"Toy Story 3" Wins Best Animated Feature Film Oscar

Animated Feature Film

“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich WINNER

“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet

"The Social Network" Wins Cesar Award

First given out in 1975, the César Award is the national film award of France. Some even think of the César Award as the French equivalent of the American Academy Awards. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, and the award ceremony is held in Paris each February.  The name of the award comes from the late sculptor César Baldaccini, and the trophies are actual sculptures of the artist.

The 36th Cesar Awards were presented on Friday, February 25, 2011.  Of note to Americans, The Social Network won "Best Foreign Film."

The 36th (2011) César Award winners:

Best Film: "Of Gods and Men" ("Des Hommes Et Des Dieu")

Best Director: Roman Polanski, "The Ghost Writer"

Best Foreign Film: "The Social Network"

Best Actress: Sara Forestier, "Le Nom Des Gens" ("The Names of Love")

Best Actor: Eric Elmosnino, "Gainsbourg"

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Alvaro, "Le Bruit Des Glaçons" ("The Clink of Ice")

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Lonsdale, "Of Gods and Men" ("Des Hommes Et Des Dieux")

Best First Film: "Gainsbourg" ("Vie Héroïque")

Best Original Screenplay: Baya Kasmi, Michel Leclerc, "Le Nom Des Gens"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Robert Harris, Roman Polanski, "The Ghost Writer"

Best Documentary: "Océans"

Best Animated Film: "L’Illusioniste" ("The Illusionist")

Best Short Film: "Logorama"

Best Newcomer (Female): Leïla Bekhti, "Tout Ce Qui Brille"

Best Newcomer (Male): Edgar Ramirez, "Carlos"

Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, "The Ghost Writer"

Best Sound: Daniel Sobrino, Jean Goudier, Cyril Holtz, "Gainsbourg"

Best Cinematography: Caroline Champetier, "Of Gods and Men" ("Des Hommes Et Des Dieux")

Best Editing: Hervé de Luz, "The Ghost Writer"

Best Costume Design: Caroline De Vivaise, "La Princesse De Montpensier"

Best Art Direction: Hugues Tissandier, "Les Adventures Extraordinaries D'Adèle Blanc-Sec"

2011 Oscar Nominations: Animated Feature Film

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet

“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
 

New York Film Critics Circle "The Social Network"

Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is, according to their website, “an organization of film reviewers from New York-based publications that exists to honor excellence in U.S. and world cinema.” Members are critics from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, and online general-interest publications (that meet certain qualifications). Every year in December, Circle members meet in New York to vote on awards for the year's films. The Circle also puts on an awards presentation, which will be held on Monday, January 10, 2011 to honor 2010 winners.

The Circle was the first film critics organization that I encountered as a budding, young movie lover. The Circle's awards have been predictors of the Oscar nominations. However, The Circle sees it awards “as a principled alternative to the Oscars, honoring esthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial and political pressures,” according to their website.

Here's the complete list of the 2010 winners:

Best Film – The Social Network

Best Director – David Fincher (The Social Network)

Best Screenplay – Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Actress – Annette Bening (for The Kids Are All Right)

Best Actor – Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Best Supporting Actress – Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actor – Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Cinematography – Matthew Libatique (The Black Swan)

Best Animated Film – The Illusionist

Best Non-fiction Film – Inside Job

Best Foreign Language Film - Carlos

Best First Feature – Animal Kingdom

Review: "The Triplets of Belleville" Not Just Another Animated Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 72 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Les Triplettes des Belleville (2003) – animated
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France
The Triplets of Belleville – International English title
Running time: 80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for images involving sensuality, violence and crude humor
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Sylvain Chomet
PRODUCERS: Didier Brunner and Viviane Vanfleteren
EDITORS: Dominique Brune, Chantal Colibert Brunner, and Dominique Lefever
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION with elements of comedy

