Golden Stans 2011

72 films seen in 2011 (one less than my record posted in 1993 and 2010); 65 qualify for judging in the Golden Stans 2011 (I saw seven films twice). It was a strange year with no obvious favourite for the big gong (as there was in 2010, 2009 and 2008).

There were obvious favourites for the least desired gong: the Cone of Shame, my award for the worst movie of the year. The contenders were unfortunately numerous: Zack Snyder’s masturbatory Sucker Punch, Fernando Meirelles’ 360, Green Lantern, Damsels In Distress, and Joe Swanberg’s double-bill of Uncle Kent and Silver Bullets. But for sheer mind-numbing tedium and pretension, The Loneliest Planet takes the biscuit. In my review, I offered this insight into the film’s epic failure to engage: “When the incident comes that effectively drives what passes for a plot, I was already begging for the film to end… [The film’s lead characters] are just middle class hippies shatting their ennui on a beautiful landscape. Avoid this crap!”
I gave it a score of 0/10. The Loneliest Planet: wear the Cone of Shame with pride!

Moving on to the good stuff, the Golden Stan for Best Score goes to David Wingo for his Clint Mansell-esque stirring soundtrack to Take Shelter, narrowly edging out Alexandre Desplat’s classy work on The Ides of March. Sticking with music, there’s a new Golden Stan here: Best Use of Music. That goes to The Fighter – its use of some classic rock standards aids the film and complements its narrative thrust rather than distracting the viewer from the story and the images.

The field for the Golden Stan for Best Cinematography reads like a DoP who’s who: Barry Ackroyd for Coriolanus; Phedon Papamichael for The Ides Of March; Robert Richardson for Hugo; Jeff Cronenweth for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Roger Deakins for True Grit; and Hoyte van Hoytema for both The Fighter and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Deakins’ work his well up to his usual standard: it’s hard to think of anyone else who could have shot True Grit so well. However, for the sheer variety of skills on display, the award goes to van Hoytema: fluid, loose, improvised and colourful on The Fighter, and restrained, colour-drained, darkness and shadows in Tinker, Tailor.

The Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay awards took only a few minutes’ consideration. Rory Stewart Kinnear’s and Lynne Ramsay’s transfer to the screen of We Need To Talk About Kevin creates a dream-like narrative that is wholly cinematic, while John Michael Donagh’s original script for The Guard is darkly funny, staggeringly offensive and tragic, and conjures a starring role, so ripe with depth that Sergeant Gerry Boyle jumps off the page and onto the screen.

So, on to the acting categories, and before Best Supporting Actress, I must announce another new award: the Golden Stan for Best Cameo. For sheer emotional resonance, confidence and bloody surprise, the award goes to Aidan Quinn for his tour de force punch to my guts in Sarah’s Key. His three short scenes lift the entire film into another realm.

OK, here are the nominees for Best Supporting Actress:
• Amy Adams/The Fighter
• Jessica Chastain/The Tree Of Life, Coriolanus, Take Shelter
• Jodie Foster/Carnage
• Melissa Leo/The Fighter
• Vanessa Redgrave/Coriolanus
• Shailene Woodley/The Descendants
Amy Adams reacted brilliantly to being cast against type in The Fighter; Jessica Chastain, arguably 2011’s break-out star, had the worried but supportive wife role cornered; Jodie Foster was relaxed about playing comedy and allowing her character’s weaknesses and hypocrises to be so brutally exposed by her co-stars’ characters in Carnage; Melissa Leo was just a little too convincing as a pure white trash mother in The Fighter; and Shailene Woodley, as one of George Clooney’s daughters in The Descendants, has the presence of a seasoned pro. But the award goes to Vanessa Redgrave: she totally owns the role of Coriolanus’s mother and displays a comprehensive understanding of the text and her role within it – pure class.

