4th Annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations

Today APSA announced the nominations for this year awards, with a total of 31 films from 15 countries and areas. Here are the nominations

Best Feature Film
Tangshan dadizhen (Aftershock), Xiaogang Feng, China and Hong Kong
Bal (Honey), Semih Kaplanoglu, Turkey and Germany
Báng-kah (Monga), Doze Niu, Taiwan
Paju, Chan-ok Park, Korea
Shi (Poetry), Chang-dong Lee, Korea

Best Children’s Feature Film
Boy, Taika Waititi, New Zealand
Bran Nue Dae, Rachel Perkins, Australia
Shui Yuet Sun Tau (Echoes of the Rainbow), Alex LawHong Kong
Digari (The Other), Mehdi Rahmani, Iran
Udaan, Vikramaditya Motwane, India

Best Animated Feature Film
Ibara no Ou (King of Thorn), Kazuyoshi Katayama, Japan
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Zack Snyder, Australia and USA
Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Maho (Mai Mai Miracle), Sunao Katabuchi, Japan
Hottarake no Shima – Haruka to Maho no Kagami (Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror), Shinsuke Sato, Japan
Piercing 1, Liu Jian, China

Achievement in Directing
Feng Xiaogang for Tangshan dadizheng (Aftershock), China and Hong Kong
Semih Kaplanoglu for Bal (Honey), Turkey and Germany
Doze Niu for Báng-kah (Monga), Taiwan
Chang-dong Lee for Shi (Poetry), Korea
Quanan Wang for Fang Zhi Gu Niang (Weaving Girl), China

Best Performance by an Actress
Xu Fan in Tangshan dadizheng (Aftershock), Xiaogang Feng, China and Hong Kong
Tejaswini Pandit in Mee Sindhutai Sakpal (I am Sindutai Sakpal), India
Seo Woo in Paju, Chan-ok Park, Korea
Yun Jung-hee in Shi (Poetry), Chang-dong Lee, Korea
Yu Nan in Fang Zhi Gu Niang (Weaving Girl), Quanan Wang, China

Best Performance by an Actor
Chen Daoming in Tangshan dadizheng (Aftershock), Xiaogang Feng, China and Hong Kong
Tony Barry in Home by Christmas, Gaylene Preston, New Zealand
Sergei Puskepalis in Kak ya provel etim letom (How I Ended This Summer), Aleksei Popogrebsky, Russia
Mark Ivanir in The Human Resources Manager, Eran Riklis, Israel, Germany, France and Romania
Atul Kulkarni in Natarang, Ravi Jadhav, India

To check nominations in other categories go here or here. The film with most nominations (6) is China’s Oscar submission Aftershock that APSA Nominations Council unanimously praised for its ability to deftly balance a large scale epic story with the intimate drama of one family dealing with the aftermath of the devastating Tangshan earthquake and I humble absolutely agree with this well-deserved honor. Haven’t seen Bal that I know will blow my mind as much as Semih Kaplanoglu’s two previous films in this story that’s told backwards, but wonder if the third installment is more accessible to those voting for the awards.

The awards ceremony will be held on Australia’s Gold Coast on December 2, 2010 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and like last year there will be a Live webcast.

2010 Gotham Independent Film Awards Nominations

We officially start the awards season with the first nominations for indie films and here they are according to the live announcement and press release that can be found here.

Best Feature
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky (lesbian Interest)
Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko (lesbian interest)
Let Me In, Matt Reeves
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik

Breakthrough Director
John Wells for The Company Men
Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers
Glen Ficarra and John Requa for I Love You Phillip Morris
Tanya Hamilton for Night Catches Us
Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture

Breakthrough Actor
Price Adu in Prince of Broadway
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating

Best Ensemble Performance
The Kids Are All Right
Life During Wartime
Please Give
Tiny Furniture
Winter’s Bone

Best Documentary
12th & Delaware, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson
The Oath, Laura Poitras
Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese
Sweetgrass, Lucien Castain-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Kati with an i, Robert Greene
Littlerock, Mike Ott
On Coal River, Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood
Summer Pasture, Lynn True and Nelson Walker
The Wolf Knife, Laurel Nakadate

There are a total of 26 films that were nominated across the six categories and haven’t seen one single film! There are two that are must be seen for me but I’m looking forward to watch all five nominated for best feature, which is going to be something as I promised myself that I was not going to watch the American remake of my favorite Swedish vampire movie. But I will and honestly hope to not get mad because the destruction of an excellent concept and film.

