Awards
Dissecting the Oscar doc shortlist.
By Vadim Rizov on 11/19/2009
Filed under: Awards
Bemoaning the failures of the Oscars in the Best Documentary department has become an annual ritual, like spazzing about filing your income taxes or dusting off stale jokes about March Madness obsessions. So the news that this year's doc shortlist of 15 potential nominees is full of omissions and small obscurities is not a surprise. Many folks would've liked to have seen "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil," "Collapse," "Crude," "Tyson," "We Live In Public," "The September Issue" or "It Might Get Loud" on the list. So it goes. Some of those omissions are reasonable -- there's not much in "Tyson"... MORE »
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The Cinema Eyes love "The Cove."
By Alison Willmore on 11/05/2009
Filed under: Awards
"The Cove," Louie Psihoyos' much-lauded documentary about Japanese dolphin hunting, is the big fish (heh) amongst this year's nominees for the Cinema Eye Honors, the awards dedicated to excellence in non-fiction filmmaking. "The Cove" was nominated in seven categories, including feature of the year, in which it will compete with Anders Ostergaard's "Burma VJ," Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc.," Darius Marder's "Loot" and Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher's "October Country." Agnes Varda ("The Beaches Of Agnes"), John Maringouin ("Big River Man"), Anders Østergaard ("Burma Vj"), Darius Marder ("Loot"), Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher ("October Country") and Terence Davies ("Of Time And... MORE »
The death of the original screenplay...?
By Vadim Rizov on 11/04/2009
Filed under: Awards
This week's favorite Oscar topic, besides last night's announcement that Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be co-hosting the awards, is where all the original screenplays have gone. The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik points out the a dearth of obvious candidates for the "Best Original Screenplay" category. If "Up," "Inglourious Basterds" and "A Serious Man" are virtual locks, what else does that leave us with? Zeitchik proposes "(500) Days Of Summer," and maybe "The Hangover" or "Star Trek." (Yes, under the Academy's ever-dizzying, perpetually nonsensical rules, it's a possibility.) THE ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY MUST BE DEAD. Because "ever since the studios... MORE »
Why Oprah won't hurt "Precious"'s Oscar chances.
By Vadim Rizov on 10/22/2009
Filed under: Awards
A few reasons why the upcoming "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" is a lock for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, not to mention a likely box office sleeper hit: 1. There are ten best picture slots open this year. It can't not get a nod after winning both the Sundance audience and jury prizes. 2. It's a melodrama that doesn't waste time on stuff like "nuance," going straight for the jugular with uncomplicated bursts of emotion (Brutality! Joy! Soul song montage!). And people like that -- the film got 80% "definite recommend" scores at at a test... MORE »
The 2009 Oscars: Liveblogged
By Alison Willmore on 02/22/2009
Filed under: Awards
The most sincere Oscars ever? Or, really, just the thriftiest? Here's a record of my liveblogging of the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Though I'm feeling as lacking in Oscar predictive mojo as I've ever in my life, let's go ahead and put these out there anyway: Best picture: "Slumdog Millionaire." Director: Danny Boyle. Lead actor: Mickey Rourke. Lead actress: Anne Hathaway. Supporting actor: Heath Ledger. Supporting actress: Penélope Cruz. Animated feature: "WALL-E," unless God is angry. Doc: "Man on Wire." Foreign language film: "The Class." Adapted screenplay: "Slumdog Millionaire." Original screenplay: "Milk."12:00: All in all, the ceremony was warm and... MORE »
Spirit Awards 2009: Liveblogged
By Alison Willmore on 02/21/2009
Filed under: Awards
Last year I get the chance to go out to Santa Monica to act as one of the hosts of our Spirit Awards red carpet coverage, and, despite getting locked out on the patio of my hotel room and having to climb over the fence and head back into the Casa Del Mar lobby in my socks, it was great. But these are more wintry times, and accordingly I've stayed planted in New York this year, from which I'll be live-blogging the awards. Which will be starting shortly! In the meantime, FIND has gallantly shouldered the red carpet duties --... MORE »
The 2009 Cinema Eye Nominations
By Alison Willmore on 01/19/2009
Filed under: Awards
The Cinema Eye Honors are now in their second year of honoring the best in documentary filmmaking, looking as much at craft as subject matter, unlike the lingering tendencies among, say, the Oscars. The 2009 nominees were announced here in Park City this afternoon, with filmmaker and award co-chair AJ Schnack joined by "My Country, My Country"'s Laura Poitras and Joe Berlinger, whose latest film, "Crude," premiered at the festival yesterday. There are some exciting tugs at the boundaries of what's considered nonfiction film in the list below -- most notably Guy Maddin's docu-fantasia "My Winnipeg," which isn't even in... MORE »
Gloden Golbes noms.
