Negromancer News Bits and Bites from May 19th to 25th, 2019 - Update #17

Support Leroy on Patreon:

BOX OFFICE - From TheWrap:  Disney's "Aladdin" looks to finish better at the 2019 Memorial Day box office than "Solo: A Star Wars Story" did at the 2018 Memorial Day box office.

----------
MOVIES - From Variety: Warner Bros. gets Clint Eastwood's "The Ballad of Richard Jewell" from Disney/Fox.

----------
MOVIES - From Deadline:  Christopher Nolan's next film has a title, "Tenet," and the cast is finalized with Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh among the new additions.  Warner Bros. is set to release the "international espionage" film July 17, 2019.

----------
JAMES BOND - From IndieWire:  After begin hurt on the set of BOND 25, Daniel Craig will undergo ankle surgery.

----------
STREAMING - From THR:   Greg Kinnear joins Lisa Kudrow in the pilot for the Amazon comedy, "Good People," from Lee Daniel and Whitney Cummings.

From TheWrap:  Martin Short has also been added to "Good People."

----------
CANNES - From Deadline:  Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" screens at Cannes 2019, and gets a seven-minute standing ovation.

From YahooEntertainment:  On the set of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio thought of the late Luke Perry as an icon of cool.

----------
MOVIES - From Deadline:  Fox Searchlights wins an intense bidding war for director Terrence Malick's much-talked about film, " A Hidden Life," which some consider a "return to form" and his best film since 2011's "The Tree of Life."  It is in competition at Cannes 2019.

----------
BOX OFFICE - From Variety:  The winner of the 5/17 to 5/19/2019 weekend box office is "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" with an estimate take of 57 million dollars.

From Variety:  "Pokemon: Detective Pikachu" leads the international box office.

----------
CELEBRITY - From Deadline:  Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he will not press charges against the man who attacked him on Saturday, May 18th in South Africa at a children's sports event.

----------
MOVIES - From Deadline:  Just out is a new "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" faux movie poster featuring Leo DeCaprio as "Rick Dalton."

---------
TELEVISION - From Variety:  Showtime has won the rights to the feature-length documentary, "Hitsville: The Making of Motown."

----------
MOVIES - From TheWrap:  The worldwide rights to the Chris Hemworth-Tiffany Haddish buddy cop comedy, "Down Under Cover," have been picked up by Paramount Pictures.


TRAILERS AND VIDEO:

From YouTube:  First teaser for CBS All Access' "Star Trek: Picard" (May 23, 2019)

From YouTube:  First official teaser for "Terminator: Dark Fate" (May 23, 2019), which is set for a November 1, 2019.

From YouTube:  First official trailer (May 21, 2019) for Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood."

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from March 12th to 18th, 2017 - Update #21

Support Leroy on Patreon.

CULTURE - From TheAtlantic:  A surprising number of college students are homeless and/or hungry.

----------
MOVIES - From THR:  Universal is developing a White House workplace comedy around the President Obama White House.

----------
BLM - From THR:  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says that Jordan Peele's "Get Out" is like a Black "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

----------
COMICS-FILM - From TheWrap:  Warner Bros. has movied "Aquaman," directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa in the title role, to December 21, 2018.

----------
MOVIES - From IndieWire:   Production is about to begin on "Body Cross," a sequel to David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," which features a most excellent performance by Viggo Mortensen.

----------
MOVIES - From IndieWire:  The horror streaming service, Shudder, is streaming a reassembled cut of the original version of Ken Russell's notorious (and fantastic) 1971 film, "The Devils."

----------
MOVIES - From IndieWire:  Warner Bros. is in the early stages of rebooting "The Matrix."  As of now, neither the original writer-directors The Wachowskis nor the original producer, Joel Silver, is involved.

----------
MOVIES - From Variety:  Amazon Studios has bought the U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to the music-filled drama, "Annette," starring Adam Driver, Rihana, and Rooney Mara and directed by Leos Carax ("Holy Motors").

