"American Hustle" Tops 2013 New York Film Critics Circle Awards

by Amos Semien

American Hustle, the new film from director David O. Russell, is "Best Picture" of 2013, according to the New York Film Critics Circle.  The film won three awards, including honors for the screenplay (written by Russell and Eric Singer) and supporting actress for Jennifer Lawrence.  Lawrence won the best actress Oscar earlier this year for her performance in Russell's Silver Linings Playbook.  Steve McQueen won directing honors for 12 Years a Slave.  Robert Redford won "Best Actor" for his much talked about performance in the film, All is Lost.  Cate Blanchett continues the tradition of actress honored for their work in Woody Allen film, winning "Best Actress" for Blue Jasmine.

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 in January 2014 to honor 2013 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 2013 Awards:

Best Picture - American Hustle

Best Director - Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave

Best Screenplay - Eric Singer & David O. Russell for American Hustle

Best Actress - Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Actor - Robert Redford for All Is Lost

Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle

Best Supporting Actor - Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Cinematographer - Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Animated Film - The Wind Rises

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary) - Stories We Tell

Best Foreign Film - Blue is the Warmest Color

Best First Film - Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Special Award: Frederick Wiseman

http://www.nyfcc.com/

"Inside Llewyn Davis" Wins "Best Picture" at 2013 Gotham Awards

by Amos Semien

Inside Llewyn Davis, the newest film from the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, won the "Best Feature" Award at the 2013 Gotham Awards last night.  Alleged Oscar favorite, 12 Years a Slave, was shut out of the winners' circle.  [This is just the first step in proving what I've said before - 12 Years a Slave - is not destined for Oscar glory.  I wish that it were, but reality bites.]  The only film to win more than one award last night was "Fruitvale Station," winning two: "Breakthrough Director" for Ryan Coogler and "Breakthrough Actor" for Michael B. Jordan."

The Gotham Awards is an annual film awards ceremony that honors independent films.  The Gotham Awards are part of The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers.  The Gotham Awards also signal the kick-off to the film awards season.

Nominees are selected by groups of distinguished film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films determine the final Gotham Award recipients.

The 2013 Gotham Awards were announced Monday, December 2, 2013 at the 2013 Gotham Independent Film Awards™.

23rd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards winners:

Best Feature:
Inside Llewyn Davis
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors; Scott Rudin, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, producers (CBS Films)

Best Documentary:
The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer, director; Signe Byrge, Joshua Oppenheimer, producers (Drafthouse Films)

Best Actor:
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)

Best Actress:
Brie Larson in Short Term 12 (Cinedigm)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station (The Weinstein Company)

Breakthrough Actor:
Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale Station (The Weinstein Company)

euphoria CK Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant:
Gita Pullapilly, director, Beneath the Harvest Sky

Audience Award powered by Festival Genius
Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings - Tadashi Nakamura

http://gotham.ifp.org

2014 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations - Complete List

by Amos Semien

Film Independent’s Spirit Awards (formerly known as the Independent Spirit Awards) were founded in 1984 and are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers.  Film Independent is the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and also the Los Angeles Film Festival.

The 29th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The 2014 awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, and the premiere broadcast will air later that evening at 10:00 pm ET/PT on IFC.

The Nominees for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded):

12 Years a Slave
PRODUCERS: Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad

All Is Lost
PRODUCERS: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb

Frances Ha
PRODUCERS: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Rodrigo Teixeira, Lila Yacoub

Inside Llewyn Davis
PRODUCERS: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

Nebraska
PRODUCERS: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa

BEST DIRECTOR:
Shane Carruth - Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor - All Is Lost
Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
Jeff Nichols - Mud
Alexander Payne - Nebraska

BEST SCREENPLAY:
Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater - Before Midnight
Nicole Holofcener - Enough Said
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber - The Spectacular Now
John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer):
Blue Caprice
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Alexandre Moors
PRODUCERS: Kim Jackson, Brian O'Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi

Concussion
DIRECTOR: Stacie Passon
PRODUCER: Rose Troche

Fruitvale Station
DIRECTOR: Ryan Coogler
PRODUCERS: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker

Una Noche
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Lucy Mulloy
PRODUCERS: Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago

Wadjda
DIRECTOR: Haifaa Al Mansour
PRODUCERS: Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

TWC BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY:
Lake Bell - In A World
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon
Bob Nelson - Nebraska
Jill Soloway - Afternoon Delight
Michael Starrbury - The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.  Award given to the writer, director, and producer.  Executive Producers are not awarded.):

Computer Chess
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Andrew Bujalski
PRODUCERS: Houston King & Alex Lipschultz

Crystal Fairy
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Sebastiàn Silva
PRODUCERS: Juan de Dios Larraín & Pablo Larraín

Museum Hours
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Jem Cohen
PRODUCERS: Paolo Calamita & Gabriele Kranzelbinder

Pit Stop
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Yen Tan
WRITER: David Lowery
PRODUCERS: Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston, Eric Steele, Kelly Williams

This is Martin Bonner
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Chad Hartigan
PRODUCER: Cherie Saulter

BEST FEMALE LEAD:
Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy - Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann - Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson - Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley - The Spectacular Now

BEST MALE LEAD:
Bruce Dern - Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Oscar Isaac - Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B. Jordan - Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford - All Is Lost

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE:
Melonie Diaz - Fruitvale Station
Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
Yolonda Ross - Go For Sisters
June Squibb - Nebraska

BEST SUPPORTING MALE:
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
Will Forte - Nebraska
James Gandolfini - Enough Said
Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
Keith Stanfield - Short Term 12