The shortlist for Best Supporting Actor is:
• Christian Bale/The Fighter
• Tom Hiddleston/Thor
• Matthew McConnaughey/Bernie
• Ezra Miller/We Need To Talk About Kevin
• John C Reilly/ We Need To Talk About Kevin, Carnage, Terri
• Christoph Waltz/Carnage
Waltz and Reilly are great in Carnage, chewing the scenery with aplomb opposite Jodie Foster; Reilly also hones his honest, well-meaning loser schtick in both Terri and Kevin.
Ezra Miller is compelling as Kevin; he brings this new great screen villain to vivid life without ever tipping the audience the wink that he knows he’s playing the devil.
McConnaughey revealed new depths and real comedic skills in Bernie; it’s clear now that he’s not an action hero nor a rom-com lead – he’s a character actor in a leading man’s body.
Tom Hiddleston, who just lost out to Michael Fassbender for my best comic-based villain of 2011 for his incarnation of the god of mischief Loki, was inspired casting. You never could read his motives, and as the film goes on and Loki twists, and twists and twists again, I was left wondering if even Loki knew why he did what he did.
Finally, there is Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter. Bale has many detractors, but for bringing the damaged mind, body and soul of such a fruit-loop to the screen with such conviction, the Golden Stan is his.

Next, it’s Best Actress, and the nominees are:
• Rebecca Hall/The Awakening
• Rooney Mara/The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Andrea Risborough/Resistance
• Hailee Steinfeld/True Grit
• Tilda Swinton/We Need To Talk About Kevin
• Michelle Williams/My Week With Marilyn
The six characters inhabited by these actresses have, on the face of it, little in common, but the performances are all from the top drawer and make the characters, as different as they are, completely convincing.
Rooney Mara’s reading of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo is valid and ever-so-slightly different to Noomi Rapace’s in the original.
Michelle Williams absolutely becomes Marilyn Monroe: you forget you’re watching an actress pretending to be Norma Jean pretending to be Monroe pretending to be the showgirl.
Rebecca Hall brings intelligence and emotional frailty to her central role in The Awakening, and should really be recognised by BAFTA.
Fellow Brit Andrea Risborough keeps conflicting emotions (the yearning for her husband’s return, and her revulsion at her lust for the Nazi officer who’s yearning for her) tightly under control, just visible, bubbling beneath the surface.
Hailee Steinfeld chewed the scenery, spat out the witty banter and held her own against a stellar cast of experienced male co-stars in True Grit.
But ultimately the award goes to Tilda Swinton for her uncompromising performance in Kevin. Her Eva is put through the mill by her devilish son, but Swinton is brave enough to accept that Eva must be partly responsible for his out-turn.

Now, it’s Best Actor. I started with a longlist running to 13 names, but they can’t all make the (still not very short) shortlist, so with heavy heart and apologies to those that didn’t make the cut, here it is:
• Alberto Ammann/Cell 211
• George Clooney/The Descendants
• Michael Fassbender/X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method
• Brendan Gleeson/The Guard
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt/50/50
• Ryan Gosling/Drive, The Ides Of March
• Gary Oldman/Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Michael Shannon/Take Shelter
Alberto Ammann was great in the prison riot thriller; his approach and his presence suggest an ability to crossover from international arthouse to wider acceptance.
Clooney pulls out all the stops as the grieving father in what may well be his most realistic, naturalistic role and performance.
Michael Fassbender is surely not only the best actor working today, but also one of the most hard-working. The level of conviction and sheer bloody menace he brought to Magneto brushed aside the memory of McKellan, his predecessor in the role, while there was a wild-eyed wonder in his Carl Jung as he falls for his patient while falling out with his mentor, Freud.
Brendan Gleeson stepped up a gear from In Bruges (if that’s possible) to The Guard; he filled the role out, but never over-payed it, while drawing the audience into his enormous grasp.
JGL, hot off Inception and prior to Batman 3, delivered one of the surprise performances of the year in 50/50. He turns a potentially unlikeable character into someone you can’t help but root for as he comes to terms with and starts to fight his cancer.
Ryan Gosling went mainstream, at least in terms of media acceptance of his talent. His iconic driver was as far away from his detailed Democrat campaign manager as was possible, but he succeeded in both.
Gary Oldman turned down the flash in Tinker, Tailor, and continued the minimalist yet human approach favoured for his on-going role as Commissioner Gordon in the Batman films. He succeeds in his attempt to not repeat Alec Guinness beat for beat, and now finds himself no longer the enfant terrible and Hollywood émigré but rather the returning hero. He may not win the Oscar, but surely BAFTA awaits?
Michael Shannon’s ability to conjure fear, paranoia, despair and unflinching belief in the unbelievable was core to Take Shelter’s success.
So, I’m left with a tough three-way fight between Clooney, Oldman and Shannon. For his ability to merge into the shadows and to suggest so much with so little, the award goes to Gary Oldman.

