Online Movie Station

Posting winners as they are announced via Twitter and facebook.  When info becomes available at official site, will confirm winners.  All winners are confirmed in official site that you can check here.

Honorary Lola goes to Werner Herzog; Audience Award Lola to Schlussmacher by Matthias Schweighöfer and Torsten Künstler.

Seems that Oh Boy will win most major awards... only one to go... and went to Oh Boy, which becomes the big winner tonight.

Winners are in BLUE.

3/22/13
A few hours ago the Deutsche Filmakademie (German Film Academy) announced the nominees for the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards) -better known as Lolas- and Cloud Atlas leads the pack with 9 nods including top award and Best Director closely followed by Jan Ole Gester's debut film Oh Boy with eight nods.

These are the nominees for all the 16 categories.

Best Film
Cloud Atlas, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
*Hannah Arendt, Margarethe von Trotta BEST FILM IN SILVER
*Lore, Cate Shortland BEST FILM IN BRONZE
*Oh Boy, Jan Ole Gerster  BEST FILM IN GOLD
Quellen des Lebens, Oskar Roehler
Die Wand (The Wall), Julian Roman Pölsler

Best Director
*Jan Ole Gester for Oh Boy
Margarethe von Trotta for Hannah Arendt
Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer for Cloud Atlas

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Martina Gedeck in Die Wand (The Wall)
Birgit Minichmayr in Gnade (Mercy)
*Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt

Best Supporting Actress
Margarita Broich in Quellen des Lebens
Friederike Kempter in Oh Boy
*Christine Schorn in Das Leben ist nichts für Feiglinge

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Edin Hasanovic in Schuld sind immer die Anderen
*Tom Schilling in Oh Boy
Sabin Tambrea in Ludwig II

Best Supporting Actor
*Michael Gwisdek in Oh Boy
Robert Gwisdek in Das Wochenende (The Weekend)
Ernst Stötzner in Was Bleibt (Home for the Weekend)

Best Screenplay
Pam Katz and Margarethe von Trotta for Hannah Arendt
*Jan Ole Gerster for Oh Boy
Anna Maria Praßler for Schuld sind immer die Anderen

Best Cinematography
Adam Arkapaw for Lore
Jakub Bejnarowicz for Gnade (Mercy)
*John Troll and Frank Briebe for Cloud Atlas

Best Art Direction
Susann Bieling for Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn
*Uli Hanisch and Hugo Bateup for Cloud Atlas
Udo Kramer for Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World)

Best Editing
*Alexander Berner for Cloud Atlas
Anne Fabini for More Than Honey
Anja Siemens for Oh Boy

Best Sound Design
*Christian Bischoff, Uve Haussig and Johannes Konecny for Die Wand (The Wall)
Benjamin Krbetschek and Holger Lehmann for Du hast es Versprochen (Forgotten)
Stefan Soltau, Björn Wiese and Dominik Rätz for Gnade (Mercy)
Markus Stemler, Ivan Sharrock, Frank Kruse, Matthias Lempert, Roland Winke and Lars Ginzel for Cloud Atlas

Best Film Score
*The Major Minors and Cherilyn MacNeil for Oh Boy
Max Richter for Lore
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil for Cloud Atlas

Best Costume Design
*Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud for Cloud Atlas
Stefanie Bieker for Lore
Frauke Firl for Hannah Arendt
Thomas Oláh for Die Vermessung der welt (Measuring the World)

Best Make Up
Jeannette Latzelsberger, Gregor Eckstein, Elke Lebender, Stephanie Däbritz and Julia Rinkl for Quellen des lebens
*Daniel Parker and Jeremy Woodhead for Cloud Atlas
Astrid Weber for Hannah Arendt

Best Documentary
*More Than Honey, Markus Imhoof
Vergis Mein Nicht, David Sieveking
Die Wohnung (The Flat), Arnon Goldfinger

Best Children's Film
Das Haus der Krokodile (Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion), Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert
*Kaddisch für einen Freund, Leo Khasin

To check the official list go here.  Awards ceremony will take place on April 26 in Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast, will be broadcast live by ZDF and will be hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun.

There are many interesting films among the nominees, specially the family/personal dramas that seem to have interesting stories but there are a few period films and/or historical real life people  that also could be interesting. Among the documentaries The Flat has become must be seen for me. Great.

Today was the award ceremony which was live streamed for a while (suddenly the live stream turned into another TV show!) but truth is that without Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills the awards lost interest for me.

Nevertheless most tech awards went to Undeva La Pilula so imagine that has to get a top award (no announcement yet about top awards).

Winners are in *BLUE and to check winners in all categories you can go to official site (not up yet but will be eventually) or their facebook page here where organizers announced live the winners.

2/26/13
A few moments ago the nominations for the Romanian annual award were announced and to my huge surprise Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills is NOT nominated in any category.

According to news seems Mungiu requested organizers to not consider film, which can be possible due to the many non-positive cinema-related news (crisis) we been reading lately. Obviously the absence of Mungiu's film makes this edition a lot less interesting for me, but nevertheless my love for Romanian cinema (a cinema that I'm really hoping will not go into pause for long) allows me to share the nominations so you can be aware of the great/good Romanian films that maybe we will be able to see, eventually.

Awards ceremony will take place on March 25 at the National Opera in Bucharest and will be broadcast by TV ProCinema.

These are the nominees in top categories that does not include Best Actress this year as there were not enough contenders.

