"Me, Myself and Mum" Dominates 2014 Cesar Awards - Complete Winners List

The 39th Cesar Awards were presented on Friday, February 28, 2014 in Paris.  An honorary Cesar is traditionally handed out to a foreign actor for their body of work.  This year’s honoree is Scarlett Johansson.  The César Award is the national film award of France, the country’s equivalent of the Oscars.

The 2014 / 39th Cesar Award winners (for the year in 2013) – complete list:

Best Film:
Me, Myself and Mum

Best Director
Roman Polanski for Venus in Fur

Best Foreign Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown, director Felix van Groeningen

Best Actress:
Sandrine Kiberlain for 9 Month Stretch

Best Actor:
Guillaume Gallienne for Me, Myself and Mum

Best Supporting Actress:
Adele Haenel for Suzanne

Best Supporting Actor:
Neils Arestrup for Quai d'Orsay

Most Promising Actress (Newcomer):
Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue Is the Warmest Color

Most Promising Actor (Newcomer):
Pierre Deladonchamps for Stranger by the Lake

Best Original Screenplay:
Albert Dupontel for 9 Month Stretch

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Guillaume Gallienne for Me, Myself and Mum

Best Original Music:
Martin Wheeler for Michael Kohlhaas

Best Sound:
Jean-Pierre Duret, Jean Mallet and Melissa Petitjean for Michael Kohlhaas

Best Cinematography:
Thomas Hardmeier for The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Best Editing:
Valerie Deseine for Me, Myself and Mum

Best Costume:
Pascaline Chavanne for Renoir

Best Production Design (Décor):
Stephane Rozenbaum for L'Ecume des Jours

Best Documentary:
Sur le Chemin de l'Ecole, director Pascal Plisson

Best First Film:
Me, Myself and Mum, director Guillaume Gallienne

Best Short Film:
Avant Que de Tout Perdre, director Xavier Legrand

Best Animated Feature Film:
Loulou l'Incroyable Secret, director Eric Omond

Best Animated Short Film:
Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos, director Amelie Harrault

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Happy Birthday, Phil

My "Unca Phil" is a man of a certain age.  Today is his birthday.  Happy Birthday, Phil and many, many, many more.

2014 Razzie Award Nominations - Complete List

by Leroy Douresseaux

The 34th Annual Razzie Awards are tonight.

The Golden Raspberry Award or, as it is best known, the Razzie Award, is basically the opposite of the Academy Awards (the Oscars).  This award honors the worst achievements in film in a calendar year, as determined by the paid membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation.

Unlike the Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and other awards, black and African-American performers and filmmakers are well represented in the Razzies.  Razzie voters seem to have a particular hatred for Tyler Perry.  That is why I often think of the Razzies as nothing more than a hater fest for jealous bitches and envious ho’s.  I hear charges of nepotism concerning Will Smith and his son, Jaden, around the movie After Earth.  Nepotism in Hollywood:  is that a new thing?  Really?

The nominations for 34th Annual Razzie Awards were announced weeks ago.  The winners of the 2014 Razzie Awards will be announced, Saturday, March 1, 2014, one day before the Academy Awards ceremony (or “Oscar eve”).  This is the traditional date for the Razzies, although the 32nd awards ceremony was held on April Fool’s Day.

2014 / 34th Annual Razzie Awards nominations (for the year in film, 2013):

WORST PICTURE
After Earth
Grown Ups 2
The Lone Ranger
A Madea Christmas
Movie 43

WORST ACTOR
Johnny Depp: The Lone Ranger
Ashton Kutcher: Jobs
Adam Sandler: Grown Ups 2
Jaden Smith: After Earth
Sylvester Stallone: Bullet To The Head, Escape Plan, Grudge Match

WORST ACTRESS
Halle Berry: Movie 43, The Call
Selena Gomez: Getaway
Lindsay Lohan: The Canyons
Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas
Naomi Watts: Diana, Movie 43

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lady Gaga: Machete Kills
Salma Hayek: Grown Ups 2
Katherine Heigl: The Big Wedding
Kim Kardashian: Tyler Perry’s Temptation
Lindsay Lohan: In-App-Propriate Comedy, Scary Movie 5

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chris Brown: Battle Of The Year
Larry the Cable Guy: A Madea Christmas
Taylor Lautner: Grown Ups 2
Will Smith: After Earth
Nick Swardson: A Haunted House, Grown Ups 2

WORST DIRECTOR
The 13 People Who Directed Movie 43
Dennis Dugan: Grown Ups 2
Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas, Temptation
M. Night Shyamalan: After Earth
Gore Verbinski: The Lone Ranger

WORST SCREEN COMBO
The Entire Cast of Groan-Ups, Too
The Entire Cast of Movie 43
Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen: Scary Movie 5
Tyler Perry & EITHER Larry the Cable Guy OR That Worn-Out Wig & Dress: A Madea Christmas
Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism: After Earth

WORST SCREENPLAY
After Earth: Screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, Story by Will Smith
Grown Ups 2: Written by Fred Wolfe & Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy
The Lone Ranger: Screen Story & Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe & Terry Rosso
A Madea Christmas: Written by Tyler Perry
Movie 43: Written by 19 “Screenwriters”

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
Grown Ups 2
Hangover III
The Lone Ranger
Scary Movie 5
Smurfs 2

http://www.razzies.com/

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Marching Through Negromancer 2014

It's March 2014.  Welcome to Negromancer 2.0.  This is the rebirth of Negromancer, the former movie review website as a new movie review and movie news site.