----------
MOVIES - From TheWrap:  Jordan Peele becomes the first Black writer-director whose debut film makes over $100 million dollars at the domestic box office.

----------
MOVIES - From TheWrap:  Will Netflix finish Orson Welles' last film, "The Other Side of the Wind?"

----------
COMICS-FILM - From TheWrap:  Warner Bros. would like Matthew Vaughn to direct "Man of Steel 2," the sequel to its Superman reboot.  Vaughn directed the stylish "X-Men: First Class."

----------
TELEVISION - From Variety:  CBS' smash-hit TV series, "The Big Bang Theory" will get a spinoff next season, "Young Sheldon."

----------
MOVIES - From Variety:  The English-language version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" will have a sequel, "The Girl in the Spider's Web."  Apparently, the cast of the first film will not return for the sequel.

----------
MOVIES - From ThePlaylist:  Ridley Scott still wants to make a sequel to his 2000 film, Gladiator, which won the "Best Picture" Oscar.

----------
MOVIES - From IndieWire:   Director Ava Duvernay shares photos from the set as "A Wrinkle in Time" wraps up principal photography.

----------
BLM - From RSN:  Tensions rise in Ferguson, Missouri as new video surfaces concerning the killing of unarmed Black teen, Michael Brown, by then Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.

----------
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 3/10 to 3/12/2017 weekend box office is "Kong: Skull Island" with an estimated take of $61 million.

From Deadline:  "Kong-Skull Island" rising at international box office.

----------
MOVIES - From Deadline:  Director Terrence Malick makes a rare public appearance.

----------
POLITICS - From TheDailyGrind:  Anti-LGBTQ, "family values" Republican is having an affair with his cousin/employee, who divorced her husband for him.

----------
LGBTQ - From TheDailyGrind:  South Dakota becomes first state to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ people.

----------
CULTURE - From WashPost:  64-year-old Richard Leslie Lloyd thought the owners of Met Mart, a convenience store, was an Arab and tried to burn the store and "run the Arabs out of our country."  The Met Mart owners are of Indian descent.

Waypoint Entertainment Acquires Film Rights to Image Comics' "Plutona"

WAYPOINT ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES LEMIRE AND LENOX’S PLUTONA

Addictive Pictures to produce alongside Waypoint Entertainment under their first-look deal

LOS ANGELES — Waypoint Entertainment has acquired the rights to bestselling and award-winning author Jeff Lemire and illustrator Emi Lenox's comic series Plutona, a coming-of-age story which centers on a group of kids who find the body of a famous dead superhero in the woods. Waypoint Entertainment’s Ken Kao (The Nice Guys), will produce with partner Dan Kao and Addictive Pictures' Russell Ackerman (Mama) and John Schoenfelder under their first-look deal.

Image Comics released Plutona, a five-issue limited series, on September 2015 to critical acclaim.

"Emi and I are extremely excited to be working with Waypoint Entertainment and Addictive Pictures to help bring our vision for Plutona to the big screen,” said Lemire. “Plutona has been a labor of love for us and we were very careful about finding a home for it, and we are thrilled that the team at Addictive and Waypoint share our passion for the story and for its potential as a film."

Lemire is the author of titles including the Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth, The Nobody, and wrote a run of Animal Man. He is known for his moody, humanistic stories and sketchy, cinematic, black-and-white art and has worked extensively with DC and Marvel Comics. Lenox is perhaps best known for her diary comic Emitown, as well as having work featured in such critically-acclaimed series as Nowhere Men, Madman, Glory, and Sweet Tooth.

Lemire is represented by Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company and attorney Allison Binder of Smelkinson, Genow, Stone, Binder & Christopher LLP.

Waypoint Entertainment recently acquired the rights to two Mark Millar properties, American Jesus and Supercrooks, which Ken Kao will produce with partner Dan Kao and Addictive Pictures. They are also in pre-production on the sci-fi thriller Tau, directed by Federico D’ Alessandro and starring Maika Monroe and Ed Skrein.

