Editors Go For The Descendants, The Artist and Rango

The 62nd Annual American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards were presented Saturday, February 18, 2012 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills. Awards were presented in nine categories of film, television and documentary at the black-tie ceremony celebrating the best of 2011. About 1,000 attended.

The award for the Best Edited Dramatic Feature went to THE DESCENDANTS (editor, Kevin Tent).

 

THE ARTIST, won for the Best Edited Comedy or Musical (editor Anne-Sophie Brion and editor-writer-director Michel Hazanavicius).

 RANGO, voiced by Johnny Depp, and edited by Craig Wood, won Best Edited Animated Feature Film.

FREEDOM RIDERS (editors, Lewis Erskine and Aljernon Tunsil) won Best Edited Documentary.

 

   Click the title of this post to see more.

BAFTA Goes for THE ARTIST, ASC for THE TREE OF LIFE

There were two major motion picture awards yesterday, Sunday, February 12th. First, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) gave out their Orange Awards, and the American Society of Cinematographers presented their ASC Awards.

1. First, the BAFTA Awards. The French Motion Picture, THE ARTIST, received the most awards, seven: best feature film; actor, JEAN DUJARDIN; director and screenplay, MIKEL HAZANAVICIUS; original music, LUDOVIC BOURCE; cinematography, GUILLAUME SCHIFFMAN; and costume design, Mark Bridges.

THE IRON LADY's Meryl Streep was named best actress and THE IRON LADY received the award for best hair and makeup. No surprise in either. OCTAVIA SPENCER (The Help), and CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER (Beginners), were honored as supporting actors.

The Spanish motion picture produced by the Almodóvar brothers from Spain, Pedro and Agustin. THE SKIN I LIVE IN, received the nod for best motion picture not in the English language, directed by Pedro and produced by both. Spain did not submit this motion picture for Oscar consideration  in the Best Foreign Language Film Category.

The best documentary award went to SENNA, a documentary about Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the Formula1 world championship three times before his death at age 34. It also won the BAFTA for best editing.

The outstanding British feature was TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, which also won the best adapted screenplay. TINKER stars Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and John Hurt.

                                                                                   The best animated motion picture was RANGO (voiced by Johnny Depp).  Concerning RANGO, on 2/2, I Tweeted (@mimifink), "Last week, International Animated Society #AnnieAwards picked RANGO with Johnny Depp best for 2011." Those two awards elevate RANGO to the top of the Oscar speculation list for best animated feature.

If you are interested in the Best Animated Short Film for 2011, you might do well to put Minkyu Lee's ADAM and DOG – from Warner Brothers and Pixar Animation Studios - on your speculation list. Two smaller companies were involved, I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat and La Luna. See Annie Awards.

For more about the BAFTA Awards, including the honorary awards and other winners, click the title of this post.

2. Also on Sunday, the 26th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Awards were presented in the Hollywood and Highland Grand Ballroom.

WINNER: Emmanuel Lubezki for THE TREE OF LIFE.

Winners of the ASC award go on to win an Oscar about 50% of the time. The BAFTA went to Guillaume Schiffman for THE ARTIST. If statistics hold, ladies and gentlemen, the 84th Academy Award will go to one of these two. The awards are not yet posted on the ASC Official Website, so go to Reuters for more.

 UPCOMING AWARDS THIS WEEK

Friday, February 17th -  43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards, which celebrate people of color in the arts and individuals who promote social justice. THE HELP has eight nominations.
 

Saturday, February 18, 2012 -  The 62nd Annual American Cinema Editors' (ACE) Eddie Awards will be presented at the Beverly Hilton. The Eddie Awards honor editors working in motion pictures and television.

Sunday, February 19th - Writers Guild Awards at the Hollywood Palladium. See their Website.

'The Tree of Life' Wins San Francisco Critics Best Picture, and Sundance News

 

The San Francisco Critics Circle rallied around the Cannes' winner, The Tree of Life on Sunday, naming it the best picture of the year, and giving the best director award to Terrence Malick. The critics also singled out the movie's Emmanuel Lubezki for best cinematography.

Watch featurette of The Tree of Life star Jessica Chastain, also with Brad Pitt, and producers Dede Gardner and Grant Hill.
VIDEO 

Comprised of 31 Bay Area film critics the organization, voted Gary Oldman best actor for his portrayal of a British intelligence officer in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Tilda Swinton

They hailed Tilda Swinton as best actress for portraying the mother of a severely troubled boy in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

  

Supporting actor went to Albert Brooks for Drive,

Vanessa Redgrave

and supporting actress to Vanessa Redgrave for Coriolanus.           

Fiennes and Chastain

Ralph Fiennes not only stars in the Coriolanus, he makes his directorial debut in this  lesser-known Shakespearean tragedy.