On to the penultimate award: Best Director. The shortlist looks like this:
• Tomas Alfredson/Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• George Clooney/The Ides Of March
• The Coens/True Grit
• Daniel Mozon/Cell 211
• Jeff Nichols/Take Shelter
• Alexander Payne/The Descendants
• David O Russell/The Fighter
• Martin Scorsese/Hugo
No apologies for such a long shortlist: there is just so much great work to recognise. Scorsese showed what can be achieved when a true auteur uses 3D; Russell invigorated his boxing movie, ensuring it escaped the shadow of Rocky; Payne’s delicate touch was in evidence throughout the Descendants; Mozon reinvented the male-bonding prison movie; the Coens delivered probably the most rounded film of their career; Clooney re-iterated the need for America to get wise, and avoided the potential for Ides to be worthy but dull and lifeless; and Alfredson confirmed his potential first showcased by Let The Right One In with his detailed and downbeat take on the spy drama.
But the award must go to Jeff Nichols for Take Shelter: he created a film that fairly skewered me to my seat.

And finally, it’s the big one: the Golden Stan for Best Film. Here’s the alphabetical list of the films that made me happy to sit in a cinema for two hours:
• 50/50: the best cancer comedy ever? Pitch perfect performances. Only just missed out on a 10/10 score.
• Cell 211: alongside Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, the Spanish prison riot male-bonding thriller was the most muscular film of the year. See it before Hollywood remakes it!
• The Descendants: funny and sad, sad and funny – another midlife crisis masterpiece from Alexander Payne.
• The Fighter: second time around, I was still on the edge of my seat as Mickey Ward goes for the world championship. Charismatic and invigorating.
• Hugo: Scorsese’s best film since Goodfellas, and his film with the most heart. A joy to watch.
• The Ides Of March: more righteous liberalism from Clooney – the only mainstream director with the guts to tackle overtly political themes.
• Little White Lies: two-thirds comedy, one-third tragedy – the French film that truly travelled successfully outside its own borders and culture.
• Nobody Else But You: the better Marilyn Monroe of the year. A great example that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Endlessly enjoyable. Here’s hoping it gets a proper release in the UK in 2012.
• Take Shelter: gripping, frightening, and moving – nu-scifi has arrived!
• Thor: the best comic book movie of the year. Thrilling, funny, romantic and full of awe. Not far short of brilliant.
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: I still can’t work out how Smiley solves the mystery, but sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination.
• True Grit: the Coens’ most straight-forward movie – and all the better for it. The sort of film that cinemas were made for, this is old-fashioned entertainment.

So which film gets the nod? True Grit was massively entertaining, while The Fighter was unlucky to come up against The King’s Speech and Black Swan at the Oscars – in other years it might have deservedly walked away with the big one. Little White Lies caught me by surprise and left me drained of tears at the end through so much laughing and crying.

But the film that jumped up on me out of nowhere and cast a spell over me, put me through the wringer and had me cheering on its hero as the climactic finale approached was Take Shelter. For putting me on the edge of my seat for two hours, Take Shelter is the winner.

That’s it for 2011; bring on 2012!

Review: A Dangerous Method

David Cronenberg’s latest, A Dangerous Method, is not an absolute cracker, but it nevertheless generated plenty of debate in the aftermath.

On the face of it this story of the tensions between Carl Jung, his patient Sabina Spielrein, and his mentor/rival Sigmund Freud seems to fit perfectly within Cronenberg’s psycho-sexual oeuvre, but the great director approaches it with uncharacteristic restraint.

While nominally a three-hander, Viggo Mortensen’s Freud is a supporting role (and just as well as he seems ill at ease with the part): it is Michael Fassbender’s Jung and Keira Knightley’s Sabina who are front and centre. Fassbender is predictably brilliant, adding further evidence for my claim that he is the best actor in the world right now, as he struggles with admiration and then disgust for Freud, and his desire for Sabina.