Best Film
Despre oameni şi melci (Of Snails and Men), Tudor Giurgiu
*Toată lumea din familia noastră (Everybody in Our Family), Radu Jude
Undeva La Palilula (Somewhere in Palilula), Silviu Purcărete
Visul Lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream), Gabriel Achim

Best Director
Gabriel Achim for Visul Lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream)
*Radu Jude for Toată lumea din familia noastră (Everybody in Our Family)
Silviu Purcărete for Visul Lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream)
Tudor Giurgiu for Despre oameni şi melci (Of Snails and Men)

Best Actor
Adrian Titieni in Și caii sunt verzi pe pereți (Chasing Rainbows)
Gabriel Spanhiu in Visul Lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream)
*Șerban Pavlu in Toată lumea din familia noastră (Everybody in Our Family)

Best Screenplay
Dan Chișu for Și caii sunt verzi pe pereți (Chasing Rainbows)
Gabriel Achim and Cosmin Manolache for Visul Lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream)
Ionuţ Teianu for Despre oameni şi melci (Of Snails and Men)
*Radu Jude and Corina Sabau for Toată lumea din familia noastră (Everybody in Our Family)

To check nominees in all categories go here or here, available only in Romanian. Most films seems to be comedies/dramedies but my experience tells me that Romanian (dry) humor is one I can enjoy, hope these movies are more dry than dumb; still Radu Jude's drama is one that I been followed since was screened at the Berlinale. After watching videos got more interested in watching films as some seem to be visually interesting.

Of Snails and Men



Everybody in Our Family



Somewhere in Palilula


from .

Adalbert's Dream



Chasing Rainbows

Today at the awards ceremony winners were announced and as expected by me, Ursula Meier's Sister won big, including the top award.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go here.

1/31/13
Last night the Federal Office of Culture announced the contenders for this edition. This official ceremony, known as “Nominations Night”, was held in Solothurn concert hall as part of the Solothurn Film Festival, and signals the countdown to the Swiss Film Award ceremony, which will take place on 23 March 2013 in the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva. The guest speakers at the gala event were Federal Councillor Alain Berset, Charles Beer, President of the Executive Council of the canton of Geneva and President of the Association “Quartz” Genève Zürich, and Christian Frei, President of the Swiss Film Academy.

The awards honor ten categories and here are the nominees for the main categories where Rosie by Marcel Gisler got most nominations, 6; with three nods each, Ursula Meier's Sister, Nicolas Wadimoff's Opération Libertad and Werner Swiss Schweizer's Verliebte Feinde. The real surprise is that Sister didn't got the most nominations and that Rosie plus Verliebte Feinde seem to be interesting movies that had skipped my radar.

Best Film
Il Comandante e la Cicogna (The Commander and the Stork), Silvio Soldini
*L’Enfant d’en haut (Sister), Ursula Meier
Opération Libertad, Nicolas Wadimoff
Rosie, Marcel Gisler
Verliebte Feinde (Enemies In Love), Werner Swiss Schweizer

Best Actress
*Sibylle Brunner in Rosie
Mona Petri in Verliebte Feinde
Sabine Timoteo in Cyanure

Best Actor
Fabian Krüger in Rosie
Fabian Krüger in Verliebte Feinde
*Kacey Mottel Klein in L’Enfant d’en haut (Sister)

Best Performance in a Supporting Role
*Antonio Buil in Opération Libertad
Judith Hofmann in Rosie
Sebastian Ledesma in Rosie

Best Screenplay
Nicolas Wadimoff and Jacob Berger for Opération Libertad
Marcel Gisler and Rudolf Nadler for Rosie
*Ursula Meier and Antoine Jaccoud for L’Enfant d’en haut (Sister)

To read nominations in other categories and check info for each film go here.  Suggest to read synopsis for Rosie (has some gay interest) and Verliebte Feinde (protagonists relationship is compared to Beauvoir and Sartre).

Cheers!!!

Starting today people living in Germany can vote for their favorite 2012 movie from the twelve nominated films that were announce today by organizers. Voting is open from today until April 22.

The following are the nominated films.

Türkisch für Anfänger by Bora Dagtekin
Russendisko by Olivier Ziengenbalg
Hanni & Nanni 2 by Julia von Heinz
Schutzengel by Til Schweiger
Mann tut was Mann kann by Marc Rothemund
Die Vermessung der Welt by Detlev Buck
Cloud Atlas by Tom Tykwer and Wachowski siblings
Jesus liebt mich (Jesus Loves Me) by Florian David Fitz
Die Vampirschwestern by Wolfang Groos
Schlussmacher by Matthias Schweighöfer, Torsten Künstler
Fünf Freunde 2 by Mike Marzuk
Kokowääh 2 by Til Schweiger, Torsten Künstler

To VOTE go here. With a couple of exceptions films are mainstream cinema/crowd pleasers so let's hope one of the exceptions wins.

As was announced earlier Werner Herzog will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award this year. The 2013 German Film Awards will be held April 26 in Berlin.

A few hours ago the award ceremony spread out the wealth to several films but is Lou Ye's Mystery which won the top award and none other than Takeshi Kitano who won the Best Director for Outrage Beyond. Also worth mentioning is that Bahman Ghobadi's Rhino Season won several tech awards including Best Cinematography. Three great movies.

Winners are in *BLUE. To learn winners in all categories go official site.

1/31/13
On January 16th the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) announced the nominees in the 14 categories honored by this award. From over a thousand eligible films across Asia, up to five nominations have been selected in each category. The full list of 70 nominees includes 30 films from 9 countries and regions. In terms of numbers, South Korea leads with 16 nominations this year.

The HKIFFS also announced that the first collaboration of AFA with Yahoo! Movies for The People’s Choice Awards. AFA’s nominees for Best Actor and Actress automatically become candidates in this section and voting is open to the public from around the world. The voting period will run from 6 February 2013 to 11 March 2013 on Yahoo! Movies.

Lou Ye's Mystery and Yun Jong-bin's Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time lead with six nominations each. The Asian Film Awards Presentation Ceremony will be held at the Grand Hall of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 18 March 2013.

