JAEMS BONG RULZ DAINEL CRAFGS FOR PRESIDETN

You could squeeze Tropicana from those melons.

I hear that the VV poll will still continue, but it’s up in the air whether it will be housed at L.A. Weekly or indieWire ... or both.

I’m still sayin Inland Empire, bro. Who’s gonna beat even a divisive Lynch whatzit this year?

JAEMS BONG

Who’s gonna beat even a divisive Lynch whatzit this year?

A not-at-all-divisive Scorsese bonbon?

NOT divisive? assuming Armond isn’t voting? isn’t there a strong “good but insubstantial” bloc on that one?

also, re History of Violence and back to Safe as Film of the ’90s, fuck a VV poll.

there’s also a bloc out there claiming ‘the black dahlia’ is some kind of moving, deep masterwork and not a manifestation of brian de palma’s worst hack tendencies. i hope it doesn’t place in the top 100.

also, re History of Violence and back to Safe as Film of the ’90s, fuck a VV poll.

You do know this is basically sports to me, not aesthetics.

In any case, the overwhelming majority of reviews on the Lynch aren’t just bad, they’re terrible. Now I grant most of the people giving the movie “masterpiece” reviews (all two or three of them) are on the VV-Not-VV Poll roster. That likely means it’ll tie with Black Dahlia somewhere in the 30s or 40s.

You’re arguing that this is the sort of weak year an Inland Empire could manage to sneak up to the #1 slot. It’s also the same year a movie with a “good but insubstantial” bloc could translate to said film showing up on a whole lot of lists.

departed was a good watch but kind of stupid

Yeah, I know it’s sport, EH. Much more a publishing-house softball kegger than the Oscars.

I haven’t seen a whole lot of IE reviews, but surely there’ll be a whole lot more when it starts its big-city theater runs (next week?). The Times (I think Dargis) was rhapsodic over it.

Jump on Chereau’s Gabrielle when it hits DVD shortly.

Detrius ahoy!!!

Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Feature: American Gun, The Dead Girl, Half Nelson, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan’s Labyrinth

First Feature: Day Night Day Night, Man Push Cart, The Motel, Sweet Land, Wristcutters: A Love Story

John Cassavates Award—Feature (Under $500,000): Chalk, Four Eyed Monsters, Old Joy, Quinceanera, Twelve and Holding

Director: Robert Altman—A Prairie Home Companion, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris—Little Miss Sunshine, Ryan Fleck—Half Nelson, Karen Moncrieff—The Dead Girl, Steven Soderbergh—Bubble

Actor: Aaron Eckhart—Thank You for Smoking, Ryan Golsing—Half Nelson, Edward Norton—The Painted Veil, Ahmad Razvi—Man Push Cart, Forest Whitaker—American Gun

Actress: Shareeka Epps—Half Nelson, Catharine O’Hara—For Your Consideration, Elisabeth Reaser—Sweet Land, Michelle Williams—Land of Plenty, Robin Wright Penn—Sorry, Haters

Screenplay: The Illusionist, Friends with Money, The Painted Veil, Thank You for Smoking, Sorry Haters

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin—Little Miss Sunshine, Raymond J. Barry—Steel City, Daniel Craig—Infamous, Paul Dano—Little Miss Sunshine, Channing Tatum—A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Supporting Actress: Melonie Diaz—Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Marcia Gay Harden—American Gun, Mary Beth Hurt—The Dead Girl, Frances McDormand—Friends with Money, Amber Tamblyn—Stephanie Daley

First Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine, Half Nelson, Wristcutters: A Love Story, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Conversations with Other Women

Cinematography: Four Eyed Monsters, Brothers of the Head, Pan’s Labyrinth, Wild Tigers I Have Known, Man Push Cart

Foreign Film: 12:08 East of Bucharest, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, Chronicle of an Escape, Days of Glory, The Lives of Others

Documentary: A Lion in the House, My Country My Country, The Road to Guantanamo, The Trials of Daryl Hunt, You’re Gonna Miss Me

I am semi-psyched to see Pan’s Labyrinth
.

Wild Tigers I Have Known is dreary.

Will they be taking ads out for Catherine O’Hara?

Lim and Foundas poll news, sports fans:

http://www.thereeler.com/the_blog/critics_poll_revived_but_not_at_voice.php

Both with a pool of 100 voters? They may out-middlebrow FC’s poll yet.

Oops. I see last year’s poll had over 100.

Allison Benedict is taking over at the VV? She’s like a third-string film critic at the Chicago Tribune.

They specifically asked for no expertise.

(I suppose that means I should’ve applied ...)

aside fr Hoberman & Nathan Lee, VV film now staffed by replicants.

Mr. Coy, if you don’t email me where you are writing you are never getting that Airport 1975 tie-in book.

lol @ armond white re: ‘bobby’—

“when movie stars play common, working-class people, they ennoble and humanize average American life.”

he’s right about ‘repo man’ though.

J Rosenabaum has already declared Bobby superior to Nashville.

(DSN, I don’t disagree with that AW statement at all, when the perfs are good)

seems a little condescending.

I assume he’s harkening back to Grapes of Wrath rather than Monster.

Anyway, I’m sympathetic to Bobby (unseen) given the similarity of sneers given to Kramer /Lumet /Ritt lib-dramas of the past, by folx who marvel over the kinetic emptiness of Kill Bill etc.

I’d already wanted to see Bobby, but Rosenbaum’s rave made me even more curious.

i don’t want to see ‘bobby’ because i’m already behind in my film viewing but i can foresee a night wherein i would procure a pizza and stop at the video store, subsequently picking it up along with a dvd of ‘the shield’ or something.

see ‘bobby’ now*

given the similarity of sneers given to Kramer /Lumet /Ritt lib-dramas of the past

People don’t still sneer at that stuff today?

I’m more apt to trust a Peter Travers rave than Rosenbaum these days.

The Independent Spirit Awards appear to define all that is wrong with what passes for ‘indie’ now. Little Miss Sunshine? Really?

On the bright side, this year it doesn’t appear they’re just trying to handicap the Oscars.

(Sunshine aside.)

People don’t still sneer at that stuff today?

I meant that they still do, yeah (esp those who read Ms. 45 as the apotheosis of feminist filmmaking).

The NY Observer ran a story that “insiders” proclaim Dreamgirls is the Oscar frontrunner. Geez, the second-worst outcome to awarding Paul Haggis — reverting to the big-screen Tonys.

SNAKES ON A PLANE = GREATEST FILM EVER

Don’t argue with it.