Will my prediction about the fate of 12 Years a Slave come true?

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

Happy Birthday, Tracy

Concerning age: I won't go there on my sister.  Have a Happy Birthday, Tracy, and many, many, many more.

2013 Women Film Critics Circle Awards - Complete List

The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) is an association of women film critics, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media.  Founded in 2004, this group is the first women critics’ organization in the United States.

2013 Women Film Critics Circle Awards:

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN: Philomena
RUNNER UP: Mother Of George

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN: Enough Said, Nicole Holofcener
RUNNER UP: Inch' Allah, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]: Julie Delpy: Before Midnight
RUNNER UP: Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said

BEST ACTRESS: Judi Dench: Philomena
RUNNER UP: Barbara Sukowa: Hannah Arendt

BEST ACTOR: Chiwetel Ejiofor: 12 Years A Slave
RUNNER UP: Michael B. Jordan: Fruitvale Station

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS: Onata Aprile: What Maisie Knew
RUNNER UP: Waad Mohammed: Wadjda

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS: Melissa McCarthy: The Heat
RUNNER UP: Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN: Wadjda
RUNNER UP: Inch' Allah

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE: Philomena
RUNNER UP: Girls In The Band

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE: The Bling Ring
RUNNER UP: Machete Kills

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE: 12 years A Slave: Chiwetel Ejiofor
RUNNER UP: Enough Said: James Gandolfini

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE: Only God Forgives
RUNNER UP: Out Of The Furnace

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN: Stories We Tell
RUNNER UP: Girls In The Band

BEST SCREEN COUPLE: Before Midnight: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke

BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN: Hellen Mirren in Phil Spector
RUNNER UP: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES: Before Midnight
RUNNER UP: Enough Said

BEST ANIMATED FEMALES: Frozen
RUNNER UP: The Croods

BEST FAMILY FILM: The Wind Rises
RUNNER UP: Black Nativity

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE: Ginger & Rosa
RUNNER UP TIE: Winnie Mandela and August: Osage County

*SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS*

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
EMMA THOMPSON: For her eclecticism in switching from period films to fantasy genre, to contemporary settings. And embodying all kinds of women with raw and pure interpretations.

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
CHARLIZE THERON: For her work for The Global Fund, and for starting the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project. Which educates young people about HIV/AIDS

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
LAURA POITRAS: For bringing the Edward Snowden NSA revelations to light, driven into exile in Germany for doing so, and currently making a documentary about it.

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: (A film that most passionately opposes violence against women): Augustine
RUNNER UP: Lovelace

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America: 12 Years A Slave
RUNNER UP: Go For Sisters

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity: Winnie Mandela
RUNNER UP: Wadjda

COURAGE IN ACTING: [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]: Soko: Augustine

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Sandra Bullock: Gravity

BEST SONG: “Would You Bleed For Love” Jennifer Hudson, Winnie Mandela

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD:
*Kristin Scott Thomas - Only God Forgives

JUST KIDDING AWARD: Best Male Images In A Movie: Last Vegas

*WFCC HALL OF SHAME*

Blue is the Warmest Color: I went in knowing almost nothing except general buzz but I hated the sex scenes which were way too long and midway thru I couldn’t wait to flee the theater. Coming out I read how many takes Kechiche required and I was thoroughly repulsed. Who was this for? Then I read the graphic novel and discovered that critical plot points were deleted. Like the fact that Adele’s parents find her in bed with Emma which is why she has to move out — and I was enraged. A three hour movie, and Kechiche is so busy salivating over his actresses that he can’t bother telling a coherent story. Hype for this film makes me nauseous!

Blue is the Warmest Color: It's so obvious a dude with a fetish directed this, it's not only unappealing, it's creepy. His overcompensating hubris isn't worth the praise this is receiving.

The Canyons: Women depicted as powerless and manipulative. Plus, the acting is horrid.

Captain Phillips: The whole might of the USA coming down on 3 starving Somalis?! Repulsive. When the obscenely beefy SEALS arrived and the audience started to cheer, I felt I was watching a “macho” director brainwash audience members into blindly accepting the worst stereotypes of jingoistic male behavior.