Best Film
毒戰 Du zhan (Drug War), Johnnie To, Hong Kong and China
Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & 2, Anurag Kashyap, India
*浮城謎事 Mystery, Lou Ye, China and France
Autoreiji: Biyondo (Outrage Beyond), Takeshi Kitano, Japan
Pieta, Kim Ki-duk, South Korea

Best Director
Anurag Kashyap for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & 2
Abbas Kiarostami for Like Someone in Love
Kim Ki-duk for Pieta
*Takeshi Kitano for Outrage Beyond
Lou Ye for Mystery

Best Actress
*Nora Aunor in Thy Womb
Cho Min-soo in Pieta
Golshifteh Farahani in The Patience Stone
Lun-Mei Gwei in GF*BF
Hao Lei in Mystery

Best Actor
Joseph Chang in GF*BF
Choi Min-sik in Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time
*Eddie Garcia in Bwakaw
Tony Leung Ka-fai in Cold War
Liu Ye in The Last Supper

Best Newcomer
Chien Man-Shu in When A Wolf  Falls in Love with a Sheep
Higashide Mashiro in The Kirishima Thing
Huang Yu-Siang in Touch of the Light
Kim Sung-kyun in Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time
*Qi Xi in Mystery

Best Screenwriter
Anad Gandhi for Ship of Theseus
Kiyasu Kohei and Yoshida Daihachi for The Kirishima Thing
*Mei Feng, Yu Fan and Lou Ye for Mystery
Wai Ka-fai, Yau Nai-hoi, Ryker Chan and Yu Xi for Drug War
Yoon Jong-bin for Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time

Best Cinematographer
*Touraj Aslani for Rhino Season
Choi Young-hwan for The Thieves
Rajeev Ravi for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & 2
Yanagija Katsumi for Like Someone in Love
Zhang Li and Ma Cheng for The Last Supper

To learn nominations in other categories go here.  Was aware of all films but list remind me of those that haven't seen yet -have seen many- and definitively I'm looking forward to watch them.

Today was announced that the Excellence in Asia Cinema Award this year goes to Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng and Roger Garcia, Executive Director of HKIFFS says:

“We are delighted to honor Michelle with the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award this year. Michelle has an impressive career of over 30 movies. Her incredible talent has led her from action films in Hong Kong to international works like The Lady. Her work in Chinese language cinema has helped promote it to an international audience and the global film industry. Michelle has excelled as both an action star and a serious actress – a very rare combination in this business, and practically unique. She is the perfect choice to be awarded with this prestigious honor.”

Cheers!!!

Yesterday Filmmedarbejderforeningens had their award ceremony with awards spread out over several films.

Big winner is Kaprigen (A Hijacking) a good mainstream entertaining film that at times can be thrilling, but in general for me is a drama that deals more with corporate behavior (good and bad) than about human behavior. Still I do recommend you watch it as is as entertaining as Arcel's A Royal Affair.

The Audience Award went to Hvidsten Gruppen by Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis.

Winners are in *BLUE. To read official announcement go here or here, available only in Danish.

1/3/13
Today Filmmedarbejderforeningens (Denmark's National Association of Film Critics) announced their nominations for these major Danish film awards and not surprisingly Nicolaj Arcel's En Kongelig Affære (A Royal Affair) leads with 6 nominations; perhaps the most interesting fact is the Best Actor category that has two brothers in competition for the award, Mads and Lars Mikkelsen.

These are the nominations.

Best Danish film
10 timer til Paradis (Teddy Bear), Mads Matthiesen
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair), Nicolaj Arcel
*Kapringen (A Hijacking), Tobias Lindholm
Undskyld jeg forstyrrer, Henrik Ruben Genz
You and Me Forever, Kaspar Munk

Best Actress
Julie Brohorst Andersen in You and Me Forever
Trine Dyrholm in Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need)
*Sara Hjort Ditlevsen in Undskyld jeg forstyrrer
Bodil Jørgensen in Hvidsten Gruppen (This Life)
Alicia Vikander in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)

Best Supporting Actress
*Fred Dahl Hansen in You and Me Forever
Emilie Claudius Kruse in You and Me Forever
Elsebeth Stentoft in 10 timer til Paradis (Teddy Bear)
Lotte Andersen in Undskyld jeg forstyrrer
Trine Dyrholm in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)

Best Actor
Mads Mikkelsen in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
Søren Malling in Kapringen (A Hijacking)
*Mikkel Boe Følsgaard in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
Pilou Asbæk in Kapringen (A Hijacking)
Lars Mikkelsen in Viceværten (A Caretaker's Tale)

Male Supporting Actor
Nicolas Bro in Undskyld jeg forstyrrer
Roland Mills in Kapringen (A Hijacking)
*Tommy Kenter in Marie Krøyer
Lars Boom in Max Pinlig på Roskilde
Thomas Gabrielsson in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)

Best Documentary
Ballerina, Maja Friis
White Black Boy, Camilla Magid
*Putins kys (Putin's Kiss), Lise Birk Pedersen
Lej en famille A/S (Rent a family), Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Kidd Life, Andreas Johnsen

Best Non-American film
*Amour, Michael Haneke
The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
Shame, Steve McQueen
Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul
Holy Motors, Leos Carx

Best American film
We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay
*Martha Marcy May Marlene, Sean Durkin
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson
Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols
The Descendants, Alexander Payne

The announcement was made via Twitter so it is not up yet at the official site, but to read news in Danish go here. The award ceremony will be hosted by Mikael Bertelsen on Saturday, March 16 at Bremen Theatre.

In case you wonder why excellent Jagten (The Hunt) by Thomas Vinterberg has no nominations mainly is because it hasn't been released in Denmark; film is scheduled to be released on January 10, 2013. What really surprises me is that Susanne Bier's Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need) got only one nomination.

More interesting is to learn this year's Eagle award winners as the Polish Academy spread the wealth among many films.

Big winner of last night ceremony was Manhunt by Martin Krzyształowicz (photo) which collected four awards including the high profile Best Picture.

