40th César Awards Nominations

This morning in Fouquet's restaurant on Champs Elysees the Academy President Alain Terzian held a press conference to announce the nominations for the fortieth edition of the awards that honor French cinema. Also the award poster was unveiled and to my very pleasant surprise this year honor goes to Fanny Ardant. Beautiful.

I keep on saying that 2014 was not a very good year for French cinema but the Academy managed to honor 7 films, 7 directors, 7 actresses, 7 actors in the main categories (7 is the maximum) and when I see which movies are listed then I realize that yes, most are great movies. But it should not be a surprise as most films with nominations had their premiere in Cannes 2014!

It is impossible for me not to mention that social media went crazy -and still is going on- with Kristen Stewart nomination. I'm so glad that she's being honored as believe that she highly deserves the honor for her great performance in Sils Maria. Maybe now across the ocean, in Hollywood, the industry and especially the media start to recognize that she's a great actress that goes well above whatever they think about her in the immensely popular Twilight saga. Sigh. Besides it will be a great pleasure to see again Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart together like they did in Cannes; well, first I hope Stewart attends the awards ceremony.

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2015 César Awards - Les Révélations Nominations

Earlier this morning the Academy announced the nominations for the César 2015 and here we have the ten actors that are honored with a nomination.

Perhaps the big surprise among the nominations is that there is NO surprise as the nominees are in some of the French movies that got much buzz since their opening in Cannes or because they became a huge box office success.

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2015 Guldbagge Awards Winners

Yesterday they had the Awards Ceremony and had the opportunity to see a few minutes but unfortunately had to stop watching. Nevertheless what I saw was really refreshing and very different to what we usually see as cinema shows or awards ceremonies.

Force Majeure swept the awards with 6 wins, including Best Film and Roy Andersson's film got only one. Liv Ullman who last week was presented with an Honorary Dragon Award at the Göteborg International Film Festival was the recipient of the 2015 Swedish Lifetime Achievement Award.

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29th Teddy Award Selection

Again was a surprise to find that today when the Berlinale had the press conference to announce juries and the opening of the online info at their official site, Teddy Award organizers also listed the films that will compete for the most famous LGBT award and as every single year, there are more gay than lesbian interest films (lol).

As every year let's review what this award is all about. I include this info every year so other mainstream festivals could get "inspiration" and copy or closely emulate what this group has done so well for 29 years.

The Teddy Award is a societal engaged political award, which is given to films and people, that communicate queer themes and content on a large scale and contribute with this to more tolerance, acceptance, solidarity and equality in society.

The Teddy Award has with this not only cultural importance. As long as queer life is threatened in parts of the world with the capital punishment and is even in towns like Berlin a homo- and transphobe power in the agenda, TEDDY Award also carries a political significance and responsibility.

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21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Winners

The Actors have spoken and the largest guild in the American cinema industry gave Motion Picture honors to Birdman, Eddie Redmayne, Patricia Arquette, J.K. Simmons and Julianne Moore making them the front-runners for the Academy Awards that will take place in less than a month.

While nominees are selected by 1,200 randomly-selected guild members, winners are chosen by the 120,000+ members of SAG-AFTRA, the world's largest actors union. The Actors branch represent almost 19% of the full Academy voting membership (6,124) which makes them more than two times the size of the next biggest branch. That is the power of the actors in the Oscars and that's the reason why everyone is reviewing the Oscar race after Birdman and Eddie Redmayne wins.

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26th Annual Producers Guild Awards Winners

You want to know what good timing is? Well, it is me predicting yesterday that Boyhood will win Oscar and the same day Birdman wins the PGA Award. (LOL) So, of course, now everyone is predicting a race. Yes, a race for Oscars top award.

Stats say that 18 of the last 25 best picture Oscar winners, including each of the last seven, won the PGA Award. So, the first industry award aligns with the last film critics awards (Critics' Choice) and the foreign press in Hollywood (Golden Globes) to give the award to the producers of Birdman that include the director plus two more producers and the event shakes the odds to make Birdman the front-runner, tonight we will confirm/deny the position when the second industry award is announced at the SAG Awards. Still, not excited about race as for me both "B" movies are not necessarily worth of the American cinema top award, sigh.

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Middle of 2015 Oscars Race

Once upon a time there was a cinema award that was serious, self-congratulatory, and non-controversial. But as almost everything, it evolved to become non-serious, self-congratulatory and controversial. Some years the whirlpool attracts you and you end up enjoying all the fuzz and buzz, but most years you do not like what's going on. 2015 is one of the later for me. I like politics in movies stories but I do not like politics in cinema awards. Sigh.

