Thompson on Hollywood

Golden Globes Nominations Led by King's Speech, with Seven

While The Golden Globes nominations have an impact on momentum going into the Oscar race, they are not predictive. That's partly because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (some 80 foreign correspondents) break their categories into Drama and Comedy or Musical. Thus it becomes easy to dismiss certain titles that the Oscars are likely to ignore, including Frankie & Alice, Burlesque, Barney's Version, Easy A, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Red, Casino Jack, The Tourist, and Love & Other Drugs. (Full list of nominees below.)

By Anne Thompson
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December 14, 2010 1:42 AM
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2010 Ten Best List

I've been feverishly catching up on screeners, knowing that I had to declare my ten best list on Friday's Oscar Talk. I filed my votes at the Village Voice and indieWIRE critics polls. And I filed my nominations for the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which announced Monday. It turns out that my number ten choice, Fish Tank, had a qualifying run in 2009. So I replaced it with The Ghost Writer. So here goes:

By Anne Thompson
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December 13, 2010 11:33 AM
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Oscar Watch: Social Network, Kids Are All Right Lead New York Film Critics Awards

The Social Network wins again. The New York Film Critics also voted The Social Network as the year's best film, and gave best director to David Fincher. This film was simply the one that critics could agree on, as opposed to others with both promoters and detractors. But this string of wins does push the film into that must-see winner's circle. The film also won the Los Angeles critics and other critics groups. The King's Speech's Colin Firth won best actor, again. And The Kids Are All Right scored some needed wins as Annette Bening won best actress, Mark Ruffalo best supporting actor, and Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg best screenplay--a surprise win over Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network. Debra Granik's Winter's Bone was shut out.

By Anne Thompson
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December 13, 2010 6:50 AM
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AFI Movies of the Year: The Town, Toy Story 3, 127 Hours, True Grit Make the Cut

The American Film Institute voted their ten best AFI Movies and TV Programs of the Year Awards Sunday, proclaimed as the "only recognition that honors the community’s creative ensembles as a whole, acknowledging the collaborative nature of the art form." The AFI honors American films and series. Thus they chose British The King's Speech and Waiting for Superman as "Special Award" winners, having not met the AFI's standard criteria (posted below). Their Movies and TV Programs of the year, as chosen by film and television scholars, artists and critics, are as follows:

By Sophia Savage
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December 13, 2010 4:47 AM
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1 Comment

Oscar Talk: 2010 Ten Best Lists, from "Another Year" to "Winter's Bone"

On Oscar Talk this week, as promised, Kris Tapley and I count down, defend and debate our rather diverse and distinctive top ten films of 2010. While we both include The Social Network and Toy Story 3, we agree to disagree on one of my faves, Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which Kris admires. Notable omissions from both lists: 127 Hours, Rabbit Hole, Blue Valentine, Get Low, The Town, Inception, The Fighter and The Ghost Writer.

By Anne Thompson
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December 10, 2010 8:14 AM
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Awards Update: Awards Groups Boost "How to Train Your Dragon," "King's Speech," "Ghost Writer"

The status of DreamWork Animation's How to Train Your Dragon as an Oscar frontrunner was confirmed by the International Animation Society's Annie Awards nominations. The film led the pack with 14 nominations. Also nominated for best animated feature were Universal/Illumination's Despicable Me, Sony Pictures Classic/Django Films' The Illusionist, Disney's Tangled, and Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3. The withdrawal of Disney/Pixar from the organization seems to have had little impact on their nominations. The five best features would have looked like locks for the best animated Oscar category but unfortunately, this year only three will be named. (Full list of Annie nominees below.)

By Anne Thompson
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December 6, 2010 4:54 AM
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Oscar Talk: What's Up, Down After Gothams, Indie Spirits, National Board of Review

This week Kris Tapley, indieWIRE's Peter Knegt and I analyze the impact of the Gotham Awards, Indie Spirit noms, the National Board of Review and the Coens' finally viewed and reviewed True Grit on the awards race. Kris went to the Inception DVD/Oscar party (so did Amy Dawes). It's a contender--but 127 Hours could be a little shaky.

By Anne Thompson
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December 3, 2010 6:12 AM
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Actor Watch: Award Circuit Talk from Firth, Franco, Moore and Kunis; Eyre on Good Actors

- One thing that makes Colin Firth blush: two thousand people singing him "Happy Birthday" (on his 50th birthday, September 10, when The King's Speech first wowed Toronto). The actor considered most likely to win an Oscar this year shares more embarrassing moments with The New Yorker's Lizzie Widdicombe, who describes him as: "the British actor best known for playing variations on the repressed-but-sexy English gentleman." On the other hand, Firth himself says the English are "very paradoxical people" for whom "It doesn’t take much to get them to let their hair down—soccer, alcohol, music, or general excitement.”

By Sophia Savage
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November 29, 2010 6:45 AM
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Oscar Watch Q &A: Tom Hooper Talks Long Road to King's Speech

Fest fave The King's Speech, currently the front-runner at Gurus o' Gold, this Saturday blew the roof off its packed Academy screening. The crowd applauded director Tom Hooper, writer David Seidler, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, cinematography and score. It also nabbed the most effusive reaction so far over five years of showing films at Sneak Previews--the WGA crowd clapped Hooper down the aisle as he settled in for a Q and A. The movie debuted at Telluride (here's TOH's review) followed by audience-award-winning turns at fests in Toronto and the Hamptons. Will anything slow this film's Oscar momentum? (Well, some say it gets its history wrong.) The Weinsteins open the movie November 26--and it could reboot the company.

By Anne Thompson
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November 22, 2010 2:21 AM
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AFI Fest Scores Again with Free Screenings and Awards Contenders King's Speech, Fighter, Black Swan

The AFI Fest closed November 11 with the jammed L.A. premiere of Darren Aronofsky's ballet-world thriller Black Swan attended by the director and his cast, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder and Vincent Cassel. Here's a fest wrap-up from Justin Lowe (the Fest posted videos from some of the galas): Playing to a capacity crowd at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with all the principal cast attending, Black Swan is a dramatic tour de force, underpinned by Natalie Portman’s staggering portrayal of a lead ballerina battling for her emotional and professional survival.