39th Teddy Awards

Update February 22, 2025 - Last night the group had their award ceremony and winners are in BLUE.  A Special Teddy Award was given to Todd Haynes. To check winners at official site go here.

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February 6, 2025
Update: Today, February 6th, finished trying to organize which films were selected to compete in the Teddy Awards and those films that are Out of Competition.

It was not an easy task as there is no list but a database that generates different lists of films by different markers, except there is no mark for In or Out of Competition. The only way to identify if film is in competition is a little bear logo. Sigh. So let's hope the list shows the Selection well.

In the Out of Competition left out some films that will be shown but were not produced recently.

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January 27,2025
The Berlinale 2025 program has not been published in full, will happen in February 4th, but Teddy Awards organizers already announced what probably will be the first selection of films competing for Teddy 2025.

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97th Academy Award Nominations and Winners

Last night was #Oscars2025 awards ceremony and to be honest, haven't seen it yet, probably will do it later but of course checked at official site here the winners.

Won't deny that I'm highly disappointed as the best film of 2024 became the big loser of the night as with the record 13 nominations only got 2 wins and joins the big Oscars losers from before, like The Color Purple and The Power of the Dog among others.

I'm glad the American award season is over as for me was one of the most unbelievable frustrating season as when press and social media got out of control there was no one, and I say again, no one from the industry to control the avalanche of mud that was poured into that movie, the movie that Mexican press with favorable comments just call EP and I imagine is called by its initials because journalists do not want social media retaliation.

Believe Anora is an entertaining movie with good performances, an attention grabbing story and some say it's the best from Sean Baker. Me, I think he has better movies and like to believe he was honored more for his body of work than for this movie; but well, must be that I'm not being objective. So, Sean Baker became the second in 97 years to win 4 Oscars in a single year, the other is Walt Disney; but, he is the first to win 4 Oscars for the same movie, great milestone that will be recorded for posterity.

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37th Annual Scripter Awards

Winners Update: Last night the Scripter Awards winners were announced and novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Petr Straughan won the award for Conclave.

In accepting the award, Straughan said “Adaptation is a really strange process, you’re very much the servant of two masters. In a way it’s an act of betrayal of one master for the other.” He joked that “You start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,” crediting author Robert Harris for being “so kind, so generous, so open throughout.”

Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. “If ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,” she said, “you have only to go to a library. There you will find shelf upon shelf of books where authors have poured their knowledge, their stories, their creativity on page after page...if a library is not the very best of what society has to offer, I don't know what is.”

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39th American Society of Cinematographers Awards

Winners Update: Yesterday, February 23, the society announced their award winners and there is a big unexpected win for Maria by Pablo Larrain with their cinematographer Edward Lachman winning top award; but, yes, film has outstanding cinematography and believe is a well-deserved recognition.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site here.

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January 17, 2025
Yesterday, January 16, ASC announced the nominees for its 2025 Outstanding Achievement Awards, spanning feature films, documentaries, television and music videos.

Andrzej Bartkowiak will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Michael Goi will be recognized with the Career Achievement in Television Award. John Simmons will be awarded the President's Award, and Joan Churchill will be celebrated with the Lifetime Documentary Award. Pete Romano will be honored with the Curtis Clark Technology Award.

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2025 Writers Guild Awards

Last night the guild had their annual awards ceremony and Anora beat favorite A Real Pain in original screenplay category and Nickel Boys won in adapted screenplay. Winners are below in BLUE.

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January 16, 2025
Yesterday, January 15, 2025 the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) announced nominations for outstanding achievement in writing during 2024 for film, television, streaming, news (broadcasst and digital), radio/audio, and promotional categories.

As always have to recall guild rules require writers to be a guild member or under a WGA collective bargaining agreement as otherwise script becomes ineligible; that's the reason why this year screenplays for Oscar contenders Conclave, Sing Sing, The Brutalist and The Substance were left out and the open spots were filled by Challengers, Civil Ward and real surprise My Old Ass.