As always all the films in my favorite category, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, will be screened to the public at MoMa from November 18 to 22. This year the IFP created a new award, The Festival Genius Audience Award; to be eligible a USA film must have won an audience award at USA or Canadian film fest from Nov 09 to October 2010. The Festival Genius community, 200,000 film fans worldwide, will vote online for the winner. The nominees will be announced in early November and the winner will be revealed at the Gotham Awards ceremony.

The 20th Anniversary and awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 29th at Cipriani Wall Street. Actors Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, director Darren Aronofsky and James Schamus will each be presented with a career tribute.

Cheers!

Playing with country submissions to the Foreign Language Film

Finally today the Academy released the official list with 65 films that can be considered as ONE of the best films produced in each country and since a few days ago I been thinking about using the list as a database to play a little for fun.

Here is me dissecting the long list for useful and useless data.

Women Filmmakers

With the absence of Afghanistan announced submission, there are ONLY eight (8) films directed by women, which means that ONLY 12.3% of honored directors are women. That’s TERRIBLE!!! Not much happened around the world after and because last year a woman won (for the first time ever) the Oscar for Best Director and her film won the top award.

Countries with films directed or co directed by women: Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, India, Nicaragua, Norway, and Switzerland.

Festivals

Doing a very “scientific research” I used the huge blog database and did a search for each of the 65 films. To my surprise almost half, exactly 47.7%,of the movies come from festivals that are listed in this blog. In this year list there are 31 films that have been at festivals since 2007 when the film submitted by Egypt was a project at Locarno, continuing with 7 films that were in 2009 festivals and 23 that were in 2010 festivals. We can say that when films travel the festival circuit they have some good chance of becoming a country submission to the Oscars.

Cannes is the festival that showcases more films that countries select to submit to Oscars; this year there are four (4) that got its premiere at 2009 Cannes and eight (8) screened at 2010 Cannes for a grand total of 12 films coming from this prestigious festival, or 18.4% of the 65 films. These are the countries that submitted films from Cannes

2009 Certain Regard: Greece, Portugal
2009 Quinzaine: Austria, Bulgaria
2010 Cannes
Main Selection: Thailand, Algeria, France, Mexico
Certain Regard: South Africa, Argentina
Quinzaine: Kyrgyzstan, Belgium

But if Cannes has a good presence in this year Foreign Language Film submissions also the Berlin Film Festival or Berlinale has a significant presence with 6 films or 9.2% of 65 films. Just these two festivals represent almost a third of the submitted films or 27.6%

The other 13 films come from other festivals like La Biennale, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Moscow, Montreal, Guadalajara and Pula. I don’t doubt that from the other 34 films that are not listed in this blog, some were also screened in festivals but that’s something we will not know for sure this year as I know that I haven’t covered many festivals during my long hiatus from posting at the blog. The following is the list of festivals and countries that submitted films to be considered at the 83rd Academy Awards.

2010 Berlinale (6): Turkey, Romania, Germany, Colombia, Czech Republic, Iraq
2010 Biennale (3): Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile
Locarno (2): 2007 Egypt, 2010 Switzerland
2010 Rotterdam (2): Estonia, Georgia
San Sebastian (2): 2009 Peru, 2010 Uruguay
2010 Moscow International Film Festival (1): Venezuela
2010 Montreal World Film Festival (1): Kazakhstan
2009 Guadalajara (1): Nicaragua
2009 Pula Film Festival (1): Croatia

Unfortunately have to stop here today, but maybe another day will continue dissecting the list to find that -for example- films produced and co produced by France production companies have the largest representation in the list (or maybe is another country like Germany).

If you have something that you wish to find from this list of films please let me know and gladly will try to find whatever is possible to find.

Enjoy!

83rd Academy Awards – Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

Today the Academy announced that from the 30 eligible entries, eight (8) films have been selected to continue in the selection of three to five that will be honored with a nomination. The following are the eight films.

Born Sweet, Cynthia Wade, Cambodia
Killing in the Name, Jed Rothstein, USA
Living for 32, Kevin Breslin, USA and France
One Thousand Pictures: RFK’s Last Journey, Jennifer Stoddart, UK and USA
Poster Girl, Sara Neeson, USA
Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, USA
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger, USA and Papua New Guinea
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang, China and USA

Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 25 at 5:30am PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

2011 Oscar Foreign Language Film Submissions Final

Today the Academy released the official list with 65 countries submitting a film to be considered in the Foreign Language Film category and to check the list at the Academy official site please go here. This is the last update for this post that now has become Final.

