LA Film Critics Pick HER And GRAVITY As Top Pictures Of 2013
The Los Angeles Film Critics have a history of never ever predicting the Best Picture winner at the Oscars, at least in the past 20 years. But what they do generally do is help a critical darling along to a Best Picture nomination. Whether that’s good news or bad news for Gravity is yet to be seen, but something tells me that Her, the picture Gravity tied for the best this year, just got a big shot in the arm here. In other news, Jared Leto, who tied James Franco for Best Supporting, actor continues to take the category by storm, along with Cate Blanchett, who was awarded Best Actress (here tied with Blue is the Warmest Colors‘ Adèle Exarchopoulos) and is now sweeping the early critics prizes. Blanchett is locked and loaded to win the Best Actress prize come March, while Leto looks to...
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Spike Jonze’s HER Named Best Picture Of 2013 By NBR
The National Board of Review is usually lock step with the AMPAS, picking a movie that either wins or is nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. So either Spike Jonze’s Her got a big Oscar boost yesterday after being named Best Picture by the awards body, or it’s going to go the way of Quills. Given that Mr. Jonze has never seen one of his masterpieces nominated for Oscar, mostly seeing his actors get all the accolades, we may be looking at the latter. In addition to Her, both Bruce Dern and Will Forte got boosts for Nebraska. That could mean that Alexander Payne’s streak of Best Actor nominees will keep going for another film in a row. (His last three all landed their leads an Oscar nod.) Who else got a boost yesterday? Well, here’s the full list of winners: Best...
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NYFCC Selects AMERICAN HUSTLE As Best Picture of 2013
Did the New York Film Critics Circle just give us a glimpse into Oscar future? The org’s picks for Best Picture lined up with Oscar less than 50 percent of the time in the last 10 years, but it’s the split between Best Picture and Best Director from today’s awards announcement that I’m staring at here. David O. Russell’s much more Oscar friendly American Hustle took home the award for Best Picture from the NYFCC, which is the first of many Oscar precursors to come. But Steve McQueen, whose 12 Years a Slave is being touted as the frontrunner at the moment, took home the Best Director award. That’s split, the mainstream choice for picture and the more “artistic” choice for director is a common one. (Artistic in quotes because I kind of hate 12 Years a Slave.) ANYWAY, here’s the full...
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THE ACT OF KILLING And 14 Others Make Oscar Doc Shortlist
I already know that I’ll be rooting for The Act of Killing come Oscar night, should it happen to get nominated. And today, it got one step closer. Joshua Oppenheimer’s masterpiece and 14 other documentary features moved on to the next voting phase leading up to the five final Oscar nominees. Check ’em out: The Act of Killing The Armstrong Lie Blackfish The Crash Reel Cutie and the Boxer Dirty Wars First Cousin Once Removed God Loves Uganda Life According to Sam Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer The Square Stories We Tell Tim’s Vermeer 20 Feet from Stardom Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim...
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From Red Envelope To Red Carpet: Netflix Gets Ready To Stun Oscar
Netflix has an Emmy, but like everyone in Hollywood, it really wants an Oscar. The streaming video company stunned the motion picture industry just a few weeks ago, when it hinted that it’s looking at picking up the rights to movies and releasing them on Netflix and theatrically on the same day. And while the motion picture documentary The Square, about the Egyptian revolution during the Arab Spring, is currently in theaters, that’s not stopping the company from quietly picking up the rights to the potential Oscar nominee. This according to the LA Times, Netflix is now the proud owner of the distribution rights to the doc, which is already receiving rave reviews and on the long list of qualified doc feature Oscar contenders. While this isn’t the company’s first dive into motion picture distribution, which it previously accomplished with...
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FOXCATCHER Moves To 2014, Trailer Disappears From The Web
Another day, another release date shift. It looks like Sony’s Foxcatcher will join Grace of Monaco and (possibly) The Wolf of Wall Street as a certain Oscar contender that has moved out of prime awards territory. So if you were expecting to see the trailer for Bennett Miller‘s latest film, sorry kids. Sony Pictures Classics has pretty much wiped its existence off the web after it debuted last week. Why another release date shift? Well, it certainly looks like a very competitive year for Oscar. Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, The Butler and the still to be released American Hustle and Captain Phillips all have momentum going into the race that the three movies listed above are lacking. Sony, too, wants to give the Foxcatcher filmmakers the time they need to get the job done right, so they aren’t rushing the release. So would you rather have a Bennett Miller masterpiece in...
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