Reaction to Knightley’s performance could go either way among professional critics: for the record, I can’t help but feel that Naomi Watts would have been better at the role (certainly its darker sexual aspects), but there’s no doubt that Knightley leaves nothing on the table – she’s convincingly mad, emotionally, physically and psychologically crippled by the social mores of the day, but – and it is a significant but – whether through her choice or Cronenberg’s direction, there is no blood and thunder when she is finally able to give herself over to her darkest desires. I was convinced that if anyone could uncover a dark sexuality within Knightley, then Cronenberg would be the man to do it, but unfortunately this is not the case.

The film looks great, with nice period detail and locations, but I can’t help but feel it needs some of the psycho-sexual fairy dust that Patrick Marber sprinkled on his adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in order to achieve greatness.
Score: 7/10 (subject to confirmation from second viewing)

2012 film preview

As 2011 rapidly draws to a close, it's time to look forward to what the movie-going prospects are in 2012. January and February are full of Oscar contenders, the superheroes come early (Avengers on 27 April - I've already booked that day off), and then the end of the year sees the return of two mega-franchises - Bond and Tolkein.

January
The Iron Lady
Meryl Streep is Maggie. Oscar ahoy?

War Horse
Spielberg adapts the beloved stage play of the same name. Hankies at the ready.

Shame
Michael Fassbender’s tour de force performance as a sex addict is the main draw. Saw the trailer recently and I am desperate to see this.

Margin Call
David Mamet-esque morality tale of a corporate whistleblower and the impact on Wall Street of his actions.

Coriolanus
Ralph Fiennes in front of and behind the camera for this muscular Shakespeare adaptation.

Haywire
Steven Soderbergh’s latest is a female-led actioner.

J Edgar
Indifferently reviewed Clint biopic of Mr Hoover (played by di Caprio).

The Descendants
George Clooney and Alexander ‘Sideways’ Payne go for Oscar glory.

February
Carnage
Polanski's stagey four-hander about squabbling adults. Very funny.

The Muppets
The big movie for the half-term. Reviews have been strong.

A Dangerous Method
Cronenberg tackles Freud v Jung. Keira gets spanked...

Young Adult
Jason Reitman follows up Up In The Air with this tale of 30-something Charlize Theron who acts like a vengeful teenager. The script is by Diablo 'Juno' Cody.

March
Hansel And Gretel
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton play the fairy tale duo.

Mirror Mirror
The first Snow White movie of the year, directed by Tarsem Singh.

We Bought A Zoo
The new Cameron Crowe.

The Pirates
Aardman does stop motion… with pirates!

April
Titanic 3D
Cameron throws 3D at his other megahit.

The Avengers
Cap, Thor, Iron Man & co vs Loki and the Skrulls. I’ve only been waiting 35 years for this film…

May
Dark Shadows
The new Tim Burton.

Men In Black III
Cue a hit single for Will Smith.

June
Prometheus
Ridley Scott’s prequel to Alien features Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Patrick Wilson.

Snow White And The Huntsman
Kristen Stewart moves on from vampires to a sword-wielding Snow White.

Rock of Ages
The musical becomes a film, complete with Tom Cruise.

Jack The Giant Killer
Bryan Singer continues the year of the fairy tale.

July
The Amazing Spider-Man
Nuff said!

The Dark Knight Rises
Batman meets his Bane. I see Anne Hathaway as Catwoman: result!

August
The Bourne Legacy
Matt Damon is out, but Jeremy Renner is in.

Brave
The new Pixar. Nuff said?

Total Recall
A remake that is supposedly closer to the Philip K Dick novel.

September
Gambit
The new Coens with Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman and Colin Firth.

Dredd
He is the LAW.

The Sweeney
No, really, it’s been remade…

October
Argo
Ben Affleck stars in and directs the true story of how the CIA extracted hostages from Iran in 1979.

Taken 2
Last time they took his daughter, now they’ve taken him. Liam Neeson’s surprise box office hit returns.

Skyfall
You know the name. You know the number.

November
Gangster Squad
Zombieland director goes all LA Confidential with Sean Penn and Josh Brolin.

December
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
BRING IT ON!

Django Unchained
Tarantino’s latest, a western with Sacha Baron Cohen, di Caprio and Joseph-Gordon-Levitt.

