While you should see all the nominated films by Oscar night, Feb. 26, of course, here’s a good place to start, with clips from all the Best Picture, acting, and director nominees.
First up, the trailers for the nine films nominated for Best Picture: READ FULL STORY »
If you’re looking for Octavia Spencer tonight — the night before the Academy Award nominations are announced in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow — you’ll probably find her hanging in her PJs with The Help director Tate Taylor. That’s what the best supporting actress front-runner told EW’s Dave Karger yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival, while discussing Spencer’s role as an alcohol addiction counselor in the dramedy Smashed. Karger also talked with Spencer about why Michael Fassbender is stalking her, and what her favorite thing has been about riding the wave of The Help‘s wild success. Check out their interview below: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: LAURENCE CENDROWICZ
With 16 inclusions each, My Week With Marilyn and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are leading the pack in the longlists for the 2012 British Academy Film Awards, which were announced today. In addition to making the cut for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, both films have their stars in contention. (Marilyn‘s Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Judi Dench, and Zoe Wanamaker, as well as Tinker Tailor‘s Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, John Hurt, and Kathy Burke, are all on the acting longlists.)
Following Marilyn and Tinker Tailor for the most entries on the BAFTA longlists were The Iron Lady (14), The Artist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Midnight in Paris, War Horse (13 each), The Help, Hugo, Drive (12 each), and The Ides of March and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (11 each.) Notable exclusions from the BAFTA longlist include Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Melancholia, and Martha Marcy May Marlene, while major Oscar contender The Tree of Life earned just one mention in the cinematography category.
The longlist kicks off the first round of voting for the BAFTAs, which includes 15 entries in most categories. The five nominees will be chosen from these longlists in the second round. However, there are only five for animation and documentary in the first round of voting. Nominations in all categories, including the shortlist for the Rising Star Award, will be announced on Jan. 17. Check out the entire BAFTAs 2012 longlist, including Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Documentary, Foreign Language Film, and Outstanding British Film here. (Note: * marks the five chapter picks.) READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Dale Robinette
As The Help makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, the adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel is sure to ignite another round of heated debate and discussion surrounding its subject matter. About a group of black Mississippi maids in the early 1960s (primarily the ones played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, both in performances earning some heavy Oscar buzz) and the young, white reporter eager to tell their story (played by 2011 It Actress Emma Stone), the film’s exploration of race, gender, and class had supporters and detractors voicing their opinions with equal fervor.
While certainly a boon for the film’s box-office — The Help has grossed nearly $200 million worldwide – being in the middle of that kind of cultural contretemps can be rather overwhelming. But when they spoke recently with EW about the film’s home video release, both Stone and Spencer shared some thoughtful insights on what it’s been like for them to witness it from the inside out.
“The interesting thing about the response to The Help is that I get fewer questions than stories,” Stone tells EW. READ FULL STORY »
Readers of the bestselling book of The Help know that the story of outspoken maid Minny Jackson ends quite differently than it does in last summer’s blockbuster film. (SPOILER ALERT for those who don’t want to know either ending.) In the film, we hear in voice over that Minny (Octavia Spencer) took her kids and left her abusive husband Leroy after her employers Celia and Johnny Foote (Jessica Chastain and Mike Vogel) promised her a job with them as long as she wanted it. In the book, however, Minny doesn’t escape Leroy without a final, vicious beating.
In the DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film, out Dec. 6, director Tate Taylor reveals he in fact shot a different ending for Minny that incorporated the book’s dark turn of events, but ultimately felt it was too much of a gloomy conclusion for Minny’s ultimately hopeful storyline. That scene is available as an extra on both discs, but you can watch it exclusively below now, and then read EW’s interview with Spencer about the scene, and how she prepared the non-professional actors playing her kids for it. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Dale Robinette
Lots of movies divide audiences (you liked it, I hated it, and the world goes round). But a liberal message movie about race has the power to divide audiences — and critics — in a special way. The people who respond to it are likely to feel moved, uplifted, morally transported, emotionally activated. Others may feel not so much that they don’t respond but that they’re reacting against what they’re seeing — a “hard-hitting” mass-audience truth that is actually a feel-good lie. READ FULL STORY »
