“Animal Kingdom,” written and directed by David Michod swept the the Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards at the weekend, taking 10 awards including Best Film, and Best Direction out of a record 18 nominations. “Animal Kingdom,” often described as the “Australian gangster film” also took the award for Best Original Screenplay.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced the nominees for the 16th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. The winners will be announced at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. This year’s event will again take place at the Hollywood Palladium. This is the fourth year in a row that VH1 will broadcast the gala live on the network and the first year the show will also be broadcast internationally.
Periferic (Outbound) by Bogdan George Apetri took the Best Feature Film Award – Golden Alexander at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival which ran December 3-12, 2010. The Greek Film Critics Association (PEKK) Award was also given to Periferic (Outbound).
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) loves “The Social Network” naming it the Best Picture of the Year, as well as voting its director David Fincher, “The Social Network” Director of the Year, and the screenplay written by Aaron Sorkin as Screenplay of the year.
The Indie Grits Film Festival recently named by Moviemaker Magazine as one of the 20 coolest film festivals returns for its 5th year, and will take place April 13-17, 2011 in Columbia, SC.
The 22nd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will present David O. Russell with the Director of the Year Award at its Awards Gala. Past Director of the Year honorees include Alexander Payne, Jason Reitman, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Anthony Minghella, Sean Penn and Ang Lee.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The 7th Annual Artivist Film Festival just wrapped its December 1 – 4 run at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
Sundance Institute announced the films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival scheduled to screen in theaters in nine different cities, including the newly added Seattle, Washington Egyptian Theatre, on the evening of Thursday, January 27, 2011. The screenings are part of Sundance Film Festival USA, designed to introduce the Festival experience to film-loving audiences nationwide. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival opens January 20 and runs through January 30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The 61st Berlin International Film Festival will open with True Grit by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen at the Berlinale Palast on February 10, 2011.
The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood announced the nominations and award recipients for the 38th Annual Annie Awards. “How to Train Your Dragon” lead the field with 15 nominations including feature, direction, writing and voice acting, followed by “Despicable Me” with 7 nominations.
Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City, Utah. Slamdance will debut ten narrative and eight documentary feature films, 14 of which are World Premieres. With a record number of over 5,000 submissions, Slamdance has selected an exciting and eclectic slate of films, made by today’s up and coming independent filmmakers. The selected films have all been made on a small budget and head to Park City without distribution – all full of immense promise.