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Sean Bobbitt - 12 Years a Slave
Benoit Debie - Spring Breakers
Bruno Delbonnel - Inside Llewyn Davis
Frank G. DeMarco - All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky - Computer Chess

BEST EDITING
Shane Carruth & David Lowery - Upstream Color
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives - Museum Hours
Jennifer Lame - Frances Ha
Cindy Lee - Una Noche
Nat Sanders - Short Term 12

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer):
20 Feet From Stardom
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Morgan Neville
PRODUCERS: Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers

After Tiller
DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Martha Shane & Lana Wilson

Gideon's Army
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Dawn Porter
PRODUCER: Julie Goldman

The Act of Killing
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Joshua Oppenheimer
PRODUCERS: Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo

The Square
DIRECTOR: Jehane Noujaim
PRODUCER: Karim Amer

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director):
A Touch of Sin (China)
DIRECTOR: Jia Zhang-Ke

Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
DIRECTOR: Abdellatif Kechiche

Gloria (Chile)
DIRECTOR: Sebastián Lelia

The Great Beauty (Italy)
DIRECTOR: Paolo Sorrentino

The Hunt (Denmark)
DIRECTOR: Thomas Vinterberg

17th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – (The 17th annual Producers Award, sponsored by Piaget, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.):
• Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston
• Jacob Jaffke
• Andrea Roa
• Frederick Thornton

20th ANNUAL SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – (The 20th annual Someone to Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.):

My Sister's Quinceañera
DIRECTOR: Aaron Douglas Johnston

Newlyweeds
DIRECTOR: Shaka King

The Foxy Merkins
DIRECTOR: Madeline Olnek

19th ANNUAL STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – (The 19th annual Truer Than Fiction Award, sponsored by Stella Artois, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.):
• Kalyanee Mam - A River Changes Course
• Jason Osder - Let the Fire Burn
• Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez - Manakamana

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD - (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast):
Mud
Director: Jeff Nichols
Casting Director: Francine Maisler
Ensemble Cast:  Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon

Paul Walker Dead at 40

by Leroy Douresseaux

Paul Walker apparently died in a car crash yesterday, Saturday, November 30, 2013 in Southern California.  Walker had been acting since the mid-1980s, but he is best known for starring in five installments of The Fast and The Furious film franchise, beginning with the first film in 2001.

Go to the ComicBookBin for a small write up about Walker's passing or got to Hitfix, which is giving extensive coverage of the actor's life, work, and death.

The first time I saw Walker, I did not think that he would be an actor I liked, but over the last decade, I have become a big fan of his.  I will miss him.  Negromancer sends condolences to Walker's family, friends, and colleagues.  R.I.P. Paul Walker.

Review: "Hollywood Ending" is Hollow (Happy B'day, Woody Allen)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 249 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hollywood Ending (2002)
Running time:  112 minutes (1 hour, 52 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some drug references and sexual material
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen
PRODUCER:  Letty Aronson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Wedigo von Schultzendorff
EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY

Starring:  Woody Allen, Téa Leoni, Treat Williams, George Hamilton, Debra Messing, Mark Rydell, Jodie Markell, Peter Gerety, Barney Cheng, Lu Yu, Isaac Mizrahi, Tiffani Thiessen, and Mark Webber

The subject of this movie review is Hollywood Ending, a 2002 comedy from writer/director Woody Allen.  The film follows a movie director who is forced to work with his ex-wife and is also suffering from a case of psychosomatic blindness.

Val Waxman (Woody Allen) is a once-famous movie director who is so down on his luck that he’s down to his last shot at getting his career back.  Luckily, his former wife, Ellie (Téa Leoni), is a development executive at Galaxie Pictures and is the fiancé of the company’s studio boss, Hal Yeager (Treat Williams), and Ellie talks Hal into letting Val direct their big budget remake of a 1940’s film, “The City that Never Sleeps.”  However, Val’s paranoia and neurotic fears cause him to go psychosomatically blind.  Val’s agent Al Hack (Mark Rydell) and a sympathetic Chinese translator conspire to cover Val’s temporary disability, but with Andrea Ford (Jodie Markell), a nosy Esquire magazine writer, around the set, it’ll be hard to keep Hal from discovering that Val is trying to direct a film when he can’t see.  Will Ellie pitch in to save Val?

Hollywood Ending is not quite the typical Woody Allen flick.  It is indeed a New York-based tale of dysfunctional lovers trying to get back together.  Half the plot, however, involves the politics and struggles of getting a big studio movie made, and pretty much everything in Hollywood Ending related to that is funny.  The romance is nice, but all too familiar for those who’ve seen lots of Woody, and it made me yearn for this movie to get back to the part about movie making.  There aren’t any great performances, although Treat Williams and Mark Rydell as a studio exec and Val’s agent respectively do generate a little heat.  Hollywood Ending is strictly for Woody Allen fans and people who like to watch insider films about movie making.  Even the Hollywood ending seems a bit hollow.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Updated:  Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Christmas 2013: The Desolation of Negromancer

It's December 2013.  We welcome you to Negromancer, a side publication of the ComicBookBin (www.comicbookbin.com).  This is the rebirth of the former movie review website as a movie review and movie news website.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" Posters Released

Revered filmmaker Martin Scorsese directs the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio).   From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s.  Excess success and affluence in his early twenties as founder of the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont warranted Belfort the title – “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Money.  Power.  Women.  Drugs.  Temptations were for the taking and the threat of authority was irrelevant.  For Jordan and his wolf pack, modesty was quickly deemed overrated and more was never enough.

Visit the official site and make your own The Wolf Of Wall Street GIFS: http://TheWolfofWallStreet.com

In theaters December 25th

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWolfOfWallStreet
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheWolfofWallSt

View one of the trailers here.