DGA nominations: more surprises!!

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has shaken up the Oscar race for Best Director with a very surprising list.
Its nominations are: Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood; the Coens (Ethan left) for No Country For Old Men; Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton; Sean Penn for Into The Wild; and Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

Both Schnabel and Gilroy must be considered shocks, while the list of high profile/highly fancied directors that have been snubbed: include Joe Wright (Atonement), Ridley Scott (American Gangster), Brad Bird (Ratatouille), Jason Reitman (Juno), Paul Greengrass (Bourne), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (Lives of Others), Ang Lee (Lust, Caution), and Mike Nichols (Charlie Wilson's War) to name a few.

Why are the DGA noms so important? Only six times since 1949 has the DGA winner not gone on to win the Best Director Oscar...

Golden Globes: no stars, no show!

The Golden Globes have fallen victim to the writers' strike: there will be no show, simply an hour-long press conference on 13 January revealing the winners.

In a press release, Jorge Camara, president of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said: “We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007’s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television. We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled.”

The Oscar ceremony is just six-and-a-half weeks away: the chances of that not happening have just increased significantly...

BAFTA longlist: Atonement leads but Sweeney snubbed

The BAFTA longlists are predictable and surprising in equal measure this year.
Up to 15 films, performances or credits are eligible in each category.
Atonement, predictably, leads the list with 17 recognitions, scooping in all the major categories, particularly Best Supporting Actress, where four of the cast are recognised (Brenda Blethyn, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave).
Next up are the very US-flavoured American Gangster, There Will Be Blood, and No Country For Old Men, all with 13 nominations.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age also has 13 nominations.

The surprises, both good and bad, are plentiful: Charlie Wilson's War is in contention for Best Film, but its director, Mike Nichols, doesn't feature in his own category; James Mangold is pitching for Best Director thanks to helming 3.10 To Yuma - a film that will not be competing for Best Film.
Sticking with the remade Western, its two stars - Christian Bale and Russell Crowe - are up for the fight for Best Actor. Crowe will also be pitching for Best Supporting Actor in American Gangster.
Other actors and actresses that feature twice are: Tommy Lee Jones (for In The Valley Of Elah and No Country); Cate Blanchett (for Elizabeth and I'm Not There); Michelle Pfeiffer (for Hairspray and Stardust); and Samantha Morton (for Control and Elizabeth).
Other nice surprises include: Halle Berry for Things We Lost In The Fire (but not her co-star Benecio ddel Toro); Katherine Heigl (for Knocked Up); Marketa Irglova (for Once); Martina Gedeck (for The Lives Of Others); and Naomi Watts (for Eastern Promises).

Perhaps the biggest shock concerns Sweeney Todd: the leads, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, both feature but neither the film nor its director, Tim Burton (a staunch supporter of British technical talent), get a mention.
Second round voting to determine the shortlists ends on 14 January. The shortlists themselves will be announced two days later.

Awards ceremonies: on or off?

The writers' strike in the US, led by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), could mean a distinct lack of stars at both the Golden Globes and Oscar ceremonies.
The strike, which started in early November, has attracted direct support from the Screen Actors Guild: its members will not cross WGA picket lines. So no column inches will be wasted on who wore what or which actress broke down in tears, etc.
This then raises the question of what worth do awards have if there is little or no press coverage of the awards themselves.
However, the organiser of the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is hopeful of finding a way for the “creative community to participate”.
Why are writers striking? Simply, it's about residuals (or what was once known as repeat fees for actors) - specifically rates for their work when downloaded or streamed or otherwise featured in new media.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers argues that writers are already compensated for digital downloads.
For more information, the BBC has established a decent strike backgrounder page.
As the final point of that page acknowledges, the writers' strike has impacted the livelihoods of film crews, putting them out of work.
We're unlikely to feel too much impact over here as so much US TV product is screened up to a year after initial US broadcast.
Meanwhile, the Directors Guild of America needs to kick off its own negotiations, raising the potential scenario of the writers agreeing a deal, but the industry then facing the possibility of a directors' strike if the helmers don't get the deal they want.

Empire Top 100 Sexiest Movie Stars

Yet another 'sexiest' poll voted for by readers with all the usual opportunities for debate and outrage... and which reveals more about the age of those voting than anything else. So who made the Empire list?
Robert Redford: 53rd; surely some mistake? And Paul Newman 19th?
Monica Bellucci (left): only 35th.
Scarily, the 17-year old Emma Watson in 25th...
Anne Hathaway: 18th. Well, actually may be that's OK.
The top 10 looks like this:
10th Gerard Butler (that'll be the homo-erotic vote surely?)
9th Keira Knightley
8th Scarlett Johansson
7th Brad Pitt
6th Eva Green (a natural blonde apparently...)
5th Johnny Depp
4th Jessica Alba
3rd Daniel Craig
2nd Natalie Portman
1st Angelina Jolie

What a strange list!

