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The Amazing Race: Our Predictions For The 2012 Spirit Awards

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • February 24, 2012 2:30 PM
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  • 3 Comments
Awards
This weekend isn't just about the Oscars, for the record. Saturday night, as is traditional, sees the warm-up for the big show with the 2012 Spirit Awards, Film Independent's antidote to the Academy Awards, intended to honor the best of independent cinema. With recent winners of the top prize including "Juno," "The Wrestler," "Precious" and "Black Swan," they've provided the opportunity for films that are perhaps a little too dark, small or offbeat to win Best Picture from the Academy the chance to grab some gold.
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More: The Amazing Race, Spirit Awards, The Descendants, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beginners, Margin Call, Take Shelter

5 Songs That Should've Been Nominated For An Oscar & Would Have Made The Live Show More Fun

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • February 8, 2012 12:57 PM
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  • 19 Comments
Features
Never exactly the finest hour of the Oscars, the Best Original Song category of the Academy Awards this year has been something of a fiasco. First it was nominations with only two tracks -- "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets" and "Real In Rio" from the animated film "Rio" -- making the cut. Then, at the start of this week, Deadline broke the news that neither song would be performed as part of the Oscar telecast, seemingly in the ever-vain hope of keeping the running time of the ceremony under three hours, despite protestations from those behind the two films, and many others.
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More: Oscars, Academy Awards, Submarine, Alex Turner, Win Win, The National, The Muppets, The Chemical Brothers, Hanna, Take Shelter

My Favorite Films Of 2011: Kevin Jagernauth

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • December 30, 2011 11:01 AM
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  • 11 Comments
News
The annual top ten list is pretty much an exercise in futility to some degree. With a race to cram in as many movies as possible as the clock on the year winds down (and let it be said, I didn't get to see everything I would have wanted to) combined with the added duty of then ranking them, it's safe to say that in three months (not to mention three years) feelings and impressions on the movies I've seen will have changed. But in considering the list for this year, I went with the former adjective -- "feeling." Because at the end of the day, the movies that will linger with me the most, that I will want to share and encourage others to see are those that struck a deep chord that still resonated days, weeks and months later. Others are just movies that thrilled and entertained with an inventiveness and creativity unlike anything else I saw on the big screen.
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More: Best Of 2011, Take Shelter, Jane Eyre, The Interrupters, The Tree Of Life, Le Havre, The Artist, Drive, The Kid With The Bike, Shame, Beginners

Awards Mania As 'The Artist,' 'The Tree Of Life' & 'The Descendants' Earn Top Critic Organization Honors

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • December 12, 2011 8:59 AM
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  • 1 Comment
News
Sunday was a major day for Oscar prognosticators, as a number of critics organizations went live with their end-of-2011 honors. Some films gained support, and some lost quite a bit of steam, but for those of you who look at the whole thing like a horse race, there was a lot of movement amongst a thick group of thoroughbreds.
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More: The Tree Of Life, Terrence Malick, Margin Call, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Albert Brooks, Drive, Coriolanus, Certified Copy, The Descendants, Michael Fassbender, Christopher Plummer, Jessica Chastain, A Separation, The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, Hugo, The Artist, Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt, Moneyball, Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn, Sean Durkin, Carnage, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Help, J. Edgar, Midnight In Paris, War Horse, Take Shelter, The Iron Lady

National Board Of Review Gives Best Picture & Director To 'Hugo'; Tilda Swinton & George Clooney Take Acting Awards

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • December 1, 2011 4:14 PM
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  • 8 Comments
Awards
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More: Hugo, Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, The Descendants, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Christopher Plummer, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash (screenplay); Kaui Hart Hemmings (novel), Rango, Felicity Jones, Rooney Mara, J.C. Chandor, The Help, Michael Fassbender, Crime After Crime, Pariah, A Separation, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, The Artist, Drive, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Ides Of March, J. Edgar, The Tree Of Life, War Horse, Elite Squad II: The Enemy Within, Le Havre, Buck, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Project Nim, Senna, 50/50, Another Earth, A Better Life, Cedar Rapids, Margin Call, Shame, Take Shelter, Win Win, The Amazing Race