Detrius begins. Artforum lists. No new thread. It’s not important.

John Waters

1. UNITED 93 (Paul Greengrass)

2. JACKASS NUMBER TWO (Jeff Tramaine)

3. THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (Kevin Macdonald)

4. SHORTBUS (John Cameron Mitchell)

5. THE DEPARTED (Martin Scorsese)

6. SHERRYBABY (Laurie Collyer)

7. INSIDE MAN (Spike Lee)

8. SLEEPING DOGS LIE (Bobcat Goldthwait)

9. HAMILTON (Matthew Porterfield)

10. MARIE ANTOINETTE (Sofia Coppola)

Amy Taubin

1. ARMY OF SHADOWS (Jean-Pierre Melville)

2. SOUTHLAND TALES (Richard Kelly)

3. INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch)

4. WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS (Spike Lee)

5. SHOOT THE MESSENGER (Ngozi Onwurah)

6. OLD JOY (Kelly Reichardt)

7. THE HOST (Bong Joon-ho)

8. IDEAS OF ORDER IN CINQUE TERRE (Ken Kobland; 2005) and LIBERTE ET

PATRIE (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mieville; 2002)

9. MUTUAL RECOGNITION [sic] (Andrew Bujalski)

10. FAST FOOD NATION (Richard Linklater)

James Quandt

1. COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa)

2. SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

3. STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang-ke)

4. KODAK (Tacita Dean)

5. ARMY OF SHADOWS (Jean-Pierre Melville; 1968)

6. BAMAKO (Abderrahmane Sissako)

7. MAGIC MIRROR (Manoel de Oliveira)

8. I DON’T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE (Tsai Ming-liang)

9. WOMAN ON THE BEACH (Hong Sang-soo)

10. KRISTALL (Matthias Muller and Christoph Girardet)

Barbara London

1. TEKKON KINKREET (Michael Arias)

2. THE ROAD TO MOUNT WEATHER (Cliff Evans)

3. DIGITAL VIDEO EFFECT: “EDITIONS” (Seth Price)

4. 8 BIT (Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand) [Shameless promotion:

This is receiving its second US screening at the Wexner Center on

Jan. 17 as part of a program I curated]

5. NO SNOW ON THE BROKEN BRIDGE (Yang Fudong)

7. STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang-ke)

8. THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (Michel Gondry)

9. SHAN PIPE BAND LEARNS THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER (Bani Abidi)

10. REMEMBERING ARTHUR (Martin Lavut)

Jonathan Romney

1. CLIMATES (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

2. LES SIGNES (Eugene Green)

3. THE FAMILY FRIEND (Paolo Sorrentino)

4. SEHNSUCHT (Valeska Grisebach)

5. THE DEPARTED (Martin Scorsese)

6. MARIE ANTOINETTE (Sofia Coppola)

7. PAN’S LABYRINTH (Guillermo del Toro)

8. IT’S WINTER (Rafi Pitts)

9. GARDENS IN AUTUMN (Otar Iosseliani)

10. COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa)

I meant that they still do, yeah (esp those who read Ms. 45 as the apotheosis of feminist filmmaking).

Close, but not quite. I called it an antithesis to feminist filmmaking.

meh, here a ‘thesis, there a ‘theosis...

I didn’t care for Climates at all, tho it was kinda crazy.

Waters’ #1 and 2 would make a felicitous doublebill. His list is the only one made up entirely of films that were commercially exhibited (at least in NY) in ’06.

I always find it a bit ridiculous to put re-releases or ‘found’ films in a year-end list. “Army of Shadows” is 36 years old—just ‘cuz Americans didn’t see it, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.

It’s kind of like listing a bunch of [insert director here, probably someone with a Criterion box set] because (the editorial) you saw them for the first time this year.

It has some validity if there was no way (aside from hunting down an imported video or somethin’) you could see it before this year in yr home country. But I generally make a separate category myself.

It also helps that it looks like the worst year ever (again) for medium-to-widely released new films.

as in, an indie Afterschool Special wins an armful of Gotham Awards, whatever they are...

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/full-court-press-for-half-nelson/

At the Gothams, there are just six, count ‘em, six, competitive awards. And by the time the evening had finally wound down, “Half Nelson” won half of them, including Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor...

Shareeka Epps, one of the young actors in “Half Nelson,” won the actor award, an honor she shared with Rinko Kikuchi for her role as a deaf Japanese teenager in “Babel.”

Ms. Kikuchi gave her own speech — through tears and in English. It included shout-outs to everyone connected to the production and of course, Mom and Dad. “It has been an incredible journey,” she said. “With this award I am very encouraged and ready for more.”

I love it. In the John Waters sense.

From the high (-brow) to the low (shameless). Oscar season begins officially with some shit called the Golden Satellites.

