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 »
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 »
There are moments in Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-selling 2005 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that are so unimaginably heartbreaking, it’s hard — despite how good the book is — to not to need to put it down and take a breather (or just have a really good cry). For those unfamiliar with Foer’s novel, about a young, imaginative New York City boy named Oskar (Jeopardy! winner Thomas Horn, making his big screen debut) who loses his father (Tom Hanks) in the Sept. 11 attacks, the trailer might be just as weepy.
The trailer sets up the story (after the tragedy, Oskar embarks upon a journey around the city with a mysterious key that belonged to his father) and its tender moments (all the people Oskar meets during his quest). The U2 song actually pushes the trailer in to dangerous schmaltzy territory, but readers have to have faith in the Oscar-friendly combination of director Stephen Daldry (The Hours), writer Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), and two of the biggest stars on the planet (Hanks, Sandra Bullock). Watch the full clip below: 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 »