Waypoint Entertainment is a film and television development, production, and finance company with a slate that includes: Scott Cooper’s Hostiles starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike; Martin Zandvliet’s The Outsider starring Jared Leto; Shane Black’s detective thriller The Nice Guys starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling; Gus Van Sant’s The Sea of Trees starring Matthew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe, and Naomi Watts; and Terrence Malick's Weightless starring Ryan Gosling Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, and Rooney Mara.

Addictive Pictures is a film and television production company with a specialty in elevated genre films. Addictive is currently prepping Jeremy Saulnier's next film Hold the Dark for A24, and recently closed a deal for Deeper written by Max Landis starring Bradley Cooper at MGM.


ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

-------------------

Kansas City Film Critics Chose "The Descendants" in 2011

by Leroy Douresseaux

I'm still playing catch-up on the 2012 film awards season.  I discovered that I missed the Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KCFCC) in 2011, although I covered them in 2010.  So here are their 2011 awards:

2011 Loutzenhiser Awards:

Best Film: The Descendants

Robert Altman Award for Best Director: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants

Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life

Best Original Screenplay: Mike Mills, Beginners

Best Adapted Screenplay: Steven Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Animated Film: Rango

Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation (Iran)

Best Documentary: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Vince Koehler Award for Best Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Film: Hugo

Michel Hazanavicius Wins Best Director Oscar for "The Artist"

Best Achievement in Directing

WINNER - Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Nominees:
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

San Francisco Film Critics Choose "The Tree of Life"

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) was founded in 2002 and is comprised of critics from Bay Area publications. Its membership includes film journalists from the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, the East Bay Express, KRON-TV, Variety, and RottenTomatoes.com, among others.

2011 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards winners:

Best Picture
“The Tree of Life”

Best Director
Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life”

Best Original Screenplay
J.C. Chandor for “Margin Call”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Best Actor
Gary Oldman for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Best Actress
Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks for “Drive”

Best Supporting Actress
Vanessa Redgrave for “Coriolanus”

Best Animated Feature
“Rango”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Certified Copy”

Best Documentary
“Tabloid”

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki for “The Tree of Life”

Marlon Riggs Award (for courage & vision in the Bay Area film community)
National Film Preservation Foundation, in recognition of for its work in the preservation and dissemination of endangered, culturally significant films

Special Citation for under-appreciated independent cinema:
“The Mill and the Cross”

http://sffcc.org/main/

Oscars Rule Brad Pitt Not Valid Producer on "The Tree of Life"

[So an executive committee has determined that four of the five individuals credited as the producers of best picture nominee, The Tree of Life, (directed by Terrence Malick) are valid and are thus eligible to receive the nomination that producers get in the best picture category.  The one left out is Brad Pitt, who is not completely left out.  He is one of the nominated producers of Moneyball.  Pitt was also ruled not a valid producer back in 2007 for The Departed, which went on to win as best picture of 2006.  In that case, I think he actually was not a valid producer.  Anyway, the Oscar press release about this matter:]

Producer Credits Determined for 2011 Best Picture Nominee

Beverly Hills, CA (January 27, 2012) – Producer credits for 84th Academy Awards® Best Picture nominee "The Tree of Life" have been determined by the Producers Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The official nominees for the film are Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill.

Academy rules allow for no more than three producers to be nominated and to potentially receive Oscar® statuettes. The executive committee called a meeting to determine if "The Tree of Life" represented a "rare and extraordinary circumstance," as described by the rules, and if any additional producer would be eligible. The committee determined that Green, Pohlad, Gardner and Hill functioned as genuine producers of the film and would be cited in the nomination.