motion picture, drama

half nelson

the departed

flags of our fathers

the queen

the last king of scotland

babel

little children

motion picture, comedy or musical

little miss sunshine

thank you for smoking

the devil wears prada

stranger than fiction

venus

dreamgirls

motion picture, foreign language film

the lives of others

volver

changing times

water

syrian bride

apocalypto

actress in a motion picture, drama

penelope cruz, volver

helen mirren, the queen

judy dench, notes on a scandal

gretchen mol, the notorious bettie page

maggie gyllenhaal, sherrybaby

actor in a motion picture, drama

derek luke, catch a fire

joshua jackson, aurora borealis

forrest whitaker, the last king of scotland

ryan gosling, half nelson

patrick wilson, little children

leonardo dicaprio, blood diamond

actress in a motion picture, comedy or musical

julie walters, driving lessons

annette bening, running with scissors

meryl streep, the devil wears prada

toni collette, little miss sunshine

jodie whitaker, venus

beyoncé knowles, dreamgirls

actor in a motion picture, comedy or musical

joseph cross, running with scissors

aaron eckhart, thank you for smoking

sasha baron cohen, borat

peter o’toole, venus

will Ferrell, stranger than fiction

actress in a supporting role

abigail breslin, little miss sunshine

lily tomlin, prairie home companion

blythe danner, the last kiss

rinko kikuchi, babel

cate blanchett, notes on a scandal

jennifer hudson, dreamgirls

actor in a supporting role

donald sutherland, aurora borealis

adam beach, flags of our fathers

leonardo dicaprio, the departed

alan arkin, little miss sunshine

brad pitt, babel

jack Nicholson, the departed

motion picture, animated or mixed media

cars

ice age 2: the meltdown

happy feet

flushed away

pan’s labyrinth

motion picture, documentary

deliver us from evil

jonestown: the life & death of peoples temple

an inconvenient truth

the us vs. john lennon

leonard cohen: i’m your man

the war tapes

director

martin scorsese, the departed

clint eastwood, flags of our fathers

pedro almodovar, volver

stephen frears, the queen

alejandro gonzález iñárritu, babel

bill condon, dreamgirls

screenplay, original

andré téchiné, laurent guyot, pascal bonitzer, changing times

elena soarez, luiz carlos barreto, andrucha waddington, house of sand

guillermo arriaga, alejandro gonzález iñárritu, babel

pedro almodovar, volver

peter morgan, the queen

paul Laverty, the wind that shakes the barley

screenplay, adapted

william broyles, jr.; paul haggis, flags of our fathers

jason reitman, thank you for smoking

william monahan, siu fai mak, felix chong, the departed

todd field, tom perrotta, little children

garrison keillor, a prairie home companion

bill condon, dreamgirls

original score

gabriel yared, the lives of others

clint eastwood, flags of our fathers

philip glass, notes on a scandal

nathan Johnson, brick

hans zimmer, da vinci code

gustavo santolalla, babel

original song

“upside down”, curious george

“you know my name”, casino royale

“never let go”, the guardian

“till the end of time”, little miss sunshine

“love you i do”, dreamgirls

“listen”, dreamgirls

cinematography

house of sand

flags of our fathers

the black dahlia

a good year

x-men: the last stand

the fountain

curse of the golden flower

visual effects

flags of our fathers

pirates of the caribbean: dead man’s chest

x-men: the last stand

v for vendetta

the fountain

pan’s labyrinth

the da vinci code

film editing

x-men: the last stand

flags of our fathers

babel

miami vice

dreamgirls

sound (editing & mixing)

x-men: the last stand

flags of our fathers

babel

dreamgirls

the da vinci code

art direction & production design

marie antoinette

flags of our fathers

dreamgirls

pan’s labyrinth

v for vendetta

costume design

marie antoinette

the black dahlia

of the golden flower

dreamgirls

the devil wears prada

You think the Devil Wears Prada will have so many nominations or are you just pulling my leg here? I thought it was mildly entertaining but even Meryl Streep coudln’t save that flick...

I think these are the actual nominations for the Golden Satellites, which nobody cares about.

This means that National Board of Review will be announced in a couple of days, right?

dicaprio’s is a supporting role?

Eric, I think u hafta at least tell us who picks the Golden Satellites.

the DiCaprio supporting thing is the usu guy-starring-in-2-movies strategy, cept here he’s not nom’d for Blood Pudding

Eric, I think u hafta at least tell us who picks the Golden Satellites.

I wish I knew. Not literally, but I wish I knew. I guess people whose credentials didn’t stack up to the standards of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc.

so no ‘buzz’ at all on the Soderbergh-Clooney Good German?

Based on the trailer, I expect the cinematography to be a disaster—DV with a crappy black and white conversion. Ugliest movie since Sin City.

http://reporter.blogs.com/risky/2006/11/dga_nyc_the_dud.html

On the other hand, Peter Travers likes it.

DV with a crappy black and white conversion

Wait a sec, maybe that was just the trailer you saw? Isn’t the hype on this one that S.S. used 1940s vintage equipment to shoot it?

Yeah, I thought it was like Far From Heaven meets Elephant (the White Stripes album, not the Van Sant film).

I got a severe eau du Borzage from the trailer—maybe he bought Frank’s camera.

I don’t think the ‘vintage’ angle extends to celluloid—just lighting, editing and sound. I’m pretty sure this is related to his HD deal with Mark Cuban.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thegoodgerman/hd/—trailer I’m watching. There’s no depth to the B&W (compare to Clooney’s movie last year, which was shot on color film and converted giving it the widest possible tonal range). This just has the look of a digital image converted later on.

http://www.thereeler.com/features/the_voice_in_the_wilderness.php

interesting.

sad comment from any taubin.

nathan lee is a really good writer, personally prefer him to atkinson.

but foundas... ech.

That is a very interesting article, but I question its credentials as “detrius.”

The National Board of Review winners, however, are what this thread was created for:

Top 10 Films (winner in bold)

Babel

Blood Diamond

The Departed

The Devil Wears Prada

Flags of Our Fathers

The History Boys

Letters from Iwo Jima

Little Miss Sunshine

Notes on a Scandal

The Painted Veil

Best Foreign Film

Curse of the Golden Flower

Days of Glory

Pan’s Labyrinth

Volver

Water

Best Actor

Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress

Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Supporting Actor

Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress

Catherine O’hara, For Your Consideration

Best Acting By An Ensemble

The Departed

Breakthrough Performance—Male

Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

Breakthrough Performance—Female

Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best Director

Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Directorial Debut

Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking

Best Adapted Screenplay

Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil

Best Original Screenplay

Zach Helm, Stranger Than Fiction

Best Documentary

51 Birch Street

An Inconvenient Truth

Iraq in Fragments

Shut Up & Sing

Wordplay

Top 10 Independent Films

Akeelah and the Bee

Bobby

Catch a Fire

Copying Beethoven

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Half Nelson

The Illusionist

Lonesome Jim

Sherrybaby

10 Items or Less

Thank You for Smoking

Best Animated Feature

Cars

isn’t blood diamond supposed to be incredibly awful?

God, the NBR blows. Idiotic that they have a separate list for independent films. (And what, Little Miss Sunshine isn’t independent because it appeared in their overall top 10?) Also, Stranger Than Fiction was not that great of a screenplay.

Between the Top 10 overall and the Top 10 indies, I feel safe in declaring this to be the worst year ever for American cinema. Jesus.

“independent” as someone observed long ago is a marketing term.

has Letters from Iwo Jima even been released in LA?

Letters from Iwo Jima has been everywhere for at least a month.

Everywhere but my house.

nowhere in New York.

Anyway, I’m sort of relieved that it wasn’t Dreamgirls. The NBR was that flick’s best chance until the West Oklahoma Critics Circle announces their winners.

I love that everytime I open this thread, Daniel Craig’s boobies stare back at me.

Yeah, I thought Letters from Iwo Jima wasn’t supposed to open until next year.

It got pushed up when Flags underperformed.

Flags has vanished from NY, but no Iwo.

is that the Oklahoma! Critics Circle?

How nuts is it that Flags nearly got an entire row of perfect ***** ratings in the most recent Film Comment critics’ chart?!

