And the Madness Has Begun: NBR, Gothams, Satellites / Jenkins Analyzes a Scene from Moonlight and More

Good first Thursday in December...It's December people...

AND THE MADNESS HAS BEGUN...

The Past few days saw the actual start of "awards season" with three groups announcing accolades or nominations for accolades for 2016.  The National Board of Review named a number of films to their various lists of quality for the year as did the The Gotham Awards and The Golden Satellites also got into the act.  All three organizations highly rewarded films that played at Telluride in September.

Start with The National Board of Review which went for Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea in a huge way.  NBR named the drama the Best Film of the year along with nods for Casey Affleck as Best Actor, Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay and Lucas Hedges for Outstanding Breakthrough performance.

Barry Jenkins was named Best Director for Moonlight which also was rewarded for Naomie Harris' performance as Best Supporting Actress.

Amy Adams was named Best Actress for Arrival.  That meant that TFF #43 films claimed three of the four acting prizes.

In addition to Manchester being named Best Film, the NBR named its Ten Best list which included: Moonlight, Arrival, La La Land and Sully.

Additionally, Pablo Larrain's Neruda was named one of the top five Foreign Language films and The Eagle Huntress was named among the top five Documentaries.

Complete coverage including full lists of all winners are here from:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Entertainment Weekly

Indiewire

Awards Daily

Awards Circuit

The Film Experience

Meanwhile, where The NBR announcement was a Manchester by the Sea lovefest, The Gotham Awards were all about Jenkins' Moonlight.  The intimate indie film nabbed four awards when The Gothams were announced on Tuesday: Best Feature, Screenplay, the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for its ensemble.

Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea won for Casey Affleck's performance to round out awards received for films from TFF #43.

Complete Gotham's coverage is here from:

Variety

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly

ShowBiz411

And finally, The Golden Satellite Award nominations were also announced this week and La La Land dominated that field with 13 nominations including Best Picture.  Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight also were named as nominees for Best Picture.  They each had seven nominations from the International Press Academy.

Complete Golden Satellite nominations are here from Awards Daily.

Almost without exception the Oscar experts that I read warn not to read very much into these early awards.  I tend to believe them but I also think that this kind of publicity does serve as a method to keep a film's title hot and at the front of the minds of Oscar voters as we make the run to the end of the year.


Also, all three of what are now clearly the biggest Oscar possibilities from TFF #43 had something to crow about from these announcements.




JENKINS ANALYZES A SCENE FROM MOONLIGHT AND MORE

The Film Stage's coverage of Gotham Award winners from earlier this week also includes three video features about that night's biggest winner, Barry Jenkins Moonlight.  Check out their coverage as well as the video using this link.



That's a wrap for this Thursday.  The Critic's Choice nominations are due today as well as announcements from the New York Film Critics so look to Twitter for that news (@Gort2).  More on Monday.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog itself.

Many a Trailer Come Our Way / Checking in with the Stars from TFF #43 / Oscar Biz Buzz

Good Monday Space Cadets...Hope your weekend was out of this world.


MANY A TRAILER COME OUR WAY

Over the end of the week and into the weekend we saw a bevy of new trailers released for films that played at this year's Telluride Film Festival.  Included in the onslaught were new views of Denis Villenueve's Arrival, Pablo Larrain's Foreign Language Oscar contender Neruda and Keif Davidson, Steven Okazaki's Mifune: The Last Samurai and Richard Ladkani's The Ivory Game.

Let' start with the final Arrival trailer (the film is set for release in the U.S. on Nov. 11):

The coverage for Arrival's final trailer was vast  Here are links to that coverage from:

Entertainment Weekly

The Hollywood Reporter

The Film Stage

The Playlist

First Showing

SlashFilm

The trailer for Pablo Larrain's Neruda is here:

Along with coverage from 

Indiewire

The Playlist

Here's the trailer for Mifune: The Last Samurai from YouTube:

The coverage is provided by:

Indiewire


And finally, the trailer for The Ivory Game is here:

With trailer release coverage from"

The Playlist

and Indiewire


CHECKING IN WITH THE FILM MAKERS OF TFF #43

Lots of interviews and profiles are flooding the internet as we move into prime release territory for films that playing at TFF in 2016.  Here's a sampling focused on the emerging indie hit (more about that below) Moonlight as well as the perceived Oscar frontrunner, Damien Chazelle's La La Land:

Moonlight...