Next post will be on January 20th when the Academy will announce the shortlist with nine (9) films and on January 25th we will learn the five (5) that will be honored with a nomination.

Albania: Lindje, Perëndim, Lindje (East, West, East: The Final Sprint), Gjergj Xhuvani
Algeria: Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law), Rachid Bouchareb
Argentina: Carancho, Pablo Trapero
Austria: La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Azerbaijan: Sahə (The Precinct), Ilgar Safat
Bangladesh: জুলাই ফারুকী-তিশার বিয়ে Third Person Singular Number, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Belgium: Illègal (Illegal), Olivier Masset-Depasse
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Cirkus Columbia (Circus Columbia), Danis Tanovic
Brazil: Lula, O Filho do Brasil (Lula, the Son of Brazil), Fábio Barreto and Marcelo Santiago
Bulgaria: Източни пиеси Iztochni piesi (Eastern Plays), Kamen Kalev
Canada: Incendies, Denis Villeneuve
Chile: La Vida de los Peces (The Life of Fish), Matías Bize
China: 唐山大地震 Tangshan dadizhen (Aftershock), Xiaogang Feng
Colombia: El Vuelco del Cangrejo (Crab Trap), Oscar Ruíz Navia
Costa Rica: Del Amor y Otros Demonios (Of Love and other Demons), Hilda Hidalgo
Croatia: CRNCI (The Blacks), Goran Devic and Zvonimir Jurić
Czech Republic: Kawasakiho růži (Kawasaki's Rose), Jana Hřebejka
Denmark: Hævnen (In a Better World), Susanne Bier
Egypt: رسائل البحر Rassayel El Bahr (Messages from the Sea), Daoud Abdel Sayed
Estonia: Püha Tõnu kiusamine (The Temptation of St. Tony), Veiko Õunpuu
Ethiopia: Atletu (The Athlete), Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew
Finland: Miesten vuoro (Stream of Life), Joonas Berghällin and Mika Hotakaisen (documentary)
France: Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois
Georgia: ქუჩის დღეები Quchis dgeebi (Street Days), Levan Koguashvili
Germany: Die Fremde, Feo Adalag
Greece: Κυνόδοντας Kynodontas (Dogtooth), Giorgos Lanthimos
Greenland: Nuummioq, Torben Bech and Otto Rosing
Hong Kong: 歲月神偷 Sui yuet san tau (Echoes of the Rainbow), Alex Law
Hungary: Bibliothèque Pascal, Szabolcs Hajdu
Iceland: Mamma Gógó, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
India: पीपली [लाइव] Peepli [Live], (Peepli Live), Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui
Indonesia: Alangkah lucunya (negeri ini) (How Funny This Country Is), Deddy Mizwar
Iran: بدرود بغـــداد Farewell Baghdad by Mehdi Naderi (not sure if is Khodahafez Bagdad)
Iraq: ابن بابل Son of Babylon, Mohamed Al-Daradji
Israel: שליחותו של הממונה על משאבי אנוש‎ Shlichuto Shel HaMemune Al Mashabei Enosh (The Human Resources Manager), Eran Riklis
Italy: La Prima Cosa Bella (The First Beautiful Thing), Paolo Virzì
Japan: 告白 Kokuhaku (Confessions), Tetsuya Nakashima
Kazakhstan: Заблудившийся Zabludivshiysya (Strayed), Akan Satayev
Kyrgyzstan: Svet-Ake (The Light Thief), Aktan Arym Kubat
Latvia: Amaya (Hong Kong Confidential),Maris Martinsons
Macedonia: Мајки (Mothers), Milcho Manchevski
Mexico: Biutiful, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Netherlands: Tirza, Rudolf van den Berg
Nicaragua: La Yuma, Florence Jaugey
Norway: Engelen (Angel), Margreth Olin
Peru: Contracorriente (Undertow), Javier Fuentes-León (gay interest)
Philippines: Noy, Dondon Santos
Poland: Wszystko, co Kocham (All That I Love), Jacek Borcuch
Portugal: Morrer Como Um Homem (To Die Like a Man), João Pedro Rodrigues (gay interest)
Puerto Rico: Miente (Lie), Rafi Mercado
Romania: Eu Cand Vreau sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), Florin Serban
Russia: Край Kray (The Edge), Aleksey Uchitel
Serbia:  Беса (Besa), Srđana Karanovića
Slovakia: Hranica (The Border), Jaroslav Vojtek (documentary)
Slovenia: 9:06, Igor Sterk
South Africa: Life, Above All, Olivier Schmitz
South Korea: 맨발의 꿈 Maen-bal-eui Ggoom (A Barefoot Dream), Kim Tae-gyun (Revised Romanization: Maenbalui Kkgeum)
Spain: También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), Icíar Bollaín
Sweden: I rymden finns inga känslor (Simple Simon), Andreas Öhman
Switzerland: La Petite Chambre, Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond
Taiwan: 艋舺 Báng-kah (Monga), Doze Niu
Thailand: ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Turkey: Bal (Honey), Semih Kaplanoğlu
Uruguay: La Vida Util (A Useful Life), Federico Veiroj
Venezuela: Hermano, Marcel Rasquin

