Special to the FAC: Supporting Actress

SPECIAL TO THE FAC: Best Supporting actress 13 Days out:

The following has been collated using publicly accessed information from:

Awards Daily

Incontention

Awards Circuit

Film Misery

Film Experience

Thompson on Hollywood

Rope of Silicon

Hollywood Elsewhere

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Dave Karger/Entertainment Weekly

The Best Supporting Actress Leader Board

1) Octavia Spencer/The Help

2) Jessica Chastain/The Help

3) Berenice Bejo/The Artist

4) Shailene Woodley/The Descendants

5) Melissa McCarthy/Bridesmaids

Also in the running:

6) Janet McTeer/Albert Nobbs

7) Vanessa Redgrave/Coriolanus

8) Carey Mulligan/Shame

9) Sandra Bullock/Extremely Loud

10) Judi Dench/J. Edgar

Others with votes:

Judy Greer/Descendants, Evan Rachel Wood/Ides of March, Jessica Chastain/Take Shelter and Jodi Foster/Carnage

HOT: Chastain and McCarthy

NOT: Woodley and Redgrave

THOUGHT:  Realistically, I suspect that the 1 through 4 spots are in and it’s a slugfest between McCarthy and McTeer for the fifth spot.  Personally I’m on the McTeer train and have been since I saw Nobbs in T-ride.  Read my Playlist review from there and you’ll see that I was suggesting the possibility early on:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/telluride_11_review_albert_nobbs_glenn_close_mia_wasikowska

DIRECTORS GUILD

Nominees of the DGA announced yesterday:

Woody Allen/Midnight in Paris

Martin Scorsese/Hugo

Alexander Payne/The Descendants

Michael Hazanavicius/The Artist

David Fincher/Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Surprises were that Fincher is in and Spielberg, Taylor and Malick are out.  This probably nukes Tree of Life as a Best Pic nominee.  It also hurts War Horse (I said yesterday in this space that I thought it was losing steam) and The Help, but probably doesn’t kill them and it gives a boost to the chances for  Girl…Tattoo.

Kris Tapley points out that Payne’s Descendants is the only film that punched its ticket with all the major guilds.  The Artist was not WGA eligible, so couldn’t be named by every major guild.  However, it remains the favorite and will likely be the only film with double digit nominations in two weeks.

Tomorrow: Best Supporting Actor

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

OCCUPY!/Descendants/Artist/Shame/Dangerous/Foreign/Oscars

Happy pre-Thanksgiving Monday everyone.

OCCUPY!

I'm continuing the Twitter assault on behalf of deserving film makers who are considered unlikely to pull down an Oscar nomination.  Go to Twitter and search for the #occupyoscar hashtag.  Retweet it, comment, etc.  And also follow me at @Gort2.

DESCENDANTS

The onslaught of publicity for "The Descendants" was huge this past week with its release and so I continue to post a large quantity of this and that related to the film.

REVIEWS
From our friend, Joe Morgenstern at The Wall Street Journal...Hi, Joe!: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/11/18/joe-morgenstern-reviews-the-descendants/

And Mr. Roger Ebert:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111116/REVIEWS/111119988

General roundup from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/the-descendants-movie-reviews-263182


INTERVIEWS
Shailene Woodley with The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-descendants-star-shailene-woodley-discusses-working-with-george-clooney-and-riding-the-wave-of-show-business

Clooney, Payne and others interviewed by Anne Thompson here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/clooney-payne-and-cast-talk-the-descendants-real-is-funny-stealing-clooneys-wife

PREMIERE COVERAGE
From The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/descendants-premiere-red-carpet-george-clooney-262320

Descendants IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/


THE ARTIST

Meanwhile, the buzz continues to build for the anticipated limited release of Michel Nazanavicius' "The Artist.  It opens small this week (Nov. 23).  The Hollywood News was carrying the water for the silent black and white film this week as you can see:

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/11/18/jean-dujardin-speaks-oscar-contender-talks-silent-films-pleasing-the-audience-and-the-artist-awards-alley/

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/11/18/berenice-bejo-on-old-hollywood-overnight-stardom-and-the-artist-awards-alley/

The coolest thing, Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter will host a special screening of the film this week:
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/11/18/charlie-chaplins-granddaughters-hosting-special-screening-of-the-artist-awards-alley/

Also, Anne Thompson has an interview with Hazanavicius, Dujardin and Bejo here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/michel-hazanavicius-jean-dujardin-berenice-bejo-talk-the-artist

The Artist IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655442/

SHAME

Frequent readers of this space know that I'm all about "Shame".  It has a new trailer that was all over the Internet this week.  Like the first one, it seems to me to be terribly effective, or maybe I've consumed so much of the "Shame" Kool-Aid that it just seems that it's terribly effective.  Here are multiple links:

Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere:http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/11/art_of_the_sell.php

Apple.com: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/shame/

SlashFilm: http://www.slashfilm.com/shame-trailer-2-carey-mulligans-new-york-york-break-heart/

FirstShowing.net: http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/second-full-us-trailer-for-steve-mcqueens-shame-with-fassbender/

Rope of Silicon: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/shame-trailer-nc-17-rating/

The Playlist: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-carey-mulligans-new-york-new-york-powers-latest-trailer-for-shame

The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/shame-trailer-carey-mulligan-michael-fassbender-mcqueen-263173

HollywoodNews.com: http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/11/17/shame-gets-new-trailer-descendants-opens-slow-awards-alley/

AND A BRIDGE BETWEEN

Michael Fassbender continues to generate a  lot of ink for "Shame" and to a lesser extent "A Dangerous Method"  (and other films from earlier this year, like "X-Men: First Class).  Fassbender was named GQ's Man of the Year this past week.  Take a look at that story here:http://www.gq.com/moty/2011/michael-fassbender-gq-men-of-the-year-issue

You can also catch this interview with him from Slant Magazine: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/feature/interview-michael-fassbender/288/page_1


Shame's IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1723811/

All of which leads from "Shame" to...

