13th Annual Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards Nominations

Yesterday, December 29, Julie Socash, President of MUAHS, IATSE Local 706, announced the nominations for the 2025 MUAHS Guild Awards.

The MUAHS Awards honor outstanding achievements in the artistry and creativity of Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists across multiple entertainment platforms, including feature films, television, music videos, and live stage productions, including Broadway, international theater, and theme parks.

As previously announced, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning make-up artist Greg Nelson and Oscar-nominated hair stylist Judy Alexander Cory will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards. Emmy-nominated make-up artist Michael Johnston will receive the prestigious Vanguard Award. The Distinguished Artisan honoree will be announced soon.

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7th The Society of Composers and Lyricists Nominations

Recently the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) announced the nominations for the 2026 edition of the group committed to advancing the interests of composers and lyricist working in visual media, including film, television, theater, video games and beyond.

The organization was born during the summer of 1983 with their first meeting taking place on February 14, 1984 with 310 composers and lyricists - including Henry Mancini, John Williams, Quincy Jones- and today continues in its non-union role of education, support and mutual benefit. It is in 2020 when the society established the annual SCL awards.

Ludwig Göransson and director Ryan Coogler will receive the Spirit of Collaboration Award, which recognizes a composer/director partnership that has created a significant and enduring body of work.

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#Oscars2025 International Feature Film Shorlists

Yesterday, December 16, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced the shortlist for the International Feature Film category and most films in the shortlist of fifteen (15) were expected by industry pundits and me. Still, there are some surprises and snubs that call my attention.

Best positive surprise is the inclusion of US born Cherien Dabis film as I really enjoy her films and also Iraq's The President's Cake. But biggest surprise it to find the many (7 out of 15) films by female directors!!! Very noticeable is the fact that 9 out 15 films come from Cannes Film festival.

Most notable snubs are Colombia's A Poet, UK's My Father's Shadow (has collected some independent awards accolades), Morocco's Calle Málaga, Philippines' Magellan, Poland's Franz and Chile's The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. Not in shorlist Denmark's Mr. Nobody Against Putin but it is in the Documentary Shortlist along with Ukraine's 2000 Meters to Andriivka. By-the-way in the documentary shortlist the biggest snub of all is North Macedonia submission The Tale of Silyan.

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38th Annual Scripter Awards

Yesterday, December 15, the USC Libraries announced the finalists for the current edition of the awards that honor the writers of the year's most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations, as well as the writers of works on which they are based.

The USC Literary Achievement Award goes to author Michael Connelly for his contributions to the art of mystery storytelling, both on the page and on the screen.

The 2026 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 43 film and 64 television adaptations. USC professor Howard Rodman, a former president of the Writers Guild of America, West, chairs the committee. Remember the award qualifications requires the written word as a source of inspiration for storytellers, only works adapted from books or book series, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, plays, or magazine articles are eligible.

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31st Prix Lumières Nominations

Yesterday, December 12, 2025, the Académie des Lumières announced the nominations for the 2026 edition of these awards given by its members that are international media correspondents from 36 countries. The awards honors French and French-language cinema from France and abroad.

L’étranger by François Ozon leads with 6 nominations followed by Nouvelle Vague by Richard Linklater with 5 plus Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll and l'Inconnu de la Grande Arche by Stéphane Demoustier with 4 nominations each and with 3 nominations Mektoub my love: Canto Due by Abdellatif Kechiche, Nino by Pauline Loquès and le chant des forêts by Vincent Munier. Perhaps the most notorious snub is for the film that recently won the prestigious Louis Delluc prize, La Petite Dernière by Hafsia Herzi.

The award ceremony will be on January 18 at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Thirteen categories will be honored, each with one Lumière trophy creation of Monnaie de Paris by Joaquín Jiménez.

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28th Costume Designers Guild Nominations

Yesterday, December 12, 2025, the guild announced the nominations for the 2026 edition of the Costume Designers Guild Awards (CDGA) celebrating excellence in film, television, short form costume design and costume illustration. As film categories define different film genres there is no film leading and nominated films include films like Bugonia, Frankenstein, One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Sinners, and Wicked: For Good that could have nomination chances in this category at the 2026 Oscars.

When considering all costume design categories that CDGA honors is costume designer Colleen Atwood that leads with three nominations; but, when considering only film categories is costume designer Lindsay Pugh who leads with two nominations one for Hedda and another for How To Train Your Dragon.

Only costume designers are listed in the initial release. Assistant costume designers will be announced at a later date, pending vetting and approval by the awards team.

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2025 Prix Louis Delluc Winners

A few minutes ago the award jury presided by Gilles Jacob announced the winners for the 2025 edition of the prestigious Louis Delluc prize and perhaps the greatest very pleasant surprise is that both awards are given to films by female directors, which undoubtedly is not common for the award and the global film industry. Bravo!

Let's recall that award was founded in 1936 by film critics Maurice Bessy, Marcel Idzkowski and Georges Cravenne to "défendre avec enthousiasme et franchise le cinéma, art jeune et art de jeunes" (to defend cinema with enthusiasm and candor, a young art and an art of young people).  Louis Delluc, who died in 1924, was the theorist of a "French-style" cinema then in full development. A campaigner for institutional recognition of cinema, a prolific writer, and a leader of an early avant-garde of French cinema, he died at the age of 33 after having directed only 7 films.

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83rd Golden Globes Nominations

Yesterday, December 9, the Golden Globes LLC presided by Helen Hoehne announced the nominations for the 2026 edition of the once controversial Golden Globes. The announcement was presented by Marlon Wayans and Skye P. Marshall at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton with top categories airing at morning news while rest of categories were unveiled via live streaming only.