Review: Carnage

I never thought I would laugh intentionally at a Roman Polanski film, but Carnage is the film that has made the improbable real. Laceratingly funny, Carnage’s raison d’etre is the outstanding performances from three-quarters of its four-strong cast that positively demand awards recognition.

John C Reilly and Jodie Foster invite Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet round to discuss a playground altercation between the two couples’ boys. The tension between the two couples is obvious from the start, but swiftly the film lays bear the internal rivalries within each marriage and highlights the eternal battle of the sexes.

While the four characters have been created to generate maximum friction, they are fully developed across the film’s short running time (just 80 minutes), ensuring their behaviour (for the most part) is utterly believable.

Jodie Foster rants and raves with aplomb, Reilly deftly plays out his passive/aggressive role, while Waltz imbues his lawyer with an intelligent yet childish streak of evil. The only false note is la Winslet: she’s one of my favourite actresses, but I’m never convinced by her American accent, plus seeing her, always a strong female lead, as the unequal half in her marriage is jarring. Having said that, Winslet generates probably the film’s biggest gut-wrenching laugh…

As the four squabble and fight, the insults and insights become sharper, funnier and more painful, the hypocrisies of the bourgeois and petit-bourgeois well and truly skewered. As the verbal punches fly faster and with increasing intensity, it becomes like a tagteam boxing match.

However, the script, adapted from a play, never truly escapes its origins and nor does it rise to Mamet-esque or LaBute-esque levels of black comedy – but then again not much does!
Score: 7.5/10

Review: The Descendants

The Descendants is another funny yet painful look at the male mid-life crisis from Alexander ‘Sideways’ Payne, buoyed by awards-worthy performances from a strong, indie-friendly cast, led by George Clooney.

Clooney is Matt King, a wealthy lawyer in Hawaii, who must cope with his wife’s coma and be the father he’s never been to his two daughters (both played with aplomb by Shailene Woodley – watch out for her in the future - and Amara Miller), while handling the most important decision he will ever make.

With pressure bearing down, and family truths revealing themselves, Clooney’s King is by turns angry, happy, disgusted and comforted as he deals with his troubled daughters, the in-laws (led by a scene-stealing Robert Forster) and business stakeholders (cue Beau Bridges).

The film skips lightly along never over-playing the humour, the drama nor the tragedy: the laughs are genuine and perfectly timed, the heartaches are razor-sharp and leave lasting cuts. Clooney, long the master of the insular everyman, delivers yet another fine performance, marked out by subtle facial reactions that speak of more hurt and remorse than any dialogue could possibly convey.

Much of what makes the film work is the life-like nature of the characters: nobody is that funny, good, evil, sad, etc – they are all composed unequally of those facets. And thus some Hollywood clichés and schmaltz are entirely avoided – and clearly the film is all the better for that.

I saw this twice – and it certainly more than withstood a second watch. Don’t wait for it to appear on DVD: see it at the cinema with a crowd; you won’t regret it. And you'll come away with a few new swearwords too!
Score: 8/10

Review: Coriolanus

Coriolanus is Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut; it's a muscular adaptation of one of Shakey’s least likeable works – and is timely to say the least. Awards noms, both for the strong cast and the exceptional technical credits, will undoubtedly follow.

Fiennes is predictably excellent in the war-mongering title role, backed by mother from hell Vanessa Redgrave (surely a Best Supporting Actress Oscar will be winging its way to her), Brian Cox as the slimey Menenius and a surprisingly strong Gerard Butler as Aufidius, foe of the Roman people.

Set in modern times, complete with 24/7 newsflash inserts and filmed in shell-shocked Serbia, the film’s portrayal of the eternal battle between soldiers and politicians carries considerable resonance. The devastation inflicted on the landscape is likewise wrought on the souls of the soldiers - great Coriolanus is no exception, any heart he once might have had apparently eviscerated by lifetime of combat.

Fiennes is not only in command of his performance and the script, but also of the entire production. The film is never less than cinematic, buoyed by Barry ‘Hurt Locker’ Ackroyd being the DoP.

I must confess to not enjoying Coriolanus when compelled to read it at school, but I really got to grips with the text this time round. Thanks Ralph!
Score: 8.5/10

Golden Globes 2012: Tinker Tailor snubbed

The Golden Globe noms for 2012 pretty much went as expected – The Artist leads the field with six noms ahead of The Descendants and The Help on five apiece – but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy picked up precisely zero noms – and that’s a real shock.

