The 16th Boston Turkish Arts and Culture Festival Documentary and Short Film Competition announced its winners and this year’s Best Short Film Award of the jury is split between Güçlü Yaman’s “Journey of No Return – Last Stop Frankfurt Airport” (Dönüşü Olmayan Yolculuk – Son Durak Frankfurt Havaalanı), and “Death” (Ölüm), co-directed by Uygar Şirin and Burcu Aykar Şirin. Best Documentary Award is also split between two films; “Recycling Life: I Found Dostoevski in […]
The World Premiere of the Sony Classics Pictures film Darling Companion, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, and Ayelet Zurer will open the 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (January 26-February 5, 2012). “We are incredibly privileged to have the world premiere of a Lawrence Kasdan film. The highly anticipated Darling Companion is a fantastic film to kick off the festival,” […]
Alexander Payne’s The Descendants was named the Best Film of the year by the International Press Academy at the organization’s 2011 Satellite Awards.
In a sharp twist from most of the other awards of the seasons, the Satellite award for Best Foreign Film was given to Mysteries of Lisbon and Best Documentary to Senna.
The International Press Academy is a group of entertainment journalists formed by a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association 15 years ago.
MOTION PICTURES
Motion Picture: “The Descendants”
Actress in a Motion Picture: Viola Davis, “The Help”
Actor in a Motion Picture: Ryan Gosling, “Drive”
Actress in a Supporting Role: Jessica Chastain, “The Tree of Life”
Actor in a Supporting Role: Albert Brooks, “Drive”
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn, “Drive”
Screenplay, Original: “The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick
Screenplay, Adapted: “The Descendants,” Alexander Payne, Jim Rash, Nax Faxon
Foreign Film: “Mysteries of Lisbon”
Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media: “The Adventures of Tintin”
Motion Picture, Documentary: “Senna”
Original Score: “Soul Surfer,” Marco Beltrani
Original Song: “Lay Down Your Head” from “Albert Nobbs,” Brian Byrne and Glenn Close
Cinematography: “War Horse,” Janusz Kaminski
Visual Effects: “Hugo,” Robert Legato
Film Editing: “The Guard,” Chris Gill
Sound (Editing and Mixing): “Drive,” Dave Patterson, Lon Bender, Robert Fernandez, Victor Ray Ennis
Art Direction & Production Design: “The Artist,” Gregory S. Hooper, Laurence Bennett
Costume Design: “Water for Elephants,” Jacqueline West {jathumbnail off}
The Chicago Film Critics Association voted “The Tree of Life” the Best Picture of 2011, director Terrence Malick received the prize of Best Director and one of the film’s stars, Jessica Chastain was awarded the win for Best Supporting Actress. “Martha Marcy May Marlene” was also a top winner with wins for Elizabeth Olsen – Promising Performer and director Sean Durkin – Promising Filmmaker. Michael Shannon was awarded Best Actor for “Take Shelter” and Michelle […]
The film “The Descendants” was crowned the big winner of 2011 by the Florida Film Critics Circle’s (FFCC) , taking the wins for Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Shailene Woodley) and Adapted Screenplay (Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash). Michael Hazanavicius won Best Original Screenplay for his critically acclaimed silent film “The Artist,” which finished a close second behind “The Descendants” for Best Picture. In other awards, Michael Fassbender won Best Actor for his portrayal of […]
The 27th Film Independent Spirit Awards returns to its traditional Saturday afternoon on February 25, 2012, in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, to air later that evening at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on IFC. The 2012 Spirit Award nominees will be announced on Tuesday, November 29. Last year’s host was comedian and actor Joel McHale, with major winners including Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan, which won Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead, and […]
CineMart, the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s co-production market has selected 36 film projects (from 465 entries) which will be presented to approximately 850 potential co-financiers. Reputed filmmakers such as Kelly Reichardt, Ruben Östlund, Quintin Dupieux, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Úrszula Antoniak will launch their new projects. The selection further includes feature length débuts, a project from a director with a film in Tiger Awards Competition and films participating in the BOOST!-program, a collaboration with the […]
Actor Christian Bale who is in China for the premiere of his latest movie, “The Flowers of War,” was reportedly roughed up by Chinese government-backed guards on Thursday when he tried to visit lawyer, Chen Guangcheng who has been imprisoned in his home by authorities, along with his wife and child, since his release from prison in September 2010. The incident was captured by a CNN camera crew who accompanied Christian Bale on the eight-hour […]
“The Tree of Life,” led the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards with seven nominations including Best Picture and nods for Malick for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor, Jessica Chastain for Best Supporting Actress, Emmanuel Lubezki for Best Cinematography and Hunter McCracken for Most Promising Performer. Critics favorite, “The Artist,” garnered filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius nods for Director and Original Screenplay as well as nominations for Original Score and a […]
The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), which runs January 5-16, 2012, will present Gary Oldman with the International Star Award. The International Star Award recognizes an actor or actress who has achieved both critical and commercial international recognition throughout their body of work. Oldman is currently starring in Focus Features’ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the novel by John le Carré. “Gary Oldman is a performer […]
The Oxford Film Festival announced the selections for its 2012 Festival scheduled to run February 9-12, 2012. The festival will screen 11 feature films (narrative and documentary), and over 50 shorts (narrative, documentary, experimental, animated), including music videos.