By Alison Willmore on 12/11/2008
Filed under: Awards
The Golden Globe nominations went up this morning -- you can find the full list here. The GG divide between "Drama" and "Comedy/Musical" has always been a bit of an over-inclusive cop-out, and there are no surprises in the former category: Best Picture - Drama: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON FROST/NIXON THE READER REVOLUTIONARY ROAD SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Scratch that: one surprise. No "Milk"? Gus Van Sant's picture also gets one nod, and that's for Sean Penn. The lighter half is a weirder, with wilder picks like the meh "Burn After Reading" and the previously unmentioned in an awards context... MORE »
Steve Coogan = 2009 Spirit Awards host.
By Alison Willmore on 12/10/2008
Filed under: Awards
Just announced: Steve Coogan is set to host the upcoming Spirit Awards on February 21st. With Russell Brand having kicked things off by hosting the MTV Video Music Awards, we now only need Ricky Gervais as the Academy Award host to have the requisite three British comedians to make a trend piece! [Photo: Steve Coogan in "Hamlet 2," Focus Features, 2008] MORE »
New York and LA.
By Alison Willmore on 12/10/2008
Filed under: AwardsThe New York Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for the year: Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky" Best Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married" Best Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire" Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk" Best Animated Film: "WALL-E" Best Director: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky" MORE »
Yay! Awards!
By Alison Willmore on 12/04/2008
Filed under: AwardsCourtney Hunt's "Frozen River" may turn out to the year's big winner, at least in the indie film award ghetto -- it won Best Feature at the Gothams on Tuesday, with star Melissa Leo taking the Breakthrough Actor award, and it's been nominated for seven Spirit Awards. "Trouble the Water" took the Best Doc prize, Lance Hammer was deemed breakthrough director for "Ballast," and "Sita Sings the Blues" picked up the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You prize. More at indieWIRE. Meanwhile, the National Board of Review, traditionally the first of the circles to hand out best... MORE »
Spirit Awards 2009.
By Alison Willmore on 12/02/2008
Filed under: AwardsThe 2009 Spirit Award nominations were just announced -- check out the full list here. Big winners? "Ballast," which is up for Best Feature, First Screenplay, Director and Cinematography, as well as acting awards for JimMyron Ross and Tarra Riggs, and "Frozen River," which is up for many of the same. "Rachel Getting Married" is also up there with six nominations, and Sean Baker managed two nominations for the John Cassavetes Award. Also, "The Take"?! Here are the nominees for Best Feature and Best First Feature: Best Feature "Ballast" Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh "Frozen River" Producers: Chip Hourihan, Heather... MORE »
The short list.
By Alison Willmore on 11/18/2008
Filed under: AwardsThe collection of 15 docs on the Oscar shortlist unveiled yesterday look, all things considered, pretty good to me. Traditionally the award that's caused the most hue and cry, with outrageous omissions and disqualifications, arcane rules and seemingly random (or at least radically out of touch) selections, the Best Documentary Feature prize could actually come down to a group of films that 1) are good and 2) more than a handful of people have at least heard of and had the opportunity to see. "Man on Wire," the most acclaimed documentary of the year, is probably also a favorite to... MORE »
The Gothams big heart "Ballast."
By Alison Willmore on 10/20/2008
Filed under: AwardsLance Hammer's self-distributed Sundance hit "Ballast" is the favorite amongst the Gotham Awards nominees, with the film's four nominations including Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Breakthrough Director and Best Breakthrough Actor. The Gothams are now officially called the "Gotham Independent Film Awards," and while their criteria for which films can be nominated are not as stringent as those of the Spirit Awards, which give a budget cap, this year's awards have been limited to films that have received a "theatrical release through a specialty division of a studio, an independent distributor or via self-distribution" -- no more "The Departed."... MORE »
The First-Ever Cinema Eye Honors.
By Alison Willmore on 03/19/2008
Filed under: AwardsLooking over the many documentarians in the crowd gathered at the first-ever Cinema Eye Honors for nonfiction film last night, awards co-chair AJ Schnack (himself a filmmaker) proclaimed "I don't see journalists, I don't see activists — I see filmmakers and I see artists." Not that there's anything wrong with journalism or activism, but it's a fair point — subject matter so often comes first and foremost when people look at a documentary film, and everyone working behind the camera is relegated to the role of a chronicler. One of the common themes of the evening, and one of the... MORE »
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