Best Picture: Oblawa (Manhunt), Martin Krzyształowicz

Best Director: Roman Polanski for Carnage
Best Screenplay: Wojciech Smarzowski for Drogówka (Highway Patrol)

Best Actress: Agnieszka Grochowska in Bez Wstydu (Shameless), Filip Marczewski
Best Supporting Actress: Joanna Kulig in Elles, Malgorzata Szumowska

Best Actor: Maciej Stuhr in Poklosie (Aftermath), Wladyslaw Pasikowski
Best Supporting Actor: Arkadiusz Jakubik in Drogówka (Highway Patrol), Wojciech Smarzowski
Discovery of the Year: Michael Urbaniak in Mój rowe (My Father's Bike), Piotr Trzaskalski

Best Cinematography: Arkadiusz Tomiak for Oblawa (Manhunt), Martin Krzyształowicz
Best Production Designer: Allan Starski for Poklosie (Aftermath), Wladyslaw Pasikowski
Best Costume Design: Magdalena Rutkiewicz-Luterek for Oblawa (Manhunt), Martin Krzyształowicz
Best Music: Krzysztof Komeda and Mariusz Ostański in Komeda, Komeda ..., Natasza Ziółkowska-Kurczuk
Best Sound: Barbara and Peter Domaradzki Domaradzka for Oblawa (Manhunt), Martin Krzyształowicz
Best Editing: Jaroslaw Kaminski for Jesteś Bogiem (You are God), Leszek Dawid
Best Documentary: Wirtualna wojna (Man @ War) directed by Jack Bławut

Best European Film: Amour, Michael Haneke

Audience Award: Jesteś Bogiem (You are God), Leszek Dawid

The honorary Eagle for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to celebrated actress Danuta Szaflarska. To read news go here.

Last Saturday the Czech Academy had the annual award ceremony and not surprisingly In The Shadow by David Ondříček, which was Czech Republic submission to 2013 Oscar, swept the awards by winning 9 of the 11 categories in which was nominated. Bohdan Sláma's Four Suns, which got the most nominations (12), was honored with only one award for Best Supporting Actress Actress Klára Melíšková.

These are the winners for top categories and to check winners in all categories please go here.

Best Picture: Ve stínu (In The Shadows), David Ondříček

Best Director: David Ondříček for Ve stínu (In The Shadows)
Best Screenplay: Marek Epstein, David Ondříček, Misha Votruba for Ve stínu (In The Shadows)

Best Actress: Gabriela Míčová in Odpad město smrt (Waste, City, and Death), Jan Hřebejk
Best Actor: Ivan Trojan in Ve stínu (In The Shadows), David Ondříček

Some news coverage in English comment how these awards fail to go beyond the most obvious choices and help further recognize upcoming talents. I tend to agree with the news. Sigh.

Rebelle (War Witch) by Kim Nguyen (photo) was the big winner of the night as won 10 of the 12 categories for which it was nominated.

Winners are not yet at official site but from news these are the winners for some categories announced last night. If you wish to learn winners in all categories go here if you can't wait until the Academy publishes winners.

Winners are in *BLUE.

2/10/13
A few days back the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT) announced the first ever Canadian Screen Award that has the unbelievable amount of 116 categories (22 in film, 89 in television and 5 in digital media). The award replaces and merges Genie (film) and Gemini (TV) awards, but what has been called as an "anomaly" TV categories does NOT include Quebec television programs, odd.

Great Oscar nominee Rebelle tops the list with 12 nominations closely followed by also great Lawrence Anyways with 10; not surprisingly Quebec features dominate the awards.

Awards ceremony will be on Sunday, March 3 at 8pm and will be broadcast live on CBC; Martin Short will host the ceremony, who makes me hope organizers live stream ceremony for the rest of the world.

These are the nominees for main film categories and if you wish to learn all 116 categories go here but have to download several different pdf files.

Best Motion Picture

L'Affaire Dumont, Daniel Grou
Inch'Allah, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
Lawrence Anyways, Xavier Dolan
Midnight's Children, Deepa Mehta
*Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen
Still Mine, Michael McGowan

Achievement in Direction
Michael Dowse for Goon
Xavier Dolan for Lawrence Anyways
Deepa Mehta for Midnight's Children
*Kim Nguyen for Rebelle (War Witch)
Bernard Émond for Tout ce que tu possèdes (All That You Possess)

Performance by An Actress in A Leading Role
Evelyne Brochu in Inch'Allah
Geneviève Bujold in Still Mine
Marilyn Castonguay in L'Affaire Dummont
Suzanne Clément in Laurence Anyways
*Rachel Mwanza in Rebelle (War Witch)

Performance by An Actor in Leading Role
*James Cromwell in Still Mine
Patrick Drolet in Tout ce que tu possèdes (All That You Possess)
Marc-André Grondin in L'affaire Dumont
David Morse in Collaborator
Melvil Poupaud in Lawrence Anyways

Original Screenplay
Jason Buxton for Blackbird
Xavier Dolan for Lawrence Anyways
*Kim Nguyen for Rebelle (War Witch)
Michael Mcgowan for Still Mine
Bernard Émond for Tout ce que tu possèdes (All That You Possess)

Adapted Screenplay
David Cronenberg for Cosmopolis
Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg for Goon
Anita Doron for The Lesser Blessed
Martin Villeneuve for Mars et Avril
*Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children

Achievement in Cinematography
*Nicolas Bolduc for Rebelle (War Witch)
Philippe Lavalette for Inch'Allah
Giles Nuttgens for Midnight's Children
Bobby Shore for Goon
Brendan Steacy for Still Mine

Best Feature Length Documentary
Alphée des étoiles, Hugo Latulippe
Indie Game: The Movie, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky
Over My Dead Body, Brigitte Popupart
*Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley
The World Before Her, Nisha Pahuja

Two films had skipped my radar, Inch'Allah and Tout ce que tu possèdes, both seem like the kind of movies that I could enjoy mostly for storytelling style; the second in particular seems to be very lyrical and literary oriented.  Great.