A DANGEROUS METHOD

Not my favorite of this year's Telluride offerings, but in an effort to provide full coverage of the post festival run through awards season, here are some of this week's nuggets about the David Cronenberg film.

Keira Knightley interviewed by Kyle Buchanan at nymag.com: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/11/keira-knightley-interview-dangerous-method.html

Viggo Mortensen interviewed by Rachel Dodes for The Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/11/18/how-viggo-mortensen-got-inside-sigmund-freuds-head/

Dodes also interviews director/writer Cronenberg: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038302527279374.html

Also an informative piece on the film from Backstage.com: http://www.backstage.com/bso/content_display/news-and-features/e3ie4055b0a02b97aec0793340f9d0440fb

Dangerous' IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571222/

FOREIGN FILMS

Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere was stumping this week for Foreign Language Oscar hopefuls.  Look at his musings here: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/11/foreign_languag.php

Included on his list of films that should be considered for the short list were the following TFF #38 films:  "A Separation" ( on my #occupyoscar list for an Original Screenplay nomination), "In Darkness", "Le Havre" "Pina", "The Turin Horse", and "Footnote".

Continuing to make its mark internationally this week was Asgahr Farhadi's "A Separation" winning an award from the BBC.  See that story from HitFix here: http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention/posts/a-separation-wins-bbc-world-cinema-award

The Hollywood Reporter interviews "In Darkeness" director Agnieszka Holland: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/agnieszka-holland-in-darkness-oscars-263142

OSCARS

A look at the latest Golden Globes forecast from Scott Feinberg: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/golden-globes-frontrunners-help-artist-are-262553

24 Frames/The Envelope look at the Best Actor race: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/11/oscars-actor-george-clooney-jean-dujardin-leonardo-dicaprio.html

Rope of Silicon looks at the race for Best Actress: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/oscar-update-actress-predictions-shift-streep-1-close-bounced-top/

Documentary short list was announced this week.  No Herzog or Morris...???  From Anne Thompson:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/academy-names-fifteen-docs-to-vie-for-oscar-top-five-wenders-is-in-herzog-is-out?

Oscar Talk podcast with Thompson and Kris Tapley of Incontention.com: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/oscar-talk-streep-vs-davis-prosthetic-vs-digital-makeup-performance-capture-vs-animation-close-vs-mcteer


FINITO

And finally, once again, follow me on Twitter @Gort2 and support #occupyoscar!  More on Thursday!

Clooney and Mulligan Honored/Fassbender and McQueen Part Three/New Payne/New Rules on Old Oscars

Good Thursday Morning All...in Edmond, OK this A.M. for Regional One Act Play Contest...

CLOONEY AND MULLIGAN HONORED

How hot are TFF #38 Tributee George Clooney and Telluride featured performer (3 straight years with a film at the festival) Carey Mulligan?  Aside from the fact that Clooney seems to be headed for a nearly certain Best Actor nomination for "The Descendants" and that Mulligan is part of the Supporting Actress conversation for "Shame" the two will be feted by The Hollywood Film Awards.  Clooney will be named Actor of the Year according to Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/george-clooney-receive-actor-year-246918

Mulligan will also be named Supporting Actress of the Year by the same group according to Hollywood.com:
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/10/10/carey-mulligan-receives-hollywood-supporting-actress-award-for-shame-awards-alley/

In addition to Clooney and Mulligan other TFF #38 film actors who will be honored include Berenice Bejo and Jean Dujardin from "The Artist" and Shailene Woodley from "The Descendants".

Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) will also be honored for lifetime achievement and "Artist" director Michel Hazanavicius will receive an honor for Breakthrough Direction.

FASSBENDER AND MC QUEEN PART THREE

First they collaborated on "hunger" which showed at the SHOW in 2008.  Then their sophomore collaboration is this year's conversation piece (and Best Film of the Year so far, for my money) "Shame".  Now comes word that actor Michael Fassbender and writer/director Steve  McQueen will take a third spin together.

They are set to film an adaptation of "12 Years a Slave" a true story set in 1841 of a free African-American who was kidnapped and enslaved for a dozen years.  Chiwetel Ejiofor is set to play the lead in the film.  Find details from Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood (indieWire) here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/10/11/fassbender_and_mcqueen_set_for_third_collaboration_12_years_a_slave_based_o/

One could expect that if completed in a Telluride friendly time frame and if McQueen and Fassbender provide the same quality with this project as they have provided with their first two joint efforts, then we'll likely see the film in 2012 or 2013  in the San Juans.

Thompson says that the film will start lensing in early 2012.

NEW PAYNE

Another familiar face at Telluride the last three years has been Alexander Payne.  Payne has been guest director (in 2009) and was there with "The Descendants" this year.  And he may return very soon as it was announced yesterday that he was working on casting for his next project entitled "Nebraska" and that names in play include Jack Nicholson, Robert Duvall and Gene Hackman.  Check the story at The Playlist (indieWire) here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/alexander_payne_trying_to_lure_gene_hackman_out_of_retirement_for_black_and/

Again, at completion and with Payne having had good success at Telluride this year, you'd think that "Nebraska" would be a likely 2012 or 2013 TFF film.


NEW RULE FOR OLD OSCARS

Sasha Stone at Awards Daily has delved deep into the numbers and applied the new Best Pic Oscar rules (5-10 nominations) to some past years.  For hoots, take a look at what that might have meant here:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/10/the-state-of-the-race-climbing-the-tree-and-finding-best-picture-branch-by-branch/

More on Monday!!!

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