I dunno. Sometimes I don’t even know half those chart guys are. I’m not even sure I saw anything **** new this year. Yet I generally like Eastwood when he’s not ripping off Rocky IV.

That John Waters list is better with his comments, of course:

1 United 93 (Paul Greengrass) The best movie in the last five years. No cheap shots in this one! I have friends who would watch a snuff film, yet they refuse to see this great action picture—I don’t get why.

2 Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine) Playing on more than three thousand screens, Jackass 2 was the number-one-grossing movie in America on its opening weekend—and the male stars eat shit and drink horse semen for real. They’re nude a lot, too. If this isn’t cultural terrorism, I don’t know what is.

3 The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald) Forest Whitaker tops the performance of Joseph Olita in 1981’s Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, one of my all-time favorite trash masterpieces.

4 Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell) When was the last time the star of a film rimmed someone, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and walked away with his dignity? A touching, lovely movie that I hope gets turned into a Broadway musical.

5 The Departed (Martin Scorsese) The best-acted film of the year from America’s coolest director. The final shot is beyond perfection.

6 Sherrybaby (Laurie Collyer) Maggie Gyllenhaal plays an ex-convict drug addict (the kind I see in Baltimore every day), and the film is so depressing and great that I wish I could see it with an all-female prison audience.

7 Inside Man (Spike Lee) Handsome bank-robbing outfits—so chic, so scary, so fashionably conformist.

8 Sleeping Dogs Lie (Bobcat Goldthwait) A feminist tale of a girl who once blew her dog and mistakenly tells her boyfriend. Now there’s a high-concept romantic comedy.

9 Hamilton (Matthew Porterfield) A tiny, minimalist art film from Baltimore that made it to New York and is astonishing in its simple beauty, amazing performances, and hypnotic pace. The real thing.

10 Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola) Sofia Coppola is Karen Kilimnik!

he oft has bad taste when watching films, too (tho I’ve only seen Shortbus and Ditztoinette).

Yeah but I’m intrigued by Bobcat Goldthwait Feminist Dog Blowing Movie now that I know what it is.

Yeah, that one’s been totally Netflixed.

many x-posts I was thinking Letters from Iwo Jima was the title of the American part.

Between the Top 10 overall and the Top 10 indies, I feel safe in declaring this to be the worst year ever for American cinema. Jesus.

No shit. Jesus is that list depressing.

I’d at least wait until the formerly-Village Voice polls come out before declaring that.

In any case, it’s the worst year ever for me going to cinema from America or anywhere else.

uh holmes, the word is ‘detritus’. jus’ sayin!

but anyway it must have been a bad year for films, i only paid to see three.

The only movie I went to see this year was Casino Royale.

Enrique, it’s kind of a tradition.

I can’t figure out why I liked Volver as much as I did despite it being completely Almodovar-By-Numbers

Yeah, I’ve been having trouble figuring that out, too. Mostly it was just an entertaining, well-made film.

I’m a fan of detrius, even if I’m not a fan of most of the movies detrius celebrates.

Was The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada released this year or last year?

take your pick. it was on last year’s list for critics, but most theaters didn’t get it til this year I think.

re Volver, it’s the singer not the song

Regardless of how mediocre or bad 2006 was for American films, I saw one critic point out that it would seem to be even more shockingly terrible for foreign titles released in the U.S. this year. Volver will probably win every “not from here” prize in existence, and almost everyone is saying it’s not up to his last three. Beyond that, it’s Lazarescu, L’Enfant and ... that would seem to be it for heavy hitters with widespread support. Duck Season and Three Times and Gabrielle would push the list over five, but I defy you to try and stretch that list to the 15 or 20 necessary to match years past.

On the other hand, I just saw that the NY Times suggested that NYFCC might pick Army of Shadows for Best Picture this year.

(not that any of their critics should know that, as I think they’re not involved in the awards.)

even more shockingly terrible for foreign titles released in the U.S. this year.

I don’t think it’s all that shocking when US distributors seem to be taking fewer and fewer chances (or ones that do are folding). Tsai ming-Liang has completed two since Goodbye Dragon Inn that haven’t been distrib’d.

Foreign detrius films are crowd-pleasers; even if I liked Volver OK, I’d likely put Kekexili (Mountain Patrol), Battle in Heaven, 4, Fratricide plus maybe Changing Times ahead of it.

Doesn’t The Science of Sleep count as foreign?

Maybe it does. Maybe it does.

I saw Gabrielle at NYFF ’05, but it’d be my only serious challenger thus far to Inland Empire at #1.

A ton of critics awards came out today. I don’t keep track of what shows up when, but I can’t remember the last time so many happened simultaneously. The only two that really matter ...

L.A. FILM CRITICS

Picture: “Letters From Iwo Jima”

Runner-up: “The Queen”

Director: Paul Greengrass, “United 93”

Runner-up: Clint Eastwood, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”

Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat” and Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland” (tie) (no runner-up)

Actress: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”

Runner-up: Penelope Cruz, “Volver”

Supporting actor: Michael Sheen, “The Queen”

Runner-up: Sergi Lopez, “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Supporting actress: Luminita Gheorghiu, “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”

Runner-up: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”

Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “The Queen”

Runner-up: Michael Arndt, “Little Miss Sunshine”

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Children of Men”

Runner-up: Tom Stern, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”

Production design: Eugenio Caballero, “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Runner-up: Jim Clay and Geoffrey Kirkland, “Children of Men”

Music: Alexandre Desplat, “The Queen” and “The Painted Veil”

Runner-up: Thomas Newman, “The Good German” and “Little Children”

Foreign-language film: “The Lives of Others”

Runner-up: “Volver”

Documentary/non-fiction film: “An Inconvenient Truth”

Runner-up: “Darwin’s Nightmare”

Animation: “Happy Feet”

Runner-up: “Cars”

Douglas Edwards experimental/independent film/video award: “Old Joy” (Kelly Reichardt) and “In Between Days” (So Yong Kim)

New generation award: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (directors) and Michael Arndt (screenwriter), “Little Miss Sunshine”

Career achievement award (previously announced): Robert Mulligan

———-

BOSTON FILM CRITICS

Best Picture: The Departed (ru: United 93)

Best Director: Martin Scorsese (ru: Paul Greengrass)

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (ru: Ryan Gosling)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (ru: Judi Dench)

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (ru: Michael Sheen, Alec Baldwin)

Best Supporting Actress: Shareeka Epps (ru: Meryl Streep)

Best Ensemble Cast: United 93 (ru: The Departed)

Best Screenplay: The Departed (ru: The Queen)

Best Foreign Film: Pan’s Labyrinth (ru: Volver)

Best Documentary: Deliver Us from Evil, Shut Up & Sing (ru: 51 Birch Street)

Best New Filmaker: Ryan Fleck (ru: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)

Best Cinematography: Pan’s Labyrinth (ru: The Painted Veil, Curse of the Golden Flower)

“matter” (Boston critics not too parochial on that Bos-mick mob thing, huh).