Starring (voices): Béatrice Bonifassi, Betty Bonifassi, Linda Boudreault, Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Mari-Lou Gauthier, Charles Linton, Michel Robin, and Monica Viegas

Madame Souza discovers that her lonely grandson, Champion, whom she adopted after his parents apparently died, has a love of bicycles. She buys him one and trains him to compete, and years later he enters the Tour de France. During the race, however, two sinister men kidnap him, but Madame, with Champion’s dog Bruno in tow, follows the kidnappers to the great city of Belleville (a surreal version of Manhattan, circa 1930-50). There she meets three odd women, “The Triplets of Belleville,” an aged song and dance team from the days of Fred Astaire. They take her into their home, but can they help her and Bruno rescue Champion?

Les Triplettes des Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) earned two 2003 Oscar® nominations (“Best Animated Feature” and “Best Music, Original Song”), but lost both including “Best Animated Feature” to Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo. Triplets, however, is not geared towards children, nor is its narrative as straightforward as Nemo. Triplets' plot and story are mostly told without dialogue; in fact most of the film’s dialogue is incidental or background conversation.

Almost like a silent film, Triplets has to both be seen and watched. More so than the 3D animation of Nemo, Triplets’ mostly hand drawn animation is the film. It is animation as both art and storytelling. The animation is not only gorgeous, but it is also the narrative. Facial expressions, the way figures move, and character design pretty much tell the story, establish setting, and define the players. It’s all wonderfully done, and deserves that description that occasionally falls on lavishly photographed films – the visual feast. Indeed, Triplets is a sumptuously animated film drawn with such sparkling variety, and that’s good because the plot and story are somewhat anemic. The kidnapping is hardly of any interest, but the pure execution of the animated film is something to behold..

There is something in quality cartoons and animation that greatly pleases the child in us and excites childlike wonder. Dazzling and eye pleasing, The Triplets of Belleville has that something, and it marks its director, Sylvain Chomet, as a filmmaker to watch.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Animated Feature” (Sylvain Chomet) and “Best Music, Original Song” (Benoît Charest-music and Sylvain Chomet-lyrics for the song "Belleville Rendez-Vous")

2004 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Didier Brunner and Sylvain Chomet)

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L.A. Film Critics Show "The Social Network" and "Carlos" Some Love

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is a professional organization of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. Since 1975, LAFCA members vote on the year's Achievement Awards each December, honoring screen excellence on both sides of the camera.  Yesterday (Sunday), they teased out the names of this year's winners.


36th LAFCA Winners:

Picture: The Social Network
Runner-up: (“Carlos”)

Director: TIE: Olivier Assayas for “Carlos,” and David Fincher for “The Social Network”

Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Runner-up: Edgar Ramirez ("Carlos")

Actress: Kim Hye-Ja, Mother
Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone")

Supporting Actor: Niels Arestrup, A Prophet
Runner-up: Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Supporting: Actress Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Runner-up: Olivia Williams ("The Ghost Writer")

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Runner-up: David Seidler ("The King’s Speech")

Foreign-Language Film: Carlos
Runner-up: "MOTHER" directed by Joon-ho Bong

Animation: Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich
Runner-up: "The Illusionist" directed by Sylvain Chomet

Documentary: Last Train Home
Runner-up: "Exit Through the Gift Shop" directed by Banksy

Cinematography: Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Runner-up: Roger Deakins ("True Grit")

Music: TIE: Alexandre Desplat for “The Ghost Writer”, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for “The Social Network”

Production: Design Guy Hendrix Dyas, Inception
Runner-up: Eve Stewart ("The King’s Speech")

New Generation: Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture

Career Achievement: Paul Mazursky

The Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award:
Jean-Luc Godard, "Film Socialisme"

LEGACY OF CINEMA AWARDS:
Serge Bromberg for "Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno," and the F.W. Murnau Foundation and Fernando Pena for the restoration of "Metropolis"

http://www.lafca.net/