Producers for the eight other motion pictures nominated in the Best Picture category – "The Artist," "The Descendants," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "The Help," "Hugo," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball" and "War Horse" – were announced on January 24 and remain unchanged.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

2012 Academy Award Nominations: Best Achievement in Directing

Best Achievement in Directing Nominees:

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris (2011)

Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist (2011)

Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life (2011)

Alexander Payne for The Descendants (2011)

Martin Scorsese for Hugo (2011)

Review: "The Tree of Life" is a Spacey Family Odyssey

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Tree of Life (2011)
Running time: 139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some thematic material
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick
PRODUCERS: Sarah Green, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt and William Pohlad
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Emmanuel Lubezki
EDITORS: Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, and Mark Yoshikawa
COMPOSER: Alexandre Desplat

DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan, and Kameron Vaughn

The Tree of Life is a 2011 family drama written and directed by Terrence Malick. In the film, the origin of the universe and life on Earth plays side-by-side with the memories of a middle-aged man having a spiritual crisis.

Jack O’Brien (Sean Penn), an architect, is unhappy, a lost soul in the modern world. While watching the planting of a tree, Jack’s mind drifts through his memories of life as a teenager in the 1950s. His family lived in a sprawling neighborhood in Waco, Texas. There was his father, Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt), and his mother, Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain), and two younger brothers, R.L. (Laramie Eppler) and Steve (Tye Sheridan).

When he reaches adolescence, Young Jack (Hunter McCracken) is faced with a conflict. He must choose between accepting grace or nature, as embodied by each of his parents. Jack’s mother, Mrs. O’Brien believes in grace, which is gentle, nurturing, and authoritative. Mr. O’Brien embodies nature and is strict and authoritarian. Mr. O’Brien, who easily loses his temper, believes that you have to take what you want and also that his wife’s emphasis on love is foolish. Mrs. O’Brien teaches her children that the world is a place of wonder. Through his memories, a kind of trip through time to the past, Jack will try to reconcile his complicated relationship with his father. He also hopes to return something precious that is lost to his mother. Also, various scenes concerning the dawn of the universe and the formation of the Earth play out between scenes of the O’Briens.

In some ways, The Tree of Life is an experimental film, particularly in the way that Malick uses literal visuals in an abstract way to tell a story about the meaning of life and about the reconciliation of parent and child. The juxtaposition of both the universe and Earth’s past and future vividly recall Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, the way The Tree of Life’s special effects are created (without computer-generated imagery or CGI) is reminiscent of the special effects in 2001.

Malick’s film is both ambitious and humble in that he attempts to encompass all of existence, but channels that through the infinitesimal lives of flawed people. Those characters cannot come up with the big answers, but through love there is reconciliation and, if not answers, then, there is understanding of the relationships most precious to us.

The Tree of Life is an impressionistic story, and the viewer will have to pick and choose through images and colors to decipher the family drama at the center of the film. And this is a real family story, full of startling conflicts and ugly battles. There is, however, convergence and peace and love and beauty. The cast has to receive a lot of credit for their work; these moving, layered performances bring the literal to this often fantastic film. The trio that brings the O’Brien boys to life: Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan, gives performances of complexity and profundity that are rarely seen in young actors – even among those that have received Academy Award nominations.

The Tree of Life can be perplexing and achingly slow. Malick also needed to put more emotion on screen and could have made more of the film a conventional narrative. Still, The Tree of Life is moving and deeply spiritual and also more ambitious than most films that star actors of the caliber of Sean Penn and Brad Pitt.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2011 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Palme d'Or” (Terrence Malick)

Monday, January 23, 2012

---------------------------

National Society of Film Critics Feeling "Melancholia"

The National Society of Film Critics was founded in New York City in 1966 and is made up of 58 of the country’s most prominent movie critics. Known for their highbrow tastes, these critics form one of the most prestigious film groups on the United States. Current members include some of my favorite film critics: Roger Ebert, David Edelstein, and J. Hoberman, among others. The society has produced several anthologies about movies, including the must-have for film fans, Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You’ve Never Seen (1990).

The 46th annual awards used a weighted ballot system. Scrolls will be sent to the winners.