'The Artist' Wins Best Film & Best Director, While 'The Tree Of Life' Wins 3 From The New York Film Critics Circle

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • November 29, 2011 1:18 PM
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  • 2 Comments
Awards
You know what's a really good idea? Drawing out your award winners on Twitter all day. In what seems like the final act in a disastrous public relations year for the New York Film Critics Circle, they made the ridiculous decision to tweet their winners, one-by-one, as they vote today, turning the simple act of compiling a press release into a drawn-out social media exercise by people who clearly don't understand how to use it (case in point: Roger Friedman tweeted out the Best Director win before NYFCC could). Couple that with new president John Anderson's embarrassing whining that Warner Bros. wouldn't screen "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" in order to meet their arbitrary and way too early voting date (so they can be first out, and consequently first forgotten), which they had to move anyway for "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," and you have a 2011 the members are likely glad is over. Politics and infighting aside, the group, having got their Fincher on last night, finally met to pick their winners, and while their standing has certainly been diminished by recent controversies (there goes our invite), the results are always a strong barometer for Oscar.
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More: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist, Brad Pitt, Moneyball, The Tree Of Life, Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter, The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, Margin Call, A Separation, Albert Brooks, Drive, Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian

Spirit Awards Nominations Announced, 'Take Shelter' And 'The Artist' Lead The Pack

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 29, 2011 12:06 PM
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  • 9 Comments
Awards
You know it's the start of the awards season when two big groups are announcing their awards simultaneously, and despite the NYFCC's attempts to gain attention of late, the big news of the day is the nominations for the 27th Film Independent's Spirit Awards, which were unveiled by Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale this morning.
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More: Spirit Awards, The Amazing Race, Awards, Take Shelter, The Artist, Beginners, The Descendants

And So It Begins, 'The Descendants' & 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' Lead Gotham Award Nominees

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • October 20, 2011 3:28 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Well folks, the first batch of nominees this awards season have been revealed, with the Gotham Independent Film Award nominations landing this morning, giving an early peek at what will likely be some strong contenders down the line. Bear in mind, the Gotham Awards have little bearing on the eventual Oscar nods with only last year's Best Feature winner "Winter's Bone" factoring into the proceedings at the Kodak Theater. However, it does represent a good chunk of what you might see at the Independent Spirit Awards later in the year and if anything, these nominations confirm that Fox Searchlight is going to have another banner year on the statue circuit.
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More: Films, Actresses, The Tree Of Life, Meek's Cutoff, The Descendants, Take Shelter, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beginners, Without, Vera Farmiga, Felicity Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Shailene Woodley, Margin Call, Gotham Awards

Weekend Box Office: 'Dolphin Tale' Flips Over Another Batch Of Weak New Releases To Score #1

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • October 2, 2011 4:38 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Break it down however you want, but its simple economics. The last month has been absolutely saturated with product, so few of it appealing to mainstream America. These movies aren’t bad. And, in most cases, the marketing isn’t all that faulty. It’s pure numbers. The market can’t withstand this over-saturation. In September, eighteen films entered wide release of 1500 or more theaters, and only six crossed $30 million domestic, two of them benefiting from inflated 3D prices. That’s a poor record of success, even as we keep the bar exactly that low.
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More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, Animated Films, Dream House, Contagion, Take Shelter, 50/50, What's Your Number?, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Open Road, Lionsgate, The Lion King, Margaret

Jeff Nichols Talks About His Trust In Sony Pictures Classics & 'Take Shelter''s Memorable Ending

  • By Christopher Bell
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  • September 29, 2011 5:04 AM
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  • 0 Comments
And More From The Cast & Filmmaker Of The Apocalyptic DramaLady luck is currently showing Arkansas filmmaker Jeff Nichols her pearly whites. Though his strong debut feature "Shotgun Stories" took years to complete and be unleashed into the world, his sophomore effort "Take Shelter" was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics before they even saw a cut. In addition to that, its two principal players, Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, are having a banner year and are quickly rising to household name-status. To top it all off, the filmmaker is already lensing his next feature, "Mud," in addition to writing yet another movie. Needless to say, Nichols is very busy and in demand.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Film Studios, Interview, Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter, Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Sony Pictures Classics

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