Idi Amin and Borat tying in LA is about the level of ‘seriousness’ present in the whole exercise.

Douglas Edwards experimental/independent film/video award: “Old Joy” (Kelly Reichardt) and “In Between Days” (So Yong Kim)

^the Ghettoizing Actual Art award?^

Sick. Jackie Earl Haley just won an NYFCC award.

Oh, following this in realtime, are you? c’mon, Child Molester is a gimme.

http://www.nyfcc.com/awards.php

Well, Film Comment’s poll has always been at least three big steps towards the center from VV’s, hence the Sideways/Before Sunset split in 2004. But, yeah, Half Nelson higher than Hou Hsiao-hsien is sort of a wtf.

i don’t get FC’s ‘unreleased films’ list — some of those are going to be released soon, so it’s not like they’re being kept from the punters.

I’m really baffled by the absence of Children of Men from most of these lists. It was the best movie I saw this year, I think—dinky in a way but on the whole very, very compelling. Certainly more so than something like The Departed! Is it because it’s not opened wide in the US yet?

i don’t get FC’s ‘unreleased films’ list — some of those are going to be released soon

And some won’t. I don’t have a handle on the state of foreign-film distrib in the UK, but many of their choices on that list in past years have still never, ever been released in the US. So they most certainly are being kept from the ever more miniscule number of punters who are interested in world cinema that doesn’t have an easy genre hook.

Philippe Garrel’s Regular Lovers (two years old) is opening in NYC next week — he’s been making features since the ’60s, and I’m pretty sure this is his first commercial release in America.

that makes sense only

14. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, Germany/U.S.)* 53

UH

i mean that so has a distribution deal right?

Does it? When its Cannes screening was a ‘disaster’? Kelly himself has said he doesn’t think the version he showed will be distributed.

Also, directors of cult movies starring Jake Gyllenhaal are much higher on the arthouse foodchain than, say, Raul Ruiz or Tsai ming-Liang.

that’s because of that crazy thing called capitalism.

kelly’s film will see the light of day in 1x form or another — trimmed maybe but that’s not unusual. cannes is like a test audience of rich media folk.

I’m really baffled by the absence of Children of Men from most of these lists.

Bounces back from being “only” nineteenth on the FC poll to slam into ninth-place on the IndieWire nee VV poll.

http://indiewire.com/critics2006/

Neither Departed nor Inland Empire at #1 (though the latter feel within a 10-point margin of the former, good enough for #3 and #4 respectively). The blue ribbon goes to Lazarescu ... presuming that the voting body is more or less the same as it was in the VV poll days, that has to count as the most surprising winner in the poll’s history, in my opinion.

there’s no solid art-house tradition to get with now (ie since the 70s) — so these random films (that turkish one the other year, or that russian one the same year) somehow get to the top of the pile and stay there.

Oh, and Children of Men cleaned up in the cinematography category, which I expected (and is the main reason I’m excited to see it ... the promise of good cinematography, I mean, not that it won the category).

I guess Lubezki is the new Chris Doyle.

I didn’t think charges of obscurity/annoyance vs Lynch would disturb the VV poll’s core given their past love for the likes of Safe.

Haha... I presume by virtue of a new venue, Armond is forced to reveal his hand.

http://ballot.indiewire.com/ballots/display_ballot/127

My charge wasn’t that the new Lynch was either obscure that people were tired of Lynch but that a significant proportion of his usual VV-allied demo actively disliked Inland Empire. Didn’t turn out to be entirely the case, and it ended up on only a couple less ballots than the I thought widely liked The Departed.

Well, I think you read a wider spectrum of people than I do; didn’t catch all that much of the active dislike.

Wish I had caught up with Broken Sky, I feel in my gut the DVD may not appear til summer.

I’m pleased with the high finish of Nolte in Supporting Perf, who would be my runaway choice at the moment.

Rosenbaum’s year-end; he like cow “liberation” scene in FFN (as did I as metaphor for the narcotized US public) and Bobby:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/criticspicks06/movies/

I’ve never been a big Melville fan, but I don’t remotely get the Army of Shadows mania. I recall maybe two scenes from it.

I’m more than pleased with all the Nolte and Wahlberg mentions.

Eric or Morbs — seen The Painted Veil yet? It hasn’t opened here yet. At present I’m deciding whether to catch The History Boys or re-screen Withnail & I; doesn’t Richard Griffiths give the same perf?

not yet. Will likely see TPV and THB in next 2 weeks.

enrique might want to glance at all 200 of these:

http://ballot.indiewire.com/ballots/scores#best_undist

I like Rosenbaum’s excuse for a Vin Diesel legal comedy tanking—HOLLYWOOD HATES LIBERALS.

He says the film has a “leftist slant,” and you should know that is different from liberal by the way ILX libs shout “NADER 2008” at me all the time.

(ie libs are exulting that the Dems are now the party in Congress who will do nothing about Iraq)

Is Regular Lovers only opening in NY or did it get a real distribution deal?

Oh man, that J.R. Jones list...

xpost

I can’t seem to find out; also the NY opening has been bumped to Jan 19.

I don’t give Rosenbaum enough credit to assume any subtle distinction between liberal and leftist on his part. (and it is Lumet)

but he also calls it Lumet’s best film. Strange things can happen to those vet auteurs when they pass 80. I will see it and evaluate.

(also, a ’50s lib is a radical in today’s environment, just sayin)

also ppl tend not to use “leftist” at all if they don’t make the distinction. Clinton-loving “liberals” are what JR is fingering I think.

The Good Shepherd does have its supporters (Cheshire, Armond):

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/002935.html

AN ALL-AMERICAN SACRIFICE

De Niro creates a patriotic masterpiece

By Armond White

I am neither a leftist nor a liberal, because otherwise I couldn’t look at J.R. Jones list and call him a retard and laugh with a clear conscience.

Also, the world should remain centrist or skewed to the right if it means Chris Marker will continue to make bemusedly outraged movies.