Pulling up post as awards are in progress right now. Just a few minutes ago Amour by Michael Haneke won a Robert! Until this moment tech awards have gone mainly to A Royal Affair and A Hijacking.

Winners are in *BLUE. To learn winners in all film and TV categories go to official site.

Best Film
10 timer til Pardis (Teddy Bear), Mads Matthiesen
Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need), Susanne Bier
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair), Nikolaj Arcel
*Kapringen (A Hijacking), Tobias Lindholm
Undskyld jeg forstyrrer (Excuse Me), Henrik Ruben Genz

Best Director
*Nikolaj Arcel for En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
Susanne Bier for Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need)
Tobias Lindholm for Kapringen (A Hijacking)
Kaspar Munk for You & Me Forever
Lotte Svendsen for Max pinlig på Roskilde

Best Actress (tie)
Alicia Vikander in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
Birgitte Hjort Sørensen in Marie Krøyer
*Bodil Jørgensen in Hvidstengruppen (This is Life)
Sara Hjort in Undskyld jeg forstyrrer (Excuse Me)
*Trine Dyrholm in Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need)

Best Actor
Jens Jørn Spottag in Hvidstengruppen (This is Life)
Lars Mikkelsen in Viceværten (A Caretaker's Tale)
Mads Mikkelsen in En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair)
*Søren Malling in Kapringen (A Hijacking)
Søren Sætter-Lassen in Marie Krøyer

Winners in other categories

Best Supporting Actress: Trine Dyrholm in Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need)
Best Supporting Actor: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard in Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need)

1/26/13
On January 23 the Danish Film Academy announced the nominations for this year's edition and nominees confirm that 2012 was an outstanding year for Danish cinema as there are many extraordinary films that were produced -some with huge local box office success and highly honored in the awards/festival circuit- during the year, including one film that is not honored this year as was NOT released in Danish theaters during the last calendar year; I'm talking about Thomas Vinterberg's Jagten (The Hunt) that surely will be honored in the 2014 edition.

Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair leads with 15 nominations, which is remarkable as the award has 16 film categories and the Oscar nominated movie got a nod in all but one categories. Arcel's film is followed by A Hijacking by Tobias Lindholm with 12 nods and as happened in the Bodils, for the first time acting brothers Mads and Lars Mikkelsen will compete against each other for the Best Actor award.

Award ceremony will take place on February 28th in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Hotel and Congress Centre and will be broadcasted by TV2 from 8:50pm local time

To check nominees in all categories go to Academy site or Danish Film Institute site, available only in Danish. Not related to film but very interesting is that for the first time the Academy will give Roberts in five television categories; believe is a great honor for television that just complements the great ratings and financial success some very famous Danish TV series have been getting overseas, some really worth watching even if are dubbed - series should be subtitled but we know television loves to dub instead of small hard-to-read subtitles BUT is time we all realize that TV size has become a lot bigger than not so long ago and subtitles have become very easy to read. Sigh.

As many do, usually post my predictions before one day or same day as Oscar show and call them "very late predictions"; but this year things got very clear days ahead, so end up doing predictions on the Wednesday before the Sunday or 5 days before show began. My certainty was not that bad as when we compare winners with predictions the score is pretty good: 22 out of 24. The results give me a 92% accuracy rating. If you wish to check my predictions go here.

Production Design and Sound Editing were the categories where predictions and winners did not coincide as Lincoln won first category and second was a tie between Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall. The second category was the most unexpected result for me as never imagined a tie (has happened only four times) much less that the Academy could honor Zero Dark Thirty in any way. But it happened and yes, I'm SO glad that what I consider the best American movie in 2012 did not went empty handed, no matter what I think about the most "popular" awards in the world.

As predicted the big winner of the night was Life of Pi that got 4 awards (predicted 6) most in tech specs but also in one top category, Best Director. Sharing the second position, Argo with 3 awards, 2 tech and the notorious Best Picture, and Les Miserables that also got 3, 2 tech and Best Supporting Actress. But truth is that this Oscar edition spread the wealth among several movies that obtained at least one award.

It is impossible not to notice that Lincoln almost came empty handed as from being the most nominated film (12 nods) only got two awards, one for a tech spec, Production Design, and the other more visible, Best Actor. The other two timers are Django Unchained winning Best Supporting Actor and best Original Screenplay, and Skyfall which won Best Song and Sound Editing making movie the only multi-award winner that did not had a Best Picture nomination.

From the nominated to Best Picture only one went empty handed, Beasts of the Southern Wild as Amour, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty won one award each.

2013 Pundittracker

Yesterday Pundittracker publish the list of the 22 pundits they track and TO MY SURPRISE, the highest score was guessing 21 out of 24 categories (88% accuracy rating), an accomplishment that was shared by Anthony Breznican from Entertainment Weekly and Scott Feinberg from Hollywood Reporter. IF they had followed me, I would have ended on top of the list as got one more category than them. To check the list go here.

This year I was quite apathetic about playing the guessing game with prizes and most "serious" world sites were also apathetic, so they didn't play this year. But yes, I have won before and the best award for me was FREE movies at great VOD sites. Maybe next year nominated movies will have more quality and those sites will play again so I can win FREE watching at their sites. Sigh.

2013 Oscar edition broke some records and here are some of them.

Daniel Day-Lewis became the first actor to win three Best Actor awards. The highest achieving actor is Katherine Hepburn who won four Best Actress Oscars. Day-Lewis joins other three timers, Jack Nicholson (2 lead, 1 supporting), Meryl Streep (2 lead, 1 supporting), Walter Brennan (3 supporting) and Ingrid Bergman (2 lead, 1 supporting).

Brenda Chapman is the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Animated Picture, she directed Brave along Mark Andrews.