ALL films have trailers or scenes. Watch trailers @MOC

If you feel like reading the Academy rules for this category go here.

The excellent news is that I have so many good films to watch that I could spend months watching them!!! (lol) Plus I discovered a Very Good video rental store near to where I live now.

Cheers!!!

23rd European Film Awards – EFA Discovery Award Nominations

The European Academy announced the nominations for this year Discovery-Prix FIPRESCI award and here are the five (5) films by young and upcoming directors of their first full-length feature film.

La Doppia Ora (The Double Hour), Giuseppe Capotondi, Italy
Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), Florin Serban, Romania
Die Fremde (When we Leave), Feo Aladag, Germany
Lebanon, Samuel Maoz, Israel, Germany and France
Nothing Personal, Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands and Ireland

Have seen three films and just from those I could have a very hard time deciding which is the best as the three are very different but all are excellent; still think that Die Fremde has to win the award and hope the majority of the 2,300 members of the European Film Academy vote for Aladag’s film. Winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on December 4th in Tallinn/Estonia.

To check the official announcement go here.

2010 European Film Academy - People's Choice Award

Since September 1st all my European friends are able to cast their vote for their favorite European film of the Year. Those who vote will have a chance to attend the 23rd European Film Awards on Saturday, December 4th in the Estonian capital Tallin on the Baltic coast.

These are the nominated films.

Agora, Alejandro Amenabar, Spain
Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy
An Education, Lone Scherfig, UK
Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden (The Girl Who Played With Fire), Daniel Alfredson, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany
The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski, France, Germany, and UK
Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn, UK
Mine Vaganti (Loose Cannons), Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy (gay interest)
Mr. Nobody, Jaco Van Dormael, Belgium
Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas), Laurent Tirard, France
Soul Kitchen, Fatih Akin, Germany

To cast your vote please go here.

If I could vote my vote absolutely will go to the famous Swedish film starring Noomi Rapace; but I also liked An Education. Then you have two movies by two of my favorite directors, Ferzan Ozpetek and Fatih Akin that haven't seen, plus I'm curious about Baaria that I should watch soon. One film I'm sure will not get my vote, Polanski's film as I didn't enjoyed much that film and is competing against very good films/directors.

Hope all of you, that can vote, will cast your vote for your favorite film.

Cheers!!!

FIPRESCI Grand Prix 2010

Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer is Best Film of the Year, according to the members of the International Federation of Film Critics - FIPRESCI who voted for the Grand Prix 2010.

The 296 film critics from throughout the world that took part in the expressed their preference among the feature-length films premiered during the previous year (after July 1, 2009), according this distinct sign of critical acclaim to The Ghost Writer.

As many of us know the award will be handled at the opening ceremony of the San Sebastian International Film Festival on September 17 and actress Olivia Williams will be there on behalf of the film's team.

It’s no secret: The Academy makes some strange choices

Just love this article about Oscar's Foreign Language Film category, very cleverly written. The first I ever like from Metacritic! As a teaser, a brief excerpt.

"So if the Academy voters aren’t selecting the most critically-acclaimed films, what exactly are they picking? The most accessible films? That doesn’t appear to be the case, either. As you can see above, the Academy’s selections rarely coincide with Metacritic user preferences. And, more surprisingly — given that an Oscar victory presumably provides some sort of box office bump — the Oscar-winning foreign film more often than not performs more poorly in U.S. theaters than at least one other nominee. Apparently, the only people who agree with Academy voters are … Academy voters."

