So-Obviously Worst Film: “The Hangover: Part II”

Best Guilty Pleasure: “Fright Night”

Top 10 Films (in order): “The Artist,” “Drive,” “The Descendants,” “Hugo,” “Shame,” “Moneyball,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Melancholia,” “The Tree of Life” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

Be sure to keep up with the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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Anne and I are taking the first (much-needed) week off of the season from the podcast today. So we’ll be back 12/30 to close out the year with our 75th (if you can believe it) episode. So enjoy the holidays, whatever you’re doing, and enjoy a week off from our rambling nonsense.

When last week’s Globe and SAG nominations were announced, the blogosphere was thick with talk of who had been “snubbed.” It’s a word we’re all guilty of misusing, implying as it does calculated group-think impossible with large voting bodies. (Film writer Nick Davis summed up the misconception with this tweet: “Whenever I order off a restaurant menu, I look at everything I didn’t order, even the dish I almost chose, and I think, ‘I’m snubbing them!'”) Screen International editor (and HFPA voter) Mike Goodridge reminds us that voters can only vote for contenders, not against them; in a crowded field, omissions are inevitable, but who’s to say they were pointedly ignored? Proving that a group like the HFPA is a hive of conflicting opinions, not the collective Globes mentality we often refer to, his own favorite film of the year is “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” [Screen Daily] 

Mark Harris is happy enough that Brad Pitt’s performance in “Moneyball” is headed for an Oscar nod, but believes he deserves one for “The Tree of Life” even more. [Grantland] 

Madonna reveals in an interview that asked both her filmmaker ex-husbands, Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, for advice on “W.E.” I smell sabotage. [The Telegraph]

On “The Artist,” and how it references later Hollywood talkies more than it does the golden age of silent cinema. [The L]

Nathaniel Rogers rounds up the year in LGBT characters on screen, including folks from “Weekend,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”… and “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” [Towleroad]

Charlie Lyne takes issue with the eye-for-an-eye approach to sexual abuse in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” [Ultra Culture]

Not having seen the film, I’m neither endorsing nor resisting her view, but Manohla Dargis is at the peak of her powers in this “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” review. [New York Times]

Why Michael Fassbender is the man of the year. (Not that most people need much convincing.) [The Playlist] 

Finally, bringing it back home, a nicely balanced Top 10 from our HitFix colleague Drew McWeeny. [Motion Captured]

With over two months left of Oscar talk that isn’t even half as oppressive now as it will feel in a few weeks, I find myself eagerly looking forward to the mini-wave of winter festivals that will bring some fresh films to our attention — in particular, the Berlin Film Festival, which I’ll be attending once more in February. It’s at Berlin where I’ve previously got a hefty head start on such films as “A Separation,” “Coriolanus” and “The Illusionist,” and I’m antsy to see what the most civilized of the major European fests is serving up next year.

We already have a couple of titles locked in place, and one of them is a major one: Brillante Mendoza’s “Captured,” starring arthouse queen Isabelle Huppert. I’d previously thought the film sounded a likelier contender for Cannes, but I’m told Berlin was always the target: anyway, after competing twice at Cannes and once at Venice, he now completes the hat-trick.

If you can’t quite place Mendoza’s name, you might recall the media outrage when he won the Best Director award at Cannes 2009 for his film “Kinatay,” a brutal, expertly constructed political allegory chronicling the rape and dismemberment of a prostitute by a gang of corrupt policemen, described rather excitably by Roger Ebert as the worst film in the festival’s history. (The president of the jury responsible for that decision? Why, none other than Isabelle Huppert.)

As an unabashed admirer of both “Kinatay” and Mendoza’s far gentler follow-up “Lola” (an old-age study that would make a superb companion piece to Lee Chang-dong’s “Poetry,” if only someone would distribute the damn thing), I can’t wait to see what his and Huppert’s firebrand sensibilities bring out in each other. The film, inspired by a true story, centers on the accidental kidnapping of a French humanitarian worker by a rebel group of Muslim extremists.

Also confirmed for the Competition is the Spanish title “Childish Games,” while a pair of big-name Oscar hopefuls, Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and Zhang Yimou’s “The Flowers of War,” will both have their European premieres in safe out-of-competition slots. 

Other directors set to present films in the non-competitive Berlinale special strand include Werner Herzog (the four-part documentary series “Death Row,” of which “Into the Abyss” is one chapter), Kevin Macdonald (the Bob Marley doc titled, surprisingly enough, “Marley”) and Guy Maddin (“Keyhole”). 