46th Annual (2011) National Society of Film Critics Awards (* denotes winner):

BEST PICTURE
*1. Melancholia – 29 (Lars von Trier)
2. The Tree of Life – 28 (Terrence Malick)
3. A Separation – 20 (Asghar Farhadi)

BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Terrence Malick – 31 (The Tree of Life)
2. Martin Scorsese – 29 (Hugo)
3. Lars von Trier – 23 (Melancholia)

BEST ACTOR
*1. Brad Pitt – 35 (Moneyball, The Tree of Life)
2. Gary Oldman – 22 (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
3. Jean Dujardin – 19 (The Artist)

BEST ACTRESS
*1. Kirsten Dunst – 39 (Melancholia)
2. Yun Jung-hee – 25 (Poetry)
3. Meryl Streep – 20 (The Iron Lady)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. Albert Brooks – 38 (Drive)
2. Christopher Plummer – 24 (Beginners)
3. Patton Oswalt – 19 (Young Adult)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Jessica Chastain – 30 (The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help)
2. Jeannie Berlin – 19 (Margaret)
3. Shailene Woodley – 17 (The Descendants)

BEST NONFICTION
*1. Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 35 (Werner Herzog)
2. The Interrupters – 26 (Steve James)
3. Into the Abyss – 18 (Werner Herzog)

BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. A Separation – 39 (Asghar Farhadi)
2. Moneyball – 22 (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin)
3. Midnight in Paris – 16 (Woody Allen)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
*1. A Separation – 67 (Asghar Farhadi)
2. Mysteries of Lisbon – 28 (Raoul Ruiz)
3. Le Havre – 22 (Aki Kaurismäki)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. The Tree of Life – 76 (Emanuel Lubezki)
2. Melancholia – 41 (Manuel Alberto Claro)
3. Hugo – 33 (Robert Richardson)

EXPERIMENTAL
Ken Jacobs, for “Seeking the Monkey King.”

FILM HERITAGE
1. BAMcinématek for its complete Vincente Minnelli retrospective with all titles shown on 16 mm. or 35 mm. film.

2. Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema for the restoration of the color version of George Méliès’s “A Trip to the Moon.”

3. New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its extensive retrospective of Weimar Cinema.

4. Flicker Alley for their box set “Landmarks of Early Soviet Film.”

5. Criterion Collecton for its 2-disc DVD package “The Complete Jean Vigo.”

Online Film Critics Society Choose "The Tree of Life" as 2011's Best

The full list of winners of the (2011) 15th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards:

Best Picture: The Tree of Life

Best Animated Feature: Rango

Best Director: Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

Best Lead Actor: Michael Fassbender - Shame

Best Lead Actress: Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer - Beginners

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain - The Tree of Life

Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay: Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Best Editing: The Tree of Life

Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life

Best Film Not in the English Language: A Separation

Best Documentary: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Special Awards (previously announced):

• To Jessica Chastain, the breakout performer of the year

• To Martin Scorsese in honor of his work and dedication to the pursuit of film preservation

For more information, visit the Online Film Critics Society at ofcs.org.

Chicago Film Critics Have Green Thumb for "The Tree of Life"

The Chicago Film Critics Association is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization that hands out the Chicago Film Critics Awards, hold critics roundtables, and takes on industry and artists’ rights issues. The association was founded in 1990 by film critic Sue Kiner after the successful launch of the Chicago Film Critics Awards in 1989.

The 2011 winners were announced on Monday (Dec 19th).  People who follow film critics' awards will notice that The Artist, The Descendants, and, as it does here, The Tree of Life are the favorite films.