You'll find data and much more. I strongly suggest you take a look at the complete article here.

Very Early 2011 Oscar Possible Nominations

Some newspaper men/critics/cinema aficionados are starting to list what each considers as probable contenders for the 83rd Academy Awards that will take place on Sunday, February 27, 2011. But as some of you know the Oscar race starts a lot earlier when countries start to announce their chosen submissions to the Best Foreign Language category. As a matter of fact registration for the Bleacher Seats starts in September 13, so we can say that this post inaugurates the Oscar season in the blog.

Our first key date is Tuesday, January 25, 2011 when the nominations will be announced to the world.

Our second key date is October 1st, 2010 that's the deadline for all countries to send in their submissions for Best Foreign film. My next post will start one of my very favorite posts, the slowly build up of all submissions to this Oscar edition.

So let's play around with what some have been publishing as possible Oscar contenders.

From my favorite net writer, Peter Knegt. To check the complete list go here.

Best Picture - Safe Bets: Inception
Best Director - Safe Bets: Chirstopher Nolan for Inception
Best Actress: Safe Bets: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Best Actor - Safe Bets: None
Best Foreign Language Film - Safe Bets: None

Another of my favorite net writers, Ann Thompson. Check her article here.

Best Actress: possibilities Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right, Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs, Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Lesley Manville in Another Year, Helen Mirren in The Tempest, and Hilary Swank in Conviction.

Last, from Cinematical. Check article here.

Best Actress - Safe Bets: Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone.

Well is just a little teaser to make you all feel that the Oscar season just started. Been following the Best Actress category because some claim that this year Noomi Rapace could get a nomination for her extraordinary, outstanding, magnificent, and all the superlative adjectives you can imagine in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not all agree that she could qualify, but I still hope she makes it, as the film surely was screened in USA in time for the nominations.

So as of this very moment, the Oscar Party has started!

Cheers!!!

26th Amanda Awards

Last night the Norwegian yearly top awards had the awards ceremony and the big winner was Sara Johnsen's Upperdog that got most of the top awards. Here are the winners.

Best Norwegian Cinema: Upperdog, Sara Johnsen
Best Director: Sara Johnsen for Upperdog
Best Actress: Agnieszka Grochowska in Upperdog, Sara Johnsen
Best Actor: Stellan Skarsgård in En ganske snill mann (A Somewhat Gentle Man), Hans Petter Moland

Best Foreign Cinema: The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke

To check winners in all categories go here available only in Norwegian.

54th David di Donatello Winners

Winners are in *RED.

Very soon the award winners will be announced so I better hurry to list the nominations. The following are the nominees for the main categories.

Best Film
Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore
Mine Vaganti, Ferzan Ozpetek (gay interest)
*L'Umo che Verra, Giorgio Diritti
La Prima Cosa Bella, Paolo Virzi
Vincere, Marco Bellocchio

Best Director
*Marco Bellocchio for Vincere
Giorgio Diritti for L'umo che verra
Ferzan Ozpetek for Mine Vaganti
Giuseppe Tornatore for Baaria
Paolo Virzi for La Prima Cosa Bella

Best First Time Director
Giuseppe Capotondi for La Doppia Ora
Marco Chiarini for L'umo fiammifero
*Valerio Mieli for Dieci Inverni
Susanna Nicchiarelli for Cosmonauta
Claudio Noce for Good Morning Aman

Best Actress
Margherita Buy in Lo Spazio Bianco
Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere
*Micaela Ramazzotti in La Prima Cosa Bella
Stefania Sandrelli in La Prima Cosa Bella
Greta Zuccheri Montanari in L'umo che verra

Best Actor
Antonio Albanese in Questione di cuore
Libero de Rienzo in Fortapàsc
*Valerio Mastandrea in La Prima Cosa Bella
Kim Rossi Stuart in Questione di cuore
Filippo Timi in Vincere

Best European Film
*Le Concert, Radu Mihaileanu
The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke
Soul Kitchen, Fatih Akin
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard
Welcome, Philippe Lioret

Best Foreign Film
A Serious Man, Joel & Ethan Coen
Avatar, James Cameron
*Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
Invictus, Clint Eastwood
Up In The Air, Jason Reitman

Winners will be announced on May 7 and to check nominees in all categories go here available only in Italian. To check winners in all categories go here. Think that will give a try to the film with the same name of a very famous song, La Prima Cosa Bella, hope performances are worth the awards.