Narrative Feature
Butterfly Rising (Mississippi), Dir: Tanya Wright, When her brother dies, singer Lilah Belle sets out to escape her grief and embarks on a road trip, but not before coaxing the new-to-town, most scandalous woman in Artesia– Rose Johnson– to go with her. These two broken souls steal a vintage truck and head out on the open road to a fated encounter with the mythical, magical ‘Lazarus of the Butterflies’. What occurs with the strange Butterfly Man transforms their destinies and binds the women together– forever. MISSISSIPPI Premiere.
Cellmates (formerly White Knight) (California), Dir. Jesse Baget, Leroy Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan confronts everything he’s been taught to hate when he’s sentenced to three years of hard labor on a prison work farm, where Warden Merville, dead set on rehabilitating Leroy, chooses Emilio, a Hispanic field worker, to be his cellmate. REGIONAL Premiere.
Dick Night (California), Dir. Andy Viner, Rachel hasn’t been out of the house since being left at the altar two months ago, but some rebound sex tonight and she’ll be over Mark for good… if she can just deal with these vampires. MISSISSIPPI PREMIERE.
Frontman (UK), Dir. Ben Hyland, When the former frontman of ‘Stanley and the Knives’ suddenly dies his old friends and band mates are forced back together after twenty-five years apart. Cracks soon start to appear in their relationships and it becomes clear why they split up in the first place. Frontman is a musical journey of five strangers, becoming friends for the second time. REGIONAL Premiere.
How to Cheat (California), Dir. Amber Sealey, Mark’s decided to do something bad.. MISSISSIPPI Premiere.
Documentary Feature
Happy (California, non-competition), Dir. Roko Belic. A look at the search for happiness.
Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians (Washington), Dir. Bryan Storkel, Holy Rollers follows the rise of the Churchteam, arguably the largest and most well funded blackjack team in America. In their short existence, they have taken millions from casinos. But since every team member is a Christian and some are pastors, there is a constant battle to answer this question: How can you be Christian and play blackjack for a living? In their first year, the team took $1.6 million from casinos, but slowly the teams success starts to fall apart. They haven’t closed a bankroll in over six months and the team is down $450,000. The investors are getting nervous and something has to change. In addition , questions start being raised as to whether someone from the team might be stealing from the bankroll. Is it possible? Of course. But do they trust the players on the team? Absolutely. Maybe. REGIONAL Premiere.
Patriot Guard Riders, (Washington) Dir. Ellen Frick; Another American Soldier Has Died. Who cares? The suffering of soldiers and their families is largely invisible to most Americans. But not to these Americans. ‘Patriot Guard Riders’ is a documentary about a 200,000 strong motorcycle group who attend military funerals to honor the fallen, and to protect grieving families from the Westboro Baptist Church, who descends on the funerals and harasses them. REGIONAL PREMIERE.
Rhino Resurrected, (California), Dir. Keith Shapiro; Against all odds, a beloved and historic record store is brought back to life for two eventful weeks. Can a vibrant community re-emerge in today’s transformed music world? REGIONAL PREMIERE
Showtime (Mississippi), Dir. Ben Guest; This film follows four friends from rural Mississippi on their quest to win a state championship in basketball. Loss. Struggle. Friendship. Love. WORLD PREMIERE.
This is What Love in Action Looks Like (Tennessee), Dir. Morgan Jon Fox, ’This is What Love In Action Looks Like’ documents the widely controversial and inspirational story of what The New York Times referred to as ‘A modern day message in a bottle.’ MISSISSIPPI Premiere. {jathumbnail off}
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, a group of 29 broadcast, print and online journalists from throughout North Texas, voted the comedy-drama THE DESCENDANTS as the best film of 2011, according to the results of its 18th annual critics’ poll released today. Rounding out the composite list of the top 10 films of the year were THE ARTIST (2), EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE (3), MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (4), THE TREE OF LIFE (5), HUGO […]