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2025 BAFTA Awards

Yesterday, February 16, BAFTA had their award ceremony and Conclave got top award but also got the most awards along The Brutalist with 4 each.

The public voted Rising Star Award goes to David Jonsson, current edition Fellowship go to Warwick Davis and Outstanding Contribution To Cinema award to MediCinema.

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January 16, 2025
A few minutes ago actors Mia McKenna-Bruce and Will Sharpe announced the nominations via a live broadcast from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts 195 Piccadilly in London announced the nominations for the 2025 edition of the Film Awards that celebrate the very best in film over the past year.

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23rd Annual Visual Effects Society Awards

On February 11th the society had their awards ceremony and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes receives the top photoreal feature award while Dune: Part Two garners the most photoreal feature wins with four awards and The Wild Robot is named the top animated film.

Winners are in BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site here.

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January 15, 2025
Yesterday, January 14, the Visual Effects Society (VES) announced the nominations for the 2025 edition of the awards that recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in features, animation, television, commercials, games and new media, and the VFX Supervisors, VFX Producers and hands-on Artists who bring this work to life.

Nominees in 25 categories were selected by VES members at 49 in-person and virtual nomination panels conducted around the world over a 30-hour continuous process. The distinctive and thoughtful VES Awards nominations protocol included a review of each awards submission including “Befores and Afters” by a minimum of three different judging panels. Participating VES members on the panels represented 307 cities in 24 countries, highlighting the full breadth of the Society’s diverse global membership.

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75th Berlin International Film Festival LIne Up

February 5, 2025 Last Update, Post becomes final. A few changes, a few corrections and now everything should be as it has to be for each of the festival sections listed in the post.

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Note: This post will be In Progress until festival full program becomes available at official site, which seems is scheduled to February 4, 2025.

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Update: On January 27th new films films were announced for Panorama, Forum and Generation, one for each.  Each section program is complete,

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Update: On January 21st the program was announced via a Press Conference and seems all movies have been announced for all festival sections.  All sections were updated in this post.   Final updated will be after February 4th.

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29th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards

Yesterday, February 15 the guild had their annual awards ceremony and Wicked, Conclave and The Wild Robot won highest accolades in the film categories. Winners are below in BLUE.

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January 10, 2025
Yesterday, January 9, the Art Directors Guild announced the nominations for the 29th edition of their annual awards that excellence in production design across theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos, and animated feature films.

Established in 1937, the Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) represents 3,300 members who work throughout the world in film, television and theater as: Production Designers and Art Directors; Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists; Set Designers and Model Makers; Illustrators and Matte Artists.

The 2025 Cinematic Imagery Award will be presented to Jason Reitman.  In addition, the ADG will honor Lisa Frazza, Barbara Mesney, Dan Sweetman, and J. Dennis Washington with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Legendary production designer Carl Jules Weyl will be inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame as part of the ceremony.

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31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Winners Update: Last night, February 23, the guild had their awards ceremony and the best part of the TV shows were the clips collages as not often seen are clips with favorite films and favorite TV shows together flowing seamlessly; also, these clips show the many film actors that have done and are doing what long ago was called TV shows and now is called streaming shows, bingeable shows (my very fav long-movies) and/or online shows. That's how the industry has changed and will continue to change in the future. Great!

As a matter of fact the SAG show is broadcasted live to the world via Netflix which honestly is a lot better (even if they had serious sound troubles) than using less prepared services like Vimeo, Youtube or their own video platform. I just hope film festivals and awards shows learn the advantages of going global and not only local and nowadays is not only Netflix that can do it as there are other platforms that already did it for the Olympic Games or have many live broadcast channels.

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77th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards

Update: Yesterday, February 8th, 2025 the guild had their awards ceremony and the winners are below in BLUE.

Top award went to Anora's director and consequently, the director has increased exponentionally his chances to win this Oscar category. Still this year there are still some unpredictable categories and perhaps this one could surprise us on Oscar's night.