Did the Chicago Reader hire an editor or just sell a lot more ads lately, cause Rosenbaum’s piece is approximately five percent as long as it usually is.

You could be a lefty or lib of taste and still laugh.

The website doesn’t always put up the entirety of the current week’s issue right away. When I go out to lunch, I’ll pick up a copy to see if there’s a longer thinkpiece attached to that top 10.

(x-post) knock it off, you closet conservative

Yeah, looks like that’s all we get of Rosenbaum this year. I guess I have noticed a trend lately of wanting to play up the other critics for the paper — not just JR Jones but the music and theatre critics, too. Rosenbaum used to have a front-page story all to himself for his year-end list, now it’s called Critics’ Picks 2006.

does New Times own the Reader?

(btw, Eric, I like the first 80 minutes of All That Jazz)

Nope, the Reader is one of the last independent alt-weeklies in the country.

Just saw The History Boys: a homo Dead Poets’ Society, with Richard Griffiths reprising his obese lech from Withnail; he delivers a moving aria on Hardy’s “Drummer Hodge”. Not at all bad, although the boy everyone’s lusting after looks like the drummer in Culture Club.

Rosenbaum’s inept political fumblings have written him into a corner.

(btw, Eric, I like the first 80 minutes of All That Jazz)

That’s great to hear, but I sort of think the last 10 are what pushes it into insane, embarrassing greatness.

well, the first 10 is where I find the greatness.

Why is Nicholson taking a beating for “showboating” in The Departed when that’s more diverting than Damon’s vanilla corruption or everything embarrassing about the Vera Farmiga scenes? This William Monahan guy is great at the local color and alpha-swearing, characters not so much.

Yeah, Infernal Affairs wins on the script and the opaqueness of the characters’ allegiances, but The Departed wins on nearly every other count.

uhhuh ola

Vera Farmina is fine; she does battiness better than Cate Blanchett used to. Those last two scenes however with her and Damon are unplayable. As usual I found myself wishing the director had dispensed with the facile moral dilemmas of his hero and concentrated on the peripheries (which, to his credit, Scorsese mostly does in this movie).

I just noticed that the new Marker placed higher on indiewire’s rundown of the year’s best docs than the Al Gore movie. Him for presidetn!

But the new Marker is really 5 shorts, ja?

I don’t have a problem w/ Farmiga (still haven’t seen Down to the Bone), but the whole damn part is unplayable. The shrink in IF wasn’t sleeping with both of them, was she? And if Marty fought for the ending, that includes the crowd-pleaser (relatively speaking) of offing Damon?

Think of this film with Wahlberg and Ryan Gosling in the leads. Not all the problems solved, but most.

The atrophying of DiCaprio’s talents is one of the tragedies of the last decade in American film (or maybe he just wasn’t versatile to begin with). One of the great teenage actors ever, but since turning 21 he’s seemed lost in the school play save for Catch Me If You Can. Think of what young Kirk Douglas could do with a line like “The only thing more fulla shit than a cop is a cop on TV.” When Leo says it you can hear the keys clacking.

Message to Mark Wahlberg in winning polls/awards for this rather than I Heart Huckabees: BE MORE ONE-NOTE. (After the splendid verbal soul-rape of Leo, it was push Repeat.)

I would be happy if Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin were cast as tag team cops for the duration of their careers.

Leo was never versatile. Even as a young actor his talent was for acting feral (...Gilbert Grape excepted), and he’s gotten better at it at the cost of several yards of charisma. What does Scorsese see in him — how my generation copped all its cockiness from watching De Niro’s mirror scene in Taxi Driver without living first?

what Scorsese sees in him = $$$

(Alfred, is yr family sleeping late too?) Yes, Baldwin never better (not sure how much that’s sayin).

Merry detrius Christmas

Yeah, I’m waiting for them to have their coffee first before driving over. Since it’s 83 degrees already you can understand my hesitation.

I’m debating whether to finish playing Miles’ “He Loved Him Madly” or to watch Melinda Dillon doing her show-mommy-how-the-piggies-eat scene in A Christmas Story.

or Advise & Consent, an unexpected present from a friend. (Don Murray as convincingly gay as Charles Laughton was convincingly straight; still, my favorite Preminger after Anatomy of a Murder).

‘the departed’ is so much better than ‘infernal affairs’. IA is good but pretty horribly directed, i don’t know what was going on with the camera in that first wong/leung rooftop scene (which was completely copped from a similar scene also featuring leung in ‘hard-boiled’).

a lot of reviews comment on how monahan combined 2 characters to get the shrink, but he actually combined 3. leung ran into this old GF at an inexplicable moment and met her daughter, he said “it’s been over six years, huh” and she introduced her daughter as five years old, and after he left the daughter said, “but mommy i’m 6!” because it was actually his kid, lol. which i think comes into play via ‘the departed’ when farmiga gets knocked up because it’s probably leo’s kid on account of damon’s cock not actually working overtime.

Message to Mark Wahlberg in winning polls/awards for this rather than I Heart Huckabees

He did win the VV poll for I Hart Huckabees, tho.

Well, I’ll be damned; you remember detrius from year to year? Like Ted Baxter with the Tedi Awards?

‘the departed’ is so much better than ‘infernal affairs’.

I presume you don’t think DiCaprio and Damon flat-out suck, then?

IA’s form fits its content, while Scorsese pouring 150 minutes of his operatic naturalism on a blatantly dreamworld plot, hinged on the depth of two actors who can only get deep through lightness (as in Catch Me If You Can and Stuck on You), inevitably leads to ludicrousness. The jarring rat joke at the end suggests that the whole thing should’ve been done as a black comedy a la (the truly great) Prizzi’s Honor.

they don’t flat-out suck (damon as cocky boston sociopath frat bro type is perfect casting, dicaprio is really good especially when he’s pistol-whipping damon) and i guess i’d rather have misplaced skillful naturalism and over appropriate shittiness/horrible sentiment/corny musical interludes (pre-emptive: i don’t think sentiment is a dirty word). and it was at least half-black comedy, from my POV.

Yeah, half-black-comedy, which is why when folx say Jack is “in a different movie,” yeah: it’s the one I’d rather be watching. (Still IA wisely killed the boss halfway rather than at 3/4.)

The Dropkick Murphys count as a corny musical interlude.

man, better the dropkick murphys than sappy cantopop. and i’m almost positive eric tsang lasted ‘til the 3/4 mark.

cocky boston sociopath frat bro type

they quote Freud to get laid?