Also in Coriolanus, Chastain shows her best Shakespearean acting chops.
VIDEO

Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan took the best adapted screenplay prize for Tinker, while J.C. Chandor received the best original screenplay prize for Margin Call, which revolves around the key people at a investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis, and stars Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci and Kevin Spacey.

Rango was named best animated feature, again beating out Scorsese's Hugo.

Certified Copy (France, starring Juliette Binoche, William Shimell and Jean-Claude Carrière) garnered best foreign language film.

Tabloid(UK)was named best documentary. For more on the awards, click title of this post.

~~~~~~ SUNDANCE ~~~~~~
~~~~~~~

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival online film guide is up and running, and it is in html. Search now to learn more about this year’s films, and the new ones for 2012, make a must-see list, and share on your social networks. The Festival opens January 19 and runs though the 29th in Park City, Utah.

Ticket registration closes at 5 p.m. MST on December 19. Register for tickets today! Get Park City’s best digs and deals when you book your accommodations online through the Sundance Institute.

Boston Society of Film Critics Choose 'The Artist' as Best Film of 2011

THE ARTIST

This past weekend, the Boston Society of Film Critics chose to name the black and white movie The Artist recipient of their top prize for 2011. The actual awards will be presented February 4, 2012 at the Brattle Theater in Boston.

BOSTON FILM CRITICS' List:

Best Picture - The Artist
Best Actor - Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Best Actress - Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor - Albert Brooks, Drive
Best Supporting Actress - Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Best Director - Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Screenplay - Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, Moneyball
Best Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Best Documentary - Project Nim
Best Foreign-Language Film - - Incendies
Best Animated Film - Rango
Best Film Editing - Christian Marclay, The Clock
Best New Filmmaker - Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Ensemble Cast - Carnage
Best Use of Music in a Film - Tie: Drive and The Artist

For more, click the title of this post.

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L.A. Film Critics Choose The Descendants as Best Film

The Descendants

Doris Day

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their 37th Annual Awards for what they consider the best of 2011. Doris Day will receive the Career Achievement Award, and

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) will receive the best film of the decade award. The actual awards will be presented at a dinner in January.

The Descendants, a drama directed by Alexander Payne about a family in Hawaii undergoing a crisis, was named best film of the year. The Fox Searchlight release prevailed over another Searchlight release, The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick, which was runner-up, and Malick was named best director for Tree. Martin Scorsese, earned runner-up status for directing Hugo, but Rango was awarded the best animated film prize.
 

The best actress award went to South Korean actress Yun Jung-Hee, who portrays a woman confronting Alzheimer's in Poetry. Michael Fassbender was named best actor for his four films: Shame, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre and X-Men: First Class.

Likewise, Jessica Chastain was named best supporting actress for the six films in which she appeared this year: The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter, Coriolanus and Texas Killing Fields.

Christopher Plummer was named best supporting actor for his turn as a widower, who in Focus Film's Beginners admits late in life that he is a homosexual.

A Separation, the Iranian submission for the best foreign-language Oscar, earned the screenplay award for Asghar Farhadi, who also directed the film. In the Los Angeles Film Critic's foreign film category, though, A Separation was runner-up. That category award went to Lu Chaun's City of Life and Death. See the previous post (Monday, December 05) for more about A Separation and Farhadi.

The cinematography award went to Emmanuel Lubeski for Terrence Malick's almost otherworldly The Tree of Life, released by Fox Searchlight. The Chemical Brother's score for the thriller Hanna was named best score.

In Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the director's 3D study looks at prehistoric cave paintings in the real caves, and it was chosen best documentary.

Here are the most popular awards with runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
Winner:  The Descendants
Runner-Up: The Tree of Life

BEST ANIMATION
Winner: Rango
Runner-Up: The Adventures of Tintin

BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Runner-Up: Martin Scorsese, Hugo

BEST ACTOR
Winner: Michael Fassbender. See above for four films.
Runner-Up: Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

BEST ACTRESS
Winner: Yun Jung-Hee, Poetry
Runner-Up: Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia

BEST INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL
Winner: Spark of Being

BEST DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION
Winner: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Runner- Up: The Arbor

BEST SCREENPLAY
Winner: Asghar Farhadi, A Separation
Runner-Up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Runner-Up: Patton Oswalt, Young Adult

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Jessica Chastain. See six films above.
Runner-Up: Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Runner-Up: Cao Yu, City of Life and Death

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Winner: Dante Ferretti, Hugo
Runner-Up: Maria Djurkovic, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

BEST MUSIC/SCORE
Winner: The Chemical Brothers, Hanna
Runner-Up: Cliff Martinez, Drive

For full list, lots of pictures and related articles, click the title of this post. For more see the LAFCA Official Web Site.   

Labels at the bottom of a post, if clicked, will bring up other posts that relate to the same subject. Try clicking one. To follow foreign language films, click the label that is the name of the movie, or the country the movie represents. Key words may be searched as well.