Finally, following the appointment of Mike Leigh as president of this year’s Berlinale jury, festival juries have secured an impressively name-heavy jury to back him up: Jake Gyllenhaal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Asghar Farhadi (who, of course, is the fest’s reigning Golden Bear champ for “A Separation”), Francois Ozon, Anton Corbijn, Barbara Sukowa and Boualem Sansal. That’s a group Cannes would be proud to assemble; with any luck, it’s omen of a similarly world-class lineup to come.

For more views on movies, awards season and other pursuits, follow @GuyLodge on Twitter.

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The Academy has announced a list of 97 film scores eligible for consideration in the Best Original Score category this year. Typically, it’s this announcement that brings the bad news of this or that score either not being submitted or being ruled ineligible for whatever reason.

The notable exclusions this year are work from Cliff Martinez (“Drive”), Howard Shore (“A Dangerous Method”), Christophe Beck (“The Muppets”) and Alexandre Desplat (“A Better Life”). Each, however, is in the race elsewhere, but it’s unfortunate in the case of the latter as it is one of Desplat’s two best stabs in an accomplished and prolific year.

Also not on the list, to my great dismay, is Steven Price and Basement Jaxx’s outstanding work on “Attack the Block.” Humbug to that, I say. And Hans Zimmer, you’ll recall, opted out of the race this year. So his work on a number of films, including “Rango” and “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” does not appear on the list.

At the moment, I’m expecting two of the above — Alexandre Desplat (“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”) and Howard Shore (“Hugo”) to make the cut. John Williams will probably double-dip with “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse,” while Ludovic Bource will surely ride in on a wave of precursor sentiment both for himself and his front-running film, “The Artist.”

In lieu of Desplat, Guy is currently betting on the last spot being a fight between last year’s Oscar-winning tandem Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) and 2007 victor Dario Marianelli (“Jane Eyre”), with the former squeaking by. I’m not so sure on Reznor/Ross, but Marianelli is certainly plausible.

Other possibilities, I’d say, are Alberto Iglesias’s double-dip (“The Skin I Live In” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”), the still Oscarless Thomas Newman (“The Help”) and, once again, Alexandre Desplat (“The Ides of March”). But I’d like to speak up for fringe hopefuls that deserve a leg up: Cliff Martinez (“Contagion”) and The Chemical Brothers (“Hanna”).

Oh, and Mychael Danna’s “Moneyball” work is beautifully understated, as per usual with his work. That would be a welcome surprise.

We’ll update the Best Original Score Contenders page with these developments in due time. For now, feel free to offer up your thoughts on how the race will pan out in the comments section below.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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Director Stephen Daldry has received Oscar nominations for all three of his previous films (“Billy Elliot,” “The Hours” and “The Reader”), but the initial response to “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” has been mixed. In general terms, critics are either responding to the unrestrained sentiment or find it lacking, disingenuous, and/or saccharine. As Guy noted in Tuesday”s round-up, the BFCA nominated both Daldry (Best Director), his young star, Thomas Horn (Best Young Actor/Actress) and the film (Best Picture) but SAG and the Golden Globes passed.

Today the Palm Springs International Film Festival came out in favor of Daldry when it announced that he will be presented with the Director of the Year Award at the upcoming January 7 Awards Gala. “Stephen Daldry has garnered international acclaim as a director, bringing his consummate skill to both the cinema and stage,” said fest chairman Harold Matzner via press release. “In his latest work…he directs a virtuoso cast. For this haunting film and for all of his achievements as a ‘director”s director,’ the Palm Springs International Film Festival is honored to present the 2012 Director of the Year Award.”

I”ve not yet seen the film, but I must admit that I find the choice somewhat perplexing. I hesitate to take the cynical stance that Palm Springs is boarding what it assumes will be an Oscar-bound train, but my sense is that there are more interesting, underserved and possibly more deserving options for “Director of the Year.”

If they wanted to throw the industry for a loop they might select Tate Taylor, who has received almost no critical acclaim despite the fact that his film, “The Help,” is a contender in a number of categories (including Best Picture). These films do not direct themselves, after all.

I”d like to see Steve McQueen honored for “Shame,” which feels all but out of contention at this point. And Nicolas Winding Refn is certainly worth spotlighting for “Drive,” which has a distinctive tone that speaks to Refn as an auteur.

Those are just three of several possible honorees who may have made a lot of sense in this year”s field. Perhaps I will feel differently when I see the “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” though.

Other honorees previously announced for this year’s fest include George Clooney, Glenn Close, Michel Hazanavicius, Brad Pitt, Octavia Spencer, Michelle Williams and Gary Oldman. The festival runs January 5-16. Past Director of the Year honorees include Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Alexander Payne, Sean Penn, Jason Reitman and David O. Russell.

For year-round entertainment news and commentary follow @JRothC on Twitter.

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