23rd Annual/2011 Chicago Film Critics Award Winners:

PICTURE: The Tree of Life

DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick (-) The Tree of Life

ACTOR: Michael Shannon (-) Take Shelter

ACTRESS: Michelle Williams (-) My Week With Marilyn

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Albert Brooks (-) Drive

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain (-) The Tree of Life

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Artist (-) Michel Hazanavicius

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Moneyball (-) Steven Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Tree of Life (-) Emmanuel Lubezki

ORIGINAL SCORE: Drive (-) Cliff Martinez

ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango

DOCUMENTARY: The Interrupters

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: A Separation

PROMISING PERFORMER: Elizabeth Olsen (-) Martha Marcy May Marlene

PROMISING FILMMAKER: Sean Durkin (-) Martha Marcy May Marlene

Toronto Film Critics Climb "The Tree of Life"

The Toronto Film Critics Association was established in 1997 and is comprised of Toronto based journalists and broadcasters who specialize in film criticism and commentary. All major dailies, weeklies and a variety of other print and electronic outlets are represented.

Under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Canada in 2011 plus films that qualify for the 2011 Oscars and have Canadian distribution scheduled by the end of February 2012.

The 2011 TFCA Awards will be presented at a gala dinner on January 10, 2012 in a ceremony hosted by Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival. During the ceremony, the TFCA will also reveal the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which carries a $15,000 cash prize. David Cronenberg will also be on hand to present a special award.

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2011 winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
“The Tree of Life” (eOne Films)

Runners-up:
“The Artist” (Alliance Films)
“The Descendants” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

BEST ACTOR
Michael Shannon, “Take Shelter”

Runners-up:
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Michael Fassbender, “Shame”

BEST ACTRESS
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”

Runners-up:
Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”

Runners-up:
Albert Brooks, “Drive”
Patton Oswalt, “Young Adult”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, “Take Shelter”

Runners-up:
Jessica Chastain, “The Tree of Life”
Shailene Woodley, “The Descendants”

BEST DIRECTOR
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”

Runners-up:
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Nicolas Winding Refn, “Drive”

BEST SCREENPLAY
“Moneyball”, written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; story by Stan Chervin, based on the book by Michael Lewis

Runners-up:
“The Descendants”, written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings
“The Tree of Life”, written by Terrence Malick

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Attack the Block”, directed by Joe Cornish

Runners-up:
“Margin Call”, directed by J.C. Chandor
“Martha Marcy May Marlene”, directed by Sean Durkin

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Adventures of Tintin” (DreamWorks Animation)

Runners-up:
“Puss in Boots” (DreamWorks Animation)
“Rango” (Paramount Pictures)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“Mysteries of Lisbon” (Alfama Films)

Runners-up:
“Attenberg” (filmswelike)
“Le Havre” (filmswelike)
“A Separation” (Mongrel Media)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
“Nostalgia for the Light” (Icarus Films)

Runners-up:
“Into the Abyss” (Mongrel Media)
“Project Nim” (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
1. “Café de Flore,” directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
2. “A Dangerous Method”, directed by David Cronenberg
3. “Monsieur Lazhar”, directed by Philippe Falardeau

Los Angeles Film Critics Vote "The Descendants" Best Picture

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.

37th Annual (2011) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards:

BEST PICTURE: "The Descendants"
Runner-up: "The Tree of Life"

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"
Runner-Up Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"

BEST ACTOR: Michael Fassbender, "A Dangerous Method", "Jane Eyre", "Shame", "X-Men: First Class"
Runner-up: Michael Shannon, "Take Shelter"

BEST ACTRESS: Yun Jung-hee, "Poetry"
Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst ("Melancholia")

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
Runner-up: Patton Oswalt ("Young Adult")

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, "Coriolanus," "The Debt," "The Help," "Take Shelter," "Texas Killing Fields," "Tree of Life"
Runner-up: Janet McTeer ("Albert Nobbs")

BEST Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation"
Runner-up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash ("The Descendants")

BEST Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, "The Tree of Life"
Runner-up: Cao Yu ("City of Life and Death")

Best Production Design Dante Ferretti, "Hugo"
Runner-up: Maris Djurkovic ("Tinker Tailor Solider Spy")

Best Music Score "Hanna" The Chemical Brothers
Runner-up: "Drive" Cliff Martinez

Best Foreign-Language Film: "City of Life and Death" Directed by CHUAN LU
Runner-up: "A Separation" directed by Asghar Farhadi