Presumably the US distributors will now be working very hard to regain awards momentum and try to secure the Oscar noms that the film clearly deserves.

There were other shocks: only one nom for Clint’s J Edgar; just two noms for Spielberg’s War Horse and Fincher’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Clooney’s Ides of March being recognised with four noms; Woody Allen securing four nods for Midnight In Paris; and only the actresses in Polanski’s Carnage being recognised.

Worthy of note: Clooney nominated for actor and director in two different films; Ryan Gosling nominated twice for Best Actor (for Crazy, Stupid, Love and Ides of March); Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet nominated for their roles in Carnage, with the latter actress also shortlisted in the TV movie section for Mildred Pearce.

At this stage, I’d put money on The Artist winning Best Film, but all the other categories are open… with one exception: I think Christopher Plummer, for his role in Beginners, will take the Supporting Actor Globe and every Supporting Actor gong going (he’s already won six and is up for another seven), including the Oscar (he’s never won before and only has one nomination to his name, garnered at the age of 80!).

The Artist: 6 - Film, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Screenplay, Score
Descendents: 5 - Film, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Screenplay
The Help: 5 - Film, Actress, Supping Actress x 2, Song
Ides of March: 4 - Film, Actor, Director, Screenplay
Midnight in Paris: 4 - Film, Actor, Director, Screenplay
Moneyball: 4 - Film, Actor, Supporting Actor, Screenplay
Albert Nobbs: 3 - Actress, Supporting Actress, Song
Hugo: 3 - Film, Director, Score
My Week With Marilyn: 3 - Film, Actress, Supporting Actor
50/50: 2 - Film, Actor
Bridesmaids: 2 - Film, Actress
Carnage: 2 - Actress x 2
A Dangerous Method: Supporting Actor
Beginners: Supporting Actor
Crazy, Stupid, Love: Actor
Drive: Supporting Actor
The Guard: Actor
Young Adult: Actress

Awards season countdown

It's nearly the end of the year, so it's time for Hollywood silly season: that's right, it's awards time!

The big guns begin on 15 December with the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations, but some awards have already been made.

While it’s too early to pinpoint a clear favourite for any of the key Oscars, the main contenders are becoming clearer. All indicators suggest two films celebrating an earlier, more innocent age of cinema will be front and centre: The Artist and Hugo. The former (black and white, silent, and technically French) charmed Cannes in the spring, and has now won over the New York critics (best film and director), and the Boston critics (best film). Expect to see the film, its director and its two stars figure everywhere over the next 10 weeks.

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is a 3D film thoroughly worthy of Oscar glory – and the legendary director’s best work since Goodfellas. The Boston critics crowned Scorsese best director, while he was runner-up among the LA critics. Expect to see the film nominated as well as the director, plus considerable potential for Ben Kinsgsley and all the lead crew for technical/craft awards.

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants will be in there pitching for Film, Director, Actor (for George Clooney), Writer and possibly supporting actress. From the New York critics, it has already secured the screenplay prize; and from the LA critics, best film.

With several key ‘worthy’ films still be seen – Spielberg’s War Horse and Daldry’s Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close to name just two – there’s plenty of room for both mainstream successes and art-house darlings to gain recognition: Brad Pitt’s Moneyball, female-led racial drama The Help, and Bridesmaids are among the former, and Take Shelter and We Need To Talk About Kevin are among the latter.

There follows the list of likely contenders in the four key categories and then the awards season timetable:

Film:
The Artist
The Help
Hugo
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Director:
Tomas Alfredson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terrence Malick, Tree of Life
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Steven Spielberg, War Horse

Actor:
Michael Fassbender, Shame
George Clooney, The Descendants
Demian Bichir, A Better Life
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Ryan Gosling, The Ides Of March

Actress:
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help

Awards timetable
15 December - Golden Globe noms
6 January – BAFTA longlist
10 January – National Board of Review Awards
15 January – Golden Globes
17 January – BAFTA noms
21 January – PGA
24 January – Oscar noms
29 January – DGA and SAG
12 February – BAFTAs
19 February – WGA
26 February - Oscars