2010 Premiile Gopo Winners

Recently the Romanian Gopo Awards had the awards ceremony and here are the winners in the main categories. As expected the movie that sweep the awards is none other than Politist, Adjetiv by Corneliu Porumboiu.

Best Film: Politist, Adjectiv (Police, Adjetive), Corneliu Porumboiu
Best Director: Corneliu Porumboiu for Politist, Adjectiv (Police, Adjetive)
Best Actress: Hilda Péter in Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland, UK and Romania
Best Actor: Dragos Bucur in Politist, Adjectiv (Police, Adjetive)

To check winners in all categories plus the special awards go here available only in Romanian.

2010 German Film Awards Winners

Followed yesterday via facebook the awards with my favorite film of the year winning 10 Lola's. Here are the winners in *RED.

On March 20th - Yesterday the German Film Academy announced this year nominations and the best news is that The White Ribbon has a record 13 nominations all extremely well-deserved. The full list of the better know as Lola's Awards is not out yet in English but here are the nominations for the main categories.

Best Film
Alle Anderen (Everyone Else), MarenAde
Die Fremde (When We Leave), Feo Aladag (Bronze Lola)
Soul Kitchen, Fatih Akin
Sturm, Hans-Christian Schmid (Silver Lola)
*Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), Michael Haneke - Golden Lola
Desert Flower (Wustenblume), Sherry Horman

Best Director
Maren Ade for Alle Anderen (Everyone Else)
Feo Aladag for Die Fremde (When We Leave)
*Michael Haneke for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)
Hans-Christian Schmid for Sturm

Best Screenplay
Feo Aladag for Die Fremde
*Michael Haneke for Das Weisse Band
Wolfgang Kohlasse for Whisky mit Wodka
Bernd Lange and Hans-Christian Schmid for Sturm

Best Actress
Corinna Harfouch in This is Love
*Sibel Kekilli in Die Fremde
Susanne Lothar in Alle Anderen

Best Actor
Fabian Hinrichs in Schwerkraft
Henry Hubchen in Whisky mit Wodka
*Burghart Kaubner in Das Weisse Band
Devid Striesow in So Glucklich War ich Noch Ne

To check nominees in all categories please go here available only in German and if you feel like checking the video with the nominations announcement go here. To read about winners in all categories check the press release available only in German here.

The award ceremony will be on April 23 and as soon as the complete list in English is published I will post the link. I really like Fatih Akin films and I'm looking forward to watch Sturm (with Anamaria Marinca) but this year honors belong to the extraordinary film by Michael Haneke, the film has to sweep the awards. (and it did!!!).

52nd Ariel Awards Winners

Recently the Mexican Academy had their award ceremony and here are the winners for the main categories.

Best Film: Cinco días sin Nora (Nora's Will), Mariana Chenillo
Best First Film: Cinco días sin Nora (Nora's Will), Mariana Chenillo

Best Director: Carlos Carrera for El Traspatio (Backyard)
Best Actress: Azur Zagada in El Traspatio (Backyard)
Best Actor: Fernando Lujan in Cinco días sin Nora (Nora's Will), Mariana Chenillo

Best Ibero-american Film: El Secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), Juan José Campanella, Argentina and Spain

To check winners in all categories go here available only in Spanish.

4th Asian Film Awards Award Winners

Award Winners are in (*)RED.

The Nominations - Concurrently with the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival that runs from March 21 to April 4, these young awards will be handled and here are the nominees.

Best Film
十月圍城 Shi yue wei cheng (Bodyguards and Assassins),Teddy Chang, Hong Kong and China
南京! 南京! Nanjing! Nanjing! (City of Life and Death), China
Lola, Brillante Mendoza, Philippines
(*) 마더 Madeo (Mother), Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (不能沒有你), Leon Dai, Taiwan
パレード Parêdo (Parade), Isao Yukisada, Japan

Best Director
Bong Joon-ho for Madeo (Mother), South Korea
Asghar Farhadi for About Elly, Iran
(*) Lu Chuan for 南京! 南京! Nanjing! Nanjing! (City of Life and Death), China
Brillante Mendoza for Lola, Philippines
Sono Sion for Ai no mukidashi (Love Exposure), Japan
Yonfan for Lei Wangzi (Prince of Tears), Hong Kong and Taiwan