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" directed by Werner Herzog
Runner-up: "The Arbor" directed by Clio Barnard

Best Animation: "Rango" directed by Gore Verbinski
Runner-up: "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" directed by Steven Spielberg

New Generation: Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond and Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

Career Achievement: Doris Day

The Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award: Bill Morrison, "Spark of Being"

http://www.lafca.net/

2011 Gotham Awards Chooses "Beginners" and "The Tree of Life"

The Gotham Awards were handed out Monday night, November 28th. The Gotham Awards honor independent films:

21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Feature (tie)
WINNER: Beginners (Focus Features)
Mike Mills – director
Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen - producers

WINNER: The Tree of Life (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Terrence Malick - director
Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill – producers

Nominees:
The Descendants
Alexander Payne, director; Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Meek’s Cutoff
Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols, director; Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Documentary
WINNER: Better This World (Loteria Films, Picturebox, Motto Pictures and Passion Pictures; ITVS in association with American Documentary
POV)
Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega –directors
Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mike Nicholson – producers

Nominees:
Bill Cunningham New York
Richard Press, director; Philip Gefter, producer (Zeitgeist Films)

Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis, director; Mike Lerner, Martin Herring, producers (Docurama Films)

The Interrupters
Steve James, director; Alex Kotlowitz, Steve James, producers (The Cinema Guild)

The Woodmans
C. Scott Willis, director; Neil Barrett, Jeff Werner, C. Scott Willis, producers (Lorber Films; Kino Lorber, Inc.)

Best Ensemble Performance
WINNERS: Beginners (Focus Features)
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos

Nominees:
The Descendants
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Margin Call
Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi (Roadside Attractions)

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Take Shelter
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker, Ray McKinnon, Lisagay Hamilton, Robert Longstreet (Sony Pictures Classics)

Breakthrough Director
WINNER: Dee Rees for Pariah (Focus Features)

Nominees:
Mike Cahill for Another Earth (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evan Glodell for Bellflower (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Breakthrough Actor
WINNER: Felicity Jones for Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage)

Nominees:
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Harmony Santana in Gun Hill Road (Motion Film Group)
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Jacob Wysocki in Terri (ATO Pictures)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
WINNER: Scenes of a Crime
Blue Hadaegh, Grover Babcock - director-producers

Nominees:
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
Madeleine Olnek, director; Laura Terruso, Madeleine Olnek, producers

Green
Sophia Takal, director; Lawrence Michael Levine, producer

The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion, directors and producers

Without
Mark Jackson, director; Mark Jackson, Jessica Dimmock, Michael Requa, Jaime Keeling, producers

Second Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
WINNER: Girlfriend
Justin Lerner - director-producer
Jerad Anderson, Kristina Lauren Anderson, Shaun O’Banion - producers

New this year is the Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant. It is a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs, which aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

WINNER: Lucy Mulloy, director, UNA NOCHE

Nominees:
Jenny Deller, director, FUTURE WEATHER
Rola Nashef, director, DETROIT UNLEADED

Terrence Malick's "The New World" Poetic and Spiritual

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 121 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The New World (2005)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hour, 15 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense battle sequences
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick
PRODUCER: Sarah Green
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Emmanuel Lubezki
EDITORS: Richard Chew, A.C.E., Hank Corwin, A.C.E., Saar Klein, and Mark Yoshikawa
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/HISTORICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David Thewlis, Yorick van Wageningen, Raoul Trujillo, Michael Greyeyes, Kalani Queypo, Ben Mendelsohn, Noah Taylor, Ben Chaplin, John Savage, Janine Duvitski, Irene Bedard, Eddie Marsan, Roger Rees, Myrton Running Wolf, Jonathan Pryce, and Jesse Borrego

Director Terrence Malick’s (The Thin Red Line) shot over 1 million feet of film for his most recent movie, The New World. Originally released on Christmas Day 2005 with a run time of 150 minutes, Malick pulled the film and edited it down to 135 minutes for re-release. This is the definitive version – reportedly the version Malick prefers.