Quvenzhane Wallis, aged 9-years-old, became the youngest ever Oscar nominated for Best Actress; only two Oscar nominated young male actors, aged 8 and also 9 -but a few days younger than Wallis is- are younger than her, Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer (Supporting Actor) and Jackie Cooper in Skippy (Best Actor).

Contrary to what many think Emmanuelle Riva is not the oldest person/woman to receive an Oscar nomination, the honor belongs to Gloria Stuart in Titanic -she was 87 when nominated- but her nomination was for Supporting Actress which makes Riva the oldest woman nominated for Best Actress. Previous record belonged to Jessica Tandy (80) in Driving Miss Daisy, a record that she still holds as the Oldest Best Actress Award winner.

Documentary Searching for Sugar Man becomes the first Oscar winner that has some scenes filmed with a telephone, well a smart telephone with a US$1.99 app, and the first that was partly edited using a Mac. Facts that made film must be seen for me and after watching was absolutely amazed by the documentary for the extraordinary tech specs, great story, great storytelling and an impressive director that did almost everything in the process.

Documentary Short Film Inocente is the first ever Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar. A milestone that is making waves in social media and giving hope to many filmmakers.

With his best pic nomination George Clooney joins Warren Beatty as the only powerhouses to have nominations for best picture, directing, writing and acting. The difference is that as of Sunday night George Clooney has two Oscars, one for Argo and another for supporting role in Syriana, while Beatty has one for directing Reds.

Thomas Newman's nod for original score for Skyfall is his 11th and brings the total for members of the musical Newman family to 87 nods. Second place belongs to Moonrise Kingdom screenplay nod for Roman Coppola's family with a total of 24 nods.

With this post officially close the American award season to continue covering awards with more interesting movies from other countries around the world. Great! Ah! One last thing, did NOT open the champagne bottle as there was NOTHING to celebrate on Sunday night as Amour only won foreign language category.

Last night show did something that hasn't happened in previous years, it did NOT put me to sleep. So there was something new for an Oscar show as the ceremony lasted three hours and thirty-five minutes, making it one of the longest telecasts of the past 20 years.

Without getting into what I think of Seth McFarlane, there was something REALLY new in the show, he REALLY was a host as he never "disappeared" as has happened with many American awards shows where the host does a monologue/introduction, we see him/her a few times, disappears to sometimes show his/her face at the end. McFarlane was the host that also introduced presenters during the entire show, making the ceremony to seamless flow in a normal, common way, like many entertaining variety shows do.

Can't recall where I read it but I was aware that this year instructions for the show called for "an entertainment show that gives awards" instead of "an award ceremony that sometimes has entertaining moments". In this sense I have to admit that the purpose was accomplished as definitively the show was more about entertainment than "giving awards". Was a good purpose? I do not know yet as ratings are not available at this hour; but based only in my own experience it was a good purpose as did not put me to sleep, even when almost everything I predicted will win, won. Update: according to early estimates, rating is up 4%, making the best score since 2007; also, according to Twitter, Oscars generated 8.9 million tweets, 2.1 during red carpet and 6.8 during awards show but BIG winner was the Best Picture moment (thanks to the presenter) with 85,300 tweets per minute (TPM), followed by Adele's Skyfall performance with 82,300 TPM and Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence with 71,600 TPM.  For reference Super Bowl was the subject of 24 million tweets and the Grammys, 14 million; so third place is not really a good place to be on social media (used mostly by the younger generations).

So according to me the show structure worked, but what about substance?

Me for one highly enjoyed some of the musical moments, from gorgeous looking Charlize Theron dancing, to Jennifer Hudson singing the song that gave her an Oscar, Dame Shirley Basset singing Goldfinger (yes, still today I'm humming the song) and Barbra Streisand (looking so young) performing one of her classics, The Way We Were. Sorry but We saw your Boobs song bombed for me, the only thing I liked was the sarcasm behind it as the all male chorus was none other than the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles (that obviously do not care about seeing any woman boobs).

Did not enjoy out-of-sync Catherine Zeta-Jones Chicago performance (Oscar show producers are also movie producers) nor the awful Les Mis cast singing (who told them that they can sing? - alright, there are two or three that can sing); there was something wrong with Nora Jones (I like her quite a lot) and believe that was the song she was singing that was simply not one that I could like and talking about sound mixing, Adele performance had terrible tech specs, orchestra should have been lowered and/or microphone sound risen.

But what was highly disappointing was James Bond's 50 years anniversary celebration, not even Bond deserved such a lame collection of movie clips that reduced the very successful franchise to a few minutes of nothing much. Of course, Dame Shirley Basset sang Goldfinger and I highly enjoy it, but is that what James Bond means? Only one song? No.

Have a soft spot for crooners, so when crooner Seth McFarlane sang non-stupid lyrics he was alright for me but find his humor highly unfunny, many times offensive and totally deprecating. Please recall that I highly enjoy Ricky Gervais that when compared to McFarlane becomes the King of offensive material as Gervais really has "class" to say the most offensive things in very well-delivered, well-timed way. McFarlane timing and deliverance was truly on the most bad side of the scale. Won't get into analyzing the jokes, many have done that, nor will comment on the use of the future to tell host what he does wrong for him to fix it as for me was most unfortunate use of viewers time. But if you check youth-oriented sites you will find readers polls that name him a "Genius", like in MTV site. Sigh.

Usually gay sites praise the Oscars show but this year to my surprise and as of this moment, not many are praising last night show; most have the news with what seems like editorial describing what happened during the show. That is unusual. Then you have dispatches from what could be the American right press that trash the show as they claim is sold for "Family Viewing" and definitively was not. Morning TV news were mostly polite saying that "is hard to please everyone" but also saying that show was "controversial".

So the second most viewed TV show in the "domestic" market (meaning USA) and the first in the world was again in general, disappointing for many viewers. But no matter what you read or hear people saying, for many show was also not a sleeping pill (I am not alone in this), so there is something new that perhaps the Academy should consider for future shows, keep the structure but change the substance. If they do that then perhaps someday we will have a show that evenly mixes structure and substance, translates into good ratings (like in the "old" days) and pleases many. Sigh.