Best Actress
Bae Doo-na in Air Doll, Japan
(*) Kim Hye-ja in Mother, South Korea
Li Bingbing in The Message, China
Matsu Takako in Villon's Wife, Japan
Sandrine Pinna in Yang Yang, Taiwan

Best Actor
Asano Tadanobu in Villion's Wife, Japan
Huang Bo in Cow, China
Matsumoto Hitsohi in Symbol, Japan
Song Kang-ho in Thirst, South Korea
(*) Wang Xueqi in 十月圍城 Shi yue wei cheng (Bodyguards and Assassins), Hong Kong and China

The award ceremony will be on March 22nd and to check the nominees in all the categories go here.

To check the winners in all categories go here.

30th Genie Awards Winners

Winners are in *RED.

Recently the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the nominations for the current year awards and here they are.

Best Motion Picture
3 Saisons, Jim Donovan
Le jour avant le lendemain (Before Tomorrow), Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu
Fifty Dead Men Walking, Kari Skogland
Nurse.Fighter.Boy, Charles Officer
*Polytechnique, Denis Villeneuve

Achievement in Direction
Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu for Le jour avant le lendemain (Before Tomorrow),
Kari Skogland for Fifty Dead Men Walking
Charles Officer for Nurse.Fighter.Boy
*Denis Villeneuve for Polytechnique
Bruce McDonald for Pontypool

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Carinne Leduc in 3 Saisons
Madelline Piujuq Ivalu in Le jour avant le lendemain (Before Tomorrow),
Gabrielle Rose in Mothers&Daughters, Carl Besssai
Karen LeBlanc in Nurse.Fighter.Boy
*Karine Vanasse in Polytechnique

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Jean-Carl Boucher in 1981, Ricardo Trogi
Paul Dylan Ivalu in Le jour avant le lendemain (Before Tomorrow),
Clark Johnson in Nurse.Figther.Boy
*Joshua Jackson in One Week, Michael McGowan
Stephen McHattie in Pontypool

To read the nominees in all the categories please go here. The awards ceremony will take place Monday, April 12, 2010 in Toronto and will be broadcast live but no news about the channel yet.

It's a true surprise that the official Canadian submission to the Oscar's got NO nominations! Strange. Still the Claude Jutra Award for First Film is given to the film. Stranger. I'm talking about J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother) by Xavier Dolan. The film with most (11) nominations is Polytechnique and from all nominated in the major categories is the only one I have seen and yes still have it in my head with the spectacular black and white images.

During 2009 I didn't watch that many Canadian films and perhaps I should try one or two from the nominees to best film.

The big winner is the only movie I have seen and gee, it was a great cinema experience even when the story was hard to swallow. To check winners in all categories go here.

33rd Japan Academy Prize

Last March 5th the Academy had the award ceremony and here are some winners.

Picture of the Year: 沈まぬ太陽 Shizumanu taiyô (The Unbroken), Setsuro Wakamatsu (will watch)
Director of the Year: Daisaku Kimura for 劔岳 点の記 Tsurugidake: Ten no Ki (The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones to Serenity)

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Takako Matsu in ヴィヨンの妻 / ヴィヨンの妻　～桜桃とタンポポ～ Viyon no tsuma (Villon's Wife), Kichitaro Negishi (must be seen for me)
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Ken Watanabe in 沈まぬ太陽 Shizumanu taiyô (The Unbroken), Setsuro Wakamatsu

Outstanding Foreign Language Film: Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood

To check the winners in all categories please go here if you understand Japanese or here to read them in English.

Think will watch the winner because I do enjoy Ken Watanabe performances, but I expect the story to be hard to watch. Still could be interesting to find how a Japanese filmmaker does this kind of story. I'll tell you what the story is about: "Based on the 1985 plane crash that caused 520 deaths, the worst aviation event in Japanese history".

If you like to watch trailers for best film and best actress film please use the facebook link in the first left column.

82nd Academy Awards Winners

With not many surprises and one major upset for me the three hours show, plus half hour red carpet, was slowish in the first two hours, but the last hour was not only entertaining but WHO won was really exciting.

Here are the winners.