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January 9th, 2025
Yesterday, January 8, the Directors Guild of America President Lesli Linka Glatter announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 and the day before January 7, the guild announced the nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Commercials and Documentary for 2024.

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61st Cinema Audio Society Awards

Winners Update: last night the Society had their awards ceremony and winners are in *BLUE.

Production Sound Mixer – Tod A. Maitland, Re-Recording Mixers – Paul Massey and David Giammarco, Scoring Mixer – Nick Baxter, ADR Mixer – David Betancourt, and Foley Mixer – Kevin Schultz win Live Action award for A Complete Unknown.

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January 8th, 2025
Yesterday the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) announced its nominees in seven categories for the current year awards honoring Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.

The CAS Award nominees highlight the outstanding contributions of sound mixers, recognizing excellence in the specialized craft of sound mixing for both film and television. Each year, accomplished CAS members—who possess extensive expertise in the art and science of sound—carefully review hundreds of projects to ensure the nominees truly reflect excellence in sound mixing in Motion Picture and Television entertainment.

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72nd Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards Nominations

Winners Update: Yesterday, February 23, the group announced their winners and four out of the five Oscar nominees for Best Sound were honored by the MPSE. Dune: Part Two got top honors, Wicked got music editing, The Wild Robot got sound editing in animation and Emilia Perez won the award of international features.

Winners are in *BLUE. Winners in all categories are not yet at the official site but will be there soon, to check them go here.

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January 7th, 2025
Yesterday the Motion Picture Sound Editors announced the nominations for the current year awards and Deadpool & Wolverine and Dune: Part Two led the way with 3 nominations each.  Among the movies with more than one nomination we find Oscar top contenders like A Complete Unknown, Emilia Pérez and Wicked.

Let's recall that nominees represent the work of the world's most talented sound artists and their contribution to the past year's most outstanding feature film, television, animation, and computer entertainment productions.

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82nd Golden Globes Awards Winners

Last night's Golden Globes awards show was not what used to be in the past (used to be lots more wilder) but was entertaining even when new owners and new voters seem to be doing the same that previous foreign press voters, they spread the wealth among several movies. Proof is that top award winner got 5 wins out of 10 nominations followed by The Brutalist with 4 out of 7 nominations, which left room for several other movies also winning a golden globe.

The red carpet was also different as for my first time ever ended well-before the time when the show started, leaving TV broadcasters trying to kill time with whatever they had available. Variety, ET and CBS broadcast started to show bits from Variety's Actors on Actors web series and just image what local TV stations around the world had to do. Where I am now, they started to gossip!!! (LOL, was awful!).

Will not deny that I'm extremely pleased with Emilia Pérez being the top winner and winner top award as perhaps some of you noticed that usually awards leave drama category for last but in this edition organizers placed Musical or Comedy category last as was what everyone was more interested this year thus becoming the most sought after result. Bravo Jacques Audiard you outdo yourself once again. Yes, I'm totally biased as Audiard is one of my most admired contemporary master film directors. Let's hope that the winning trend continues up to the Oscars but I'm realistic, Academics are quite an older bunch and still skeptic and wonder if they will dare to reward 1) a musical with 2) a trans story.

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#Oscars2025 International Feature Film Shortlist

Yesterday The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for the International Feature Film category and even when there are some expected films, there are others that surprised me. Sigh.

Was hoping for Emilia Pérez to be in the list because believe it's a great innovative film and Jaques Audiard, one of my favorite contemporary directors deserve all the accolades for this movie. What I was not expecting is the list to contain a film by another of my favorite directors, Baltasar Kormákur with his film Touch that still have just because is his film.

Somehow knew The Seed of the Sacred Fig was going to be on the list and unfortunately the other non-English film with strong buzz All We Imagine as Light cannot make the list as another film was submitted by India. Other films expected to be on the list are I'm Still Here, Kneecap, The Girl with the Needle and Vermiglio. Wasn't sure if Flow would make it to this list as was hoping that film gets a nomination in the Animation category; still hope Flow gets a nomination in Animation category, as here there are too-many extremely good films competing for a spot in the nominations.

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