The Red Carpet

Was very surprised to find so many live streaming of the infamous red carpet which suggests that we are arriving to a "real" starting point of live streaming, which is great as slowly but surely we are reaching the moment when device watching will become a real choice for viewers. This fact allowed me to follow whatever I was interested in watching in many sites, including TV channels, and was most fascinated by being able to follow Charlize Theron all over the place (lol!).

Backstage Pass

Most disappointed by my first experience with (ABC) Oscar app that allowed us to go backstage, not even the six cameras made something worth watching. Today's multiple videos have better backstage entertaining moments than the ones I saw, but then to be honest got so bored that turned off my iPad as was distracting me from watching the show (lol!). Now is time to do the winners post but was more interesting doing this one first.

Closing

I am truly glad the American award season is over, was not one of my favorite seasons at all for all the "changing of opinion" by critics, the mixing of politics and (fictionalized) movies, the mediocrity of many honored movies, performances, etc. and on top, another uneven show. So let's close in a positive note with some spectacular photos (love black and white photos) and one interview I saw on TV this morning and made me laugh hard, Jennifer Lawrence and Jack Nicholson moment. Lawrence is so refreshing in Hollywood mostly "plastic" world. Note: Last photo does not have good quality but is here anyway (lol!)

To keep post clean here are the winners in *BLUE.

Feature Films

Best Picture
Amour (Love), Michael Haneke
*Argo, Ben Affleck
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Les Misérables, Tom Hooper
Life of Pi, Ang Lee
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow

Animated Feature Film
*Brave, Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie, Tim Burton
ParaNorman, Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph, Rich Moore

Foreign Language
*Amour (Love), Michael Haneke, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Norway
NO, Pablo Larraín, Chile
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair), Nikolaj Arcel, Denmark
Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen, Canada

Directing
Michael Haneke for Amour
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
*Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
*Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts in The Impossible

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in The Master
Sally Field in Lincoln
*Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables
Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook

Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
*Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Denzel Washington in Flight

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin in Argo
Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
*Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson for Django Unchained
*Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Janusz Kamiski for Lincoln
Roger Deakins for Skyfall

Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke for Amour
*Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
John Gatins for Flight
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

Adapted Screenplay
*Chris Terrio for Argo
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
David Magee for Life of Pi
Tony Kushner for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Film Editing
*William Goldenberg for Argo
Tim Squyres for Life of Pi
Michael Kahn for Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Sruthers for Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg for Zero Dark Thirty

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables
David Gropman and Anna Pinnock for Life of Pi
*Rick Carter and Jim Erickson for Lincoln

Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick for Marvel’s The Avengers
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill for Prometheus
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson for Snow White and the Huntsman

Sound Editing (tie)
Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn for Argo
Wylie Stateman for Django Unchained
Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton for Life of Pi
*Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall
*Paul N.J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty

Sound Mixing
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia for Argo
*Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Misérables
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin for Life of Pi
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkin for Lincoln
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson for Skyfall

Costume Design
*Jaqueline Durran for Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado for Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston for Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood for Snow White and the Huntsman

Makeup and Hairstyling
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel for Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables

Music – Original Score
Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat for Argo
*Mychael Danna for Life of Pi
John Williams for Lincoln
Thomas Newman for Skyfall

Music – Original Song
"Before My Time" from Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
*"Skyfall" from Skyfall Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" from Les Misérables Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Documentary
5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, Dror Moreh
How to Survive a Plague, David France
The Invisible War, Kirby Dick
*Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul

Short Films

Live Action
Asad, Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys, Sam French and Ariel Nasr
*Curfew, Shawn Christensen
Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry, Yan England

Animated
Adam and Dog, Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole, PES
Head over Heels, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, David Silverman
*Paperman, John Kahrs

Documentary
*Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

1/10/13
As predicted and expected Lincoln leads the pack with 12 nominations, two short of the record holder Titanic; Life of Pi follows closely with 11, then Silver Linings Playbook with 8 and Les Misérables and Argo with 7 each. Most nominations were expected BUT there are HUGE surprises.

The biggest surprise is the absence of critics most honored directors: Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck but as you can imagine just love that Michael Haneke got a nomination! Not easy for me to understand why Benh Zeitlin can be considered above Bigelow, Affleck and many more, but well is the only indie that got in. So, the Academy softened and nominated Spielberg, that’s news. Notable is that the five directors nominated have also their pictures nominated

Nine films got into the Best Picture category and there are no blockbusters nominated and as expected plus predicted, The Master did not got into the list. For me there are no surprises in this category.

The BEST surprise is in the Foreign Language category as France did NOT got a nomination! Of course now my interest in category is back and just hope Amour wins as honestly the other four nominees are not even close to Amour’s quality. But I’m very glad that NO and Rebelle got nominated.

Other surprises come from supporting actress category as with Jacki Weaver nod is the first time in 31 years that a film scored ALL four acting categories, putting Silver Linings Playbook in a league with Sunset Boulevard and Streetcar Named Desire.  Notable is that Silver Linings Playbook is labelled as a comedy, which probably makes movie the most honored comedy in many years -will confirm-.

The most negative surprise is Marion Cotillard not being nominated as in my opinion the young girl in Beasts of the Southern Wild is good but not as good as Cotillard in Rust and Bone; suspected that Naomi Watts could be nominated because the high buzz, but definitively can’t agree as The Impossible best performance is the older kid, Tom Holland, who absolutely steals the movie. Very glad Emmanuelle Riva got a nod as her performance quality is well-above standards. Won’t be easy to guess who could win in this category.

Another surprise is Joaquin Phoenix getting a nomination, which indeed I’m pleased with; but that meant John Hawkes out of the race and he was great in The Sessions. No surprises in supporting actor for me.