But I'm just an spectator, even when I do not like the spectacle, still watch the game. Still play the guessing game. Still feel compelled to read everything about it. Still write about it. So, here I go with my ranting about the nominations and some middle of the race predictions. Sigh.

The Surprises

Believe that the biggest Oscar nomination surprise was how well Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel did, especially when everyone believes that films exhibited long before the awards season are forgotten -which we know is absurd when movie is good. Sorry but I don't agree, there was no surprise for me as I said movie was Anderson's best, even better than Moonrise Kingdom, and I'm really pleased that he is getting recognition. Now I'm looking forward to his next movie.

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65th Berlin International Film Festival Best First Feature Competition Lineup

Since 2006, when it introduced the Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of film makers. The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrecht), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder.

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65th Berlin International Film Festival Competition Selection

Dieter Kosslick, Berlinale Director, announced today via press release the final seven (7) films that complete the Competition lineup of the 2015 Berlinale. 19 of 23 films in the Competition program will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears; 4 films are out of competition, 2 films are debut feature film and 21 films are world premieres. Festival will run from February 5 to 15.

The following countries are participating in the entire program: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong/China, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the People’s Republic of China, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom, Ukraine, the USA and Vietnam.

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20th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards Winners

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) announced the winners of the 20th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards and there were no surprises as Boyhood got the top award, best director and two acting categories plus Birdman got the most awards (7) and The Grand Budapest Hotel got 3.

Did not watch awards show so I missed Jessica Chastain acceptance speech and a few events that probably would have enjoyed live, but will be watching them later as"everything" is in youtube already. According to news, acceptance speeches from several honorees went political, making statements about the "color" of the Oscar nominations. Know will talk more about this issue when write about Oscar nominations, but can't help to notice how race is "used" by media, as there was a photo composite with some of the Oscar nominees with legend that said "all white, except one". I didn't see non-whites in photo, so had to read the article. A big surprise when found that the only non-white was Alejandro González Iñárritu!!! If he is not white, then what is he? Mexican? Racism is bad, no matter the "color" or who/whom/what promotes it. Check article here.

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87th Academy Awards Nominations

For the first time ever the Academy announced the 24 categories LIVE and can't deny that was exciting even when announcers read nominees quite fast (for me) but caught the most pleasant surprises quite fast.

The biggest surprise -and I got really excited when I heard the live announcement- is Marion Cotillard being honored for her magnificent performance in Dardenne Brothers Two Days, One Night (can't understand why movie didn't got a nod in foreign-language film category) but also got surprised with Ida getting a nomination in cinematography (the most beautiful cinematography I've seen during 2014), Laura Dern, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and Wim Wenders getting a nod in the documentary category. Meryl Streep nomination made me laugh loud but I was expecting her to get another nomination as well as was expecting a little short film that simply looks awesome: La Lampe au Beurre de Yak to get selected from the 10 shortlisted. Great!

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Oscars Nominations LIVE Stream

On January 15, 2015 at 5:30 a.m. PT, Alfonso Cuarón and J.J. Abrams will announce the nominees in the following categories: Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Film Editing, Original Song, Production Design, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

At 5:38 a.m. PT, Chris Pine and Cheryl Boone Isaacs will take the stage to unveil the nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

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62nd Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards Nominations

Motion Picture Sound Editors, the professional organization for sound editors, has released its 2015 Golden Reel Nominations honoring the work of sound editors in various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music.

As previously announced the 2015 MPSE Filmmaker Award goes to Darren Aronofsky and the 2015 MPSE Career Achievement Award goes to Skip Lievsay. Awards ceremony will be held on February 15 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

Feature English Language - Dialogue/ADR
Birdman
Dawn of the Planet of the Ape
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Still Alice
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

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68th Bodil Awards Nominations

The Filmmedarbejderforeningens (Denmark's National Association of Film Critics) announced the nominations for this major Danish film award and Bille August's Stille Hjerte and Niels Arden Oplerv's Kappang lead the pack with five (5) nominations each.

If you're wondering why Lars von Trier's controversial film has no nominations then you have to check the post here for last year's nominations as then Nymphomaniac lead with six nominations.

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67th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards Nominations

The Directors Guild of America President, Paris Barclay, announced today the five nominees for the current edition of the award that honors Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films. There are some surprises as many -including me- were expecting at least one female director with a nomination BUT no, there is no women directors nominated, only men.

“In a year full of excellent films, DGA members have nominated a stellar group of passionate filmmakers,” said Barclay. “Inspiring and artistic, these five directors made films that left an indelible impact not only on their fellow directors and members of the director’s team, but on audiences around the world. Congratulations to all of the nominees for their terrific work.”

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