Feature Films

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Animated Feature Film: Up, Peter Docter
Foreign Language Film: El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), Argentina

Directing: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Art Direction: Avatar
Cinematography: Avatar
Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Film Editing: The Hurt Locker
Makeup: Star Trek
Original Score: UP
Original Song: The Weary Kind, theme from Crazy Heart
Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker
Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker
Visual Effects: Avatar
Writting - Adapted Screenplay: Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Writting - Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker

Documentaries
Feature: The Cove
Short Subject: Music by Prudence

Short Films
Animated: Logorama
Live Action: The New Tenants

To check winners at the official site go here.

You have no idea how glad I'm that Avatar didn't got more awards than the ones that truly deserved. My major upset is in the foreign language film category as I believe the winner was NOT the best from the five nominees; to not repeat myself please read this post where I talk about the Argentinean submission.

2010 Oscar will be always remembered as the year where the first female director won the top directing award, this milestone is engraved in the Academy Awards history forever and Kathryn Bigelow was immortalized with this honor. If you ever had any doubts about how sexist the American Film Industry is just think that it took them EIGHTY-TWO years to honor a female director in the industry top awards. Unbelievable! But finally the 'glass ceiling' is broken. Maybe now the country will follow with the first female president in the country's history!

Also this year we have the American Independent film industry being honored with the top award, which as far as I remember doesn't happen often. Can't help but to think how the Spirit Awards organization must feel by NOT recognizing last year HOW GREAT The Hurt Locker was and again, this 'lapsus' really demerits the credibility of this award to my eyes.

Now what follows is a year full of films to watch and hopefully we will be surprised by the industry with many excellent American films.

Please remember that the American awards season may be over, but we still have more awards from other countries and some that recently happened but I have not been able to post them, like the Japan Academy top awards that will post soon.

Cheers!

Very Late Oscar Predictions - The Day After

Gee, seems that I have many predictions right, lol! Later I will post all the winners and will do the math in this post.

Thanks to all my dear friends that asked for my predictions and please excuse me for doing them so late. Here they are.

Best Picture: HAS to win The Hurt Locker (if Avatar wins will mean that mainstream blockbusters from powerful Industry figures have more 'power' that filmmaker abilities and I still believe that tech awards are appropriate for Avatar) RIGHT

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow has to make Academy history and will. First female director to win in 82 years of Oscar will be a reality as she's a remarkable filmmaker and has sweep most award. sooooo RIGHT

Best Actress: I wish Meryl Streep wins, she did an excellent job with Julia Child, but the award will go to Sandra Bullock that also deserve the honor for a great performance. RIGHT

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges. RIGHT

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'nique RIGHT
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz RIGHT

Best Original Screenplay: Many say will be Inglourious Basterds, but I hope is The Hurt Locker. I voted for the second at The Auteurs. RIGHT
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air. WRONG

Best Animated Film: UP RIGHT

Best Foreign Language Film: HAS to be The White Ribbon and if not, A Prophet. WRONG

Best Cinematography: My Oscar goes to The White Ribbon, but being an American award I bet that Avatar will get it and honestly most was done with computers not Cameras. RIGHT

Best Art Direction: Avatar (no doubt and really is deserved). RIGHT
Achievement in Film Editing: My choice definitively is The Hurt Locker (great editing!), but won't be surprised if is given to Avatar. RIGHT

Achievement in Visual Effects: Avatar. This is the most well deserved award for this film. RIGHT
Achievement in MakeUp: My choice is Il Divo, but since is an American show will go to Star Trek. RIGHT

Achievement in Sound Editing: Avatar. Very glad I'm WRONG
Achievement in Sound Mixing: Avatar Very glad I'm WRONG
Original Score: UP RIGHT
Original Song: Me LOVED the one from Nine, but the one from Crazy Heart will win. RIGHT

Best Documentary: The Cove RIGHT
Best Documentary Short Subject: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province WRONG

Best Animated Short Film: My choice Logorama, but probably A Matter of Loaf and Death will win. Sort of RIGHT
Best Live Action Short film: Miracle Fish. WRONG

Soon we will find how right or how wrong my predictions are. In the meantime I have in the background the noise of the crazy shows that E! broadcasts today. Lol!

As you can see there are 17 RIGHT and 6 WRONG. I forgot one category here, Costume Design but at The Auteurs I voted for The Young Victoria, so I was right in this category. Not bad at all, maybe next year I should engage in some kind of 'gambling' and win something, lol!