The story begins in North America in the early years of the 17th century. The continent is as it has been for the previous five thousand years – a vast land of seemingly endless primeval wilderness with the only inhabitants being an intricate network of tribal cultures (Native American who speak Algonquin). In April of 1607, three small seagoing vessels from England sail into this Eden. On board one of the ships is John Smith (Colin Farrell), a once-promising young officer and soldier of fortune, now chained below decks and destined to be hanged for insubordination. Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer), however, pardons Smith because he realizes that he will need every able-bodied man he has in this new world, and Smith, in particular.

Newport and his men have landed (in what is now Virginia) in the midst of a sophisticated Native American empire ruled by the powerful chieftain, Powhatan (August Schellenberg). While this is the new world to the Englishmen, North America is an ancient world to Powhatan, and he and his people are wary of the Englishmen, believing they intend to stay. The Englishmen struggle to survive in their new home, so John Smith seeks assistance from the local tribes. During this trip, he encounters a young native woman who at first seems like a woodland sprite or perhaps something not real. However, this willful and impetuous creature is real, and she is Powhatan’s daughter (Q’orianka Kilcher), known as Pocahontas (although she is never called that in the film). Smith and the young woman form a bond that transcends ordinary love, and it tests the strength of their bonds with their respective people. However, their love story would become one of the best-known American legends.

The New World is really two stories. One is a character driven narrative about the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas, and the other is an entirely visually conveyed story about North America as it was just as the English settlers were arriving. The former is internally driven. Smith and Pocahontas speak mostly in voiceovers, and the film leaves the audience to guess at what thoughts and images run through their minds as the two bond. It’s a poetic courtship based on shared feelings, in which the audience might understand the spiritual connection, but is often left yearning to share the obviously intense physical connection. Malick takes an odd approach to filming romance and love in this movie; it is impressionistic – at least from the point of the view of the audience. However, it can intrigue, can make the viewer interested in understanding why these two people from vastly different worlds are so in love with one another.

The latter tale is visually driven. Malick and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (who earned an Oscar nod for his work), present the new world as an expansive verdant forest of fertile, intensely green plant life; wide-open, deep blue skies; and dreamlike waterways. Shot almost entirely with available (natural) light, the film has an ethereal quality like something trying and almost succeeding at being real, although it isn’t. Malick stages the battles between natives and newcomers with a sense of poetry that could pass for a kind of violent ballet or interpretive dance in the right light. In the end, Malick presents these confrontations as a sort of pastoral, historical recreation, and it has a natural feel to it – verisimilitude, perhaps.

The performances are excellent. Colin Farrell and Q’orianka Kilcher have magical screen chemistry, and Kilcher is quite a find, giving one of the best performances by an actress in 2005. Farrell takes his bad boy attitude and quality and transforms himself into a thoughtful man who has lived a life of adventure and enormous responsibility – a rebel who also understands consequence and responsibility. Christian Bale also makes a nice turn with a small role in the last third of the film. Malick, one of the few American directors not only totally dedicated to the idea that film is art, but also dedicated to making film that is actually high art, does make a few missteps (too many voiceovers, a few abrupt jumps in narrative, some dry spots, etc.). However, he brings his talented cast and crew together and creates in The New World an outstanding poetic, visual feast that speaks softly to our souls.

8 of 10
A

Friday, June 02, 2006

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" Wins Palme d'Or.

The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival closed yesterday, Sunday, May 22, 2011. Below is a list of winners in the category “In Competition,” the 20 films competing for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d'Or.

IN COMPETITION winners:

Palme D’Or: The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick

Grand Prix: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon A Time In Anatolia) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and The Kid With a Bike by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

Award for Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive

Jury Prize: Poliss by Maiwenn

Award for Best Actor: Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Award for Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia

Award for Best Screenplay: Joseph Cedar for Footnote

Film School Rejects offers commentary and has a complete list of winners.