Laura Linney interview

The Guardian has interviewed Laura Linney, winner of the 2007 Golden Stan for Best Actress, ahead of the release of The Savages. If you want to know more about one of the finest American actresses working at the moment, read the interview.

I saw her at the Q&A that followed the premiere of The Savages and did come across as assured and interesting - and, dare I say it, a "genuinely nice person".
I can't think of a single duff performance from her (well, may be Congo - but the film was duff and she was the only whiff of class it had).
Her best credits include her Lady Macbeth-style performance in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, Jim Carrey's 'wife' in The Truman Show, the guilt-obsessed mother in Jindabyne and the writer emerging from her husband's professional and personal shadow in The Squid And The Whale. And hell, she was one of the few people that made Love Actually even vaguely watchable...

Quite how she didn't get nominated for a Golden Globe for The Savages is beyond me!

The Golden Stans: 2007

56 films seen, all considered, but only a handful will achieve recognition in the Golden Stans. 2007 was a tough year: early on, it looked like there might not be that many contenders, but with such a high quality London Film Festival, I had the toughest judging ever.
Many excellent films and performances have gone unrecognised this time, when they might easily have made the nomination lists in years passed.

Working in reverse then, the first award is for Original Score. Clint Mansell's work on The Fountain was simply outstanding: I had to get the CD immediately after the screening.

The Best Cinematography Award is a no brainer: Roger Deakins' work on No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James was untouchable.

The Best Adapted Screenplay Award goes to Flags Of Our Fathers, while Juno scoops the Best Original Screenplay Award.

The nominations for Best Supporting Actress are:
Adrianna Barraza in Babel
Rinko Kikuchi in Babel
Kristin Scott Thomas in The Walker
Meryl Streep in Lions For Lambs
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton
Rachel Weisz in The Fountain
And the winner is... Rinko Kikuchi.

The nominations for Best Supporting Actor are:
Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James
Adam Beach in Flags Of Our Fathers
Tom Cruise in Lions For Lambs
Chiwetel Ejiofor in Talk To Me and American Gangster
Tristan Ulloa in Mataharis
Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton
And the winner is... Casey Affleck.

The nominations for Best Actress are:
Halle Berry in Things We Lost In The Fire
Cate Blanchett in The Good German, Notes On A Scandal, and I'm Not There
Laura Dern in Inland Empire
Laura Linney in Jindabyne and The Savages
Ellen Page in Juno
Jodie Whittaker in Venus
And the winner is... Laura Linney.

The nominations for Best Actor are:
John Cusack in Grace Is Gone
Hugh Jackman in The Fountain
Ulrich Muhe in The Lives Of Others
Benecio del Toro in Things We Lost In The Fire
Thomas Turgoose in This Is England
Forrest Whitaker in The Last King Of Scotland
And the winner is... John Cusack.

The nominations for the penultimate award, Best Director, are:
Darren Arronovsky for The Fountain
Andrew Dominik for The Assassination Of Jesse James
Clint Eastwood for Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck for The Lives Of Others
Kevin Macdonald for The Last King Of Scotland
Shane Meadows for This Is England
And the winner is... Darren Arronovsky.

And now the final award - and the most prestigious - Best Film. 15 films qualify; 14 are listed in alphabetical order before the winner is revealed at the end. Many themes presented themselves this year: war and its representation by the media, intrusion by the state and the media, violence begets violence, the refusal to accept old age and death as inevitable, and also, like 2006, the power of hope.
So, 14 of the best that I saw in 2007 are:
Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima
Grace Is Gone
Hot Fuzz
The Assassination Of Jesse James
Juno
The Last King Of Scotland
The Lives Of Others
No Country For Old Men
Once
The Savages
Son Of Rambow: A Home Movie
This Is England
Venus
Zodiac

Settling on the 15th and best film I saw was difficult with Grace Is Gone, The Lives Of Others, The Savages and Son Of Rambow in there pitching, but in the end I had to go for the film that probably divided more critics than any other in 2007, a film that requires the audience to make a huge leap, a film that refuses to accept death, a film that combines dizzying imagination, strong performances, startling visuals, and beautiful music, a film that left me emotionally shattered and yet full of hope: that film is The Fountain and it collects the Golden Stan for Best Film 2007.

May 2008 be as good!