Dallas Buyers Club: Shame on Dallas Buyers Club for completely ignoring the LGBT as a group who drove the fight against AIDS to the forefront. The only time gays were mentioned was to let Matthew McConaughey's homophobic redneck character get a laugh at the expense of Jared Leto's transsexual character. The film made it seem as if the whole AIDS community stood on the shoulders of Ron Woodruff when in fact, groups like Act Up were starting the war for proper testing and more drugs way before Ron entered into the picture. It completely demeaned the backdrop Dallas Buyers Club was utilizing for their own characterizing "hero" agenda. Also the film took an extreme opinion against the AZT drug in favor for a plot line when in fact it was helping some patients. The only saving grace was Jared Leto's fantastic performance but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

Enough Already: Why is it that when actresses and even screen goddesses hit a certain age, they're all cast as nags, loons and shrews. No matter how accomplished any of these films may be, the tally of older actress shrewish nags on board is really high this year, as usual. Including Oprah Winfrey in The Butler, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County, Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine, June Squibb in Nebraska, Kristin Scott Thomas in Only God Forgives, and Julianne Moore in Carrie. Refreshing exceptions being Judi Dench in Philomena, Yolonda Ross in Go For Sisters, and Mary Steenburgen in Last Vegas.

Gravity: The women in this group make meaningful choices each year so they speak for me in these areas, the lone exception being Sandra Bullock's performance in Gravity. She's a fine actress, but I found the character to be whiny, cowardly, and full of the wrong stuff - a damsel in distress who needed a man (even if it was just her imagination) to pull her out of danger. I can hardly believe they'd send someone so panicky into space. Give me Sigourney Weaver any day.

Les Salauds [Bastards]: All of the women in this film are depicted as complicit in their own oppression and exploitation. Though it’s a patriarchal system that they exist within, they refuse to fight for themselves or each other, even when a minor is involved. The indictment then is not of the men but of the women. I found this problematic and disappointing from Denis.

Spring Breakers: No depth, little plot and a pitiful depiction of today's college kids. Gratuitous in nothing more than flesh and violence. A grossly and dangerously skewed depiction of young women and their values in today's America.

*Please Note: The WFCC Top Ten Hall Of Shame represents the ‘don’t tell me to shut up’ sidebar contribution of individual members, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire Circle. Or may even dissent from an awarded nomination. Also, members may be objecting to particular characters in a film, and not the entire movie. Clarification: If an aspect of the movie is intentionally negative to make a point, rather than offensive, that is not under consideration for this category.

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: Adrienne Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of forty by a construction worker in the building, after she complained about noise. Her killer tried to cover up his crime by hanging her from a shower rack in her bathroom, to make it look like a suicide. He later confessed that he was having a “bad day.” Shelly, who left behind a baby daughter, had just completed her film Waitress, which she also starred in, and which was honored at Sundance after her death.

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and marriage at age fifteen, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer, starring in the films Princess Tam Tam, Moulin Rouge and Zou Zou. She also survived the race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois as a child, and later expatriated to France to escape US racism. After participating heroically in the underground French Resistance during WWII, Baker returned to the US where she was a crusader for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks against her by reporter Walter Winchell who denounced her as a communist, leading her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless integration was implemented.

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: Karen Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, in such films as Mata Hari and Our Daily Bread. She was driven out of Hollywood for her leftist political convictions by the Blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. And also for daring to have a child and become a mother, unacceptable for female stars in those days. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

http://wfcc.wordpress.com/

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Utah Film Critics Choose "Gravity" as the Best Picture of 2013

The Utah Film Critics Association is an organization of cinema journalists affiliated with publications, broadcasting stations, and online media based in the state of Utah.  The group meets every December to votr on the Utah Film Critics Association Awards.

2013 Utah Film Critics Association Award winners:

Best Picture: "Gravity"
(Runner-up: "12 Years a Slave")

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, "Gravity"
(Runner-up: Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave")

Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave"
(Runner-up: Oscar Isaac, "Inside Llewyn Davis")

Best Actress: Adèle Exarchopoulos, "Blue is the Warmest Color"
(Runner-up: [tie] Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine" and Sandra Bullock, "Gravity")

Best Supporting Actor: Bill Nighy, "About Time"
(Runner-up: Michael Fassbender, "12 Years a Slave")

Best Supporting Actress: Scarlett Johansson, "Her"
(Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle")

Best Adapted Screenplay: "Before Midnight"
(Runner-up: "12 Years a Slave")

Best Original Screenplay: "The World's End"
(Runner-up: "The Way, Way Back")

Best Cinematography: "Gravity"
(Runner-up: "Inside Llewyn Davis")

Best Animated Feature: "Frozen"
(Runner-up: [tie] "From Up on Poppy Hill" and "The Wind Rises")

Best Non-English Language Feature: "Blue is the Warmest Color"
(Runner-up: "The Past")

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