National Film Registry additions 2006

1) Applause (1929)

2) The Big Trail (1930)

3) Blazing Saddles (1974)

4) The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916–17)

5) Daughter of Shanghai (1937)

6) Drums of Winter (1988)

7) Early Abstractions #1–5,7,10 (1939–56)

8) Fargo (1996)

9) Flesh and the Devil (1927)

10) Groundhog Day (1993)

11) Halloween (1978)

12) In the Street (1948/52)

13) The Last Command (1928)

14) Notorious (1946)

15) Red Dust (1932)

16) Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971–72)

17) Rocky (1976)

18) Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)

19) Siege (1940)

20) St. Louis Blues (1929)

21) The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

22) Tess of the Storm Country (1914)

23) Think of Me First as a Person (1960–75)

24) A Time Out of War (1954)

25) Traffic in Souls (1913)

Does anyone have a running list of movies they’ve outrageously neglected to induct yet?

Anaconda (1997)

Next year. It has to be 10 years old first.

what’s the purpose of it?

I really don’t pay attention to the NFR. Has being named to it saved any films from extinction?

http://www.loc.gov/film/filmabou.html

I’m sure Fargo is relieved that it will no longer languish in obscurity and neglect.

otoh, The T.A.M.I. Show needs to be made available.

Owen Gleiberman’s #1: 007.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1572278_1_0_,00.html

For what it’s worth, some of the VVM dudes put out their top 10s last week:

Robert Wilonsky

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-12-21/film/film.html

Jim Ridley

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-12-21/film/film2.html

Not even Ridley’s recommendation can get me interested in Casino Royale.

Zancherek also put it in her top 10.

As little as I miss most of the old Voice critics, can’t say that Wilonsky is a real improvement.

SZ is really here and there in terms of aligning with my (lack of) taste. Ridley and I land on the same page as often as anyone I can think of offhand.

Can rockists get you interested in Neil Young: Heart of Gold? (I will watch Chappelle’s Block Party in exchange.)

Luckily, as it is a film, I’m far more likely to watch it than I am to listen to a Neil Young album.

The Neil Young doc was warmer and more compelling than its parent album; it’ll likely make my top ten.

oh yeah, I watched Neil’s last 2 movies more than listened to the albums.

hehe, I don’t remember The Reeler doing this last year — The Top 10 of Top 10 Lists (Part 2 tomorrow):

with their scepter-swinging nominations of the same 20–25 titles to the year’s hyperbole canon, Top 10 lists reward a backloaded release calendar that all but buries dozens of worthy films that preceded their selections earlier in the year (many of which, it should be added, the most influential list-fetishists have not even seen). That it all amounts to so much hogcalling makes it even worse: Choose an authentically singular classic like Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! and you’re a contrarian; rub one out in the brimming gallon jug marked L’Enfant and maybe that first freelance gig will arrive before April next year.

http://www.thereeler.com/features/top_10_of_top_10_lists_2006_part_i.php

(I don’t mind the Slant pair’s rhapsodies over IE, cept for the distressing Bjork mention.)

Since Armond voted for Chris Evans for Best Actor for London, and Ed Gonzalez declared CE a hot piece of ass in his review (Cellular indicated so), I need to get my hands on him...it. Who were the most arousing men of the year? I’m currently sticking with terminally ill Melvil Poupaud in Time to Leave.

london! jeez

seen, gear? (it’s a girl’s name, apparently)

i’m friends a dude who works at the company which had a hand in its production. i found myself at the wrap party for the shoot for some reason (first and possibly last such event in my life) and subsequently was given a dvd screener. unwatchable.

jessica biel is the title character. jason statham is also in it. there’s lots of cocaine use in place of a plot.

I rented that—I figured drugs, Jessica Biel and Isla Fisher were an unbeatable combination. Oh, how wrong I was.

I saw the trailer for London on another DVD. I wanted to shoot my TV, Elvis-style.

But CHRIS EVANS.

HAWT

Who the fuck is Chris Evans?

http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2006/02/chris_evans_lon.html

He looks more like Kevin Federline than Ethan Hawke.

Who were the most arousing men of the year?

i sorta fancied walid afkir (majid’s son in cache) (which otherwise didn’t hold up very well at all the second time i saw it).

why did i click on that link

...cuz you were hoping to see chris evans’ cock?

majid’s son in cache

ew.

Oh, wait. For some reason I thought you were talking about the white, underage boy belonging to Auteil/Binoche.

Or I’m a racist.

haha, i made a point of NOT saying “that guy’s son” for precisely that reason

Peter Travers eclipsed by who?

http://www.thereeler.com/features/the_top_10_of_top_10_lists_2006_part_ii.php

Producers Guild nominees; sub United 93 for Little Ms Sunshine for the Oscar list?

http://www.producersguild.org/pg/awards_a/

I was going to finally start the detrius thread on NuILX and comment on the SAG nominations, but never mind.

I’m assuming ppl who think Letters from Iwo Jima says anything remotely original about war (or anything unoriginal in a superior way)are the ones who hadn’t seen any tearjerking boxing melodramas before Million Dollar Baby.

Babel for the win!

(Actually, it might be my second-favorite of the BP nominees, but I haven’t seen Eastwood’s to know if Ed G. is going off on a mad Eastwood-lovefest again.)

does this have cachet just cuz Ebert was a Crash loon last year?

Maybe, but I don’t buy that Babel is any more in debt to Crash than Little Miss Sunshine.

Yesterday’s BAFTAs results (winner in bold obv)

FILM

BABEL—Alejandro González Iñárritu/Jon Kilik/Steve Golin

THE DEPARTED—Brad Pitt/Brad Grey/Graham King

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND—Andrea Calderwood/Lisa Bryer/Charles Steel

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE—Albert Berger/David T Friendly/Ron Yerxa

THE QUEEN—Andy Harries/Christine Langan/Tracey Seaward

Outstanding British Film of the Year

CASINO ROYALE—Michael G Wilson/Barbara Broccoli/Martin Campbell/Neal Purvis/Robert Wade/Paul Haggis

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND—Andrea Calderwood/Lisa Bryer/Charles Steel/Kevin Macdonald/Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock

NOTES ON A SCANDAL—Scott Rudin/Robert Fox/Richard Eyre/Patrick Marber

THE QUEEN—Andy Harries/Christine Langan/Tracey Seaward/Stephen Frears/Peter Morgan

UNITED 93—Tim Bevan/Lloyd Levin/Paul Greengrass

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film

ANDREA ARNOLD (Director)—Red Road

JULIAN GILBEY (Director)—Rollin’ with the Nines

CHRISTINE LANGAN (Producer)—Pierrepoint

GARY TARN (Director)—Black Sun

PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS (Director)—London to Brighton

