Oscar hopefuls ‘Shame’ and ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — as well as the less starry indie “Tyrannosaur” — lead the British Independent Film Award nominations with seven nods apiece. “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “Kill List,” each with six, are close behind.
'Shame,' 'Tinker, Tailor' and 'Tyrannosaur' lead BIFA nods
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:36 am · October 31st, 2011
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International Documentary Association announces nominees
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:06 am · October 28th, 2011
In the week’s second set of documentary award nominations, the IDA goes lower-profile than the Cinema Eye Honors — though Chilean critics’ favorite “Nostalgia for the Light” scores with both.
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'We Need To Talk About Kevin' takes gold at London fest
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:47 am · October 27th, 2011
On the penultimate night of the BFI London Film Festival, Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” became the first British winner of the fest’s Best Film award. Other winners included “Las Acacias” and Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss.”
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Cinema Eye Honors nominees include 'Senna,' 'Project Nim' … and Justin Bieber
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:00 pm · October 26th, 2011
The Cinema Eye Honors, the premier international documentary awards, announced their nominees in London night. Multiple nods for “Senna,” “The Interrupters” and “Project Nim” were predictable — a nod for “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” less so.
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London: Foreign Oscar hopefuls 'Beauty' and 'Volcano'
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:02 am · October 26th, 2011
In our latest dispatch from the London Film Festival, we review two very different, but equally moving, submissions for the foreign-language Oscar: South African gay drama “Beauty” and Icelandic old-age study “Volcano.”
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John Hawkes sings 'Marcy's Song' from 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:34 pm · October 25th, 2011
Watching “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” I was stopped dead midway through the film by John Hawkes’s eerie, melancholy performance of Jackson C. Frank’s “Marcy’s Song” — now check out a new video of his version.
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The Lists: Top 10 scary PG-rated films
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:31 am · October 25th, 2011
Where most Halloween-themed film lists are dominated by grisly R-rated fare, it’s worth remembering that it’s not only adults who like being spooked in the cinema. Today’s list rounds up ten frightening films — not all of them thrillers, not all of kid-tailored — that children are free to watch, ranging from “The Witches” to “Watership Down.”
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Oscarweb Round-up: The discreet charm of the writers' branch
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:32 am · October 24th, 2011
Today’s must-read piece comes from that most reliable source of must-read pieces, Mark Harris, who this time digs deep into the whats, hows and whys of Oscar’s screenplay awards. As he so snappily puts it, the Academy’s writers’ branch has “much the same taste as Academy members overall — only better.” It’s certainly the area where […]
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Hans Zimmer bows out of this year's Oscar race
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:56 am · October 23rd, 2011
Nine-time Oscar nominee Hans Zimmer has opted to sit out this year’s Best Original Score race by refusing to personally enter any of his 2011 scores for consideration — including “Rango” and “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.”
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Review: The beautiful losers of 'Bombay Beach'
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:25 am · October 23rd, 2011
It’s been four months since I saw Alma Har’el’s alternately upsetting and joyful hybrid documentary “Bombay Beach,” but sounds and images from the film haunt me still.
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Cinejabber: The 2011 gems under your nose
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:40 am · October 22nd, 2011
Welcome to Cinejabber, your weekend soapbox space to discuss whatever’s on your mind, cinematically speaking. On mine: two wonderful films currently on US release, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Weekend.”
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Searchlight on taking the 'Shame' out of NC-17
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:14 pm · October 21st, 2011
With Fox Searchlight boldly announcing plans for a full-scale Oscar campaign for Steve McQueen’s sexually explicit (and presumably NC-17 rated) “Shame,” we wonder what this could mean both for the film and the future.
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Review: 'Miss Bala' opens fire
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:46 pm · October 20th, 2011
Selected as Mexico’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar after a wave of festival buzz, Gerardo Naranjo’s “Miss Bala” is a dazzling drug-cartel thriller, revolving around the unlikely political center of the Miss Baja California beauty pageant.
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Review: Toronto winner 'Where Do We Go Now?' needs directions
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:40 pm · October 18th, 2011
The Lebanese feminist anti-sectarian musical comedy is an underpopulated niche in world cinema. However, after Nadine Labaki’s surprise Toronto champ “Where Do We Go Now?,” it’s probably safe to consider the door on that sub-genre closed.
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Review: The shaking, waking nightmare of 'Snowtown'
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:06 am · October 18th, 2011
A blinding Australian debut feature from Justin Kurzel, “Snowtown” negotiates the real-life criminal exploits of a suburban family Down Under — only to make last year’s “Animal Kingdom” look positively “Neighbours”-like in comparison.
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Listen to John Williams's 'Tintin' score
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:11 pm · October 17th, 2011
After yesterday’s positive London reception, things are looking good for Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin,” but will the Academy respond to it? We don’t know, but John Williams’s old-school score, at least, looks a solid bet.
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More US festival awards for 'The Artist' and Olivia Colman
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:55 am · October 17th, 2011
Buzzy Oscar contender “The Artist” added to its trophy cabinet with wins at both the Chicago and Hamptons International Film Festivals last year, while under-the-radar Best Actress hopeful Olivia Colman took a prize for “Tyrannosaur.”
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Review: Fun, frisky 'Tintin' pages Indiana Jones
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:55 pm · October 16th, 2011
You’d have been forgiven for thinking that Steven Spielberg had lost his fun gene after “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — but “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” is a springy, souped-up entertainment that hews far closer to the original Indiana Jones template.
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