Profiles and interviews with writer/director Barry Jenkins: from: Indiewire The Los Angeles Times and Awards Daily

Also this Indiewire interview with Naomie Harris  along with Entertainment Weekly's sit down with Mahershala Ali

And Entertainment Weekly introduces La La Land's Emma Stone and her "73 Questions" Vogue story.  Here's the video from Vogue:

OSCAR BIZ BUZZ

The Gotham Award nominations were announced on Thursday and TFF #43 films Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight were very much represented.  Manchester was nominated for four of the awards that are presented by the Independent Film Project.  Included in Manchester's haul: Best Feature, Best Actor (Casey Affleck), Best Screenplay and Best Breakthrough Performer (Lucas Hedges).

Moonlight was right behind with nominations for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and will receive a special cast award for its ensemble.

Other Best Feature nominees were: Paterson, Certain Women and Everybody Wants Some.

The Gothams will be handed out on Nov. 28.

Here's coverage of the nomination announcement from Variety. 

Meanwhile, Awards Daily founder Sasha Stone provided this analysis of the Gotham's effect here.

Also today in Oscar Biz Buzz, Moonlight made other waves over the weekend including a ridiculous monetary haul from just four theaters.  Indiewire reports on the stunning success of Moonlight on incredibly limited release.

The latest edition of the ScreenTalk podcast featuring Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson of Indiewire also focuses, in large measure, on Moonlight's burgeoning Oscar profile.  Here's your link to the story and the podcast.

In other Oscar Biz Buzz, there have been any number of reports yesterday that Viola Davis will be campaigned for Best Supporting Actress for the Screen Actor's Guild.  Although the Academy does not have to follow suit for the Oscars, that would become the more likely scenario.  The decision will open up an almost certain slot for the Best Actress race which many regard as the most competitive acting category (and maybe the most competitive Oscar category...period).  It would also make the Best Supporting Actress category (which has been seen to a three way race between Naomie Harris/Moonlight, Michelle Williams/Manchester and Nicole Kidman/Lion) a much tougher proposition.

Stories to that effect are here from Entertainment Weekly as well as The Playlist.


That's a wrap for this Monday.  More to come on Thursday...

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog itself.

FLASH/SPECIAL: Indy Spirit/NYFCC/Gotham Awards

The Film Awards season is off and running with three events occurring within the last 24 hours acting as the starting gun for the race.  The Gotham Awards (Independent Feature Project) last night and this morning The New York Film Critics Circle and nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards which, of the three, probably has the most heft.  Consider the impact of both "Black Swan" and "127 Hours"  in the Indy Spirits last year and their subsequent multiple Oscar nominations.

That being said, here are the results of all three announcements (Telluride #38 films are marked with ###):

The 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place on Saturday, February 25, and will be broadcast later that evening on IFC.

The nominees:

BEST FEATURE

"The Artist"###

"Beginners"
"The Descendants"###
"Drive"
"50/50"
"Take Shelter"

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"###

Mike Mills, "Beginners"
Jeff Nichols, "Take Shelter"
Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"###
Nicolas Winding Refn, "Drive"

BEST SCREENPLAY

Joseph Cedar, "Footnote"###

Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"###
Tom McCarthy, "Win Win"
Mike Mills, "Beginners"
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, "The Descendants"###

BEST FIRST FEATURE

"Another Earth"

"In the Family"
"Margin Call"
"Martha Marcy May Marlene"
"Natural Selection"

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Mike Cahill, Brit Marling, "Another Earth"

J.C. Chandor, "Margin Call"
Patrick deWitt, "Terri"
Phil Johnston, "Cedar Rapids"
Will Reiser, "50/50"

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)

"Bellflower"

"Circumstance"
"Hello Lonesome"
"Pariah"
"The Dynamiter"

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Lauren Ambrose, "Think of Me"

Rachael Harris, "Natural Selection"
Adepero Oduye, "Pariah"
Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn"

BEST MALE LEAD

Demian Bechir, "A Better Life"

Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"###
Ryan Gosling, "Drive"
Woody Harrelson, "Rampart"
Michael Shannon, "Take Shelter"