THE DAVID LEAN AWARD for Achievement in Direction

BABEL—Alejandro González Iñárritu

THE DEPARTED—Martin Scorsese

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE—Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris

THE QUEEN—Stephen Frears

UNITED 93—Paul Greengrass

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BABEL—Guillermo Arriaga

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE—Michael Arndt

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Guillermo del Toro

THE QUEEN—Peter Morgan

UNITED 93—Paul Greengrass

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

CASINO ROYALE—Neal Purvis/Robert Wade/Paul Haggis

THE DEPARTED—William Monahan

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA—Aline Brosh McKenna

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND—Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock

NOTES ON A SCANDAL—Patrick Marber

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

APOCALYPTO—Mel Gibson/Bruce Davey

BLACK BOOK (ZWARTBOEK)—Teun Hilte/San Fu Maltha/Jens Meurer/Paul Verhoeven

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Alfonso Cuarón/Alvaro Augustin/Guillermo del Toro

RANG DE BASANTI (PAINT IT YELLOW)—Ronnie Screwvala/Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

VOLVER—Agustín Almodóvar/Pedro Almodóvar

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

CARS—John Lasseter

FLUSHED AWAY—David Bowers/Sam Fell

HAPPY FEET—George Miller

ACTOR in a LEADING ROLE

DANIEL CRAIG—Casino Royale

LEONARDO DICAPRIO—The Departed

RICHARD GRIFFITHS—The History Boys

PETER O’TOOLE—Venus

FOREST WHITAKER—The Last King of Scotland

ACTRESS in a LEADING ROLE

PENÉLOPE CRUZ—Volver

JUDI DENCH—Notes on a Scandal

HELEN MIRREN—The Queen

MERYL STREEP—The Devil Wears Prada

KATE WINSLET—Little Children

ACTOR in a SUPPORTING ROLE

ALAN ARKIN—Little Miss Sunshine

JAMES MCAVOY—The Last King of Scotland

JACK NICHOLSON—The Departed

LESLIE PHILLIPS—Venus

MICHAEL SHEEN—The Queen

ACTRESS in a SUPPORTING ROLE

EMILY BLUNT—The Devil Wears Prada

ABIGAIL BRESLIN—Little Miss Sunshine

TONI COLLETTE—Little Miss Sunshine

FRANCES DE LA TOUR—The History Boys

JENNIFER HUDSON—Dreamgirls

THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for Achievement in Film Music

BABEL—Gustavo Santaolalla

CASINO ROYALE—David Arnold

DREAMGIRLS—Henry Krieger

HAPPY FEET—John Powell

THE QUEEN—Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BABEL—Rodrigo Prieto

CASINO ROYALE—Phil Meheux

CHILDREN OF MEN—Emmanuel Lubezki

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Guillermo Navarro

UNITED 93—Barry Ackroyd

EDITING

BABEL—Stephen Mirrione/Douglas Crise

CASINO ROYALE—Stuart Baird

THE DEPARTED—Thelma Schoonmaker

THE QUEEN—Lucia Zucchetti

UNITED 93—Clare Douglas/Christopher Rouse/Richard Pearson

PRODUCTION DESIGN

CASINO ROYALE—Peter Lamont/Lee Sandales/Simon Wakefield

CHILDREN OF MEN—Jim Clay/Geoffrey Kirkland/Jennifer Williams

MARIE ANTOINETTE—K K Barrett/Véronique Melery

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Eugenio Caballero/Pilar Revuelta

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST—Rick Heinrichs/Cheryl A Carasik

COSTUME DESIGN

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA—Patricia Field

MARIE ANTOINETTE—Milena Canonero

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Lala Huete

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST—Penny Rose

THE QUEEN—Consolata Boyle

SOUND

BABEL—José García/Jon Taylor/Chris Minkler/Martín Hernández

CASINO ROYALE—Chris Munro/Eddy Joseph/Mike Prestwood Smith/Martin Cantwell/Mark Taylor

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Martín Hernández/Jamie Bashkt/Miguel Polo

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST—Christopher Boyes/George Watters II/ Paul Massey/Lee Orloff

UNITED 93—Chris Munro/Mike Prestwood Smith/Douglas Cooper/Oliver Tarney/Eddy Joseph

ACHIEVEMENT IN SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

CASINO ROYALE—Steve Begg/Chris Corbould/John Paul Docherty/Ditch Doy

CHILDREN OF MEN—Frazer Churchill/Tim Webber/Michael Eames/Paul Corbould

PAN’S LABYRINTH—Edward Irastorza/Everett Burrell/David Marti/Montse Ribe

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST—John Knoll/Hal Hickel/Charles Gibson/Allen Hall

SUPERMAN RETURNS—Mark Stetson/Neil Corbould/Richard Hoover/Jon Thum

MAKE UP & HAIR

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA—Nicki Ledermann/Angel De Angelis

MARIE ANTOINETTE—Jean-Luc Russier/Desideria Corridoni

PAN’S LABYRINTH—José Quetglas/Blanca Sànchez

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST—Ve Neill/Martin Samuel

THE QUEEN—Daniel Phillips

SHORT ANIMATION FILM

DREAMS AND DESIRES—FAMILY TIES—Les Mills/Joanna Quinn

GUY 101—Ian Gouldstone (to view, click here)

PETER AND THE WOLF—Hugh Welchman/Alan Dewhurst/Suzie Templeton

SHORT FILM

CARE—Rachel Bailey/Tracy Bass/Corinna Faith (to view, click here)

CUBS—Lisa Williams/Tom Harper (to view, click here)

DO NOT ERASE—Asitha Ameresekere

HIKIKOMORI—Karley Duffy/Paul Wright

KISSING, TICKLING AND BEING BORED—David Smith/Jim McRoberts

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD

EMILY BLUNT

EVA GREEN

NAOMIE HARRIS

CILLIAN MURPHY

BEN WHISHAW

(Emily Blunt woz robbed)

Paul Greengrass should be convicted, not awarded.

WGA: LMS & Departed

http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=2310

I’m not sure I even remember Wahlberg giving the middle finger in The Departed! Musta been more monumental if you don’t give and receive it on a daily basis.

and I’d never subject myself to this, but hey:

http://www.amctheatres.com/promos/showcase/

The key to Oscar forecasting:

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/02/20/oscar-predictions-what-would-ernest-borgnine-do/