Today we got a preview of the humor the awards ceremony will have and well, definitively is NOT my kind of humor, but imagine that will please many, especially Americans and maybe will rise ratings for ABC network in the younger demo.

Later will do an in-depth analysis with more stats and info; check official press release here.

Thanks to Spain's press, yesterday I learned that Michael Haneke was not going to attend the premiere of his Mozart opera Cosi Fan Tutte on Saturday because he was going to be in Los Angeles to attend the Oscars. What they didn't mention at all is that he was also going to be in the Spirit Awards, but he was there to receive the honors for his film. Great.

As we are about to close the American award season it is not surprising that Silver Linings Playbook was the big winner with four awards but the best news is that The Sessions was honored with two awards for the main actors.

Winners are in *BLUE.

11/27/13
Today actors Anna Kendrick, Zoe Saldana and Common presented the nominees in a press conference at The W Hotel in Hollywood. In these awards only Film Independent members vote to determine the winners.

The live-to-tape Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 23 and will premier later that evening on IFC at 10:00 pm ET/PT. So we will have to learn winners on twitter again, just like today we had to learn nominations from organizers live tweets.

It's kind of strange that nowadays a film event does not stream live, as those that could be interested in watching live have to resign to use social media to learn nominations/awards live and we will do it to most likely skip the later TV broadcast.

Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook lead with five nominations each, which is understandable; however, how about Matthew McConaughey getting two nominations, one for Magic Mike (?!) and the other for Killer Joe, not really understandable. Seems that we started with the complications as I wonder if Helen Hunt has a supporting role in The Sessions, for me she is one of the two leads so she should be in the Best Actress category, but being considered here for the supporting role makes me think that she has very little possibilities for an Oscar Best Actress nod.

It is remarkable that three of the five directors nominated for the John Cassavettes award are women, but then is kind of sad that they are in the category that honors films with under US$500,000 budgets; still have to admit that there are more female filmmakers nominated in different categories with the most notable exception, Best Feature were all are male directors.

These are the nominees.

Best Feature
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
*Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev for The Loneliest Planet
*David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs for Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitling for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan for Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh for Seven Psychopaths
*David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias for Keep The Lights On

Best First Feature
Lemale et ha'halal (Fill the Void), Rama Burshtein, Israel
Gimme The Loot, Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed, Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice, Zal Batmanglij
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Best First Screenplay
Rama Burshtein for Lemale et ha'halal (Fill the Void), Israel
*Derek Connolly for Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford for Robot and Frank
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack for Celeste and Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki for Gayby

John Cassavetes Award (given to film made for a budget under US$500,000)
Breakfast With Curtis, Laura Colella
*Middle of Nowhere, Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari, Aurora Guerrero
Starlet, Sean Baker
The Color Wheel, Alex Ross Perry

Best Cinematography
Yoni Brook for Valley of Saints
Lol Crawley for Here
*Ben Richardson for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov for End of Watch
Robert Yeoman for Moonrise Kingdom

Best Female Lead
Linda Cardellini in Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi in Middle of Nowhere
*Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed

Best Supporting Female
Rosemarie DeWitt in Your Sister's Sister
Ann Dowd in Compliance
*Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Brit Marling in Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint in Middle of Nowhere

Best Male Lead
Jack Black in Bernie
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
*John Hawkes in The Sessions
Thure Lindhart in Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce in Four

Best Supporting Male
*Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike
David Oyelowo in Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena in End of Watch
Sam Rockwell in 7 Psychopaths
Bruce Willis in Moonrise Kingdom

Best International Film
*Amour, Michael Haneke, France, Austria and Germany
Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Tukey and Bosnia Herzegovina
De Rouille et d’Os (Rust & Bone), Jacques Audiard, Belgium and France
L'enfant d'en haut (Sister), Ursula Meier, Switzerland and France
Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen, Canada

Best Documentary
How to Survive a Plage, David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five, Ken Burns and Sarah Burns
*The Invisible War, Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room, Peter Nicks

Robert Altman Award: Starlet, Sean Baker

16th Piaget Producers Award
Alicia Van Couverign for Nobody Walks
*Mynette Louie for Stones in the Sun
Derrick Tseng for Prince Avalance

19th Someone to Watch Award
David Fenster for Pincus
*Adam Leon for Gimme The Loot
Rebecca Thomas for Electrick Children

18th Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Lucien Castain-Taylor and Véréna Paravel for Leviathan
*Peter Nicks for The Waiting Room
Jasonyyee Tipet and Elizabeth Mimms for Only The Young

Find Your Audience Award
Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore for Birth Story
*Laura Colella for Breakfast With Curtis
J. Anderson Mitchell for History of Future Folk

A total of 49 films have nominations and all but 6 films have no distributor yet, with Fox Searchlight topping the ranking with 9 nominated films; but, as always, is The Weinstein Company the one that captures my attention as only has ONE film nominated but is not other than Silver Linings Playbook that collected five nods. If you wish to read the official press release go here and to check stats about the nominees use the link to a pdf file. But if you wish to read about each film go here.

Among all the nominees we have one film that has lesbian-interest, Mosquita y Mari, one with clear gay-interest, Keep the Lights On and another with some gay-interest, Gayby. I was not aware that non-American films can be nominated as is surprising to find an Israel produced film among the nominees.

Nevertheless the most interesting category for me is the International Film as has to be really hard to choose between films by Haneke, Audiard, Ceylan and Meier, all directors that I closely follow as highly enjoy watching their films.

These nominations not necessarily reflect possible Oscar nominations as not many independent films make it to the Oscar, nevertheless believe there is at least one performance that could be considered for Oscar, John Hawkes in The Sessions. Still there is another possibility, Silver Linings Playbook getting some recognition mainly because WHO is behind the film, but also know that Oscar usually does not honor comedies.

To see the video with the nominations announcement go here.

Photos


Michael Haneke interview