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Jessica Chastain, "Take Shelter"

Anjelica Huston, "50/50"
Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"###
Harmony Santana, "Gun Hill Road"
Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants"###

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Albert Brooks, "Drive"

John Hawkes, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
John C. Reilly, "Cedar Rapids"
Corey Stoll, "Midnight in Paris"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joel Hodge, "Bellflower"

Benjamin Kasulke, "The Off Hours"
Darius Khondji, "Midnight in Paris"
Guillame Schiffma, "The Artist"
Jeffrey Waldron, "The Dynamiter"

BEST DOCUMENTARY

"An African Election"

"Bill Cunningham New York"
"The Interrupters"
"The Redemption of General Butt Naked"
"We Were Here"

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

"A Separation"###

"Melancholia"
"Shame"###
"The Kid With a Bike"###
"Tyrannosaur"

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD

Chad Burris, "Mosquita y Mari"

Sophia Lin, "Take Shelter"
Josh Mond, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

Simon Arthur, "Silver Tongues"

Mark Jackson, "Without"
Nicholas Ozeki, "Mamitas"

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

Heather Courtney, "Where Soldiers Come From"

Danfung Dennis, "Hell and Back Again"
Alma Har'El, "Bombay Beach"

 

The 2011 NYFCC award winners are:

Best Picture: "The Artist"###

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"###

Best Screenplay: Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin for "Moneyball"

Best Actress: Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady"

Best Actor: Brad Pitt for "Moneyball" and "Tree of Life"

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain for "Tree of Life," "The Help" and "Take Shelter"

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks for "Drive"

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for "Tree of Life"

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

Best Foreign Language Film: "A Separation"###

Best First Feature: "Margin Call"

Special Award: Late filmmaker Raoul Ruiz

GOTHAM AWARDS

Gothams, which are presented by the Independent Feature Project (IFP),

The winners:

Best Feature: "Beginners" and "The Tree of Life" (tie)

Best Documentary: "Better This World"

Best Ensemble Performance: "Beginners" (Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai

Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos)

Breakthrough Director: Dee Rees, "Pariah"

Breakthrough Actor: Felicity Jones, "Like Crazy"

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You: "Scenes of a Crime"

Audience Award: "Girlfriend"

First a look at how Telluride films fared: 13 Independent Spirit nominations.

2 NYFCC awards

 

It was a grand day for "The Artist".  NYFCC Best Picture and Director winner and 5 Indy Spirit noms (Feature, Director, Screenplay, Male Lead and Cinematography).  Maybe it IS the front runner for now (I still think "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud" have to be heard from.)

An "OK" day for "The Descendants".  Indy Spirit noms for Feature, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress.  No love for George though and no NYFCC or Gotham love either.

A good day for "A Separation" (an #occupyoscar choice for Original Screenplay).  Nommed as Best International film by Indy Spirits and named Best Foreign Language Film by NYFCC.

Albert Nobbs' Janet McTeer (another #occupyoscar choice) nominated by Indy Spirits (Yay!) but no nomination for Glenn Close (Hmmm).

"Footnote" gets an Indy Spirit screenplay nomination.

"Shame" (#occupyoscar choice in numerous categories) nominated for Indy Spirit Best International Film (along with the Dardennes Brothers "The Kid with a Bike")...I was disappointed that NYFCC didn't have "Shame" listed anywhere.


Other interesting notes:

Good day for "The Tree of Life". NYFCC winner for Actor, Supporting Actress and Cinematography. Plus a Gotham nod for Best Feature.

Good day for Albert Brooks...wins Supporting Actor for "Drive" from NYFCC and is also nommed by the Indy Spirits.  Overall, "Drive" had a good day.  Nommed for Indy spirits also for Feature, Director and Male Lead.

"Moneyball" also had a good day.  Pitt's dual win for Best Actor from the NYFCC plus its Screenplay win as well.


And a boost for Mike Mills "Beginners' (an #occupyoscar choice for Screenplay).  It got Indy Spirit noms for Feature, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actor as well as Best Feature and Best Ensemble from the Gothams.

Also, I was pleased to see a nod for Corey Stoll (#occupyoscar) for Supporting Actor in "Midnight in Paris" from the Indy Spirit peeps and Shailene Woodley for Supporting Actress from "The Descendants"