In the past this award had many eyebrow-raising inclusions as well as genre assignation for some films that clearly are not comedy; but as the voters have become more international and organizers are trying to become respectable -again-, current edition seems a step forward into the right direction. Still, there are some nominations that clearly are trying to bring more glamour to the televised show than given because merit for remarkable performance.

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51st Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

Yesterday, December 7, the so-called "most poweful" group of American film critics voted their 2025 awards and not often they align with east coast critics but this time they did as their best film is One Battle After Another. The coincidence confirms predictions that Paul Thomas Anderson film is the top contender for #Oscars2026 and definitively Paul Thomas Anderson will get a nomination but this category is still an open race.

This another industry group that opts for gender neutral categories but, as they did in previous years. gave 2 awards in both lead and supporting performances, one female actor and the other male actor. Sorry, but for these type of results think I prefer gender clarification as tends to give more opportunities to women and men in their own crafts; so please stop, there should be Best Actress and Best Actor in lead and supporting performances. Sigh.

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31st Annual Critics Choice Awards Nominations

The Critics Choice Association (CCA) announced yesterday, December 5, the nominees for the 2026 edition of the Critcs Choice Awards and Sinners leads the pack with an impressive 17 nominations, nearley matching the record of 18 that Barbie achieved two years ago. One Battle After Another follows with 14 nominations plus Hamnet and Frankenstein with 11 each.

The CCA is a group of broadcast, radio, online critcs, and entertainment journalist who review films and television. Founded 31 years ago by Joey Berlin, Rod Lurie and 42 founding members, the CCA is now the largest critics organization in USA and Canada with more than 600 members. In 2024 the group members were 34% female and 65% male, 29% is non-white and 19% is LGBTQ+ making this group one of the most diverse group in the industry. Probalby that's why their choices reflect more diversity than their counterparts. Remember this group is the one that wants to fill the void left by former Golden Glboes, former because now Golden Globes are handled by an entertainment company and are not a group of film critics or journalists.

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2025 National Board of Review Award Winners

Yesterday the National Board of Review (NBR) announced its honorees and leading the pack is One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson winning 4 top awards, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Established in 1909, the NBR recognizes excellence in filmmaking and this year 265 films were viewed by a select grooup of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, academics and young professionals, many of which were followed by in-depth discussions with directors, actors, producers, screenwriters and cinematographers. Ballots were tabulated by the accounting firm of Lutz and Carr CPA.

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41st Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

Yesterday, December 3, 2025, Film Independent, the nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering independence and inclusivity in visual storytelling, announced the nominations for the 2025 edition of the Spirit Awards.

According to their press release this edition has a record number of works and artists being honored and yes, we can tell by just reading the list that has many unexpected newcomers to the 2025=2026 awards season, so there could be Oscar consideration for some of the below nominees.

Peter Hujar's Day leads the pack with 5 nominations followed by Blue Sun Palace; Lurker; One of Them Days; Sorry, Baby; and Train Dreams with 4 nominations each, and Lucky Lu, The Plage and Twinless getting 3 each.

After reading about each of the below films noticed some films premiered in Cannes 2025 but didn't win any major award, same with those premiering at 2025 Sundance, odd. But my greatest discovery was to find an American movie with Mads Mikkelsen! Yes, Mads is the "Intriguing Neighbor" in Dust Bunny and he "helps a young girl to kill the monster under her bed" (LOL).

Awards ceremony will be hosted at the Hollywooed Palladium, after years at the beach in Santa Monica, on Sunday, February 15, 2026 at 5pm ET/2pm PT. The show will be streamed live on the Film Independent and IMDb YouTube channels, and across our social platforms.

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2025 New York Film Critics Circle Award Winners

The oldest critics group in USA -it's their 91st edition- New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), announced last night their winners and let's recall that group has a solid run for being a bellwether for Oscar nominees more than winners as the last time both coincide was in 2011 with The Artist.

Perhaps this year will change as they named Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another as their top winner, a film that is industry pundits frontrunner for Oscar's Best Film. Anderson's film also collected another win in the actor supporting category for a total of 2 awards and shares the lead with The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho which won Best International Film and Best Actor for Walter Moura.

Still too-early in the awards season but there are news from two independent film awards plus one major critics' group and there are three different international film wins Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier, It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi, and The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho; data which suggests there is an open Oscar race with no clear winner in this category.

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35th The Gotham Film Awards Winners

Yesterday at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City the 2025 awards ceremony for The Gotham Film Awards took place and perhaps what was most covered in the news is the many A-Listers in one place at the same time.

Actors, directors and even singers (Rihanna was there), came to honor or to get honored in the name of independent cinema and yes, not often you can see in one place Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Nina Hoss, Renate Reinsve, Jessie Buckley, Riley Keough, Chloe Sevigny, Julia Roberts, Naomi Watts, Jacob Elordi, Ethan Hawke, Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander Skarsgard, Hugh Jackman, Joel Edgerton, Adam Sandler, Wagner Moura, Luca Guadagnino, Guillermo del Toro, Noah Baumbach, Chloe Zhao, Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, Park Chan-wook, and many more. Sigh! Not even at the Oscars. Wonder how many of those that were there last night will make it to Oscar night. Phew.

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28th British Independent Film Awards Winners

Yesterday comedians Lou Sanders and Harriet Kemsley hosted the BIFA awards ceremony which took place at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, and Pillion by Harry Lighton became the biggest winner with 4 awards, including top award: Best British Independent Film.

The awards were spread as Pillion is followed by three films with 3 awards each, documentary A Want In Her by Myrid Carten, including Best Documentary, The Ballad of Wallis Island by James Griffiths, including Best Screenplay, and Warfare by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza. Best Director went to Akinola Davis Jr for My Father's Shadow and Best International Independent Film to Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier.

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